Sea Farer 4

We were waiting to hear from Mathias when we found a notice in hostel from a guy called Greg who was looking for crew for a few days up to Savu Savu.   We emailed him and he was happy for us to help crew the boat.   He told us to meet him at Port Denarau in a couple of days at about 08:30.  We were there and off we went.  Greg reassured us that he had a never sailed to this part of Fiji before, had a hangover and we going through the windiest part of Fiji.  So off we went.  We motored for the first part of the day round the coast of Viti Levu and then we had to make a decision whether we were going to sea proper or stay in shelter for the night.  We decided to go to sea as it was not too windy.  We headed out and there was a brisk breeze but nothing unmanageable.  We headed North East between a reef and an island.  The wind stayed fresh and was in a direction that was not perfect but allowed us to make head way.   It was about this time we saw a pod of dolphins that stayed with us for about  15mins.  Not sure what species they were but they were tiny!! Looking into to it a bit more I think they were spinner dolphins.  

Night began to fall so we arranged to take watches.  The wind was brisk and there was a fair bit of chop.  We were trying to sail North East towards Savu Savu but we did not want to go too quickly as we had a tricky reef pass to navigate and we needed daylight to do it.  We were making good time se we slackened off the sails and bounced our way through the night in choppy sees each of us doing 2 hr watches and having 4 hour sleeps.  We arrived at the reef pass at about 7am and headed through the reef and into safe anchorage.  We were all pretty tired as it had been a fairly rough night so we got a few hours kip before we decided what to do next.  We woke up about 11ish and we decided to get moving as it was raining yes raining.  Fiji does actually get lots of rainfall that’s what makes it so lush and verdant.  Greg thought we could make it to Savu Savu by evening if we set sail, so off we went. We arrived in Savusavu in the dark and rain but were met by one of Greg’s friends on a tender  
Who lead us to our mooring and in the blink of an eye we were ashore for a big dinner and a beer followed by a much needed early night!!! 

By Stuff

Photo of the Sea Farer 4 by Things