November 24, 2023
Going to bed last night we smelled a bit of smoke, but it isn’t that unusual in the Yasawa’s as they burn land before planting crops. This morning however, as the sun came up, it was shocking how much ash was covering the boat. And I mean covering. First order of business was washing the outside of the boat. What…
November 21, 2023
Ground hog day, up at 4:00am and another 60ish nautical miles to cover. With the sunrise, again, out came the main (reef 2, 23 knots of wind) and jib. Soon we were cruising along in the upper 6 to low 7 knot range. Perfect! We managed to sail about 3/5th of the way before, as forecast, the wind dropped and…
November 20, 2023
With 60nm to go and a new anchorage to visit, we wanted to ensure we arrived early to have good sunlight, this meant a 4:00am departure. The night before, not thinking I had kept myself up past 9:00pm, totally unnecessary but thankfully I still had a good sleep and woke up refreshed. We slipped the mooring ball lines and we…
November 17, 2023
We weren’t in a rush but around 6:30am we slipped off the mooring ball and started our motor over to Namena. A premier diving spot with 21 marked driving locations around the reef. Fingers were crossed for some amazing free diving, but first we had to get there. The sea state and winds were very calm and it was a…
November 14, 2023
Not my best night’s sleep and so waking at 3:00am I knew my chances of falling back asleep were not good. Soon enough 4:00am rolled around and it was time to get moving. Off the mooring ball and heading towards Savusavu in no time, with barely any wind this would be a motor day. With a rather large swell, at…
November 13, 2023
We have been watching an area that was looking to form into a cyclone for three days and had a bit of a scare a few days ago. We normally review the European, American, and Spire weather models but wanting to check all the boxes that day we added the PWE and PWG (Predict Wind modified models). That first check,…
November 10, 2023
Big winds were forecast so we wanted to get moving to prevent getting pinned down for a few days. The plan was up at 4:00am for the 50-ish mile passage to Matagi Island (a small horseshoe shaped island with a fancy resort (opposite side of the anchorage)). Like clockwork, both Carl and I popped out of bed and jumped right…
November 8, 2023
It was a beautiful morning and soon the paddleboards were in the water, as we headed to a farm and lookout spot 300 feet above us. Reaching a dock, we started the climb up 270 odd stairs. Other than a few loose and rotten boards, that we managed to avoid, we were soon on the top of the hill and…
November 7, 2023
The sun rose as we slowly clicked off the miles to enter the pass of the next atoll, Vanua Balavu. After what seemed like an eternity, around 8:45am, we reached the calm interior of the atoll and with that I headed down to make my breakfast. Eating breakfast I noticed I had cell signal so with Carl’s help I spent…
November 6, 2023
A lazy-ish morning while we waited for high tide gave me a chance to soak into my brain the colors from the green vegetation to the explosion of shades of blue. I tried my best to lock it into my memory banks. Around 11:30am it was go time, so off we went. Getting through the pass was smooth sailing due…
October 23, 2023
We had been watching the weather for a few weeks and hoping for a weather window to get to the Lau group. With the trade winds from the east 99% of the time, we weren’t sure but our chances did not look good. A small window could get us to Kadavu, about half way there, but with typically a month…
October 20, 2023
It was going to be a huge day, we lifted anchor at 4:00am and with the cruise ship and mega yacht’s lights it made it easier to remain oriented for the ourselves. Exiting from the blue lagoon, we weaved around the islands and reefs timing the sun’s arrival with our exit into longer straight stretches. And with it, up came…