sailing around the world – Page 2

Sailing around the Whitsundays Islands

We are heading towards Hamilton Island to meet up with Chris and Karen to celebrate Swedish midsummer and Karen’s birthday.

Our stop on the way was Long Island Reef. A small beach in front of an abandoned resort. This is not the first one we have seen on this trip and probably not the last one either. One of many backsides of covid I guess.

On the way to Hamilton island we pass a very lovely tiny beach island. We arrive just before 11 and needs to wait almost an hour before we can moor. Time to start preparing for the midsummer lunch. The day before I made a try to do herring in onion out of the Dutch herring we found at Woolworth. Let see if the taste is good.

Our lunch guests Chris and Karen arrived after they had moored and we had a lovely lunch. They survived our snaps song, although we don’t have the best voice. The taste of the hearing was okay but the fell apart totally. Our lunch consisted of, eggs with caviar,salomon, potatoes, knäckebröd,a very tasty cheeseand Swedish snaps and ended it with lemon muffins, whipped crème and strawberry’s.

The celebration didn’t end here. We took a few hours break before we took the bus to the other side of the island to restaurant BeachClub for Karen’s birthday dinner. Lovely place with a pool in front that looked very tempting to jump in to. The food was very nice and the dessert even better.

After dinner we started to walk to catch the bus back and there on the lawn we saw our first wallaby.

The next day was cloudy and little rainy. Me and Karen went for a hike up to the top and went down to south east head and escape beach. My Fitbit counted in total that day to 22300 steps. The view was astounding and the trails really good. Happy to done this lovely hike and very pleased that it was a cloudy and a few drops.

The next morning Mistral went to Airle Beach to get spares and hope for some help to fix there gas and fingers crossed that our batteries arrives so they can bring them to us.

We went back to sawmill bay for the night and enjoyed a lovely sunset with the moon rise. The moon really lit up like a lamp.

We hear so much nice about Whitehaven beach and decided to go there the next day. The dinghy gets in but the engine will not work properly. It starts but as soon as Edgar accelerates the engine dies. The wind and waves are too strong to row in so no beach for us. We hope for better winds the next day but sadly not and the night was not fun. It started first to rain heavily and after that the thunder. First it was far away and we saw some lightning in the far but it came closer and closer. Did some filming and when it was at its worst we have every 10 second. There came a pampam on the radio. One boat was dragging and lost power on their instruments. They engined work and they arrived safely and anchor not far from us. Luckily it calm down and we could go to bed. In the morning we could see how we have moved around our anchoring

The next place we was recommended to go to was butterfly bay which is just around the corner. Sadly due to weather conditions we didn’t want to go there instead we went in to Nara inlet. A very protected deep bay where we had a really good sleep. A bit spooky with all the clouds hanging over the tops.

Next day we went to meet up with Karen and Chris at Cape Gloucester. We decided to take a tour in to the beach with Mistrals dinghy or that was the plan. It ended with us taking up our anchor and safe Karen and Chris since the wind and the current was too strong to row back to the boat. Now we both need help to fix our engines. Time to get a Marina with chandelier and mechanics.

Hugs Eva

1400 NM to Australia

Tuesday 22 May at 9.00 we have an appointment with the custom to check out of New Zealand. The custom gave us 30 min to leave and was not happy when we said that we needed to fill up the diesel. We left Bay of Island just a few minutes more than the 30 he gave us.

Around lunchtime we turn of the engine and enjoy the coastline where we saw a lovely rainbow.

It took only 1/2 hour and the engine was on again and after 4 hours we had to turn back since we started to take in water in the engine room. It is the same problem as we had in Tuamotos. The water pump to cool the main engine broke. Back in the same mooring place early evening. We had dinner on board and went to bed early to be up and ready in the morning when the mechanic arrives.

The leak is fixed and we have a new appointment with the custom to do a new checkout at 11.30. The weather looked still okay to start our sailing which we were very happy about. You never know when the next weather window will be.

After two really rough sailing days it is nice to have a bit calmer sea. Even if the waves are higher then before they are longer, which makes a much softer roll, although from time to time there comes one wave that really rock the boat. We been drinking a lot of water, had a sandwich for breakfast and some bars, buns and biscuits. So on our third day Edgar made us some food.Noodles in a cane, just add warm water. Easy but so good to get something warm in our bodies.

We take shifts and tries to sleep for a couple of hours. It is not that easy in the rolling sea. I tried to make the bed as tight as possible so we don’t ride around like a soap in a soap dish. There is a few hours when it is totally black and we can’t see anything except the stars. Then the moon comes up and it lights up so we can see the sea, waves and the clouds. You can even read a book in that light. After a few days on the sea you mix up the days so it is good that we have calendar in our mobiles to tell which day it is.

Tuesday at 20.00 we changed to Australia time which means turning the time back 2 hours. At this point it didn’t do much

Wednesday we put up the stay sail with the boom out on port side and the genoa starboard side. It is a very nice and smooth sailing that day. Next day we need to change the settings and the stay sail goes in and the genoa goes the port side and change the course a bit.

It is very rolly again. Things starts to bang in the boat and suddenly the coffemachine and baking machine fell down, nothing broken but wet on the carpet from the water in the coffemachine.

Edgar fell in the stairs just before we left and strained his foot.It is still a bit swallowed but looking better.

Friday we have good wind and doing 6-8 knots, a few squalls so we been reefing the sail a few times. Highlight was the dolphins that came and swam around for 10 min. 175NM left. The water temperature is getting warmer 24.7 degrees from 18 degrees when we started in Opua

The sea can’t make up its mind!!! The waves are coming from all over it feels like we are having a good speed from 4.5 to 9 knots with only less then half off the genua out.

We reach the tip of Fraiser Island and turn in towards Bundaberg. 40 nm left and we are in Australia. The last 40 nm we motor sail since the wind is not that good. All in all we had a good sailing in the sense that we have not used the engine a lot on the other hand it has been the worst in the sense of rolling. Our bodies are so tiered and looking forward to sleep in our bed a full night without any rolling.

We arrived in Bundaberg Marina and dropped the anchor on Saturday night and stayed there until Monday morning when we checked in with custom and bio security. Everything went well and now we just relax a few days before we head up towards Mackay to get new start batteries and meet up with Chris and Karen on Mistral.

Hugs Eva

We are sailing

19 days after our arrival we are leaving Whangarei to sail up to Tutukaka. At 8.30 in the morning together with three more boats we leave the town basin to be at the bridge at nine when the morning traffic is calmer so the bridge can open for us.

As we only have one sail up we make a quick stop, or more a few hours stop to get our sail up. Very happy to get help with that. We would not have managed that by our self. Thanks to our rigger Charles, his worker and the sailmaker the sails gets up. And of course the wind comes to make it more tricky.

The sails are in place and we head out and hoist the sails and steers to Tutukaka. We are in a bit hurry to get there before it is dark.

It was a rough sailing, with waves up to 3-4 meter. We even got one wave in from the side that soaked pore Edgar. This was a bit too much for a first day in the sea. We made it just when the sun was going down and it was really dark when we moored.

The entering was very narrow lots of waves and a small island to avoid, but there was good light marks on the way in.

We stayed in Tutukakas for a few days and waited for better weather again. It is not a big place but still they have four different good restaurants which we of course had to try. We had our best pizza here since ever.

In one place they had similar swordfish on the wall as we have on our wall back home in Sweden. This one had a much nicer fin so now we have to find someone that can make a new fin on our swordfish.

Saturday morning we have nice weather but still very cold so it’s time to put on our sailing trousers and warm jumpers before we leave. Not as warm as we had wished for yet. Yes it is winter here but 11 degrees brrr.

We have a great sailing up to Bay of Island which is the northeast we can get to be able to check out from New Zealand. It is a very cool Island with hole/tunnel that we pass when we enter the Bay of Island. It is a popular tourist attraction we notice. The Bay of Island is lovely with lots of great anchorage places. We stay at two different and enjoy the calm bays. The water looks so tempting to swim in but it is only 19 degrees in the water.

On a rainy day why not deal with the toilet… Changing the pump and now the front toilet is so much easier to flush. Well done darling!

After rain comes the sun and we head in to Opua and Bay of Island Marina. It looks very nice and we recognise Pahia on the way in. We were there in October with our friends when we travelled around for 10 days.

Moored and have grounds under our feet’s. This is really a Marina with all different businesses for things you need to the boat. A great laundromat place, new showers , recycling , a smaller grocery shop, one nice restaurant a fast-food place and the yacht club have also a restaurant. All in all okay for a day or two but quite boring after five days.

There is a walking trail along the coastline all the way in to Pahia which I walked on. I didn’t go all the way since once again I took a detour up to a lovely look out point. This time it was only 200 steps. There was a sign that I was told by some locals that I didn’t have to follow. It was no risk anymore… I was not the only not following the signs which feelt more comforting . The trail was a very nice but narrow and at some spots hard to meet anyone.

Since it is a bit far to Pahia from Opua which is the closest town and definitely more restaurants to choose from, we took a cab to have a change of scenery and food. We hade a great night with lovely food and ended it with a Guinness for Edgar and a yummy drink at Bad Habits.

Last days we prepared last things for the crossing like cleaning, fixing our toilet, baking, cooking and so on. You can guess how did what can’t you? And our bed for the crossing is also done!

Wednesday morning 22 of May is here and we check out at the custom to leave New Zealand and sail to Australia and Bundaberg. Unfortunately due to the winds and waves and 3 weeks delayed we are not going to Sydney. We are very sad for that but hope to get to Sydney somehow during our time in Australia.

We are sailing out of Bay of Island and enjoying the view and see a fantastic rainbow.

So know there will be no contact for at least 10 days but you can se us on our yb tracker where we are. You find it under meny on the top.

Hugs Eva

Back in Whangerei NZ

On the 15th of April we started our long flight back to New Zealand and Saphir. In the morning we got an email that the flight was one hour delayed and at the end we were 2 hours delayed due to the air room over Iran was closed we were told. This was our layover time in Doha that disappeared. We missed our connecting flight to Auckland by 10 min and next flight was next morning at 01.50 after 24 hours. Luckily there was one room left so we checked in at the hotel inside the airport and slept most of the time before we took the flight to Auckland. We have flown over lot of water from Doha to New Zealand and lots of it we will be sailing on when we sail to south Africa. Tiered but happy to arrived in Auckland. Only 1 1/2 hour before the car rental opens at 05.00.

You think it should not be any traffic at 5.30 in the morning but New Zealander are early birds. Luckily most traffic was on their way to Auckland so less traffic when we past Auckland. 2 1/2 hours drive ended up in 3 1/2 due to road work. Edgar is in a hurry and even if he tries he can’t drive 100 km/h as it is aloud. Too many curves and they can only be taken in 65 down to 25km/h. There are signs before every curve that tells you what speed to use.

We drive straight to the Marina to have a look on Saphir. She is still in indoors but will be moved out during the day. The painting of the hull looks great and the have put Saphir af Stockholm back, Nordia and the Saphir diamant on the side.

She looks strange without the mast.

The upcomings days we spent doing things on the boat for a few hours and exploring Whangarei area. Although on the longer walks I didn’t get Edgar with me. I had a plan to walk to Whangareis falls but ended up on Mount Pahrihaka. Which was halfway to the falls but also very much up. The walking tracks are very good and well taken care of and parts of them you have steps when it is to straight up I guess. I counted to 800 steps to the top and the totals hight of the mountain is 241m. My legs was a bit sore when I came up and was happy to rest while I enjoyed the view. On the way down I did see a tiny tiny waterfall.

We went to the falls the next day by car. Although Edgar didn’t want to walk down and have a look at the fall. To many steps down for his knees… hmmm

It is a bit frustrating when not much happens on the boat and things get delayed. Meanwhile we continue to drive around along the coast and found a very nice harbour in Tutukaka that we might visit on our sailing up along the coast. The knittings continues as well.

The mast is getting in place and we can go in to the water. Very happy for that since we already moved in to the boat. It is a bit uncomfortable/strange to live on the boat when it is not in the water. Although we can use the toilet and also cook but we have not been shopping so not much to work with. The last thing is to hang up the dinghy before we go in to the water. What a nice feeling we are floating and on our way in to town to do grocery shopping for the crossing. First we have two nights at Nikau Marina next to the boatyard since there was a bit more electricity and other things with the mast to fix. Lucky us there is a nice Greek restaurant in the harbour.

Still not all done but we decided to go in to the town basin so we can start doing some shopping and continue preparing the boat for our sailing. We have to wait for the high tie so we can go in and also get the bridge opened. I really like the shape of the opening part of the bridge. It is a giant fish hook.

The next morning our sails arrives but can’t be hoisted since the hydraulic needs to be fixed. We got the mainsail fixed so we don’t have to have battens in them any more, mended the torn and new UV covers.

Sailing is just a tine part of our journey. We spend a lot of time working on our patience with all this waiting and somehow it is hard starting doing things so I am glad I have my knitting and the blog even if I have hard time writing in it some times and sometimes I can go on writing a lot as this time. (At this moment I am waiting for my wash to be done at Opua Marina so a perfect time to write.)

Our wind indicator is getting changed. Glad it’s not me on the top of the mast. It works and we can finally se on the instruments the strength of the wind and where it comes from. Makes sailing a bit easier

After the rain the sun comes out and so does the rainbow. This time was not fun though…. We have a leak in the ceiling in our kitchen. Grrr more problems! Luckily it is an easy fix that we could do our self. It was leaking from our buttons in the cockpit. Just needed some silicone and we are all good for now, I hope. Talking about leaking we have had problems with our windows and hope know all is fixed after they been put back in with new isolation around them. They didn’t find ours so they use something else which they had to change immediately on a few after we hade used the water hose to see if they were leaking.

In Whangarei they have this eternity machine that shows the time. Very cool with all the metal balls that moves around and the cyclist.

Tuesday morning on the 7th of May we leave Whangarei Marina which by the way have one of the employees that speak Swedish.

We are ready to start our sailing but wait there are only one sail up….

Hugs Eva

Marie visiting us in Fiji

28Aug to 17Sep

Marie arriverad and we introduced here to Fiji dance and she gladly joined. The next day we leave for go up to Vanua Levu and Suvasuva. It is a bit up so we will do it in two stop. First some rest and the Marie is full energy and start cleaning the windows which was really in need. We find a perfect place and anchor outside Nananu-i-Cake Island.Just in time befor the sun goes down. Lovely to finally be able to jump in the water from the boat. The moon is shining very bright this night.

Next stop is in the north tip of Vitu Levu next to Nananu-i -Cake island. We have a lovely sunset and a fantastic sunrise

We take the dinghy to see if we can find a good snorkelling place. We did see a lot of nice corals. Unfortunately not so many fishes though.

Next stay we have a sunny day and some wind so we can sail. I forgot to but enough sunscreen so my face got a bit red…

New bay and another sunset view. The moon is still very bright. We leave early in the morning to get true the passage in right time. Don’t want the current against us, it is enough with rough to go throw the passage.

Entering Suvasuva and Copra shed marina. We have to use our anchor and unfortunately it didn’t stick properly so we needed to get some help from the harbour master. He and Edgar went out to through it in and it worked. Edgar found the best place to race shave him self. The last photo shows where we are and all the blue dots are places we have visited. As you see some places have we been a few times

Me and Marie explore the town and find some nice things and gifts. We also find the market that was hidden behind some ground working place.

We also found Ocean Ventura Fiji dive center and booked us for a dive the next morning with Sara and Matthew. First we had to take a cab for 40 min to get to them on the other side of the island and then it was 30 min boat ride to the dive place. The first was called the the Zoo and the second the white tip . This was Marie’s first dive after she took her license just before she came to us. Both of the dives was great. Lovely corals and fishes. Some scared ones and some curious and puffer fish.

Moore will come. Time to leave Fiji and no internet for a week to ten days.

Hugs Eva

Fiji week with Elin

In beginning of Aug my cousins daughter Elin came to visit us for a week before she is flying back to Sweden after spent 6 months in Australia. Luckily she didn’t have jet leg so she was ready to go and explore part of Fiji. The wind forced us to stay in the harbour for a few days so we went to visit Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple a wooden colourful Hindu temple in Nadi. After that we decided to go to Sleeping Giant zip line, Orchid falls & Jungle Safari. The way there was very interesting. First it was a nice road but after a while it started to be very bumpy and narrow and on top of it a bridge whiteout any fence. Luckily not that high bridge.

Me and Elin had a great time riding the zipline. Edgar didn’t dare or maybe not that keen on it so he stayed on the ground and watch us. There was some lovely orchid and other flowers. We was a bit tiered afterwards so we didn’t go up to the waterfalls. It was a quiet a bit to walk uphills. Might do that if I will visit the place again.

On the way back I got a better picture on the bridge without any fence. Glad we didn’t meet anyone on it. On the other side the farmer had started to burn on the field. Was a bit scary to drive through that but everything went well.

Back in the marina we had high tie and it was easy to walk out on the pier totally opposite from the morning when it was low tie. A tour in to Lautoka ended up with Edgar cutting of his long hair. I didn’t expect it to be that short but it will grow out in a few days/weeks. Now when he was so shorthair why not dress as a Fijian as well. The jumper to Nellie is finally finished only need to attach all yarn ends… and they are a few.

We went to First Landing for dinner and this time they had the show down by the water. This was by far the best light show we have seen there. The effect being in the water help a lot.

The weather was better and we motor sailed over to Muskat Cove. Nice to be able to jump in the water from the boat again. It was women’s world championships football and the Swedish ladies was playing. With help from my cousin we manage to see the game via messenger.

Outside Musket cove on a reef there is this place called Seventh Heaven that we went out to check out. It is a floating restaurant/bar and bathing platform where you can stay during daytime. We had a great day snorkelling, swimming and Elin jump from the tower. I was told that during the last year they have started to feed the fishes and also put in some metallic things that looks like beds to get the corals to grow. We had a great day there and I know that Elin was extra happy since she got to speak to an actress that she really likes. Don’t ask me who she was… not anyone I have ever seen. But happy that Elin was happy.

A week goes quickly and it is time for us to say bye bye to Elin. So glad that you came and stayed with us .

Hugs Eva

Fiji days with Erika and her family

Five days to recover more in my back/leg, before Erika with family arrives. We also need to rearrange the boat so they can sleep in the beds. Luckily the cleaning we got help with. Thanks to a neighbour boat I got in contact with a new physiotherapist that help me much better. Got new exercises/stretches and she also gave me massage and this electrical muscle stimulator that felt really good. Hopefully this will help but it will take a while and need to do my stretches 3times a day. Puh!!!

Erika, Oskar, Max and Mia have arrived ! They are a bit tiered . It was a long journey 36 hours with not much sleep. We are so happy to have them here.

After a day resting and grocery shopping we head out off the Marin to go to some off the island near Musket cove. As often the wind is not right so we use the iron genua instead. Nice to have help with all lines and fenders.

We passes some reefs and need to be looking out for corals heads since not all are marked on the sea chart. There are some very nice resorts that we pass and we anchor outside one. So nice to have a swim in the sea. I have been swimming in the sea since we was in Tonga and that is three weeks ago. With the sup board in the water it is easier to get M&M in the water. They think it is a bit to high to jump from the platform in the back off the boat.

We had anchored outside an adults resort ops!! so we couldn’t go in to the beach with the kids and didn’t find any other nice place to go ashore. Edgar took an extra drive around with the kids in the dinghy before we left to a new place.

We ended up on Cast away island. A bit rolly here also but much better then the last place. I thought when we where inside the reef it should not be rolly , of course not totally calm but less then we had. Now everyone is ready to go ashore so we took the dinghy in to Cast away resort. It was on its way to get low tie so we was lucky to get in to land. Now we had to wait for the high tie to come , which takes 3-4 hours. Good that they had a restaurant so we could get some lunch and a swimming pool that we could use. M&M enjoy swimming and playing in the pool and I enjoyed sitting down and relaxing and not needing to walk.

The next day we went to Musket cove to spend some time with the World Arc fleet before they continue in a few days to Vanatue, Australia and onwards. Since we are not joining we thought it would be nice to be their start boat and wave them off. Musket cove turned out to be a perfect place to stay with kids with the beach and a pool to swim in when the tie is low.

It was very nice to spend time with the fleet. We enjoy every minute. We will miss them all a lot. When we started our sailing a year ago I thought/ hoped that we would meet some nice sailors. Never in my mind I thought we was going to be part of such a super great group and find truly new friends.

The starting day for WARC is here. We welcome Tim onboard. Erika will be in charge off the starting flags using our boathook as help. It was a bit scary start when Salt and Sara of Sweden past us and headed straight towards the reefs. You can see on the picture where we had anchored next to the reef. They turned in time and we wave to our friends. Some off them came very close up to us before the went away. We wish them all a great sailing to Vanuatu and onwards.

The bar was located just next to our boat where we could have some food as well. Good for me I didn’t have to walk very far. In daytime when it was high tie we cold have a swim next to the bar but at low tie you could walk all the way in to the beach without getting wet.

Slowly getting better in my hip and leg due to my stretches 3 times a day. The massage I took also help a lot I straighten out so to say. I continue to bike everywhere since walking to far hearts and standing still is not working more than a minute or two. Will come back to this lovely place and get more massage fore sure.

We spend another day here by the pool and in the evening there was a dance performance that we all enjoy. Two fascinated kids sitting like a light as we say in Sweden. Meaning they are sitting totally still and not moving around. Mia wanted to join the dancing so Erika and her went up.

The next morning we headed out and went a bit north and ended up at the island Waya outside the village Nalauwaki. After the anchor was drop Edgar and Mia went in to meet the chef and give cava. We was all invited to the savusavu ceremony later in the afternoon followed with song and dance by the locals. To be allowed to snorkel, swim in the water,walk on the beach etc you have to meet the chef of the village and bring cava and drink it with him. This is not the cava with bubbles this is made out of cava roots and mixed with water. Not very nice taste according to me.

We went in to the village for the savusavu and dance. The tradition is to drink up everything in the bowl so we hade to take a few drinks. It was a very nice song and dance performance. Mia and Edgar join the dance but Max didn’t want to dance.

Nice sunrise and then we are off to Vuda Marina. A bumpy motor going so the kids ended up sleeping.

The next day was a fun day in the water park. Even me went on the slide once with Mia. It was really fun.

Vuda Marina has a built part of the playground like a boat and the kids loved it. Sometimes it is nice to watch a move and just relax in the sofa.

Two weeks goes fast when you have fun. Time for the family to go home. Will miss them a lot. Love you Max and Mia

Hugs Eva

Tonga days

Sailing to Tonga was a bit rolly so we took plaster behind our ears to prevent seasickness. The scopoderm works wonder and I know that Rob agrees. We had lovely sunset and sunrise. Simple food as halfmade chicken soup and Swedish knäckebröd works perfect when you dont want to be to long in the kitchen fixing dinner although I did prepare dinner the first night that just hade to be warmed up.

Reaching Tonga Rob hoist the yellow flag and the Tongan underneath. Our ETA didn’t hold. We came in 3 hours early this time but that was good then we had good time to check in and find a buoy before dark. We say bye and thank you to Rob who join us from Niue to Tonga. It was a pleasure having you onboard

After having the bio-, custome, ect on board we are ready to find a buoy and it looks like this is going to be a very calm place to stay at, no rolling so we will sleep well here.

Some maintenance works has to be done as some washing and cleaning as always. After so long time on the boat in this humidity the boat gets salty, mouldy in some places and the brass and crome in side the boat needs extra care.

We have some great days with our friends in the village Neiafu on Vava’u island before we explore some of the others island nearby . Lunch at Bellavista sundowners and dinners at Kraaken. Both very nice places.

Only a two hours motoring from Neiafu we lay anchor next to some of our friends and do some snorkelling and a tour to Swallow Cave. That cave is fantastic with the this huge shoal of fishes that hover in the cave. The light inside and the colours of the stone in the cave. So sad that there are those that have to mark that they have been there though.

Even if there is no restaurant near by we still don’t need to cook food our self. David and his family made food for us and we had a great dinner and evening at Vaka Eitu. It was extra nice to meet up with Chris and Anne.

The day after some of us went snorkelling on the reef wall at the end of the island. It was very colour full and lots of different corals. A bit scary to get in and out due to the swells on the coral reef. My friend did heart her self and destroyed part of her west suit when she went out of the water the day before. We all came safe in and out the water with help from each other.

Time to get back to the village Neiafu and meet up with all the Arc sailors to visit the botanical garden and have lunch at their restaurant. They have just opened up again after covid and we where the first visitors. This guy is around his eighties and have traveled around the world meet the Pope 3 times if I remember right. He even have been in Sweden with some students. After lunch the children had a dance performance for us and we was thought how they make walls, rugs, basket ect out of palm leaves. It was very interesting and there is a lot of hour behind this nice work

The gathering continues with a dinner at a Bellavista where Marco is doing one of his dreams to serve food in Tonga in there traditional skirt. This was arranged by him and the crew from Enalia. The best was that almost all of us came for the dinner that night. Think the restaurant was very pleased as well. The owner is Italian and so is all from Enalia. Marco did a great job and the food was delicious!

We also hade a lovely dinner, prize giving ceremony and dance performance at Mango cafe. This time there was no price for fastest sailing since we all didn’t end up doing the same sailing via Suwarrow and Niue. We ended up getting a price for being closet in the amount of age of the fleet that left Bora Bora.

A stroll around the village to find some last things before checking out and filling up diesel. Here runs the animals around free so I was not surprised to see pigs, piglets and chickens walking around .

Filling up diesel at the pier direct from the thank truck.

The last days before sailing to Fiji we spent them with our friends padel boarding and enjoying the beauty in the bays. Learned me a lesson when I feelt of the board and lost my sunglasses. Not good at all but Clare found them. From now on they will have floating rope or something else that floats. Thank you for great days .

Hugs Eva

BoraBora to Niue with stop in Suwarrow or not

After Eva had left it was time to focus and prepare for the next leg that is including to stop before we are in Tonga. We got divide in two groups since the island we are going to visit don’t have space or enough buoys at their bay for all 24 boats at the same time. The first group starts on the 14th of May and we take our dinghy to watch the start and wish the first group fare winds.

Since we already where in the dinghy we decided to go around the corner where we have seen that the cargo boats goes in. The yellow houses is probably the warehouse for the goods. Further in is a small village and they have built some large pools that we couldn’t make any sense of.

The upcoming days we went shopping with Matt and Fiona on Matilda. Luckily they rented a car so it was easy to go drive between the different stores to find what we wanted. Me and Fiona took a walk by our self to see if we could find some nice pearls but no luck. I did found some on my next trip… The boat needs to fill up. Don’t know if it’s a sailing boat but guess. Saw that they had hoist the sail in the evening and put lights on them when still where anchoring. When we came back after filling up diesel our dinghy was laying there keeping our place

We had some sun downers and dinners in the evening toghether with the rest of the sailing group. One night was with performance.

There was a lot of training around our boats but I manage to to some paddling around without disturbing their training. Last sunset in Bora Bora for us

We are getting ready for five days at sea. The bed is made for us on the couch since it is to rolly to sleep in our own bed. The Norwegian flag is hoisted and Pippin is getting to the start field

The start went of at 12.00 and we hoist our second jennaker that is on a rolling thing and not in a sock as the other one. This is the first time we hoist it since we left Sweden 10 months ago. The wind was twisting and turning around the Island so it took some minutes before we got some wind in our jennaker.

Just after the start we got some dolphins jumping next to us

As it is Norways Independence Day we celibrate it with waffles for lunch with the Norwegian brown goat cheese and drink Solo. Happy Independence Day Norway 🇳🇴

We avoided some squalls during the night so our route is no that straight more zig zag between the squalls.

On our third day at sea we get information that we need to change our course and go direct to Nui and not to Suwarrow. The first boats had arrived there and was denied to get in due to some paper that was wrong. Since we all have the same paper with us the World Arc asked all off us to go direct to Nui. We had 402 NM left before we changed the course and now we have 810 NM to Niue. 3 extra days on Sea so total 6 days before we are moored. This news took us down a bit. As we say in Swedish “the air went out of us ’ We was really looking forward seeing Suwarrow. Specially since this is such a remote place and really hard to get to. I hardly believe that we will get a chance to get there unless we do a new pacific crossing…. I Hmmm maybe not.

One early morning at five we caught up a sailing boat. Just when Edgar thinks we will pass it the wind to blow up and the sailing boat speeds up. Edgar hois the sails and hope that the sailing boat speeds up and that we can get back on our course by going behind her. They where heading to Fiji so our courses crossed each other . Took a while though but finally we could go back on our course and head to Niue

After a few days at sea the days goes in each other. We make turn on watches. You sleep or try to when the other is on watch. I knit, listen to books, play some games on my iPhone, work on the blogg during my watches. It keeps me awake. If it would have been less rolly I also would have done some exercises so my back,hip /leg will get better. This rolling makes the pain worse and almost impossible to do the exercises correct specially when it involves keeping balance.

The view I really like both the nice days but also the rough ones. Sunset, sunrise and so on . All jas it charms almost. Do not like the squalls with thunder.

Finally we can see Niue. This little flat Island in the South Pacific is one of the smallest countries in the world.

It will be very nice to relax for a few days now.

Hugs Eva

Fakarava

The rain stopped and we decide to drive in to land and see if there was any shop opened even if it was Easter Day. We found one shop that was opened until 12.00. Unfortunately they did not have eggs but we got some bread (pain rich) and cheese.

Even if our Easter lunch didn’t have eggs we still had three different hearings, gravad lax, Swedish knäckebread, potatoes and snaps. The hearing and knäckebröd have traveled with us all the way from Sweden.

Me ,Chris and Rebecca went diving at the north entrance. It was two fantastic dives. I saw an octopus for the first time and a leaf fish. Would have missed them if it wasn’t for our dive master. The octopus melted in on the coral and the leaf fish really looked like a leaf moving in the water. There was a lot of other different fishes as well, many reef sharks and two mantras. I have seen mantras from land but never when I have dived. It was a WOW moment. The Mantras was huge, majestic, quirios and scared me when one of them came very close up to me. I was told from Chris and Rebecca that I had a two meter reef shark swimming next to me when I was concentrating on the mantra. I am very happy I didn’t see that. Don’t know what I would have done

Me and Edgar have bikes onboard so we decided to make a biking tour together with Chris and Rebecca. They rented bikes from the lady just next to the harbour. First we had a stop at dfhgh to have lunch with Alex and Andy. This was a very nice place . Love the bottles in the tree. Must be really nice in the evening when the lights is on.I will try that when I get home.

Edgar’s knee was hurting from the bike ride so he went back to the boat and me,Chris and Rebecca continued. We wanted to go to the coconut oil fabric but first we had a stop at Hinano Pearls where we bought a few pearls and jewellery. If we knew what we would learn on the trip we would have bought more from them. Price went up and not always so very nice pearls either.

The snorkling is fantastic. Not far from the boat is a coral head that I went with my supboard to explore. Although we could also just sit on the boat and enjoy all the fishes swimming around our boat. There was this strange sucker fishes that normally sticks to the sharks body and feeds off it. We found them on our boat hopefully we get our boat cleaned.

We had some very nice days on Fakarava and would have loved to explore more atolls but it is time to hoist the anchor and sail to Tahiti. Strong current on the way out but nothing that the capten could handel. Saw some windsurfers on the outside of the atoll enjoying the good wind .

When we have the engine on we know that we have to pump out some water that comes in due to a broken seal in the water pump. But pumping enough to cool down the engine. Edgar have already booked maintenance for that in Papeete in Tahiti. Chris went in to the engine room to check our water leak. He saw water on the port side. Which we have not seen before. Why didn’t that water go in to the bilge? Some where is a stop in the draining holes. We ended up emptying the sofa again and found the stop. It is good to have long thin bendable things for these things. The water ran out of the engine room and in to the bilge. Problem solved and now everything needs to go back so we can move around in the boat.

The rest of the sailing to Papeete was okey. Can’t complain about the sunset or the sunrise. Just after lunch we are moored at Taina Marina on Tahiti.