Last night, the wind lightened quite a bit, and we ended up motor-sailing until my watch. Then we could sail nicely for a while, and on into the day. After that, it went ahead of us and we had a bit of a fight to make some of our waypoints. We sailed between Kabara and Vuaqava and though the gap is just 1.5nm, we never saw either island due to the rain.

The rain lasted quite a while, and brought with it a quite horrible sea state with a nasty cross sea. The wind was very variable too, from on the beam at 20knots, dropping to less than 8, then going ahead of us and blowing at 20knots again. A bit frustrating. By this point, Fenice had appeared on AIS, and overtook us. They had a slightly better angle (and being a much bigger boat, had a better hull speed…).

We watched Fenice enter the pass into Fulaga on AIS and it was clear there was still quite some outgoing tide. This produces overfalls in the approach to the channel, and with the incoming wind-driven swell, it was quite messy. When we arrived, the tide was still ebbing and it was quite a thing to get Duplicat into the channel. We had lots of revs on both engines and were still nearly stationary! However, we made it safely in, and are now anchored in a beautiful spot to catch up on some sleep! Tomorrow we will do the official sevusevu ceremony at the village…

The picture (particularly at low-res) does not do our anchorage justice. Its a beautiful spot. I think I’m going to like it here!