boat life – Page 3 – Sailing with Saphir

On the northern top of Australia and sailing east

We arrive to Horn Island on the 21 of July in the afternoon. We speak with Karen and Chris and decide that we will catch the ferry to Thursday Island next day. Me and Karen take a long walk around the island while the guys finds a pub…. Glad we didn’t plan to stay long here. Not much to see or do. We went back to Horn Island and had dinner at the only restaurant we found at Wongai beach hotel. Funny to call it a beach hotel when you actually can’t be on the beach due to the crocodiles. Before dinner we had a game of pool which we sadly lost.

We have done a sailing plan with three stops before we are I Darwin on the 30th of. July. Until know we have been allowed to go a shore on all Island and land but from now on we have to apply for going a shore since it is the aboriginals land. I missed that and since it should be done 10 days ahead we skipped it. We are aloud to anchor so we will be okay. We had 2 great sailing days with good wind and some waves so a bit rocky. Lovely sunsets. When we anchored at East Arnhem I saw that we had had a lot water in at or kitchen window. All the cooking books was soaked… and totally wet on the shelf … just to dry everything. Not easy went it is very humidity.

Still quite a bit left so just a night sleep and we are of to next anchor place. First we need to go through “hole in the wall “ . Here we need the tide to be with us. We came in a perfect time and enjoy the help from the tide to get through. Very beautiful narrow passage.

We found a nice beautiful bay to anchor at and the sunset was one of the most beautiful I have seen. So colourful compared . Next day is not much wind but from tight anger so our blue water runner comes out. We start we good speed until we get the tide against us and doing only 2.4 kn. Luckily it is turning and we keep sailing in 6-8 kn. The best part is that suddenly we get company by lots of dolphins or what is it? They are huge and their nose is different. Looked it up and think it might been fake orcas anyway what ever they are called they made our day.

On our way in to last anchorage before Darwin we see the second boat since we left Horn Island except from Mistral that we been sailing with. This tells a bit how lonely it is here. The sea is a bit rough as you can see on the fishing boat. We are happy to have what we hope is a very calm bay so we can get some rest before the last leg.

Laying on anchor with only you body boat gives you the best view on the sunset and the sunrise. Her are a few from our nights and also tried to take some photos of the night sky

Early morning to get to Darwin and Tipperary water Marin in high tide. We have a great sailing with some really nice extra speed with the help from the current and also some opposite. We made it in time to get in to lock an in to the marina basin. Very nice to be back in the civilisation, to walk on land, to see Karen and Chris and go out for a dinner. Yes we have been sailing with Karen and Chris but we have not been together since we left Horn Island since we haven’t felt safe to take down the dinghy. So our meetings have been over the whatsup. Great to have Starlink and internet.

1 of Aug and now we have 40 days to prepare the boat, exploring the north part of Australia and make a trip to Singapore to renew our visa.

Hugs Eva

Days in Cairns and Port Douglas

Strange to be back in a city after 23 years. Lots have changed and can’t say that I remember that much either. Although nice to be in Cairns to relax and explore part of the rainforest and the area. We have booked a day out on the barrier reef to dive and snorkel. But first we have to moor in the Marina. Which is really great placed very close to the city. Lots of restaurants along the quay.

We hired a car for a day together with our friends Chris and Karen and went for drive to find the lake where we swam with small turtels and crocodiles. No luck with finding the lake but we had a great time in the rainforest. We went to ..,,waterfall where we hope to take a dip but it didn’t attract us. Next stop was Kuranda where we went in to wild kuranda. Here we finally saw some crocodiles although this was freshwater so they are not the dangerous ones. We also saw kangaroos in different sizes and one with baby, koalas, wombat and some other smaller ones.

We was told to not miss Palm cove beach which we really enjoyed. A typical vacation village next to the beach. Here I would loved to stay for a night or two.

Time for diving again in the Great Barrier Reef. Last time was at Lady Eliott island 12 years ago which is located in the southern part of Barrier reef and outside Cairns was 22 years ago. Unfortunately the weather was not the best, quite windy, a bit wavy and very grey. We went out on to Flynn reef to dive and snorkel. The first dive didn’t work for me. When I jumped in I couldn’t go down. My breathing went bananas and I panicked. Even if our instructor was really relaxed and tried to calm me down it didn’t work so I went up again. Took me a while to calm down and get my breath back. Don’t know but it felt like the wetsuit I was wearing squeeze me and on top I was freezing and also did Karen when she came up. Nevertheless the second dive came and I went in with the rest of the group in a one size bigger wetsuit. Everything worked and it was a great dive although not as colourful as I remembered it. I got the opportunity to do a second dive which I am glad I did. All in all I saw a sleeping white tip shark, bluespotted stingray, boxfish etc

When we came back to the boat we got the best news. Our fourth grandchild had arrived. A baby girl .We are so happy but a bit sad also since we will not see them in a long time. Thank goodness for internet. At least we can facetime.

We sailed up to Port Douglas which was not very far. Took as couple of hours. Not much of wind so mostly the iron genua had to work. We spent 24 hours here. A dinner in the evening at Watergate restaurant. Very lovely place. This time we hade an afternoon start from the marina so there was time for a tour to the beach and a bit strolling in the village.

In front of us we have a night sailing up to Lizard island. The night was really calm and the morning was one of the most gorgeous I have seen.

Hugs Eva

From Townswill to Cairns

We continue doing day sailing which gives us on three stops on the way to Townswill. The first stop was Cape upstart where we paddle in to the beach before the sunset. The next was Cape Bowling reminds very much of the tuamotos island in the sense of very low land around us with a few trees growing but the rest not.

Clear night with lists of stars taken with my iphone.

The last stop was Magnetic Island or Maggie island as the locals calls it. Horse shoe bay is a popular anchoring place which I understand not only for the protection but also for the range of restaurants,bars, cafes. The beach is not bad either. We stay here for one night. Me and Karen went in on our paddle boards to check out and have a walk along the beach and check what we can expect when we come back after been in Townswill.

At lunchtime the next day we left Maggie island to get in to Townswill on the high tide. The marina is good and I like it when it is walking distance to the city and restaurants. The marina have also a complementary car for us(as Arlie beach). We book two hours and also Mistral so we got four hours to drive around and get supplies for our boats and some groceries.

We bought new spark plugs for the dinghy engine so now we have a working engine to the dinghy! Mistral also got their dinghy fixed so now we have two dinghy’s that we can go ashore with when we anchor. After dinner we are sitting in our boat and enjoying the lightnings on the mountain wall.

After two days with fixing and enjoying the restaurant in the evening we head out to Maggie island again in the high tide in the morning.Maggie island is more and less around the corner from Townswill.

Me and Karen got a ride in with Edgar to the beach and planed to do a walk on the forest and over to an other beach but the walking path was closed due to maintenance so we ended up take a walk along the beach on the bay. In the evening we went in to have dinner at one of the restaurants. They had a big screen and some smaller once that was showing a Disney film and all children that wanted to look was given headphones. Why don’t all restaurants do this?

The next day Chris drove us in for mine and Karen’s longer walk. We wanted to see koala bears. And we did. They are not easy to spot in the wild since they more or less hide up in the threes and sleep. Lucky us we saw two and some remains from the second WW. Meanwhile Chris showed Edgar how to make different knots and soft shackles.

The next morning we sailed up to Orpheus Island. It was a nice sailing and doing 6-7 knots. On the way we was called up to have a look for a dinghy that someone lost but we didn’t see it. We anchored in the afternoon and had our evening video call to plan our next leg. Since the wind was increasing we decided to stay one more night before we continued. The rain was poring down and strong winds so we couldn’t go ashore or snorkel which would have been nice. This bay is known for huge clamps. During the night we moved quite alot which you can see on the plotter.

The next stop was in Mosby river. We had problem to anchor since it was very shallow where we was allowed to anchor. Twice we got stuck in the mud so on the third time we succeeded. Opposite us was a small harbour where only a pilot boat was moored. After a good night sleep we let anchor early and head up to Cairns.

Hugs Eva

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

Cruising along Queensland’s coast

After a few days in Bundaberg relaxing, cleaning(yes always in need and quite boring)and most important stock up food and drinks, we are heading out to slowly sail up to Mackay to meet up with Chris and Karen on Mistral.

We leave early in the morning on the 5th of June and have decided not to do any night sailing which means by 17.30 we have to have reach our destination or it will be dark. First day we failed and anchored at 18.15 in total darkness. It works when it is a calm bay but not ideally. Always interesting to see how it looks when you wake up.

We do two more stops and both are before the sunset. The water temperature is okay around 21-22 degrees but I have heard so much about sharks and crocodiles so I am not tempted to swim. Luckily it is not that hot either. The teak deck was filled with trace of cellulose after our crossing. It is the rope that wear on the deck and it is almost glued on so need a good brush to get it of. The sea was calm so after an hour or two it was done.

There was a lot of tankers on standby that we passed on our way in to Mackay. Well inside the harbour we have our own welcoming committee which is Chris and Karen from Mistral. So great to see them again, and even better from now on we will sail with them all the way to Caribbean.

The start batteries came down to the boat unfortunately it was the wrong ones. New were ordered and hopefully can be here in four five days. Mackay city is 25 minutes away by bike. The bike lane was really good and safe all the way in to town. I went in there to get my Australian sim card at a phone company. By the end of the day it turned out that I could buy it at any grocery shop and registrer my self.

We spent some great days with Chris and Karen having our boat next to each other. Me and Karen went for a bike ride to see what the yarn/fabric store had. Got my self some embroidered yarn to decorate my destroyed hoody. Will be done some rainy day, I Hope.

Some reorganisation in the big storage, stocking up with some wine and beer, baking and we are ready to leave and sail up the coast to explore more places.

Chris and Karen stays for a few more days to get their rig and sail in order and hopefully also get our batteries.

Our plan is to get to Arlie beach to meet up with Mon Ami sailed by Louise and Mats, that we meet in Fiji. We hoist the sail and enjoyed the silence of not having the engine on. Our next goal is to hoist our new sail a blue water runner. It needs wind from behind and not too strong. Soon it will come for sure.

Found some nice stops on the way up. Also got some cute visitors. Still haven’t been ashore yet since we got scared from others that there might be crocodiles. At one anchorage it was a sign not to swim unless we didn’t want to be food. So much lovely water next to us and still so far. Well there will be some places where I can swim and use my paddle board.

Taking up the anchor is normaly easy but when it is clay bottom it is a bit harder specially if it’s dug in and also a lot more messy. Benefit is that we are very safe on the anchor. Won’t pull the boat in the first place.

Getting in to Coral Sea Marina we see this huge yachts. Would be fun to have a look around in one these one day. Feels like they are bigger than my house back home.

We have our berth next to Mon Ami. So know there are two Swedish boat in the Marina.

It was so great to see Louise and Mats. They are waiting to get a new electric furler. A big part of sailing is that things breaks our wears out and sometimes you need an expert to repair it. Quite often you then spend time just waiting for delivery or mechanical. They told us that they are almost a month delayed due to different problems that had happened when they came back to the boat. We have realised that things even break when the boat is on hard.

We spend two nights here and must say this have been the best Marina so far with all the facilities and the location. Just a short walk in to the town with a very nice walk path.

Time to move on and anchoring with a lovely sunset view

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

Leving Fiji to sail to New Zealand

Friday 22 sep Magnus and Jocke arrived very early and had breakfast with us at the hotel. The guys went over to the marina to be ready to get Saphir in to the water. I stayed and enjoyed the pool for some hours before I check out and head back to the marina.

It took some extra hours before it was our time to get Saphir in.We are on Fiji time and we are getting use to it. This time they had enough diesel so we could fill up the tank and not only get a few litres as last time. It had been sunny the whole morning but as soon as Saphir was in the water and we were filling up diesel it started to rain. Luckily it is not cold when it rains.

We have 2 days to prepare the boat before we start our sailing to New Zealand. There are some maintenance to be done like filling grease in to the rudder, food shopping, preparing some dinners, baking, washing and in between some naps…

In the evenings we went out for dinner both at the marina and at the resort . Our last night in Fiji we had dinner at the resort and we got our own farewell song singed for us.

We check out from the Marina and are ready to leave. First we get a quick visit from Andrew from Voager. He had just arrived back and laying on anchor outside the marina. Before we leave we get the staff from the marina coming and singing for us. I love this tradition .

We wave goodbye to Vuda Marina and to our friend boats Far,Voager and Ester of Sweden anchoring outside the Marina. Thank you for the lovely picture on Saphir Ester.

One of the first thing we need to do when we hoist the sail is fix it with some silver tape so the tear won’t get worse. Now we have approximately 1100nm ahead of us if we can sail shortest way but we will need to sail around a bad weather so it will be a bit longer.

The first days we have good weather and nice wind . We work first on four hour shift then after two days we change to three hours in the night and then four hours during daytime. This gave us an easy rotating schedule to follow. When the weather is okay I can continue knitting and cooking is okay also

30 sep I had the morning watch from 05.00-08.00. Still the iron jenua that are working. The sun tried to shine through the clouds. At 14 hour we changed our course 45 degrees to avoid heavy winds and waves. This means also even if we still is going south which is good we are going slowly west and not east . We are in other words going further away from our goal……. During daytime we have had to go even more west. NZ is south east from our point. When it was the worst we was sailing 90 degrees from our destination and see the NM left to our destination ticking up and not down….When I went to bed we had 625NM left.

Next morning we had 603NM left. Tjoho we have been able to change course. The waves are still high and coming obliquely from the front.! The comfort in the boat is not the best. We do not fish but still we get some small ones during nighttime .

300 Nm left to our destination. The sun is shining we have nice wind in the sails. Doing 6-7 knots and the waves keeps us on our toes. Part of the breakfast omelette went on the floor when a wave rocked the boat extra… the coffee spills over and so on. The boat is leaning in around 15-20 degrees angle so we move around in the boat leaning and always one hand holding on to the boat. Sleeping is also a challenge .

We are getting closer and the weather is getting better so we enjoy the calmer sea. Although the water temperature is going down. We started in Fiji with 29 degrees and ended with 15 degrees. I will not jump in the water in New Zealand.

Even if we have reach New Zealand’s tip there is a bit left to get to Whangarei. When the instruments shows that it is only 100NM left you know that the next night we will be sleeping in a harbour and the boat will not rock at all. A full night sleep is one of the first things that we all are looking forward to. Until then we enjoy the scenery on our way down the coast and getting in to the marina.

This is a very protective marina with houses around and some of them have their own privet dock in front of the house. We arrived on the 5 oct 14.30 local time. Unfortunately the immigration could not come until next day but bio security came and took care of our garbage and cleared the boat. Now we have to wait until next morning to be able to go ashore. Luckily we have everything we need on the boat although it will be very nice to walk on land again after 10 days on the sea.

The next morning the custom arrives and we can hoist the New Zealand flag and move the boat the the dock where she will be staying while we take a 10 days tour with our crew and their wife’s Helena and Julia that arrived in the morning.

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.