Wks 100-101: Tahiti to Fiji Part 1 (1,818nm)

Our passage to Fiji proved our most challenging to date, with weather making routing decisions tricky and the built-in difficulty of sailing double-handed. But, despite all that, we made a success of it! At least, until Alec started to get unwell… this post cronicles the 11 days of passage before that point.

Captain’s and First Mate’s Logs

We kept our logs on our PredictWind tracker, written during watches on our passage, so some days have multiple entries!

Wednesday, 5th August: (Alec) Leaving days are hectic and this one was no exception as we were left waiting for our approval to depart from Fiji until right before we planned to slip our lines. We also had to refuel, and address the ten or so IT issues that always seem to happen just before long passages. But the good news is that we are off on time, with fellow cruisers on SV Maximillian ahead of us and SV Amari and SV Amazing Grace just behind. Conditions are ideal and it feels great to be chipping off the miles having planned this leg for so long!

(Laura) The “first night jitters” have settled in; I know them well. There are two key things going in my favour though – 1. The wind is mild but not too light. There is plenty to sail but it’s well below the scary threshold; 2. It’s a full moon and the sky is mostly clear, so it is bright as day. This means excellent visibility of any oncoming weather, which takes away a lot of the night stresses. These conditions have been ideal for our first day at sea! Long may they continue :).

Thursday, 6th August: The day that never was… On our second day of passage, we switched to Fiji time, pre-empting our crossing of the date line and springboarding us nearly 24 hours into the future. So, Thursday August 6th 2020 is a day that, for us, didn’t exist!

Friday, 7th August: (Alec) That was a wonderful introductory night to the passage – steady winds and regular shallow waves made for very easy watches once we had the Genoa poles out. We’ve drifted a bit south of where we need to be but that will give us a nice wind angle as we shift to a broad reach once Laura becomes conscious. I’ve just made a huge mess of the cockpit trying to eat a grapefruit and need to sluice it out without emptying water into where Laura is sleeping!

(Laura – AM) Land ho! Wait. What? I was initially extremely confused to wake up to an island off to starboard before I remembered we were going to pass close to the Leeward Societies. It’s only Raiatea and Taha’a. It will be strange to have this passage punctuated by land sightings like this! In other news, the group we are travelling with (Amari, Amazing Grace and Maximillian) have decided to go ahead and switch to Fiji time now to make coordination easier. We have followed suit and now it’s Friday. So that’s weird.

(Laura – PM) We’ve had the most glorious weather today – the clearest skies I’ve seen in months! The breeze comes and goes but it’s given us lots of practice perfecting our genoa pole deployment process. We can now get the genoa on the pole in five minutes flat! A very special end to the day watching the sun go down on a clear horizon, which rewarded us with not one but TWO green flashes. As Serenity was lifted by a wave, we got a second, prolonged flash – so amazing! The skies have stayed clear so it is beautiful out on deck tonight with the mostly-full moon. Soaking up these lovely conditions while they last; the wind is meant to lighten up a lot the next few days, so there may be much motoring in our future…

Saturday, 8th August: (Alec) The old trick of getting so exhausted that sleep is unavoidable worked wonders today. That normally takes me until the third day, but we had an irritating electrical bug in the AIS system today, and fixing it definitely put me over the edge. The AIS is the system that transmits our position to local boats and receives theirs via VHF, so you have an early warning of collisions. We were still transmitting but the plotter was no longer receiving and so the alarm feature was useless – not good given how many miles we have ahead of us. We finally identified a corroded wire as the culprit and then because of poor access ‘enjoyed’ a nautical version of the kids game Operation to repair it, only ours was in a seaway. After a couple of hours we got it done and everything is functional again. At least we weren’t bored!

(Laura) Another beautiful day, with the pleasant surprise of more wind than forecast. We had enough to sail all day (bar one hour in the evening) on a beamy / broady reach and it was lovely. An easy day was helpful as Alec and I are working through the “Day Three Wall” – this is when you start to go cross eyed from sleep deprivation, but it normally trips whatever switch in your head needs switching to get into passage sleep mode (both new sleep times and several shorter sleeps instead of one long one). I am definitely running on fumes, but looking forward to six hours off soon. In the mean time, the newly topped up snack box is helping me stay awake (ish). It includes some great nostalgic treats such as Nutterbutter and those little packets of orange cheese sandwich crackers. It’s the little things!

Sunday, 9th August: (Alec) I’ve been a bit out of sorts today with some odd fever chills, aches and pains, and more lethargy that I’d expect. On top of this, I managed to completely tangle our two fishing lines together in an all mighty mess. I’m fortunate that the solution to both the issues turned out to be Laura, who had the patience and dexterity to detangle the lines, and the stamina to take on extra watches whilst I took extra naps. Sailing double handed truly is an endurance team sport, and I’m increasingly in awe of the single handed round the world sailors. Serenity continues to eat up the miles in these favourable conditions, needing very few interventions from us. Our current average speed has us arriving in Fiji before the required quarantine time, which is good as it means we have some leeway to slow down if / when the weather god’s favour is rescinded.

(Laura) A cloudless sky and steady winds made for an exceptional day on the water. We caught up on naps, I finally mustered the energy to make up a big pot of chilli for the next few nights’ dinners, and we listened to a lot of music. We also learned that we won yesterday’s trivia round! I am very proud – normally I’m terrible at trivia, but I led the team on this one. The topic played to my specialty knowledge of Disney films and romantic comedies :). As the evening settled, the wind veered to E, putting it dead behind us. It also lightened, so we are playing the flappy sails game and trying to decide if we should give up and motor for a while. I literally just need maybe 3 more knots of wind and we’d be good – frustrating!

Monday, 10th August: (Alec) Well today we have truly lived up to our vessel name. The wind has bit a bit lighter than we had hoped, but still just enough to use the spinnaker. So we set it up this morning and discovered that when combined with the swell it generated a heavily soporiphic rockong effect – we had accidentally turned Serenity into a float crib. So we slept. A lot. Probably an unhealthy amount. But we feel great now!

As the sun sets the wind has petered out a bit more and the risk of wrapping the spinnaker around the furled Genoa is now too high to justify leaving it up and so we’ve bagged and turned to the engine. We’ve only used 5 hours up until this point, and couldn’t have been more patient today, so it is one of those rare times where motoring doesn’t feel like failing. The big question now is whether either of us will be at all tired enough to get any sleep tonight.

(Laura) With the light of the morning, we put the bangy sails away and broke out our ace in the hole – the spinnaker. He’s happy to fly in the tiniest shred of wind, and dutifully set despite only 8 kts of true on the dial. Enjoyed a slow but very peaceful day bobbing along at around 4 kts and reading the other boats’ entries to our trivia round, “Shameless Pop.” Nobody got the “Genie in a Bottle” question (what do Christina Aguilera and Robbin Williams have in common?), but knowledge of Shakira and Ke$ha was surprisingly extensive. The wind completely died at sunset, so the iron sail has taken over while we wait for it to come back. Expecting it to get rather windy tomorrow actually, so the spinnaker is packed away again for now. Leftover chilli for dinner filled our bellies and we even managed to watch an episode of suits together. Nice to have a relaxed day to help us get some energy back!

Tuesday, 11th August: (Alec) The wind filled in as forecast overnight so we were able to get the engine off around midnight. Thankfully we’d downloaded the updated forecast before I went to bed, which suggested a bigger change of wind direction and speed than the morning forecast, which meant that our currently rigged sail plan would be ineffective (beam reaching with a poled out Genoa for the sailors out there). It’s much nicer to make a sail change at 7pm vs midnight, and as a result Laura could then get us sailing on her own as soon as the wind filled in.

The wind has brought with it some interesting localised weather systems. To call them squalls would be overstating it, but you do get a reasonable amount of wind and rain for 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes of almost nothing at all. The latter is the most annoying and so we try to dodge them where we can – currently I have a 0% success rate but I have a feeling I might get quite a lot more practice throught the rest of today.

(Laura) Today could not have been more different from yesterday. By mid morning we had 20+ knots, and more under frequent rain clouds. The seas stirred up almost instantly, making the ride on Serenity akin to sailing in a washing machine. For the most part the order of the day has been: hang on! As the day wore on, the average and max wind speeds crept up and up; eventually I panicked (requiring much pep talking from Alec to get me thinking straight again). We also decided to do shortened night watches anticipating them being very tiring, so I am on from 8-midnight. I’m feeling a bit better about conditions now – I mean it’s crazy out there but we’ve found our rhythm. The wind is probably peaking soon; we are regularly seeing 25+ on the apparent wind meter! It is meant to start to slacken off a little tomorrow evening though – here’s hoping for a less intense day.

Wednesday, 12th August: (Alec) Sailors seem to have an adage or saying for every situation, but I may have found a gap. Something along the lines of “the sea knows what hatch you forgot to completely close”. I’ll admit it needs a bit of work, but the underlying concept was proven once more today. There is a small inspection hatch under each of our steering wheels so you can check the mechanism, and I’d thought they were both screwed back in fairly tight…not tight enough it turns out. We’ve only had a single wave break into the cockpit this passage, and that wave broke over that inspection hatch because it knew it was slightly loose, and the water that got behind dripped straight onto…our bed. [Insert curse word of choice here]!

It wasn’t too bad, but not what you want after a tiring day of managing Serenity in somewhat challenging conditions. I would liken it to being a passenger in a car with someone you don’t know very well who is driving too fast for comfort. The options for slowing down or getting out are fairly limited, so all you can really do is triple check your seat belt.

Silver lining – we are significantly closer to Fiji now that we were yesterday.

Thursday, 13th August: (Laura) After clocking in a record breaking 183nm in the crazy winds the day before, yesterday felt slow in “only” 25 knots. It was accompanied thankfully by sunny skies and we had a much more relaxed day. Last night, however, Neptune got a bit crankier as squall after squall pelted us with rain and splashed us with confused seas. The grumpy skies continue this morning but the wind has finally started to ease a touch and so the waves are calming down bit by bit. We’ve switched to goose winging in anticipation of the wind backing due E, and are prepping for a possible kite launch later as the wind eases. No rest for the weary! But I’m grateful we have wind and are sailing :). We’re over halfway and it looks like we’ll pass through Tonga about three days from now. Getting there!

Friday, 14th August: (Alec) A calm and uneventful night as the wind initially dropped enough to force us to drive for three hours on Laura’s watch, before coming up just enough to get us back sailing for mine. The conditions are perfect for the spinnaker, but we didn’t have the desire to try and get that flying at 02:00, and so I’ve been muddling along under the Genoa instead. We aren’t going anywhere fast, but the miles are still ticking by.

Hearing stories from cruisers still back in FP that make us very glad we left. Most of them concern the outbreak of the virus, which must be devastating after spending so much effort eradicating it entirely. They clearly thought the benefits of tourism outweighed the risks when they reopened their borders, but their self testing approach has clearly backfired and the big concern must be whether it spreads off the main island of Tahiti to the other islands. Clearly there is a risk of another lockdown, and it is starting to look like we got out just in time.

The other sad news concerns the death of a British cruising family’s 14 year old son, who was hit by a speedboat whilst snorkelling. We know the boat name (September AM), but never met them in person. The details are currently unclear, but based on where we last saw them I have a hunch that it might have happened at one of the Moorea anchorages. We had direct experience of the speedboats deliberately driving close to the yachts whilst we were in Moorea, which was a reflection of the local animosity towards cruisers – if this has now led to a death then I can only hope that some better thought out restrictions on anchoring and speed limits are finally agreed. But it is desperately sad for the family, whose sailing dream is now utterly corrupted and they are having to deal with this tragedy in the midst of the virus on the far side of the world. We are keeping them in our thoughts today.

(Laura) An unexpectedly lovely day here in the South Pacific – gentle seas but with enough breeze to zip (when Serenity is very happy, she “chortles” along – term coined by Alec and couldn’t be more accurate! Today there was lots of chortling). We’d expected variable conditions as we are nearing a stormy area, but actually got the most glorious we’ve had all passage – win! It made for a fab day, spent mostly on deck enjoying the ride. But, all good things come to an end, and as night fell, so did the wind, so the iron sail has taken over for present. On the plus side we’re taking the opportunity to make some water and hey a night watch on engine could hardly be easier! It will be advantageous to have a good night’s sleep as tomorrow is forecast to be stormy and confusing while we drive through a trough. Fingers crossed it isn’t too crazy!

Saturday, 15th August: (Alec) So far, our passage through the trough and following edge of the high is going pretty well. There were some big lightening storms in the distance overnight, but nothing that came close to us. Then this morning the wind continued to rotate from NW to SW exactly as the forecast predicted, and so we used 6 hours of engine time to keep us moving across the dead zone. We’ve now got the wind starting to fill in from the south with quite a lot of drizzle, but nothing too squally. Still got another six or so hours to get properly in the clear, but if it continues as it has done then this will have been a very easy transit in the grand scheme of frontal systems.

Sunday, 16th August: (Laura) Well, that took a turn. Around 2pm yesterday we found what I now think must have been the edge of the high pressure system butting up against the low. The winds built rapidly from nothing to 25+ knots from the S making for a close reach into it to aim at our waypoint. One reef in the main quickly became three and we had to bear off to make it work. I am pretty much permanently anxious when we are sailing but I was straight up scared last night with all this, as we smashed into wave after wave and spray drenched the cockpit. Serenity was an unhappy girl, but we eventually got her balanced enough for Alec to go to sleep while I kept an eye on things. There were a few tricky moments (waves overrode our steering locks, the main traveller uncleated itself), but mostly it was a case of hanging on and hoping for the best. Thankfully, the wind has slowly eased off and backed through the night meaning we have a more favourable angle and less intensity in the breeze. So with a little luck we can have a less stressful sail today.

Monday, 17th August: (Alec) We were exceedingly grateful when the wind came round a bit more to the east yesterday, as it allowed us to find a calmer and more stable sailing angle and it also took a bit of heat out of the steep and aggressive seas. An updated weather forecast revealed another frontal weather system was due to reach Fiji on Wednesday, the day before we were scheduled to arrive at Port Denerau. Having just had a tough night in the last front, this was not the sort of news we wanted to hear.

I spent some time looking at the forecasts and found that we could shelter ourselves from the worst of the weather by hiding behind the main island of Fiji, and the sooner we could reach it then the better our protection would be. We normally avoid pushing the boat too much for speed, as it reduces your margin for error and makes life aboard more tense – counter to the Serenity First model. In this instance though, we decided to try and maximise Serenity later with some focussed and more aggressive sailing in the short term.

The conditions were perfect for dropping the hammer, and we were flying along all day, surfing down waves at over ten knots at times. We reigned it in a touch as night approached, but the sensation of speed in the dark cockpit now that there is no moon to provide illumination is an equal mix of thrill and nervousness. To compound things, I’ve got another round of these odd chills that is making it tough for me to sleep and so Laura is having to pull some extra shifts.

We are very aware that we are in the home stretch and it would be foolish to burn out now. I’m hopeful that our gains over the last 24 hours will have set up a better run in and we can then ease up a touch on the gas. Three days left to go!!!

(Laura) I am delighted to report that the drawing ointment Alec’s mum insisted form part of our medical kit on board has, at long last, earned its keep. Alec, aka “Mr. Bump,” has developed an unusual lump on his knee (in addition to his already impressive collection of cuts and scrapes), which we have now liberally applied said ointment to. Will report back on outcomes, but thank you to Sarah for ensuring we had the necessary supplies!

Otherwise today has been a day for sleep aboard Serenity First. Crew fatigue has peaked, necessitating agressive napping and diminishing the galley output to pot noodles or “whatever I can find lying around that doesn’t need cooking.” Thankfully there was some leftover paella in the back of the fridge earlier. I am still peckish and eyeing up a can of curried beans and veg as a more substantial late night “meal” than a pack of Oreos but actually neither sound particularly appealing anymore.

We should finally approach the Lakeba passage first thing in the morning, which will take us through the Eastern archipelago of Fiji (the Lau group). From there, only about 300nm to go!! We’re close enough that my thoughts have started turning to the anticipated creature comforts of shore. Please oh please let there be a pizza place in Denerau!!

To be continued…

Though the passage had been tough, we’d felt up to now that we were “winning” against the elements. But, this was the point that our ‘challenging but successful’ trip turned into a very scary and uncertain situation as Alec’s leg became increasingly infected, his fever increased, and the weather hurled some of its worst at us. We’ll pick up this up in more detail in our next post, lest this one become a novel.

Parting Thoughts: A comparison of passages

Two things set this passage apart from the rest. First, it was just us two on board (we’ve had four for our other two long passages). Second, the wind did all kinds of crazy things. We had lots, we had little, we had it on the nose, we had it on the bum, and everywhere in between.

While we’ve spent the vast majority of our time on Serenity sailing double-handed, doing a long passage is a tough ask with just two, because someone always needs to be awake* and monitoring the boat and the conditions. That means getting used to shorter sleeps and more napping; we each take a 6hr shift overnight to give a long-ish break for the other, and then do 3hr shifts in the day. Compare this to with three or four people on board, where everyone would get 8hrs off at night to sleep and we could have a more relaxed day schedule. That said, we found our 6/6/3/3/3/3 routine to be entirely sustainable. This is a relief, as it will be just us again for the passage to Australia (if we get permission to go, of course!).

Compounding the challenge of shorter-handed passage-making was a much greater variety of weather conditions than we are used to on an ocean crossing. To try to put this into context – on the Atlantic our crew mandated a maximum of one sail change per day (including reefing) and we sometimes didn’t even hit that, whereas on this trip we were making 2-3 or more sail changes per day! Even on our long Pacific crossing we had a relatively narrow and sedate range of conditions (broad reaching or running downwind in mostly in 10-20kts and mild seas), meaning even if we did change the sails more regularly, it was only between a few set ups. And while we did of course have squalls on all of our passages, for the Atlantic and Pacific this was the extent of the unsettled weather we had to deal with. This jump to Fiji took things up about three knotches on all counts, as regular big weather systems (a series of Hs and Ls) passed throughout our journey, bringing wind and waves from a whole variety of directions (often not the same one…). And the wind might increase in strength from basically nothing to 25-30kts in mere hours, so our guards were always up – conditions might change at a moment’s notice.

Put that together and it already makes for our most challenging passage on Serenity. But, there was more to come! That, however, is a subject for the next post…

*Foreshadowing!