Lightening, Thunder and Squalls, oh my!

Bula from Fiji....from Diana and Peter

 We wrapped up our incredible week at Musket Cove, but had to spend another day due to unsettled weather.  This gave me the opportunity to go to church on the Island, which is one of my favourite things to do.  Not because I am at all religious, (although highly spiritual) but because church is such a central part of the island culture. 

    Minister preparing himself to get ready for the sermon

                         Inside roof of church

It is at church that we get to meet the locals in their environment and also get the chance to see all kinds of different services. This church was a small Methodist church high on the hill-side and was very evangelical, although nothing compared to my bizarre experience last year.

               Suzie from Sidewinder joined me.  

       Cool  “free-will giving” coconut collections

 This is where Peter was while we were at church.

 Even though the weather was still a little unsettled we decided to head to the  mainland, as we had a few boat projects to do (including ordering a new hot water tank since ours finally gave out) before we head offshore again. 

The boys came over in the morning to exchange photos and say goodbye.  Note they are drinking coffee, lest you start to think we only spend our time drinking alcohol.

              A local school-boat taking the children to school.

 We arrived in Vuda Point Marina and got to work.  That night we had a wild and crazy electrical storm, which is unusual for this time of year.  We were up for a few hours in the middle of the night listening to the booming of the thunder and watching the lightening.  

Luckily for us and for those in the marina, there was no damage.  However, over on Musket Cove (which we had just left that morning) four boats got negatively affected and they lost their electronics.  We were lucky to have dodged that bullet.  Last night we were in a remote anchorage all by ourselves (which is our favourite kind of anchorage to be in).  W were awoken at midnight from a dead calm situation to gusts of about 40 knots within about a minute.  The squall came out of nowhere and kept us up for about half an hour…and then it just blew by.  

The good thing about this cloudy weather is that we get lots of kitchen dancing in after dinner.  I lost a really good friend 4 years ago and her husband told me one of his regrets was not kitchen dancing more often.  We have taken that to heart and are dancing fools as often as possible.

Getting ready to leave the anchorage this morning.

Very muddy bottom and our deck pump decided to give out, so we couldn’t wash the chain as it was being brought in to the anchor locker.  Another “to-do” list item, but Peter seems to enjoy the ongoing repairs and maintenance of QuickStar

We listen to the ham radio every morning for updated weather reports and to connect with our fellow cruisers.  The ham net is being broadcast from New Zealand and it reaches all the way across to Tonga, Fiji, American Somoa, New Caledonia, Vanauata, etc.  We love being part of this global network and hearing about their escapades and following along on their passages.

We are now making our way over the top of Fiji and heading to Suva Suva.  It is really surprising how large Fiji is.  It will take us 4 days to get there and that is with covering distances in excess of 30 nautical miles each day.  We are heading against the prevailing winds so we are anticipating having to motor most of the way, as it is too dicey to be tacking in these reef invested channels.  

Once we arrive there, we will await the weather window to make our offshore passage to Futuna.  While we were in Musket Cove, we heard the tale of a boat doing this exact passage just three weeks ago.  They hit a reef and lost their boat.  I of course asked if anyone was hurt, but the three fellows telling the story said “Oh, I don’t know, but they lost the boat”.  It is bizarre that generally the first question a woman asks when told of accident, wreck, etc. is if anyone got hurt.  For the men, the question is “did they save the boat?”.  To add insult to injury the captain of this boat that was sunk was made to pay 20% import duty on the boat since it is staying in Fiji.  NO KIDDING!

QuickStar under sail with her brand new main.

We have to be especially careful in these waters as the charts are not very good and there are deadly reefs throughout.  Our friends from Sidewinder have already hit a couple of reefs this year, nothing serious, thankfully, but enough to remind us all that we have to be super diligent and give the reefs a really wide berth. We are also extremely cautious because we hit a reef at the end of last season and sheared off 18 inches of our rudder.  Ouch! Added to the reefs, there has been lots of deadfall in the water that we also have to navigate around, due to the storms and squalls.  Just part of the adventure.

                                            

Until next week….."If you want more, you have to require more from yourself."

-- Dr Phil, Motivational Author and Talk Show Host 

P.S.  I am also doing a weekly Financial Fitness Blog on Tuesdays at www.financialfitnessbooks.com (not sure why the link isn't showing up but if you click on the blank space before this it will take you right to the website -  financialfitnessbooks.com, which include tips, suggestions and hopefully insightful content relating to money management.