Category Archives: Fiji to New Zealand

NZ Bound #3 1082 nm till quality craft brews

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22 boats left Wednesday, we waited another day when only 5 boats left. What did we miss? We heard on the SSB that there was champagne sailing out there, so in search of that we go.

Looks a bit sporty?

We are now just about 12 hours into the journey and if we had any champagne it certainly would be shook up and have lost all its great effervescence.

We had a Mexican night onboard, enchiladas and rice, and a salt covered boat, just missing the rest of the margarita.

Still searching for champagne.

Cheers, All well onboard, at least another day of bouncing along.

Passage Planning: Fiji to NZ

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Passage planning is all about preparation and weather. A good passage is one that has favorable weather conditions.  Good conditions include consistent, steady winds at 12-18kts, seas below 1 meter in long increments, no squalls or storms, low cape and low barometer.

Note: For the next 7-8 days we will be LIVE blogging.

Weather, weather, weather!  It can be your friend and your foe.  We live our life watching the weather daily.  Does the wind shift? Will the swell wrap around the island? Is there rain in the forecast? 

We purchased the professional / premium plan for Predict Wind which allows us to enter our boat polars, plan routes, and receive detailed passage forecasts. 

This software, along with feedback from professional weather routers, rally participants, and other sailors, provides us with the valuable information we need to do accurate passage planning.

This particular passage, Fiji to NZ, is very challenging.  We will have to sail across 20 degrees of latitude between two weather systems.  This is an extremely formidable and demanding stretch of ocean.

Well over 100 boats will make this same journey this year. But we will only be sailing with a handful.

The Strategy

We take this passage very seriously, despite this being our 3rd time making this journey. 

The basic strategy is pretty well known.  You leave Fiji on the back side of a high (front) usually in crappy conditions.  You do this so that you can arrive New Zealand before the next low in relatively benign conditions. 

The systems near NZ change frequently and dramatically and tend to be more extreme.

sv Roam wrote an excellent blog post, a lot more thorough and detailed explanation on weather. I highly recommend this descriptive read.

This is what a typical and pretty good weather routing or passage plan looks like on Predict Wind.  We are starting at Fiji (top of the page) and ending in NZ (bottom).  The colors indicate the severity of the wind.

Preparations

There are numerous preparations that go into passage planning.  You’d think we’d have this down after sailing over 70,000 nautical miles and visiting over 33 countries.  But each passage and each country has its own unique preparations.

First of all, there is lots and lots of paperwork!  So much paperwork!

  • Paperwork
    • Departure paperwork for Fiji
      • Schedule appointment with officials
      • C2C Outward Report Form
      • Statement by Master Form
      • Photographs of boat (bow, stern, port, starboard)
      • Crew change Form
      • Crew List
      • Copies of Fiji entry paperwork, boat paperwork, and all passports
    • Entry paperwork for New Zealand
      • Apply online for an NZeTA (temporary visa) for each crew
      • Apply online for Traveler Declaration for each crew
      • Apply online for a Customs Number (Client Code) which gives us Duty Free purchases
      • Submit the Advanced Notice of Arrival Form
      • Submit the C4G Form
      • Appy for T.I.E. (Temporary Import Entry) which allows us to bring the boat into NZ
      • Crew change form
      • Bio Management Plan (6 page document detailing our hull cleaning/maintenance)
        • Provide photographic and video proof of cleanliness of the bottom of the boat including all niche areas (props, thru hulls, rudder, daggerboards, etc…)
    • Submit a Float plan for family, friends, and emergency contacts

Additional Preparation:

  • Pre-cook passage meals and freeze 
    • We made enough food for 3 people for 10 days (that’s a lot of food)
      • Eggplant parmesan
      • Chicken enchiladas
      • Chicken chow mien
      • Gumbo
      • Mongolian Chicken
      • Pasta de la casa (with a nice spice pasta with meat)
      • Chicken wontons
      • Gingerbread cookies
      • Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies
      • English Muffins
      • (3) bread doughs
  • Stow all valuables and breakables
  • Safety gear: put out and make accessible:
    • First aid medical kit, ditch bag, jackline, PFDs, foul weather gear 
  • Reservations at Marsden Cove Marina (where we clear into the country) and Town Basin Marina where we will stay after we arrive
  • Change window shade covers from sunbrella to Phifertex (to allow us to see out better)
  • Convert office cabin into sleeping cabin (for crew)
  • Separate “declared foods” and items to present to biosecurity upon arrival
  • Courtesy Flag: NZ and Quarantine Flag get out and make accessible
  • Clean bottom of the boat (every 5 days, 2 people, 2 hours)

Safety

  • Passage Guardian
    • File a float plan and sign up for passage guardian services
  • Island Cruising Pacific Rally
    • Land support
  • Gulf Harbor Radio
    • Daily check in with position reports and status report
  • Onshore support
    • Our very good friend, Donald tracks us while we are underway and provides weather and onshore support

Communications

We have multiple communications options.  We primarily rely on Starlink as this gives us access to the internet regardless of where we are in the world (even when we are in the middle of the ocean).  However, we do not leave this on 24/7 as it draws a lot of power.  

We’ve had our Starlink fail during a passage last year. So, we have always had communication back up plans.

  • Starlink gives us access to the internet anywhere in the world.  Starlink has been a game changer for us.  It allows us to get weather, check emails, and surf the web in the middle of the ocean, thousands of miles from shore.  However, it has been known to fail.
  • IridiumGo set up which gives us short text messages, short emails (no photos or attachments), and a few phone calls.  This can only be used in emergencies and cannot be used to surf the web.
  • SSB (HF radio) onboard.  This Single Sideband Radio can reach as far as 6,000 miles away.  We can use this to contact shoreside support.  We check in with the Gulf Harbor Radio daily through our SSB radio.  We can also get weather updates if Starlink and IridiumGo fail.
  • VHF Radio:  We also have a standard VHF radio which can reach other vessels within 24 miles of us.

As you can see there are loads of things we do to prepare for a passage.  All we can do is hope and pray that all of our resources, experts, and information is accurate enough to give us a safe passage.

We depart Fiji on 16 October 2025 heading for Marsden Cove Marina, New Zealand.  

In our last blog post we explore the beautifully authentic, old capital of Levuka.

Passage: Dodging a Cyclone

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Trying to find a weather window from FIji to New Zealand requires a lot of patience and faith.  This passage is known to be one of the most challenging and difficult passages in the Pacific.  Why do you ask?  It is because you have to cross 20 degrees of latitude forcing you to go through several weather systems.  

It takes a lot of strength to prepare myself for a passage – mostly because I know I get so sea sick and it just is not fun for me.   Picking the right window is imperative to having a safe journey.  So we rely on a lot of sources and professional help.

Matt constantly checks 5 weather sources including Predict Wind which has 4 models and Windy.  Our friend Donald is checking on Maxsea and we are working with a professional weather router and hired a passage guardian.  This is on top of the assistance that we get from being a part of the Island Cruising Pacfiic Rally.  

So, we are comparing a lot of resources and information to determine when we should depart on this passage.

Time to go, NOW

We started noticing a rather ugly system forming to the NW of us.  It looked like a cyclone formation but it was way too early in the season so we were flumaxed!  After watching this formation for a few days our weather router advised us to leave immediately as this system was forecasted to go over Vanuatu and then head straight to Fiji.  Hmmmm

The problem was that another, smaller system was forming to the west of New Zealand which would make for a difficult arrival.  So, we watched for another day, talked to all of our experts and made the decision to depart.

The Plan

Depart Fiji as soon as possible and push the boat hard to ensure an arrival by the 26th of October. It is doable, but not ideal.  So, we cleared out of Fiji on the 19th of October at 1330 with a few other boats.

If you remember, our passage last season from Fiji to New Zealand (click here to re-read it) took us 6.5 days and we had a fairly decent journey.  We left with 50 other boats and were very comfortable in the weather window we selected.

So, leaving with only a few other boats in between two systems was extremely nerve racking!  The plan is to “hammer down” and just get there.  The weather models were showing a slight detour to the east before continuing on the rhum line (direct shot from point A to B).

First 48 Hours

The first 48 hours were miserable. We were bashing into the waves making it pretty uncomfortable.  We reefed the sails and pushed onward into the 3m seas.  Yuck.

We headed more east than we wanted because the winds were taking us there.  We ended up going 90nm out of our way to keep the wind in our sails.  Great, love adding more time to an already long passage.

A sunny spot during our gloomy days.  Two birds landed on Sugar Shack and enjoyed a bit of a rest.  It is really unusual to have birds land on the boat when you are hundreds of miles away from land, but it has happened.  I think this is maybe the 3rd time it has happened to us in all of our travels over the last 13 years!  

This little bird landed first and just sat at the helm.  I think he wanted to take the helm from Matt.

The second bird came a few days later when the weather eased up a bit.  It was a red foot boobie and he/she stayed with us for well over 16 hours.

On the one hand it is cool to have proof of life but on the other they poop everywhere!  We tried to shoo him away, but darn if he didn’t keep coming back.  So, we just left him there and hoped the big seas would wash his poop away.

Burning a Lot of Diesel

After two crappy days, we covered 330nm. Not a horrible start, but nothing to brag about that is for sure.  Then we were blessed with a couple of nice sailing days.  The sun was out, the seas were more consistent and came at longer intervals (still 2.5m) and we were pointing closer to the rhum line.  The down side was that we had wind on the nose which meant we had the motors on.  We fully anticipated motoring a lot on this trip as we needed to arrive before the system.  We motor sailed a lot trying to get the most out of each power source.

Matt doing a jig because the skies are blue (he is wearing his dry suit!).

During one of our particularly nice sailing periods we had a breakage.  One of our rail cars for our jib sheet decided it was done and popped off.  It made a horrible noise which forced us to jump up rather quickly.  Luckily the sheet was on the wench and Matt was able to secure a “fix” using dynema.  Not a permanent solution, but it will work until we can get a new part.

The top left is the working rail car on port side and the rest of the photos are the damaged and temproarily fixed starboard car.

A Few Good Sailing Days

We had several good sailing hours which helped lift our spirits.

And a few really beautiful sunsets and sunrises while at sea.

In the mean time we are constantly watching the two systems.  The larger system on the NW got a name…cyclone Lola.  Her trajectory is over Vanuatu and then moving over Fiji.  The lower storm (not called a cyclone yet) is still being called a Tropical Storm.  But as you can see, lots of boats have decided to leave Fiji, Minerva Reef and Vanuatu to get to safer territories.   Keep in mind that the boats are miles apart – we cannot see any of them.

Cyclone Lola

Cyclone Lola is a little brat. Even though the main system is pretty far away from us it was causing some really weird wind shifts.  All we could do was hammer down and push the boat as fast as we could.

The top images shows how the cyclone forms, the wind strength and the direction.  The bottom two photos show how truly dangerous this cyclone is.

Cyclone Lola decided to head more SE and looks like it will converge with the Tropical Depression that was forecasted to hit NZ.  Wonderful!  I am sure you know, but red is bad, black is worse and gray is horrible.

Lucky for us we were able to skirt the outer edges of the storm and make it in to port without too much trouble.  We arrived in NZ on Thursday morning and were rafted up to our friends on Dandelion by 0900.  Thank God!

Formalities

We patiently waited for the officials to come onboard including bio security who took a ton of food, customs and immigration.  They even brought a dog onboard (that was a first for us) to sniff for weapons, drugs, and cash.  Look at his little booties…so darn cute.

New Zealand has very strict biosecurity rules.  We are not allowed to bring in shells, wood carvings, feathers and lots of foods.  Prohibited foods include all meats (cooked, uncooked, canned), dairy, cheese, nuts, produce, vegetables, fruits and more.  We had provisioned for three people to be at sea for 10 days.  Since it was only 2 people at sea fo 6.5 days we had a lot left over.  It is hearbreaking to watch them throw away perfectly good food.

But….we are super happy to be back in NZ and safely tucked in a berth.  

Pasage Summary

  • Total Miles, on rhum line: 1097
  • Total Miles Traveled:  1179
  • Total Time:  161.36 hours / 6.5 days
  • Total Engine Time:  72hours (YIKES)
  • Average Speed:  7.3kt
  • Max Speed: 12.1kt

Just some of our Tasty Passage Meals:

Matt prepared loads of tasty meals.  I was a little distracted and only got photos of a few dinners.  Below we have seasoned pork chops with grilled onions, grilled pineapple and mashed potatos.  To the right we have seasoned chicken fajitas with bell peppers and onions.  Bottom left is Matt’s famous bahn Mi and pulled pork over a baked potato.  Yummmm.

Our poor Island Cruising Pacific Rally 2023 Flag took a beating during our trip from New Zealand to Minerva to Tonga on to Fiji and back to New Zealand.  She deserves a rest.

All in all it was not a horrible passage and it certainly could have been a lot worse had we gotten caught in either of the storms. I am so grateful that we have such a strong and well made boat and a captain who takes care of both of us.  It would not have been such a favorable passage without the help of Donald, our weather router, the passage guardian, and Viki with Island Cruising.

My favorite shots…look at the sliver of a moon in the top photo.

Our blogs run 8-10 weeks behind live events.  This blog occured toward the end of October.  Did you catch our loast blog where we do all the prep work for this passage?