OK, Julie Ross says we need to get our act together and get back to posting, so that’s the way it’s gonna be.

Actually, we’ve been back three days already.  We’re almost caught up on sleep, but there’s a weather window right now, so completely caught up or not, we leave tonight.

We’ve been stocking up the last two days on veggies, fruit, some meat (very little freezer space, so either we catch fish or become vegetarian) and wine.  We’re going to leave Savusavu this afternoon and motor six miles to Cousteau Resort, drop the hook, have dinner and then actually head out around 10PM tonight.  The trip to Fulunga in the Southern Lau is 186 miles.  There’s no wind right now (that’s the weather window since usually the wind and waves are 20 knots, and 5-6 feet on the nose) so we’ll motor.  At 5 knots or so, we’re looking at about 36 hours.  We want to get to Fulunga around 10AM so we have good visibility over the reef although I haven’t checked the tides yet which also determine when you can enter the lagoon (because of the current, not the depth).

So, now we’re caught up.  Here’s a few pics to tide you all over.  We’ll be out for at least three weeks with only the shortwave radio to send in text posts – no pictures, so these are the last until we’re back in the land of broadband internet.   We will post text notes daily though as long as there’s something to say 😉

The White Stork noted a couple posts ago. It looks MUCH better in the daytime!

Our island hopper...

Flight planning easy here. You climb barely above the clouds, then GPS direct your destination.

A good example of the places we'll visit as seen from the air. Mostly reef (all the light blue and yellowish brown) with a tiny island (the green on lower left) and if we're lucky a little bay which is the slightly darker blue to the right of the island.

Here's what we want to avoid. This is just a random reef with no island. Depending on conditions and the direction you approach from you may or may not be able to see it from the deck of a boat.

Here's Savusavu from the air. Usually we go on a mooring in the river, but since we were gone for two weeks I opted for one of the slips on the middle right of the picture right opposite the building.

If you look closely at this picture you'll see the makings of a wild landing. Look at the direction of the plane, then out the front windshield at the runway heading about 40 degrees to our left and just below us. Yipes! Actually you come in over a tall ridge, so they have to do what's called a "slip" to lose altitude fast enough to make the runway. In a slip, you actually fly sideways while dropping kinda like a rock. Fun if you know what they are doing, but not so much if you don't.

One last one; here's Ann with a bunch of bok choy. How much? 0.50 cents. Bok choy and eggplant are the main ingredients of our diet here. Available everywhere in quantity. 😉

We spent the weekend anchored out at Cousteau Resort with John and Lisa on Orcinius.  What a fun weekend!

Up in the conning tower waiting for the big one to strike.

We started out trolling back and forth out by the reef trying to catch a fish for dinner.   After a couple hours it seemed like we were going to be out of luck, so we turned back to the anchorage and pulled in the lines.  Yipes!  Two lures were gone and one was ravaged by some savage teeth.  Looked like Tuna, so we decided to put new lures on and give it one more shot.  Just to make sure luck would be with us, we took some meat out of the freezer to thaw.  Sure enough, on the next run, we saw something make a run at one of the lures.  It didn’t hook up though so we turned around and tried again.  This time we saw it come zooming in and hit.  POW!  White water churning all around the lure.  Fish on!

We slowed a bit, brought in the other lines and when we brought this line in there was a twenty pound Wahoo on the line.  After processing – we had enough filets to fill the freezer, give some to one of the other boats in the anchorage, have dinner for the four of us and make a very large batch of ceviche (which was delicious with our evening Charisma).  And we were able to put the frozen meat back in the freezer before it thawed.  When we got anchored, I even had a chance to jump in with my new dive gear and do a test dive.  It all works very well.  A very successful day.

Ann shows off the catch.

The following day, after a delicious quiche whipped up by John, the four of us donned dive gear and went over and dove Split Rock.  It’s only about 30 feet, but was a good tune up for everyone for the real diving out on the smaller islands that we’ll encounter over the next five months.  Lots of fun, followed by a lazy day then back into Savusavu.

Scuba Ann.

A little post dive R&R.

Good fun.  Thanks John and Lisa for being such great hosts.

We sailed up to the entrance of the Nakema River and were tied to a mooring by 9:30 this morning. Just under eleven days to be the 64th boat to check into Savusavu this year. Yay! We are exhausted but happy to be here. Walked to the Vodafone booth to get the Internet going and were greeted by the taxi driver from last year. It’s fun to come back to familiar places. More details after a good night’s sleep!

Charisma safely tied up at the dock in Savusavu

Position: 17 degrees, 43 minutes south; 179 degrees, 54 minutes west

Tomorrow at 1230 will be eleven days since we left Marsden Point, New Zealand.

We’re on the final home stretch down the Koro Sea. We came through the reefs in the southwest Lau last night and all of today have just been on a very broad reach with single reefed main only down the Koro Sea. We are keeping the speed at roughly 5.5 knots as that puts us at the entrance to the reef outside of Savusavu at daylight (more or less). Then another hour to the river and we can tie up to a mooring with our Q-Flag (quarantine) and wait for customs, immigration and health who all come out to visit to clear us in. Then…SHOWERS! And a shave. My beard is driving me nuts.

Today threatened rain. There’s a convergence zone over Fiji/Tonga and we expecteded a very rainy day. However with the exception of the early hours from sunrise through about 10AM or so, the clouds have lifted a bit – not clear and sunny mind you, but not raining – and it’s been a fairly nice day. About 18 knots of wind from behind and mild temp.

That’s it for now. We’re tired, a bit beat up and bruised from the waves bumping us around the boat and just looking forward to a nice dinner ashore and a full, uninterrupted night’s sleep.

Position: 19 degrees, 45 minutes south; 179 degrees, 26 minutes west

(By Ann) No, it was not as bold and fierce as the “the Bear” that chased us a few nights ago. It was much gentler, but I saw it…and welcomed it. It was a sign from the heavens that tonight was going to be a glorious night!

It started with the new moon smiling at us just after sunset, right before it plunged into the horizon gone for the night. This is probably the first passage that we have made that has been moon-less. Not because of overcast skies but because the moon was waning. It quickly disappeared and our nights have been inky dark. But there is a benefit to this lack of moon. The stars up their game. Seriously, I have to work to find the Southern Cross because it is NOT the only bright star. Thousands of them up their game and sparkle brighter to make up for the lack of moonlight. And that was my second clue, after the smiling moon…a star winked at me about 10 PM just as my watch was getting tedious. But I caught it and winked back. Hello star! Thanks for the greeting! And so that is how our night played out. Moon-less but star filled. Charisma was sailing through the Milky Way on a beautiful beam reach playing in the light swell. Glorious.

The best way to enjoy all of it? I will admit, at day nine of this passage my rear end is getting tired of sitting, so I laid back in the cockpit and watched as the mast played connect the dots with the brilliant stars. Bob and I once were up at the family ranch as a full moon was rising and wanted to really see it so we went out at 11 PM and laid in the road leading up to the ranch, away from any hint of light, to fully appreciate the glory of the heavens. Not only was it quite chilly but the ground was really hard and there was no gentle rolling motion to accompany the display. And honestly, the display of stars at the ranch, depite being out in the country away from lights, does not compare to a moon-less night on the ocean. Words do not do it justice.

I walk out of the bathroom in the dark and head to the companionway and look up to see the helm glowing from the light of the compass dancing in front of a back drop of incredible glory. There is no way to capture the raw beauty in a photo. I will have to make a mental picture and remind myself of it often to keep it sharp.

Hello moon, hello stars, thanks for the notice that it was going to be a glorious night.

P.S. (From Bob) We just want to say “Happy Birthday” to my daughter, Kelly, who is 23 on the 31st AND is graduating from college in a couple weeks. Yay, Kelly!

Position: 21 degrees, 50 minutes south; 179 degrees, 07 minutes west

I was startled awake to the shout of; “FISH ON!” coming from somewhere in my dreams. As I shook myself into semi-consciousness I was vaguely aware that I was on a boat somewhere and someone was shouting about fish. As I became more fully awake it occurred to me it was us that were about to catch a fish! OK, time to get some shoes on and get out there.

Now I’m awake and heading up the companionway where Ann, with a grin from ear to ear is pulling the handline in. “I set the hook and it’s a Mahi!” Ann takes her fish and fishing seriously. Anyway, she pulled it in and we successfully boated it. A nice but not too big Mahi. All trimmed out it made four meals for the two of us, three of which are now in the refrigerator and one of which made a great dinner. Lightly marinated in some soy sauce, seared with Lemon Pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil, then steamed in it’s own juices.

Last night we motored for a while. We haven’t started the engine in eight days, but the wind completely quit so it was either just bounce around – the waves didn’t lay down – or make some distance. We ended up motoring from about 0130 until 0630 when the wind filled in again. Except it didn’t. I hoisted the sails and we sailed for a while, then a squall hit and we shortened sail, then the wind quit and I shook out the reefs. Back and forth, back and forth. The afternoon has been pleasant though with 18-20 on a close reach with jib, stays’l and double reefed main. In SF Bay I wouldn’t have a double reef with such relatively modest wind, but out here the winds are unpredictable from moment to moment and every cloud has the potential to kick the wind suddenly up to 30 knots for 10 or 20 minutes. So, we sacrifice a little speed for a lot of comfort by leaving the two reefs in for the gusts.

We’re 300 miles out of Savusavu today. We expect landfall on Monday as long as we can keep our speed up. The forecast is fairly good, but shows some convergence zone activity on Sunday – meaning rainy and possibly squally weather. As if we haven’t had enough of that already. Oh well, it’s all part of the adventure (I guess).