We JUST got here...and now we HAVE TO LEAVE!

After spending several days diving in the blue water and exploring ashore around Kadavu (Kandavu), Iain and Brioni of Sailing Red Seas weigh anchor between 10:00 and 11:00 in the morning for a 120-mile overnight passage west toward Fiji’s main island. With South Pacific weather windows tightening and two mysterious packages to exchange before clearing out of the country, they set a course toward Denarau and Musket Cove hoping for a 6:00 a.m. sunrise landfall.

Following 3 days of flat calms, a light breeze fills in from astern just as the catamaran gets underway. Even with a bit of cloud cover and following waves expected to build to around 1.5 meters, the sea state starts out calm enough to push the boat along at 6 knots under the genoa alone. Their primary reaching sail remains out of commission after a hardware failure earlier in the trip, leaving them to work with their remaining downwind inventory for the 100-to-120-mile run.

Departing Kadavu for a 120-Mile Fiji Handoff

Underway on the downwind leg out of Kadavu, Iain explains why the larger furling sail stays stowed in the locker despite the favorable angle:

“I mean, we would be flying the fat thing if we had the choice, but unfortunately we ripped the base plate off and I’ve run out of rivets.”

Iain

Over 6 years of sailing around the world, Iain and Brioni have spent plenty of evenings around campfires with other sailors sharing stories of critical failures, pirate scares, and self-imposed disasters—including tales of boats forced to flee a country with no notice. Now their own overnight sail toward the Denarau area centers on a double handoff between cruising boats moving through Fiji at different speeds. Another yacht that suddenly departed Fiji in a hurry left a mysterious package behind for Iain and Brioni with mutual friends anchored near Musket Cove. At the same time, Iain and Brioni are carrying a separate package of their own to deliver to a different departing boat whose crew they have never met.

The couple jokes about sounding like smugglers as they cross Fiji waters, though they have already been thoroughly vetted by local authorities during their two months in the archipelago. Coast guard officers had already checked them out, customs officials searched their boat in Fulaga, and inspectors checked their papers in Totoya. Earlier in the season, they had even carried a boatload of legitimate, fully documented medical supplies and drugs for outer-island communities—and Brioni notes that the mystery box waiting for her at the end of this passage is going to make plenty of people happy as well.

Flying the Spinnaker Without a Bowsprit and a Block Failure

As the afternoon breeze softens and boat speed drops to 5 and 1/2 knots, Iain grows impatient with the genoa and decides to hoist the spinnaker. Because their catamaran does not have a bowsprit, the crew uses a two-line bridal arrangement to control the bottom of the sail: two guidelines are tied directly to the tack of the spinnaker, led down to the port and starboard bows, crossed over the foredeck, and routed back to the mast winches—one on either side of the mast.

While winching both tack lines tighter to pull the front of the flying spinnaker lower toward the bows, a 25-year-old turning block on the starboard side suddenly explodes, sending pieces across the deck.

“The shackle survived, interestingly, but the block base gave up.”

Iain

Because the failure happens on the starboard tack line while the starboard sheet continues holding the clew out and the port tack line holds fast, the spinnaker stays flying without collapsing. Iain swaps in a replacement block—leaving only one spare block left on the boat and prompting Brioni to add new blocks to their Christmas wish list. Once re-rigged on the mast winches, the spinnaker immediately adds 1.5 knots of boat speed, lifting their pace from 5 and 1/2 knots back up to 7 knots in 8 and 1/2 knots of wind and helping level out the catamaran as the waves shift slightly onto the beam. Aside from the aging blocks, Iain notes how well the vessel is performing following its recent refit upgrades, citing the clean hulls and collapsing Gori props.

Late-Season Weather Delays and a Compressed Fiji Route

Later in the afternoon, running deep downwind with a small island directly blocking their rhumb line, the crew finds they can no longer turn any deeper without collapsing the rig. They gybe to pop around the north side of the island and settle onto a new heading as evening approaches.

The detour sparks a conversation about why their time in Fiji feels so rushed. Not only had boatyard work delayed their departure from New Zealand, but every sailor waiting to head north to the tropics that season had been trapped in the same six-week weather bottleneck. Instead of departing New Zealand at the beginning of May as usual, roughly 100 people sat stalled waiting for a passage window until mid-June. During that standoff, one boat set off only to realize it was a terrible idea and turned back, while another boat departed, encountered rough conditions, diverted course 90 degrees to run with the weather, and ended up in a different country altogether.

Arriving at the very end of June left Iain and Brioni with just two months to explore Fiji before the approaching South Pacific cyclone season—complicated further by forecasts of a super El Niño—forced the cruising fleet to start preparing for departure. In that compressed window, they sailed a wide C-shaped track through the islands: checking in at Savusavu in the north, working their way down through the remote Lau Group (including Fulaga and Totoya) and across to Kadavu, and now curving back northwest toward Denarau and Musket Cove.

Night Passage Speeds and Sunrise Arrival at Musket Cove

Throughout the night watch, the wind builds steadily behind them. Trimming the spinnaker in the dark, Iain and Brioni watch boat speeds climb into the 8- and 9-knot range before surging even higher.

“Once it got up to 10s and 11s in boat speed, we thought, ‘Okay, that’s enough.’ And dropped the spinnaker and then we flew the genoa the rest of the night.”

Brioni

As the sun rises right on schedule around 6:00 a.m., they furl the genoa, start the engines, and motor through the outer reef pass toward Fiji’s main island before threading a second pass into what Iain describes as a “lagoon inside a lagoon” at Musket Cove. After spending the last two months completely off-grid—often anchored as the only boat in an entire bay or island—they are greeted by hundreds of masts packed into the anchorage for the annual Musket Cove Rally, where cruisers gather for a lighthearted race and social send-off before departing Fiji. Squeezing into a spot on the perimeter, they drop the hook with 19.4 meters under the keel and catch up on sleep.

Collecting the Sailrite Ultrafeed and Spare Canvas Haul

Once rested, Iain and Brioni launch the dinghy for “Operation stealth” and motor over to a catamaran belonging to friends they had met earlier in the outer islands, who are holding the package left behind by the yacht that already departed Fiji. Back aboard their own boat, Brioni opens the heavy wooden case and reveals the prize that justified the 120-mile overnight dash:

“This box is my new Sailrite, my upgraded industrial heavy-duty canvas sewing machine.”

Brioni

While Brioni already owns an older, rustier sewing machine bought when they first purchased the boat, that original machine had more than paid for itself over years of heavy use—repairing their genoa in remote islands of French Polynesia, sewing their spinnaker back together while offshore and underway, fabricating their interior sofa cushions, stitching exterior canvas covers and old-sail line bags, and handling sail repairs for other cruisers. Jumping at the chance to buy a cleaner, newer Sailrite Ultrafeed from sailors selling their boat, she walks through the machine’s key upgrades:

• Stitch Length, Width & Needle Position Controls: Front-mounted dials adjust forward and reverse stitch length, control zigzag width for sail repairs and raw fabric edges, and shift the needle between left, center, and right positions for sewing close to edges or installing zips.
• Integrated Task Light: A built-in work light eliminates the need to balance a torch on her lap when stitching repairs at night.
• Monster Wheel Upgrade: The oversized balance wheel alters the gear ratio, giving finer slow-speed control at the start and end of seams and reducing the physical effort needed when hand-cranking through thick multi-layer canvas corners.
• Canvas, Vinyl & Hardware Spares: Because the sellers were clearing out their vessel, the bundle includes fresh rolls of gray canvas, white mesh, and waterproof gray vinyl—which offers better chafe protection than Sunbrella or standard canvas for future paddleboard and generator covers—alongside a large box of thread, needles, hardware, zips, Velcro, and webbing.

With the new Sailrite Ultrafeed and fabric rolls stowed below decks, only the second half of their swap remains: lifting anchor from Musket Cove to sail over to a nearby island, where they will hand off and sell their original sewing machine to another departing crew.

Frequently Asked Questions