26 October 2016 (+12 on UTC)
Dear Friends and Family,
We departed Savusavu at 0520 this morning in the rain and SSE winds at 20-25 knots. The first few hours wasn\’t much fun, but after that we re-entered the large reef system at Nasonisoni Pass on the south side of Vanua Levu, we had lovely flat water with nice winds. We exited the system and crossed the channel to the reef entrance at Viti Levu (the largest and main island) and where 5 years ago, my port dagger board hit an uncharted part of the reef. The chart said it was 120 feet deep. I think they meant 120 centimeters!..:-)
Speaking of hitting reefs. We met a young Canadian couple yesterday who hit the corner of the reef at Laucala Island in their Leopard 44 foot catamaran(which we had passed two days before) and separated both \”keels\” from the hull. This cracked the fiberglass and created leaks in both hulls. They have two small children aboard and were lucky that they hit it at low tide and were able to float off at high tide. The insurance company for some reason had decided to declare the boat a total loss. Someone is going to get a VERY good deal as it will be repaired pretty inexpensively in my view. There is no panic about hauling the boat out either.
Today\’s voyage was indeed through a great deal of reef systems and we crossed the infamous \”Bligh Water\” where Captain Bligh kept going, not allowing his men ashore after the famous Bounty Mutiny. He was terrified of the then (yes really they were!) big time Cannibals. The last known Fijian Cannibal died just after WW2!
We\’ll go through what is essentially an \”inland water way\” tomorrow, well protected (but still quite \”reefy\”) en route to Denerau Marina on the islands South West side. Today, we did 73 miles, tomorrow, 53 miles.
That\’s all for now, the internet is indeed good, so we should be able to start posting photo blogs shortly!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/26 04:59
LATITUDE: 17-18.73S
LONGITUDE: 178-13.95E
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 12
WIND_DIR: SE
CLOUDS: 90%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1012.3
AIR_TEMP: 28.9C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED -Nananu-I-Thake Motu, Viti Levu, Fiji. Viti Levu is the main island and we are at the Northeast corner having just entered the reef system.