Joan
10/29/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

About the time I think all is nice, and we are doing just fine, maybe feeling a bit of an ego because we've managed to keep the boat moving well, I saw a big ole splash from a wave come out of the black night and right in my face and then down the companionway. I was soaked, and uttered some old fashioned sailor spiced words not meant for "family hour". I guess King Neptune is keeping me humble. The good news is that very little water actually went down below, most, just down the inside of my foulies...I am feeling humble and chilly now!

The wind is slowing us down. We are deeply reefed and comfy. The wind is in the 25 knot range but gusting wildly and a bit unpredictable. We are expecting some lighter wind in the next 24 hours along with a wind shift.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/27/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

We are moving nicely along today. The wind has increased 20-25 out of the East. Seas are 3 meters. We are averaging 5.5 knots, and not wasting any time. We traveled 134 miles in the last 24 hours, and we now have 654 miles to go. All is well on board.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/26/2011, Off shore: Destination New Zealand

We've had company for the last 24 hours. S/V This Side Up, whom we met in Suva, has been traveling with us. We got a visual on her yesterday and continue to have a visual on her now. I expect that by tomorrow she will slip off the horizon. We even have a second sailboat off our stern this afternoon. We don't know who they are. It's nice having company! We are continuing to have a fast passage. We covered 134 miles in the last 24 hours. We have 788 miles to go. The wind has dropped to ESE15 knots. We are presently traveling at 5.0 knots. The seas have laid down a bit, down to 1.5 meters.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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Joan
10/25/2011, Suva

We are cooking along very nicely. We just broke our all time speed over 24 hours. We traveled 145 miles...distance made good even! We were averaging 7 knots throughout most of the night. Wind is SE 15-20, seas 6 feet, out of the SE as well. We are well healed, but fairly comfy. We are hoping to get below 25 degrees before a squash zone arrives on the 28th. At this pace, we will be close. The wind is supposed to shift more ESE. That will help our angle a bit. All is well on board.

2011-New Zealand Part II

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10/22/2011, 18 07'S 178 25'E

That's right, I am being tortured by the cookie aroma. Every morning I wake up to the smell of freshly baked cookies. The lovely aroma lasts most of the day when we are downwind from a cookie factory. Funny, I am thinking about making a big batch of cookies for breakfast; Maybe cookies for lunch or dinner? I bet the Cookie Monster would love to find the exact location of the cookie factory!

We discovered that getting the last bit of paperwork signed and completed by the official and regular veterinarian has been challenging and frustrating. It doesn't help the fact that there are only Three veterinarians in the country; two starting on Monday. Hopefully the last signature will be acquired on Monday. I have been in person and on the phone every day excluding Sunday since we arrived in Suva, trying to make the proper arrangements and getting the official paperwork filled out correctly so that we can satisfy some rather simple requirements that New Zealand has for importing our dog. We decided to make Monday our final deadline because a weather window is opening up for our passage to New Zealand. We are under a deadline now with our arrival timing for quarantining the dog. It looks like a nice weather pattern will be available for us to leave on Tuesday.
I really wanted to spend some time on the West side of the country, but that just didn't happen this year. I guess we will have to save something to look forward to for another time.

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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10/18/2011

Check out this new article about the debris from the Japanese tsunami:
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2011/10/17/japan-tsunami-debris-on-course-to-hit-us/

This will definitely impact our plans concerning going back to the west coast through Hawaii or the Marshall Islands for the next couple of years.

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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Joan
10/13/2011, Suva

We just dropped the anchor in Suva Harbor. We had a great passage. The wind was perfect, the seas flat, and a full moon all night to travel by! We did the 121 mile passage in 24 hours!

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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Joan
10/12/2011, Savusavu, Fiji

Well, we are ready to go to Suva. We took on the last of the provisions, and we have cleared customs in Savusavu. It looks like we've run out of excuses. All we need to do is hoist the dinghy, give it a good scrub and we're on our way. We decided to go directly to Suva because there is a blow arriving on the 17th. We want to be tucked in before it arrives. Our passage to Suva is approximately 121 miles. It should take us about 27 hours or less to get there. We have to finish up our paperwork with the Suva for veterinarian in preparation to entering New Zealand. We are planning to have the boat ready to go to New Zealand by the first of November.

The part that we ordered for the wind generator solved our problems. Now we have wind power again. We are still having troubles with our batteries, but we should be okay as long as we have alternative sources of power. We will replace our batteries when we get to New Zealand, again!

2011 Back to Fiji...Part II

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