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Published: December 30th 2014
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Marianne and Urs’ sailing trip from Fiji to Coffs Harbour
As we where in Fiji, we thought it would be nice to sail to our next destination. This could be NZ, Australia or French Polynesia. We started to ask around about what we would have to do to find a sailboat. “Go to the marinas and hang up a note with what you are want to do” was the advice.
So we went to the Marina at Vuda Point to hang up our note on the board. There where other notes there, some were from skippers looking for crew. We took the names and email addresses. While we were studied the weather map at the office a “sea bear” started to talk to us. This was Douglas and he was looking for crew. As he had a cold and wanted to go back to bed, he gave us his email and asked us to contact him. We went back to Lautoka and got in touch with him. Two days later we visited he and his boat where we had a cup of tea and a good talk about what he was looking to do and wanted from a crew.
A few days later, we had all agreed that we would sail with Doug to Coffs Harbour in Australia via Noumea, New Caledonia.
On October 27 we arrived with all our luggage at Vuda Point and came onboard Hakura. Now we had to prepare the boat for the trip. This included such things as get it out of the water the dingy and cleaning it ready to be stowed below, polishing the boat and doing a big shopping for the 5-6 days trip to New Caledonia.
Urs and I we are absolutely greenhorns, though Doug has sailed with greenhorns before. So he knew what he was up to. Not us! For us everything was new. Doug gave us instruction about the boat and the different knots we had to use.
Then finally on the afternoon of Wednesday 29 October we left the Marina and heeded for the sea. What a new experience for both of us. We took seasick tablets, just in case. Before we where out of the reef, the sea was very calm and we were not really sailing. Steering a sailboat was not easy at the beginning. Then out in the
open sea the waves where bigger and it was harder to move around the boat. Maybe thanks to the seasickness tablets we did not get seasick. We were OK as long as we were either outside steering the boat or down in the cabin lying down.
Doug is a very patience teacher and he looked after us very well, such as making cups of tea or bringing biscuits for the person on watch.
After 6 days at sea without any trace of other human beings we arrived in Noumea, New Caledonia. We were tired but happy and very thankful. We had good weather on the trip. Not too much wind and not too big waves. For us it was amazing and sometimes it felt like a dream. We hardly could believe we were sailing to Aussie. We are very thankful to Doug that he gave us the opportunity to join his trip.
In Noumea there where a few things that had to fix, and there was also a 4 day national holiday. This all made our stay longer then planed. We did, however, enjoyed the fresh French Baguettes, cheese, fresh fruit and veggies.
On Wednesday 12
November we departed Noumea for the Ile Maitre, an island where we spent the night and had our first and last swim in New Caledonia (and last swim in the tropics).
At 6 o clock the next morning we made the boat ready for the trip to Coffs Harbour. There was not much wind, so we used the motor to get through the reef. We saw turtles, dolphins and whales. And this all at the first day. The following days where very quite, with no other human beings in sight. We did see an airplane one night, otherwise nothing.
During the 4
th night, the waves were bigger with the spray came into the boat. It was also colder than the other nights. With the help from Doug we got safely trough that night and the next day we had no more wind and the sea was calm again.
After 7 days we arrived at Coffs Harbour save and happy.
We had a very good time on the Hakura and Doug is a excellent skipper. We are so glad, we had the opportunity to sail with him on Hakura.
We wish him
all the best for the future and how knows, maybe on another time we sail again with him.
Take care Urs and Marianne
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