Slow Progress

Our current position after over 40 hours is only 18 30 28S 176 41 05E

We finally left Suva at noon on Tuesday with Troutbridge following behind. Peter's leaving was fraught with so many problems but he was actually placed between a rock and a hard place.

He'd applied for an extension from the authorities to allow his boat to stay in Fiji for a while longer to ensure that all systems were up and running and it was safe for him to leave. They turned down his request forcing him to either leave with a boat that was unsafe or having to import the vessel into the country - a cost he simply couldn't consider.

Had it not been for Dave, a fellow cruiser, there was literally no hope that his boat was remotely seaworthy. The engine (after paying a mechanic some horrendous fees and many many months of frustrating non activity from said worker) proved to be anything but sound. So too with the electrics that he'd paid out a fortune to have repaired. And the final blow came the day we were to check out when he discovered that the GRP work in the form of the hull and keel repairs were badly delaminating, causing serious leaks.

Dave looked into all of this and did a remarkable job under the circumstances but we left with Peter having to pump out 70 litres of water every hour and an engine that still overheated periodically. Thus, it has taken us this long to get next to nowhere.

To top it all, when we tried to make radio contact this morning, nothing. The hours went by with us just sitting on the rhum but still nothing. After mid morning, by which time we were extremely worried, we decided to motor back, calling him on the radio every few minutes. This finally paid off, we found him and were able to wait for him to meet us back on the rhum line several hours later. What a relief.

There has been no wind all day so we motored for most of it hoping to get clear of a nasty low system heading our way. I think we've avoided it. However, Pete has very limited fuel so we are, at this stage (two in the morning), wallowing away with a bit of sail up in the hopes of finding some small tad of breeze that will move us forward. Not much out here, I must say.

Anyway, the important this is, he's keeping up with the inflow or water and his engine behaved quite well during the day. His auto pilot is playing up a bit but, then, so is ours - they don't like trying to steer when there is no wind to assist.

Other than that, all is well and we're heading for Tanner Island in Vanuatu, a shorter route for Peter and, hopefully, an active volcano for us to see.