We left Tonga with 20 knots of breeze behind us and spent our first night under sail with the genoa only. It was a beautiful night sailing along our rhumb line, one of the most comfortable starts to a passage so far.
The next morning G hooked a bonito, but when it was on the transom with the gaff hook through its side, it somehow managed to break free! So no fish for us that day. We managed to hook a mahi mahi, or dolphin fish in the afternoon on the third day. As G was reeling it in, it looked small, so thought we’d throw it back. We were delighted to find that it was about 90cm long, so we kept it and G cooked it up for dinner, while H put together a green salad.
We entered the Oneata passage in the Lau group that night with about 5 nautical miles of water each side of us. We kept a close eye on the chart plotter & our Google Earth charts as we navigated the passage in the dark, whilst also looking for any signs of reefs and land. Once we enter the Koro sea, the waves dropped and we enjoyed a settled night.
I got up from my sleep after the night watch and G was asking me to get the vodka! What the? But then it became clear, G had caught another mahi mahi! He uses the vodka or any other spirit to knock the fish out. He spits the alcohol into the fishes mouth while its still on the line. This time the fish was 120cm and over 10kg! As G cut the fish up he gave the kids a biology lesson, dissecting and examining each part of the inside of the fish - including a stomach full of breakfast! Luckily S was still sleeping as she's not particularly fond of watching the fish die, so I don't think she’d enjoy a dissection. E, H and J were totally engrossed throughout the entire process.
We had to run the engines on the last night of our passage as the wind had dropped to almost nothing. We sighted the entrance to Savusavu in the early morning. As we passed by the reef E and J cooked up a couple of banana cakes. We’ve found its a nice gesture to offer the customs/health/biosecurity officials some tea/coffee and a piece of cake while they wait for us to fill in the numerous forms that accompany arriving in a new country.
Once we’d radioed the marina, they guided us to a mooring in the Nakama Creek, asked us to get our dinghy in the water and wait until the officials were ready to be picked up and bought out to the boat.
Everyone can't wait to explore Fiji!
