 |
| 3 hours in Futuna |
 |
| Futuna from 10 miles out : the white spot on the right is a church at the Port |
The last day of sailing brought me safely
back to Savu Savu. Once I had negotiated
Scatterbreak Channel, a sort of s-bend
between the reef named Cakau Vucovuco to
port and Cooks Shoal to starboard we
were in sea that was much smoother because of other reefs to the south but not
that far away. It was dark by then, about 9pm but even in the daytime they
aren’t all visible, some are never exposed even at low tides, and its
disconcerting to look across what seems like normal deep ocean but to realize
lurking perhaps only half a mile away is doom for any unwary traveller. One
assumes of course that the GPS and the navigation software that provides this
information is correct – and it is well known, and there are warnings aplenty
that this isn’t always the case – but in fact, when it indicates there should
be things visible in certain places, they usually are, so in general, I for one
assume the reefs are more or less where they are said to be. Never- the-less
one always gives such structures a wide berth, as the PRECISE location may be
off by meters, hundreds of meters even.
 |
| Uninhabited except for coconut trees : Vetaaua Island |
So, now in smoother water but still with 22
knots and our course altered to something less than a close haul, Sapphire
moved faster and steadier as we tracked direct to Somo Somo pass , 40 miles up
a long corridor 5 miles wide and flanked by
reefs and islets and obstacles to either side . In a straight line
though there was nothing in the way. I reset the hydrovane to have us tracking
up the middle and had a sleep. An hour and a half later I woke and checked : we
were right on track, nearest obstacles was at last two hours away, so I had
another sleep.
This time I woke from a deep sleep with a
start – I just knew I had been asleep much too long – I felt a terrible sense
of doom and panic as I fumbled for the light and the watch – my GOD I had been
asleep for four hours, so tired I was from all the broken sleep and hard work
of sailing – I had NEVER slept for four hours while sailing before - but here we
were still going at six knots up a narrow channel. Turning on the chart plotter, remarkably we
were well up the channel, further than I had expected and still in the middle,
exactly where we had been planning to be but of course the slightest change in wind direction, or current…it
didn’t bear thinking about…but I did, and imagined the sickening crash that
could have woken me as we slammed into a reef, hard aground and in need of
rescue, or salvage…I felt my heart racing as I contemplated the near miss. I
knew I had just dodged a bullet. Tiredness – no, exhaustion - is the great
enemy of the solo sailor. I remembered Jean Socrates a remarkable older
American woman who went to sleep less than a hundred miles form competing a
solo circumnavigation and woke when the boat ran onto the shore and was
wrecked!
So I blessed my little yacht – a friend at
Vuda Marina had called my little yacht a “Honey” – and the Hydrovane for
keeping us on course, and of course the wind Gods that I had been cursing day
and night long. Next, Coffee and some very early breakfast – it was about 2.30
– and I stayed awake to look at the stars and listen to the sound of the boat
surging forward and watched as the sky lightened and as the sun rose I saw
Taveuni, and Rabi, islands I had passed in the dark on the way out.
 |
| Approaching SomoSomo Passge at Daybreak, Taveuni on Port |
We had to motor through the pass as it was
completely in the wind shadow of Taveuni, but once through and beyond the
shadow, the wind picked up to 22 knots again and we reached westward, bouncing
over a slow swell. I through the troll line out the back and for only the third
time ever, caught a fish, and for the firsttime ever, actually landed it on the
boat : a 1 meter long Spanish mackerel, a long dark blue ish with vertical
stripes and a very pointy head and nasty sharp teeth. I felt sorry for it to
start with, and then remembered that it attacked my lure thinking it was a
smaller fish that it could kill, and decided it would be a nice present to give
Aseri, the lovely Fijian man from the Waitui marina who looked after me in Savu
Savu. Finally we went round Point Passage, and the wind was in front of us
again but I unrolled the Jib and we sped back to a mooring at Savu Savu just
before dark. It had been one of those
great days of sailing.
 |
| The First Fish landed on Sapphire |
In the morning , I will clear customs.
