W/ isn’t feeling well. She is getting sick. Upper respiratory, some cough, some congestion. She helps….slowly. Rarely do we both come down with being sick at the same time. I plod on. I’m getting stuff installed, checking things out, aligning the engine, alternator and water pump. Attaching the refrigeration compressor and tightening all the nuts and bolts. She’s still able to hand me tools when I’m flat out in the engine room working upside down attempting to tighten the nut or install a washer. But she’s working slow and so am I.
The next day I begin to feel sickly. The new Kubota still isn’t running but we need to get it functional and move off the dock. While we like Savusavu Marina; it’s a cruisers marina – where we can actually work on the boat without anyone getting upset, in the last 3 days there have been a couple of grab and goes by someone. The boat at the end of the dock lost their cell phone to sticky fingers and the boat immediately across from us lost a fishing rod and reel. The boat in front of them Amosea had a boarder but nothing was reported lost. We’ve started to lock ourselves in the boat at night but there is still plenty on deck vulnerable to grab and goes. So we’re working as frantically as two sick people can.
We are not debilitated, just under the weather and coughing more than we would like. We swig Robitussin like shots of whiskey, we suck on cough drops like candy. While sick we believe it is nothing aspirin and decongestants will not solve. But we know we can’t work at full capacity and we do plod on.
By days end I have everything attached and we rest. I like to sit on finished projects for a bit just to let my thoughts ferment and maybe identify something that I forgot. The last thing to do is purchase the correct engine oil. The book calls for a mono weight 30 cc/cd oil. In Panama mono weight 30 was IMPOSSIBLE to find. I’m told I can find 30 mono in town so in the afternoon I walk; slowly, the 2 km looking for it. As the engine is brand spanking new I want everything to go well. I can find mono 30 but nothing with CC/CD in the specs. I find CF-4 which by some accounts is equal to or better and one account I read said it was too good and wouldn’t do the job needed.
When cruising you make do. You do the best you can and hope it is good enough. I buy the mono CF -4 and put it in. Tomorrow we will start it up and begin our 25 hour early break in period. After 25 hours I will change the oil and continue with light loads (but not too light) till 50 hours. I’m waiting a day to start her, understanding that with the extra time thoughts may percolate up in my widened mind and remind me of something I’ve forgotten.
New Kubota Installed
Fortunately everything appears to be a go. My biggest issue is how to keep the loads on the generator light. The alternator is like all alternators and starts out at high amps and drops down. At first I have the batteries charged to 100 % so I can load it quite lightly and run it for an hour at a time varying the rpms and moving up to the working speed of 2800 after a few days. By about 6 hours I’m running it under more load but not fully loaded. I wish manuals were more specific but I’m told I need to do this so the cylinder wall does not get “varnished” and will mate well with the rings ensuring excellent lubrication and little to no oil burn with good compression and power. Man do I want that; especially after the mess on the last engine.
I’ve started to put the new motor in. The old is out, the new in the engine room and I’ve begun. But before I get very far I discover some changes that have been made between the two engines.
First, I try to put the power take off hub on the new one. Three bolts, should be no problem. The bolt holes are the same and the flywheel looks to be the same. NOT! While the bolts fit, the hub will not sit down on the flywheel. Upon closer inspection I discover the Kubota has a larger nut on the wheel than my earlier engine ensuring that the hub will not sit flush. Ok, I need to get to a machine shop and have the opening lathed out to match the nut size.
Since I’m greasy I might as well continue. Next I attempt to change the oil pressure switch. This switch senses the oil pressure and also turns on the raw water pump when the engine comes on. This engine came with an adapter. I take out the adapter and test the switch to see if it fits. It doesn’t fit. Upon closer inspection I notice that the port on the engine is straight thread and my switch is pipe thread. Now if I was crazy I could just tap the straight thread that is in the block out to pipe thread but I don’t want to risk getting any even small metal particles in to the oil so I choose to add another part to the list. Take the port to the machine shop and have them tap it out to pipe thread female and leave the straight male thread alone. There is a squash washer with the male thread. That should work.
The last item I knew I was going to have need a machine shop for. A new plate for the coolant tank and on that would be the connection to attach the compressor to. Time for a meeting of the minds. W/ and I talk and since we don’t know the area well we figure to call in the pro; Sanjay. He has worked on some cruising friends boats and everyone has been satisfied with his work and his fair price. Everyone! We’ve used him for a couple of really, really small jobs and they were done on time and reasonably. However; as it seems most things on the boat happen on Sunday, and Sunday is when most islands shut down and today was Sunday all we might be able to do is get an appointment with him for Monday. Early afternoon I call and arrange a time.
Monday am he calls back; he’s at the marina and wants to know which boat we are on. We talk about what I need; I’m also paying him to remove the other engine and he can do with it what he wants. After discussing the 3 needs we head to the nearest machinist shop about 5 km away. There we discovered that they could do the work but they don’t have any stainless steel and their machinist is out till Thursday. Sanjay exchanges numbers with the owner / manager/ boss, and he tells me he will look for some SS and expect a call Thursday from the machine shop. As in many non western countries I don’t receive a call on Thursday. To cover my bases, I call Curley.
Curley is the SSCA contact for Savusavu and also runs the am cruisers net. (Sadly as he has passed away. He will be missed. He was a real asset to the SSCA and Savusavu). He’s lived here 40 years and tells me of a good machinist in Labasa (pronounced Lambassa). I call Ibrahim and get directions to his place. Ibrahim informs me
Our Savusavu Taxi Guy
his son or employee is currently out sick and while he’ll be able to look at the job and most likely be able to do it, it will take a few days. We also call Mahendra for a taxi ride to Labasa. For the day taxi the cost is $150 F. But the alternatives are to take a mini van for $20 F per person, they arrive at 10 am and leave at 2pm. If something goes wrong and we need to stay later we would have to take the local bus; and while many say that is a Disney Land adventure it’s not one we would look forward to while attempting to get the boat back in ship – shape.
While we wait W/ finds this an opportune time to break off a chunk of her tooth. Oh! Oh! Luckily she has no pain. Luckily because living with her and a constant pain is not my idea of adventures in paradise – if you know what I mean. It is one of the knuckles on a molar and we take pictures and she looks at it and she’s worried. Again we call Curley and he tells us of a great Dentist in; you guessed it Labasa. Now we get to kill two birds with one stone and W/ makes an appointment for Friday.
Mahendra picks us up at 8 am and we drive to Labasa. He knows right where Ibrahim’s is and we go there as we are 30 minutes early. I explain to Ibrahim what we need. Three things, the power take off lathed out to 4.5 cm, the straight thread in the adapter re threaded to pipe and the plate made. I took the coolant top which had the exact bolt holes to match up and explained it to him, also I took the pattern with bolt holes off but the size and placement of the bracket for the compressor. After a few minutes he marked the pattern and everyone seemed to understand. He told me it would be ready by Wednesday. Next we drop W/ off at the dentist and I go in search of some new metric studs to attach the new coolant cover. After stopping at about 5 places we find one where they have bolts but no studs. There is no place here like in Panama which has every size and type of bolt you need. But the bolts will work. I’ll get some longer ones and cut the ends off, clean up the cuts and then I’ll have studs the length I need. With those supplies purchased Mahendra drops me off at the dentist and I wait while he runs some of his own errands.
W/ comes out all smiles. After paying the $50 F for the repair we head out to the street looking for Mahendra and
Advertising in the Hindo Templ
thinking about food. Fortunately Mahendra knows Labasa and we head a couple of blocks away to a Chinese place. There we have wonderful luck with good food and some cool refreshments. With the afternoon free we figure to visit the
Labasa Market
Hindu Temple and see one of the local tourist religious attractions. The drive is only about 15 minutes away and we wander the grounds; no tour, but we still find it interesting. From there we head back to Savusavu looking forward to some stops along the way for pictures.
Fiji is comprised of two large islands. Savusavu is on a S finger of Viti Lenua and Labasa is on the N. It is roughly a 2 hour trip by car covering about 80 km over the mountains. And they are mountains! Our ears continue to equalize as we traverse the terrain and wonder at the lives of people living in land, from small farm, to large ones, harvesting cane or growing fruits and vegetable for export. Fiji is a fascinating place with only the resort tourist industry built up. Ironically; as much as they encourage tourism, there are no hostels that I know of here, no camp grounds and few if any trails for the weekend adventures of either Fijians or international tourist. Maybe some day but not now. We pass a couple of waterfalls that shoot out to the middle of the mountains, we pass the National Park which is huge and all rainforest. We pass though rain, into sun shine and into rain again. The road is in quite good shape and while some grades are steep and winding it is nothing like the adventures traveling in Guatemala or the back roads of Panama. We feel quite safe and Mahendra is an excellent driver.
Pano Vanua-Levu, Fiji
With W/’s tooth back in working order her spirits followed suit we arrived back at Elysium before night fall. Mostly now we get to wait, clean up a bit, have a massage from Una 🙂 , and call Wednesday to see if the part is completed. Once we know then we will again contract with Mahendra and travel the mountains to pick up what is needed for our boat to be ship shape.
It didn’t start out that way. And if Heaven is timeless then Hell must be too. While we had planned on a week to complete the projects on our list, change the Perkins water pump, replace the clutch on the Water maker pump, and replace the Kubota EA300 with a newer model, it is taking a bit longer.
We made it to Savusavu Marina fine. There are two large bombies (coral heads) rising to the surface of the creek that had actually blocked our dinghy from first making it this far. We had to dinghy slowly over the coral watching for errant pieces protruding to the surface and admiring the tropicals undulating in the water below. But earlier in the week we had walked to the marina and picked up a rough chart from Robin; the manager. To prepare we took the iPad on the dinghy and followed his chart from our mooring to the marina making a track. Then returning the same way we had a good track of what was what. Oh, there are some markers but they are not numbered and with the big S curves around the bombies it is easy to run aground. With the track I made a short route and we followed that staying in nothing less than 7 meters of water. Sweet. Tied up at the dock we were ready for connecting to power.
I had checked earlier; the power here is 220 V 50 cycles and our boat is wired for 120 v 60 cycles. But our battery charger is multiple voltage and cycle proof and will handle the European / Australian / New Zealand voltage. What I hadn’t counted on was our Panel getting in the way.
I connected the power up with an adapter provided by the marina and immediately see a polarity reversed warning on our panel. I tried different adapter and different sockets on the power post and the same thing. DAMN! Not my only expletive but you get the idea. I was planning on just running the battery charger from here and then using a transfer switch to run the boat. While the generator is off line we need to run the DC refer / freezer and that takes battery power which we will NOT have enough of if I can’t charge the batteries. I was planning on 3 days for the change out. Man, was I ever off!
Plan B. I walk briskly into town needing to take care of this before noon. It is Saturday and most businesses close between noon and one. I would purchase a charger in town and we would be back up and running. NOT! In the two auto parts stores (not like an AutoZone by any way or shape) they didn’t have any to sell. I could bring my battery in for charging. Yeah! Right! I’m going to haul the batteries out of the boat every day and reinstall them every day to do this. Not in my life time. After checking every electrical supply / hardware store in town I am out of luck. Fortunately there is a yacht chandlery at Copra Shed and I figure; what the hell, can’t hurt, so I go there. I discover they can order me a 30 amp charger for 200 F $ or a 50 amp charger for 400 F $. I go for the 30 amp and it will be in Tuesday. We’ll just do other work and prep for our jobs. Progress. Not much but as we oft said when refurbishing the boat…. baby steps
First things first. Obviously we needed to do the normal boat / personal clearance stuff and with those tasks completed we looked for refreshments that others will serve us, cool things to do, markets with fresh goodies, and the stores where we can buy parts to keep the boat ship shape.
Luckily we were anchored next to sv Hotspur who had already been here a week or so. We flagged them down on the our first day here and they came by for the required sundowners. There were shared stories (some lies) about what we’ve each been doing since we last were together (American Samoa). But we also had another motive: pick their brain about the area.
Curly Sharing his Wisdom
With new info we set about creating some consistency again to our lives. W/ was going to do morning walks with Meri, W/ and I would do some of our own walks seeing the Hot Springs that were just on the edge of town, we would attend Curley’s Fiji Cruising Seminar and maybe arrange a trip with the sv Hotspur crew to visit the Sugar Mill in Labasa.
Curly’s seminar is probably the best insurance value you can have in Fiji. He has years of confirmed waypoints into and around all of the anchorages in Fiji. Having lived here for most of 40 years his stories reinforced the need for solid sailing / navigational skills when moving the boat. While we find Fiji much easier then sailing in the Bahamas and the San Blas it is ALWAYS important to be reminded of what one misstep can do. A couple of days ago a Swan 57 went up on a reef and last we heard was breaking up! Care must be taken. After the seminar he hawked some hand made fishing lures on everyone with a “guarantee that if you put it in the water” you will catch fish! W/ couldn’t resist; always a sucker for a good story, so we bought 2.
Every am at 8 Curly (who is also the SSCA cruising station here) runs the VHF net on channel 68. There cruisers can connect with other cruises and share needs and parts, acquire information on the area and hear the latest advertisements for Savusavu enticing cruisers to the various places that will gladly exchange services for our money. We of course love having others do our work; primarily cooking. But; there was one service we had been missing for the last several months; messages. Curly mentioned a therapist about 5 minutes out of town and W/’s ears perked right up. She copied the phone number down and before the Sun had risen over the mountains she called. Damn! No answer; but she did leave a message.
A few hours later the Una called back and I arranged massages for each of us two days forward.
Wendy at the Hot Springs
The hot springs are very….. interesting. Carolyn (Princess on sv Hotspur) had decided to see how warm the water was when it had already flowed the 100 meters to the bay. There she stuck her toe in and yelped a bit as she came very close to being burned. While we were at the springs there were two ears of corn in the husk someone was cooking and another bag in a meal being cooked. Next time I go I’ll take the infrared thermometer and check the temperature of the water. I will NOT stick my toe in it for a check. 🙂
While out and about Dan and Sara on sv Brahminy showed up. We had met them in Tonga awaiting the arrival of the King. They had skedaddled over here to Fiji to meet up with Dan’s parents for a weeks cruise before we left Tonga so we had more brains to pick. They rowed over. His outboard was in the shop being repaired and as we had a spare 2 hp not being used we loaned them our un-trusty little Yamaha. Yep the one that I have cursed and sworn about off and on for the last three years. However; after some sweet talking to it Dan was able to get it started and off they both went smiling all the way, Sara because she didn’t have to row, Dan because Sara didn’t have to row. Two days later it quit and wouldn’t start. I gave them a new spark plug and the little finicky engine started right up …again. The 2 hp Yamaha seems to eat spark plugs and guzzle gas but again Dan and Sara were happy.
We spent time with them discovering that they were gamers and had just learned to play Cribbage. Sweet. We love Cribbage, especially with 4 people and two teams so we played some on the boat and even went up to the Hot Springs Hotel for a night of dining and Cribbage. Just to be clear, when they left to head out sailing the rest of the way to Australia where they live, the guys were 3 games won to only one victory by the women who just happened to fall across the line first. Actually the games were so close with both teams being one count away from victory. NOTE: As guys we had to let them get close but Win! Uh-Uh, No Way. We just couldn’t do it. I’m guessing that when W/ edits this post she may actually add something. Wow, I only received a sly comment from her and she’s not adding any rebuttal. Sorry.
Savusavu Anchorage from the Hot Springs Hotel
One day the 5 of us Carolyn, Meri, Jim, W/ and I rose early to catch the van to Labasa. W/ had called and made a tour appointment at Fiji Sugar Corporation. The van arrived at 7:30 and we climbed in. He waited, and waited, and about 8 ish he began to move with almost a full van But…moving slowly he was able to pick up one more fare. Off we went. By now the timing was going to be close. FJS had called the day before and asked us to arrive an hour earlier then we had planned. Meri, who is the slickest of people, had brought the driver a muffin to start the day off with. He was all smiles when she offered it to him. Now it was time to ask him if he would be kind enough to drop us off at the Sugar Factory. Fortunately he obliged and our anxieties of being later were reduced to zero.
Cane Delivery
At the factory W/ and Meri stopped in at reception and acquired our passes, we then walked to meet the tour guide, Lindsey, at the employee gate and he went over the process of making cane into sugar. He went through the entire process because it was loud in the plant and it was easier to tell us here than yelling over the machinery. In the time it took us to take the tour and we had watched them dump 3 tons of Sugar Cane onto the conveyor, that cane was converted to about 1/2 ton of pure sugar and molasses. The pulp (called Bagasse) is saved and used in a power plant that is also operated by FSC. The power plant has 2 – 10
Wendy Checking out the Molasses
megawatt generators. The Sugar refinery uses about 3 megawatt to power itself and the extra is feed and sold back into the Fiji Power grid. Cool! They even go so far as to recovering the dirt that comes in on the Sugar Cane. The dirt is then dried and filled into bags and sent back the farms that grow the cane. The relationship with the farms I was not entirely clear on. FSC communicates with the farms in each area and tells them how many loads they can bring to the mill. This avoids the confusion and problems associated with 100’s of tractors and trucks carrying cane to the mlll and having to wait hours to unload it. By the time our tour was completed and we walked back to Labasa our driver called to tell us we needed to be at the van in 30 minutes. There are no seat guarantees. We quickly grabbed some snacks and headed off to the bus where we didn’t get our favored seats but they were not the worst either. Luckily I had a seat with some leg room and as the driver loaded up the bus he noticed I would be in a bit of hurt. He moved the individual sitting in the front passenger seat to mine and me to the front seat. An improvement but still not perfect. The vast majority of vehicles in the world are not made to accommodate someone 6’3″ tall with legs that stretch from Canada to Florida. Two hours later we were back in Savusavu and hungry.
We’ve already tried several restaurants and found a couple much to our liking. This one however is a wee bit different. It’ s NOT fancy. There is no sou chief, the view from the porch would be awesome but from inside the restaurant it makes the average kitchen / dining area look wonderful. However, the owner and the food are awesome. I wanted some Prawns in the Thai dish and they were out of them a few days back. The owner said he would call me when he had them and I gave him my phone number. In the US I would most likely never have received a call. Two days later my phone rang and he said the Prawns were in. Bingo! The following day we arrived at the restaurant for lunch and I had a delicious meal for just about $6 US. So the 5 of us traipsed to Paradise and had great food with more lies than one could guess.
We followed the tasty meal by returning to the boat for some R and R. Tomorrow a massage would greatly aid in our recovery. We were going to walk there; it was less than an hour to walk, but time crept up on us and we didn’t know exactly where the place was so we grabbed a taxi from town. Up over the hill to the airport and we went and were dropped off at Una’s for all of $2.30 US fare. She lead us through a tropical garden to her home / office and there we were rewarded with massages in the jungle with birds singing and the breeze blowing gently through her home. She had a wonderful sturdy massage table and both W/ and I were rewarded with an excellent session. Una found knots in my muscles that I never knew I had. When we were through both of us felt another appointment was needed and proceeded to arrange it. I think we’re in Heaven!
We had planned to clear Tonga by 7:30 am. We missed and it was closer to 8 when we had the anchor stowed and were motoring West out the pass. Once any of the islands were on our Easter quiadrent we set sail. We were far off the wind almost to a run and we only pulled out the Yankee Jib. Our speed was an awesome (not) 2+ knots. However the wind vane handled it well and we very slowly; slower than a walk, made way towards the Lau group 260 miles W of us. We hoped to arrive in 48 hours at the first waypoint but to do that we would ask for a wee bit more breeze.
By mid morning we were up to 4 kts and had observed another boat making the same trek from Tonga to Fiji; sv Common Crossing. I hailed them on VHF and we had a nice chat with them. They were heading N to a much wider pass and then on to Fiji. We would use the Northern and Southern pass as a fall back should we be unable to make our way points in daylight. With the new charts and all the way points matching up I wasn’t nearly as concerned now, but know that to stay on the right side of safety we wanted to traverse the island group in the daylight. A few hours later we came across a large gathering of birds feeding. Feeding birds in the ocean means only one thing – fish
I had deployed two lines and we were making our way right through the middle of the school. Zing! Fish On. While I move to the reel with the fish W/ ‘s job was to crank the other lure back aboard avoiding tangled fishing lines. Before she could even clip in and begin to withdraw the other lure that reel zings too. Two fish! Ok. Set the drag so we don’t loose the line on either fish and take care of one at a time. As we’ve now two active rods W/ gets the fishing belt that where I can nestle the rod in and bring the fish aboard. Neither fish jumps which indicates Tuna. Tuna like to dive and stay deep. I crank away and soon the fish is up to the boat still trying to dive. I work it up to the side of the boat while W/ has a towel ready. One, Two, Three, Go! I swing the fish aboard and into the cockpit just as Dirk taught me. Once aboard we cover the fishes eyes and that seems to settle them down. We have plenty of strong line and leaders on the system and it easily handles the weight of the fish. Covered W/ places her feet on the fish reducing the blood and scales it would throw all over the boat. By the time I get the other fish to the boat fish one has calmed down a bit; died might be a better word and now I swing fish two aboard.
We now have two fish flopping in the cockpit; one really flopping but the first one refuses to give up and every once in awhile he/she too give a few last minutes pushes. Next on the list hang them bleed them.
Sweet Tuna
I tie a noose around the tail of the first one as W/ has the second one under control-almost. 🙂 Once I have the tail secure I slit the gills on each side and hang it head down into a bucket. This bleeds the fish and gives it time for rigor mortis to set in. Once the fish is bled and firmed up cleaning / filleting will be much easier. Fish one is complete and I attach fish two going through the same routine. We hang them off the pedestal and tie the bucket so the fish will not swing like the pendulum on a clock. A bit of cleaning prepares the cockpit for our wait. I radio Common Crossing and let them know about the school, Half way through the conversation we lose the signal. That’s the limits of VHF. Oh well. I guess no more radio schedules with them.
Before the Sun sets we have both fished cleaned and in the freezer. We have the cockpit cleaned up and the rest of the fish has gone back to feed the sea. Nothing goes to waste out here. We’re settle in for a pleasant evening. We’ve picked up speed and now are traveling 6-7 kts with only the Yankee Jib. Sweet. Our charting program; SeaIQ, informs us that at this speed we will arrive at the most critical way point about 7 am. So far, this trip is one of the few times our sailing has gone according to plans. I doubt we’ll maintain this speed for another 36 hours but one can only hope.
As we settle in to our evening watches I check into the Pacific Seafarers net on 14,300. They are a group of Ham operators that assist with voyaging vessels as well as providing weather info to the various governments that use the data for improving their weather forecasts. We check in daily while offshore and report when we’ve arrived at our destination so they can close out the file. The net is for us a valuable service to keep us in contact with any needed support teams. For our personal support on ships systems we have two other cruisers that have helped ease my mind and we contact them via email. Neither of them have the ham setups for communicating 12,000 miles away. On the PacSeaNet there are 4-6 stations placed around the Pacific with directional antennas and often greater elevations such that we’re always able to have contact with one station via voice. I can’t stress enough the service they provide for the world wide meteorological community and cruisers anywhere in the Pacific.
Our evening watch schedules have settled into 3 hours on- 3 hours off , 2 hours on-2 hours off. This gives each of us if we’re lucky about 5 hours sleep and during the day we can fill in as each desires. It also provides us with time to do our email for weather as the propagation for ham radio email is often best at dawn and dusk. We’ve found that favoring one over the other in our watch system could put us at risk. When we have an issue we both need to be as well rested as possible and it is dangerous for one to be fully alert and rested and the other to be only partially functional. However; when we reach port we are always a little sleep deprived and both of us sleep like babies during the first one or two nights at our new anchorage.
After midnight the winds ease a bit and we’re down again to the 4-5 kt range. Not horrible but not what I would have wished. However, I am glad we’re not down to 2 kts! Our charting program now indicates arriving at our first critical waypoint about 11 ish. That’s ok but I don’t want to be there much later as then we will have to cut out of the path and get to open water adding more miles to the trip; but, safety is the name of the game.
Day two finds the seas rolling the boat some, I’m not fond of rolling and despise when the mast crosses the vertical. That is when we are at 10 degrees to port and then swing 5 degrees to starboard. We were hoping for some Sun but the day mostly teased us with a majority of clouds rolling overhead and few breaks. With our freezer full of fish we didn’t fish and with the boat roll I didn’t really feel like it. Today consisted of keeping the boat on course and moving. Our arrival time kept wavering between 7 and 11 am for making our first waypoint and with that we were quite happy. As the Sun passed over head the winds increased with the time and by early evening we were bouncing along at 6 kts. Like last night, the clouds started to break and we were going to have a star filled night sail. As I came upon watch I saw my first falling star in a long while. The following am we hoped to see the island in the Lau group, Fiji.
And we did. Right on time. This voyage is about the first that our times and landfalls needed to match and did. We hit Manihi in the Tuamotues close to perfect and Rarotonga a little late but all of them worked out well. Here we came upon the islands in the early am and bingo, as long as the winds held we would be through them and enroute to clearing in to Savusavu, Fiji on Firday.
I had been concerned. Now after seeing where the islands were and we actually picked out the reef to the S then I felt much more comfortable with our charts and the waypoints. I actually stuck out another fishing line. The seas have moderated a bit as the island group was breaking up the wave patterns. With that and our winds having eased off a bit we felt quite comfortable putting up the drifter; a much larger – lighter sail that will
Our Westsail 42 Flying the Drifter Free
make very little noise collapsing and refilling. Actually, as it is of lighter material it will rarely collapse. We fly the drifter free; meaning that the luff is not attached to the headstay. With the winds being slightly off the port quarter too we didn’t put the pole out. The pole does stabilize the sail but I jury rig some of the blocks to control the pole and for one day’s sail I wasn’t interested in all that work. Se free we are.
The last partial day is quite pleasant. We both are able to sleep well on our off watch time and the boat is moving nicely straight towards our goal. As false dawn breaks we see the image of Fiji on the horizon with lush green mountains rising from the sea. By mid morning we are rounding the point by the Cousteau resort near Savusavu and we douse the drifter, roll out the Yankee and sail as close to our final destination as we can. A couple of nm farther along the winds are on the nose and we furl the Yankee Jib and start the iron jenny for
Savusavu, Fiji and the Copra Shed Yacht Club
the final approach.We contact Copra Shed Marina for details to complete the paper work needed for entry, and they assign us to a mooring that is occupied. Another simple call to them provides us with one closer to the Yacht Club and they inform the officials of our arrival. They will bring them to the boat when they are ready and we make some attempts to clean up the boat. Passages, no matter how easy they appear, take it out on the passengers and the yacht. Fortunately, with the officials being brought to the boat we didn’t need to rush and prepare the dinghy for use. We can do that in the am once we are well rested. For now, a few deep breaths, a bit of sustenance, a little patience, and we will be cleared in to….. Fiji! Yeah.
They are always there: Anxieties. What matters is how you control and deal with them. A 1,000 things can go wrong on a passage and naturally you think of every one. If you lose control of your anxieties you might think of only 1 a 1000 times. By then most likely you will be frozen and unable to do anything.
I think how I will respond with injuries, mine or even the admirals. In an ocean crossing there is no ambulance to call that will arrive inside of 15 minutes. There is help, for us anyway. We have an SSB and there are emergency channels where help is available 24/7 with the only delay being propagation of the signals. We also carry a beacon that when switched on will alert every airline passing within radio distance that there is a distressed boat near by. They then forward the info to the USCG who then forwards it to any country we are near who then seeks to mount a rescue operation. But all this takes time and I know it. Basically, like the days of the ol’ west, it is up to us in dealing with emergencies. The bad news is we know how fast response is; or slow, the good news is the marauders / pirates aren’t after our scalp or our money. Out here we are small potatoes and not worth a second look.
The mast could fall down. Not likely but there have been boats that are dismasted. We check the rig often. I look for broken strands of wire. Our rig is held up with 1 x 19 wire rope which is made of 19 woven strands of wire. If one stand breaks the wire needs to be replaced. I look for problems with the fittings that the wire attaches to, I look for missing cotter pins and bad clevis pins. I’ve replaced half a dozen cotter pins that magically seem to find their way to a walkabout. Fortunately, no losses have occurred that caused any damage and all have been in the rigging screws that adjust the wires. Daily while offshore I check the boats rig over to ensure the big stick in center stays standing.
The sails too are of concern. Our sails are 30+ years old and while every sailmaker has said the cloth is good the stitching is quite often in the geriatric years. I had stitched up several seam tears / stitching chafe in Samoa and in Tonga we took the main sail off and in to a sail maker. He went over all the stitching and added a new row, repaired any holes in the sail, cleaned up the luff where the sail cover had actually chafed through the luff tape and then added chafe patches on both sides of the sail for the rare event that we have the main sail up and are sailing off the wind. Phil did a wonderful job and a very fair price. But the Yankee I maybe ought to have taken off too.
On the crossing I noticed the Yankee Jib, some of my repair on the foot of the sail was coming off. Lazily we didn’t pole out the jib on the crossing to Fiji. The sail would often collapse a bit and then roll back out. While it didn’t make that body wrenching snap of an unloaded sail come up to full load it did pop a bit at the foot. The constant pop broke out some of the stitching we had effected in the Galapagos during a repair. Too, the upper part of the sail either having been stretched out or sewn a little wrong now falls off when we are on the wind and shakes / flutters enough that we feel it in the boat. We are due for some new sails but when we are not sure. Currently we’ll be spending the rest of this season and all of next season here. The boat is good for 18 months here so maybe when we leave the sails will be new or maybe I’ll be too tight with the money and try to squeak another year out of them. We’ll see.
When we motored to the customs dock in Tonga to clear out everything was ready that could be. The water maker clutch was now slipping and I had contacted Aquamarine (Dan) to ship a new one to Fiji but he wasn’t able to complete that till Monday (which would have been Tuedsay our time). As of this moment I don’t know if it has been shipped and will not know till we arrive in Fiji. I will try to contact him from our Sailmail / Ham mail account but we have enough water for the trip and then some. We have water in 3 tanks when full. Two 200 liter tanks and one 400 liter tank. The 400 is empty but the others full and each of the 200 liter tanks last about 2-3 weeks. Also should either tank leak we have the other to rely on. But if both go we don’t have a way to make more water; well, not easily. I can in a real emergency modify the clutch so we can make water but doing that on a passage would be a lot, I mean a LOT of work. Odds are winning the lottery is a better bet then worrying about water. That goes down the list.
Charting on this trip is a big concern. Chuck on sv Jacaranda years ago recorded a list of 60+ uncharted reefs in Fiji. I put this in my programs to ensure the boat stays in water deep enough to float. I then have some way points from Steve on sv Lady Carolina and have picked up some form sv Meikyo who has made this trip several times. I enter them in the computer and they are way off, that or the chart is. Something else to worry about. I seek to update my charts. New Zealand’s electronic charts; like the US charts, are free to download. I find them online and download them only to discover the connection isn’t solid enough to get the complete download. I try to use the UNIX commands to continue the download and NZ has set their servers up to dis allow resuming downloads. Damn. I email them about the issue but we still have older charts. I ask around the cruising community for newer charts and Sandy on sv Taboo Tiki who liaisons with the Moorings charter base has some and also the waypoints provided by others making the trip through the Lau island group. Awesome! I loan him a thumb drive to get a newer set. But now knowing exactly how new I still try to get the NZ charts. I find an alternative source and am able to get those download. During this process I had emailed Steve about the suspect waypoint and had contacted Lewis on sv Eleutheria who had just left about the suspect. Both of them were kind enough to NOT say how stupid I was. The final couple of waypoints were East not West. We would be changing hemispheres on this trip. Tonga is not really in the Eastern hemisphere even though for political reasons it is. When I put the correct directional designation on the waypoints and charted them, with the new charts, things matched up sweetly. One less really big anxiety.
It is with most of my anxieties under control that we motored to the customs dock to complete the paper work to exit Tonga and head to Fiji. We had been waiting most of the day for a spot to open up. Tonga is still about 30 years behind the times when it comes to dealing with cruising yachts and although they didn’t attend the boat they say they want it at the dock while all the paper work is completed. We know two boats that were able to secure the paperwork without going but we had already prepared the dinghy for offshore and didn’t have it available. The dock was busy with 4 boats currently tied there clearing in and others clearing out. We waited until we saw an opening and then rushed over. So far everything was perfect. We tied up and I soon discovered that instead of one place to clear out of I needed to hike to immigration, visit the port captain and then clear with customs. OK! I don my shoes, stuff my money in my pants, grab the passports / boat paper work and away I go. Immigration was uneventful, just a mild wait as only one officer was working and there were a couple of people in front of me, the port captains office was ok and there we paid about $12 US for fees and Customs was odd. There he needed copies of all our incoming paper work and then he asked for $60 US which I am not sure ended up being a bribe or was the actual fee. Of course the receipt was the outbound clearance. Oh well, It is what it is and we are now not only good for leaving the country but we have the needed forms for entering another county. What always seems funny to me is the officials want to know where we are going beyond the next country. In this case they wanted us to list our next 4 countries! Hell! we’re lucky if we know where we are going after the next destination. “Ok” he said, just leave them blank. I did.
Motoring off the dock we hear an engine noise again, our old nemesis, the ticking, or now it had morphed into a higher pitched – almost screeching. This couldn’t have been at a worse time. Since Samoa everything had been perfect. We’ve motored some in Tonga as a few of the channels are narrow and tacking a cruising tub thought them would be problematic. Now I’ve a new concern. W/ and I keep an eye on the engine panel ensuring that while we have a new / old sound the engine is running in it’s correct temp / oil zone. And thankfully it is. So we continue on. We’re heading to Kapa where we anchored in Port Morelle planning on an early am exit. By 7:30 the following morning we had breakfast, ran the generator to charge the batteries and charged the refrigeration / freezer. Here we go!~
