Captain’s
Log
May 2007
After traveling through the US and Europe in 2006 I’m back sailing this year. Starting in January I worked on Ira-Ricarda to get her ready for the trip from New Zealand to Fiji, and later, further on to New Caledonia and Australia.
The first long leg lays already behind us.
We are in Savu Savu on the Fijian island of Vanua Levu. It was a good trip with
calm days on both sides of a great sailing week with winds of about 15 to 25
knots from the southeast, which is exactly what we needed to make good way. The
new roller Genoa increased the average speed to over 7 knots up from just 6
knots and we sailed as fast as 8.5 knots before we took some sail down. So we
needed little over 10 days for nearly 1300 sea miles and an extra day for a
short stop at Minerva Reef. Minerva Reef is about 450 miles south of Savu Savu
and a favorite stop over for yachties. You can anchor in the middle of the
ocean and take a break from wave action, catch lobster or just wait for
improved weather. We didn’t find Lobster and we stayed just one night to take
advantage of the wind which was to decrease soon. And that was exactly what
happened on our last day to Fiji. The wind died down and we had to motor the
last miles to Savu Savu. But we arrived in good shape with only a few technical
difficulties. He first causality was the impellor of my new saltwater cooling
pump. After only 15 hours it just lost all but lips and there was no more engine
cooling. And no wind at the time. But I could repair the pump just before the
meat in the freezer started to thaw. Next was the head – again -, this time the
water was slowly creeping in through the pump. But no big problem. We managed
with a plug to keep the water out. Unfortunately the shower bilge pump stopped
working too so we manually had to pump the surplus water into the sink. A
little flaw on the heat exchanger and a tear in the main sail rounded the trip
up.
But now we are on Fiji time and have
something to do between sightseeing, swimming and snorkeling. Leaves me to
mention all the fish we caught. 3 smallish Mackerels, 3 Wahoo, 3 Yellow fin
Tuna and 1 Dorado. Enough meat o last us for a while.
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