Day 6: Passage from NZ to Fiji

It’s challenging to write this morning, as we buck up and down, side to side. Most passages we are able to go forward and check on the boat, perhaps sit on the side and enjoy a sunset. We have not been able to leave the cockpit for this entire passage due to the sea conditions. We all (even Calder!) take some more seasickness meds, needing to ensure we are all adequately functioning. To be fair to Calder, we had him with his head in the bilge for a while dealing with the generator cooling system. We hold on to things to walk. You could say that we figuratively “hit the wall” with this weather…but a wave has pitched both Chris and I headfirst into the galley cabinet despite holding on. We quite literally have “hit the wall.” Cora has given up on taking watch at this time, camped out on the couch, watching movies. She doesn’t complain, is just excited to arrive to Fiji.

One of our friend boats, Nahla, has an 8-year-old girl Eva who declared that this was the “no window, window” passage. Hilarious, and pretty spot on!

However, it did seem a very reasonable weather window to choose at the time of departure. Since we started off on this passage, we have tried to be strategic about going east initially, so we could ride the trades into Fiji when the trades were reinforced by a low-pressure system south of us. Due to wind angle and sea state, we were not able to get East enough and are trying to still get to SavuSavu, Fiji; we may have to choose another Fiji port to enter if we can’t pinch this angle tight enough.

We are safe. The boat is fabulous. These seas are just SO annoying and tiring. We have another 3 days to go; conditions are predicted to stay this way. Today is my birthday…I’m going to hold off on celebrating until Fiji! I took a birthday nap and watched the sun set with a small glass of white wine. Happy Little Norway Festival to our friends back home in Alaska!

Trying to eat all our lovely NZ fruit and veg before Fiji arrival, where it gets taken by Biosecurity. We buck our way to Fiji, leaving a trail of orange peels behind…