Gone With The Wind ... on safari

Thursday, October 27, 2022

North Minerva Reef to Port Denarau Fiji.

19th - 21st July 2022

Well it was yet another rough passage for us. We knew that it would be and sometimes you just need to toughen up and take what mother nature throws at you one mile at a time.

The forecast was for 20 –25 kts with gusts of 30 and 2-3m seas. Not ideal in any way shape or form and usually we would have stayed put inside the reef. But this time we had no choice. And so with a double reefed main, we purposely only have two reefing points, and one third of our jib unfurled we headed out for the 389nm passage to Port Denarau Fiji.

By 1700 the same day the seas were now up at 4m and GWTW was in race mode peaking at 17.5 kts of boat speed. It was an uncomfortable night to say the least. Next morning the seas were settling down a bit and our boat speed was hanging around in the 10-12 knot range.

The clock ticked over to 1700 again and with it came the sound of our port jib sheet snapping which definitely did not bring music to our ears. It had chaffed through on the bottom batten of our mainsail which now had a twelve inch hole where once their was carbon. Bugger.

We were now on the downhill run to Port Denarau. The moonless nights had rewarded us with spectacular views of the night stars and that is something we will miss dearly once we arrive back in Australia.

The seas were still 2- 3m and rough as guts as we headed for the finish line and entered the Navula Pass in Fiji at 1800, dropping the anchor some two hours later in the Quarantine anchorage area outside Port Denarau.