New Caledonia Bound

0800 position 19-30S 174-48E. Days run (22 hours) 213 miles.

Yesterday morning at 8AM Rob walked up to the Customs and Immigration office in the Vuda Point Marina to check out, but they hadn't opened for the day yet. The officials eventually showed up at 9AM, an hour after their official opening time, and we got our clearance. No problem, we had a bit to do to get ready to go to sea. Rob and Zappa had noticed that a seam on the mainsail was opening up, so out came the sailmakers kit and our resident surgeon, Michael Vaughan, sewed it up with the assistance of his scrub nurse, Zappa. The rest of us headed up to the store to spend the rest of our Fiji dollars on beer, bread, and snacks. At 930 four Fijian marina employees serenaded us on the dock with a guitar to wish us farewell. It was very cool and unexpected. When they were finished the leader of the group said, "So you are departing now, yes? There is another yacht waiting offshore to come into the dock to check out." I suspect they sang us the song to hurry us on our way. By 10AM we had cast off and were powering south for the pass out of Fiji's barrier reef at Tavarua.

We remained in the lee of Viti Levu until we were about two miles south of Tavarua. As the twenty knot trades filled in from the south east we put one reef in the mainsail, killed the engine, and unrolled the jib to the second reef. Van Diemen was zipping along at ten knots, right on course. We were heeled a bit more than was comfortable though so we put a second reef in the main and didn't slow down at all.

Honey and Kimo Corstorphine, pals from Hawaii, have been reading this blog and felt sorry for us because we catch so few fish despite our heroic efforts. They are experienced and successful fishermen, and the day before I flew back to Fiji they gave me a bunch of their lures so we wouldn't starve to death out here. Two of their lures were set on the hand lines when we cleared Tavarua just after noon, but I am disappointed to report that we saw no action before we pulled the lines in at sunset.

At 10PM Geoff and I were socializing on watch getting to know each other when a meteor lit up the sky to the south. It moved slower than any meteor either of us had seen before, and the colors as it burned went from white to yellow to green. It was as bright as fireworks but moved a bit faster.

The wind started dropping off at midnight, and when I came back on watch at 4AM I found that the boys had unrolled the reefs in the jib. Rob and I went from the second reef to the first in the mainsail at sunrise. The updated weather report says that the wind should continue to die off and we will likely be under power before too long.

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