Tag Archives: passage

Passage Crew.

Looks like we picked up crew for this passage.

This crew member came from reputable sources that touted his seamanship and excellent fishing abilities. I resisted letting him aboard and even tried to scare him away with wild crazy captain like antics. But alas, I turned my back and again he was begging for a a ride.

I was shouting and running about and carrying on, he stood strong, as only a seasoned sailor would. Only occasionally getting up from his onboard barstool when I got within fighting distance. However, every time I turned to walk away and looked back, damn if the old salt didn’t sit right back down

.

Unplanned crew holding his own

Thwarted, I resigned to giving him a chance. Called customs and immigration and had the fowl crew added to the crew list in hopes he would be helpful and contribute on those long shifts and help the peace onboard.

But alas, all this guy would do is stand around and make a mess of the place. I even tried conversations and asked for some fishing tips and locations. However, like any good fisherman his beak was sealed, not even a peep of a tip on how to become a better fisherman. Nary even a fish tale about the one that got away.

He was such a loner. He would not even clean up after himself. By morning all that was left was his mess.. Its like he has never heard of a ‘head’ or ‘poop deck’ before.. Definitely went about created his own instead of asking where ours was!

All I can hope is that he left well rested and (or fell overboard). All that is left this morning is calling customs and immigration and trying to explain what happened and why we didn’t arrive with our crew member in our next port.

Now if you see a sailor wearing Red Booties, just be warned he is not to be trusted. Really more of a boob than a crew.

Too long at the bar, Now just holding on with every wave we take over the bows, thus cleaning the poop deck

All well onboard (minus one crew member)
Ticking off the miles, and sanity.
660 miles left, only a smidgen of sanity.
Sails are up, but motor sailing to aid in keeping them full .

Still out here

Along with some of our closest friends we have an ever met and are really not that physically close.

New Zealand bound boats

You can see the gaggle of boats that left Tonga on the right and boats that left Fiji at the top and outer proposed tracks directly into the wind. 😉

I think it might actually called a fleet of boats? if they are only bound by their destination are they actually related? Might just be a group..

The boats look close together, but there is only one boat within 10 miles of us at this point.

All good out here, 750 miles to go. Engines running making progress toward destination. Making water and batteries are full from the motoring. Looking for positives for listening to the engine noise instead of the wind noise. It is getting cooler but still shorts weather. At least 5 more days to go, especially if we don’t get some favorable winds soon, and it looks like it might be another day or so. For now the waves are way down and only 5 knots of wind on the nose so it’s time to catch up on sleep and just relax.

Cheers

Passage Time: Fiji to NZ 2023

Bula!

Matt and I are on passage again.  We will be leaving Fiji and heading back to New Zealand for cyclone season. 

Matt will be live blogging during this 7-9 day passage so I have suspended our previously written blog posts.  They will resume in early November.

Hopefully we will have beautiful days where we can fly this beautiful parasail, but most likley we will be flying our working sails.

Click here to read out our last voyage from Fiji to New Zealand in 2022.

The Plan

The plan is always written in sand during low tide.  But we plan to head west as far as possible before turning left and heading south.

We are part of the South Pacific Island Cruising Rally which just means we have access to a lot of resources we wouldn’t normally have as non-members.  It is not a race as everyone leaves on the window they feel safest departing on.

We’ve engaged a professional weather router, signed up for Passage Guardian who will be tracking us, have our amazing friend Donald Anderson tracking us, will be checking in with Gulf Harbour Radio (SSB) daily, and we will be posting daily.  This is in addition to our new to us life raft, multiple ePIRBS, and loads of safety protocols in place.

We are well prepared.  We ave dozens of meals prepared and pre-cooked in case we have rough seas, have stowed everything that needs to be stored, the first aid kit, ditch bag, jacklines, PFDs are out, the dinghy is secured, and the foul weather is out.

Hopefully, my beautiful the angels will be watching over us for a safe passage.