Sailing from New Zealand to Fiji, 1200 nautical miles
July 21st, 2024
After three years of Adam’s hard work, the day had finally come for us to let go the dock lines and set sail from New Zealand to Fiji. A passage of approximately 1,200 nautical miles taking between 6 – 10 days. We had set a tentative date for departure when we were still living in our house. We were sitting in a café in Havelock North when we decided the date and set up a countdown timer on Adam’s phone so we could look how many days were still to go every now and then. Knowing that we had a lot of work to do to get Tāiko up to Category 1 standards and needed time to also save money, we thought three years would be enough. We had forgotten about this countdown timer when suddenly it went off while we were anchored in Oke Bay, the Bay of Islands. How quickly three years had gone.
We had done all we could to get Tāiko ready for this passage and now it was just a waiting game. Waiting for a suitable weather window to sail north. To save money, we tried to anchor in the various bays around the Bay of Islands and limited our time in the marina. We were very lucky with the weather and being able to stay warm because Tāiko has no heating on board. The 23rd May 2024 was the day. Throughout our sailing, Adam has always been particular about weather windows. Sure, sometimes you pick what you think is a suitable window and it may not be as predicted but most of the time he’s done a pretty good job. This passage to Fiji was no different. Because of New Zealand’s location to what is called the roaring forties, sailing to and from New Zealand is one of the passages that worries many sailors.
For him it was important that we picked the right weather window for us so that it was as good as an experience as it could be. There’s a saying in the sailing community that the hardest part is letting go the dock lines. We were a bunch of emotions on departure day. We were nervous, excited, unsure, overwhelmed…the list goes on. This would be Adam’s third ocean crossing and my first. It was also Tāiko’s first ocean crossing so yeah…there were a bunch of emotions. The hardest part was that we were leaving our friends. The community that we had been a part of for the past two years since arriving in the Bay of Islands. But as Adam said, this is the lifestyle we had chosen and saying goodbye (or see you later) is part of it. It was now time for us to start our adventure while we still could. There was a lot of learning and personal growth on this journey. For Adam, it was the first time he would be the Skipper on the ocean crossing and for me…while I had done a very good job of talking myself out of doing the crossing over the last three years because I was so nervous. When the day came, I couldn’t believe this was it, that I was going to do this. But I did do it. It was time we put our faith in ourselves and our Tāiko. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.