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Firefly - En route to Australia



At 1000 this morning, Thursday 16th July, Firefly crossed the start line first at the beginning of an 1100 mile passage to Mackay, Australia. With the wind directly behind the fleet, blowing at about 20 knots and the sun shining, it was glorious as the 16 boats sailed out of Mele Bay and headed due west towards a way point north of reefs that lie off New Caledonia. From that waypoint the route turns a little south and the boats will pass through the Great Barrier Reef at the 'Hydrographers Passage', about 100 miles short of Mackay.


We have spent 5 nights on a mooring in Port Vila on Efate island, the capital of Vanuatu. Its been a very social time as World ARC 2015 was joined by Jonathan and Donna from Chez Nous, Dennis and Sherry from Trillium and Martin and Elizabeth from Caduceus - all good friends that we made on World ARC 2014 and whom we have now wished a fond farewell. Special tribute needs to be made to the 6 people above and also John and Joyce on Starblazer (who are en route to Australia with our fleet). They have all made exceptional contributions to the relief work going on in Vanuatu following Cyclone Pam - they really are very generous people.


In addition to socialising we have been preparing Firefly for the passage with numerous smaller jobs ticked off before we left. Anticipating the weather will be quite windy we have all our food pre prepared and in the freezer. We did fit in hiring a quad bike and during one afternoon we went east to the blue lagoon for a swim and the following morning we headed west to the cascades at Mele and visited the gardens and cultural centre there. We also had a few trips to immigration as we had a crew member flying in with a one way ticket and needed to get our 'skippers letter' authorised so that they could join the flight.


Mike has joined Firefly's crew, flying in from New Zealand a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, Lynley, Mike's wife, was also due to sail with us but managed to sprain her ankle and could not come. We met Mike and Lynley during our tour of the South Island of New Zealand when we stayed at Hopewell Lodge - their superb, quality, 'backpackers' that is located on Kenepuru Sound in a remote part of the Marlborough Sounds. Mike has sailed quite a lot but has never crossed an ocean before.

Its now 1600 and we are almost 50 miles from Port Vila. The fleet is quite tightly bunched with about 10 miles between the fastest and slowest boats at present - Firefly is in the front third and is averaging about 7 knots with the sails goosewinged with both main boom and jib boom held out with preventors. The forecast is for similar conditions overnight with lighter winds tomorrow and then increasing again for the second half of the passage.

Paul and Susie

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