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Starblazer - 15/06/2015 - The art of sailing slowly! .



We cleared out of Tonga a week ago, heading for Vanua Balavu in the northern Lau group of islands. These are reef strewn waters where charting is far from accurate so care must be taken when approaching landfall, ideally with the sun over your shoulder to help pick out the isolated reef areas. It was a journey of about 280 miles, or 48 hours at 6 knots, or 56 hours at 5 knots, averaging more than 6 knots was unlikely because the GRIB forecast showed not much wind on Monday becoming less on Tuesday. There was no way we could expect to complete the distance by Wednesday morning 40 hours after leaving Tonga. Our passage plan was to sail as much as we could, only reverting to the engine if the speed dropped to below 3 knots and using it towards the end if necessary to reach our waypoint off the entrance before 0830 on Thursday.
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We started off sailing along at about 4.5 knots with the wind from the northeast. Overnight it dropped completely so we motored for a few hours until it filled in again from the north. During my watch the wind died, the sails backed, the autopilot complained loudly that it couldn't hold its course and the wind backed about 120+ degrees, north through west to southwest in a matter of minutes. John got up to help me sort out the sails in the pitch dark then the wind quickly built to 17 knots and we were making 6.5 knots! Soon after dawn we set about slowing Starblazer down by rolling away some headsail and spilling the mainsail. We slowed, just a very little. Sailing slowly is not something you practise. By nightfall it was obvious we needed to slow down more because the wind had remained steady and we were likely to arrive in the dark. We dropped the main completely and sailed all night on a well reefed genoa as the wind had continued to back slowly during the day.
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Early Wednesday morning, with about 70 miles to go to the waypoint, we altered course to head in an arc maintaining roughly the same distance to the waypoint. Anchoring would have achieved the same result but isn't an option where the sea is about 2,000 metres deep. Early evening we judged that we could alter course again to go towards the waypoint, sailing gently along on reefed genoa alone. We got it right, arriving at our waypoint 8 miles from the pass at 0830. We entered the pass just before 1000, as planned. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as planned, overcast with no sun. We could see the water breaking on the reefs but couldn't spot any coral heads. Fortunately we didn't hit any and arrived safely in the Lomolomo anchorage by 1130 on Thursday morning. A word on the charting: our chartplotter was spot on in the entrance on 2 mile range but all the boats were shown to have crossed a small island and finished up anchored on the main island at Lomolomo on the same range but the 8 mile range proved much more accurate for a change!
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Health and Quarantine cleared us very quickly but we had to wait until Friday morning for Customs and Immigration to come on board. Once cleared the boats headed up to Mbavatu Harbour about 9 miles north. This was a slightly torturous passage, many of the marks were non-existent and some reef areas were unmarked on the charts. The harbour was stunning with several deep bays. Anchoring was challenging. We succeeded on the fourth attempt, having dragged the first three times in 8 to 12 metres, we bit the bullet and put out 70 metres of chain in 20 metre deep water. We held. Mbavatu Harbour is home to The Royal Exploring Isles Yacht Club, opened by the King of Fiji, with one member (the estate owner) and no bar!
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We gathered at the yacht club for a Sevusevu ceremony with the 6 clan chiefs and village headman from Daliconi village who had come by longboat to welcome us. Several of the young men with them had instruments and the music and kava drinking went on for several hours. Saturday morning we had a briefing at the yacht club then all followed the lead boat, Windflower, around inside the reef to Daliconi Village via the Bay of Islands. The scenery was spectacular even though it was drizzly all day. Late afternoon we gathered on the beach to be welcomed by the villagers and led into the village for a Lovo and Meke, a cultural performance and feast. It was a lovely evening.
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Sadly our time with the ICA rally has come to an end as we have arranged a liftout at Vuda Point early next week. John has decided to let someone else work on the engine! The gearbox is leaking oil and needs new oil seals, the engine mounts need some attention to allow the prop shaft to align properly and we need a good scrub and polish (Starblazer, not us!). We had a wonderful overnight sail from the Daliconi anchorage to within about half a mile of the Dere Bay anchorage on the west coast of Koro Island, motoring for less than half an hour altogether. Tonight we are eating ashore at the Dere Bay Resort and making use of their wi-fi.
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Joyce


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