Apr 30 about 100 miles away

We are sailing through the islands of Fiji on our way to the town of Savusavu on Vanua Levu, the 2nd biggest island in Fiji. We are about 100 miles away, and expect to arrive about noon tomorrow. We are enjoying an awesome sail downwind in 8-10 knots with a full main and staysail poled out to weather.

Yesterday Brian and I each caught a yellow fin tuna. We had some seared for dinner last night with the grouper and we had a huge sushi feast for lunch today. We still have a ton of tuna and a massive piece of grouper. Good eating ahead!

Today Gigi and Axel made chocolate chip cookies, then Gigi gave Axel a makeup job. He makes a very cute girl. Axel tried to put lipstick on Gigi. I've never seen anything so crooked. I guess after 10 days at sea they had to find some way of entertaining themselves.

We are all looking forward to landfall tomorrow, although thankfully it has been an easy passage.

Cheers,
Julie

Apr 29 update

We have just entered Fijian waters, but are still about 270 miles away from Savusavu. The wind is light, 5-10 knots, but since it is on the beam we are able to sail at about 6 knots. It is very pleasant with essentially no seas. We are definitely in the tropics, we had to put the sunshade up to find a little shade while on deck, but it is a very enjoyable temperature.

Gary and the kids are enjoying a heated game of monopoly. Brian and I are relaxing reading our books. Everyone is getting excited to get to Fiji.

Cheers,
Julie

Apr 28 underway

We left Minerva reef this morning and are motoring north to Fiji now. Unfortunately there is almost no wind, and we don't expect any until mid-day tomorrow. At least the seas are calm.

Everyone is well and we are looking forward to a yummy tuna dinner.

Cheers,
Julie

Apr 27 North Minerva reef

We spent the day anchored at North Minerva reef, which we had all to ourselves. We were quickly reminded why this is such a special place. We entered the pass to this reef in the middle of the ocean at about 7 am this morning. Had a quick nap and then Gary and Brian went spear fishing for a few hours and Gary caught a big grouper. After lunch the family headed out for a little fishing then snorkeling. I caught a tuna while trolling. Snorkeling was awesome and Gary speared a large almako jack, the one fish he really wanted to catch while here. It was a perfect shot, right through the gills into the brain, no meat damaged at all. We ate that for dinner, delicious! After dinner we walked the reef to get lobster. We got about 25 lobsters. Gigi got about 6 of them and Gary and Brian got the rest. We will eat really well for the next few days.

Tomorrow we head off for Savusavu in Fiji. It is about 450 miles and should take us about 3 days.

Fair winds and calm seas,
Julie

April 26 at South Minerva

We arrived at South Minerva reef at 4:30 this afternoon. We are going to hover on the leeward side (west) of the reef until about 1 am, then head towards North Minerva reef. This will give us a chance to fish at South Minerva and then arrive at daybreak at North Minerva to enter the pass in daylight. We plan to spend 1 night anchored at North Minerva before heading to Fiji. It looks like a nice weather window for the 450 miles to Savusavu.

Even though we will have watches tonight, it will be nice not to be heeled over. We have been sailing on starboard for 5 days and the last 2 have been fairly close to the breeze, so we were more heeled over. This means I can make dinner without worrying about everything flying out of the fridge at me.

Everyone is excited about snorkeling on the reef tomorrow. Gigi is going to try to spear her first fish. She wants to get a parrot fish. I can't wait to see the shockingly beautiful coral. And we all can't wait to get more lobster.

Cheers,
Julie

April 25 150 miles to Minerva

Currently we are approximately 150 miles to North Minerva reef. We will probably stop, but it means we will have to sail upwind for the next day to get there. If it isn't too uncomfortable we will stop otherwise we will go straight to Fiji. We have had 15-25 knots of wind from the NE - ENE. We wish it was E or even a little SE and then it would be a perfect sail.

Everyone is doing well. Axel is getting into steering more and Gigi has decided it is too hard to be a vegetarian on passages.

Today is my mom's birthday, I want to wish her a happy birthday, since I won't be able to call her.

Fair winds and calm seas,
Julie

Apr 23 heading north to the tropics

The temperature is starting to warm up. The last 24 hours we have been sailing in 15-25 knots. We have a double reefed main and the stays'l up, and we are doing about 7-7.5 knots. The waves are a little bigger today (4-8 feet) and fortunately have started to come more from the east than north, making the ride more dry and pleasant. The more the waves were on the bow, the more that they like to roll over the bow and all the way back to the cockpit. It only took 1 wave down the dorade onto my head in bed, to decide it was time to turn the dorades around.

We have less than 500 nm to Minerva, so we should be there in 3-3.5 days. Currently the weather looks favorable to stop, although we will decide when we get there.

Fair winds and calm seas,
Julie

April 22 first day out

We have been sailing for approximately 24 hours now and all is going well. The wind has been more northerly than we would like, but other than that sailing has been easy. It was easy sailing last night with one reef and jib, but we were sailing upwind. Today the wind has picked up a little, 15+ knots, and shifted a little more to the east, currently ENE, still have the same sails up. Brian caught the first fish, a mahi mahi, so we will have fish tacos tonight.

Everyone is doing well, nobody is sea sick. It is just taking Axel a little longer to get his sea legs.

Fair winds and calm seas,
Julie

Apr 21, 2015 about to leave New Zealand

We have spent the last week preparing the boat, buying food and finishing schoolwork so we can head off to Fiji.

I have to tell those of you who live on hard land, and can go to the grocery store every day, that buying and storing food for 10-14 days is a completely different endeavor than your normal grocery shop. First you actually have to look for produce that is under-ripe so you can pack it away for use in 1-2 weeks, and then you wrap most of it in newspaper and put it in a cool dry place (which can be hard to find on a boat), but not in the fridge as that is too full with really perishable food. You look for only vacuum sealed meat with really far off expiration dates. I have lots of box milk and canned butter, things we never use at home, but are essentials out here. I bought 60 eggs, when is the last time you bought that many eggs in one visit to the store?

We will leave tomorrow after clearing customs and filling up with duty free fuel, probably about 500 liters. Then 5 days to Minerva reef or 8-9 days to Savusavu in Fiji. Currently there is a small weather window that looks good as long as the low that is promising to develop east of Fiji stays far enough east. Other than that, all looks good. It does look like we will get more seas than we have had on any passage before. I just hope it doesn't get too big. I don't want seasick kids, or anyone for that matter. It makes us feel better that Bob McDavitt (local passage weather guru) thinks it is a good time to leave, so off we go. Our friends on Nautilus left this morning, so we are hoping to catch up with them in Minerva reef.

We really enjoyed New Zealand, but are getting itchy feet to move on, and are super excited to go back to Minerva reef and then on to Fiji.

The tracker will start tomorrow morning and you can follow our passage.

Fair winds and calm seas,

Julie

Apr 12, 2015 New Zealand after Auckland

We have been very busy with school work and boat projects, so I hadn't realized how much time had passed since my last entry.

After we left Auckland we headed over to Rangitito Island and met up with Brian Krell. The hike to the top of this volcanic island provided us with excellent views of Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf.

We really enjoyed exploring Kawau Island. The first governor's mansion and grounds are very opulent and have been maintained as a park. Back in the day he kept exotic animals such as zebras and elephants, and there are still peacocks, wekas and wallabies on the property. 

 One of the many Wekas on the island. They are a flightless bird that is native to New Zealand.

We took about a week to cruise up the coast to Opua stopping in Omaha Cove, Tutukaka, and Omakiwi Cove in the Bay of Islands.

Once back in Opua, we got back into the routine of schoolwork, boat projects and fantastic dinners with my parents. This tranquility was broken up by the looming threat of cyclone Pam. Fortunately for us it passed New Zealand a safe distance out to sea. We had a couple of days of 25-30 knots, with only a few gusts as high as 50 knots. The night we expected the most impact we left the kids ashore with my parents, and Gary and I stayed on the boat to ride out the storm. Fortunately it was not as strong as predicted, so we had a nice romantic dinner, with one strong gust sending the wine bottle sailing across the table, but it was caught by Gary just in time.

Mom and Dad's landlady, Antoinette, is extremely friendly and has been super helpful to everyone. She took Mom out shopping with her when Dad was out sailing with us, plus too many other things to list. She is also a fantastic cook and used to live in Malaysia, so she gave Mom, Gigi and me cooking lessons. She taught us how to make spring rolls, Malaysian salsa, fish cakes, shrimp curry, and pavlova for dessert. So yummy! It took 2 nights to make all the food, then we had an amazing feast. Axel's compliment was "this food is so great I ate so much I think I am going to vomit."

Mom and Antoinette in the kitchen preparing the Malaysian feast.

The following day Antoinette and Jess, and Mom and Dad, joined us for a nice afternoon sail and dinner on Nirvana. It was a little intimidating making dinner immediately after the Malaysian feast, but I think our BBQ skills were up to snuff.

The next week we went out for a couple of nights in the Bay of Islands where Gary caught a kingfish and a tuna, and Gigi and Gary collected pipis, a type of clam, by digging them out of the sand at low tide. So we called my parents and had them come join us on the boat in Russell and we had a seafood feast. My Dad loved the pipis and was so bummed that we hadn't been collecting them the entire time he was here.

On April 1st my parents headed back to Canada. We really enjoyed having them around and they really enjoyed living in New Zealand.

Old friends we knew from Vancouver/Whistler, AJ and Roland Matthews, and their 4 year old daughter Isabella, joined us for a little Easter cruise in the Bay of Islands.

We had perfect weather so we enjoyed a little paddleboarding, kayaking, skurfing behind the dinghy and playing on the beach. On Easter Sunday we participated in a scavenger hunt put on by the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club. We had to go to 3 different islands to gather clues, treasure and shellfish. We also tried to catch a fish, but did not succeed. We were the slowest boat, as we were the only sailboat, but we still managed to come in 3rd. It was a great day and each of the kids won a fishing rod as our 3rd place prize, which they immediately used to try to catch tourists from the balcony at the fishing club.

AJ on Nirvana

Gary telling Roland a riveting tale

Isabella, Axel and Gigi on the beach

Isabella's first Easter egg hunt.

The scavenger hunt was a fancy dress occasion, hence the nice outfits.

Our gorgeous pirate

Collecting our 3rd place prizes

Now we are doing the final preparations for getting ready to sail to Fiji. The kids are working ahead on their schoolwork, as it is really hard to do most if it while at sea. I have been buying lots of groceries, and Gary's boat project list remains constantly long.

It looks like we could leave in 3-4 days or we will have to wait a bit more than a week for the next window. I will definitely post something when we leave and we will have the tracker on, so you can follow our route. We are hoping to stop at Minerva reef again, the snorkeling and fishing were so incredible there that it is hard to pass by a place like that. Then the plan is to head to Savusavu in Fiji. We are getting really excited to spend 3-4 months in Fiji, the people are so nice and region is a tropical paradise.

Fair sailing,

Julie