Last night we sailed through a relatively narrow passage 2 nm between two islands of the Lau group. Another yacht had passed us some hours earlier and we could track his progress through the passage on AIS. He transited the passage without incident so we followed with confidence. A convenient guinea pig!! This north south string of islands is situated to the east of Fiji . Most are uninhabited but some have people living very simple subsistence lifestyles. There are no shops airstrips and sometimes unreliable access by water. A group of yachts in the around the world ARC rally have arranged clearance into Fiji at one of these islands in the group, allowing them to spend some time exploring this unique area before continuing on to the bright lights of Fiji.

We are currently sailing with the jib poled out in 10 to 15kn winds from behind, 1m seas, clear sunny skies, 29 degrees and 60% humidity. All in all some of the most comfortable sailing to date. It is a change to be able to move around without breaking into a sweat. We have 230nm to go and at this rate it is about 35 hours which means our arrival at the marina is during the night. We will probably anchor outside the marina until the next day when we will meet Customs and Immigration there for check in.

Bernie