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Fiji

 The last morning! We have around 20 nautical miles to go until the pass, and then another 15 or so from the pass to the marina. Once we're alongside and have given the boat a good clean, we can move this delivery from the to-do list to the done list. Brilliant! There is only so much I can write about wind and waves, after all, and it's nice to be writing about the end of a passage for a change. And the nonsense I often write in these posts to entertain myself has been kept to a bare minimum this time - given another week at sea there may have been a lot more nonsense. It's a funny life doing yacht deliveries. We fly halfway around the world to step aboard boats we often know very little about, spend a couple of days getting familiar with them, and then head off on passages that some owners might spend months preparing for on boats they know inside out. And it's not always smooth sailing. There are plenty of occasions when I find myself having to deliver bad news to an ...
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24 Hrs To Go

 Well, today was a great day! For the first time in the entire history of yacht deliveries — no, in the entire history of sailing — we actually had a favourable wind shift! And it was almost perfectly timed, allowing us to gybe and start heading directly towards the pass into the marina.  At 4am we have around 150 nautical miles to go. That would put us at the reef entrance at around the same time tomorrow, which I'm rather disinclined to do. So we'll slow down a little and aim to arrive around first light instead. From there, it's through the pass, across the bay, into the marina, clear customs and immigration, give the boat a good washdown and then head to the airport to go home. Simple! I may have mentioned that I've done quite a bit of sailing recently. Since mid-July, I've covered around 9,500 nautical miles. That's a fair amount of time at sea, and I'm beginning to think a few days on dry land might be quite appealing. Today was pretty fant...
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In Fiji Waters

We're now in Fijian waters and making reasonable time towards our destination. The wind has been a little variable throughout the day, ranging from 12 to 22 knots and swinging around quite a bit, but we're making steady progress. There's not a huge distance left to cover, although we still have a few obstacles to avoid, and I suspect the breeze will die away for the last 50 nautical miles or so. In a straight line, it's 250 nautical miles to the pass and then another 25 or so to the marina. Of course, this is sailing, so we don't get to travel in straight lines! There are reefs, islands and wind angles to consider. The only real excitement today was spotting a ship on the AIS. It's the first vessel traffic we've seen since leaving Tahiti, which gives you some idea of just how isolated we've been for most of the passage. It's quite easy to forget there's a world out there when you haven't seen another vessel for days. We've als...
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Towards Fiji

 We cleared Tonga and made our way through the reefs as planned, which was all pretty uneventful. Always a good thing when navigating reefs, although it doesn't make for particularly exciting reading! One interesting thing about getting within 12 nautical miles of Tonga is that we can switch Starlink out of Ocean Mode and get unlimited data for a few hours. With the recent price increase to USD $6 per GB, the Ocean Mode pricing is becoming a little prohibitive. It's not that we need unlimited data, but I was reluctant to spend another $6 for a single gigabyte. So I was horrified when I checked the usage and discovered we'd consumed 16GB one day and 19GB the next! Our normal daily usage is around 5GB. I allocate 1GB for the boat, let the crew have 1GB, and the rest is mine. I'm the only one with the actual password, and crew access is controlled through an app that restricts them to 1GB segments. I've checked everything I can think of. Automatic updates, ...
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THFBOD

Well, I was hoping it wouldn't get to this point, but we're being followed by the Haunted Fishing Boat of Doom! Actually, that's not true, and it's a good sign I am getting to that stage. It means there really isn't much to write about because there have been no drastic changes, no major weather events and no unexpected adventures. Just steady sailing and making good progress. Which is exactly what I want on a delivery - boring miles, even if it doesn't make for particularly exciting reading. We've now turned slightly north to clear the reefs between the islands of Tonga, which are around 40 nautical miles away. I'm expecting to get through the gap this afternoon, and once we're clear, it's just a few hundred miles to the Lau Group in Fiji. We're getting to the interesting part of the passage now, with more islands, reefs and navigation to think about rather than simply pointing the boat west and watching the miles go by. It's...
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The Haunted Fishing Boat of Doom Returns?

 We're getting to that stage of a trade wind passage where there really isn't much left to write about that I haven't already covered. This is usually when I start making things up to entertain myself, and people get worried and start sending messages asking if we're OK. That happened after my rather hilarious blog about the Haunted Fishing Boat of Doom, that fell completely flat so I think I'll resist the temptation to invent another maritime mystery this time. Leaving Papeete - Seems a long time ago Yesterday's 24-hour run was just over 170 nautical miles, so we're still making fantastic time. The breeze has been in the high teens, with occasional gusts, and generally it's been very pleasant sailing. However, at around 2am this morning we sailed into another mysterious wind vortex. We had another wind shift of around 50 degrees, and the apparent wind dropped to less than 10 knots. Away went the headsail, on went one engine, and we motored f...
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Halfway There

 Things have settled down a little now, and we're enjoying some more consistent conditions. The apparent wind has been sitting around 18–23 knots over the port quarter with the occasional gust, which makes for a pretty comfortable ride and good sailing with the steady roar of the wake keeping us in tune with the boat speed. Yesterday's run was a little less than I expected at 166 nautical miles in 24 hours. We also had a rather dramatic wind shift of around 45 degrees, which sent us heading further south for a while. Then the wind dropped away to almost nothing, so we furled the headsail and started one engine. About 30 minutes later, the wind came back as though nothing had happened, and we were back sailing again. Just one of those days when the weather can't quite make up its mind. We're now past the halfway point and still looking at a clear run to Fiji. We definitely picked the right time to leave Tahiti! Yesterday, the GFS was showing a cyclone trackin...
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