New Zealand to Fiji
Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Mon 21 Jun 2010 12:38
|
22.11.912 S 178.33.010 E
15 June 2010
195 miles to go to our first waypoint in the Fijian
islands. The last couple of days has been gentle tradewind sailing and we are
making good progress. We have had several days of big waves, strong winds and
squalls. Many of these waves found their way into the cockpit, but
we were wearing good waterproof clothing and the water is not cold so we
were fine. We also had a couple of days with no wind. Tomorrow we are expecting
strong winds again from yet another direction and then it is probably motoring
the last day. We expect to arrive in Savusavu on Friday. We have had our share
of technical problems with the fridges not working, then the generator, which
Duncan both managed to get going. Our sprayhood collapsed under a wave, some
wine bottles broke loose from their storage in another wave. Only one bottle
broke, but it had to be a red one. All that is sorted again in our quieter
periods. We have seen pilot whales and graceful Albatross. Fenn had his first
view of flying fish, we had a big one on deck the other night, and we have seen
one ship. We did some fishing today; two got away but we hauled one Mahi mahi on
board.
We are really looking forward to the end of the
trip as it has not been one of the best ones. Will let you know when we are
there.
 The last views of New Zealand (still
cold)
Poles up for some downwind
sailing
Fenn with the just caught Mahimahi |