Friday night the wind turned a little in our favour, which brought our speed back up to 8kts. Saturday morning the wind was 25kts most of the time with short periods of 30kts with rain most of the day. The waves started at 2m on the beam and built to 5m to 6m making it a rolly ride.
We reached Fiji late in the afternoon passing between Vanau Levu and Taveuni islands. This gave us protection against the swell and most of the wind. As we came out from behind Taveuni to head to Savusavu we got hit. The wind was up 30kts gusting 37kts and the swell had built to 8m with the occasional 10m wave just for fun( not that much fun if you ask B).
To get in to Savusavu we had to go between the reef at the point of the bay and a row of rocks crossing the bay with an 8m swell behind us. We pulled in the staysail the main was reefed to number 2 and lifejackets were on. Off we went. It’s an amazing feeling being lifted 8 to 10m from behind as the boat surfs down the face of the wave. The waves were travelling faster than us so as the crest of the wave reached Imagine, the boat would go from bow down to bow up. One minute looking at the sea at the bottom of the wave to only seeing the grey rain clouds in front of us, then back down again. B wouldn’t let me play Beach Boys music.
Half an hour later we were in the shelter of the bay. The pitch black night meant we had to rely on our charts to navigate. We could see on AIS that there were a lot of boats in the Copra Shed Marina and river. There were even two boats anchored in the mouth of the river, so we decided to stop before the river and anchor for the night.
What fun glad your there safe