Monday 1^st September.  Enough Already – We’re Gone, We Hope

The filthy wet weather has passed and it looks as though a departure for Fiji tomorrow (Tuesday) is feasible.  So, that’s the plan.  By midday tomorrow (NZ Time) we should have reasonable, broadly southerly, winds to get us going north from Opua (northern NZ) to Fiji.  It looks as though it could be a bit uncomfortable from about Thursday morning, as the next warm front goes through bringing northerly winds of up to F7 with squally weather and 3-4m swells from the SW after that, through Friday and into Saturday.  And, there will be a bit of motoring involved in the lighter patches.  But, the alternative of waiting until that lot has passed Opua (around Saturday) before departure looks worse.  So, we’ll crack on with it and get north.  We’ll probably bounce around a touch and have to wiggle a bit to get through the front and its aftermath but we should manage.