Millie and David

This passage was a mixed bag. We left Vanuatu in winds of 20-25knots and made excellent speed over the first part of the journey. By the last few days, we had 6-10knots and slowly crawled our way up the east coast past the Great Barrier Reef. In the beginning it was a white knuckle ride. With us only leaving the cockpit if necessary. The waves ranged from 3-4m and occasionally would brake ontop of the solar panels. With the excellent surf we managed a 7knot average. We even had a record breaking 24hours managing 180miles. Just over half way, we had a huge storm. It began with a large clash of thunder, that rattled through the boat. It was then followed by endless rain and an increase in the wind. With the winds reaching over 30knots, we had reefed the main sail and started to furled away the jib. Through the night, we sailed with just the main sail and still managed to maintain speeds of 6.5knots. Penny handled it well and eventually the wind subsided. After the storm the weather was a total contrast. The last few days were light and fair. We have even had to use the engine as the boat speed dropped below 2knots. We arrived in Cairns at 9am and headed into the marina. On arrival, boarder force and customs officers were waiting for us on the dock. They even had a sniffer dog who went around and searched Penny. After the customs team left, we had bio security onboard. They removed any fresh produce that was left from the passage and also checked the boat for infestation. The whole check in process went smoothly and by 11am were free to leave the boat. We cannot believe we have sailed across the South Pacific Ocean. We are immensely proud of this achievement and have loved every second of it! Although it contains many long passages, the islands you arrive at are definitely worth it. It truly is one of the greatest cruising grounds.

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!

After stocking up with delicious food and completing some of the never ending boat jobs, we set sail for Tonga. The weather on this passage was very mixed. Ranging from 25knts on the beam to 6knts dead down wind and then everything in between! Our greatest wind speed was soon after we had set off from Tahiti. As we passed Moorea, we entered the acceleration zone. Within seconds the wind increased and so did the sea state. Our lightest winds were just before we entered a conversion zone of two fronts. With the wind doing a 360 rotation over 24hours. Within that period we were able to fly Big Blue and keep our speed considering the light airs. On this passage we had one successful fishing experience. We manage to catch and land a beautiful skipjack tuna 10miles from Tahiti. This provided us with two delicious meals. Our next fishing attempt didn’t go as well and sadly we lost our brand new lure! - we didn’t fish after that!😂 Our biggest success was our practicing and mastering of the sextant. By the end of the passage, we were able to use the sun to create a fix position which was within 5miles of our GPS. Half way through the trip, we had a fantastic pod of dolphins who swam with us for over 20minutes. This was the first pod we had seen for a little while so we were thrilled to watch them play! The surf was big and they put on a brilliant show jumping in and out of the waves. An interesting part of our passage was the fact we would cross the international date line. This meant we were going from UT - 12 to UT +13. It took us a little while to get our heads around it but as a result we adjusted our clocks and lost a day! We went to the Vava’u group of Tonga, which had many inlets and anchorages to explore. We went to the main town which is the furthest up river and provided excellent shelter. It also had a fantastic cruisers community, with people often meeting at the Mango for a drink and to share stories.

We had a fabulous time in the Tuamotus but it was time for us to keep moving and head west. Our next stop was Tahiti. Although we loved the island life, we were excited to enter back into civilisation. We also had another boat doing the same passage. It’s always nice to know there is another boat close by as it can feel very lonely on the open ocean. The sail was simple and enjoyable with the winds the lightest we’ve seen for a while. With good conditions we made our way south towards Tahiti. The sky was clear for the passage, allowing for gorgeous sunsets each evening. The sky also came alive at night with incredible stars and a tiny sliver of moon, which would rise around 3am. Its amber glow appearing on the horizon like a warm smile. With clear blue skies, the visibility was incredible. Allowing us to see our first glimpse of Tahiti from over 50miles away. It’s huge volcanic structure emerging on the horizon. As we got closer we could even smell the land, a rich earthy smell which was a stark contrast to the salty air around us. Upon arrival you had to inform the harbour master, to ensure a safe passage past the airstrip. Once we had the all clear, we made our way towards the anchorage. Keeping a look out over head as we anxiously watched the sky for the next plane to land! Tahiti has a busy anchorage but there was plenty of space for everyone. We found a perfect little spot on the edge of the reef. We were the only monohull anchored this shallow, which surprised our new neighbours. However we are very confident in our depth gauge, having dealt with a large tidal range in the UK. After testing our holding, we were finally happy and able to explore!

After a fantastic time in the Marquesas it was sadly time to leave. We are on a very tight time schedule across the South Pacific. This is to ensure we are ahead of the weather systems and able to complete our circumnavigation in 2.5years. Although we were sad to move on we are also very excited about where we are headed. The Tuamotus is an archipelagos of 700+ atolls in the South Pacific. They are tiny islands surrounded by reefs with crystal clear water. The trip started with a solid breeze from the south east. With our course set to 205degrees the wind was slightly forward of the beam, making our point of sail a close reach. As a result the boat maintains a steady 45degree angle. This has its advantages when it comes to sleeping as it is more stable and you can easily secure yourself in position. However it doesn’t make daily tasks such as cooking and washing up easy! Penny also took a bit of a beating with some of the waves. Most of the time she glides through them and makes solid progress. However every so often a wave would catch her off guard and send a torrent of water over the bow. And even occasionally soaking us in the cockpit! One wave was so powerful it flew over the spray hood dumping itself all over me and as a result I had to change my clothes😂 As we got closer to the Tuamotus, we needed to slow the boat down. This was to ensure we arrived at the atoll in daylight and the correct state of tide. Each atoll has what’s known as a ‘pass’ from which you can enter into the reef. This needs to be timed accurately to ensure you arrive at slack water, ensuring you aren’t fighting any tide. As a result our ETA needed to be at 5:30am on the 16th May. We used our current distance to go and the ETA to calculate what speed we needed to travel at so we arrived at the pass on time. However much we tried, we couldn’t slow Penny down. As a result we arrived at the edge of the atoll at 3am and drifted around until sunrise. We were not the only boat to do this, two other boats arrived at a similar time and also drifted until dawn. At 6am it was finally light enough to enter however due to the strong winds the pass had other ideas. As the atoll is a lagoon of water, in strong winds and high seas it fills up like a bath. Most atolls only have 1-2 entrances and as a result the water only has one way out…through the entrance! So even though we arrived at slack water the water was still flooding out of the lagoon at a rate of 3knts! On our second attempt, we were determined to get into the lagoon. It took roughly an hour and we still had a lot of current against us. At moments we were stationary, with Penny fighting the tide with all her engine power! It was a very tense hour with reefs all around!! We had taken the lead out of the 3 boats and the other two followed us in, copying our every move. We finally anchored around lunch time and enjoyed some sundowners with one of the boats who followed us in!