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| At the helm of s/y Yinka, October 2017 - Fiji to New Zealand |
This October’s main adventure was ocean sailing between Fiji
and New Zealand. A 39ft yacht needed crew for the 1200 nM transport from Vuda
Point to Auckland, and I made arrangements to come and sail with them as a part
of the crew of 4: skipper/owner, me, and two more sailors from New Zeeland.
This is a part of the circumnavigation trip that I have done in sequence from
Sweden, across Atlantic, and Pacific (to Fiji and Vanuatu), being the next leg
of the adventure.
I left Sweden in the early morning of October 1st,
to start the long journey to Fiji, on the other side of the Earth. The trip is
far from straightforward, requiring over 40 hours in flights and transfer, and
involving 4 flights.
I would be passing Australia, and it turned out I needed a
visa despite only transferring - not even leaving the airport! Without visa,
they refused boarding already in Sweden. The horror. The skipper and the crew
were waiting for me – I was the last to arrive, and they were eager to get
going, agreeing to wait until the early morning when my flight was scheduled to
arrive, but not later than that. Tired from only sleeping for less than 1 hour
that night, getting to the airport straight from another event, I was a bit
stressed, and frustrated as the gates would be closing soon. By summoning all
my ninja skills and some black magic, I managed to fix a last-second visa and
finally was allowed to board. Luckily, there were no delays, so in the early
morning of 3/10 I landed at Nadi International Airport, and found a car that would
take me to Vuda Point Marina.
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| Sweet Fijian waters, South of Vuda Point |
Fiji welcomed me with sweet scents of flowers and coconut
oil, bringing back all the memories. The sun, the sky, the mountains, the warm
sea. Everyone saying Bula to each other. Everyone drinking Kava. The men
wearing skirts, even as a part of uniform. Colourful stripy fish in the marina
water. Palms. Tropical birds singing. No stress. Island time. I was here 6
years ago, changing crew. Seems like a lifetime ago, and here I am again.
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| To be sailed from Vuda Point to Auckland: 39 ft NZ built Ray Beale design deck saloon. |
I found the boat rafted to a large catamaran. Took off my
shoes and waved to the cat owner, to ask permission to walk on his deck to get
to the boat. He rushed up onto deck and informed me that no, they are not
taking on any crew, thank you very much. I laughed – must have looked like a
hitch-hiking backpacker with that rucksack. As he realized I was not begging to
come along with him, he got a bit embarrassed, apologized and told me I was
welcome to proceed across. I climbed on deck and walked over to s/y Yinka, the
skipper was just getting out in the cockpit to say hi. I unpacked my stuff
quickly and was ready to go.
We had to do some waiting to clear out. The officials did
not turn up as agreed – they all seemed to be set to Island Time. At least a
half dozen boats were waiting to clear out and clear in. When the officials
finally turned up and we stepped into the office, they started making a fuss
about some paper form. Flashbacks from last time I was dealing with immigration
and customs on Fiji - the paperwork was immense. Luckily, everything got sorted
at the end. But now the tide was low, and the entrance to the marina was too
shallow for the boat to pass.
Following the skipper’s bold decision, we made a run for it
anyway. Despite practically grounding in the narrow channel, we managed to get
out, motoring at full throttle through mud! That’s what I call an exit. Heading
South, we approached the reef entrance channel to leave for the open ocean. The
reports were giving 25 knots of Easterly wind, that looked perfect.
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| Leaving Vuda Point, ready for adventure |
Just before we get into channel however, we are hit by
squalls up to 45 knots. That’s quite rough for small vessel sailing, most would
choose not to head out in anything over 35 knots. Also, hard winds are a bad combination
with opposing tide.
While we were beating against the wind to make it through
the channel, a piece of rigging snapped as there was just too much load on it. The
reef was approaching rapidly! We had to motor off, backing the jib. This was no
good. We drop anchor in a protected bay nearby, examined the damage, and
decided to let the strong winds pass before going further.
The pause gave us a beautiful opportunity to have a dip in
the bright turquoise Fijian waters. Both water and air temperature were over
30+C. Much appreciated after a long flight from cold Sweden! When everyone was
done bathing, the wind calmed down to about 30-35kn, and we could continue
according to plan. The timing was perfect – the tide had turned. And as we
sailed through the channel, beautiful dolphins came to keep us company, playing
and racing around the boat.
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| Heeling slightly on the way out from the reef entrance channel |
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| Dolphins playing on the port side, while we are leaving the reef |
Outside of the reef’s protection, the seas were higher and
much less comfortable. The windspeed ranged between 20 to 40 knots, and the
waves about 2 meters high, swell from the big low further South mixing with waves
from the East. Uncomfortable seas caused one of the crew to feed the fishes for
the coming couple of days. He was handling it extremely well though, still
standing shift.
On the next day, winds calmed down to 20-30 knots, the seas
were also a bit calmer but still not very comfortable. The boat was heeling
15-30 degrees as we sailed into the SE wind, and there was a lot of bouncing
around because of the messy seas. Apart from that, the sun was shining and we
are making speed! The ocean was incredibly blue, and the sunsets and sunrises
were amazing. The waves calmed down even more after three days, and it was finally
possible to make a cup of coffee without doing circus tricks, and get the food
to stay on the plate. A bit of dancing around was still required to move around
the boat, but nobody was seasick anymore.
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| The view from the aft - a few rain clouds passing by. |
The
shifts were three hours long, two hours at night, and there were four of us.
That’s very comfortable, compared to all the short-handed sailing I’ve done,
when we were only two people and got 4 hrs shifts, or even 6 hrs. The shift
schedule gave me a possibility to catch up on lost sleep, and cure the jet lag.
I think I slept 9 hours in a row a couple of times, barely reacting to the
alarm clock.
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| Sunrise shift, about 5 in the morning |
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| Moon rising in the dusk hour |
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| Night shift, moon over horizon |
During the first days, we’ve been sleeping on the floor and
on the settee, rotating during different shifts, as only one of the four berths
was tenable. On the fifth day, the seas were so calm it was possible to sleep
in the V-berth, but only during short periods when the waves and the wind were
down. The light conditions allowed some spinnaker sailing, but the wind died
out and we had to motor for a few hours. The calm condition also meant some
more sophisticated cooking could be done, so we had a BBQ with steak and
grilled sausages going that night.
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| Calm weather, sailing with genoa and main, through the deep blue sea. |
As we were making our way South from the Tropics towards
colder latitudes, the water temperature was dropping a steady 2 degrees per
day. The weather was getting also colder: from the tropical heat, it went to
Med sailing, and then to a “good Scandinavian summer day” – and deteriorated to
chilly and wet. The moon has been at its fullest during these days, and it made
night sailing much more fun, being able to see the waves and the rigging,
except for the cloudy and rainy nights. It was so bright during the clear
nights that you could almost read a book in the cockpit. The bioluminescence in
the water was also amazing, like stardust around the boat, glowing in the dark
waves.
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| Getting chilly in the early mornings, starting to have the rain gear ready. Also wearing an inflatable life vest, AIS unit to activate in a MOB situation. |
After a few days, the wind turned to N, just as the GRIB
files promised. The waves also came from the North, so we were finally getting
them from the aft. We had the spinnaker up and were “kitesurfing” down the
waves, with speeds of about 10 knots, reaching 12,8 at one time. Turned out
there was a guitar on board, I did some playing, and later cooked the dinner,
Moroccan chicken stew w/couscous. Great times, until it started to rain in the
evening, wind gone, and we were back to motoring. That night, I saw the first
boat since Fiji, a lantern appearing and then disappearing in the haze at the
horizon. Otherwise, the ocean has been quite a lonely place, no boats to be
seen either by eyesight or on the AIS receiver.
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| Spinnaker on! |
As we were closing in on the NZ coast, we managed to catch 3
Bonito fish, all about half a meter. We let 2 of them go. By this time, we were
following another boat on the AIS, and finally got some VHF contact with the,.
That’s s/y Manutaki, who left Fiji at the same time as us, but got out from the
reef 3 hours earlier than we, because of our unplanned stop. We have been
racing them all the time, closing in on them constantly, and finally we were
about to see each other. Other signs of civilisation were present, as ships
were popping up on the AIS, and lighthouses were visible at night. The wind
carried the smell of dry land to the boat. We were very close now.
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| The 1,000 nM celebration. About 200 nM to go. |
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| Saw a lot of flying fish along the way, one landed in the cockpit at night. We let it go back into the ocean! |
We arrived to Auckland on Tuesday 10th, after an
exhilarating coastal sailing where we raced Manutaki. It was a close race, both
boats trying to max the speed and get an optimal position, crew sitting on the
rail, sometimes so close to the other boat we could reach out and touch them.
At the finish line just outside of the docks, Yinka was ahead by half a boat
length.
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| Approaching Manutaki, spinnaker on to win speed |
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| Passed Manutaki now, but still close racing until the end! |
Manutaki was rafted off our port side, there were in the
same situation. They were invited to Yinka for the arrival celebration, we had
a BBQ on the floating dock, and tried our best to finish up all the fresh food
supply so we did not have to throw food away when clearing in. The rules are
very strict in NZ, AU and the islands nations around, any fresh food might
contain pests so it’s not allowed to bring it to shore. We also worked hard on
the stash of the liquid goods (what’s a party onboard without rum!), and
finished off the huge Kava stash, with hand grating, full ceremony and all.
There was guitar playing, sailing stories, and a lot of laughter. Great
debriefing for both teams!
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| Approaching Auckland! A completely new horizon after 7 days at sea. |
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| The view from the Quarantine dock |
Up at 7 the next morning, we cleared in successfully, and
proceeded to Westhaven Marina, the boat’s home port. This is the largest marina
on the Southern Hemisphere. After packing up and clearing out the boat, I
hurried to the ferry to Waiheke Island to do some exploring before attending
the Thursday regatta.
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| Westhaven marina, with its 1400 boats, and countless dinghies. Delivery accomplished. |
An enjoyable trip, together with great skipper and crew,
favorable winds, and impressive speed – we made the trip in exactly 7 days.
It could have taken up to three weeks, if we would have been unlucky with the
weather.