Explore Sailing Voyages in Fiji 🇫🇯

This passage was short but sweet. Sometimes we find the shorter journeys harder as you struggle to get into a routine. However this one was very enjoyable. We received our new main sail in Fiji however it was too big, due to an error with the manufacturer. Thankfully as it was the company’s error, they paid for the new sail to be cut down to size. As an added bonus they are making us a new sail (to the correct measurements this time) in Australia. This passage gave us an opportunity to test the newly cut sail and even after that it still didn’t quite fit the boat. However it was nice to have a sail that wasn’t ripped and was a newer material! On the passage we caught a beautiful sail fish. This was our first time catching this type of fish and it was delicious! We enjoyed it as filets and also in a Thai curry. Big blue (our spinnaker) made an appearance again and allowed us to make excellent speed. We love having a kite to be able to increase our SOG (speed over ground) on the lighter days. It also helps to stabilise the boat and stops it wallowing around in the waves. We arrived in Vanuatu at 1:30am and to our surprise the town was still partying! We however went straight to bed. The sea bed had a lot of coral heads so it took us 3 attempts at anchoring. Once we finally got it to hold and we packed away the boat and got into a nice flat bed.

We left Tonga in high spirits. Having throughly enjoyed Tonga and the cruisers community it had to offer. We also were headed to Fiji to meet Millie’s parents and receive our new main sail. Prior to leaving the UK we had our boat measured for a new set of sails. This was because our current sails are 20 years old and we were expecting to need to buy a new set on our journey. Having ripped our sail on the way to the marquesas, we have been sailing with reef two for the last few passages. We ordered a new sail back in April and it was due to arrived in Fiji a week after us! We were very excited to get this special delivery! During the passage, the wind was relatively consistent with one squally night which kept us on our toes. We were also very conscious of the reefs around Fiji. The South Pacific is particularly notorious for not being well charted and it can make navigation challenging at times. We sailed through the Lao Islands of Fiji which had many reefs around which could only be seen when fully zoomed on the chart plotter. This made night watches busy as you were constantly needed to monitor the course as we were worried about diverging off and sailing into a reef. On the last day of the passage we sailed up the west coast of the island. When the sun rose, a beautiful mist rolled down through the valleys to unveil the land. You could also see the surf breaking on the reef that surrounds the island. We arrived around 5pm and collect a mooring ball in Denarau. This was the most commercial port we had been in for a long time. It felt strange to arrive somewhere so busy. With party boats and day trips returning from a day on the smaller islands, it the most people we’ve seen for a little while! We plan to stay here and collect our sail and wait for Millie’s parents. Once they arrive we will enjoy some time cruising around and also some time on land!