Change of Plans

Hi there. We have made a detour, set the sails for Suva and will arrive in about 3 or 4 hours to check in. Early this morning as we made our way to the next waypoint, not too far from Suva, we heard two other yachts close-by talk about the 50 kt winds they were encountering. We called Serendipity, one of the boats, and Harka told us he thought it was part of the front approaching Fiji from New Caledonia with high wind warnings. After further checking a weather source on SSB which gave us high wind warnings, and since we were so close to Suva, we made a decision to go to the "big city" instead of taking another day to work our way into the waters leading to Lautoku. Even though the check-in process is supposed to be more complicated and costly in Suva, thoughts of heading along the coral coast at night with possibilities of 50 kt winds make our pleasant sail to Suva seem like the smart response. 


Of course, now that we are heading there, the wind has subsided a bit, the skies are clearing, and perhaps it was just a random wind that came up this morning, and David just said he will feel like a "dumb shit" if Skylight and Whorrelwind, both quite far behind us, have no problems making their way to Lautoku. But I think it is important on a gut level to be as cautious as we can be; it will be fine to check out the capital city of Fiji anyway, and perhaps we can check into all of the islands in one shot this way. We just received a sailmail from Milika at Vuda Marina asking for a confirmation date of arrival and that is a great relief; we do have a guaranteed spot saved for us! YIPPEE! I will write you again tonight or tomorrow morning with an update. Our night was a grueling, squally, squishy wet one and we are so thankful to have a bit of sunshine right now. Ah, the life of a sailor!!!!