“Bodacious” the word : variously – “remarkable” – “outstanding” – “audacious” – “brazen” – “sexy” – “voluptuous” !

“Bodacious” the yacht : a 53ft Laurie Davidson aluminium racer/cruiser, built in 1986, fitting all those descriptions. She is owned by friends John Toon and Simon Meikle, and based in Westhaven Marina in downtown Auckland. An introduction to, and time spent with, Simon on a John Winlove “Boys Breakaway” trip in October 2011, particularly while cruising on John’s “M V Matawai” from Auckland to Whangaroa  Harbour and back resulted in this 2nd major offshore adventure for me. Simon invited me to help deliver Bodacious to Fiji in June 2012, where she would remain until September so that Simon and John and their families and friends could escape over winter months and enjoy cruising the tropical climate of Fiji.

The delivery was skippered by John and Simon, with 4 crew comprising 3 of John’s friends and myself. I did not know John and his 3 friends, and they did not know me, and given the unavoidable intimacy of 6 people blue water sailing in a 52ft yacht it was maybe a brave call for Simon to invite me and perhaps for me to accept. However I gave no thought to that at the time I willingly accepted Simon’s invitation. I will say now that we quickly settled in to being a good team and were very happy friends by the time we arrived in Savusavu.

John and his friends Kath, Oli and Sean all work in the film production industry.  John is a very seasoned sailor, Oli has a mixed seafaring background like my own and while Kath and Sean both have some sailing experience, blue water sailing was new to them but they both seemed to have it on their bucket list so jumped at John’s invitation to help with the delivery. All four of them were fresh from filming the production of “Mr Pip” in Papua, New Guinea, and were deserving of this more relaxed adventure.

Thursday 7 June.

Our planned 1 June departure had been delayed because of a low pressure system passing over north of the North Island. The Auckland-Noumea race departed on Saturday 2 June and suffered the brunt of the storm, with 5 of the 16 yachts retiring, including Beau Geste with structural damage and Cotton Blossom with severe sea sickness amongst the crew. However, on Thursday 7 June we left Westhaven, fueled up, cleared Customs and were out of Waitemata Harbour by 1200hrs, heading north up through the Hauraki Gulf. Our intention was to hitch hike off the back of the low and carry the SE breeze as far as we could, gauging east. Once we got north of Cape Reinga we would pick up the forecast NE wind and slide in to Savusavu with the wind not too far forward of the beam all the way. All on one starboard board. Not unexpectedly, the passage didn’t quite work out like that. Before we reached Tiri Channel we were sailing in a 10kn cold SW breeze, which carried us through the night.

Friday 8 June.

The cool SW 10-15kn breeze continued to push us along at around 7 knots all day, steering 350 but bearing away to 000 when we could. Evening brought a clear star lit night, until 2000hrs when the full moon rose and chased all the stars away. A couple of 30kn squalls during the night gave us a good shove north, tracking 000 with the wind aft of the port beam. We were reaching as broadly as we could. We had settled in to watch routine of 2 hours on and 4 hours off, with 2 on watch at any time, with 1 person changing every hour, with the result that we mixed up well with each other both while on watch and off watch.

Saturday 9 June.

When I came on watch at 0600, conditions were much the same. The sun rose through cumulus cloud, which brought rain squalls during the morning. By 1200hrs, after 2 full days at sea, we had covered 330nm at an average speed of 6.8kns, which had included a considerable amount of motor sailing. The breeze was still SW, 10-15kn. From time to time, after a period of running the engine to keep the batteries charged, both John and Simon felt that the folding prop wasn’t folding as it should and they could feel it still spinning, through the shaft. A discussion ensued between them about the proper procedure to fold the prop. Simon’s view was that the prop should be folded by pulling the throttle back in to reverse while the engine was turned off, but John thought it didn’t matter if the motor was running, so long as the motor remained in neutral while the throttle was pulled back in to reverse.  John was at the helm, so that is what he did : pulled the throttle back from forward to neutral, held it in neutral then pulled it quickly back in to reverse. We are not sure whether the prop folded or not, but we all heard and felt a loud “clunk” come from within the engine cavity. During the afternoon, while doing a routine motor check, John found a couple of sheared bolt heads in the bilges and it quickly became apparent that the “clunk” that we had heard and felt was the bolts in the R and D coupling shearing. Simon and Oli sorted out a plan of temporary repair, and got started and worked on it until they became thwarted by nightfall. We sailed through the night in a 10-15kn SW breeze, with calm sea. We were making reasonable progress, but we were concerned it wasn’t enough to get us ahead of a looming low pressure system coming down on us from NW, which would bring NE winds right on the nose if we continued to head directly to Savusavu.

Sunday 10 June.

Sunday dawned fine and sunny, with calm sea. At 1200hrs the wind backed to SE, still 10-15kn. Our heading was now 060 and our position, after 3 full days was approx 28deg S and 175deg W, so we were not yet half way. Simon and Oli, with offerings of assistance from others of us when needed, had repaired the R and D coupling and we were able to run the motor again and improve our progress with a little motor sailing. Conditions at this point were ideal. The barometer had been rising, as had the sea temperature. There was no sign of the low pressure system north west of us getting any closer and we were hoping we would skirt round south east of it. We continued through the night with a SE 10kn breeze, motor sailing from time to time at 2000 revs.

Monday 11 June.

At 0600 the log showed that we had covered 655nm, the barometer reading was 1020, the breeze was still 10kn SE. By 1100hrs there were some ominous looking clouds ahead to the NW, threatening a change in the weather with stronger wind from in front of us instead of from behind, and possibly rain. We made our first sail change of the trip by removing the genoa and replacing it with the no.3 headsail. At 1200hrs we were slightly south of 25deg S and slightly east of 176deg W, heading 014. Then sure enough, by 1400hrs the breeze headed us, only at 10kn but it meant that we were now punching in to the sea rather than running with it. So we took a reef in the main and motor sailed for comfort.  At this point, our ETA for Savusavu was midnight Wednesday, so we were predicting the trip would take us less than a week.

Tuesday 12 June.

Dawn broke with grey skies and 10kn NE, which was not good for us. We were being pushed west. The breeze increased during the morning, with seas getting gnarly. The sky and the sea were both grey and rain was threatening all around us. We were sailing with slightly eased sheets to avoid banging and crashing in to the waves. At 25kn of wind speed and building, we decided to roll in the headsail, reduce the main to 3 reefs, tighten the mainsheet and motor sail more directly on course to Savusavu. At 1200hrs, after 5 full days, our log told us we had travelled 896nm. At 1400hrs my fishing reel suddenly screamed. Simon grabbed the rod out of the holder and passed it to me and after a bit of a battle I pulled in a nice 25kg shortbill swordfish. I filletted 12 large steaks of it and they went in to the freezer. At this point our heading was taking us way west of Fiji. The wind was forecast to back from NE to NW which would have been better for us, but not until Thursday, which would be too late for us. So John and Tony decided to abandon Savusavu and head for Denareau.  The bad weather continued to get worse, with nasty rain squalls. At 1600hrs a squall suddenly came out of the west with torrential rain. Oli, Sean and Kath were on deck as the boat was suddenly slammed from starboard tack to port tack, but still motor sailing on the same 320 heading.  John and Simon and myself went on deck to help get things under control. Although Sean had read 50kn gust when the front hit, the breeze eventually settled at 20-25kn from NW and we were able to abandon Denarau as our destination and set a comfortable course bearing 000 for Kadavu Island, although we were motosailing with the breeze right on the nose. At 2200hrs the breeze died and backed right round to ESE at 10kn.

Wednesday 13 June.

By midnight the ESE breeze had increased to 20kn. We altered course to 025 to try to gauge east, but we were fighting a strong current pushing us west. We were motor sailing at 8kn, and it was raining heavily. At 0200 a huge downpour hit us from the east, and it felt like it was the same downpour that had hit us from the west the previous afternoon, and was now coming back at us. It rained and rained all day. The only excitement for the day was in the fishing department. Kath hooked in to something huge which pretty much stripped her reel of line before it broke off, but I hooked and landed a nice Mahimahi. The changing colours of a Mahimahi when hooked and landed is something quite extraordinary. Numerous fish do it, but none so dramatically as a Mahmahi. By 2200hrs we were motorsailing in to a 15kn NW breeze, back on port tack, with Kadavu not far to the north of us. We could in fact see the glow of Suva over and beyond Kadavu. During the night we trucked north along Great Astrolabe Reef, giving it a wide berth.

Thursday 14 June.

We continued on in to a 15-25kn NNW breeze, bearing 045, still on port tack. We banged and crashed, even though we were motorsailing with slightly eased sheets to try to avoid it. We still had 3 reefs in the main and no. 3 headsail. The only activity we had was rolling the headsail in and out on the furler to balance the helm in the oscillating breeze. We continued on, leaving Gau Island to port, heading towards Taveuni. At some point we needed to tack over on to starboard to gauge west in to Vanua Levu. We were being helped by the current to guage west, which was good, given that the breeze was NNW. At 1800hrs, after a pleasant happy hour and a lovely beef ragout dinner on deck, our patience with our slow progress ran out a little (as it always does when your destination is nearly in sight) and we pulled up full main, started the motor again and backed our course to 350 and headed to slide passed just east of Koro Island, which we did about midnight.

Friday 15 June.

Dawn broke at 0600, with Vanua Levu well in sight. All hands were on deck as we navigated towards and around the dangers of Point Reef, and in through Point Passage, arriving at Nakama Creek and Savusavu proper at approximately 0830hrs. After a bit of jostling with moored boats in the tight confines of the estuary as a consequence of our anchor failing to hold, Pia from the Savusavu yacht club directed us to a mooring which we gratefully grabbed. We managed to enjoy a champagne breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, tomato sauce etc before the heavy rain came once again, dousing the wet weather gear and other garments we had just brought up on deck to dry out in the tropical sun which we were expecting. So with that we all stripped down and leaped overboard for a welcome swim while we waited for Customs clearance. The friendly Customs officers came about midday and left with little fuss, after which we felt we had finally arrived in Savusavu safe, sound and still sane and sensible.

We all stayed in Savusavu for the weekend, enjoying the hospitality of Geoff’s Savusavu Yacht club, visiting the Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, and sampling the fares of the local cafes. One by one we booked air fares back to NZ, but John and Simon stayed on to deliver Bodacious to Musket Cove.

All in all, a neat and very memorable time. Would do it again, same boat, same people.

Passage statistics:-

Distance covered  :  1411 nautical miles. (Auckland – Savusavu as the crow flies is 1100 nautical miles, or 1800 kilometres).

Time taken  :  7 days, 20.5 hours.

Average speed  :  7.5 knots.

Weather conditions  :  Very average, not testing, lots of rain.