Fiji Bound

“Can you anchor in the middle of the ocean?” is the question land-dwelling friends and family ask us most often. For six years, our answer has been a definitive “No.” But after visiting Minerva Reef, a tiny pit stop on the blue highway between New Zealand and Fiji, we’re reconsidering. Imagine an uninhabited atoll, days away from anywhere, that only rises above the surface at low tide. If we anchor inside it’s protected ring of coral, are we in the middle of the ocean? Sure looked like it! Regardless, it was a great place to clean Gerty’s hulls.

Before we left New Zealand, Michael made the mistake of asking me if he should scrape Gerty’s bottom in those cold, dark waters. Naturally, I said, “No way!” About an hour into our passage, he regretted listening to me—big time.

Barnacles weren’t the only problem on the first leg of our passage. The night before we even weighed anchor, Meridian—a derelict trawler—dragged across the Opua anchorage and crashed into us. On day two, our red code zero sail backed, caught on a spreader, and tore. On day three, the main sheet wrapped around the port aft stanchion and ripped it from the deck. On day four, the boom blocked the compass, causing our autopilot to lose its heading. On day five, a mystery fish snapped our line, and on day six, a jib car broke off the mainsail track. Ultimately, it was a chaotic comedy of errors played out against a backdrop of squalls, rainbows, intermittent motor-sailing, and mashed-up seas.

Fortunately, that mayhem is behind us now. In Minerva, Michael fixed everything and worked hard to make the hulls sparkle when he wasn’t kiting. Then, under blue skies, we left this morning for Fiji armed with a freezer full of gifted tuna from SV Blue Pearl—they must’ve caught our fish!

With 16.3 knots off the starboard aft corner, we’re flying over the ocean at a steady 9+ knots, and there’s a good chance we’ll get there too fast.

Quick! Before we embrace the Fijian sevusevu ritual and bring Kava to the Chief,  I want to remember the best of New Zealand, because, be it a person, bird, or fruit, we will miss all types of Kiwis. We enjoyed everything from the food (hokey pokey, fish and chips, flat whites, pies, toasties, scones, Real Fruit, jet plane gummies, and manuka honey) to the expressions (“It’s custard,” “sparky,” “browned off,” “bronzies” “Yum, yum pigs bum.”) to the cultural quirks (barefeet anywhere, Vogel bread, national sheep dog obsession) to the environment (breathtaking), to the people (the best of the best). And I dare say, we will be back!