18:37.63S 179:20.35W

A Rig and Course change as we enter the Koro Sea

But firstly another daytime portrait of Brian and his legacy which has taken some cleaning up and is not 100% successful yet.

So we centralled the reefed main and Rob poled out the genoa as the wind was now gusting 20knots and with the following sea shoving us along we were making 7+ knots. Rob sighted land, Totoya Island at 09.46am on the 26^th  June and using my hand-bearing compass I took a bearing of the island. Then by using the reciprocal on the chart drew a pencil line to cross our marked track to give and EP (estimated position). Plotting our GPS position for the same time it was nice to see one sitting on top of the other.

Looking astern at the churning vistas brought back memories of our Atlantic and Pacific crossings and the reassuring feeling that the three of us had dealt with this before and would deal with it this time. The difference was that previously there was a vast amount of open ocean, here we were navigating through reefs and small islands. The sea was moderate, not rough.

Early in the morning of our last day at sea, as I came onto my 1.00am watch I felt we needed more than the modest 5.5 knots we were doing to make Savusavu in comfortable time to be checked in today. 6+ knots required to advance our ETA please.

I thought the procedure through and gently released a little of the genoa furling line. Then took the winch handle and tightened in the sail till we were getting barely 6 knots. Not enough. Using the same procedure again brought the speed up to 6.3+ and her motion was still comfortable in the bumpy sea. Any more and she would have been at risk of a broach, coming side on to the advancing rollers and risking being turned over. As it was the pull forward kept her bow up and her steering secure. Little did I know at the time how fortuitous were these minor adjustments.

It was too windy and roly to go on deck and hoist the courtesy and health flags and clean off Brian’s mess so I contented myself with making a shopping list. First item; tonic water.

This was the sort of windsurfing we like. On a 40 foot board with no risk of falling off or getting wet! At one splendid moment Zoonie flew down a wave doing 10.6 knots, a new record.