Fiji Blog
15 August 2006
We are now back in Vuda Point Marina getting the boat ready for the trip to Vanuatu and/or New Caledonia (after the trip up and our non-trip to Tonga, I am hedging my bets). We had one of best day’s sailing yet on the way from Waya to the marina, 15 knots on the beam, flat seas, the boat just ate it up! Just to top things off, Bruce caught a walu coming through the reefs at the entrance to Lautoka. Lovely eating and enough fillets to feed three boats. The day was so perfect we were contemplating staying out another couple of days, but in the end we went in to the marina. This turned out to be the best thing we could have done, as it started hosing down at 4.00am (people scuttling around decks in various stages of undress shutting hatches & bringing in washing) then at around 7.00am it started blowing like hell, so blowy the locals thought it was an out-of-season cyclone. This caused a bit of chaos in the marina, but no damage, fortunately. We heard lots of horror stories from people at anchor in the islands, so we were very, very glad we had made the marina choice. Actually, I think our laundry would have mutinied if we had stayed out. We had managed to go six weeks without doing the washing (I’m not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed about this…), and we had started to get nervous when we had to go up into the forward cabin where the laundry bag lives. Roni from Cracka wanted to know if we had lots of clothes or were just really gross, but then chickened out and started screaming “Noooo! I don’t want to know! I’m not going there!!!!”. A combination of the two, actually, for the morbidly curious among you.
It is amazing how quickly your standards change, in all aspects. No laundry for 6 weeks? Just wear sarongs/swim suits/nothing, depending on circumstances. No proper shower for 6 weeks? Swimming, solar showers & baby wipes solve that. Those who know me will realize the true extend of this degeneration when they realize I’m drinking Fiji Bitter & cask wine and even I was shocked the other day when I was waxing lyrical about the ambrosial qualities of canned asparagus. Scraggy, fatty, unidentifiable lamb neck chops? Hell, they’re meat, marinate & BBQ them!
The chops have a story – we were in the Yasawas and I was craving a roast chicken (as you do) and had heard rumours that a shop on Tavewa Island at Blue Lagoon has frozen chickens for sale, so we headed back there. Just to foil me, Bruce caught a giant Great Trevally coming through the reefs to Blue Lagoon (always get them on when you are coming through the reefs – I know that is where they live, but playing & landing a large fish certainly adds to the excitement of reef navigation), which was enough to feed us & the local village for several days. My forlorn wanderings around the deck, quietly singing “I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight” went unheeded for a few days, until we could face fish no longer. On the appointed chicken-hunt day we readied the dinghy for the mile & a half trip across the lagoon and passage to the adjacent Tavewa Island and its alleged chicken shop. It looked pretty choppy out there, but Bruce was adamant that it was OK. And so it was on the trip over. On the way back, going into the chop & 15-20 knot winds with a small inflatable dinghy with a 2 hp outboard, it was a different story. We got soaked. Absolutely. Head to toe, not spot left unsaturated. Dinghy half full of water. The worst bit? THEY HAD RUN OUT OF CHICKENS! NOOOOO! THE HORROR! Hence the scraggy neck chops.
← Saturation - one of the hazards of yacht-based grocery shopping!
My, sailor! That's a big one! →
We have had a great time in the Yasawas, despite being stuck in Land Harbour in Yasawa Island for 11 days while the winds howled over us. It was a good time to explore the area and Bruce befriended a couple of the local guys (Thake & his son Luke) (Yes, I know it is probably spelt “Cake” in Fijian, but I just can’t do it, OK?) when he gave them glue to help fix up a couple of their boats. We ended up with heaps of bananas, cassava, yam and a lobster as thanks, so all were happy.
← Interior of Sawa-i-lau Caves, Yasawa Island
Cracka were stuck in there with us, and many a great meal/ expedition/drinking evening/beach visit was had. Rob, Roni, Daniel & Bruce went over to the caves at Sawa-i-lau and snorkeled through them, but I wasn’t well that day & missed out.
Cap'n Fatty & Carolyn Goodlander on Daemon
While we were in there, Wild Card with Captain Fatty & Carolyn arrived and interviewed us & Cracka for Passage Notes in Cruising World Magazine. They took heaps of photos, including some of the boat at 8.00am, not my best time. All I could manage for complying with requests to “wear something bright and do stuff on deck” was to don a sarong and drink coffee while sitting on our anchor winch. If it is published without extensive Photoshopping, it will probably deter generations of cruisers and ruin the tourist economy of the Yasawa Islands.
I’m really enjoying the cruising community, and it certainly is a community. We arrived back at Vuda Marina and before we had tied up there were groups of friends on the jetty waiting to help/gossip/share coffee and/or beers. We know far more of our neighbours here (and more about them) than we ever did with our land-based ones.
So, now we are just waiting for our mail & computer charger to arrive from Savusavu (we had our mail send there, but because of the strong head winds, never made it there) and when they do we’ll be off. We are watered & fueled up, provisioned and ready to head to Lautoka to clear out for Vanuatu. I’ve got itchy feet & am definitely ready for a longer passage, but (reefs aside) Fiji is wonderful, and the people great, so we’ll be back again one day.
20 July 2006 (Maybe)
OK, I know it looks slack and that I haven't updated the site in a while, but we have been beset by yet more computer problems. First no inverter to charge the computer, then the computer died, and then we haven't been able to find anywhere we can plug in, get our AT&T account set up on the new computer and download the website back to the computer so I can update it. Damn technology!
All that aside, we have been having a great time. After our initial foray to the Mamanuca Islands which a) scared the crap out of me with reefs & weather, we cowered back in Vuda for a week to restore my sanity (such as it is). Then we formed a flotilla of small Kiwi yachts and headed out into the wild blue yonder (Yasawa Islands anyway) again. The convoy consisted (at various stages) of John & Wendy on Beyond, Dave on Ladymink, David & Nicolette on Flocerfida, Rob & Roni & “The Child” (Daniel) on Cracka and Gavin & Fran & kids on Windenzee (they were honorary members cos their boat was over 40 feet) and was a great way to travel, taking turns at being lead boat during the day and much socialising at night.
Our first stop was at Navadra anchorage at the top of the Mamanucas, which was an absolutely lovely palm-tree clad, white sand deserted tropical island with great snorkeling around the reef, gardens of coloured coral and so many tropical fish it was like swimming in an aquarium. I saw my first shark while snorkeling, and didn't freak out at all, but it was only a little reef shark about 2.5 - 3 feet long. Bruce was trying to work out how to gently tell me it was there before I saw it and had a Jaws moment, but didn't quite manage it in time. Actually there is no good way to tell someone there is a shark behind them.
← Daemon at anchor in Navadra, Mamanuca Group
We had an excellent BBQ on the beach, cooking over an open fire and sharing some fish a local fisherman had given Bruce for helping him with a dragging anchor. It was a great night, almost a full moon, very starry, bats swooping over the fire and we all stood around romantically talking about the ideal colour of your urine when on long passages and what exactly indicated you were dehydrated. Gotta love Kiwi sailors!
Navadra Beach BBQ - John (Beyond), Jill, Bruce, Dave (Ladymink) →
After a couple of days in there, a nasty roll started coming in so we got out and headed to the north of Waya island, where we did out first sevusevu (presentation of a gift of kava to the chief) and got the run of the village, which was quite run down & scruffy although it did boast a good satellite dish for tv. We sat out a couple of nights of howling wind in there (and dragged again - very grassy bottom) until the wind changed and started coming into the bay and making life very uncomfortable, so we headed for Soso village at the bottom of Naviti which was very sheltered in those conditions. It looked to be a clean well-run village, but we didn't go ashore, just relaxed. Gavin & Fran went in and their kids ended up spending a day at the local school and dining with the staff. An excellent pot-luck dinner evening was had on Windenzee, with all the little yachts enjoying the space to spread out while dining.
After that we did a run up to Somosomo Bay, where we did sevusevu with the chief who was a female! The next day we went to church (don't faint, please) and managed to endure a two hour service without drawing the attentions of the Big Stick Guy (a verger armed with a long stick of bamboo which he uses to whack any kids who are talking/not praying properly/generally looking as if they may be considering misbehaving). The choir was great and we invited to lunch with the choirmaster, Ben, who was 71 and had worked in the goldmines on the mainland for 30 years. We had octopus in coconut milk, cassava rolled in coconut and (avert your eyes Greenpeace supporters) turtle curry. We felt bad about the turtle, especially a few days later when we were talking to people on another boat who said they had been in Somosomo a couple of days before us and told us about a magical experience they had had swimming with a turtle that was near their yacht, and had we seen it when we were there? Um, yes, we quite possibly had. Probably shouldn't have said "Yeah! We ate it!" - they were a bit upset.
We left Windenzee & Flocerfida there, as they had to get back to Lautoka, and carried on with Beyond & Ladymink, and picking up Aurora Lights (Sue & Warren) as we went out through Knickerfiller Pass in the reefs north of Somosomo. Actually, it isn't really called that, but it should be. We were lead boat that day (spot the people with the chartplotter) so had a trail of boats following us close behind, even when I make Bruce head off course a bit to stop the boat rolling while I made bread. Apparently the entourage was most worried about why we were going the long way around. Managed to time it so I could pop up and guide us through reefs while the bread was rising, and then pop it in the oven while we came in to anchor.
← 10-4 Big Buddy - looks like we've got us a convoy!
L to R: Ladymink, Aurora Lights, Beyond
We are now in Blue Lagoon, home of the luxury resort Turtle Island and a whole bunch of yachties glad of a respite from rolly anchorages. Life here is very onerous, and the days are way too short to get trivial stuff (housework, learning a language etc) done.
Examples:
Day 1: Breakfast, dishes (done once a day to conserve water - my rationalisation anyway), kayaking trip to explore the reefs and make a stealth invasion of Turtle Island, late lunch, afternoon nap, make dinner for potluck Trivial Pursuit evening on Beyond. Decide it is shower week, rig up solar shower and spend and hour or so wandering around shouting “Clean! I’m clean!”. Attend said dinner. Girls thrash the boys in a major way.
Day 2: Awake with crashing hangover from too much Pernod, pass on breakfast. Get up to wave goodbye to Ladymink & Beyond as they headed back to Vuda. Stand in the cockpit and comment loudly that thank god that yellow boat (Beyond) has left, because did you hear the racket from their boat last night??!! Go back to bed. Get up for lunch, lie in cockpit groaning. Go in to the beach for a BBQ put on by the locals, mountains of protein & salad for $12 per head. Most of us don’t have freezers, so are hanging out for meat. Not a pretty sight, as most of the meat here seems to be butchered by a madman with no knowledge of anatomy, using a blunt chainsaw, and I really don’t want to meet the animal steaks that size come from! Met Captain Fatty & Carolyn Goodlander from Wild Card. They have been cruising together 37 years, are on their second circumnavigation and write a column for Cruising World magazine. Back to Aurora Lights for coffee & port.
Day 3: Breakfast & dishes. Vacuum boat. Decide to do vege shopping, which means a 45 minute dinghy trip across the bay, round the corner and up a stream in a mangrove swamp, then a climb up a hill to the place called “The Farm” where an enterprising local guy grows produce to sell to the local resorts & passing yachties. The veges are beyond fresh – you go down to the paddock and he cuts them for you while you wait, and eggs are collected from the henhouse. (A special bonus was getting pink bananas. I have a Gauguin poster on the wall of the boat and I have always admired his perfect capturing of the colouring & shading of pawpaws, but been peeved that he painted bananas pink, and ruined the whole painting, because everyone knows bananas aren’t pink. Wrong! These are exactly the colour he painted them - come back Paul, all is forgiven!) Late lunch. Row over to Cracka and accept the scones they force upon us for afternoon tea. Cracka lends us their computer charger, so we check emails and write to everyone. Aurora Lights rows over to invite us for fiveses and dinner. We attend gratefully!
And so it goes. What do you mean sailing…? We’re cruisers now! Anyway, I have to sign off now – Kaitorete has made chocolate mud cake and we’re invited for afternoon tea.
← The "road" to "the farm"
2 June 2006
This blog is bought to you courtesy of easterly gales supplied by the Fiji Tourist Bureau. Yup, that's right, we were heading for Tonga, but just north of the Kermadecs we got plastered by a bunch of cold fronts and easterly gales which meant we couldn't head for Tonga, and in fact were lucky to make Fiji - for a day we thought it would be a New Caledonia landfall. For the non-yachties out there, this is because yachts can't sail straight into the wing - Daemon needs to sail about 50-60 degrees off it to move forwards, so if the wind is blowing from where you want to go, you can either zigzag your way there (like going from Auckland to Taupo via Raglan, Tauranga, New Plymouth then Gisborne) or you can change your destination. We had all the charts we needed for Fiji, so it wasn't a tough decision, as we had planned to head here later in the season anyway.
The trip itself was hell - we had 2 good days sailing out of 15, hove to (parked the boat by backing the sails) in gales for 3 days and had to wear our wet weather gear all the way, mainly because we kept getting soaked by waves coming over the side rather than because of rain (which would have been welcome to rinse some of the salt off!).
We didn't incur too much damage, unlike some of the other yachts that left the same time as us. There is a queue for the sailmaker and the boatbuilders here at Vuda Point Marina to repair storm damage. Our woes were limited to a failed inverter, failed wind speed indicator, some sail chafing & a couple of popped weather cloth attachment points. She performed really well and we felt safe at all times; we are really happy with her.
Our main loss was our parachute anchor which we deployed during the gale, but I must say I am not at all sorry to see the back of it. They may be really good for light displacement yachts & multihulls, but Daemon handled the seas much better hove-to than with the para anchor, and the stress on all fittings and the chafe on the line from the enormous tensions generated was Just plain scary. We only had it deployed for about half an hour and while the motion was great about 70% of the time, the other 30% flung the boat about violently and made it untenable. Trying to recover it in large seas was a nightmare and in the end the thick anchor braid attaching it to the boat chafed through and the anchor sunk.
We had some teething problems with our self-steering, where the safety mechanism on the steering oar would trip and flip the blade out of the water, which then meant that Bruce would have to hang upside down over the stern, like a demented fruit bat with Tourettes Syndrome, and reattach the blade. After a few episodes like this, we hove to and replaced the bungy trip line and that fixed the problem, except when we tried to sail in forty knots of wind with huge cross seas - Jim wasn't having any of that, thank you, but we couldn't steer either, so you could hardly blame him.
"Jim?" you may ask, have they gone demented and got an imaginary friend? (mind you smelling the way we did after a week or so of non-showering, imaginary friends were about the only ones we were capable of attracting). No, Jim was the name we finally settled on for the self-steering, as he was as invaluable third crew member as having James Cook himself about. Jim has settled in well with Jennifer Wind Generator & Sally Desalinator (watermaker) He is an absolute treasure - just set him & sit back - there is much whining if we have to hand steer the boat now. (Interesting aside: tillers are the perfect self-limiting system that allows people to sail boats in their sleep, especially if you are economical of limb such as myself. Doze off while steering and head off too far one way, the tiller wrenches your arm out of your socket & wakes you up; too far the other and it gives you a vicious jab in the ribs and wakes you up. Bloody brilliant!) (and iPods are the perfect watch companion - you need to scan the horizon for approaching ships every 10-12 minutes, so you can catnap for 3 songs then spring up and look around and then go back to dozing for another 3 songs. The LiliPod waterproof case for the iPod gives you peace of mind as well).
So as you can tell all my passage-making activity plans went out of the window, no breadmaking, never learned Spanish, journal got too wet to write, gourmet meals would have ended up up the walls and the perfect pedicure would have had to deal with webbed feet from permanently wet boat shoes. I did get the hang of Sudoku (thanks for the book, Chris), read a couple of books and mastered the art of collapsing comatose on a damp bed in seconds. Oh actually, I have always been really good at the last one.
The last morning of the trip was a beauty - we hove to outside the passage in the reef to the western side of Fiji & waited for light, then motored on up to Lautoka in flat calm seas, no wind & brilliant sunlight. We thought we had died and gone to heaven!
We dropped anchor off the Lautoka wharf at midday & got our clearance appointment for 2.00pm. That process was far easier than I thought - the officials didn't want to come out to the boat, so we just when to the offices on the wharf & filled out numerous forms (no, there has been no excessive morbidity in the rats on our ship, no, we have had no deaths from cholera, typhoid or smallpox during the trip and so on), paid our F$40 health clearance & we were in! We went and anchored off a small island across from the port for the night and celebrated with a great meal (roast lamb leg, fennel salad & baby potatoes - not bad for leftover provisions at the end of a 2 week trip) & champagne while we listened to Fijian singing on shore and basked in a warm tropical breeze. Suddenly it all seemed worth it!
We are now at Vuda Point Marina (www.vudamarina.com.fj) where we are drying out, waiting for our cruising permit to arrive, making new yachtie friends and generally becoming part of the cruising circuit. The dream is happening and we have to pinch ourselves every day to make sure it is real!
Daemon dries out at Vuda Point Marina, Lautoka, Fiji