Nadi - Fiji

The day had finally come to leave Tonga and start our passage towards Fiji. Before we could leave, however, there was still one important thing we wanted to do. We had carried several bags full of school supplies all the way from French Polynesia so that we could give them to schools along the way and support the local communities through the Island Child Care organization. Now it was finally time to deliver them to a school in Ha’apai. We had packed pens and other school supplies, balls, toothbrushes and some medical supplies. It felt good to finally be able to give all of these things away after carrying them such a long way across the Pacific. The weather was not particularly inviting that morning. It was overcast and raining, so I waited with all the bags underneath a little roof at the harbour while Alex went to pay our harbour fees. Somehow, what should have been a fairly quick process took almost an hour. Eventually, Alex came back and we headed to the school in Pangai.

Back to School

The school was a really cute little place, and luckily the school principle was standing outside when we arrived. He welcomed us in immediately and showed us into one of the classrooms. We were able to talk to the children and tell them who we were, where we had come from, and what we were doing. Most importantly, we could finally show them everything we had brought for them and hand over the school supplies and other things we had carried across the Pacific. It was a really precious experience, but it was also interesting to see how traditional gender roles are still present here. Although I was treated with respect, Alex was clearly the person who was asked most of the questions. It was a small detail, but an interesting glimpse into the culture and into how differently some things are still perceived here. Afterwards, we left the school with full hearts and headed back towards the harbour. We checked out of Tonga, grabbed a few last supplies, and finally got ready to leave. Fiji was waiting for us.

Setting Sail for Fiji

As we left Tonga, the wind was steady and a bit strong, so we started the passage with a reefed sail. As the conditions settled, we were able to put the full sails up. The wind was coming directly from behind us, and the waves were coming from the same direction, which made for a very comfortable start to the passage. We left together with our Swiss friends, followed by our friends from the Netherlands. As we sailed farther away, Ha’apai slowly became smaller and smaller behind us. We continued to see whales, too. At one point, we saw whales jumping right between our boat and the Swiss boat. It was another one of those moments that reminded us just how special it is to be sailing through these waters. Our route also took us fairly close to an island volcano which had caused so much damage to Ha'apai during its last eruption. It looked impressively large from the water, but thankfully, quiet. Eventually, the first night arrived. And the next morning was my birthday.

A Birthday in the Middle of the Pacific

When I got up in the morning and climbed into the cockpit, Alex had just finished his night watch. He congratulated me, and then I discovered that he had prepared a birthday surprise. He had made a delicious peach yeast cake himself. Having a homemade birthday cake in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was already pretty amazing, but then he pulled out the ukulele and played Happy Birthday for me. It may not have been the best ukulele performance or singing I have ever heard, but it was definitely one of the cutest. Apparently, every morning when he had gotten up before me, he had secretly practiced the chords in silence so that I wouldn't hear him. The fact that he had been quietly practicing every morning without me noticing made the whole thing even sweeter.

Later that day, he gave me another homemade present. He had hand-tied a little basket out of rope so that when we went to the beach and I collected shells, I would have somewhere to put them instead of filling my pockets with shells every time. It was such a simple idea, but honestly, it was an incredibly cute and impressive gift. I loved it.

We also had a nice soup for dinner, although unfortunately it turned out to be a little too salty. We would only find out later why. What we had thought was sugar when we bought it at the supermarket was actually salt. Oops.

No Spinnaker for Us

Later that day, we decided to try putting up our spinnaker. Since the wind was almost directly behind us, the spinnaker would have been perfect for sailing downwind and would have shortened our passage by quite a bit. We started setting it up, but unfortunately just as we were finishing, our spinnaker boom adapter broke. Well, that was the end of that plan. No spinnaker for us.

Because the wind was coming so far from behind us, we also couldn't sail directly towards Nadi. Instead, we had to sail a little higher than our direct course. The wind remained fairly constant for a while, but it slowly started losing strength, and our progress became slower and slower.

We had hoped for a quick crossing so that we might still be able to check into Fiji on Friday and have the weekend before Alex's parents arrived. It was becoming increasingly obvious that this was not going to happen.

Sailing Under Shooting Stars

When we finally reached the Fiji island group, it was already Wednesday, August 12, and we still had a long way to go. The wind remained frustratingly light, but the nights were about to make up for the slow progress. We were right at the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year. The Perseids happen every August when Earth passes through the dusty trail left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. As tiny pieces of this debris burn up in our atmosphere, they create the shooting stars we see streaking across the sky.

And we had picked an almost perfect night to watch them. The peak coincided with a new moon, meaning there was virtually no moonlight to wash out the fainter meteors. Combined with being hundreds of miles from land and almost completely free of light pollution, the sky above us was unbelievably dark.

During our night watches, shooting stars kept flashing across the sky. Some were just tiny streaks, while others seemed to shoot surprisingly far across the darkness. With nothing but the ocean around us, it felt like we had a front-row seat to one of nature's greatest shows.

It was one of those moments when you completely forget how slowly you are travelling or how many miles are still ahead of you. We could simply sit there, look up and watch the universe put on a show.

There was another first for us on this passage, too. Because we were sailing for several days through the same country, we could actually turn on Starlink during my night watch. Suddenly, I could make phone calls and send messages from the cockpit in the middle of the Pacific.

It felt almost surreal: above me was an ancient, completely untouched night sky filled with shooting stars, while in my hand I had a phone connected to the other side of the world.

And so we continued sailing through the night, slowly making our way towards Fiji. The wind was light and progress was slow, but with the Perseids overhead, we really didn't mind too much.

The Calm Before the Storm

On Saturday, we were finally getting close to Nadi. I was on watch when the wind suddenly disappeared completely. We were basically sitting there in a calm, with very little movement. Then, quite suddenly, a strong swell started coming from ahead of us. A slight rain began to fall, and within minutes the wind had increased to more than 25 knots. Everything changed incredibly quickly. The waves started splashing over the boat, so I called Alex up to reef the sails. We both put on our life jackets and clipped ourselves in. First, we rolled the Genoa completely away. Then Alex went forward to reef the main sail while I kept the boat pointed into the wind.

The waves were now around 1.5 to 2 metres high, but the worst part was how steep and close together they were. They were coming with a cadence of roughly one second, which meant Tauha was being thrown around constantly. Alex had to work in the front of the boat at those conditions while I tried to keep the boat under control to make his life up their as easy as possible.

Once he had reefed the main sail, we set a direct course towards Nadi again. The wind was still coming from behind us, and despite having only about one-third of the main sail out, we started surfing down the waves. At times, Tauha reached around 12 knots as we surfed down the waves, navigating through reefs. It was raining, the sea was rough, and the whole situation was pretty miserable. But at the same time, we were just happy that the wind had finally returned. At least now we had a chance of reaching Fiji before Alex's parents arrived.

A Strange Light in the Sky

During the last night watch, the wind calmed down a little, although it was still strong. We were sitting outside and chatting when suddenly the entire sky lit up. It was incredibly bright. But it wasn't lightning. We are still not completely sure what we saw. Our best guess is that something was burning up in the atmosphere, but whatever it was, the entire sky suddenly glowing like that was a pretty spooky experience.

It was one of those strange moments at sea that you know you will remember for a long time, even though you still don't really know what happened.

Finally Arriving in Fiji

Around noon the next day, we finally reached the passage through the reef. It was about time. The last two days had been really difficult for me. I had barely been able to eat because the strong waves had been throwing Tauha from side to side in a one-second cadence while we were sailing downwind. It had been a very, very rough passage. As we entered the passage, after 6 full days at sea, we were passed by our first big container ship. It was incredible to see how enormous these ships really are when you are sitting on a small sailboat next to them.

We could also for the first time really see the islands of Fiji. Even though it was still raining, the landscape looked surprisingly dry from the water. It almost reminded me of Colorado in summer. We sailed all the way to our anchorage, and by the time we arrived, the sun was just going down.

We had made it. We dropped the anchor and finally allowed ourselves to relax a little. Before going to bed, we quickly checked our phones using Starlink. Then we saw a message from Alex's parents. They had not made it onto the airplane. There had been problems with their documents, and they would now have to take the next flight the following day. Obviously, that was bad news, especially because they were already only coming for a short amount of time. But it also took some pressure off us. We no longer had to worry quite so much about the time it would take to comple our check-in the next day.

Stranded in Fiji

The next morning, it was still pouring rain. We cleaned up Tauha while trying to get hold of Customs. Eventually, we managed to contact them and got an appointment for 11 a.m. There was one problem, though. The one mooring buoy they normally used for boats checking in was apparently occupied. So the officials asked us to take our dinghy into the harbour and pick them up. They clearly did not know our dinghy. Let's just say it was an extremely long and extremely wet dinghy ride. By the time Alex and the health inspector arrived on Tauha, they were more than soaked. Then we found out that the mooring buoy wasn't actually occupied after all. So Alex called again and asked whether we could use it.

We got permission and started getting ready to move into the harbour with the health inspector still onboard. Everything should have been straightforward. Well...It wasn't.

Our navigation charts suddenly refused to show up. We thought, well, the harbour is really close and we don't want to let people wait. We know where it is. We can just drive in. Looking back, that was one of our dumber decisions. Instead of going all the way back to the beginning of the channel, we left our anchorage and tried to cross directly towards the channel leading into the harbour. It was low tide. Suddenly, we felt pressure underneath the boat and Tauha slowed down. I immediately put the engine into neutral. We had hit the bottom. Luckily, the bottom here was very muddy, so there was no serious damage. If anything, the mud probably cleaned the bottom of the boat. But we still needed to get out of there because people were waiting for us. And again, the pressure of having people waiting led us to another decision that we had not thought through properly. I tried going forwards and backwards to get ourselves free without properly considering the dinghy that was floating behind us on its tow line. Then suddenly we heard a very loud: BANG! The engine died. The dinghy line had wrapped itself around the propeller, stalled the engine, and broken part of the teak trim at the back of the boat. Shit. Now we were sitting in muddy water, in the rain, with boats downwind of us, a health inspector still onboard, and an engine that wouldn't start. It was quite a situation.

Alex put on his snorkelling gear, grabbed a knife and got into the water. He had to dive underneath Tauha and cut the line away from the propeller. While he was doing that, I had to make sure that we didn't drift into the other boats. Of course, we quickly started drifting. So I threw out anchors to keep us from moving too far. All of this was happening while the health inspector was still onboard. It was honestly a complete mess. Eventually, Alex managed to free the line and get us moving again. This time, we drove all the way back to the beginning of the passage and entered the harbour properly. We eventually reached the mooring buoy, which, by the way, was made out of metal. Who designs a mooring buoy out of metal? Finally, the other Customs officials were able to come onboard and we could complete the clearance process. They were understandably a little upset that they had been waiting for so long, although the entire adventure had probably only taken around fifteen minutes. The organization from the harbour side hadn't exactly made things easy for us either. They can't really expect every visiting boat to have a super-fast dinghy and know exactly how their harbour works. Still, two of the officials were actually very nice and joked around with us. There was just one particularly grumpy customs officer who was rude, asked some inappropriate questions, and blamed us for things that were not really on our side at all. But whatever. You always get one of those. The important thing was that we were finally cleared into Fiji.

By the time we made it back to our anchorage, it was already later in the afternoon and we were completely done for the day. We anchored and cleaned up a little more, but it was already too late to do the laundry. It was still raining anyway, so we decided to leave that for the next day.

The whole experience had taught us one very important lesson. You should never let yourself get stressed or pressured by other people when you are operating a boat. We had felt pressure because people were waiting for us. That pressure made us rush, and rushing led directly to a series of unnecessary mistakes. Luckily, nothing serious happened. We got away with a scare. But it could easily have been worse. So this is definitely something we will remember: on a boat, it is always better to take an extra few minutes and do something properly than to rush because somebody else is waiting.

Finally, Alex's Parents Arrive

The next day, Alex's parents finally made it to Fiji. Although they had their own little adventure waiting for them at the airport. Customs stopped them because of all the bags of boat equipment they were bringing with them. It took some convincing, and we had to send them documentation about our boat to show that we would not have more than $2,000 worth of goods in the bags. Eventually, Customs let them through. Thank God.

We drove to shore and found them just getting out of a taxi. And with them were all our new sailing parts. Wuhu! We were incredibly excited to finally see them. We had breakfast together, caught up, got a cruising permit with their names on it (a requirement here in Fiji) and did laundry.

Then came the transportation operation. I took all the bags to the boat in one trip so that on the second trip we could squeeze everybody into the dinghy and finally head out to Tauha together.

That day, we weren't going sailing. There was absolutely no chance of that with all the suitcases and new boat equipment lying around. Instead, we unpacked everything and found places to store all our new things. Alex's parents could finally unpack their clothes, and we could get the boat back into a state where it was actually possible to move around. The sun was shining, and it was a really beautiful day. At the time, we had no idea how precious that little bit of sunshine would be.

Almost a Fish... and Then a Fish!

The next day was cloudy again. Around noon, we headed out towards one of the islands on the western side of Fiji's main island. It was a really nice sail, at least until the wind disappeared again. So we spent some time simply floating around, chatting and waiting for the wind to return. Eventually, in the afternoon, it picked up again and we continued sailing. Most of the day remained cloudy, but every now and then the sun managed to break through the clouds, which was a welcome change. At some point, we realized that we were no longer going to make it to the island we had originally planned to visit before dark. So we changed our plans and decided to anchor in front of a different island instead.

On the way there, Alex decided to try his luck with fishing. Suddenly, he got a bite. And it was a big one. Alex was fighting the fish and slowly bringing it closer to the boat. We were all excited to see what he had caught. But just before he managed to get it into the boat, the fish got off the hook. Alex was very upset and so was the full crew. Then, a little later, another fish bit. This one wasn't as big as the first, but it was still a pretty good size. Alex started fighting it again, and this time he managed to bring it all the way to the boat. And there it was. Another bonito. And it was the biggest one he had caught so far. That was a pretty great feeling. Fresh fish for dinner! We arrived at the anchorage around sunset.

The waves were stronger than we had hoped, and the reef was not protecting us quite as much as we had expected. It was going to be a somewhat rolly night. But at least Alex's parents were getting the full sailing experience.

Meeting the Chief

The next day, we went ashore. When you arrive on an island here, you bring kava for the chief and participate in a small welcome ceremony.

We were sitting inside the chief's private home with his family around us while they performed the ceremony with chanting and clapping.

It was a really special experience. And then we discovered something we hadn't known. This was the same chief who had performed a ceremony for Tom Hanks when he visited the neighbouring island while filming Cast Away on the next island. That was quite a funny connection to discover while sitting in his home. After the ceremony concluded, we were free to explore the island.

A group of local children took us around and showed us their school, the church, the village, the beach and the pigs. They were basically showing us everything that made up their home. We wanted to walk up the hill, and although the kids weren't exactly the biggest fans of the idea of walking uphill, they came with us anyway. They even climbed up a tree to get us a coconut so that we could drink it and eat the fresh coconut meat. It was a wonderful experience.

In the village there were more people living there than we had expected. Tourism seemed to be one of the main sources of income for the community. The pigs didn't look particularly healthy, and there was quite a lot of rubbish piled up here and there around the island. But despite that, the island itself was pretty. What we enjoyed most was simply talking to the people, both adults and children, and getting a little glimpse into their everyday lives. We watched people fishing, walked through the village, talked to the kids and saw the places that were important to them. In the afternoon, we went back to Tauha, played a game and enjoyed the rest of the day.

Sailing Back Through the Rain

The following day, it was already time to sail back. Once again, we had rain and wind, and this time we were sailing directly against the wind.

The sea was rocky at first, but as we got closer to our destination, it slowly calmed down. Eventually, the wind completely disappeared in the middle of the night. We didn't make it back before sunset, so we ended up anchoring in the dark. The last day had already arrived, and it was time to say goodbye. We enjoyed the day together and had some food at a Fijian restaurant before Alex's parents had to start their journey back home.

Their visit had been short, but it had been packed with experiences. We had sailed together, explored an island, met the chief, watched the kids show us their home, caught a bonito and survived more rain than any of us probably wanted. Eventually, it was time for them to leave. We waved goodbye and watched them start their journey home.

But before we waved goodby we enjoyed together another unexpected luxury. We had a hot shower in the harbour. A real, proper, hot shower.

It was the first real shower we had had since we started this sailing adventure, so for almost 3 months. After so much time living on Tauha, constantly dealing with salt water, rain and limited fresh water, a hot shower felt absolutely incredible. What a luxury. It is funny how something you normally take completely for granted can suddenly feel like the greatest thing in the world.

Leaving Tauha in Fiji

After saying goodbye to Alex's parents, we went back to the boat. And now we are preparing to leave Tauha here in Fiji for a while. Our sailing adventure is not over, but we are taking a break from it for the moment and flying back to Germany for my brother's wedding. It feels strange to leave the boat behind after everything that has happened since we started this journey. We have sailed thousands of miles, explored remote islands, visited schools, seen whales, crossed the Pacific, watched shooting stars, dealt with broken equipment, sailed through rough weather, caught fish, met incredible people, made plenty of mistakes and somehow always kept moving forward. Now it is time to step away for two weeks.

Tauha will stay here in Fiji. We will fly back to Germany, celebrate my brother's wedding, and take a short break from life at sea. But soon, we will be back on Tauha and continue the adventure. For now, though, Fiji is where we leave her. And somehow, I have a feeling that when we return, the Pacific will have a few more adventures waiting for us.

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