Beautiful day in the neigbourhood....flat boat...motoring...no wind or seas to bother us...and blue sky/sun!!
Sea Mist > Sold to New Owners July 2016
John and Cheryl Ellsworth
Tue 17 May 2011 04:52
All is well.been motoring for 14 hours since 2 am; we expected to have no
wind for about 18 hours.just now first indications that we are starting to
notice a tiny bit of wind strength emerging.moving up from 2 - 3 kts to 5 -
6 kts..and the direction is now where it should be for most of the rest of
our passage..that is out of the South East ( on our starboard quarter ). We
have about a 3 - 4 meter swell but it is ever so gentle as not to even be
noticed since it is a LONG PERIOD swell..;.you see the 12 to 15 foot roll
coming towards us on our port quarter and Sea Mist just ever so gently rises
to accept the swell passing.if you weren't in the cockpit to see it, you
wouldn't really know the swell existed.
It has been a beautiful day ..and a good day for us to catch up on some food
prep/eating and showering in leisure, etc..flat boat and all that.
Now approaching the dark hours..hopefully we will be sailing before too many
hours..we already have the rigging switched over to be ready for Starboard
tack..head sail poled out; that is same configuration we finished up with in
the dark hours last night..EXCEPT.for it then being on the other side..Port
Tack. We have kept the mailsail deployed to stabilize the boat by
countering the roll with the sail acting against the air as the boat tries
to roll.
There are a lot of boats heading from NZ to Fiji at this time...we have
about 10 or 12 of us in a communication radio net twice per day..8 am and 8
pm; we have been doing well against the group...we were last to leave and
have been steadily gaining on all of them except for one big catamaran (good
friends of ours from North Carolina) who left Marsden Cove 4 hours ahead of
us on Saturday and they had a better start (lighter winds resulting in not
as much Easting in those early hours) and they built and maintained about 60
nm in front of us.
Almost all the other boats are headed to the 2nd major island (Vanua Levu),
arrival Port Savusavu..whereas we are headed considerably west for an
arrival at the first major island (Viti Levu) - arrival Port of Lautoka,
where Nandi International Airport is located relatively nearby. (Savu is
another arrival port but it is considerably east on the island.about 110 nm
distance to reach Lautoka from Savu.)
We expect to arrive at the pass that takes you through the reef into the
inside waters some time on Saturday morning,. The 21st...it is an additional
27 nm inside to reach the arrival port of Lautoka. We will likely anchor in
a bay in that vicinity, with our Quarantine (yellow flag) flying. until
Monday when we can connect with officials and be allowed on shore AFTER they
have gone through a somewhat elaborate clearing in process with
Health/Customs/Immigration/Port officials.
If you want to see a location where we will spend time in our early days,
then google - MUSKET COVE RESORT - they are renowned for years of
hospitality/welcoming/interest in world cruising sailors.
All for now / the seamisters
DTG 615 nm