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New Zealand to Fiji: the Long Way
Around
There's the rhumb line, the great circle route, and there's the long way around. The latter
wasn't exactly our intention when departing New Zealand for Fiji one late May day, but
that's what sailing is about: life at the mercy of the elements, sometimes for better, some-
times for worse.
It had been a wonderfully unambitious season in the land of the kiwi for us. Now that cyc-
lone season was past and winter coming on, however, we were eager to explore “the Is-
lands,” as Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia are fondly referred to. Apart from
shaky sea legs, we wondered, how complicated could this be? The passage is simply the
southern hemisphere version of the US East Coast to Caribbean run, without the complica-
tion of the Gulf Stream. No problem, right?
Our suspicions, however, were aroused by a contradiction: while respected sources such as
Jimmy Cornell and the Island Cruising Association Rally give late April / early May as a
good departure time, most veterans wait for more stable weather patterns in June - that's
winter, meaning an increased frequency of Tasman Sea lows. So which would it be: an
early start, toeing the line with the end of the cyclone season, or a later passage, with a
trade-off between more reliable weather and colder temperatures?
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