Day 1

We eventually left Opua in company with Victory in a light breeze at 10.30 on 25^th April.  We’re hoping for about a seven day passage to Savu Savu. The gribs tell us we should have a good steady beam reach on port tack for the first day. The winds will then die as we traverse the high pressure area separating the roaring forties from the SE trades. So a couple of days of light winds from the south expected before the wind picks up from the SE. We don’t want to be too quick as there is a low with some strong winds that should pass ahead of us as we approach Fiji. Well that’s what the gribs say!

As we cleared the bay of islands and pulled away from the land, the breeze steadied to around 20 knots from the west – with gust of around 25 knots.  We reefed the genoa then the main, the seas were only around 1.5 meters but a bit choppy which made for a bit of a bumpy ride.  As the day progressed the layers of clothing went on!  We had a very fast beam reach up to around 4am this morning.  The moon was out and the seas quietened down a bit later on so we couldn’t have asked for better conditions.  Around 4am the cloud came over and the wind got up and went ahead – put another reef in the genoa and bore away 10 degrees until 8am when the wind started to drop and go behind.  We’re now sailing with the genoa poled out in a very sloppy sea with about 10 knots of wind from the south west.  Just had a bowl of porridge  and about to have our coffee.

 24 hour distance:  191 miles