Commodore
July 29, 2024

Tuesday 30 July – so much wind

The wind is howling about, even though we are very protected, it just means we can’t go out in the canoe or snorkel. Rowan had tried to snorkel the pass with a couple on a boat called Skylark, but between the wind, tide, roaring current and poor visibility, they didn’t last long. The woman didn’t last long at all, it’s always good for Rowan to know that it is not just me being a wimp! The Kite surfers and Wing Foilers on the other hand were enjoying the wind enormously.

We have decided to leave tomorrow, it is a good weather window for us to get to our next island, Kadavu, which is closer to the main island and not part of the Lau group. It is about a day and a half sail to get there. We are picking up Phil who was one of our crew members who sailed with us from NZ, he and his partner Wendy, are joining us on board. The Great Astrolabe Reef is one of the larges barrier reefs in the world and encompasses Kadavu Island. Phil is a very keen diver, so the men hope to do some diving on the reef which is meant to be spectacular. Thankfully a lot of it is in a marine reserve, so it is being looked after, it is a breeding area for a lot of the big fish.

In between Rowan’s work calls we slowly got the boat ready. We now have 3 inflatables on board, the paddle board, canoe and Wing Foil, which all takes a bit of putting away. We needed to get off the boat so we went to the beach for a walk, which at high tide was quite challenging but a good work out ploughing our way through the water. Rowan went for a swim at the pool at the end of the beach, it looked like the tide was still coming in through a small gap between two island. Rowan swam towards it and I noticed he was suddenly doing strong front crawl and not moving much. He managed to get to shallower water and stand up. It was deceptive the wind made it look like the water was coming in when in fact it was roaring out. If Rowan wasn’t a strong swimmer I think he could have been in real danger.

Terry from Aroroa invited us for drinks in the evening to show us around their Nordhavn motor boat. It was so tidy and not a thing out of place it was quite daunting, god knows what they must think of our untidy boat! He proudly showed us his glistening engine room, that you can stand up in and walk around in, what amused me is that the whole thing is powered by a John Deere tractor engine! Fascinating listening to their life history, they lived in a really rural spot in NZ, north of Whangarei Heads. Once their two daughters reached high school age, they decided they wanted to move to a city, and opted to go to Melbourne in Australia, and moved into a big apartment down town. Now the kids have left home, they are deciding where to retire to, while they pootle around on their boat. Rowan was not drinking as he has a board meeting at 2am! We didn’t stay too long as it was early to bed for us.