Tag Archives: passage

Onward to Fiji

We spent a lovely week in Funafuti, Tuvalu.  But, it was time to make the journey south east towards Fiji. 

The forecast showed light winds, rain, and seas between 1-2 meters.  

Prior to leaving we filled up on duty free fuel diesel. 

Pacific Energy typically fuels 200 liter drums with their large nozzles.  These nozzles are too big for our jerry cans.  Our solution was to fill a 200 liter drum.  And then use a hand pump to transfer the fuel from the drum to our (10) jerry cans. 

We transported the (10) jerry cans across the street, down the beach, in the surf to the dinghy, and then on to the boat!

Passage to Fiji

We departed early on a Saturday morning.  We spent the first 5 hours motoring across the lagoon, out of the pass, and then down the eastern side of the island.

Day 1:  The first 24 hours were really calm. We had really light winds (4-6kts) and could not sail at all.  So, we motored for the first 24 hours.  

The night brought rain showers and squalls.  The days had sunshine and rainbows. 

However, Days 2-4 we had just enough wind to raise the main and genoa to full sail. The days were beautiful with full sunshine, blue skies, white puffy clouds and decent conditions. 

Yes, we could have used more wind, but with the boat “injured” it was best to have these light winds.

We wanted to go through the Somosomo Straight (between Vanua Levu and Taveuni) during the day.  However, we did not arrive until evening.  Lucky for us we had tracks and great charts. 

We lost the wind completely between the two islands and motored through the narrow channel.  We arrived to the Savusavu channel perfect timing around 0800.  

  • Traveled:  Funafuti, Tuvalu to Savusavu, Fiji
  • Distance Travelled: 561 nautical miles
  • Total Time at Sea:  97 hours (4 days)
  • Motoring Time:  37 hours (ouch)
  • Average Speed: 5.8 and Max Speed 11kt

Matt and I under passage

The top red arrow is Funafuti, Tuvalu.  We passed many tiny atolls and islands in route to Fiji including Niulakaita Island (green arrow). And we re heading to Savusavu, Fiji the black arrow.

Arriving Fiji

Now, the tricky part.  We need to maneuver the boat in the very narrow channel to the mooring.  We had a local cruiser on stand by with his dinghy and Copra Shed Marina sent their staff to assist as well.

Savusavu, Fiji channel

Savusavu, Fiji channel

Matt was able to align the boat with a mooring.  However, before we could pick it up a large roll on / roll off tanker asked us to move so they could get past us.  He is barreling toward us and there is nothing we can do but try to reverse.

Unfortunately, once Matt reversed we had no way to get back to the mooring.

The marina guy towed us back to the mooring.  What a heart stopping event as we are surrounded by channel markers, buoys and boats.

We are here and settled.  This will be home for many weeks as we await our boat parts and start on all of the repairs.

Formalities in Fiji

Once we were settled on the mooring, the marina organized the officials. 

The Health official arrived first.  She checked under our beds, in our bathrooms, inside the fridge and freezer looking for bugs. 

We passed. 

Immigration, Customs, and Biosecurity were next.  A short 30-minutes later and we were officially cleared into the country!

Fiji Officials Clearing us into the Country

Fiji Officials Clearing us into the Country

A boat full of school kids passed by and shouted “Bula.”  It was the perfect welcome to this amazing country!

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We were under passage toward the end of April 2025. 

We celebrate the bombing of Funafuti, Tuvalu – check it out!

Voyage from Kiribati to Tuvalu

We plan each passage carefully with the hopes of having an “uneventful” passage. However, the voyage from the Marshall Islands to Kiribati to Tuvalu turned into a very “eventful” passages. 

On the first leg of our voyage, we lost our starboard steering gear box in route from the Marshall Islands to Kiribati.  This made our starboard helm, with the throttles, useless. 

On the second leg of our trip from Kiribati to Tuvalu we lost the port rudder arm (or tie rod). 

Let me back up…

The second leg of our voyage from Kiribati to Tuvalu was 702nm.  We anticipated a 6-7 day sail depending on weather. 

We were crossing the international dateline and the ICTZ which are known for strange weather patterns.  Normally, we would estimate a 700nm journey to take 5 days,.

The first 65 hours were beautiful conditions.  We had consistent winds above the beam with 1-2m seas coming at 8-9 second intervals.  We managed a 7.8kt boat speed throughout the first three days.

We had a beautifully bright and full moon to light up our nights.

And we had some delightful sunsets and sunrises

Even a few rainbows.

What Went Wrong?

We were pretty darn happy with our progress on the first half of this voyage.  This despite having one steering helm out of commission. 

However, on day 4 the winds died and shifted directly on our nose.  It was time to drop the sails and turn the iron engine on.  

Matt does a basic engine check prior to starting the engines. 

Starboard engine looked good (minus the steering gear box).  However, the port engine had a NEW problem.

The port rudder arm (tie rod) had disconnected at the attachment point.  This rendered our port rudder completely useless!

Seriously, the odds of having two unique steering issues fail on the same passage are highly unusual.

The good news is that Auto Pilot is working and able to steer the boat by bypassing the starboard gear box and the port rudder arm.  Not ideal by any means.  But we have relatively calm conditions which won’t further stress our “working” systems.

Passage Details

  • Total Time Travelled:  112 hours (5 days)
  • Total Miles Travelled: 760nm
  • Average Boat Speed: 6.5kt
  • Max Boat Speed 13.4kt
  • Total Motoring Hours: 46 (UGH!)

A few more gorgeous shots from our passage.

Voyage Shots

Voyage Shots

Although this was not an ideal passage, we made the best of it.  

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We sailed from Kiribati to Tuvalu mid-April 2025.

Did you read about the Bloodiest Battle of WWII?

Kiribati is the Center of the World

Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) is an independent Republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.  It gained its independence in July of 1979.  Kiribati is located 360nm from the Marshall Islands, 1100nm from Fiji, and 900nm from the Solomon Islands.

This country has 33 coral atolls divided among three island groups: the Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands, and the Line Islands.

Kiribati is the only country in the world that is located in all four hemispheres.  It crosses the international dateline and the equator.

Approximately, 110,000 people call Kiribati home with more than half of those people living on Tarawa.  21 of the 33 islands are inhabited and are mostly located in the Gilbert group.  

These 33 atolls are spread out over 1 million square miles of ocean.  The average height for the islands is a mere 4m tall.

We only planned to stay in Kiribati for a few days.  Afterward headed to Funafuti, Tuvalu and then on to Fiji.

Passage to Kiribati

Sugar Shack departed from the Majuro anchorage at 1600 on a nice sunny day.  We anticipated a 3.5 day passage covering 363nm.  What we did not really consider was the 2.5 hour sail inside the Majuro lagoon to get to the pass.  We also did not really consider the fact that we had to go all the way around the Majuro atoll to get to the rum line.  So the overall trip was a little longer in miles but shorter in time.

  • Total time travelled:  63 hours
  • Total miles travelled: 415nm
  • Average Speed: 6.5kts and max speed 11.6kts
  • Motoring / Motorsailing time: 18 hours

The first 45 hours provided great wind and boat speed.  However, the wind died down to 5-6kts forcing us to motor the last 18 hours.  But, overall a decent passage.

What broke?

It is not unusual for something to tear or break during passage.  On this trip, we lost the steering gear box on Starboard.  Yikes!  Lucky for us, auto pilot was still working and we have use of the port steering.  We will have to wait to be at anchor to evaluate the damage.

We also noticed that the bearings in the roller furler will need to be replaced (we just did this in NZ 1.5 years ago).  It is still functional but will have to be babied.

Formalities

Upon entry into Kiribati waters, we hoisted our “Q” flag and hailed Tarawa Radio on VHF 16.  The official who took our call organized Customs, Immigration, and Bio Security to come onboard.  It took us about 45 minutes to complete the paperwork and show them around the boat before we became welcomed into their country.

Short Stay

We had a very short stay in Kiribati.  However, we were able to sail over to Bikenbeu where we cleaned the waterline and enjoyed the pretty scenery.  We then headed back to Tarawa so we could do a WWII tour (see next blog) and clear out of the country.

All in all we stayed for 2.5 days.  Short time, but enlightening.

Interesting sites on Kiribati:

  • Visit Kiribati: www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/kiribati-experiences/culture-island-explore/
  • Kiribati Tourism: www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/kiribati-experiences/culture-island-explore/
  • No Foreign Land: https://www.noforeignland.com/place/6053031575552000

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We sailed to Kiribati from 4/8-4/11.

Be sure to read about our last days in Majuro.