all at sea

After a few days waiting for an intense low to pass by, it looks like a possibility to head off on Friday.  Thursday would give better wind at the start, but means sailing cloise behind the low with the likelihood of big swells; and saturday is too late to be far enough north to clear the worst of the next front coming through.  So on Friday morning I come inn to the fuel dock, top up diesel and water, clear customs, wave goodbye to Chris, and head off. 

he wind is light in the river, so we are motoring at the start, but there is enough wind to sail once we are out in the Bay of Islands.  It stays light through the afternoon and early evening, with some sailing and some motorsailing, but a good southerly comes up around 2100 and gives good sailing tghrough the night and next morning.  I get strict 20 minute rests with the alarm clock making sure I look  around every 20 minutes while Hanne Danske sails on under autopilot.  This close to the coast I cant afford to sleep longer - 20 minutes is about how long it takes for a ship to come over the horizon and get you - and I saw three ships this night.
Saturday afternoon the wind rises from around 20 knots tyo about 25, so fast sailing, but then starts to
ease up, dropping to 15 by 1800, and to 5-10 by morning - and the swell also drops to near calm - I get my appetite back (I have not eaten much so far), and with the boat sailing slowly in calm water with the AIS and radar alarms on, this would be a great time to get some sleerp - if only I could get to sleep!  Still, I did rest with my eyes shut for quiite a while.
Sunday is calm again with light winds from astern and clear sunny sky - motor sailed for a hile, sailed when I could, and got some more rest.  Sunday night the forecast from Russel radio is for strong head winds for monday - much stronger a day or so behind- as a front goes through, so got the storm jib and trisail ready just in case, and did my best to get some rest as the wind swung to the north - at first just 10 knots, but sdlowly rising to 25 by monday noon. 

Seeing big black cl;ouds ahead I hoisted the storm jib and waited for the front to come through, and saw another sail(Antipodean) behind, which caught up as the front approached. 

We had a chat on the VHF radio, and were both pleasantly surprised that there was nothing in the front - just showers, rain squalls, and another line of dark clouds followed by another and another until Tuesday at 1600 when we came through clouds and lots of rain to a clear sky and 15 knot SW wind.  With a good wind from the right direction, we are at last on our way to Fiji at a decent speed!
When I phoned Chris that night at 1700 I told her the captain was having a party that night at 1900 to celebrate reaching half way, and it was good to look forward to that celebration in good weather.  That night I celebrated with a Fry's pepermint bar, and an ice cold coke.  The frig had not been working properly in the rough weather as it got an air lock in the water cooling pipe when the intake came out of the water in waves, but I had fixed that as soon as the weather moderated and this was a fair reward.

 The breeze lasted through wednesday when it was forecast to go light, but thursday morning we got totally unforecast NNE headwinds, slowly rising until, by Thursday 1200 I hove to again in 40 knots, wwhich fortunaqtely lasted only until 1800, when a nice 15 knot sw came up.   This slowly eased around to the south, and by Friday morning a genuine tradewinds South Easterly! This increased slowly, with fast sailing until Saturday night, when I did the arithmetic and calculated we needed to slow down to 4.5 knots to reach the pass in daylight - I didn't want to go in in darkness, or to stand off near the reef in darkness if I arrived early.  So we wasted a good breeze, and sailed on heavily reefed in perfect sailing weather - and with our yellow Q flag and Fiji courtesy flags up.
I was concerned that I was very tired, and was heading towards a reef on autopilot - so I altered course away from the reef towards open water,  slowed down even more, puit on the AIS and Radar alarms, turned lights on the sails, and got an hour's sleep.  When I woke I was refreshed and alert, so came back on course, and enjoyed watching the dawn and smelling land nearby (burning sugar cane).

It was a great feeling coming in through the pass to sheltered water, and sailing in to Lautoka to anchor North of Queen's wharf.  After tidying up the boat, and fixing one of the dinghy davit wires that had broken (luckily I always tie the dinghy to the davits with a rope as well as the lifting wires, so the dinghy was Ok), I put my head down and slept from 1600 to 0800 next day!