We have covered 359 miles of our 1140 mile journey to Savusavu our port of entry in the north of Fiji. The wind eluded us for 12 hours and yesterday we ended up motoring with all sails down for 6 hours until midnight. I tried sailing on my midnight to 0400 hrs watch but not for long as with very little wind the sails slapped loudly and rigging graunched making sleep difficult for Chris so instead we made 6 knots under engine for yet another 6 hours.

During his watch at 0700 this morning the skipper was able to switch off the engine and start using the cruising chute, sailing well on a broad reach at 6 knots, what a relief! The cruising chute carried us along until 17.30 when squalls appeared ahead and the plan was changed to jib and double reefed mainsail. Just as well as we got 30 knots of wind under the clouds and then ...............................nothing.

Engine on until a quarter to midnight.

22/04/11

Wind has been with us since the early hours of the morning but it changed from SE to East and has now gone more northerly at about 60º. 0500 hrs saw us bowling along at 6 knots but ENE is very difficult for making our course. The wind is annoyingly heading us and forcing us to beat into a force 5 which is not the point of sailing we want at all, the boat is bashing through a fairly rough sea under reefed jib and single reefed main. Looking at the grib files it seems the wind will stay in this direction for several days but should gradually get lighter. If we find it becomes intolerable we have agreed that we could divert to Vanuatu and miss out Fiji. This would cause us a few problems as advanced notice of arrival has to be given for these islands using the correct forms, we have only done that for Fiji as yet – thank goodness for email. Anyway it is time to struggle with getting lunch together.

23/04/11

Ploughing on at 6 to7 knots, wind varying from 22 to 26 knots coming at us from ENE. It is uncomfortable sailing with the boat lurching along. It makes it difficult to do much, even a trip to the loo is a major undertaking. Not only is the boat heeled to about 20 degrees but it is also bouncing around as the waves cross our path. We had a squall earlier in the day when the wind reached 32 knots but we must be thankful that it is not tearing at us as it did in Opua the day before we left. I have just realised that our Windex at the masthead is missing its pointer, presumably carried away in the 47 knots of wind we had then. The forecast remains good and it may well be that we will be short of wind in a day or two if the weathermen are correct. In fact the wind we are having now is very strong but otherwise fairly typical of the Trade Winds, lots of fluffy clouds with the odd squall thrown in. The main problem is the direction we are trying to travel in. An American boat who left when we did has been enjoying a super sail, but they are bound for New Caledonia which is quite a lot further east and therefore much more downwind.

24/04/11

Last night and the early hours continued rough with increased winds of 29 to 32 knot from 60º. It's very noisy and it's difficult to move about inside the boat, outside waves are being shipped well over the sprayhood and into the cockpit. which is quite wet. This morning we seem to be getting an average of 27 knots with occasional 30 gusts. Hopefully this is the start of the easement., a brilliant sun is shining. Although this is proving a strenuous trip we are glad we left when we did because our daily download of weather files show that the wind in New Zealand is now strong & directly from the north.  That looks set in for about 2 weeks so had we left our departure any later we'd have been forced to delay and would be pushing our schedule to the limit.

520 miles to Savusavu.