Aloha Laus

0800 position 17-10S 179-12W. Underway for Paradise Resort, Taveuni, Fiji

Yesterday morning we put away the second dinghy, hauled the inflatable SUPs aboard, weighed anchor, and powered half a mile to an island at the entrance to the Bay of Islands that David and Fiona said had the best diving in the area. Rob and I dinghied over and checked it out. We bumped into David and Fiona on the way and stopped to chat. They were out in their dinghy looking for caves. It was a pretty nice dive spot. The corals were beautiful, but there weren't many fish more than a few inches long. The lack of sizable fish while diving has been remarkable in both Tonga and Fiji.

After we finished with the diving we turned Van Diemen south and headed for Daliconi Village, the only yacht accessible village on the west side of Vanuabalvu. We found two other boats at anchor and joined them off the village.

Our primary motivation for going to Daliconi was to get provisions, but it was Sunday afternoon when nothing would be open so we didn't see any point in going ashore yesterday. The village looked pretty small as well. We decided it would be unlikely that we'd find suitable provisions there so we decided to leave at first light and head back to Paradise Resort on Taveuni where we can get WIFI at the resort and hopefully provisions from the nearby town.

A couple of minutes ago, as I was typing today's blog, I looked up at the chart plotter and saw a boat on the AIS close by. I tapped on the screen to see who it was. "Phaedo 3". Wait a minute. I know that boat. Out came the binoculars. There she was, crossing our bow about a quarter mile away with her black carbon mainsail and code zero flying. According to the AIS she was sailing at nineteen knots headed south... There was only eight knots of wind (we were motor sailing, headed west). I followed the recent Transpac Race to Hawaii on the internet, and Phaedo was one of the three trimarans in the race trying to break the outright course record. Phaedo didn't win, but they were in the hunt. They must be on their way to Australia to do the Sydney-Hobart race at the end of the year. Very cool to see them sail by so close and so fast.

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