Friday 26 August 2011

We're wet again.

As hoped, we did manage to get QuickStar back in the water last Friday, with about 15 minutes to spare. We threw a pizza and beer party for all the guys that worked so hard on our boat for the past two weeks.

Peter stepping back as they dove in to the beer and pizza

It was nice to get back in the water and have running water, so we could cook onboard, and have our heads working. We went to the market and did the provisioning for what we hoped would be a 12 day trip to Pacific Harbour and back.

Di shopping in Nadi market

We were going to Pacific Harbour because it is Peter’s birthday this Monday and I had planned something really special. It was going to be hard to top swimming with the humpbacks in Tonga last year. My plans included meeting up with Scott and Anja from Beachhouse and then going together to do the world-renowned shark dive. This dive is listed as one of the top 10 in the world, because you see 7 different species of large sharks including bulls and tigers. The divemaster does a shark feeding while we are underwater holding on to a rope. This attracts lots of large fish, which of course, attracts the big sharks. I can’t wait – and afterwards the four of us will have dinner out to celebrate.

Beautiful scenery everywhere you look

We headed out for our 4 day trip to Pacific Harbour, with anchorages to stop at each night. Our first anchorage was very private and lovely. Captain Peter was choked though that they were burning sugar cane on land, so when we woke up our freshly waxed and polished boat was covered in ash! From here, we went out of the reef and in to the open ocean, which was necessary to head towards Pacific Harbour. This turned out not to be a great decision, as the winds were up to 30 knots – right on the nose. This caused swells of 10 – 15 feet with 3 foot waves on top of them. We were pounding straight in to these large and angry waves. At times we felt like we were on a teeter-tooter as we would hover on the apex of the wave and then have a spine-jarring drop in to the trough. It was uncomfortable and nerve-wracking, with waves crashing over the dodger and soaking us in the cockpit. To make matters worse, we lost a pin from our bimini (with the pounding) and then when I was releasing the traveler down I got the line jammed in our electric winch. Not a great situation, but Peter was able to fix it and we jury-rigged the bimini.

At the end of four hours of this, we had to enter a narrow unmarked reef. This is difficult to do with the waves so high – it is hard to truly distinguish the reef from the rest of the surf. Finally we could spot the crashing waves on either side of the pass. It was not a good time to be remembering the sailor from last year who lost his life when his sailboat crashed in to the reef here in Fiji. Anyway, we made it in safe and sound, with only minor damage below – Peter’s computer had gone flying so it had a crack in it (but didn’t crash it), and the coffeepot had fallen over on the gimbled stove and soaked the burners, so they aren’t working very well. Even though we had stowed most things away, there were books and stuff all over the galley. We anchored in 30 knot winds and I can’t remember the last time I was so happy being in an anchorage that had white caps and was so rolly. It was just nice to be out of the violent sea.

Peter checking on the anchor and holding on for dear life in the wind

The anchorage we were in was post-card perfect, surrounded as far as the eye could see with pristine beaches. As the forecast was calling for more of the same high winds and swells for the next few days, we changed our plans and decided to stay an extra night at this anchorage and then to turn tail and head back to Denerau. This is the key to safe sailing – you have to be flexible and respect the weather. If you insist on sticking to a hard and fast schedule, that is when you get in real trouble. We will still be doing the shark dive on Monday, but we have gone to Plan B and we will take a 2-hour bus to Pacific Harbour, spend two nights in a hotel, so we can get up for the dive at 0800, have dinner out that evening and stay over again before heading back on the bus. Hopefully we won’t get eaten and I can tell you about the dive next Friday in the blog.

Beautiful beaches in this anchorage (and yes, we are missing our granddaughter Addy, A LOT)

We made the most of our change in plans by exploring the island. Four years ago the Inter-Continental built a 5-star resort here, which is magnificent. As soon as we landed the dinghy near the village we were met by a local, named John, who said of course he could take us horse-back riding and then to his village. So we spent the day walking the endless beach and going horse-back riding into the hills and on the beach, and then ended up in the village.

Di walking the beach

On horse-back. It certainly isn’t SunDance Guest Ranch. The horses were “nags”, but it will still fun.

Peter trotted his horse up to the top of the hill, where Peter thinks he is “The Lone Ranger” looking back at me.

The highlight for me, and my favourite part of cruising, is going in to the villages and meeting the locals. John’s son Jo took us on the horse-back ride and afterwards we took him out to our boat as he had never seen the inside of one before. He then took us to meet with his Dad and to meet the Chief so that we could present the sevu-sevu, which as I’ve mentioned before is the formal presentation of Kava to receive permission to be in their land. The Chief was unfortunately out, but we made the presentation to John who accepted on the chiefs’ behalf and he will give it to Chief when he comes back. We also bought some local handicrafts because it is the polite thing to do while accepting their hospitality.

Peter presenting the sevu-sevu

We admire how hard this village works to make an honest living through horse-back riding, crafts, etc. Many of the people have jobs at the hotel, so they are happy with their neighbour hotel and have a very good relationship. The villagers get up at 4:00 every morning and sing in the church (which we could hear all the way to the boat). At the end of every workday, they meet again and sing in the church before having dinner and Kava. Lights out for them right after dinner. Makes me look like a night owl.

So, although, we did have to change our plans, we had a wonderful day, ending with another fabulous sunset.


We are almost back at Port Denerau where we have to take a bus for an hour to check back in – since we had already checked out to go to Pacific harbor. This check in and checkout procedure is the only downside to cruising in Fiji, as it means we always have to arrive on a weekday in enough time to make it to customs. However, small price to pay, and no, I’m not complaining…I know how very lucky we are!

P.S. Peter just called me on deck to help with bringing the main sail down, getting the lines ready and the bumpers on. I was driving and all of a sudden we hit something and stopped dead in the water (now I know truly what that saying means). It turned out okay, as it was only a sandbar because it is low, low tide and we just motored through it. Minutes afterward, we were ready to tie-up on the dock, however, the wind continued to howl, so two guys from the super-yacht came to assist us with docking. The wind was blowing us right off the dock and we almost hit the solid, 2-level dive boat beside us. Peter and I were holding QuickStar off of it, while the two guys on the dock wrestled with tying the lines. Quite a gong-show! Anyway, always fun to end with a little excitement. We are now snug as a bug here at the dock.

We celebrated our son, Danny’s 27th birthday this week and also our Step-Mom Liz’s 70th. Hope you both had a great time.

On a sadder note, Peter’s father is now in the hospital, as is Joe, my brother-in-law. We have kept close to our email to get daily updates, but we feel useless being this far away. On Sunday, we will be missing the memorial for our dear friend Barry who recently passed away. Kylie will be there to represent the Bruckmann gang and we will be there in spirit. We miss you every day Barry. Friday nights at SunDance will never be the same without you!
Until next week….

Friday 19 August 2011

On the Hard in Fiji – Week Two

Yahoo...we are getting closer to being finished with all the boat projects and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We had a few setbacks, which is to be expected, including a few rainy days and having to order new keel boats from New Zealand. We were excited when they finally arrived, only to realize that they weren’t galvanized, so another two day delay waiting for this to be done locally.

Installing the new keel bolts so the keel doesn’t fall off!


At the risk of jinxing things, we are hoping to be put back in the water tomorrow. We had the bottom painted yesterday, today the new gel coat is being put on and sprayed and all the final bits and pieces done. It will be nice to have running water again, to eat on board and to be out of the crowded yard. Peter has organized a “thank you” party with the guys at the end of the day, since it is Friday and they all worked so hard these past two weeks. Fingers crossed it will all get done.

Our newly painted prop (in my favourite colour) with a new product previously unknown to us called Prop Speed. It never has to be cleaned so this saves Peter from having to scrap off the prop every few weeks. Will be interesting to see how well it works.


Living on a boat while on the hard is difficult to do, but the good thing is we are here at Port Denerau, which is full of restaurants and shops, so we have a place to stretch our legs and go for dinner.

The Port Denerau complex


There is a grocery store, spa, chandlery and lots of shops. There are specific stores that allow you to claim back the equivalent of our HST. We got a kick out of how they call it a “scheme”.


This complex has about 9 restaurants, so we’ve gone to each one at least once. We only went to the Hard Rock to watch the rugby game – otherwise, we avoid restaurants that you can go to at home. All the restaurants feature great outdoor space right on the ocean, with live music every night. Our favourites have been the Fiji restaurant and the Chinese Restaurant.

The square where dance shows are featured every Friday and Saturday night.


I’m going to go on a rant here, though. We have had to go out for dinner every night and I’m absolutely shocked watching people, who are all here on holidays. Almost every other table has a computer on it, or a mobile device, where the person is playing a game, surfing the web, checking email, etc. all while in the company of their significant other or family. Sadly, the other night there looked to be a honeymoon couple where the husband spent the entire meal on his iPad. His beautiful, possible new bride, sat sipping her wine while being totally ignored.
Whole families are on their various techno gadgets and not even being present with each other while here in paradise, supposedly trying to cram in quality time.

One of the greatest gifts about being able to sail around the world is seeing other cultures and their love of life and family. The pace of life is sane and the measure of personal happiness high. It seems that in North America we scurry around so quickly, chasing things, relentlessly multi-tasking and we can’t even turn off while on holidays, that it just seems that life is one big race, with no one coming out the winner. It is a sad reflection on family life when you see kids watching movies on their computers, while eating out on holidays in Fiji with their parents who are occupied on their cell phones! Enough ranting!

Peter & Di enjoying a dinner together with just each other - no gadgets!


We got more bad news again this week. An old friend of mine who used to work with us has been re-diagnosed with breast cancer and goes for surgery in September. Peter’s Dad went downhill very quickly from last week and is now confined to bed. He will be having an in-house assessment at the beginning of next week, so that he can get the necessary equipment to improve his quality of life such as a mechanical bed, wheelchair, scooter, etc. It will be hard for him to adjust to this lack of mobility, but he remains in good spirits. The circle of life continues though, with our grandmunchkin Addy now sitting up, crawling and almost standing.

Since I had a bit of extra time this week stuck in the cabin I added a function to this blog, which is called Blog Follower on the right hand side. If you click on it, it lets me know that you are reading this. I thank all our loyal family and friends for keeping track of us. We think of you all often and love to hear from you...so please send emails to svquickstar@shaw.ca.

Until next week….unplug for a day and enjoy being with those you love.

Friday 12 August 2011

Peter loves being back in a boatyard and getting his hands dirty

Being lifted out of the water



We have put QuickStar up on the hard (which means taking her out of the water) to get some routine maintenance work done, as well as some boat projects that we’ve added to the list. She is now secured on the hard, where we will be living aboard. While Peter supervises all the workers, I take off to the internet cafĂ© each day to get my work done. While we are here, we don’t have any facilities…i.e. running water, washroom, etc. So it’s more like camping in the midst of a war zone (the boat is torn apart inside) with access to the ground only via a shaky ladder.

Our home for the next couple of weeks – nice ladder entry – and no, I’m not comfortable on it!



Peter decided for safety sake that he should secure the boom over to one side to avoid the workers banging in to it. The only thing is he forgot to mention it to me. When the guys were busy polishing the deck I offered them water. When I took it up to them, I bashed in to the boom so hard with my head that the entire yard stopped work to see where the thud came from. I now have a large goose-egg on my head to add to the large bruise on my foot that I got when I bashed in to the top of the ladder getting on the boat. I think being out at open sea is safer for me.

The guys hard at work polishing the deck



Note the boom far off the centre line…thanks for telling me Captain!



While the boat is out of commission, we have planned a few land excursions. Our first one was a sun-rise hot air balloon ride to celebrate Lori’s birthday. She is my oldest girlfriend (we’ve been friends since we were 10). She is also the bravest person I know having fought breast cancer five times!

Peter & I in the balloon gliding over the countryside



We had a glorious day to do go ballooning. In addition to great scenery the pilot was quite gifted and he took us up and down skimming over treetops and soaring over fields with us touching the tops of the sugar cane. We began running out of real estate to land as we got closer to the sea as the winds weren’t favourable for the chosen landing sites. Instead we had to make an unplanned landing in a home-owners field. The rough landing only added to the fun!

Oops, isn’t the basket supposed to be upright?



Later in the week, we celebrated another friend’s birthday – Shorry from Victoria. We left at 5:30 in the morning and did a day-long white water river rafting trip, getting us back to our boat at 8:30 that night. We had a fabulous day, with much of the excitement coming from hiking in to the site, as well as driving the rough mountain roads in the middle of nowhere. The rafting company has bulldozers and drivers on hand to pull the bus out of the mud and to help get the bus up the hill. Luckily we didn’t need it, although it had been raining for two days and the roads were really slick. It also made the colour of the water brown, but the good thing is the rain made the river fast-moving and quite exciting.

About a 20-minute hike up and down the hills to get to the start.



The scenery was amazing as we paddled through canyons, which they have dubbed the Green Canyon. After each bend there was another waterfall to greet us. At the final waterfall we all got out and enjoyed a “massage”. When we arrived at our take-out site, we unloaded in a village. The rafting company contributes 20% of all revenue to the villages at either end, has built a primary school in each one and also built the roads leading out to connect with larger roads. I was honoured to be introduced to the chief when I gave his village a supply of exercise books for the school children.

A free massage



During the week, while I’ve been kicked off the boat, I have gotten lots of work done, including making slow and steady progress on my Spanish lessons. I have launched my new venture, which is escorting Women’s Adventure groups again. It was one of my favourite things to do when we owned the travel agency. I’m also thrilled to be working with my old friend Rita from Merit Travel. It will be nice to just be doing the “fun” part of traveling and not having to worry about invoicing, collections, ticketing, etc. Also, much as I love being with Peter, it will be a treat to have some time away from living together on a 46 foot boat and to do lots of adventurous trips with like-minded women. This is the link to our “Ignite Casting Call”.

http://tinyurl.com/3kjskvs (if you are unable to click on this to open, just copy and paste it where you put website addresses)

Peter has discovered that the boat is going to be more work than originally planned. We had intended on repairing the rudder (from the reef episode in Tahiti last year), painting the bottom, servicing the engines, replacing worn teak, resewing the canvas bimini, etc. We had a very unpleasant surprise though when Peter was doing his routine checking of the keel bolts (those things that keep the keel attached to the bottom of the boat). He discovered that the heads of the aft obolts had rusted ALL the way through and were no longer securing the keel. That means that our keel is only being held on by a few bolts. As I write this, three guys, including Peter, are currently grinding off the bolts to see if they can be replaced without us having to lift the boat up again and having to remove the keel.

Either way, this is a big job (muchos dineros!) and will keep us in the yard for a lot longer than originally planned. Having said that though, we really feel like we dodged a bullet with finding this out now, because if the worst case happened while on our next open ocean crossing to Vanuatu, we might have lost the keel altogether. That, of course, would mean that there would be a huge hole in the bottom of the boat and without a keel the sailboat would tip over. Assuming that happened hopefully we would have a few minutes to spare to spring the life raft and get in it before QuickStar sank to the bottom! Not a pleasant scenario! Our good buddy Halldo, will be crewing with us on that leg, (around September 18th) and although he has joined the dark side by moving over to the corporate suit and tie world, I don’t think he needs that much excitement in his life.

Living and loving life to the fullest



We did receive great news this week from Peterborough. One of our oldest friends was getting the results of a very serious test and he was given a clean bill of health! Sadly, Peter’s Dad continues to lose his mobility and is now in quite a bit of pain. However, he is one of our biggest fans and is the first to encourage us to do this sailing trip while we can and not to take life for granted.

Our adorable granddaughter Addison cheering on her Dad at the Ashcroft Rodeo – now how did this picture get in here?



Until next week…do something that fuels your passion.

Friday 5 August 2011

Kylie and Taylor have gone to Canada

Mano Island - a South Pacific piece of heaven



Our second week with Taylor and Kylie was lots of fun, but seemed to fly by. After spending a few days at Musket Cove, we headed over to Mano Island for a couple of days. We went diving again to a great site called BarrelHead, which had some really healthy live coral. The three minute safety stop on ascending was right at the top of the reef, so we saw lots of fish as we swayed to and fro in the current just skimming the reef. My confidence is increasing with each dive.

Kylie and our future son-in-law Taylor



We had planned on going to church to show the kids the local culture, but the only church on the island was 7th Day Adventist, and with my earlier experience with a type of evangelical church, we decided to take a pass. The kids did lots of kayaking and snorkeling, while Peter and I traversed the island. Kylie’s knee was still bothering her so hiking was not an option for her. Taylor broke his little toe somehow on the boat, but luckily didn’t cause any real problems. Both of them are going home with a few more bruises, just part of living on a boat.

The simple moments in each day that make for a joyful life



We went back to Musket Cove for three nights because it is a great smooth anchorage and provides lots to do on land. Each night Taylor and Kylie would head to the Island bar and party with the locals. Peter and I would have some quiet time to read (we are getting boring aren’t we?).

Local kids playing with our kayaks with Taylor and Kylie enjoying their excitement



I had quite a good sales week with my book. I think it is so cool to be out here sailing in South Pacific and getting daily sales reports. What is most rewarding is that one reader (you know who you are) bought his FIRST house at 42 years old after reading the book and finishing the 12-week program. Another reader lost 15 pounds in 3 months (a nice side benefit since I use financial and physical fitness as analogies) and yet another reader told me that she increased her net worth by 3,200 during the 12-week program. These are the kind of success stories that make me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

Biking around the island at Musket Cove



Our dinghy on its last legs - note the duct tape on the pump. So many leaks and the only answer is blowing it up the old-fashioned way. We've ordered a new dinghy due to arrive tomorrow.



We really enjoyed having Taylor and Kylie with us. We had lots of laughs during our many early evening card tournaments (hearts). It was sad to say goodbye to them last night.

Leaving QuickStar to head to Canada



They are heading back to Canada to begin the next chapter of their life. Kylie starts a new job on August 17th as a travel agent for Silver Star Accommodations (and hopes to get some substitute teaching jobs, athough the supply exceeds the demand at the moment). They are spending two nights in Abbotsford with brother Ryan, then heading to the Rodeo to watch brother Danny ride bucking broncos (don’t get me started on that!). Looks like lots of friends will be going to watch and visit with Kylie and Taylor, so should be a good Canada reunion.

A very sad Dad saying goodbye to his baby girl



Our final farewell from the taxi enroute to the airport



We will be staying at Port Denerau for the next week and having the boat lifted out so that we can do some maintenance, get the systems tuned up and just general upkeep. Looking forward to a week of elbow grease and getting lots of projects completed.

Until next week…..Happy Birthday Lori – can’t believe it was 44 years ago that I moved to Oakville with the family and I came knocking on your door selling candles (your entrepreneur at ten) and asked if there was anyone my age that lived there. We’ve been fast friends ever since and have shared lots of joys and sorrow together. You are my hero – 5th-time breast cancer survivor and dear, dear friend. Love ya!

QuickStar

QuickStar
46 foot Beneteau

The journey begins.....

I update this blog every Friday, so that you can share in our adventure and learn about new places and cultures.

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Thanks for dropping in to visit. Hugs from Diana and Peter.