[This is Phil and Di's entry for the longest voyage in a Compass Yacht for 2015-2016. They are preparing to depart Coffs Harbour for the Regatta at Watsons Bay 12-14th February.]
Here is a description of our journey in the past 12 months for the Longest Voyage entry.
Coffs Harbour direct to Savu Savu, Fiji June2-30, 2015 - 1980 nm.
It was a 28 day journey, mostly to windward, very strong winds, squalls and a few thunderstorms much of the time so it was a hard trip, one of our hardest in recent years. We only caught one fish, a mahi mahi, as it was too rough most of the time to catch and fillet a fish! We had a forecast of westerlies for the first four days to try and get east of Lord Howe Island but instead it took us 9 days with either no wind or strong easterlies! Thankfully we had a new mainsail and a fully re-serviced wind vane to keep us on track. We then expected steady trades but they seemed to be scarce this year, often stronger than expected and inconsistent from different directions.
Savu Savu, Fiji to Coffs Harbour Oct 28-November 17, 2015 -1760 nm
It was a relatively easy sail back to Coffs Harbour, 20 days, with a few days of calms and a fair bit of good sailing conditions. What a joy it was to be out there after a season of unsettled weather even after we arrived in Fiji and then we discovered we had a broken furler to repair so we didn't get much sailing in. We still only caught one fish on the way home, a mahi mahi again, so it seems there were not many fish around this year compared to previous years crossing the Pacific.
Total mileage 3,740 nm in 2015.
[A great effort, I am sure all would agree. Geoff]