Day three and four of our Opua to Fiji expedition. The wind has continued to gradually ease and for the first time since turning it off in NZ, we turned the engine on. Our days of watchkeeping start to blur together but our body clocks are settling in to the new rhythm. Day three night we did a gybe (oh how exciting) and then danced around on the foredeck with the spinnaker pole. The storm jib got tucked into the dinghy to rest until next time, Dan and Andy had fun getting it off again! Once pointing at Minerva Reef (oh so close yet so far) we poled out our jib. What fantastic boat speed! Silver Fern was more stable than she had been all week so we were all happy to get a better rest down below and not worry about flying across the cockpit on every wave.

Steely Dan and Handy Andy removing the storm jib. Look at that concentration!

We kept this sail plan for a whole 24 hrs and made really good way with the wind, often seeing boat speeds around 2/3 of the true wind speed. Our crew are absolutely fantastic and keen for any mission or side quest we give them. Russell and Anne on the foredeck at night doing sail changes, I also have seen Felicity, Handy Andy and Dan up there too. Kylie prefers to keep her head out of the bilge for queasy reasons and Tim has resurrected as a fully functioning member of this crew. This means that 8/9 of Silver Fern’s crew has done pole dancing so far and we’re hoping for another deployment on the next winds.

Ratio sail cloth to sail tape is above average

Each time we cross a latitude line there is a small celebration in anticipation of our magical destinations. We are all holding out to arrive in Minerva Reef, it’s looking like a Sunday afternoon arrival. While paradise awaits, we are all stripping off layer after layer as the temperatures rise. We’re tracking the sea temperature too, which has gone up to 23°C . I can’t wait for a swim!! We’re even thinking about a mid-ocean swim if the weather and sea state allows, which it currently isn’t.

Trying to keep up with Te Kaihopara’s crew, we have set a fishing rod that’s being supervised by Dan and Russell. No luck yet, but we’ve just put over the scraps from a roast so maybe we’ll catch a 8-foot tiger shark! Felicity has whipped up a causal roast lamb and the fixings for dinner tonight and the whole boat is filled with the aroma. I’d imagine it would smell quite nice if I wasn’t a vegetarian.

Yesterday afternoon while sending it downwind, we came across a deep sea long line. Well spotted by Russell on lookout, we spent the next 30 minutes spotting the next buoy, and the next buoy, and the next buoy, and the next buoy….. until we found the last one of the line. This was particularly interesting as the fishing buoys were right down our path and being on a downwind angle, we didn’t have much space to turn until we would gybe or backwind the poled out jib. It was great teamwork from Kylie, Anne and I on lookout, and Russell on the helm making neat adjustments to our course so we didn’t catch a buoy around the rudder. This whole event was across the span of around 3 miles! That’s a long line, no wonder they call it that. Tim thinks he saw the fishing vessel associated but they kept well over our horizon after that.

Overnight on day 4 the wind dropped off completely and the trusty Yanmar was put to work. Several hours later, the wind reemerged and the sails came out again, just to put the engine back on again after a couple of hours of sailing. We’re making 7.5kts now, heading straight for Minerva and consequently continuing to strip off more layers.

Check in next time to see if we’ve caught a fish yet, and to hear how many more pole dances we’ve done and layers have been stripped off.

-Hannah Wilks, Chief Mate on Silver Fern.

Stripping and Pole Dancing

Half moon rising

Rocking and Rolling