Lautoka to New Zealand, October 2011-January 2012
We had a late start getting out of Vanuatu this season.
The midseason slump that started in Lautoka, Fiji last July, slid into end of season burnout by October. The last two crew decided they would rather travel by airplane leaving me in port Vila looking for a delivery crew for the passage back to Nelson.
I sent out HELP! Letters to friends in N.Z. and Oz. With thanks to Glen Baker in Nelson his friend Alpha flew up to join us. Rosie sent Craig from Auckland. Phil Robinson found Leire in Motueka. My friend Marcie finished her education conference in Whangerei and joined the crew. And Carrie Martin, the founder of next seasons 'Honour Fiji' project, flew in from Fiji.
With a crew of six we cleared customs at Port Vila and set sail on the first of December for Nelson. With myself and Craig as experienced sailors we stood three to a watch, four hours on and four off.
The South Pacific Pilot will tell you about the prevailing Westerly Wind for these latitudes, however the wind was predominantly easterly for the month of December. We had head wind 25 days out of the 35-day passage. We had two near gales with 30-knot winds from the west and sou-west, but most of the passage was light to moderate easterlies.
We arrived in Nelson on 4 January 2012 to begin our 3-month summer refit on the dock at Calwell Slipway.
During the 2011 sailing season we were 129 days at anchor and 103 days underway. We sailed a total of 5177 nautical miles averaging 50.26 miles per day.
As I mentioned in the previous letter, Project MARC finished this past year. We have a new project for the 2012 sailing season. This is the pilot season for Carrie Martin's new project 'Honor Fiji'. Carrie has 20 years experience organizing cultural heritage preservation events with American Indians.
In the meantime there is a long list of maintenance projects and provisioning to be done before our planned departure for Fiji the first week in April.
Evan
The midseason slump that started in Lautoka, Fiji last July, slid into end of season burnout by October. The last two crew decided they would rather travel by airplane leaving me in port Vila looking for a delivery crew for the passage back to Nelson.
I sent out HELP! Letters to friends in N.Z. and Oz. With thanks to Glen Baker in Nelson his friend Alpha flew up to join us. Rosie sent Craig from Auckland. Phil Robinson found Leire in Motueka. My friend Marcie finished her education conference in Whangerei and joined the crew. And Carrie Martin, the founder of next seasons 'Honour Fiji' project, flew in from Fiji.
With a crew of six we cleared customs at Port Vila and set sail on the first of December for Nelson. With myself and Craig as experienced sailors we stood three to a watch, four hours on and four off.
The South Pacific Pilot will tell you about the prevailing Westerly Wind for these latitudes, however the wind was predominantly easterly for the month of December. We had head wind 25 days out of the 35-day passage. We had two near gales with 30-knot winds from the west and sou-west, but most of the passage was light to moderate easterlies.
We arrived in Nelson on 4 January 2012 to begin our 3-month summer refit on the dock at Calwell Slipway.
During the 2011 sailing season we were 129 days at anchor and 103 days underway. We sailed a total of 5177 nautical miles averaging 50.26 miles per day.
As I mentioned in the previous letter, Project MARC finished this past year. We have a new project for the 2012 sailing season. This is the pilot season for Carrie Martin's new project 'Honor Fiji'. Carrie has 20 years experience organizing cultural heritage preservation events with American Indians.
In the meantime there is a long list of maintenance projects and provisioning to be done before our planned departure for Fiji the first week in April.
Evan