We had a final feast with our extended host family after church on Sunday; followed by a very chilled overnight passage to Matuku, arriving midday on Monday. After a decade of obsessively poring over google maps and ambiguous internet posts, I knew Matuku has waves, but of unknown provenance, other than the main wave was pretty full on. I'd had a long hiatus off the boards and my fitness was starting to look questionable. But when it's on it's on. Brett and Tash from SY Complicite stopped by to say hello and check out the boat, so we decided to go in with them to complete what turned out to be a very chilled Sevusevu and a tour of Lomati village. We then headed back to Evenstar for some shuteye. At dusk we were roused by a local boat coming over to say hello. On board was an Aussie surfer, offering a tour of the waves the next day. Guy is almost a Matuku local, having visited 3-4 times, staying on land with the local chief. He has a love of remote surf, piercin...
Returning from my quick trip home I flew back to Savusavu at 8.30AM Monday morning. After a quick re-provision we were underway by 12, looking to catch the favourable forecast weather window for the trip to Fulaga. Sadly, after a good beginning, the forecast and the reality diverged. We spent a good slice of that night bashing into a decent southerly. After a few hours of purgatory, the wind angle improved slightly to provide a welcome relief. In the end, we made good time and Fulaga hove into view at about midday. As we approached the channel it was apparent that the charts were not very detailed and the channel was quite narrow. The entry required use of the Mk1 Eyeball; assisted by polaroids. Behind which were some very wide eyes; because Fulaga is quite something else. The instructions are to hug the rock to port and hook behind it on entry. The unusual beauty of the entry made it hard to concentrate on the passage instructions. Once we gained entry to the inner la...
We motored to the outer reef past Tavarua and Cloudbreak, for a final farewell in the grey and stormy conditions. The forecast was for a rough first night, with wind in front of the beam, followed by a few days of reaching in more settled weather. A change of some sort was forecast coming through just as we approached the North Island. This change could have involved some nasty weather; so we thought it would be good to get into the passage a day earlier than the rest of the southbound Fiji cruisers and beat the queue at NZ immigration: there were at least 20 ready to go. As we exited the pass, the south east wind started to kick in. Evenstar began to plunge into the short period swells. Just as things started to get a bit woolly, Rob had a strike on the big reel. I slowed the boat in the rough conditions as he and Paul fought to land a good size skipjack on the pitching aft deck. After a tussle they got it on board and cleaned it up. Night was falling, and the conditions w...
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