Sophie is currently sailing at ~8.5 knots with a single reefed main and full jib under sunny tropical skies in a 15 knot easterly. We’ve sailed 590 miles since our departure from Tutukaka last Wednesday evening, and we only have 565 miles between us and Savusavu. That means we reached the halfway point in our passage late this morning! Our current position is 26.01S 176.59E, and we covered 174 miles in our last 24 hours. It definitely feels like trade wind sailing right now, and the weather forecast indicates that these winds will remain constant through mid-week. At this pace we should pass within sight of Fiji’s Kandavu Island on Tuesday and then reach the customs dock in Savusavu Wednesday afternoon.

Jenna is celebrating our progress by making applesauce.

We motorsailed yesterday until midnight and then switched over to sail. I had to tie the code zero to the deck at 4:00 AM after it started to flap on its furler after a gust. We still have over half of our fuel remaining, and it is nice to be going at a 200 mile-day pace under sails alone. Despite our speed, we might have a bit of a current running against us because the knotmeter’s speed is running 2 knots faster than the GPS calculation of our speed over ground.

Other than that, everyone is lying around reading or napping. Dan and I have permission to try for a tuna or mahi mahi when we near Fiji. Dinner tonight will be vegan chili, a vegetable stir-fry, and striped marlin ceviche. And applesauce, of course.

Things are good.