Position: Savusavu, Fiji

We promised ourselves a shot of tequilla after we cleared customs. Yippeee!

Squall blowing past our new backyard in Savusavu

"Ahhhhh, Fiji"

The seas are calm, the winds are gone. We are safely tied to a mooring ball in Savusavu. We have all had showers and smell much better. The boat is not totally put back together but getting there. We have made it to Fiji! Thirteen days of the toughest sailing we have seen to date. But we are here! We listened to the evening net on Blue Rodeo and heard our friends who are only about a third the way here checking in. How great to not be out there anymore! Our supportive thoughts go their way. Huge thanks again to Lisa who made the trip with us. Still don’t get why she decided to do this but it sure made it fun for all of us. She is a very talented sailor and beautiful person. We love you, Lisa. Thanks for the trip. Glad we could make your big birthday memorable! Our last morning was incredibly eventful but I am just too tired to explain it all. More to come!!

From Bob: We also paid a price on this passage. We broke the head (I have a kit with the proper part and that’s tomorrow’s project), both bilge pumps failed and this morning we found water up to the floorboards (yikes!) and used the dinghy pump and a bucket to get it down and the engine is smoking badly and blowing diesel out the exhaust and almost didn’t get us into the mooring. Oh, and the alternator bracket broke. We were smelling burning rubber (the vee-belt) and didn’t quite know that problem, but the engine smoke had our attention as we were trying to get in past the reef. Wow. I’ve never had so much stuff break in one trip. I’ll tell more detail about what’s is already fixed and what we’re planning to fix.

For now-sleep. Well, we’re actually retelling each other about the trip and drinking wine first. But we’re only going to last a little while longer now.