Crossing Fiji at Night, Oh No!

Sailing from Savusavu to Port Denarau normally is an easy 3-day trip with overnight stops every evening in welcoming bays.  We did this trip twice in 2011.  The problem facing us now is that, without an anchor, we cannot stop.  We do not like sailing around Fiji at night.  In fact, every single sailing advisory for private yachts says, “Do NOT sail in Fijian waters at night”!  Charts are poor, navigational aides are not maintained, and numerous hazards abound.  With over 150 miles between Savusavu and Port Denarau, we have no choice.  It will be an overnight passage.  We need to meticulously plan our route making sure that we go through all challenging areas with adequate daylight.  At this time of year in Fiji, the best light for good visibility is relatively short, roughly between 9:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the late afternoon.  The whole of this 150-mile trip from our departure in Savusavu to our arrival at the trickier passages in adequate daylight and ending with our final approach into Port Danarau must be coordinated and timed.  It’s a lengthy, complicated process upon which The Captain spent many intense hours.  Muttering away, he was ensconced at the dining room table with charts, protractor, paper and pencils. 

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The route with the most open water is to go south of Viti Levu, but it is 50% longer and the timing is not good between the places that we need to transit in daylight.  It would take us two nights, and we will have to kill 8 hours somewhere along the route to adjust our timing.  The route between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu contains more reefs, but we have done it before and know the accuracy of the charts in this area.  We can do it in one overnight and only have to kill 5 hours on this route.  This is the way we will go.  The Captain divides the route into 3 legs.  Leg 1 and 3 will be done in daylight, and leg 2 will have to be done in the dark.

Tuesday, May 17th – 0900 – The first leg of our route will take us south from Savusavu to the Makogai Channel.  We want to go through this channel at about 1700, before the end of daylight.  There is a nearby reef which always has surf breaking over it.  Being able to see it will confirm the passage location. 

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1015 – At Reef Point south of Savusavu, we turn southsoutheast to go around the Namena Barrier Reef.  Unfortunately, the wind angle is too tight to sail.   Back on the engine goes.  We leave the jib up and motor sail. 

1330 – We make the turn around Namena Barrier Reef, and no longer into the wind, we turn off the engine and raise the mainsail.  We are now sailing directly for Makongai Channel.  This part of Fiji, too, was badly damaged by TC Winston.  There used to be a nice resort in Namena Barrier Reef where our friends, Jim and Jan Evans, have vacationed.  They asked us if we had heard anything about the status of the resort, and unfortunately, we were forced to give them bad news.  A fellow cruiser who had recently been to Namena told us that there was “just nothing left.”  Everything had been washed out to sea.

1640 – The wind has been increasing for the last hour or so giving us a fine sail past Makogai Island.   Getting out the binoculars, we examine the skyline of trees.  Sadly, as we had heard, this island also looks painfully barren after the blasting it received from Winston.   It is here, just after we pass Makogai, that the reef which The Captain wanted to go through in daylight lurks.  It is called a channel, this passage through the reef, but in reality it is much smaller than that.  With the wind up, the surf can be seen crashing over the reef from several miles away.  It is reassuring to know exactly where the passage is and where we are in relation to it.  Through the pass, the first leg of our trip is now completed!

The second leg of our trip will mostly be done in darkness.  This is the section of our trip where we need to reduce speed so that we do not arrive at the next reef before daylight.   Dropping the mainsail, we sail west in the wide Vatu-I-Ra Channel under just the jib.

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2210 – Bona Reef is at the narrowest section of the Vatu-I-Ra Channel.  Even with the good moonlight, we cannot see the reef on either side; nor are any of the navigation lights working.  Fortunately, we are not sailing blindly.  Having been through here before, we have the confidence of knowing that, at least in this part of Fiji, the electronic charts on our chartplotter are accurate.  We are also tracking our position on Google Earth and using our radar.  Even so, it is not comfortable knowing that out there in the dark, a very short distance away, are reefs just waiting to snag a boat. 

2220 – It’s time to slow down even further.  At this point, the route enters an open area called the Bligh Water, and here is where The Captain has chosen to really slow down to kill time.  We furl the jib and raise the staysail.  Then, with partially reefed staysail, we proceed along at just over 3 knots.

Wednesday, May 18th – 0245 – We pass abeam Nananu Passage which goes through the reef surrounding the northwest coast of Viti Levu.  Normally, we would go through the reef here and then go down an inside passage along the coast.  However, there is no way that we would want to go through this particular passage in the dark.  We could just hang around and wait for daylight, but doing so would time our arrival in Port Denarau after the marina office closed.  The plan, instead, is to go through a different passage further down the coast.  On we slowly sail into the night.

0400 – We are approaching the gap between the reef surrounding the island of Viti Luvu and a large offshore reef called Charybdis Reef.  This gap is over 4 miles wide, so there is plenty of room for some navigational discrepancies.  However, we have another concern.  Shortly before The First Mate ended her watch at 0400, she noted a light in the distance behind us.  The Captain takes up the watch monitoring this unknown ship as it slowly but steadily closes in on us.  It does not show up on AIS which would have given us a hint as to what it was, its direction and speed.  On radar, it shows up as a large target.  As it gets closer, an unusual array of lights can be seen.  What is it?  It is certainly bigger and more lit up than a typical commercial fishing boat.  It is displaying the lights of a boat under motor like a smaller cargo ship, but there are also other lights well to the rear and left.  At other times, the lights appear off to its right.  The Captain speculates that it is a tugboat towing something and that some of the lights that should be displayed on a boat with a tow are not working.  It has been on the same track that we are, and although it has been closing on us as we sailed slowly along, it has not moved either to the left or to the right in order to pass us.  Avante’s navigation lights are on, and though we are transmitting on AIS, since this boat probably doesn’t have AIS to receive our signal, are they even aware of us in their path?  Normally, they would not expect to see any other traffic out here at night.  The Captain wonders if anybody is awake on the bridge?  Preferring to stay ahead of this boat rather than have it catch up with us in the dark, he turns the engine on to pick up a little speed.

0600 – Dawn comes with clear skies and 10 – 12 knots from SE.  With our increased speed, the boat behind us has fallen about a mile to our rear, and we can see that it is indeed a tugboat with a large barge in tow.

0640 – Why is The Captain waking her?  It’s not time for her watch.  Fish!  We have a fish!  All day yesterday, we had a line out.  Nothing bit.  This morning, he put out the line and before it was fully out, a fish struck.  He reeled it in, secured it, and then went below to get The First Mate to help with the final steps of getting it on board. 

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What fortunate timing!  By increasing our speed to stay ahead of the unknown boat, we had ended up ahead of our planned schedule.   Slowing way down to catch and clean the fish fortuitously put us right back on schedule. 

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0850 – With good daylight, we begin the third leg of our trip.  We motor through the reef off the coast of Viti Levu at Yavena passage.  The tide is down and the reefs on either side of us are easy to see.  For the next several hours we will be navigating the inner route which runs down the northwest coast of Vitu Levu inside the reef.  While this passage is inside the reef, it is not without hazards. 

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1230 – This route goes right through the harbor at Lautoka.  When we were here 5 years ago, boats coming into this area had to stop and check in with Customs and Immigration for this region of Fiji.  Thank goodness, we don‘t have to stop today, for Fiji eliminated that bureaucratic requirement when they implemented the Coastal Permit that we almost missed getting in Savusavu.  Lautoka has always looked a little past its prime, and today is no exception.  There are some very sad-looking ships moored here, and one has been blown up on the nearby rocks.

1430 – Continuing another dozen miles south from Lautoka, we arrive off Port Denarau, one of Fiji’s most popular tourist areas.  We are tired, both mentally and physically, and more than ready to have Avante safely tied up in the marina.  One final obstacle lies in our path.  A large, hulking cruise ship is anchored off the channel into the marina.  Its launches are ferrying passengers back and forth between the ship and the marina and look like chicks scurrying hither and thither around a mother hen.  The channel into the marina is narrow and not very deep, and once inside the marina area itself, there is not a lot of room to maneuver.  With all the extra traffic from this cruise ship, we do not want to enter the marina until we know where we are to go.  Which slip have we been assigned?  The Captain tries several times via radio to contact the marina.  No answer.  We go into a circular holding pattern.  Maybe they’re on a break.   “Try the cell phone,” suggests The First Mate.  Great idea, but the battery turns up dead.  At long last, the marina responds on the radio and gives us our slip assignment.  We enter the channel and proceed to our berth.  It is a nice double slip but made ever so tight by an extra wide motorboat that is hogging up more than its share of the space.  Thankfully, the marina has sent down several dockhands to help with the lines, and with one up on the deck of the over-wide motorboat to push off if needed, we slip into the slip.  Lines are tied.  Engine is off.  A challenging passage is successfully over and done. 

We fully understand why all advisories caution against traveling around Fiji at night.  The waters are just too obstacle-ridden, seldom marked and poorly charted, but circumstances sometimes force one to do what one does not want to do.  Thanks to The Captain’s meticulous and detailed planning, we made it through successfully and with as little angst as possible.