Our first week back in Fiji - May 2013

 BULA from Fiji.....

Our first week after arriving in Fiji was spent getting the boat put back together.  This took 8 days, which wasn’t too bad considering everything operates on the very sane Fiji time schedule unlike our North American full throttle life-style. 

Notice how low the tide is.  We have to use a plank to get on and off the boat.  Big tides here. 

Cruising  is not all gin and tonics…..sometimes you have to work.

Heading to the Sunset Bar 

 

Every Sunday at the Sunset Bar, they bring in a band from 3:00 – 7:00.  It’s great to socialize with fellow cruisers and locals while overlooking the ocean.

 

While this sunset wasn’t as spectacular as the one last week, I still cherish each sunset.

 

On our way home we saw geckos hanging out on the lights to catch their evening meal.

 

Every Thursday the Sunset Bar has a happy hour.  You can see the prices below.  Keep in mind that Fiji dollars are about half of Canadian/American dollars.  It is a real bargain in Fiji for food, services, accommodation, etc.  On average, most things are half the price that they are in North America.  Fiji also has almost everything you need except for real coffee (when you can find it, it is really expensive because the locals, Aussies and Kiwi’s all drink instant) pickles (poor Peter loves his pickles at lunch and we haven’t had any luck with finding them.so I’ve convinced him to try mango pickles and mustard pickles – so far the jars remain unopened), Hellman’s Mayonnaise (again this is one of Peter’s staples as many of you know he can’t live without a sandwich for lunch).

 

The view from the Sunset Bar looking out over the ocean and the entrance to Vuda Point Marina.

Here we welcome our good friends David and Suzi from Sidewinder into Vuda.  

 

We haven’t seen them since our last cruising season, so we had a fun afternoon/evening catching up with them.

 After getting all the work done, we are finally on the road again.

At low tide, the locals get hard at work to dig up mud clams. side

A very relaxed captain after working so hard all week.

It’s so wonderful to be back out at sea.  We had a nice sail over to Musket Cove yesterday.

 Musket Cove was hit really hard by the cyclone last December.  The Island Bar got taken out, as did many of the docks.  Luckily the Island Bar re-opened last week, so this quaint hang-out is back in business.  As if the cyclone wasn’t enough, the main store/coffee shop got hit by lightening a few weeks ago and was burned to the ground.

This is the store under tarps.

Now, the store is being housed in a tiny space by the dive shop. 

Musket Cove is one of our favourite spots, because the anchorage is beautiful, with lots of fresh breezes.  It offers the convenience of taking our dinghy or kayaks in to the resort.  We have full access to the resort, including the use of the pool, beach, dive shop, etc.  It is a lovely large island featuring three different resorts and it is wonderful to walk all around it.  You can do any activity you want here, or simply relax in the cockpit and watch nature unfold around you.  Right now it is a full moon, so we couldn’t have timed our arrival here any better.

Musket Cove Resort Bures

The beach at Musket Cove

Our first sunset at Musket Cove (okay, okay, I promise I won’t keep posting sunsets, but we just got here and this is just such a magical time of the day)

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Today and tomorrow Peter will scrape the bottom of the boat, because, as is expected, it has collected some barnacles over the winter.  We’ll take it easy here for a few days, swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, walking and then visiting with Dave and Suzie when they arrive later today.

As for our long-term plans for this year, we have yet to make any.  We do have the boat up for sale, (www.svquickstar.com) because after 6 seasons of cruising, we are missing our adult kids and our grandchildren. Deep down, I hope we don’t sell the boat, as I feel so much better out here on the ocean and away from the “real world”.  There is something so freeing about just being able to pick up an anchor and sail to wherever the wind takes you. 

     (I am feeling really good right now – so don’t want to jinx it). 

In addition to missing the family, Peter misses the land and weekend cowboying, especially now that we have 25 acres to play on in Pritchard, B.C.  So, we don’t know if we will spend this whole season in Fiji or travel further along to Australia and return in the winter, as we do each year to Silver Star Mountain, B.C. for the ski season.  We may even bring the boat back to Mexico so it would be closer to home and easy to come and go.  So, as you can see, we really do have no idea what we are doing! We’ll just see where the winds take us.

 The almost full moon yesterday on our first night here

Until next Friday……enjoy some time out in nature.

"Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm."
-Syrus Pubilius

We're back in Fiji for the 2013 sailing season.

Welcome back to our sailing blog.  When we left in late November, I had intended on doing a “final blog”, but time and lots of excuses prevented me from doing so.

We left our boat at Vuda Point Marina in Fiji and not more than 3 weeks after we returned to Silver Star, B.C, Canada for the winter ski season, Fiji sustained a direct hit from a Category 4 cyclone named Evan.  All we could do was watch the unfolding of the worst cyclone to hit Fiji in 20 years, via the internet and with sporadic contact with the company looking after our boat (Baobab Marina) and some good friends on Red Sky who were on their boat and living through the cyclone.I am including some photos courtesy of John Hembrow of Red Sky  which he took while on the scene.

 How low can the barometee go?

 This is one of the boats in the hurricane holes - even it was leaning over!

 The mast crashed down on the roof of the Sunset Bar 

Messy decks everywhere.

 Lots of damage to solar panels and other things that owners failed to take off for the cyclone season

 This wind-indicator lying on the pavement is from the top of a mast!

 Note the wind in the coconut trees in the background

 The good news is that QuickStar managed somehow to avoid any serious damage.  So far it appears that she just needs a bit of spit and polish, similar to any other season.  This was partly due to the diligence that Peter took to ensure that our boat was stripped down completely and also to our good luck of being on the far side of the marina.  Red Sky was across the marina from us, where the brunt of the damage was caused due to boats tearing free and crashing in to one another, huge trees falling down and just a lot of thrashing and bashing.  Unfortunately, Red Sky sustained about $80,000 worth of damage (all covered by insurance though, hooray) and is now on the hard being repaired.  Other friends of ours had their boat in a “hole” and they didn’t have any damage to speak of either (other than lots of debris and a deck that looked like a bomb went off).

On a really positive note though it is amazing how “undamaged” Fiji appears to be.  We expected to see lots of devastation, but on the contrary, only 5 months after being hit, the island is almost “business as usual”.  On Musket Cove the Island Bar was wiped out, but it reopened last night.  Some of the island resorts that were hit directly have closed, but they are using this opportunity to renovate and then reopen being better than ever.  This is quite a testimony to how resilient the Fijians are and a great advertisement to “come to magical Fiji”.

After the 28 hours of commuting from Canada we arrived safe and sound.  One of my favorite things about traveling is seeing all the different cultures, and you can even experience this just transiting through Los Angeles airport as we do.  We had arranged for our taxi driver to pick us up in Fiji and we felt like we were, indeed, coming home when Abdul was at Nadi airport to meet us.

It will take almost a week to set QuickStar up again, but we are enjoying this time.  It feels like spring cleaning and gives us a chance to acclimatize (it is lovely and over 30 degrees here) before we set sail.  It’s been great to catch up with old friends and we are looking forward to meeting David and Suzi from Sidewinder on Tuesday where we will head off together  to Kadavu for some great diving, if all goes well.

As in real life, the sailing life is not all rosy.  After keeping the boat secure for the season – even though we run a dehumidifier, the boat does attract flying cockroaches. (I can just picture you Lesly saying “oh my God”)  While we were asleep over the past two nights that we have been here, we got quite a few bites, but they don’t hurt, it just makes you look like you have the measles.  Now that we have the boat opened up, this problem will disappear quickly.  

Shot of a dead flying cockroach

Also, last season, I didn’t feel well and we returned to Canada early.  I spent most of the winter undergoing tests and dealing with  severe pain.  The good news is I don’t have M.S. (which was suspected).  I have severe osteo-arthritis and osteoporosis (in addition to my other 3 auto-immune diseases, just to keep me humble).  Acupunture was a big help over the winter, and I am hopeful that I can manage the pain while we are cruising this season.  (It certainly is less painful to be sipping a cool gin and tonic while gazing out to sea than being in the real world).  I am currently unable to stand for more than about 5 minutes, so I’m looking forward to getting out to the outer anchorages where I can swim.  If this situation persists, I’ll be sure to enjoy all the things that I can do….watching magnificent sunrises and sunsets, playing 2-handed bridge with Peter in the cockpit, reading lots of books, snorkeling (and hopefully diving, but not too sure about that)  and socializing with our great friends down here. 

Here is one of the magnificent Fiji sunrises that we experienced on our first night here at the Sunset Bar.  This photo is courtesy of John Hembrow (P.S.  They are going to be running a charter business for a couple or maximum 3 people aboard their luxury 55 foot Moody sailboat here in Fiji.  They are a wonderful Aussie couple that will be fantastic hosts.  If you are interested check out their website www.sailinginfiji.com )

As always I will do a blog post each Friday.  I hope you will come along for the ride and check in from time to time.

Until next week….Enjoy the first long weekend of the summer to our Canadian friends and family.

                                                                                                       ,

RIP John – svRaj

Peter’s “postcard” photo of the beach

Our plan for this week was to head out to the remote Yasawa Islands for the final three weeks of our cruising season – however, the weather is the master out here – and we needed to high-tail it back to Vuda Point Marina.  The second Tropical Depression (which is the step before it is declared a cyclone) of the season was fast approaching. 

We only had two nights out at Musket Cove, but we made the most of our time there.

These “Christmas trees” only bloom red in late November and December.

Another cool tree on the Island.

When we arrived at Vuda Point, we had to stern tie because of the possible cyclone.  With the large low and high tide variances, it makes it a little challenging to get on and off the boat.

High tide

Low tide

The exciting “event” of the week was the potential cyclone.  The marina took it very seriously and we all had to have our boats fully prepared.  We were all watching the weather very closely.

 

Our friends Dave and Suzie from Sidewinder sent us this photo of how funny we look in the high winds - Einstein move over!

Luckily, the cyclone passed 360 miles south of Fiji, so we didn’t have any serious effects, other than occasional driving rain and high gusts in short bursts for two days.  The weather now is clear, sunny and warm.

Trying not to get sun-burnt

Because we are unable to sail through the Yasawa’s we rebooked our flight home for November 29^th.  We will spend this final week putting QuickStar to bed for the winter.  That means removing all sails and everything from the deck, etc.

Folding up the genny

We had already provisioned for our final three weeks, so we’ll be giving away a fair amount of food.  We also bought enough beer/wine/alcohol – but Peter says we’ll just have to “suck it up” and finish it off.  So our schedule has actually been to work in the morning and early afternoon and then play a few hands of 2-handed bridge, while working hard on finishing off the liquor cabinet in to the evening hours.  Truly though, we appreciate that life can be gone in the blink of an eye, and we try to live each day to the fullest.

This week, we had some more very upsetting news.  One of our fellow cruisers – John from Raj – who we participated with in the Musket Cove Rally week - was making the passage from Fiji to New Zealand.  Tragically he died at sea only two hours outside of arriving in New Zealand.  He was healthy and fit, but had a sudden heart attack at only 64 years old.  His wife was the only other person on board, so the navy sent out a helicopter and offloaded some sailors.  They sailed Raj home and Sue was picked up by the helicopter.  Although this is tragic, Sue was fortunate that it happened so close to land-fall.  It is one of the main reasons, I won’t do a major passage (over 5 days) with just the two of us aboard. 

These sunset pictures from Musket Cove are in memory of John.  R.I.P.

 Until next week….. 
"When you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, the day will come when you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them."

-- Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker