Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away...

Tomorrow morning we depart from Marsden, New Zealand, headed north to Fiji.  The sail will be about 1,200 and, with the current wind and sea conditions, we expect the voyage to be about 10 days.  

We are provisioned with plenty of food and water (plus we have a water maker on board), and enough fuel for about 600-700 miles of motoring... so we'll need to find wind to make the 1,200 miles.

I'm excited for this, my first ocean passage.  I will take lots of photos and videos, and will keep a journal as well.  No doubt this will be an intense test of my sea legs (and sea stomach).  

My next update will be in a couple of weeks, hopefully from a warm, sunny (and dry) beach in Fiji!

The picture below is a gross exaggeration of our route to Fiji, but highlights our tactics and sailing angles.  We will sail E / NE at first to get away from New Zealand (and surrounding tough conditions) as quickly as possible.  (We expect the wind will be coming out of the N / NW.)  Then we'll turn and head N / NW, taking advantage of the SE trade winds.  We expect some light conditions mid-passage, so we'll probably be doing some motoring as well. 

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Rough illustration of our intended route.  By no means is it even close to exact from a navigation standpoint.

From left to right:  Dan (crew), Rick (first mate), Tom (skipper), Brad (crew).