Savu Savu Revisited

Savu Savu – Wednesday, September 21. Today we left Savu Savu at 9am headed for Taveuni. It was a bad sign when the guy on the dock said ‘are you sure you want to be leaving today it’s very rough outside’. Yes we were sure our forecast only showed 15 knot winds and we thought we would just sail along to a sheltered anchorage further along the coast. We slipped the mooring lines and motored out of the anchorage. The water was quite calm and we had 15 knots of wind. By the time we got down to the point where the Jacques Costeau Resort is the wind had increased to 20 knots and the waves were getting increasingly larger. Yesterday we had washed and scrubbed Faraway clean with fresh water and within minutes all our hard labour was being destroyed by waves breaking over the bow. We continued out past the point into the open bay and now we were encountering larger waves. I told Ian to bring my lifejacket up and I only ever do this when I have concerns. After an hour the sea state wasn’t improving so I said to Ian ‘I think we should turn back to Savu Savu’. At this point Ian must have thought I was really losing my nerve but kindly agreed that it probably was the best option in these conditions. This is the first time on our entire journey that I had ever said I think we should turn around! Anyway as we turned around the winds increased to 25 knots and we were sailing back at 7 knots with a half reefed Genoa and no main sail out! This was a record for us but certainly wasn’t a day for us to be out at sea. There was one yacht anchored off the Costeau Resort and we thought he was pretty brave. We took up our old mooring ball in Savu Savu and Ian went to clear customs again (they are very strict on the rules here). By the time he had gotten back to Faraway the yacht that we had seen anchored out on the reef was now moored next to us. I guess he had realized that the weather wasn’t improving either and came in for shelter. Anyway Savu Savu is a lovely anchorage and we didn’t mind being back in town. I have included some photos of our anchorage and the scenery sailing along the coast with half of our Genoa out. We will try and sail out again tomorrow or the next day weather depending on the weather.