September 14, 2016
16 43.271S 179 53.414E
Posting by Dennis:
Early, at 2am, we left Savu Savu heading for Rabi island 80 miles to the northeast. We motor sailed out and around the point into four foot seas with the wind on the nose, it was going to be a long day. Landfall did ok loping through the waves, it is not very encouraging when you see -.8 VMG (Velocity Made Good toward our plotted way point) on the plotter, it is going to be a very long day. The Day just plugged along with landfall banging its way along at a good twenty degree heal. It is hard to imagine just how much work it is to move around when the boat is healed over like this. You can’t really cook or do much of anything, it was turning out to be a very long day. As the day wore on we worked are way eastward getting more in the lee of the island of Taveuni so the seas eased and soon we were beating straight toward the Somo straights. As we motored trough the reef Barb hooked a Dorado fish on the rod and reel. It was fun to watch her play the fish as it leaped out of the water and would run from side to side. It is so much more fun to catch a fish with a fishing rod rather than a rope. Finally, she lost the fish, which was just fine with me, since I didn’t feel much like cleaning the thing anyway and our freezer was full of Dorado. We were hoping for a Tuna or a Wahoo.
View of the narrow entrance we navigated by night
The problem was it was getting late in the day and we were not going to make it to Rabi island so we were going to have to anchor somewhere for the night. So we went for plan ‘B’, a noted hurricane anchorage. We ended up pulling in to Naqaiqai Creek in the dark using the spotlight and anchored in front of a small house belonging to a very friendly old man. We knew it was ok when we heard his booming voice over his barking dogs “Bulah, welcome home!!”. Then it was a dinner of boiled vegetables and off to bed, a very long day indeed.