Month: September 2013

September 27, 2013 in Savusavu, Fiji

We left Vanua Balavu yesterday at somewhere around 10AM and arrived in Savusavu just before sunrise this morning after a 100 mile passage that was a mixed bag.  The first part was calm, warm, sunny and very pleasant.  By yesterday evening, the seas got big, the wind got strong and we were actually cold late last night and this morning.

We were going to spend another week or so visiting a couple of other islands but two factors drove us back to our home base; we have a lot of broken equipment and we don’t have a lot of food (not to mention the fact that we’re out of beer, wine, and rum).

Of the broken stuff, I am hoping none of it is too major. Here’s a brief list…

A non-functional pump on our watermaker (there’s still one that works so we’re OK for water).
Our electric Torqeedo outboard no longer runs.
Our shower sump pump quit
Something went wrong with our batteries and the voltage dropped way too low.
The computer mouse became self-aware and developed it’s own personality – a very bad one.
The heater (which we don’t use here) is leaking coolant.
And probably one or two other things I’ve blocked out.

Oh well, such is life on a cruising boat.  As for the lack of food issue, we’re already started working on that with a wonderful breakfast out this morning at the Captain’s Deck: pancakes, crispy bacon, eggs and toast with cappuccinos too!

We’ve been preparing a bunch of blog posts and now that we have internet, we’ll start posting like crazy.  (Right now, I have 17 New Zealand posts all done and waiting to be posted, and a lot more to come after that—Cyndi).  Stay tuned and clean off your reading glasses. -Rich

September 26-27, 2013

We set off from Vanua Balavu during a warm, sunny morning, but conditions deteriorated as the day went on. The wind steadily ramped up into the 20-knot range while sloppy and rough seas grew into big, fast swells. In all it got pretty boisterous but thankfully we were going downwind, the swells and wind pushing us along at a good clip. It was a reminder of just how rough the water around Fiji can be, something that often takes cruisers by surprise.

Conditions remained rough through the night. Rich was surrounded by breaking waves when he went through the pass (into the Savusavu area) on his watch early the next morning. We were perfectly safe, but the visuals were unnerving. And of course it was raining (it always rains when we enter a pass).

Once inside, the wind was still blowing, but at least now the seas were calm. By the time we got to the Copra Shed Marina conditions had died considerably to just some gusty winds. We were lucky to find a slip available. Tied up by 7:30am, we decided to celebrate with breakfast at the Captain’s Deck.

The saying goes that the two happiest days in a boater’s life are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it. For us it’s the day we head off from a marina and the day we return. After weeks of deprivation, Savusavu seemed like a garden of earthly delights! Restaurants, ice cream, markets (once seeming small and limited now seemed huge and bountiful), liquor stores, laundry service, long showers, internet, and new TV shows! We felt ridiculously happy to be here and continued to be so all day! Breakfast out was a treat, as was lunch at Savusavu Wok (dumplings, Mongolian chicken and beer) and finding my favorite wine in stock at the liquor store. People we knew in town seemed happy to have us back, with joyful Bulas ringing out when they’d see us. Dinner was takeout pizza, episodes of our favorite TV show, and wine. I don’t know that life gets much better than it is on arrival day!

The arrival high lasted well into the next day, but no rest for the weary as important repair projects had to be started. Rich dove right in with our top priority: researching outboard engines. We were giving up on the electric Torqeedo and going with gas. It would be the end of an era.–Cyndi

September 2013

The Bay of Islands is another place that we feel we can’t adequately convey the beauty with just a few pictures, so here are a whole bunch! (Click on an image below to enlarge. From there, you can navigate through all 100 pictures.)

September 16 – September 26, 2013

These photos didn’t make it into the final cut for any previous galleries, but I promised I’d post them somewhere. Here, a hodgepodge of photos from our time in Vanua Balavu.–Cyndi

September 26, 2013

By this point we were having a few equipment problems including our pretty-much-dead Torqeedo electric outboard, one of our two low-pressure watermaker pumps was out, and we’d started noticing that the boat batteries were having trouble, too.

By now, I’d winnowed down the list of possible spots to visit to one island: Matangi. We wouldn’t need a dinghy with an outboard because it was forbidden to go ashore. The main attraction, the snorkeling, was within rowing distance. A visit there could be done en route to Savusavu and seemed like an easy stop.

And so we woke up at 5am to make the trip to Matangi Island. After we were ready to go Rich noticed the low battery light flashing on the inverter. He asked me to run out and start the engine. I tried, and it made that wrrr wrrr wwwwrrrrrr sound that engines make when they when they don’t quite have the oomph to start. Oh shit.

From there, Rich went into Mc Gyver mode and used his drill to help the starter turn the engine over. It should have worked. It didn’t. We’d have to wait to get some sun on our solar panels, then try again. While we waited, I looked at the weather and saw a bout of enhanced trades in the forecast. We’d be relatively protected from the winds in our next anchorage but it might get rolly.

With all these negatives, I realized it would be best to skip Matangi and head straight back to Savusavu before the wind picked up. Rich readily agreed; so suddenly we had an overnight trip ahead. It was a disappointing to reach this decision, but that quickly wore off when I thought about access to groceries, terrific eateries, laundry service, the means to get the boat cleaned up, and the internet. We’d been out in remote areas for a long time and it would be great to be back in town.

The sun came out and soon we had enough solar power to charge the batteries and thus start the engine. We motored out around 10am, heading back over the top of the island and though the pass. Good-bye Vanua Balavu. Below, a gallery of miscellaneous Mbavatu photos (click to enlarge and scroll).

A Note About the Mbavatu Yacht Club: We weren’t the only boat to have the frustrations of not knowing the rules for the yacht club. When we climbed to the top of the hill we saw a catamaran enter the harbor. First it went and motored around the yacht club area trying to figure out if they could take a mooring or anchor. They probably tried to call the other boat in the harbor, which was us, but of course we weren’t aboard. Deciding the whole thing was too dicey, they went to the first anchorage we tried and found the same mooring in the middle. No success there, they gave up and actually left the harbor.

Weeks later we met the yacht club owner in Savusavu, and he told us the moorings are kept in good condition and we would have been welcome to pick one up. Well, that horse had left the barn. It would sure have been nice if they’d let people know about it (post a sign at the yacht club, put it in the free Fiji guide handout, etc.). Of course they wouldn’t want people there close to arriving rallies; so maybe it’s easier not to publicize the moorings at all. I will hasten to add that this all happened in 2013. I have no idea what the protocol is now but it’s probably the same.–Cyndi