SOUTH PACIFIC PASSAGE REPORT:

French Polynesia to Fiji, with stops in Aitutaki and Vava’u, Tonga.

with Erick & Jenny on SV WINDSONG

Having cleared out of French Polynesia in Bora Bora, we made way towards French Polynesia’s westernmost settled island of Maupiti to wait for our weather window to sail west towards Tonga, and our ultimate destination of Fiji. We entered Maupiti through the narrow and daunting pass, and dropped anchor in the beautiful lagoon, ready to spend a few days enjoying the last taste of French Polynesia. Those few days ultimately ended up being over three weeks, as the South Pacific weather patterns decided to send system after system of immense swells towards French Polynesia, pinning us into Maupiti.

Maupiti’s one pass faces directly south, as such it receives the dominant southerly swells face on. When swells reach 2 meters and above, it is unsafe to navigate in a small sailboat not only due to the waves nearly closing out the channel, but also the strong current caused by all the water needing to escape the lagoon. The dominant winds oppose the current, causing chaotic standing waves.  While there were a few times where the wind forecast looked good for us to leave towards Tonga, the waves kept us pinned in for all those weeks.

Once the wait was finally over, we had a clear weather window to sail west and the swells died down. We enjoyed one final night in Maupiti experiencing the opening ceremonies of the French Polynesian Heiva festival, a lovely way to send us off to the next adventure.  The next morning, we set sail, having beautiful sunny skies and perfect 15-17 knots downwind.  Only two days into the passage, a trough which was in the forecast but was previously showing to be quick and mild, had now strengthened and pushed more north, right into our path in about 5 days. One more day’s forecast update now showed we would enter a nasty zone of rotating winds as the trough pushed through our path.  We decided to alter course further South to Aitutaki, Cook Islands.

We spent a lovely 10 days in Aitutaki waiting out the front, which showed some nasty rotating winds as we were at anchor, giving us comfort that we made the right decision to put into port instead of carrying on at sea.  Once conditions settled, we set out to Tonga.  We saw another weak trough coming through on the forecast, so we aimed northwest to get out of the potential zone of thunderstorms or squalls.  The first few days were prefect sailing, and once the trough moved below us we had one day of dead calm wind, which we motored through, before the southeasterlies came back. We escaped the squalls thankfully, and now turned more southeast towards Tonga.

The next few days were among the roughest we have had at sea.  While the winds were steady at 20-25 knots, it was the seas that gave us the most trouble. 3 meters, very short period, coming from multiple directions.  It was the first time in almost 10,000 nm sailed that both of us felt seasick.  We always keep night watches in the cockpit, but waves would regularly break over the boat, soaking us and making for uncomfortable conditions; as such we spent much of our time below.  The next three days passed like this, and we finally made landfall in Vava’u Tonga, happy to have the long part of the “dangerous middle” Pacific past us.

With a few weeks of time enjoyed in Tonga, we set sail for the last of our long passages to Fiji.  This passage was just about the best sailing we have ever experienced, easy light winds and mellow seas.  Humpback whales breaching here and there, fish on the lines, easy motion, sunny skies and a stunning full moon.  We are now settled into Fiji and look forward to only needing to do short hop sails for the rest of the season.

THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR ADVENTURE ON THE WATER

SV WINDSONG Erick & Jenny – Downeaster Cutter 38′