Heading for Fiji day 2 at sea 17:24.150S 176:59.531W
South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Mon 21 Sep 2009 05:52
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After a very nice week in the Vavau archipelago,we
headed back for Neiafu and spent 2 days preparing Tarita for the ocean again.On
Sunday morning we left Neiafu,with gribfiles showing a good weatherwindow for
the passage to Savu Savu,and a Bob McDavitt weathergram showing descent
circumstances in the South Pacific.We said goodbye to Baker(the weather and
cruiserguru in Vavau)on the VHF,and to all our Swedish cruisingfriends(we
have been 7 Swedish yachts in Tonga at the same time).Four Swedishboats will
follow to Savu Savu starting 1 day later,and we will keep a Swedish SSB-net on
8182Khz.The passage to Fiji has quite a bad reputation and deserves
respekt.Every year several yachts are lost during this passage,mainly because
they hit reefs in badly surveyd waters,and just recently an American yacht was
lost on a reef not at all found on any charts.He was according to
"radiorumours",rescued by inhabitants from the nearest island and well taken
care of.The "cruisersociety"decided to support with food,but later learned to
know that the people rescuing came from Mel Gibsons private island in Fiji,and
that the shipwrecked singlehander was well fed by Gibsons private
chef!
We are currently sailing in SE tradewinds of
15-20Kts,and estimate to see the first Fijiislands tomorrow after lunchtime.The
whole day has been good tradewindsailing with clear skies,but now some dark
squalls are approaching from SE.Our first waypoint is just east of Nanuka
passage,the most northern of all passages in to the Laugroup of islands in
Fiji´s eastern archipelago.Clearing in is mandatory before cruising anywhere in
Fiji.
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