And we are off.....

We’ve been stranded at Vuda Point Marina for another week, as our batteries did not arrive as expected.   (Fiji time) The good news is they came yesterday afternoon and if all goes according to plan we’ll be able to cast off later today.  Peter is at the market and liquor store for our final provisioning, while I’ve cleaned up the boat, done the laundry (and last minute email/blog, etc.)

We did have fun again with the cruisers here, especially Dave and Suzie who left for California on Thursday.  We celebrated their last night with them at the First Landing Resort next door.

  

Saying goodbye at the cottage they got for the last two nights so they could tuck their boat all up to leave it for 3 months.

 David & Peter (with his broken glasses)

 Appetizer - I cut off the flower on top of the green stalk though

 The waiters and band singing the “Fiji farewell” song to David & Suzie.  

Our New Zealand neighbour here in the Marina is Denny on Ocean Pearl.  This is the boat that got severe lightning damage and destroyed all his electronics.   He has been waiting on getting the insurance claim worked out (which isn’t going well) and waiting on parts and repairs.  He now has only a very limited window to sail back to New Zealand, if he can this year.  The good news about the boats that went to New Zealand just this past week – they had an easy, breezy crossing.  Amazing what the difference one week makes.

While Peter was giving Denny a hand with some repairs, Denny told me a cruising horror story about a couple on the same kind of boat that he has – an Amel.  The woman was hefting her husband up the mast with the electric winch but it jammed open.  She panicked and ended up getting her arm jammed in the winch and her entire arm up to the elbow was sheared off.  A neighbouring boat jumped to her rescue and while assisting he lost his hand in the same winch!  This is a true story.  Needless to say I had Peter show me how to prevent that on our boat (which he had already done, but I wanted to be sure I would do it correctly and not panic in case it ever jammed open on us).  

Peter giving Denny a hand

Denny, up, up and away 

Just another war story to add to the one that ranks up there as number 1.  This is a true account of a couple who were sailing to Hawaii.  Four days out from landfall the husband had to go up the mast to fix something.  He clipped himself on at the top (which is the correct safety protocol).  He then had a heart attack and died!  So, his poor wife was now a single handed sailor who had to make her way in to Hawaii on her own and for four days had to watch as her dead husband swung from the mast!  I can’t even imagine!!!!

Because we were boat-bound for this second week – without batteries we couldn’t leave the marina with QuickStar – we did non-cruising related things such as going for long walks, getting a couple of massages, (purely medicinal as I’ve been having severe back pain), participating in online seminars, getting all my Christmas cards ready to send, and lots of two-handed bridge in the early evening.  We both have cabin fever though and are quite anxious to get out to the islands.

Our plan is to leave later this afternoon and head over to the Yasawas – which are the beautiful and remote outer islands.  There is no internet or cell phone reception, so I will be in heaven for the next three weeks.  We can be contacted via Ham Radio in the event of an emergency and I can update our blog weekly, again via Ham Radio, but it will be blissful to be unplugged for that long.  

We are looking forward to just being one with nature and doing lots of  sailing, hikes, swimming, snorkeling, reading, kitchen dancing and just enjoying t being together here in magical Fiji. 

Until next week…..”Eat the frog first thing in the morning and everything else is a piece of cake” Anonymous

Mr. Fiji Frog

Sailboat Windego lost at sea

 Sunset off Vuda Point

We are still at Vuda Point Marina, impatiently awaiting the shipment of our new batteries.  We can’t leave until they arrive, and at this point it is still at least 5 or more days away.  We are getting cabin fever and itchy feet to get back sailing, however, we are making the most of our time here in the marina, getting lots of projects done and lots of socializing!

The marina features an outdoor movie night each Wednesday & Saturday night

A barbeque and live band Sunday afternoon/evening, which we shared with friends.

The resort adjacent to the marina which is  under the same ownership features live music each night. Our friends Dave & Suzie often join them after hours.

 Dinner on QuickStar

Last week was pretty busy with news and events …it was kick started with the great news that our son Danny and daughter-in-law Ashley sold their house, which means that they aren’t carrying two houses at the same time anymore.  Danny took this week off work and they are moving everything out to the Ranch.  We also threw a little birthday party for their daughter, our 2 year old grandchild Addy.  Of course, she was back in Canada, but that didn’t stop us from pretending we weren’t on the other side of the world.  We sent her a video from us which is not quite the same as being there ,but we will see her again in just over a month.

Birthday celebrations

The annual Melbourne Cup (major horse race) was celebrated; complete with lots of Aussies and lots of dressed up folks with fancy hats.  We had a blast, and even came out $6.00 ahead!

The bar that hosted the Melbourne Cup and the U.S. Elections

The next evening was the U.S. election and we were all at the bar to watch the close race.  Very interesting to share this with all the Americans.  Of course, most of the cruisers  support Obama and marijuana legislation (a major election item in many states), so they were all very happy with the results.

Our friends Dave and Suzie from Sidewinder have finished touching up their keel and rudder (from a few fights with reefs) and waited patiently to be able to be moved into their cyclone hole.  They are leaving next weeks to return to California for three months.

Waiting in Fiji time for their boat to be moved.

Finally….action

Dave & Suzie beside their boat

 The lucky Tequila bottle to go in the hole with the boat

This is what a cyclone hole looks like before the boat goes in.

Almost there

Oops…..David, don’t forget to move before the boat comes all the way down!

The cyclone season has officially arrived.  This was our first storm while in the marina.  We were as snug as a bug though.

Note the coconut trees in the background.

View from the stern of the boat.

We consider ourselves very lucky and grateful that we made the decision to stay in Fiji over the winter, rather than head off to New Zealand.  Just over a week ago a fleet of about 10 boats left from Fiji with another group of about 5 leaving from Tonga.  This is the fleet we would have been with if we had decided to go to New Zealand. 

 

It was a brutal crossing (and still not over yet). The boats got caught in a tropical depression.  Winds were in excess of 30 knots, with gusts up to 50 and 60 knots and seas up to 6 metres!  Every boat got beat up to some degree and all of them had to hove-to at least one night.  That means the conditions are so bad and uncomfortable that you basically stall the boat so it just bobs up and down.  You batten down all the hatches and retire below and let nature take its course.  A very scary situation.  We have bee n following the situation closely listening to the ham radio nets twice a day and all the cruisers are sounding increasingly exhausted.

In addition to these rough sea conditions, here is a list of some of the situations for different boats that still remain at sea with an arrival date expected later today or tomorrow:

-lost propane, which means no cooking/coffee and the temperatures are getting colder.

-lost the auto-pilot, which means that this couple has to hand steer in these conditions for the rest of the 4 days they had left from the time it stopped working.

-got hit by a rogue wave which slopped lots of saltwater below into the salon and cabins.  Their bilge pump is working overtime to try to clear out the water and they have been able to keep on top of it – although everything is drenched.

-a single hander broke his ribs during a sail change.  This morning on the radio he says he is in lots of pain and will be grateful to get in. No kidding!

The worst situation of all was the sailboat Windigo which rolled.  Yes, went completely over and wrecked the boat.  They called an SOS and a rescue was coordinated, including one sailboat turning back for 15 hours in this storm to go to their assistance.  The New Zealand and French navy also sent ships and planes.  A commercial ferry (which we think has our shipment of batteries) stood off the Windigo for over a day for moral support but were unable to get them aboard because of the huge seas.  

The navy dropped a life raft from an aircraft and the couple got in it and secured it to the stern of their boat.  They waited until their boat sank competely before cutting the tether.  I can’t imagine going through this ordeal.  The good news is they were rescued.  They have sustained head injuries and were hungry and thirsty, but they are okay.

Yesterday morning there was another emergency call from a sailboat leaving from Tonga, but we have not heard the update on that rescue, which is in progress.

As mentioned, we are very happy that we didn’t make the decision to head to New Zealand this year.  We are glad that our cruising friends, although many limping in, will make it safely.  The marina in New Zealand has organized a large dinner in a couple of days for the whole fleet so that they can celebrate their arrival.

On another sad note, friends of ours from Canada lost their Father this week after a tough battle with ALS.  Our hearts go out to them at this difficult time. 

                      RIP Ron Oldenburger.

Until next week…..Enjoy your Remembrance Day long weekend.  

Dolphins, barracuda and leper colony, oh my!

 It was wonderful to get back out sailing, however, one of our batteries died, which meant that we couldn’t hold a charge, so Peter had to get up every night and run the generator for two hours.    This resulted in us having to “hurry” back to Nadi, rather than enjoy some leisurely anchorages for a couple of weeks as we had planned.  With sailing though, all itineraries are written in sand at low tide.

We had expected to replace our batteries in the near future, as batteries have a life expectancy out here of about 4 years – however, we were hoping to do this at the end of the season, so we could replace them before we left, rather than in the middle of the cruising season.

We made the most of our overnight stops though, with the first one being a remote marine park called Nanema.  Here we did some wonderful snorkeling, although our adventure was also cut short by an extremely aggressive Barracuda.  Mostly barracudas swim in schools and ignore you.  We encountered one that was on its own and was taking far too much interest in us, plus displaying predatory actions including opening and shutting its large mouth full of teeth.  We had to make a bee-line for the shore.  It’s funny, but when we are diving, we feel so much more at ease with large fish or sharks, however, when  snorkeling we feel more vulnerable since we are just floating on top and don’t have the same maneuverability as when diving. 

After two nights at this anchorage we moved on to  Makogai Island, which is owned by the government.   This was October 28^th, which was the first anniversary of Peter’s father Erich’s death.   As we left the anchorage we were escorted out by a large school of dolphins, which stayed and played in our bow wake for about half an hour.  This was very amazing, since we have not seen dolphins for over 2 years.  Then to make this even more twilight-zoneish, when we were heading in to Makogai island, (32 miles away) we were greeted once again by another large school of dolphins, which included mother’s and baby’s playing in our wake.  Perhaps Erich was sending us a message?  We like to think so anyway.  I did get a great video, however, I have somehow deleted it, so it will just remain in our memory as a special day.  I did get a few still shots, although they aren’t great.

Dolphins

More dolphins

It was awesome standing on the bow and watching them play.

Makogai is a fascinating island as they currently harvest and grow giant clams for redistribution throughout Fiji.  Additionally, they protect the baby turtles and take care of them until they are grown enough to be reintroduced.  

Giant Clams….they collect them as mere particles the size of sand and then they grow them, and once a sustainable size they distribute them amongst the reefs.

Baby turtles…..they are only fed fish so that they will be used to their native diet when they are returned.  We were very fortunate to see a full-size turtle while we went snorkeling here.

At our anchorage, once again we were all alone.  From now until when we leave in mid-December we will have most anchorages to ourselves as most of the boats have either returned to New Zealand or Australia, or have tucked their boats up for the cyclone season, which officially started on November 1^st.

 

The historical significance of Makogai Island is that it used to be a leper colony which was established in 1911 until 1969!  This was one of the largest colonies in the world, with over 5,000 people living on this island.  It was also the highest rated leper colony, with the head nun, Mary Maria overseeing it for 34 years and creating a model that other leper colonies tried to emulate.

Mother Maria’s gravesite

 The large, sprawling graveyard that houses thousands of the past residents.

 This colony was very advanced with a great infrastructure of dorm accommodations, a movie theatre and craft rooms.  There was a real sense of community and the people who were exiled here made many crafts that were then sold on the mainland so that they could purchase anything that they could not grow themselves. This provided them with a good quality of life (considering their circumstances) and when the cure was finally found, those that still survived didn’t even want to leave to go back to “normal” civilization.

When we first arrived on the island, we went to the Chief, named Camille, to present the traditional sevusevu (which is Kava root).  He invited us in to his home and performed the ceremony to welcome us and to thank us for respecting their culture.  This was all done in Fijian and was very moving.  Camille then took us on a tour of the facility and the ruins of the leper colony.

Peter & Camille

 Camille and his family’s kitchen (outdoors)

 

Their little puppy

QuickStar in the background

An overgrown ruin

The generator that ran the colony is still working today as the only source of power on the island – over 50 years old (and leaking)

The jail….which wasn’t used often, but was used for any men that took advantage of a woman…which was the only type of crime ever committed.

 This is the outdoor movie theatre.

Camille showing us the building with the projection units for the screen.

After we toured the island, we headed out to go snorkeling to see the giant clams in their natural environment and the multitude of reef fish. We had to climb up and down this ladder to reach the island. 

Not exactly up to WCB standards!

My favourite little yellow-striped fish

Finding Nemo?

Unusual yellow dotted fish

After leaving Makogai we continued to our next anchorage where we enjoyed a magnificent sunset.

We are now in Vuda Point Marina and will be here for the next week to 10 days getting the new batteries and the new hot water heater installed.   

School kids fascinated with the fish beside our boat.

 The good news is our friends Dave and Suzie from Sidewinder are here as well, as they are working on their boat before they head back to California on November 15^th.  

Having dinner with them the night we arrived.

 Loving the full moon

 

Until next week……Wishing our special, special granddaughter Addy a wonderful 2^nd birthday tomorrow.  We are thinking of you xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Addy helping Opa build our outhouse at the property this past August.