This morning The Kaneohe Yacht Club Cruising Fleet, South Pacific Squadron, set sail from Yadua Island heading southwest across the infamous "Bligh Water" to Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. Bligh Water was named after Captain William Bligh who was set adrift in an open boat after the Bounty's crew mutinied nearby in 1789. Bligh's subsequent 3618 mile voyage to Timor in this little open boat was an amazing feat of seamanship. It gives Clay and me chicken skin to be able to sail through the same waters Bligh did. Crossing Bligh Water under sail is a must do on the bucket list for serious ocean sailors.
The chart points out that "examination of aerial photography of the area indicates that additional coral pinnacles exist over which the depths are uncertain..." Yikes! So we had a lookout posted for the entire crossing. We didn't see any of the aforementioned pinnacles.
We got an early start because we had 45 miles to sail, so just after sunrise the anchor came up and we snuck past the half sunken overturned barge which was partially blocking the pass out of Yadua's lagoon. The fleet was having another fishing tournament, and this one was particularly important to us after the humiliation we suffered the other day. We put out the hand line first, and I was just turning my attention to the second line on the reel when a fish hooked up on the hand line. It was perfection. Puanani, from 150 feet away, watched open mouthed as we landed a 15 pound Spanish mackerel about a minute after putting our first line out. We were hooting and hollering, of course, just to make sure they witnessed our good fortune. We've caught a lot of fish since departing Savusavu, so in came the lines. We were done fishing for the day at 7AM. Puanani didn't catch anything so the day's glory was ours.
This was our longest and most exposed passage, so we watched the weather and delayed until the forecast indicated moderate winds from a favorable direction. It worked out, as we had glorious broad reaching conditions and everyone aboard had a good time. Clay said it was the best sail ever.
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We are anchored for the evening in a tiny unnamed bay on Viti Levu's northwest coast
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