We've Got to Get Out of Here! Bad Weather & Worse Anchorages in Fiji

Ahead of incoming squalls and high winds in Fiji, Holly Hendricks and Ray Gordon decided to weigh anchor before sunrise aboard their Lagoon 42 catamaran, documented on Holly and Ray. Their prior anchorage had become uncomfortable not because of space constraints, but because neighboring vessels kept dropping hook directly inside their swing radius despite over a mile of clear room. With wind forecasts predicting building conditions by late morning, Ray noted the necessity of an early departure: “It’ll be about a 4 and 1/2-hour motor, unfortunately. Zero wind, very very little wind.”

Motoring in calm seas across the lagoon, SV Sabado arrived off the busy port of Denarau at 10:40. The crew dropped hook in ample space with the prevailing breeze blowing offshore, just twenty minutes before winds freshened at 11:00 exactly as forecast. With their ground tackle set and holding, the crew turned their attention to prepping the vessel for an upcoming four-day offshore passage across open water to Vanuatu, tracking an approaching weather window to slip out behind the active weather front.

Monitoring Drifting Traffic With Sereno One

As gusts began circulating through Denarau, several neighboring yachts lost purchase on the seabed and began dragging through the fleet. The unpredictable holding highlighted the need for independent position alerting. Ray presented the Sereno One hardware unit developed for their nav station, an autonomous battery-powered receiver designed to monitor positioning without reliance on a single helm multifunction display. Demonstrating its dual-source architecture, Ray explained how the hardware compares data streams between an internal receiver and the vessel NMEA network:

“Believe it or not, this is actually the most accurate GPS that we have on the boat.”

Ray Gordon

The unit tracks four GNSS constellations simultaneously and triggers a piercing audible buzzer if the vessel breaks its assigned swing circle or loses satellite fix entirely. While watching other skippers scramble on foredecks to reset dragging anchors in the chop, Ray noted the value of early detection before ground tackle fouls a neighboring rode.

Server-Side Weather Routing for the Vanuatu Passage

Between anchor watches, the crew reviewed passage projections using Sereno Routing, a custom weather application Ray developed to overcome limitations in standard marine routing software. Operating entirely on remote cloud servers rather than device processors, the routing platform continuously recalculates route options over prospective departure dates without tying up onboard screens:

“All of the routing happens on a server.”

Ray Gordon

When deployed on passage, the software integrates with Sereno One to log real-time boat speeds, prevailing winds, and sea state. This data builds authentic vessel wave polars that feed directly back into route calculations, accurately factoring whether Sabado is under sail or motoring. With weather models confirming favorable conditions toward the active volcano at Port Resolution in Vanuatu, Holly and Ray prepared to conclude their season run toward New Caledonia and Australia.

Midnight Anchor Drag and Tactical Relocation

At 2:00 in the morning, the risks of a crowded anchorage materialized when an uncrewed or unaware yacht broke free and drifted toward Sabado bow. Holly alerted the deck after visual checks confirmed the vessel was dragging directly over their anchor rode:

“It’s 2:00 a.m. and this boat has no idea they’re dragging anchor.”

Holly Hendricks

Holly and Ray attempted to establish contact by shouting, flashing deck lights, broadcasting on VHF radio, and sounding their loud hailer, but received no response from the drifting boat. Holly deployed all fenders along the hull while the crew stood rotating watches. The drifting yacht eventually stopped moving as its anchor re-hooked directly on top of Sabado ground tackle. Once daylight broke without collision, Holly and Ray weighed anchor and motored to an isolated position within the anchorage to regain swing clearance.

Passage Provisioning and Galley Prep

Clearing out of the previous anchorage also exposed Sabado to heavy ash and soot raining from onshore trash and sugarcane burning fires, coating the aft sugar scoops and deck stairs. Taking advantage of a temporary lull in the wind, Holly dropped the tender to gather provisions onshore in Denarau. Biosecurity regulations in downstream destinations governed her purchasing and meal preparation: while Vanuatu enforces relaxed entry inspections, biosecurity officials in New Caledonia and Australia conduct rigorous vessel searches for fresh agricultural items.

Holly sourced whole frozen chickens and mince meat, pressure-cooking two chickens into batch meals to freeze for the four-day crossing. One batch became an Indian coconut curry served with white rice, while the second was prepared in a miso ginger broth with vegetables for ramen. She vacuum-sealed each portion for passage consumption, cautioning about liquid preservation: “You got to double check the seal on soups. Ask me how I know.”

The sealed meals were transferred directly into their Engel freezer. During their previous refit in Whangarei, New Zealand, Holly and Ray had gutted their port forward wet head, removed the marine toilet, and installed a dedicated workshop platform custom-built by Ray to support the auxiliary freezer and stowage racks for foul weather gear.

Sudden Squall and Departure From Fiji

Shortly after meal prep, conditions in Denarau deteriorated abruptly. Over a span of 9 minutes, the wind shifted 180 degrees and gusted up to 22 knots. While forecasting models on Windy predicted light four-knot breezes from the opposite direction, onboard instruments recorded 17 knots across the deck. The violent direction shift sent several newly anchored boats dragging through the basin once more. Ray launched the tender to assist a single-handed sailor whose windlass had malfunctioned during the squall.

With house batteries sitting at 98 percent capacity, Holly baked coconut shortbread while monitoring systems at the nav desk. With dense sugarcane smoke irritating their eyes and clear passage weather developing offshore, Holly and Ray completed customs checkout. Sabado cleared Denarau, beginning a two-hour motor through the lagoon reef pass to start their three-day run toward Port Resolution.

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