Halfway celebrations are an important occasion on all passages onboard Puffin, they are sometimes slightly delayed due to weather and sleep deprivation but they are never to be ignored. Sometimes they include a few sips of champagne and other times they consist of sharing a can of our favorite lemonade. Nonetheless they are a boost for morale and a milestone to recognize the progress in passages that sometimes feel endless.
Now we’re actually reporting from an even bigger halfway celebration. Our arrival on Fiji marked halfway of our trip around the world (and then back to Sweden) and could simply not be missed. Our friends back home had gifted us a bottle of Champagne for this special occasion and this special bottled had now traveled many miles to earn its very special purpose. The bubbles tasted great and we’ve learned a lot while letting the bottle travel along with us during the first half of the journey. We have learned so much about Puffin, about sailing, about cruising life and about ourselves. While we’re still without a doubt very happy that we took the decision to give this circumnavigation dream a try, we’re also learning that this adventure is far tougher and more stressful than we imagined while planning it back home. But we’re pretty sure that these bubbles wouldn’t have tasted half as good without the work that took us here.
Even this last passage, a two week passage from Bora Bora to Fiji, which by now feels like a rather short passage proved to make us show some extra grit to earn the upcoming bubbles. It was our rainiest passage yet and one we’ve named the “zigzag passage” to reflect our slithery track caused by the very shifty winds and weather conditions in general. We had lots of midnight wake-up’s to help each other reef or alter sails. On top of this we also had several nights of thunder and lightning, something that always keeps us on our toes. Up until the very last moment of the passage we were forced to dig out our determination, as we were navigating our way into the Fijian archipelago and making our way between the hundreds of islands and reefs our last night we were pushing our way through strong winds gusting at the mid thirties (knots). Neither one of us got very much rest when the one on watch had to brace and hold one while the boat got washed with waves soaking the entire cockpit and the one off watch tried to sleep on a slamming bumpy sofa where things were flying around and quickly ready to fly up to the cockpit if anything where to happen or assistance was needed. The thought of arrival a few hours after sunrise was very welcoming while battling these winds.
Now we’re really keen on exploring Fiji, our last Pacific Island before we get ready for Australia.
Cheers to halfway!
