Tag Archives: voyage

240 Hour Passage: Vanuatu to Marshall Islands

1 Reply

As you know, our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This passage occurred toward the end of September.  We have been playing in Marshall Islands for the past 2.5 months so keep reading and enjoy these adventures.  

We left the Rowa Islands which are part of the Banks Island Group in Northern Vanuatu on a bright, beautiful sunny day.  Our goal was to arrive Majuro in 9-10 days.  We hired a weather router, engaged the Passage Guardian, and had our very good friend, Donald feeding us weather updates daily.

Our weather gurus picked a fairly benign weather window knowing we would have at least 2-3 motor days.  We decided to take this window because the SPCZ would be fairly calm.  This is good as it is known for being a center for thunderstorms and unsettled weather.  We did not want any of that on our watch.

Day 1

Our first day brought us really nice winds, low seas and a slight current in our favor.  We were able to sail for the first 6-hours before the wind died and we ended up motor sailing the rest of the night.

  • Fish:  Caught and released a Skip Jack Tuna and a blue marlin
  • Miles Travelled:  130nm
  • Avg. Speed: 5.4kt and max speed: 9.7kt

This marlin gave Matt a really hard time, but we finally got the hook out of his mouth and released him to the sea.  Our freezers were full and could not accommodate this big fish.

Day 2 & 3

Talk about “low wind” days.  We had glassy waters out in the middle of the South Pacific  Crazy how calm the seas were.  We did something that we have never done before – we flew the drone off our moving boat.  Taking off and flying were easy, but the landing was a bit of challenge.

  • Fish:  caught another blue marlin, but this guy was able to do water dancing which wiggled the hook out of his mouth.
  • Miles Travelled:  130nm each day
  • Avg. Speed: 5.5kt and max speed: 9.7kt

We did manage to get a few periods of sailing and it was glorious!  We were full sail, pinching hard to the wind and making good progress at 7-8kts.

  • Fish:  No fish
  • Miles Travelled:  130nm
  • Avg. Speed: 5.4kt and max speed: 9.7kt

Crossing the Equator

Matt and I have crossed the equator once before so there were no “rituals” but we did enjoy seeing the Latitude go to zero.  We left the southern hemisphere and are now in the northern hemisphere.  Whoop Whoop!

The good thing about rain storms are the gorgeous rainbows that follow.

Playing Dodge Squall and Dodge Boats

What a pain in the arse.  We encountered 6 different fishing fleets.  The fleet consists of 6-8 fishing boats and their individual FADs (fishing aggregating device), and a mother ship.  Most had AIS tracking on but a few did not.  It required constant surveillance. 

If we are not dodging the fishing boats we are dodging the squalls.  Makes it an entertaining day/evening trying to avoid both.

We always hope to have a full moon on long passages but we certainly don’t plan around it.  However, this time we got lucky and had the bright moon during most of our passage.  

Of course the moon could not have all of the attention. The sun had to show off its beauty as well. My favorite images are those that have the glassy seas and the reflection of the sun and moon in the water.

Almost There, But we Slow Down

On day 8 we realized that we were going to arrive at the pass after dark. This is never a good thing when you are not familiar with the pass or its conditions.  So, we decided to slow down.  We would miss daylight hours by 2 lousy hours.  Why is this a big deal?  Well had we arrived 2 hours earlier we could be at the anchorage and enjoying a solid night sleep.  But instead we are out at sea for an additional 24 hours.  

We ended up dropping the sails and shutting the engines off.  Sugar Shack just drifted for 7 hours.  We have never just drifted on a passage or anytime for that matter.  We still maintained our watch schedule and had all of our alarms set.

Our first sighting of land.

As we arrived to the main pass we noticed 3 large fishing vessels waiting to enter as well.  They had to wait for a pilot boat so we stood off to the side to let them enter first.  Funny to be in a traffic jam on this remote island.

Summary

  • Total Miles Travelled: 1,339.22
  • Total Hours: 240
  • Average boat speed: 5.5kt
  • Max boat speed: 10.4kt
  • Hours Motoring:  136 hours or 5.6 days
  • Fish:  We caught and released (1) skip jack tuna and (2) blue marlin
  • Books:  11 books read (Christine)
  • Movies:  2 movies (Christine)

Formalities

The officials, Customs, Immigration, and Biosecurity came onboard Sugar Shack and it was truly the easiest clearance process we have ever experienced.  They were incredibly friendly and efficient, asked a few questions, signed a few forms and stamped our passports.  Sweet As!

The officials clear us in to the country with the easiest formalities yet!  Super nice group, a wonderful welcome!

Even though we motored more than we ever have on a passage, this was still considered a good trip.  We would much rather have no wind and calm conditions than face massive thunderstorms, squalls, and bad sea conditions.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This passage occurred from 9/15-9/25.  The previous blog posts was written by Matt during our passage.  Prior to our passage, our last blog post highlighted the Banks Islands.

Voyage: Tonga to Fiji

Leave a reply

It was with a heavy heart that we decide to leave Tonga a week earlier than planned.  As it was, we were only allowed 4 weeks to explore dozens of islands.  Sure, we could have extended our visas, but we really needed to pick up our second hand rudder – so we had to leave at the first “decent” weather window.  Our voyage had a rough start.

We left the Neiafu mooring field (main town in Vava’u, Tonga) around 0730.  Our forecast had light 10-12kts of wind from the southeast, moderate 1-2m seas, no cape, but a constant rain.  It was not the best weather window, but it was good for us as the winds put us in an angle where we could use our starboard rudder.  Remember we are still operating with only one rudder.

Matt decided to put up full sail (both the main and genoa) because the winds were “light.”  However, as we were exiting the Faihava pass a storm popped up and gave us winds coming from multiple directions.  Auto pilot could not control the steering with one rudder and we quickly jumped to hand steering until we got outside the pass.  Once we had more room, we rapidly reefed the main and genoa.  So much for the forecast!

There was a large group of boats that decided to leave with us.  Some were going to Vanuatu, some to Fiji and others were headed west.  It only took a few hours before we lost sight of all the boats.  We could still see some of them on AIS, but there was no visual with the naked eye.  The images of the orange boats and white boats are all leaving Tonga.

The Voyage

I took stugeron (sea sick pill) but I failed to put on my transderm patch.  Why do you ask?  I did not think I needed it since we had light winds in the forecast.  Silly me!  I tried to weather through the crappy feeling, but 3 hours later I succumed and put the patch on.  The seas coming from the SE hit our aft side of the boat causing us to rock funny and that did not sit well with me.  But after I put the patch on I felt better.

On our first day we averaged 7.1kt with a max of 13.7kt as we surfed down a wave.  We traveled 175nm on the first day of our voyage.

It was gloomy and drizzly the entire day.

We had to constantly manage our sail trim with these big seas.  Auto pilot would easily get overpowered with a rogue wave changing our course from 290T to 240T in a blink of an eye.  

Day 2

We tried to fly our parasail as the winds were deaddown.  It was a super sporty ride and we were making great time with boat speeds hitting 9-11kts!  However, the waves would cause us to surf and the additional speed put too much pressure on the sail.  So we took her down after only a few hours and put our genoa out.  Speeds decreased from 9-11kts with the parasail to 5-7kts with the genoa.  

As luck would have it, we entered Fijian waters at night which was not ideal.  But we have great charts and satellite images which kept us safe.  The photo below shows us (red boat) on a trajectory through the island and reefs.

We tried very hard to arrive to the Savusavu channel before dark, but we fell short by 45 minutes.  The channel is narrow and has boats on both sides.  With one rudder and limited mobility, we decided it would not be wise to enter in the dark so we dropped the hook at Custeau Resort for the night.

Overall Trip Details:

  • Total Travel Time:  60hours
  • Total Miles Travelled:  413nm
  • Average overall speed: 7.1kts
  • Max Speed: 14.7kts
  • Engine Hours used:  Port: 5 hours and Starboard 16 hours

We ended up using our starboard engine more to compensate for the missing rudder.  But overall we were able to sail the majority of this voyage.

The next morning we got up early and made our way into the channel.  Copra Shed Marina sent Pio out to assist us with the mooring which was so appreciated!

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog occurred mid-August.  Did you read our last blog, “The Majestic of Kenutu.”

Passage Time: Fiji to NZ 2023

Leave a reply

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.