The months without Stella pass quickly because I keep myself quite busy helping other people with their boat jobs. Malaka Queen is still on anchor near Port Whangarei with the occasional 12 nautical miles return trip up over the river to Smugglers Cove to clean the hull and to run the watermaker…
The extra blanket needed at night clearly tells us that the New Zealand winter is approaching. Time to set sail to the tropics again! The offical end of the cyclone season is April 31 but we have to wait patiently for more than 3 weeks for a suitable 8 day weather window to appear…
Patti has arrived in Savusavu from Vuda marina! We will provision for a month then sail to the Southern Lau on Thursday. Patti wants to do an art project with the school children of Ogea and I will help Dutch sailor Umberto with putting up a mainsail donated by Dutch sailors I met in New Zealand…
After a beautifull sail from Ogea to Lomaloma on Vanua Balavu island in the Northern Lau group we pick up Elaine who is already enjoying the island for a few days. Welcome on board! The three of us sail to the wide “Horse bay” just before “Plantation bay” where we anchored last year…
After a stop in Lautoka at anchor again at Vuda point outside Vuda marina. Back after a year in this familiar place. I help Patti to bring her and her luggage ashore and onward to her boat on land. Everywhere I go people recognize me and that feels very welcoming, like home. Thank you Vuda staff!
Once again its time to do provisioning in Lautoka and a good chance to check out the opshops as well for new clothing Also we bring parts of the bimini to Marchall sails for replacement of the worn transparant windows. It will be ready by the second week of October before we sail to New Zealand.
When leaving Savusavu we discover that the wind angle is not as predicted. We try to sail as close as possible to the wind but soon realise that our route to the Namuka and Yagasa islands in the Southern Lau is not sailable. A tack brings us to Vanua Balavu for the second time this season…
The wind comes from the port side on the first day of the sail to Port Vila Vanuatu and a reefed mizzen and headsail is suffient, no main sail. The second day the wind comes more from the aft so more sail surface is needed while making an effort to stay in harmony with the 2-3 meter waves…
It is a dark moonless night so it is “blind” navigation through the narrow western pass by comparing the GPS position of the boat with Google maps satellite overlays in OpenCPN while many fishermen in their dugout canoes shine their lights into my eyes…
Sailing from Simons nature reserve to Honiara, the capital of the Solomon islands to stock up and to get some Solomon dollars. This anchorage in front of a japanese Sushi place and the rowing club is convenient because it is close to town but it is very rolly and close to the breakwater too….
That visit to the vulcanic Savo island and its vulcano was great! One more thing on our list is to see the leatherback seaturtles coming out of the sea at night to lay and bury their eggs on the beach. One of the places where they come on shore is Baniata and this will be another “first time” anchorage…
A beautifull sail past Oema atol again along the coast of Bougainville. We wanted to check in at Kieta in the south of Bougainville and then slowly sail northwest along the coast to Buka. On route the officals tell us that pleasure craft cannot check-in at Kieta and they ask us to come to Buka instead!…
After visiting the beautiful Nissan and Pinipel islands on to Cape Waum on New Ireland, Kerawa island in the Duke of York group and finally the city Kokopo on East New Britain to check in. But then I did something stupid: anchoring at a beautiful beach east of Kokopo. Easy to say looking back…
I am a bit nervous about this upcoming passage against the tradewinds because I know it will not be plain sailing… We stock up and prepare well and also change some Kina to Solomon dollars at the local BSP bank which as always takes half a day as there are many people waiting patiently in line.
After good days and a few jobs like stocking up with diesel and bringing the sails for repair we leave Vuda marina for Lautoka. The staff is so welcoming and it is a delight to meet them again. Stella will fly to Ireland for the wedding of her son Ryan and it will be wonderful for her to spend time with the family.