Crew Swapping (Update 43)
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Date: Sunday 6th June
Time: 1700 hours Cook Island Time (GMT ­ 10 hours)
Position: 20* 12.8¹ South/ 162* 34.8¹ West

Bula Viti kei Rotuma

We cast off from Avatiu Fishing Wharf at 15.30 hours in front of a huge
crowd of Fijians who had turned up to see us off.

The Fiji versus Papua New Guinea netball game was played from 2pm ­ 3pm and
Johnathan took some of the crew along to watch. They had to miss the last
quarter to be back in time for our departure.

Many Fijians followed the crew back from the netball. Father Mafi who had
been our host at the St Joseph Parish Hall for the week, led the crew and
supporters on shore in a prayer with everyone joining hands, on deck and on
the wharf.

This was followed by the bole 'Vutala Na Ua' from the boys then the
supporters on the wharf joined the crew in singing 'Isa Lei'.

Although it was a sad occasion, we were all happy to have made so many
friends. The joking was still going on between the crew and the local
Fijians even when we were outside the Avatiu Harbour.

I have sent a bunch of photos of our time in the Cook Islands to be
published on the website www.fijivoyaging.com so please go to the site and
have a look at the wonderful reception we received during our time here.

It is a small Harbour so we were still in shouting distance outside, while
we waited for Te Matau a Maui and Hine Moana to join us.

We departed Rarotonga without Steven and Moala as they have joined Te Matau
a Maui for the voyage to Samoa. In their place we have Titaua Teipoarii
(Tevita) joining us all the way to Fiji.

Tevita fit right in to the crew and has joined my watch with Unaisi, Carson
and Vilisoni. He has been well trained by Teva the Faafaite skipper and will
be a handy replacement for the experienced Moala and Steven.

The other canoes have been crew swapping right from Tahiti and have been
asking if we want to do the same. None of the crew wanted to leave our canoe
until now. Plus we had 18 crew and only 16 bunks so it is much more
comfortable now we are back to 16.

This morning Tevita was reading last Fridays New Zealand Herald aloud to try
and improve his English. He noticed the story about Rokocoko being back in
the All Black squad and read the story to the boys on deck then asked "Is it
okay?" meaning was his reading okay.

At lunch we sent him below deck to wake up the crew and we could hear him
calling out "Mai kana".

We left Rarotonga under Traditional Sails in a 25knot Southerly. At 1730 we
started the change over from the Traditional rig to the Bermuda rig.

The wind dropped slightly on sunset to 18 to 20 knots but stayed Southerly,
which is ideal for our course heading of 304 degrees True. Once it was dark,
we headed in the direction of Venus, keeping the planet just to port of the
main mast when steering.

By morning the wind had dropped to 12 knots and moved around to the South
East so we raised the Gennaker soon after lunch. We currently have about 10
to 12 knots of wind from the South East.

We have 637 nautical miles to go to Sinalei which is on the South side of
Upolu directly opposite Apia. We are doing about 6 to 8 knots and at this
speed we should arrive at around midday on Thursday (Friday Fiji Time).

However the forecast is for the wind to drop even further and swing more
Easterly which will slow us down a lot. What we would love is 25 knots from
the South but we have to take what we get.

Vinaka

Colin/Uto ni Yalo

Report by Satellite Phone courtesy of DIGICEL