Amy’s First Offshore Passage!
After years of preparation, the time finally came to take Kaihanu offshore!
In a blur, Tom and I spent a couple months getting Kaihanu ready for her Cat 1 inspection. Cat 1 is a New Zealand special. It’s essentially an audit of the boat and the crew. The boat needs to have all the required safety gear present and current. The crew needs offshore sailing experience, which Tom had, plus courses on offshore first aid and advanced sea survival as well as the ability to use and operate the equipment.
This process was nerve wracking but, in the end, we sailed though!
Soon after, the weather window opened, we said our goodbyes and we found ourselves checking out of Marsden Cove with about 7 other boats.
The bow was pointed toward Minerva Reef! A little mini dream come true.
The following are the messages we sent to friends and family on our passage from Whangarei to Fiji in 2022.
Enjoy!
Whangarei, NZ to Savusavu, Fiji
35.7275° S, 174.3166° W to 16.7799° S, 179.3381° E
Savusavu, Fiji
Whangārei, New Zealand
PASSAGE DIARIES
Kaihanu Sails to Fiji| June 2022
4 June 2022
Ahoy!
The last couple weeks have been a blur. In amongst a bout of COVID, we managed to haul Kai out and get her all cleared to go offshore. Not long after that, a weather window opened. It has been all go since.
Tom bravely tackled getting the last bits and pieces tidied up and bought for Kai while I tried to squeeze two years worth of knowledge into my replacements gray matter in three days! Just to reiterate, Tom is a champion! He did an amazing job sorting out the last bits and pieces and we could not be on the water today if it wasn’t for him.
Underway
So here we are…on our way to Fiji via Minerva Reef. We are about 200 nautical miles away from NZ and at roughly 33 degrees latitude after starting at 35 degrees.
Yesterday we checked out of Marsden Cove with our friends/buddy boat on Iemanja. There are seven boats in total that checked out of NZ yesterday to take advantage of this weather window. Like any passage north, the first part is a bit wet and wild and yesterday didn’t fail to deliver. Thankfully, the conditions weren’t as bad as we forsaw and Kai handled the seas beautifully. I, however, didn’t fare as well an ended up feeding the fish. Tom got a bit green in the gills but kept his lunch to himself. Our friends on Iemanja suffered a couple of breakages and a knock down but spirits are high and we’ve kept in touch over the radio.
Through the night, the sea slowly settled and the winds dropped as the sun rose.
Diesel Sails Out
Currently, as predicted, the winds have dropped and we are using the diesel sails….probably for the next 24 hours until the high moves off. We have enjoyed a beautiful sunny day today and Tom has whipped up some yummy meals.
With last nights watches being a bit too exciting to settle into, I think tonight promises podcasts and books under an insanely starry sky.
Sending our love and hugs to our dear friends and family on land. And special belated birthday wishes to Clare (Tom’s mum) and my beautiful aunt Melinda who both celebrated another trip around the sun on 3 June.
We love you!
Amy and Tom
5 June 2022
Ship’s current location:
31 degrees 10.8400S
177 degrees 07.7077E
I forgot to mention yesterday, you can follow us (I hope) on marinetraffic.com – Kaihanu and feel free to email us back at this cryptic email address. I’m checking our ship SSB email every day at roughly 5pm while the chef works his magic 🙂
Amy – out
So today was a wonderful day motoring which is a big relief for our batteries as they took a real work out as we left NZ…cloud cover and too windy for the wind gen.
A beautiful day today, Iemanja took off yesterday avo, today we have overtaken motor sailing and as we did so Amy helped to sort out the SSB issues other boats were having so it’s nice to know we are all in contact even over the horizon. (Yes, Bruce and Lynn, I’ve still ended up sorting IT issues out even in the middle of nowhere!!! :P)
Fish On!
Big excitement today, as we were sitting in the sun we saw something chasing something else just off from the boat….. well both rods spooled out at the same time!!!!! one stopped thank god but managed to get the other under control, we ‘landed’ a striped marlin, about 5kg which we released.
What an amazing experience to interact with this amazing intelligent creature, and the colours unreal… we will post this on our FB page… 
Then we reset the rods and off it went again!!! A beautiful Mahimahi, well we got it to the boat, we were not particularly organized, got it onto the transom and woops! dinner got away! again an amazing experience to see the colours of these amazing fish and hopefully taste one soon. We are settling into steamed dumplings and another cruisy night watch which is really lovely. more wind tomorrow fingers crossed.
Love to all you land lubbers… I am in my safe place out here… Tom BH
6 June 2022
Ships current location:
29 degrees 22.0350S
177 degrees 58.6688E
What an epic day…full of wildlife!
Dirty Dancing
Last nights watches ended up with Tom lacking a bit of sleep. I started out the watch schedule and within 10 minutes of putting up all of our canvas, the first squall hit. It was dark and I was on to it…but it woke Tom out of the beginning of a slumber (and his help was certainly greatly appreciated). Every time we thought the last squall passed, another one came which brought far too much excitement for Tom to sleep! That lasted 3 hours (and we do 4 hour watches). After the line of squalls passed us, the stillness set in, Kai did some dirty dancing pulling a 360 (as we watched from a distance as our new friends on Jemma II did as well) and, thus, we began to motor…again.
Finding Peace
The morning brought a baby Jack Mackerel with sore lips that got released back to grow into a big mackerel. Eventually there was enough breeze to turn off the motor and we gently sailed over a calm, nearly waveless expanse of blue wobbly stuff. 
The day melted away as we enjoyed the peace of being under sail, sussing a couple boat jobs, and just completely relaxing.
Rhythm Of Ocean Life
We have fallen into a bit of a rhythm on board that we both completely dig. We both feel absolutely blessed to be here now. It’s also great to know we have friends nearby. Though not in view, we have the pleasure of the company of our buddy boat, Iemanja, floating about 16 nautical miles away, and a new friend, Jemma II, caught in between Iemanja and us, who have joined our rag tag team heading to Minerva and act, at times, as our message relay.
Can’t Escape Banter (and don’t want to)!
The crew on these three boats have been sharing stories along the way. It’s wonderful knowing they are there…except when Jemma II today mentioned that not only had they caught (and landed) a mahi mahi, but also saw a whale! In fact, a couple of boats on the SSB net mentioned today that they landed mahi mahi. It’s nice to hear that there is wildlife about.
Another Enjoyable Day At Sea
In fact, as we were reveling in the day and that we have the perfect wind, at a great direction, slight seas, and Kai in her super happy place (meaning very little helm and making good way which makes for a gentle, fast sail), the sun began to set magically into the distance. As the day fell into twilight, a pair of dolphins graced us with their presence. I yelped! Scared the bleep out of 
Tom and I rushed to the bow (of course). What a magic way to end an epic day plus stars…the stars!
We hope all of you are also in your happy places today.
Sending love and hugs!
Amy and Tom
7 June 2022
Ships current location:
27 degrees 33.3465S
179 degrees 00.4033E
We started the evening with sailing until 2330 when we had to start the motor which we have just turned off for a relief for a while hoping the wind fills in for the evening.
So Close You Can Touch Them
Last night was strange with the new starlink satellites prominent in the sky. They look like they are flashing all different colours and really close…. there were quite a lot of real shooting stars though.
Success!
The day whiled away as it was a grey day and i think we are both getting quite tired so napping until we sat down for a late arvo snack when boom…… both rods spooled out, much excitement, luckily one got away but we landed the other. A beautiful tuna (maybe a skipjack)… the cockpit looked like a murder scene!
All cleaned up and filleted straight away so we have sushi for our supper!
It’s looking like we will be at Minerva reef some time on Thursday arvo for a few days rest and crayfish (fingers crossed) before we continue on to SavuSavu.
Sending hugs!
Tom and Amy
8 June 2022
Ships current location:
25 degrees 49.1550S
179 degrees 59.9489E
With Minerva Reef in our sights for tomorrow evening…it will be a blast and the start of a dream come true after looking at satellite photos and hearing stories of this place for years now. I’m guesstimating at least 10 boats will be there and celebrating will ensue!!!!
Mind Games
Last night was another magical night. It was a little foggy to start, which casts its own spell. As the night wore on, the planets rose (the 2022 alignment of Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter , and Saturn) and, embarrassingly, I mistook
Venus for a mast light. I came up to check for boats and saw a bright light low on the horizon. It looked super close, so close that I got the spotlight out to check if it was a boat! Um…no 😛 So I got my star tracker app out. Oh! I should really keep that to myself but there you go! And I’d like to blame it on being tired…so yeah, I think I’ll do that 😛
Tom was greeted with another stunning sunrise this morning as I slept.
***Spa Day***
Today ended up being tunatastic! Not only was it full of fish, it was summer! It’s starting to feel more tropical by the day. So with bright blue skys and shorts on, today ended up as a bit of a spa day. Tom and I both defluffed a little bit and I tried painting my nails. That ended up a bit of a fail because right about the time I finished, we caught the first tuna of the day…bigger than yesterdays.
Tunatastic
We couldn’t help but dork out a bit and admire this beautiful creature. The colours are hard to describe but iridescent purple, blues and pinks and designed for speed…so much so that the flesh has pockets where the fins slip in both along the body and even the dorsal fin has a pocket! The dorsal fin pocket is so perfect that it even makes it hard finding the fin! An incredible animal, a work of art…and, unfortunately for it, delicious!
Speaking with Iemanja tonight, turns out it’s not a skipjack but an albacore tuna. We’ve been hard out catching the chicken of the sea!
The first albacore woke Tom out of midday slumber and the second one came right on time. We’ve been noticing that they seem to bite around 3-3:30 in the arvo. Not to be disappointed, we were jolted out of a deep discussion about something that I can’t remember by the whirring of the reel. We lept into action and, as discussed, I was going to land this one. Well, did I choose a lunker of a tuna to land. We are guesstimating it was about 20kg and the largest yet. It put up a little bit of a fight and my left forearm is going to be useless tomorrow. I told Tom that it’s a good thing I’m right handed so I’ll still be able to hold a celebratory glass of champagne at the reef !!!!
As we were letting the tuna bleed out, Tom noticed fish jumping all around us. First we saw the splosh and then we saw what was happening. The albacore were feeding on flying fish. There were fish flying and leaping out of the water everywhere. We even had an albie snarfle up a flying fish right next to the boat. And, yes, we yelped! What a National Geographic kind of day!
Now we settle into our evening routine as the sun melts into the horizon gifting us yet another brilliant, deeply coloured sunset.
We feel so blessed and thankful to be where we are now. We hope you feel the same bliss in your day today.
Sending love and hugs…nearing Minerva Reef!!!
Amy and Tom
9-14 June 2022
We paused at magnificent Minerva Reef and you can read about those adventures here!
15 June 2022
Ships current location:
20 degrees 39.8506S
179 degrees 35.1411W
Leaving Minerva yesterday was both heart wrenching and exciting. As Iemanja and Kaihanu left the reef, we looked back to see an empty playground. We are the last to leave after arriving to nearly 10 other boats anchored around the reef. And word on the street is that there is no weather window opening again for a couple weeks so we will be the last humans at Minerva for a while. Pretty epic, really. And the crayfish are now safe from Derek’s killer grasp!
Christopher Crayfish
Speaking of, Tom slayed all but one very stubborn crayfish before leaving the reef. So, meet Christopher the crayfish, our newest bitter and twisted crew member. Tom went to shove a knife in it and Chris screamed (yes, crayfish make some crazy grunting noise!!!) and fought back. So, with such a strong will to live, he’s along for the adventure in the transom live well! Later in the day, ole Christopher saw red, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
Left Our First Taste Of Paradise
Right…where was I…yes, leaving Minerva. Wow!
The current and waves that had kicked up around the pass made for a hobby horse type ride out of the reef.
Back in the open ocean, spirits were high, skies were sunny, and the wind…wasn’t there…again. But we knew it would be a slow start using the last of our dinosaur juice. 
The landscape was surreal with mountainous but gentle swell coming through over glassy seas. Sadly spotting quite a few plastic “fish” on the way.
Getting Low On Dinosaur Juice
As the day wore on, the dinosaur juice was starting to get lower and lower and the wind wasn’t filling in. Needless to say, we were all starting to feel casually homicidal towards the person that writes the weather forecast.
According to the GRIB files (the weather forecast that we receive), the wind should have filled in after a couple hours. We were ok with that knowing we are on the last of our fuel. Luckily we were able to stretch our fuel miraculously to nearly 11:30pm when we finally had enough wind from the right angle to sail! Phew! And Clare/Carol…it was the gennaker at midnight 😛
New Delish Fish
Well, that little drama aside, the evening, right on time, brought the whir of the fishing line paying out. Ooooo oooo oooo! What is it going to be this time???? Well, turned out to be a mahi mahi nearly 1.5m long. Female. And the colours were stunning! AND…Tom got the gaff in it. Yep…mahi mahi sushi for dinner! And this is when Chris saw red. Chris had to share his bait well with a beheaded mahi mahi for a little bit. Feeling sorry for Chris, after the mahi mahi was filleted, we made sure Chris had nice clean sea water to enjoy the rest of his trip to Fiji with!
All of this while on the starboard side of the boat the supermoon rose and on the port side the days sun cast another stunning sunset over the glassy sea with Iemanja in the distance. It was an incredible scene and we both feel so blessed to be out here…though still grumpy and cynical with the weather man.
Time To Fly
On the bright side, the sail today has been full on! We’ve been sailing…ALL DAY! Amazing! And we’ve been playing with the gennaker (our big light wind sail). Ooooooo and we’ve had a couple puckering moments with some good gusts coinciding with the top of one of those epic mountainous swells. And we’ve had an absolute blast! Almost a little too much fun.
As the wind picked up this evening, the Pom had to have his obligatory cuppa with a chocolate biscuit. Love it! Well, while we enjoyed our afternoon tea, we had a couple of good gusts, Kai rounded up a bit much, flogged the gennaker and oops…ripped a hole in a pre-existing patch. No worries! That’s what spares and sail kits are for! We both agreed that we’d had enough fun with the gennaker so we put that away for repairs (which we did promptly) and changed our sail plan to something a bit more manageable overnight.
Nearing Fiji
As we settle in for the evening and our watches, Tom is making another delicious meal, I’m slaving away over the computer, and we are excited to see some Fijian islands tomorrow! While we won’t be making landfall tomorrow, that will be Friday afternoon we reckon, it will be surreal to see actual land again. Haven’t seen that in nearly two weeks!
Sending love and hugs over the rolling seas xx
Amy and Tom
16 June 2022
Ships current location:
18 degrees 12.7700 S
179 degrees 41.5460 E
So as we settled into the evening having flown the gennaker all day it was a relief to reef in for the evening and cruise along at 7 knots for the night. It was a pretty uneventful night until my watch at sunrise where a pod of dolphins came and played in the waves around Kai for about half an hour. I had a slight emotional moment reflecting on life as the sky changed colour and feeling very close to nature. It saddens me so many people are oblivious to these very special moments; how incredibly lucky are we?!
Land Ho!
A couple of hours after sun up ‘Land Ho’…Matuku island loomed on the horizon and then Totoya on the starboard side, there seemed to be some serious rain cells around so we reefed in again to pass through these straits. As we passed quite close to Moala island we could see the enormous waves crashing on the reef and the change of water colour from dark blue to vivid turquoise through the back of the waves. A real spectacle watching the rain squalls racing down the valleys towards us…. but no wash down we so wanted. As we carried on past the dolphins came for another play in the waves with Kai.
The Pedal Is Down
As we truck onward at 7 knots into a really grey night we are going to pass Koro island at about 0200 then head towards Savu Savu in time for sun up and clear customs first thing.
Talking to Iemanga this arvo, they will get there at 0100 so we will meet them after clearing customs and settle into a pile of laundry and planning our weekend… OOOH the adventures to be had. We are looking forward to sitting on the dock with a cold beer looking at our boats.
Oh and the adventures of Christopher Cray continue too. He’s very much alive in a well!!!
After this update, you’ll find us back on the interwebs…because we sailed (and motored a lot) to Fiji!!!! Fiji baby!!!! We made it!!!!
Love to all from us very salty sea dogs xx
