We had met Tim, Gizmo’s owner, and Chris, her captain, in the lineup at Ha’apiti and had spent enough time surfing and hanging out that we knew we’d vibe well with them as crew. We also knew that, once in Fiji, Tim’s main focus would be on scoring surf. On top of that, there were no flights into Fiji — the islands were completely shut off to everyone except boats entering through the “Blue Lanes” program. We hardly dared give voice to the dream, but was it possible? Could we get Cloudbreak to ourselves?
The red tape of traveling during covid almost put an end to our visions of empty Fijian lineups. We were dealing with agents in Fiji and Tahiti and constantly changing travel restrictions. We needed to get covid tests within a certain window before leaving Tahiti but scheduling was tricky as we were still waiting on approval from the Fijian authorities. Tim was on the verge of pulling the plug on the trip, saying “Screw it, let’s go surf in the Tuamotus,” when our approval from Fiji finally came and our Tahiti agent was able to get us in for testing.
The Gizmo crew went into Pape’ete so a doctor could jam a swab into our brains and make sure we didn’t have any viruses crawling around up there. We all tested negative and two days later at sunrise we cruised out the pass and set sail for Fiji.
Our destination was Port Denarau, Fiji, 1900 nautical miles almost due west of Papeete. Of course sailing never follows a straight line, the wind would dictate our course. We motor- sailed west-southwest until we picked up the wind belt and by evening we had 25-27 knots of true wind. We settled in quickly to the routine of life at sea. There were six of us on board, broken up into three watches of two hours each. It’s interesting how your perception of time changes when you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean and sleeping for a maximum of three and a half hours at a time. The wind stayed steady until the third day when it began to lighten and clock northeast, so we decided to jibe and set our course northwest. Shortly after our jibe we had our first hookup and landed 3 bigeye tuna. Sashimi for dinner!
Tim is an avid fisherman, and a good one. Gizmo’s course was dictated not only by the wind but by the need to pass right over shallow seamounts or skirt fishy reef drop offs. We had lines out almost the whole time we were sailing and had to furl or drop the jib each time we hooked a fish so we could slow down enough to reel it in. We weren’t trying to break any sailing records as we had to complete a 14 day quarantine before we would be allowed to cruise around the islands of Fiji (thankfully our crossing counted towards the time). Instead we appreciated the entertainment of hearing the buzz of the reel go off, followed by the quick congregation of all hands on deck, excited crew in the cockpit. Our weather proved to be quite mild mannered for the trip, with only 2 days of mediocre visibility and strong wind. The combination of this 30+ knot wind (we hit 22 knots sailing down the faces of the waves) and the strong potential of catching fish along the steep drop off of the island of Niue had us jibe to port to change our heading south for the island. We sailed past a FAD (fish aggregating device) and immediately hooked and landed two wahoo. However, we were in for a surprise. With Gizmo well within the international boundary, their strict border enforcement had a Search and Rescue team radioing and chasing after us at sea. We reeled in our lines and put away the rods as they paralleled us with lights flashing and required the names and passport numbers of each crew member on board. We’re uncertain if we’re now blacklisted for entry any time in the future.
A few days and jibes later, we passed through the Vava’u Group, which makes up the northern part of the Tongan archipelago, between Toku Island and Vava’u Island. We caught 2 big Mahi and 6 miles later 2 big tuna. Our bellies were happy and the freezer was
filling up with plenty of reserves. From there we continued west/southwest through the Lau Group and south of Kadavu Island, where we jibed to starboard and were met with a stiff wind of 25 knots on the beam. We furled the reacher and raised our staysail in preparation for our approach to Navula Passage, on the west side of Viti Levu, Fiji. Once inside the passage, we radioed Fijian authorities to announce our arrival and sailed right into our quarantine anchorage. 2070 nautical miles and 12 days at sea done and dusted. Now we had only to wait out the remaining 2 days of our quarantine requirement, have another covid test swab stuck up our noses, and be granted clearance to explore.