This morning we raised the anchor at 5:45am, just after dawn, and motored out of Mbengga Lagoon and headed West towards Malolo Lailai and Musket Cove (our last stop in Fiji). The weather is fairly calm with some rain squalls visible. The wind is 10k from the NE, as advertised, and the seas are very calm. The distance to Malolo is about 70nm and we expect to arrive before dark, hence the very early departure. We have a backup stop in mind in case we cannot make it to Malolo, but we are motorsailing at 7.3k now and have every reason to believe we will make it with time to spare.

The time is now 11:20am and we have covered app. 36 miles so far. We have about 31 to go to Musket Cove. The wind has increased to 15-20k and is from the East making our course dead down wind. The sea is up to about 3-4ft and many whitecaps are visible. At this angle we cannot make more then 6k and that would require the whisker pole being set and the jib poled out. Our next waypoint is in 6 miles and we will turn 20 or 30 degrees to the North changing everything, so we're not going to bother with the pole and just motor sail. We are making 7.5k over ground motoring at 2000rpm and burning fuel like crazy. We know there is fuel at Musket Cove Marina so this is no problem.

We motor sailed the entire way and arrived at about 4:15 at Musket Cove Resort and Yacht Club. We took a mooring near the reef among about 10 other boats and settled in. We are tired.