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...
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...
We motored back to Tahiti and said farewell to Finbar on Friday night. There were no marina berths to be had, so we anchored in amongst the floating shanty town to the south of the airport. Yachts everywhere in all sorts of levels of disrepair, it looked like a graveyard of boats and dreams; adventuring sailors down on their luck who had got this far across the Pacific, only to be trapped by Covid, equipment failure, and/or a lack of funds. On Saturday we headed back to Cooks Bay which had a much better vibe. Then on Sunday, back around to Haapiti to see what the waves were doing. The conditions were a lot easier to deal with than last time we were here. The waves were small but the long weekend party vibe in the water was big. Surfers of all stripes and levels of ability were out. Despite the relatively crowded waves, friendliness was the main emotion on the water. You gotta love French Polynesia. This morning I thought I'd chance the ribs and get out ther...
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