SLINKING MY WAY TOWARDS SAVUSAVU

I made It through the night with some glitter left over. I am in the future now, tomorrow plus 22 hours. I can see the peaks of Taveuni. I can taste the mangos of Mango Island. I can hear strings strumming a tender song.

Last night I sailed through squalls, then stars, then squalls, then starless,
then stars, the squalls. The sky is so dazed and confused around here. But then again, so am I. I think I know, what I don’t know, and I know what I don’t think I know. I need real food and real sleep to escape the mist.

I am slinking my way to Savusavu. A Native American man is singing to me whenever I step into the cabin and I’m sitting here dressed for a Siberian winter. I’m wearing long underwear and every piece of offshore sailing gear that I own- none of which is still waterproof after 11 years. I’m about to top the ensemble off with a winter skull cap, maybe throw a little wool on top.

I smell like low tide and I look like something that the cat drug in. Like that limbless, wet creature dangling from the cats proud lips. The Fijian Navy might force me into a sanitizing shower when they see me. I won’t resist. If they did, do you think a lady would scrub me down? Maybe even brush and braid my hair? That might feel nice.

The only place I’ve been “scrubbed down” was at a bathhouse in Morocco. A large naked lady sat on a bucket and rubbed me from head to toe with black soap and a sponge. Dead skin flying. I had to do it, it was part of the experience. Anyway, I was the only white gal in there and the lady was laughing the entire time that she scrubbed me. I’ve had a slight complex ever since. I’m pretty sure anatomically we we’re identical, but what provoked such laughter!

Back to Fiji. I turned into the Nanuku Channel around midnight. It put me on a beam reach, which is a slower and more raucous point of sail. Everything is hitting you at a 90 degree angle- the blow, the foam, the breakers- and Juniper has more of a heel, so she’s a little lopsided in the water.

For a long while the tides of the moon were stacked against me and I was swimming upstream, loosing speed with each stroke. Then there were these reefs on the north side of the channel that I had to hit the wind even harder to avoid, which slowed me down even more.

I’m at a good pace now, with everything pushing me towards my destination. I have yet to see another boat. Probably because I’m the only idiot that would be out here on a day like today.

I don’t want to jinx this, because I still have 42 miles to go go, but the weather forecast, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I’ve been sitting on wind in the mid-20s, and have yet to see 30 or 40. And honey, this swell has got nothing on what I saw near Samoa.

Right as I wrote that a wave crashed onto me. Ok swell, I take it back, you are so massive, I’ve never seen anything as grand you!

I had myself all knotted up over that forecast. I learned that it’s best not to sweat it until I see it.

Alright peaches, I gotta go jibe. More once I land in Fiji.

XO