2017 Overview – Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji and New Zealand

Last year’s sailing was so nice that we decided to just reverse the trip this year. Starting from Australia, we would visit New Caledonia and Fiji before going to New Zealand at year end.

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Year End Summary

Dates	Places	Miles
Jan 10 – Feb 20	Australia	1067
May 5 – Jun 1	Australia	19
Jun 2 – Jun 9	Australia to New Caledonia	826
Jun 10 – Jun 19	New Caledonia	90
Jun 20 – Jun 25	New Caledonia to Fiji	698
Jun 25 – Jul 21	Fiji	315
Oct 8 – Nov 15	Fiji	310
Nov 16 – Nov 25	Fiji to New Zealand	1148
Nov 25 – Dec 6	New Zealand	92
Total Year		4565

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After spending the holidays at home in Telluride, we returned to Brisbane in mid-January for 6 weeks of sailing.  Australia was experiencing a record hot summer, and Brisbane was extremely hot and humid.  We sailed down the coast to Sydney and got blasted by two Southerly Busters on the way. However, cruising around Sydney and Pittwater is always nice.  In the middle of February we sailed (motored really) back north to Brisbane where we again left Avante on a private dock in Raby Bay and flew back to the States.

In early May, we returned to Brisbane and had Avante hauled out for new bottom paint and some other maintenance work. During this time, The First Mate had planned a long car trip from Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne and on to Adelaide. This was fortunate because Avante was on the hardstand 2 weeks longer than expected while the lower rudder bearing was replaced.  After our land travels, we spent most of a week provisioning and getting the boat ready, then we set off on an ocean passage.

The passage from Australia to New Caledonia goes against the prevailing tradewinds, so weather planning was critical as we did not want to have to fight strong headwinds.  We cleared out of Australia on a Friday and got underway, but we did not leave Moreton Bay until Sunday morning due to wind warnings right along the Australian coast.  That worked well. Since we had not been on the boat for several months, it gave us a day at anchor to really get organized.

The passage from Brisbane to Noumea was 800nm, and it took us just under 5 days.  We had to motor quite a bit due to light winds in the middle of the passage and to keep our speed up at the end in order to get cleared into New Caledonia before the weekend.

This was our third time in New Caledonia, and we spent several days in Noumea before cruising around a number of the small islands to the northwest of Noumea.  This was an area that we had not really covered before, and we were lucky to have relatively light winds this time.  We did not have great sailing, but we did get to anchor off some pretty islands.  Water temperature was just warm enough for a quick swim, and we were not tempted to go snorkeling on the reefs.

The passage from New Caledonia to Fiji also goes against the prevailing tradewinds, so once again, weather was critical for timing our departure from New Caledonia.  We had a firm date to be in Fiji, because our granddaughter was going to join us there again.  When a weather window opened up about a week before we really wanted, we took advantage of the opportunity. 

The passage from New Caledonia to Fiji was 700nm and took 5 days.  Winds were light like we wanted, and we motored most of the first 3 days and almost 50% of the overall trip.  It was a fairly easy passage, and we never had over 20 knots of wind.

This was our third time sailing in Fiji and, by far, our least adventurous.  We spent our entire time in fairly familiar western waters.  Schedule restrictions were the main reason for this.  Our granddaughter, Berlin, was arriving on Saturday July 8.  Because we had left New Caledonia early, we reached Fiji almost two weeks prior to her arrival. It then took several days before we had all the necessary paperwork to leave the Lautoka area. Since we wanted to be in the marina for two days prior to Berlin’s arrival, we were only left with about a week for cruising.  That did not allow us to venture far, and we spent the week cruising in the Mamanucas.  Other than Musket Cove, we had not really explored these islands which have lots of reefs and few recommended anchorages.  The highlight was finally being able to anchor at Navadra Island which turned out to be our favorite western Fiji anchorage.

Berlin arrived on an early morning flight, and after picking her up at the airport, we immediately headed out for 13 days of cruising.  This was Berlin’s second time to Fiji, and we started by going south to Likuri Island. The Robinson Crusoe Resort there puts on a great show, and she really loved the fire dancing. We then slowly worked our way north to Naviti Island in the Yasawas before returning to Port Denerau.  We tried to keep our daily sailing fairly short so that we had plenty of time for snorkeling and island exploring. We stopped twice at Musket Cove and Navadra Island. After a great visit, we all flew back to the States, leaving Avante in the Port Denarau Marina.

After summer at home in Telluride, we returned in October and had several weeks of Fiji sailing before heading south to New Zealand.  We had thought about going further afield this time, but we wanted to be ready to depart Fiji on the first good weather window in November. That really did not give us much time to go far.  So, back to the Mamanucas and Yasawas we went.  Nothing wrong with them.  Other than lots of reefs and incomplete charts, they are some of the best cruising grounds in the world.

We have made 6 passages in and out of New Zealand and only had two where the weather did not become an issue, so we have a healthy respect for weather on passages to New Zealand.  The country lies fairly far south, and the weather can get quite rough at times.  New Zealand weather normally comes across the Tasman Sea and is subject to frequent changes.  The rhumbline passage from Lautoka, Fiji to Opua, New Zealand is almost 1100 nm, so it is typically a 7 day passage.  That means, we are relying on 7 day out forecasts of weather around New Zealand when we depart and even less reliable forecasts when we are looking for a weather window for the passage.  We use Commanders Weather to help select the right time to go, and we started looking at passage weather in late October with the idea that we could leave as soon as November 1.  It was over 2 weeks later before a decent weather window opened up.

Our passage took 7 ½ days and covered 1148nm.  Winds were quite light at the start.  The mainsail was not raised during the first three days, and the engine was running 2/3 of the time during the first four days.  Then the wind picked up, and we had a nice sail to New Zealand.  Except for one event when 20–25 knot winds from a passing cloud overpowered the autopilot in the middle of the night, it was an easy passage.

After clearing in to New Zealand, we spent some time in the Opua Marina coordinating boat work to be done while we were gone. Our plans for 2018 include a long ocean passage across the Roaring 40’s to French Polynesia. Because we are planning to spend the next several years in places where good boat maintenance services are hard to find, we have a very lengthy project list this year. Our time in New Zealand was not all work, and we did get out for a 4 day sailing trip with John and Lyn Martin to Whangaroa Harbor. In early December, we left New Zealand and flew home for the holidays, planning to return in February to get our maintenance projects completed.