Fiji
Storyteller
Wed 18 Jun 2008 01:09
|
Position: 19.17S 178.51E
Early this morning we crossed the Date Line witch
means that Storyteller has brought us more than half way around the
world since we left Palma, Majorca in September last year. With help from our weather forecaster, Bruce from
Perth,
we have been able to make this
voyage comfortably, safely and without undue
anxiety. Great advances in navigational
technology, radar
and long range communications have made a trip like this much more possible for
short handed crews such as ourselves.
Suddenly the weather is much cooler, and it's easy
to sleep at night without dripping with perspiration. The fishing is not great,
so it's just as well we were able to buy delicious sausage rolls in Tonga, which
we ate for lunch today accompanied by mojo sauce we had bought in the Canaries.
Radio NZ is now beaming in loud and clear on the shortwave radio, giving us not
only the Pacific weather forecasts, but also the Rugby news. So we can look
forward to the next All Black match on Saturday night at Musket Cove in
Fiji.
On this leg of the trip we've passed several
exotic-looking islands, but strangely enough there is very little in the way of
a cruising guide to Fiji, unlike Tonga, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. There are
coral reefs all around, and after hearing the experience today of some
Australian friends whose boat went on a reef in the Caribbean, we're going to
even more cautious than before when anchoring amongst coral
reefs.
|