Sunday 26th June 2022

it’s hard to believe how much I’ve been enjoying our sailing in Fiji these past few weeks; anyone who knows me or reads my blog will be aware of my passionate dislike of sailing, but for the past few weeks we’ve had some of the loveliest weather, and gorgeous smooth sailing I can remember between the islands, I’ve been absolutely loving it. 

Daisy is probably in the best shape she’s been since new, certainly since we’ve had her. With our new decks, new generator, fabulous new water maker, fridge and many other improvements we’ve made over the last couple of years; this particular vacation we seem to have spent more time relaxing and enjoying ourselves than we have working, that’s really unusual for us, but a very welcome change. 

Since we had Daisy it’s been about 75-80% work and 25% pleasure (at least for me), Bob is happy no matter what he’s doing on the boat, as long as he’s on the water he’s happy, not so much for me (till now).

Anyway, yesterday we left Mantaray bay alongside Babe, (Paul and Trish’s boat) both boats raised their sails and were having the most gloriously fabulous sail across to our next destination, side by side, in near perfect conditions, it was really lovely. 

This photo curtsey of Paul on Babe,

I was just thinking how well everything had been going this trip.  The wind was between 15 and 20 knots, we had our big Genoa and mainsail out and we were flying smoothly along between 7-9 knots. All was absolutely lovely, but then, just as Bob was adjusting the sheet on the genoa, a huge wind gust hit us and literally ripped the big genoa in half, I couldn’t believe it, as I watched the huge sail literally torn in two before my eyes; suddenly we find ourselves rushing around trying to reef in the shredded sail, Bob started the engine and then rushed forward to grab the lower part of the sail that was dragging in the water alongside us, as I started to try to bring the remnants of our sail in.  We did get it in without too much trouble but it was in two pieces, the bottom half all bunched up and the top starting to shred in the wind, it was not a pretty sight.

OH well, after all it’s a boat, no one was hurt, what can you do? These things happen.

The genoa is a very large lightweight sail that’s perfect for sailing conditions in these islands, unfortunately its not built to withstand really strong wind gusts. 

Once we dropped anchor in the bay, I (with Paul’s help) winched Bob up the sail to wrap a line around the loose pieces that were threatening to rip away from what was left of the sail and hopefully prevent any more damage.  And maybe if the wind drops enough today, we can get the genoa down and raise our jib in its place.  It looks like the wind may drop later this morning, so fingers crossed, then we just have to get the sail to a sailmaker and hope it can be fixed 🙁  Boat life, always something…