We were escorted out of Savu Savu bay by a dozen dolphins jumping alongside and swimming in our bow wake. Seas got extremely rough as we sailed south around Koro Island, then pointed NE to Nanuku passage, out exit path out of Fiji. Today begins day 5 of our passage from Fiji to Samoa and we are currently sailing on a fast, close-reach moving at 6.5 knots with full genoa, reefed main, and full mizzen sails. We are 250nm away from Samoa and a nice wind shift is allowing us to point more east. Seas have flattened some from what they were the past few days. Weve only motored for 6 hours over the past 96 hours and we should be able to sail the rest of the way to Samoa. Denise is starting to feel better now after 3 days of seasickness. She was able to take watch last night which gave Dave and I a break from a 2-person watch schedule. I really miss Karens galley skills. Since Im the only one able to go below without getting seasick, Ive been galley rat so weve been eating cup noodles, tuna salad, canned beans, hot dogs, fried eggs, fruit, and lots of snacks! Dave has gotten good with learning to sail Apropos and manage Ian, our self-steering wind vane who has steered us 95% of the way. Night watches have been amazing. We left on a full moon so every night has been lit up. We get about 2 hours of darkness to stargaze before the moon rises. The Southern Cross, Orion, Cirius, planets, the occasional satelliteall are fun to watch and help pass time at night. Then seeing the orange moon as it breaks above the horizon and watching it slowly climb as it lights up the ocean is one of the things I love about ocean sailing. Funny story about last nightDenise took her first solo watch starting at 6pm. As I handed off the helm, I told her to wake me if any problem came up. About 7pm she called for me to come on deck because she saw lights from a ship that didnt appear on the chart plotter AIS, and it was getting bigger and closer. I looked where she was pointing and couldn’t see ship lights. She must have thought I was blind and kept pointing. So I told her all I saw was the moon coming up. I think that was Denises first moonrise at sea!

Our final few days in Savu Savu were spent provisioning, re-fueling using 20 liter jerry cans, and tracking former Tropical Depression 17-F, now Tropical Cyclone Amos, as it moves east towards Samoa.  Following behind the low pressure system could bring us some favorable southerlies to get us to Samoa faster.  Of course we will watch it closely and be prepared to turn around if it does a 180.  We will keep at least a 3-4 day separation from it.  We’re planning on a 4-6 day passage.  Found out today that Fiji Customs Regulation #WTF requires us to depart within 1 hour of clearing customs and immigration, so a daybreak departure isn’t possible.  Good thing both offices are a 5 minute walk from Copra Shed marina, and they will open at 7am if we call ahead.

We found crew for the Samoa to Kiribiti passage, so we are back on schedule! Departing Savu Savu in 3 hours.  Our planned route is to head south and go around Koro Island, then tack NE and point to Samoa.  The Koro sea is still rough today but is expected to calm down some by tomorrow, so we will be moving slowly for the first 24 hours. Nanuku passage is wide so ok to go through at night.

Another Tropical Depression

Well, it is still the rainy season in the South Pacific, but I’ve been in Fiji 19 days now and we’ve had 3 Tropical Depressions and 1 Tropical Cyclone!  We had planned on leaving Makogai and sail to Savu Savu, about 50 miles north. After getting outside the reef, the wind, seas, and rain told us to go back to the protected harbor.  We later received weather reports over the HF radio saying a strong tropical depression was headed our way.  It was reported to have an elongated spiral, one step away from forming a tropical cyclone.  We put out 125’ of chain and the 75 lb CQR anchor held well on the sand bottom.  During the next 12 hours we filled 8-gallon buckets numerous times with fresh rain water running off the bimini and poured them into the water tanks.  Wind gusts were about 40-50 knots overnight so we paid close attention to our GPS position to make sure we weren’t dragging anchor.  Things finally settled down some at daybreak but the forecast was still for strong winds and showers so we stayed another day at Makogai.

We finally left Makogai and had a nice downwind sail to Savu Savu, 50nm north.  Sailing under a reefed main and genoa, we averaged around 6.5 knots under mostly sunny skies with a few brief squalls.  It’s great being back at the Copra Shed marina.  Unfortunately, many boats were lost here during the cyclone. We were running low on food, so after a much needed shower, we went our for Indian food.

Sea Mercy (www.seamercy.org) is a non-profit organization whose vision is to be the most effective preventive, curative, promotional and rehabilitative floating health care provider and service delivery mechanism to support the remote citizens of the island nations. I found out about Sea Mercy while back in Seattle when I was tracking the cyclones in the South Pacific. Since I returned to Fiji early in the season, I decided to sign on as an aid delivery and assessment vessel. Prior to our arrival, a couple of 1st response yachts went to some of the hard to reach villages that got hit hard by tropical cyclone Winston. One such place, a small island called Makogai, took a direct hit. We spent several days on the island last year and it was one of the places I wanted to return to. Sea Mercy has a warehouse at Port Denarau, not far from Vuda Point marina, so that was our first stop after getting Apropos back in the water. The warehouse was full of donated items such as clothing, canned food, diapers, bags of rice, plastic water containers, and some larger items like tents, shovels, pitchforks, boxes of nails, and building materials. It looked like most items came from New Zealand and Australia. We filled the entire aft starboard berth with 3 large bags of clothing and shoes, 1 bag of toys, 4 bags of canned food, a sack of rice, and a bag of empty plastic water bottles (kids take these to back and forth to school for drinking water). Sea Mercy staff gave us the go-ahead to take everything to Makogai and asked us to report back as to what else they were in need of.