Yacht Windspirit

Christmas News 2009 from Crew of Windspirit

2009-12-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel aged 4 months

Tony & Mary in Prague

Isabella aged 2 1/2 years

Ethan aged 22 months

Caleb Price aged 3 years

After a very exciting time sailing to Fiji, around and back to NZ last year we needed to get our heads down and bums up and do some work to earn our keep. Tony was fortunate that he was able to keep his work going while he was away and has built it back up since we returned.

Over the last year, his work has taken him to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Then in September we both headed off to England and Europe for four weeks, some for work and some for play. We had a great, but extremely tiring time, meeting up with Dorothy (my sister) for three days in London. We had a lot of talking to do in such a short time, but did manage to get a bit of sight seeing in too. This time we bought a Eurail pass and traveled by train from London (On the Eurostar) to Brussels, then to Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, and to Berlin. We enjoyed the trips on the train as we got to see a lot of the countryside. We went on an overnight train from Paris to Prague, which was a new and interesting experience for us. Then after Berlin, we flew to Vienna for a few days recreation and on to Dubai. That was a whole new ball game for us, having never been to a desert country before. All in all we had a really great time.

I have given up nursing after doing it for nearly 40 years. I now spend my time doing the clerical work for the business, running our home affairs, doing maintenance on the boat and being a grandmother.

We had a lovely time with the family over last Christmas. Spent some time in Wellington with Rowena, Naomi and Al and our granddaughter, Isabella. We also visited my father and stepmother, June. They are only just coping at home with lots of outside help. Dad has given up using the computer now, which is a real shame but finds it too hard to go in to the spare room to use it. I thought about buying him a laptop but he would have trouble with the small keys etc and anyway his eyesight is pretty bad now. June is becoming very forgetful and muddled in her thinking.

We are really enjoying our four grandchildren. Caleb (3) and Ethan (22mths) are real trouble as they are so close in age that they, together, get in to so much mischief but they are a lot of fun. They are in Auckland. Rowena’s daughter, Isabella (2 ½) and Naomi and Al’s son, Nathaniel (4 months) are in Wellington, but we do get to see them every month or so. Fortunately there are now reasonably priced airfares to Wellington and so when I go there I get to stay for 2-3 days and really get to know them well.

This Christmas our friends have lent us their house again for a few days and so we will be having a traditional Christmas dinner with the family. It will be great because our kids and their kids will all be there. Also we have invited Tony’s sisters and their partners and they will bring Tony’s Mum, who has just turned 88years. She is well but VERY forgetful now but she still loves coming out and having a good time.

We are still living on the boat, but had a break earlier this year when we did a two-month stint of house sitting on the North Shore. After ten years of living on the boat, it is time for a change and we are actively looking for a house to buy and live in. We love the boat but now that we have the grandchildren it is becoming harder to have them visit and stay. Also we are yearning for a bit more space to stretch out and I want a wee veggie and herb patch. There is not a lot on the market at the moment but we hope it won’t be too long before we find the home that we both love and can afford.

I can’t think of any more news but will consult with the boss before sending this off. Well, the boss checked it out, made a couple of small changes and has left me to it.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Opua to Auckland.

2008-11-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

It was great to meet again many of the cruisers with whom we have spent time in Fiji but there becomes a time when we want to get home and back to a "normal" life. We had been watching the weather for a window to sail down the coast but with South Easterlies predicted we were reticent to head out. However Tony was itching to get back to his neglected clients and we made the decision on Saturday to head to Auckland.
It makes me wonder how we can travel around the Pacific and always have head winds. But that is the way it is. Even though North-Westerly winds were predicted, we still sailed South in to head winds. It was an extremely brisk sail with large rolly waves. We were pleased to arrive at Tutakaka that night and have a good sleep. Then the next morning we headed out to an Easterly wind of 25-30knots for our sail to Kawau Island. This was again a fairly rough sail but we were greeted by a pod of dolphins and thousands of sea birds. We arrived at Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island at about 3PM, had a quiet drink and early sleep. These long sails are very tiring.
At present we are just north of Ragitoto Light, having a quiet beam reach sail for a change. We shall berth at Westhaven and then start the big clean up. The boat is absolutely covered in salt crystals.
It has been another successful cruise but we are pleased to be home.

The long trip home

2008-11-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

We went in to Lautoka on Monday and returned our Internet Vodem. We were surprised to see that all the Indian women and little girls were dressed in the most beautiful Saris and glittery shoes. The clothes were all colours of the rainbow. The people were all preparing for the festival of Diwali, which is the festival of lights, similar to New Year for the Indian people. We were lucky enough to hitch a lift in to town with a very pleasant Indian man, who actually invited us to his home for the festival the next day, and he explained the meaning to us. Unfortunately we were not able to take him up on his offer because we ended up leaving before that.
We finally had the go ahead from Commander to leave Fiji on Wednesday 29 October. So even though Tuesday was a public holiday we decided to pay the overtime rates and clear customs on that day. While Tony took the taxi to Lautoka to clear, I was madly sorting out the last few jobs, which needed to be done before we left. He returned to the boat at about 11AM and we set sail for Momi Bay where we intended to stay the night and leave the next morning. However when we arrived there at about 2PM we found that an on shore breeze had set in, which would not have made for a comfortable night's anchorage. Therefore, after a very brief discussion we chose to leave immediately and head out of Navula Passage and south to New Zealand. We are very pleased that we made that decision because boats that did end up leaving later got caught in bad weather close to NZ.
Our trip, although uncomfortable and very tiring was actually quite reasonable. Of course, it did not come without challenges. We each did three-hour watches from 7PM until 7AM. Tony took the 7-10PM and the 1-4AM watches and I took the 10-1AM and 4-7AM. This seemed to work for us except we then had, what I called, the 10 o’clock syndrome. This occurred every night except one. Something always went wrong at that time just after Tony had gone to bed. Usually we had an increase in wind speed and direction, but sometimes it happened to be the instruments that went crazy for no apparent reason. A couple of times the auto helm decided to run amok. Then the sails would back and all hell would be let loose. However we would eventually sort out the problems and things would settle down. But it did not make relaxing easy.
We were able to keep up to date with the positions of other yachts in the area by listening in to Des’ radio sked, morning and night. Over 6 ½ days off shore we did not see any other yacht, ship or plane until the last night when we all were starting to converge for the sail in to the Bay of Islands. That night we saw the lights of three other yachts. It was very hard to sleep that last night because we were excited about coming home. Also the wind and waves had started to increase ahead of the oncoming low-pressure system. We were very pleased to see the welcome sight of the Cavalli Islands and next to clear the Nine Pin. We then knew we were home.
On the radio we heard that there were 15 boats at Opua waiting to clear Customs and that there was no room at the wharf. It seemed like a good move to slow down, sort out the boat and have a well-earned hot shower. What luxury! Tony finished his shower just as we pulled up at the quarantine wharf.
We did not have to wait long before we were boarded by first Customs and next bio-security. No problems there except that they took any items which could be grown, e.g. chickpeas etc. Not a lot and we were soon on our way to the Marina for a well-earned rest.
While sailing in to the bay we received a phone call from our good friends Wendy and Warren who informed us that they would meet us at the pier with fresh bread, tomatoes and bananas. That was a real treat and they assisted us with our lines and making the boat fast on the marina. They stayed for about two hours and then left us to rest. It was really great to be welcomed home and such a surprise.
The last few days have been a blur with us sorting out bits and pieces and doing heaps of laundry etc. We have also enjoyed dinner at the Opua Cruising Club each night. The meals are reasonably priced, $10-12 each and the company is great.

Sunrise out in the ocean. 4.30AM

2008-11-06T12:34:00.001-08:00

It is too hot

2008-10-22T19:01:00.001-07:00

"It is Too Hot!
This is a saying that we are banned from using on Windspirit but is certainly true this time. Inside the boat with all fans running, hatches open and wind scoops in place it is 30C. It is even hotter outside. We are trying to keep out of the sun as it is a scorcher. If visiting Fiji, we would not recommend doing so at this time of the year. We just want to leave but every day we get an email from Commander saying "Delay your trip". This is followed by all the reasons. It seems that NZ is still getting bad winter or at least the Pacific Ocean between Fiji and NZ is getting it. At this stage it looks like we may get away on Sunday or Monday. But we will have to keep watch.

Bulbul Bird

Yesterday I went to get us a banana from the fruit bowl and found they had all been pecked. The bowl is in the side cabin and we had not noticed that the bulbul birds had been sneaking in the window there and helping themselves. I put the insect screen in to the window to stop them entering and later Tony went down in to the main saloon to find a bird had flown in the front hatch to get more food. They really are cheeky little devils. It is far to hot to leave the screens in place all the time.
This morning we woke early and before breakfast decided to head out in the dinghy to the sandbar for a snorkel. It was low tide at 7AM. We had a wonderful time as none of the other tourists had risen so early. The number and variety of fish is astounding. We even saw a stingray swimming around but he soon disappeared. The colours of the coral are so beautiful. We had the place to ourselves for over an hour before the tourist boats arrived and by that time we were tired and hungry. So we motored back to Windspirit for eggs on toast.
We had a very pleasant evening the other night as we decided to shout ourselves dinner out at the Restaurant at Musket Cove. After dinner we took what was left of our wine and sat in the lounge and listened to the band. We may do that again tonight after dinner on the boat.
Tomorrow we plan on leaving here and heading back to Saweni Bay which is close to Lautoka. We are running out of fresh fruit and veg's and so want to go to the market on Saturday. Then when we decide to leave Fiji it will be only a short trip to clear customs and head south.
This will probably be the last blog we will do until our return to NZ. We need to return our internet modem to Telecom Fiji for our refund.

The Waiting Game

2008-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days we have steadily been going through the boat and checking on storage and organising things for the trip home. All the crockery is safely stored and pots and pans stacked so that they don't crash about. We have attached the trysail to the mast so that it can be easily raised in storm conditions (which we don't want). Now it is just a matter of waiting and checking weather updates for a suitable day to leave. The idea is that we look for a large anticyclone over western Australia which will slowly move towards New Zealand and bring good weather and fair winds. We looked at the seven day forecast yesterday and if we had left then we would have received 35-40 knot SW winds just north of NZ. That, we do not want. So now we will keep checking and hope we make the right call when the time comes. Among other internet options we are using the guidance of an American company, Commander, who do weather routing for cruisers world wide.
Yesterday was an inside day as we had several torrential downpours. So now the boat is well washed down and the tanks are full. We did several jobs and then spent the afternoon playing scrabble. As our family will know, it is very difficult to get Tony to play games but he is now enjoying this game. He almost beat me yesterday too. Hopefully the weather will be good today and we can spend some time ashore going for a walk and swim.

Blue Lagoon to Musket Cove

2008-10-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning we woke to a glorious day, clear sky and gentle breeze. We left by the Western entrance sailing south. Our plan was to stop the night at Natuvalo Bay on Naviti but we were having such a great sail and it was still early in the day so headed south to Yalobi Bay on Waya. All went well until we arrived, went to anchor, and could not get shelter from the northwest swell. By this time we were fed up with rolly anchorages. So turned on the donkey and motored north again to Ceva bay on the south coast of Naviti. By this time it was quite late in the day. Normally we would not travel after 3PM because it is hard to see the reefs but we had been there before and had computer tracks which we could follow. We arrived at about 5PM to a calm, smooth anchorage and had a great night's sleep. The next morning our plan was to leave early and head back to Saweni Bay but we received a visitor from a neighbouring yacht who asked for assistance with his autohelm. Tony was sucked in and so we didn't leave until about 11AM. We had nearly thirty miles to travel. After all the windy days what should turn up but a windless day even though a strong wind warning had been issued. We had to motor all the way. Had our fishing line out too but no luck there.
Had a bit of a surprise on the way in to Saweni because the motor did a hiccup and dropped revs. Got a bit of a scare but Tony changed the filters etc once we got to anchor and it runs like a dream again. Must have got some muck in the wrong place but fixed now. Despite being very careful with putting diesel conditioner in the tanks every time we fill up we seem to have a little bit of residue diesel bug. The tanks are over twenty years old now and probably need a clean out. We will do that when we get back to NZ. Also we were running low on fuel which would have accentuated the problem.
We have anchored in Saweni Bay several times but this time we didn't quite pick the right spot because at about 7.30PM the wind turned and when we checked the depth we had only 300mm under the keel. With another two hours to go before low water we were quite concerned. Tony pulled in about 10 metres of chain. We were then had about 500 mm under us. We were reluctant to move because it was dark and we could have made it worse for ourselves. By 10 PM we were just touching the coral but only gently and then all was well again. Guess we have a few scratches on the bottom of the keel now. We made sure that we moved before low water the next morning.
We stayed in Saweni Bay until Monday morning, then motored to Vuda again so that we could do a few things like a rig check and buy fuel. We couldn't believe that it cost over $1200 for fuel (diesel is F$2.28 + 5% credit card fee, NZ$1=F$1.03 after charges). We were getting a bit low on tucker and wanted to stock up on the essentials and went in to Lautoka on Tuesday morning. As soon as we arrived back we set off for Musket Cove, where we are now. We have been doing maintenance and packing up things etc. for the big trip home.
Yesterday we discovered that the water pump for the generator was leaking as a seal had blown and so Tony replaced it at once. Fortunately he carries a spare pump. We can manage without the generator but it uses a lot less fuel to charge the batteries than does the main engine.
As part of our preparations for the trip home I have made bread today and Tony cut it up and I made and froze sandwiches I am trying to make easy food for us. I made some pastry yesterday and today will make a bacon and egg pie and cut it into meal size pieces and freeze them. I will also make a pizza and cook some NZ chicken thighs which I managed to buy at the supermarket. I would have prefered to buy chicken breasts but didn't want to buy Fiji meats. I will pre cook them as well. Then we wont starve on the trip home.
We have a few more jobs to do, like put on the trysail and the perspex shutters on the dodger windows etc.
Then we will just wait for the weather window and hope that we pick it right. From the sound of other yachties it might be next Monday or Tuesday. But who knows. There are a lot of people just waiting here for the same reason at us.
Have had a swim both afternoons. Can't work all the time. Also, it is too hot. We meet some very pleasant Canadians in the pool yesterday. He was 82 and his wife, 80. Until two years ago they were still doing Ocean cruising but decided that they were now too old. They are having a boating holiday with their son and wife and their two sons. They have been here for three weeks. What a great couple. They are an inspiration to us all. We will have dinner with them tonight at the Island Bar where barbeques are set up for the cruisers. We can buy meat and veg packs at the little shop. As we are now running out of meat that is a great option for us and the men do the cooking.

The limestone caves of Sawa-I-Lau

2008-10-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

After we had managed to extract ourselves from the village we motored over in the dinghy to the caves. These are set inside an enormous island of limestone. There is controversy over which clan of islanders own this treasure trove and also jealousy among the people. While we were there two boatloads of tourists arrived with over 40 people, at $10 per head. Also the Fijians sell handcraft on the beach. So the clan who claim ownership are bringing in a lot of earnings compared to other villagers. The controversy has been going on for over ten years and is now apparently t be resolved by court action. As in most places, it is the ones with the most money who can afford the best lawyers. So it will be interesting to hear the outcome.
We had to climb up quite a number of steps to get to the cave entrance from the beach and at the top was this sign. I guess some people have hard heads.

It says, "MIND YOUR HEAD DO NOT DAMAGE ROCKS

As in most caves of this origin we had to then climb down more slippery and dark steps in to the cave, ducking our heads to avoid overhanging rocks. At the bottom is a huge pool, which is about 18 metres deep and clear sea water. It is affected by the tides and is only open, we think, at low tide. We were lucky because for about the first 10 minutes we had the cave to ourselves and had a lovely swim. We had taken our dive torch and were able to investigate all the nooks and crannies. We had been told that there was an entrance under the water to another cavern but were not able to find this. We were sorry that we did not have a waterproof cover for our camera because we would have liked to take photos.

The entrance to the first cave

Later the tour people arrived en mass with masks and snorkels and we heard many different languages. They had tour guides with them and so we were able to follow as they were shown the underwater entrance to the other cavern. As a very nervous person I was reluctant to dive under, especially as we had not taken our snorkeling gear but Tony was very keen. As it turned out, although the entrance is very narrow, only a body's width, it was virtually only necessary to duck your head under and count to about two and we were in another giant cavern. This one had only a small area where a minimal amount of light can enter, so we were very pleased to have our dive torch. It is hard to say how high the ceiling was but probably about 50-60 feet. We were very pleased that although the other tourists were noisy and disturbed our peace, we would not have found the other cavern if they had not arrived. The tour leaders, both Fijians, climbed up the rock walls several times, and dived and bombed in to the deep clear waters. They must have very sticky feet because some of the other people tried to climb and found the walls really slippery and had to give up. It was a lot of fun.
By this time is was about 11AM and time for us to move on. We are running out of time in Fiji and need to start preparing for the trip back to NZ. We had a beautiful sail back to Blue Lagoon, our stopping off anchorage for the night. When we arrived we found that friends of ours, JoAnne and Michael, from the yacht Destiny, were there. They have had a series of problems with their yacht this year and have had very little sailing time. So we were thrilled that they had managed to make it to the Yasawa's. They invited us and two other couples for drinks that night. We had a great time and were sorry to go back to our boat. But needed some well earned sleep before heading south again the next day.

Blue Lagoon to Sawa-I-Lau

2008-10-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Northern Pass of Blue Lagoon

Our ideas of buzzing around Blue Lagoon in the dinghy were thwarted after an aborted, wet, dangerous and wild trip because it was so windy and the seas were rough. We were definitely safer and more comfortable on the yacht.

On hearing Tuesday's weather forecast we decided that we could be stuck for days if we didn't made a move. So we sailed north of Blue Lagoon, through the winding pass and out to the Western shores of the Yasawa's. We had a fast, but pleasant sail to Malakati on Nacula island. The anchorage has good holding albeit very gust as the wind whips over the top of the steep hills and slikes down to the bay, gathering momentum as it does. We dropped anchor in beautiful clear water and then went to shore to the village where we needed to present Sevusevu (gifts, including kava) to the chief and his entourage. We are getting used tothis custom now and are not as embarrassed as we used to be. Once Sevusevu is accepted, we have free run of the village and may take photos. The next two photos were taken while the people of the village were building a new house with flax and wood.

Thatching the house

The completed house

While wandering around the village we managed to get some snaps of other houses including the Chief's house which apart from a small bedding area was completely empty.

Some of the village homes

The chiefs house

It was while walking that we met Setimile who is the village kindergarten teacher. We traded a few bits and pieces and she asked us to return the following morning to meet her children. After yet another sleepless night we returned to the village and visited the kindergarten. The children performed a Meke for us (singing and dancing). These 3-5 year olds were delightful. But there is so little money in the villages for any toys etc and so much empasis is placed on rote learning and visual recall. We had a lot of fun as the children delighted in having their photo taken and then rushing round to see themselves on the screen. We promised to print the photos and send them to the kindergarten.
As the forecast was for lighter winds and our next stop was known to be uncomfortable in strong winds, we headed to the northern most island of Yasawa. Our destination was Sawa-I-Lau which is famous for the huge limestone caves.

Nabukeru Village Sawa-I-Lau

We visited the village of Nabukeru to present Sevusevu and after this met a very pleasant lady, Vaseti who welcomed us in to her home. She was making a huge flax mat for the house. These need replacing every year and are made in the lady's spare time. Vaseti was being helped by her mother-in-law, Louisa.

Vaseti, Mary & Louisa

Making the mat

With great amusement they showed me how the weaving is done and the process for dying the colours in to the fibre. The preparation of the flax is very involved and time consuming. Once again we were asked to take photos and print them on our computer. It seems well known that all (ha ha) yachts have these gadgets. We said we would do them that night and bring them back in the morning before visiting the caves. We were told that 8AM would be a good time to return only to find that breakfast had been prepared for us to have with the family. The village paster was there too. Our breakfast consisted of tea and boiled taro and we felt very privileged to be part of it.

Sunset at Sawa-I-Lau

Vuda to Blue Lagoon

2008-10-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

After what seemed like a quick flight, (had a good book to read) we arrived at Nadi and were soon in the taxi and on our way back to the boat. No problems there, in fact the boat seemed a lot cleaner than it usually did on our return. The reason for that was that there had been a torrential rain fall the day before our return. That was great for us, although Tony did give Windspirit another good wash. On Friday we headed up to Lautoka and restocked our dwindling food supply, especially fresh fruit and vegetables and then on Saturday morning we left Vuda and had a short trip up to Saweni Bay where we had a few chores in store for us before heading to the Yasawa Islands, about thirty miles to the west of Viti Levu.

Waya, the southern most island of the Yasawas

All plans had to be put on hold because the weather forecast was for a trough to pass over the group and so we were not able to leave Saweni until the morning of the 29 September when the weather moderated. We had a pleasant motor sail to Cuvu Bay at the southern end of Naviti Island. Although not totally sheltered from the South East trade winds, we spent a comfortable night tucked in close to the beach. We even managed to take a pleasant swim and snorkel on the reef. On swimming back to the boat we had to swim through what looked like fine white threads. Unfortunately, where they touched the skin, we had small stings. Not that they were very painful, but uncomfortable. By night time the sensation had gone away. Perhaps they were some form of jelly fish.

Small Islet on the East of Naviti

The next morning, Tuesday, the weather forecast was for strong South Easterlies and we felt that it would not be wise to stay on a lee shore. Therefore, we up anchored and headed north, inside the outer reef, through the Nailavalava Passage and in to beautiful Vunayawa Bay at the north end of Naviti, where we hoped to stay for a while to explore. However, that was not to be as the wind did a spin and ended up from the North East, in to the bay. However the seas were coming from the other direction still and we ended up having a sleepless and very uncomfortable night. It was so rolly that it was impossible to do anything, including cooking. We went to bed early but then had to keep checking the anchor. Oh the joys of sailing!. We stayed two nights without even going ashore and as soon as the weather moderated we headed to Blue Lagoon, location of the two movies of the same name. What a beautiful spot. No wonder that movies were made here. We anchored north of the area where the Blue Lagoon Cruises have their allocated private beach and settled down for some rest.

The Riff Raff we need to share our anchorage with.

Our walk along the shore at Blue Lagoon

We had been having problems with the anchor winch that was only four years old and well maintained. It had cut out a few times and then restarted but now it has only half power. So Tony has been spending some time stripping and cleaning the terminals etc. Until we use it again we are not sure if that has done the trick or if he needs to take more drastic action.

A view from the top showing the narrow passages

Yesterday we went ashore and had a really long walk, the first for ages around Nanuya-Sewa Island. We started by walking around the northern end of the bay and then did some cross-country, steep walking until we found a path along the ridge of the island. The views were amazing.

A view from the top again- inside Blue Lagoon

The Eastern side of Nanuya-Sewa Island.

We could see for miles and also could see all the reefs. Pity they are not so clear when in the boat. It is quite frightening to be close to the reefs and they are very hard if you touch. We try to stay well away from them. On our walk we passed a communications tower. Knowing we did not have cell phone service we had not tried to clear our emails. But seeing this tower we decided to try when we got back to the boat. We have been using Mobile Connect, a telecom service, since arriving in Fiji, and were amazed to find that even in this remote spot we have full internet service. It is hard to stay remote in Fiji.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, that meant that Tony could catch up on his work emails too and so he has spent almost all of today working. That was not exactly planned for this time away but he must not neglect his clients if he can help it. However, he has now caught up on all his work and can rest with a clear conscience. The timing was right though because we have had really strong winds since yesterday afternoon and would not have wanted to leave the boat on anchor without us being here. We are thrilled with our Rocna anchor which we bought not long before leaving NZ and have not had any problems with dragging anchors. Touch Wood!
Yesterday afternoon the local supply ship arrived with it's cargo. We were amazed to see that there were thirteen 44 gallon drums of diesel aboard and they were dumped in to the sea to float for the long boats to collect, tie up and drag to shore. It was a very difficult task for the workers because it was very windy and it took over an hour to bring the last one to shore, given the offshore strong wind. When the ship arrived and held station just off the shore many long boats arrived and people clambered aboard obviously finding their goods. The ship was packed in an unbelievably untidy way. Bags and boxes were just dumped on top of one another. It is amazing that the people managed to find their own gear, if they did!

The Supply ship with diesel tanks ready to be floated ashore

Like bees to a honey pot

Tomorrow we want to get out in the dinghy for a decent look around and hopefully do some snorkelling. We have been told that it is not only beautiful above the water, but also below.

Dad's 90th Birthday

2008-09-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

Alleyn McCarthy b. 24/09/1918

A Yummy Black Forest Birthday Cake

From Left. Isabella, Naomi, Dad,Rowena, June (Nana) and Mary

It was very sad to see Mary's Dad looking so old and lacking in heart. He is very tired now and does not have the energy to do anything except sit in his chair. But we all had a lovely lunch which was organised by Rowena. It was great that Naomi managed to get the afternoon off work so that she could come with us. Dad was in better spirits after we had all made a big fuss of him and June had a lot of fun too. She just loves Isabella. We hated leaving them as we can not guess how long Dad will be with us. We go back to Fiji today and will not be back to see them until sometime in Nov. June is managing very well and caring for Dad really well. She has a very hard row to hoe now but does it all graciously.
Stephen, Rochella and the boys are visiting them this weekend and so they will have some other visitors. Stephen had to cancel the trip he had planned for yesterday because we had a case in the high court which could not be changed. However it may word out better that they visit seperately.
We flew up from Wellington this morning and are now in the lounge awaiting our flight to Fiji at 1PM.

Back to the garden of the sleeping Giant

2008-09-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

Rowena

Beautiful Bella Playing with the stones.

On Wednesday Tony had to head back to NZ for work. We took the boat back to Vuda Point and Mary, Rowena and Naomi stayed for a further three days, flying out of Fiji on Saturday, Rowena and Isabella to Wellington and Mary to Auckland. We spent those days lazily doing some laundry etc, swimming in the pool at 1st Landing, shopping in Nadi and visiting the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. While at Nadi we visited the Hindi Temple. A number of years ago Rowena had spent some time in Northern India and so she was very interested in the temple. We were lucky because the priest there took a real liking to Isabella, playing with her for ages and explaining the paintings and his beliefs with Rowena. Everone there loved Rowena's dreadlocks. Aparently very religious people have them in India and so they assumed that Rowena was one of them. We then did some shopping before catching the bus back to Vuda. Poor Isabella was exhausted after that expedition. On Friday we made a picnic lunch and took it to the gardens. It was a great day because it was a little overcast and not too hot. Isabella had a great time wandering around and picking up stones and leaves. She picked up a long seed pod and chewed it and was very angry when we took it away from her. It wasn't until we were driving back to Vuda in the taxi that Abdul explained to us that the pods were tamerind and perfectly safe to eat. There are several trees at vuda and so Rowena and I tried chewing the pods. They were delicious, tasting of across between raisins and dates. No wonder Bellla loved them.
We packed up and left the boat at 7.30 on Saturday morning. Then Tony picked me up from the airport in Auckland. We stayed there until Tuesday afternoon and caught the plane to Wellington so that we could be there Dad's birthday.

Bella Visits Fiji

2008-09-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Rusila, Staff member at Musket Cove with the small celebrity

Isabella enjoying the freedom of Musket Cove

Walking about the deck in safety

Bath and cooling down time

Bella in the lifejacket ready for her dinghy ride

Well, as can been seen from the photos, Isabella settled in to living the cruising life. She has been on the boat many times before and so the transition was fairly easy, although she did struggle with sleeping in the heat. Tony had to install a fan above her bunk to cool her down. Fortunately he had a spare fan and it did not take long to install. Poor Rowena did not have the benefit of such a luxury in her cabin, but she did sleep the furthest from Isabella's bed and so that when she cried in the night, it was her Grandma or Oupa who got up.
Rowena and Isabella arrived on Sunday evening and were delivered to the boat by Abdul, our regular taxi driver. The next morning we all got up early and caught the 7.30 bus in to Lautoka so that we could stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. Rowena loved the market and shopping even though it was extremely hot. She and Tony took turns at carrying Isabella in the baby back pack. We had decided to catch a taxi back to Vuda, but while walking past the bus station, we found there was a bus just leaving and so we saved several dollars and caught the bus back to the boat. After settling Isabella down for a nap, we left the marina and set off for Musket Cove. We did not want to travel too far with Isabella but planned a holiday at Musket Cove. We had a mooring booked very close to the yacht club and that one was more sheltered than most of the others. The sea can build up there quite quickly and so it was great to be in good shelter and only a short dinghy ride ashore.
Isabella quickly built up her own fan club. Whenever she went to shore she was picked up and cuddled and sometimes taken away for a while, by the staff at the marina. Before long people would say, "Oh, you are Isabella". She was certainly well cared for, even by the male staff. Fijians just love babies and make such a fuss of them.
We spent lots of time in the pool and Bella had a lot of fun. Tony and I tried to take turns of looking after her so that Rowena could have a lot of fun too.
We hired bikes and rode them around the island, went for walks, shopping and coffee breaks. One afternoon Rowena and Tony hired kayaks and went for a tiki tour while Bella and I went for a long swim and then a walk.
One day while we were in the pool, there was a huge downpour. The water in the pool was warm but not the rain. We had to stay in the pool until the rain stopped and we could then get out and dried.

Belated photos

2008-09-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Caleb listening to the ipod

Ethan and Tony having special time together

Pool time at the Radisson

Now that we have a decent internet connection I can finally post these photos taken while Stephen and Rochelle and the boys were visiting Fiji

2008-09-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

The Port of Denerau has changed a lot since we were there four years ago with the addition of a big shopping mall. But apart from that, the area has the normal signs of neglect. It is very expensive for berthing. Little maintenance is done and no rubbish facilities, despite a $5 per day rubbish disposal fee. There is a security service operating but in my mind, fishing off the wharf is not a security chore. It is very noisy and this makes sleeping on board very hard. We made the most of our time there, doing some shopping, eating out at a couple of the restaurants and also viewing the local free cultural show which is on three nights a week in the town centre. It was very enjoyable as there was dancing from around the Pacific. The hula dancing was incredible. Wow! Those women can really shake their hips and it was amusing watching the faces on the males in the audience. There was also fire and knife dancing. They had a good repertoire and involved the audience. The children had a great time.
We left Denerau on Friday morning and sailed back to Saweni Bay for a few quiet days and some boat maintenance. We had a pleasant sail down to the bay but when we furled the mainsail before entering the bay we heard something drop to the deck, which happened to be a long screw. One does not like finding screws lying around because then one has to find where it came from. After a lot of searching, we found another boat part tucked in to the mast. How lucky is that? They had both come from the top of the mast and were part of the swivel for the mainsail. We thought we would need to send Tony aloft but after some consideration, we realised that we just needed to drop the sail and screw the part into the fitting above the sail from deck height. We did this on anchor in calm weather. Tony made sure that he did it very tight.
Tony spent the time here installing the AIS system which we want to have in place for our return journey to NZ. This is a gadget which recognises big ships and lets you know the name of a ship, its course, speed and direction, how far they are from you and whether they are a danger to your course. It interfaces to the newer model Navman chart plotter and needed wires threading etc. Well I can report that it definitely works because I saw a big tanker coming in to Lautoka and we checked out all its details. It is quite frightening when off shore to see a ship on the horizon and not know where it is heading. The radar does help of course but doesn’t give all the details. Tony has also spent time catching up on all his work emails. They take a lot of time because the internet service is so slow. He uses a system called UUPlus which get the emails through a lot quicker.
One continual problem with anchoring near the land is the amount of dirt and ash which is in the air and lands on the boat. At the moment our boat is covered in black ash from the smoke stack of the sugar mill at Lautoka as well as all the fires which are deliberately lit to burn off all the weeds and rubbish in the sugar cane fields. We wonder how much these fires are damaging the ozone layer. Some days the whole area is covered in smoke and at night we can always see the red glow of several fires.
Yesterday we had a bit of excitement when a front passed over us. The wind suddenly accelerated to 25-30 knots and the wind turned to an onshore breeze with the waves increasing in height. Two boats in the anchorage dragged their anchors and after several goes at re-anchoring and close encounters with other boats they headed out to sea. We shut all the hatches, tied everything down on deck, checked anchor chain and strop and then kept watch for the three hours or so until it passed. We have only 1.7 metres of water under our keel and are quite close to the beach and so it would have needed quick work to get the motor going if we had dragged. But our trusty Rocna anchor held firmly. After a brief period of heavy rain, our first in about six weeks, the wind did a 180’ shift and we were again facing in to the bay. The waves took a while longer to settle but by night all was calm again. At Saweni Bay there are protective reefs from each side of the bay so you have to be fairly close to the shore to be inside the reefs.
Today we will head in to Vuda Point to receive our special guests, our daughter, Rowena and her daughter, Isabella. They fly in from NZ to Nadi at 2PM. Tomorrow we need to go to Lautoka to stock up of fruit and vegs before heading out to the islands.

Denerau

2008-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

This Blog has taken a very long time to get posted because we have had lousey internet service. But at least it is done now.

Well it is easy to work out when the Windspirit Mob are having fun. That is when the blogs don't get written very often.
Before returning to Fiji, Mary flew to Wellington for two nights to visit her Dad and June, his wife. They are really struggling now. Dad turns ninety in September and June will be eighty one in November. But they continue to live in their own home, which is great. We worry about them but would hate to see them lose their independence. Dad has had a couple of blackouts this year resulting in falls which left him with a lot of pain and more importantly they have also knocked his confidence. It is always hard to leave them behind and head north again.
We returned to Fiji on Friday 22 August and it was so good to see Abdul, our friendly taxi driver, waiting at the Airport for us. We were really laden with luggage this time. We had brought our pushchair up, so that it could be available to use for the grandchildren when they visit. Also there were the usual boat spares that were bought and of course, wine, eleven bottles between us. Alcohol is incredibly expensive in Fiji. At the supermarket, a bottle of Gin which one can buy in NZ for about $40 was over $110 Fijian. An average bottle of wine which could be bought in the supermarket in NZ for $10-12 is about $25-30 here. Restaurant prices have an additional premium on this as you would expect.
Windspirit was sitting safely at Vuda but was as usual very dirty from dust and ash. We spent the weekend resting and then doing numerous jobs on the boat, including the normal boat scrub. Tony used the new stainless steel drills which he had bought in Auckland to drill holes in the bow fitting for the pin which is going to be made to hold the anchor snug when we are sailing. We had found that the new 33kg (73lb) Rocna anchor moves and bangs when we hit waves, even though it is well tied down. This pin will prevent that happening. It took Tony a lot of thinking, planning and measuring before he did the drilling. But it looks fine now that it is finished.
We had also bought some new rope which Mary spent a lot of time splicing and fitting it to the dinghy. Our old painter had lasted several years but was looking the worse for wear. This time we made up a bridle arrangement so that it is more secure, rather than just one line. When one does a lot of splicing, the job seems easy but when it is done just occasionally, the rope book, with diagrams is extremely useful. The other jobs which were done while at the marina were the replacement of the faulty capacitor for the genset (it works like a charm now) and gluing new foam on the lazerette hatch covers, which were leaking slightly.
Early on Monday morning we left Vuda and motored to Saweni Bay again. Then once were were sure that the anchor had set, we left the dinghy at the beach and walked to the main road where we wanted to catch a bus to Lautoka. Our fresh fruit and veg's stores were low. We were lucky to be offered a ride by the Postal Delivery Van driver. He dropped us at the main road where we caught the 80 cent bus to Lautoka. We had a successful time at the market and with our bags loaded up, caught a bus which was heading for Nadi. We left the bus at the Saweni Bay turn off but were not so lucky this time and had to walk in the searing heat, the 45 minute walk back to the beach. By the time we got back to the boat we were exhausted but well stocked with food.
We stayed in the comfortable and quiet anchorage at Saweni for several days, the only excitement was when we looked up and noticed that a yacht, which had been in front of us, was now beside us and rapidly drifting towards the reef. We called them on the radio but got no reply and so Tony blasted them with our electric horn. That soon got a response and they let out more anchor chain. The only annoyance for us was that now we had a yacht closer to us than we would have liked. Also they had a noisy wind generator and a very noisy diesel generator and so our quiet anchorage became a loud one. However them's the breaks.
Tony spent several hours reworking the circuit board for the spare auto helm to make it operate with the new hydraulic control system. After some more testing, it does work now but over-steers and we now do search patterns when that is operating. So back to the drawing board for Tony. It will eventually work, we know, and it is only the spare one. But after our experience of sailing from NZ we want to have spares of spares.
On Thursday we had a great sail from Saweni Bay to Denerau, the port of Nadi. The boat just loved the conditions and so did we. Stephen, Rochelle, Caleb and Ethan were due to arrive from NZ at 4PM but their plane was cancelled and they had to go on standby for the 8PM flight. That is pretty hard, sitting at the airport with two children under two and just waiting. They were lucky to get on the flight and had two very tired children but at least they arrived at 11PM. It took them all a couple of days to catch up on sleep though. They are staying at the Radisson Resort on Denerau.
Wow! What a beautiful place, with several pools, restaurants and right on the beach front. They have a two bedroomed apartment there and are staying until Thursday morning. We have been having a wonderful time with them, playing with the boys, babysitting and swimming in the pools. We are so lucky to be able to spend so much time with our grandchildren but by the time they leave we will look forward to a few quiet days before Rowena and Isabella arrive on Sunday to stay with us for two weeks.

Caleb and Ethan ready for a walk

Tripping around with NZ Visitors

2008-08-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

The time with Naomi and Al flew because we were all having such a wonderful time. The weather was perfect all the time they were with us. They left last Saturday but before they left we had three days at Vuda Point so that they could spend some time visiting sites on land.

On Wednesday Naomi, Al and Mary took the bus in to Lautoka to see the market, shops etc. This very dirty city did not impress Naomi and Al and after a look about and a little bit of shopping we caught a bus back to the main road near Vuda and then hitched a ride in a ute, there being no bus for quite some time.

(Above) Naomi on the bus to Lautoka

(Below) Kava for sale at the Market

Spices for Sale at the market

The next day they were back at the bus stop at 7.30 for a trip in to Nadi. Mary felt that the town was even seedier than it had been four years ago on our last trip. But we did have a pleasant day, buying a few bits and pieces and vegetables from the market and visiting the Hindi temple, (which was extremely interesting), before returning to the boat and for a well-earned swim at the pool at 1^st Landing resort.

The Hindi Temple

On Friday we all decided to visit The Garden of the Sleeping Giant, a glorious, mainly orchard garden near Lautoka, originally created by Raymond Burr, of “Ironside” fame, for those old enough to remember. We had to go by taxi but of course used our tame taxi driver, Abdul. We had taken plenty of water to drink and a packed lunch and were glad of the preparations because we would not have wanted to rush. Naomi and Mary took a huge number of photos because all the flowers were tremendous.

Garden of the Sleeping Giant

We were so thrilled that we had taken the time to go because we had nearly decided not because of the transport difficulties. The gardens were really well set out in a huge valley with beautiful walkways, pools and vistas. They are very well maintained too, which is quite unusual for this country. We returned to the boat tired but happy for the compulsory swim and a drink and that night for half price pizza at the resort.

On Saturday, after Naomi and Al left, we sailed out to Musket Cove for one night and the next morning, as soon as the light was right to see the coral, we headed through the narrow channel, past several small islands and resorts, one of which was Castaway. Then once past Mana Island we headed for Navandra Island just to the south of the Yasawas’.

Navandra Island

This uninhabited island is a favourite for the boaties'. Is is a rolly anchorage but very beautiful, although trying to land the dinghy was a wet and exciting experience. The dinghy was swamped and the beach so steep that we had trouble pulling it up on the shore to drain all the water out. We then had a pleasant walk on the sand over to the other side of the island. The next morning after not a lot of sleep, Tony decided to do a bit of snorkelling while Mary stayed in the dinghy. Although the coral was quite pretty there were not a lot of fish. We then up anchored and had a pleasant sail back to Musket Cove. We trailed a line behind the boat on the way. The sound of the line screaming out was a great sound until we saw the size of the fish jumping and thrashing in the water. We were both quite relieved when it managed to jump free of the hook because we really would not have been able to bring it aboard. It was not a happy fish. Later, we did manage to catch a very nice mackerel which made very good eating for tea that night.

On Tuesday, we had a make and mend day on the boat. Then later in the afternoon we went ashore for a well-earned swim in the pool at the Musket Cove Resort. The water in the lagoon is often not very pleasant to swim in due to the huge amount of floating weed. This is worse on the outgoing tide.

Sandy Cay off Musket Cove

On Wednesday morning we wanted to catch the low tide and visit a sandy cay, which is only visible then. We left the yacht on the mooring and zoomed out to the cay with our snorkelling gear. We anchored the dinghy to the cay and walked out in the shallow water until it was just deep enough to swim. We were amazed at the amount of beautiful coral and the number of multi-coloured tropical fish in the shallow water. It would have been great to have an underwater camera to record the experience. But we don’t.

On Thursday we headed back to Vuda Point, where we left the yacht for a week because we needed to go back to NZ to see the family, enjoy Ethan’s Christening, and for Tony to do his usual stint of monthly meetings. Someone has to earn the cash so that we can do this.

Rochelle, Stephen, Caleb, Ethan and Father Bernie

It was wonderful to see the grandchildren again. Caleb and Ethan have changed so much in the two months since Mary had seen them. The christening went very well and not one baby out of the six baptized, cried. Then we went back to the house for a family and friends' gathering. Unfortunately the plane that the Wellington gang were supposed to arrive on was cancelled at the last moment and so none of them were there. Rowena and Isabella finally did arrive at about 3PM after managing to get on another flight. They were both exhausted when they arrived but quickly picked up after some food and drink. Isabella has also grown a lot and is now walking well and chatting all the time. Some words are recognisable but others are not. It was a tiring but very successful day.

Rowena, Isabella, & Ethan

2008-08-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

Vuda to Musket Cove

White Bougainvillea

Vuda Point Marina

Tony arrived back from NZ on Sunday 20 July. Mary had spent the time he was away doing small jobs on the boat, repairs to the varnish work, washing etc. and also frequenting the pool of the resort which is next to the marina. First Landing allows the yachties to use the facilities for $5 per day. It is lovely and refreshing after the windless heat of the marina. We spent the next couple of days after Tony’s return doing odd jobs, swimming, laundry, and internet travel bookings. These bookings took a whole afternoon because the connection is so slow.

On Wednesday 23^rd we arose early to be outside the Marina and catch the 7.30 bus to Lautoka and then another bus to Suva, a journey of about 4 ½ hours. Three other couples from the yachts joined us. Fortunately this was a modern, comfortable, air-conditioned vehicle. The bus stopped for 20 minutes at Sigatoka, another small city near an area where a lot of foreigners have built homes. We have experienced many toilets over the years but these were the worst we had ever used. But one needs to go, so no use complaining. There were plenty of touts trying to make friends and take you to their stalls at the market.

Suva

Sir Ratu Sukuna Park

We arrived at Suva in time for lunch and found a very nice restaurant selling Mary’s favourite, Pizza. Next was the job of finding somewhere to stay. We found a block of apartments with rooms to let. They were not bad but air-con. Ha! Ha! Yes there was air-conditioning but of course it did not work. Fortunately our room had a ceiling fan, which did help to move the air about. It was very central and we had a great view of the harbour.

Shoe Shiners in Suva

The city of Suva is a mixture of very modern and very old and dilapidated buildings, but was very interesting. We wandered around the shops and early in the evening. Tony, Mary and Heather and Hugh (from the NZ yacht, Pau Hana) caught a taxi to the Royal Suva Yacht Club. The name appears grand and in its hey day would have been THE place to be seen. It is still a fun place to catch up with cruisers and drinks are reasonably cheap. Alcoholic drinks are generally very expensive in Fiji. There was a Chinese Restaurant adjacent and a group of about 12 of us enjoyed a good meal and good company there. We spent the next day on a walking tour of the city, guided by our Lonely Planet book and that night had dinner with friends at a place which would compare favourably with restaurants in NZ.

Dinner in Suva

It was call Bad Dog and the pictures on the windows were exactly the same as our Red Dog restaurants. Wouldn’t get away with that in NZ!

Catholic Cathedral Suva

We caught the bus back to Lautoka the next morning. This was an old rattle trap affair, no air-con and the passengers were packed in like sardines. It seemed a very long trip with a few turn-offs through small villages. We were very pleased to get back to the comfort of our own home.

Naomi and Alastair’s visit

The next day, Saturday, we took a bus in to the big Saturday market in Lautoka for a stock up of fruit, veg and beer before Naomi and Al came. We were concerned they would not be able to fly due to the severe storms battering NZ but luckily they were on a direct flight from Wellington and the storm had not reached there yet. We were thrilled to see the taxi arrive with our special guests. We chatted long into the night. We did have one minor disaster. While Naomi was struggling to climb on to the boat, her glasses slipped off her face and disappeared in to the water. Next morning, good old Dad put on his snorkeling gear and dived into the disgusting brew under the boat and actually found them. She was a very lucky and happy woman. Although it is referred to as a marina, there are no floating pontoons.

Musket Cove (yachtie heaven)

On Sunday morning, between rain squalls (perhaps brought up from NZ by you-know-who), we scrubbed the two weeks worth of bird poop and dirt from the cane fields off the boat and filled the water tanks before packing up and leaving the marina. We headed out to a 4-7 knot breeze and had to motor about ten miles to Musket Cove, where we entered that idyllic place and knew that our real holiday had begun. Work on the boat and Tony’s business still had to get done but interspersed with rest and relaxation.

Cycling Through the Coconut Plantation

We spent seven nights at Musket Cove. As lifetime members of the Yacht Club we had full use of all the facilities at the resort. There is a glorious swimming pool where we spent a lot of time. We hired bikes twice and cycled around the island taking in all the sights and getting some much needed exercise, before collapsing into the pool again. We also went for several walks, especially where it was too hard to cycle up the hills, and did some good snorkeling off the reef.

Island Cruising Association

The Island Cruising Association regatta fleet left on Saturday morning for Vanuatu and so there were several days of fun and games and dinners planned for the members. As members of ICA, although not going on the regatta to Vanuatu, we were invited to partake in these events. They arranged a 9-hole Ambrose golf tournament, which Al and Tony entered with another cruising couple. The course was par 34 and they achieved 40.

Alastair playing a perfect shot

We had dinner one night at the Island Bar with the group. Here, people bring and cook their own meat and you buy a salad, baked potato and garlic bread for $7. It was really good too! The BBQs are available every night and drinks are about $4 each.

The Island Bar

On Thursday night we all went up to the restaurant and had pig-on-a-spit roast (Naomi had fish and made a very good choice). We had a lot of fun and after dinner the Fijian’s put on a song and dance show.

Robinson Crusoe Island

Mary on Fiji Time

We had a prediction of calm weather for a few days and so early on Sunday morning we dropped the mooring and headed out of the sheltered waters of the harbour, through Navula Passage and out to sea. We motor-sailed, eight miles East to a break in the reef which was the entrance needed to visit Robinson Crusoe Island Resort, aka Likuri Island.. We called the resort up on the radio and a long boat came out to guide us through the reef to where we needed to anchor. At low tide we have one metre under our keel, such a change from the deep anchorages that we are used to here in Fiji. It is sheltered by the island from the prevailing South Westerlies. This is a back to nature, back-packers resort, not at all like Musket Cove, but a fun place to be, especially for Naomi and Al.

Bure Accommodation at Robinson Crusoe

One of the directors, Kaz met us and showed us the ropes. It is $1 for lifetime membership of the boat to the club and all meals are $10 per head. Naturally we had lunch and after the lunch the local Fijians put on a show, with dancing, knife-throwing and fire-dancing. It was very impressive. However, we found out later that instead of using Kerosene for the fire, they were using two stroke premix petrol. No wonder it worked so well but how dangerous. That night Naomi and Al went back to the island for songs over a bonfire. They had a lot of fun and quite a few drinks before coming back for a well earned sleep.

This morning we went on the resort snorkelling tour (free) in a boat outside the reef. We were quite disappointed though because the water was too deep to see very much other than about six sharks down deep. Nonetheless we could not complain about the price. We have had much better snorkelling in other places.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a good breeze and we will head back to the Nadi-Lautoka area. Naomi and Al fly out on Saturday and we want to take them to Lautoka and Nadi to see the towns before then.

Vuda Point Marina 17 July

2008-07-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Entering Vuda Point Through Reef

Looking out of Marina

Looking in to Vuda Point Marina

On Monday we reluctantly up anchored from Sawini Bay and motored the few miles around the corner to Vuda Point. This is a land-locked marina and a great place to safely leave the boat. Tony was leaving for his usual monthly trip to NZ and Mary, who needed to stay in Fiji, wanted to be in a safe anchorage. Vuda is unlike any marina to be found in NZ. Basically it is like a giant, circular, swimming pool dug out of the ground and concreted. Then the external reef has been blasted and the whole area flooded. So it is tidal. The boats are placed bow in to the wall and tied with mooring ropes, which need to be adjusted so that they are loose enough for any state of the tide. Then ropes are attached to mooring buoys at the stern. The boats are only separated by fenders and so the inhabitants of the boats have to be friendly to each other because they are so close. There is a wooden platform at the end of the concrete wall. This is not floating and so it can be quite difficult getting on and off the boat, depending on the state of the tide. However, it is very sheltered from the prevailing winds and no waves. It is also a convenient place for getting to and from the airport and for shopping in Lautoka, a F$30 roundtrip.

Moorings. Windspirit in Foreground

The problem here is that there are flying cockroaches which need to be kept out of the boat. The other is that there are some cheeky little birds which live in the sugar plantations and fly right in to the boats to steal fruit. So insect screens need to be kept in place. We are pleased that we bought sun filter sides for our bimini and that keeps a lot of the pests out. But we have to close up the boat when we are not inside.

Tony spent the day working on the boat and removing the offending steering pump so that he could take it back to NZ. Mary did loads of washing and washed down the boat. It is great to have a unlimited water supply.

Just before Tony left to catch his flight, he went to get his trousers out of his wardrobe and found to his dismay that everything in there was covered in mildew. What a bummer!. So after he left, Mary spent the day washing all the wet weather gear, which must have had some salt on them and held the moisture, and also washed out the wardrobe with bleach. The dampness is a real problem.

There is a resort next to the marina, First Landing and for F$5 per day, casuals can use the swimming pool. This will be well utilized over the next few days by the 1^st Mate. Also lots of reading shall be done.

Makongai to Lautoka

2008-07-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Makongai

Our overnight trip to Makongai was not pleasant. The wind varied in strength from 20-25 knots, and direction, from on the nose to up our stern. It was impossible to sail and though we tried, we ended up motoring most of the way. It was a very dark night, with no moon, punctuated by lightning in all directions and quite a bit of rain. We were very pleased to finally get in to the glorious bay at Makongai. But before having a well-earned rest, we had to visit the leader of the village and make our Sevusevu (offering of Yangona/kava). This offer was accepted and fortunately we were not asked to partake of the kava, which has a slightly muddy taste and leaves a numb feeling on the tongue and lips. Tony was asked if he could fix a light in the house. That was not too difficult for Tony.

This island is government owned and was, until 1969, a leper colony, when it was closed down and then became a government research facility. We took a tour of the old ruins but there is not much left except the jail and graveyard. However it was interesting. There are only four families in the village but there were a very large number of children. So the fertility rate must be high. The villagers all seemed pretty healthy. We wished we had taken our camera ashore because we saw a man pulling a baby along the ground in what would appear to be a trolley. However, it was a rectangular plastic container cut in half with no wheels pulled by a string, much like a sled. The baby looked perfectly happy. We have not seen one pram or pushchair since arriving in Fiji. We also saw a giant clam nursery and a tank with five baby turtles in it. Once the clams and turtles get to a decent size they are released to the ocean. Very little money has been available for any of this work since the Fiji coup and so the facilities are very neglected.

We had a great time snorkelling in the bay. It is amazing the size of some of the clams. Apparently the Japanese are very partial to the muscle, which sometimes weighs about five kilograms. Not far from the shore we saw several old hospital iron beds under water. Guess that is one way of dispensing of unwanted items!

We had planned on leaving that day and travelling to Levuka but with a wind warning out and rough seas, we decided to stay put. Levuka is the original capital of Fiji and is said to be like Fiji was fifty years ago.

The next day, Monday 7 July, the weather was worse with predicted winds of SE, 25-30 knots average, with gusts to 40 knots, which was forecast to get a bit worse and last at least a week. Given the deterioration of the weather we had to regretfully forsake our visit to Levuka and plan a rough but largely downwind sail over the top of Ovalau (the island where Levuka is situated) and head westward. We contacted the catamaran, Emmanuel, which had left a couple of hours earlier and they informed us that the forecast was correct but that they were coping OK. After an “exciting” trip we reached the island of Naigani where we were able to get shelter from the worst of the wind and also the seas were calmer inside the reef. The skipper was finally enjoying the vacation but the first mate was struggling. We had decided to have a swim but the sea was still rough and did not look inviting. So we had an anchor dram and a rest. We set the anchor watch and did not get much sleep that night.

The next morning, Wednesday we set off early into much the same conditions as the previous day in the company of Clint and Adair on Emmanuel (47ft catamaran), but the time in unsheltered waters was less and after about two hours we sailed in to the moderately sheltered reef area which surrounds the main island of Veti Levu. The trip across the top of Veti Levu is a little over 100 miles. We did this over three days as it is necessary to travel between 9:30 am and 3:30pm in order to be able to see the reefs, finally arriving at Lautoka on Friday 11 July, in time to clear customs. We were very appreciative of the many GPS positions which gave clear runs for us through the reefs on our trip which we supplemented with visual navigation as the clearance from some of the reefs is not much! The charts are not accurate and these positions helped us tremendously. Apologies to all those traditional sailors.

Millionaire Territory North of Lautoka

Lautoka, with a population of 43,274 is the second largest city in Fiji and is not a very pleasant place to anchor, but regulations must be followed. The sugar mill, which has been operating there since 1903 belches smoke and soot continually and makes a terrible mess on the boats. We were pleased to leave there as soon as we could and headed five miles SE to the beautiful, sheltered Sawini Bay where we dropped anchor. We slept so well after our long and stressful passage.

Lautoka

Rabi Island and Stay

2008-07-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Usual Form of Transport Rabi Style

Friday 4 July 2008

On Wednesday 2 July we decided it was time to move on and set sail for Rabi, an island to the north of Vanua Levu. The British Government bought this island after WW.II, for the Banabans who came from Ocean Island in Kiribati. Their island had been desecrated from the phosphate boom. The population is now about 4500 people living in four villages. Their language is Banaban and not Fijian although the island is administered by Fiji. We anchored in beautiful Katherine Bay on the south coast and within minutes an outrigger canoe arrived and the local invited us to his house to drink kava. We had an interesting afternoon with them. Fortunately there was a young lady there who spoke reasonably good English because our Banaban consists of two words, hello and thank you. Those two words are not enough to have a good conversation. However, people did have a little English too.

Cooking The Rabi Way

The Bus and Road

The next day we needed to visit the town of Nuku where we needed to check in with the local police. This turned out to be an all day affair. First, we had to motor out dinghy over to the shore and bring it up on the bank to make it safe for the day. Then we had to get a ride on a long boat to the other shore of the bay. This was necessary because the road to the village had been washed out and can’t be repaired until earth moving equipment can be brought to the island from the mainland on a barge. Nothing happens quickly here. The power line to the village has been down for over six months now. After the

boat ride there was a short walk up to the road where we boarded a flatbed truck, which had been converted to a bus. This truck carried as many people as it needed. At times there were over 40 people, without counting babies on the ‘bus’. The road was unbelievably bad with ruts and mud and fords. The trip took 1½ hours to travel about 5-6 miles. We finally arrived at Nuku, saw the police and filled out the required form. Then we had 1½ hours to kill. There is certainly not much to do and so we went for a walk, looking at the houses, gardens and hospital before finally catching the very full truck back to our boat. By the time we arrived back we were sore, dirty and very tired.

Today, 4 July we will have a quiet morning and then do all the preparations for our trip back to the south coast of Vanua Levu and an overnight voyage to the island of Makongai where we plan to stay a couple of days before heading for Levuka, the old capital of Fiji. We have been told that there is some very good snorkelling at Makongai and also a lot of turtles. We are also looking forward to visiting Levuka where we need to check in with Customs. We don’t want to arrive there on a Sunday or we would need to pay Customs overtime rates.

Cats, Coconuts and Machete in Kitchen

Fawn Harbour to Viani Bay 29 June

2008-06-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

We woke to a still, sunny day. The weather forecast was not favourable for a few days and so we decided to leave Fawn Harbour and make our way down to Viani Bay before the weather deteriorated. We had to motor all the way because there was no wind but that was preferable to bashing in to a head wind. The trip was about 20 miles, less if we could have jumped over the reefs, but it was pleasant. We had flying fish jumping and flying all around us. There must have been some decent fish under there somewhere but, though we trailed a line all the way, we caught not a thing. However, one must not be too greedy. Because it was high tide when we entered Viani Bay, we could see very little of the reefs and were very pleased to have been given accurate GPS way points by some other yachties. Even so, it is scary entering through the reef. We picked up a mooring down the end of the bay and then had a lovely swim. When the tide dropped we saw that we had gone very close to a shallow patch.

30June. Isabella’s first birthday.

We were invited to go out on the catamaran, 'Key of D', with Truus and Steve and a guide, Jack Fisher, to go snorkeling on the reef. We left and had a pleasant ride on their boat but by the time we had anchored, the wind and waves had picked up and it looked too rough. So we had scones and a cool drink and waited for a while, but then decided to give it a miss for today. It was a shame but there is always another day. So it looks like a lazy day ahead.
We are in a rolley anchorage but the reef keeps the big seas at bay and so all is well.

Savusavu Onward 26 June

2008-06-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

The Airport at Savusavu

Mary on the plane

We returned to Fiji after nine days back in NZ. We had six flights over that time. We left Savusavu by taxi and arrived at the local airport for our flight to Nadi. We flew on a 14 seater plane over the many reefs and then over the highlands of Veti Levu, the main island of Fiji. What a glorious flight that was, with magnificent views. Tony spent the time in NZ rushing from meeting to meeting and Mary enjoyed the time with the grandchildren.

The Views of the reefs from the plane

On our return to Fiji, we were very pleased to see Windspirit sitting on her mooring but not so happy when we opened up the boat to find mildew everywhere. The climate is so hot and damp and so it is a continual problem. So out came the elbow grease and bleach.

We had not filled up with water since leaving NZ at the beginning of May except for the rain which we collected when possible. So before leaving Savusavu we needed to fill the tanks and we would normally have bought water from the wharf, but as there was another boat booked to stay on the wharf for three days, that was a problem. So we had to use jerry cans and load them from the dinghy. We have three, twenty litre containers and had to do multiple trips to the tap. That took most of the morning as we collected 450 litres before the tanks were full, a very tiring task. Then we cleared customs and finally left early afternoon for our three mile trip to the entrance of Savusavu harbour in preparation for the trip the next day.

Next morning we woke early and headed off to Fawn Harbour, a distance of about 30 miles. Initially it appeared that we would have a lot of wind right on the nose and so we set a reef in the main sail and unfurled our stay sail. But the wind gradually died away to about 3-4 knots. So then we had to burn our precious and expensive diesel.

We set our fishing rod in a very scientific manner. It goes something like this.

“Okay, which lure shall we use?”

“Hmm! That glittery one looks good.”

“How far shall we trail it?”

“About that! No! Perhaps a bit further out.”

“Okay. That’ll do.”

Well! Lo and behold about twenty minutes later the reel screams. After lots of winding, we brought a beautiful bright yellow and turquoise Mahimahi on board. It was almost too beautiful to keep but my appetite for fish was too strong and it got the chop. We had both raw fish in coconut cream and fried fish for tea. There is plenty left in the freezer for two more big dinners. Yum!

Mahimahi for dinner

We arrived at Fawn Harbour about 2 PM. We threaded our way through the well marked reef and dropped anchor in 8 metres of water. It was like a mill pond. We were the only yacht in the whole bay. Heaven! It wasn’t long before we shed our clothes and swam in the beautiful cool water.

We also had a motor about in the dinghy before tea to check out the harbour. Most of the coral looked pretty dead but we did see three black and white sea snakes curled up in the shallow water.

Relaxing times

2008-06-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

Savusavu Bay

The courier pack with the hydraulic parts arrived on Wednesday 4th June and we cleared customs on Friday afternoon so we could get off the mooring and have a change of scene while getting the autopilot pumps back in working order.

Once you have officially entered Fiji, you have to clear out with customs when you leave and then enter at the next port of entry relevant to the area of Fiji that you go to. Since we were here last time, the definition of Savusavu harbour appears to have become more restricted as yachts now have to advise customs when they leave Nakama creek, even if just going to Lesiaceva Point which is still within Savusavu bay. We cleared with customs on Friday afternoon and they gave us permission to leave early Sunday morning as we still had some work to do on the steering. We were getting tidied up down below in preparation for leaving when we saw the Police boat patrolling the river and as they came past, Mary heard them say “this is the boat that is leaving early this morning” so we hurriedly started making visible preparations for departure. About twenty minutes later, we saw them coming back in our direction so we quickly started the motor and slipped the mooring!

Savusavu District School. Note colour of Uniform

We anchored just off the Cousteau Dive resort which is located just before the reef at Reef Point, an area which has really good snorkelling. Once we had the steering all operational, we spent some time enjoying the warm water and snorkelling but then had a lot of rainy weather which was good for getting water into our tanks but not much good for snorkelling. We had initially intended going to Fawn Harbour but the wind forecast was for strong E to SE winds which would have made it an uncomfortable slog. Instead we enjoyed a few quiet days by the Point instead, got befriended by Bait, the dive master at Cousteau’s, who popped over most days to chat.

A small Village near Savusavu

The heavy rain was forecast to continue for some days so we later decided to return to Savusavu. We expected problems with anchor retrieval as snorkeling had revealed that the chain had crossed over an old coral bommie a couple of times which we thought may have happened as we could hear the chain growling on coral whenever we swung around. Our tropical anchor retrieval skills soon came back and we got the anchor up with no real problems.

Windspirit is now on a mooring close to the Copra Shed – Savusavu Yacht Club, where we will leave her while we fly back to New Zealand for a week or so. One of the guys from the Copra Shed will run our motor each day to charge the batteries, needed to run the fridge and freezer. We are flying on a small plane from here to Nadi on Monday 16th and arrive in Auckland later that day. Tony has a number of business meetings and we will also catch up with family in Auckland and Wellington. We fly back to Nadi on evening of 23rd, staying the night there and fly back to Savusavu the next morning.

The Lush Forest in the Highlands of Vanua Levu

Some people are having their emails to our winlink address rejected because it operates a white list. You can email us on our normal Windspirit address or text us and we will add you to the white list.

Life at Savusavu

2008-06-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Copra Shed Moorings – Savusavu, Fiji

The moorings in Savusavu are very sheltered and the people at the Copra shed, most helpful and organised. There is a laundry service at a reasonable price, two restaurants and a yacht club and also several shops. Two minutes walk away is the town with many shops and restaurants.

On 27 May, we took the local bus from Savusavu to Labasa, a three hour bumpy and drafty ride in a bus which was probably almost 50 years old and had open sides which was great when it was hot but as the bus travelled over the mountains, became very cold.

Inside the bus – note luggage of weed-eater

Labasa, population about 24,000 is the largest town on Vanua Levu and third largest in Fiji. It is on the north-western side of the mountain range and is about 5 km inland on the Labasa River. The sugar mill was opened in 1894 and has a predominately Indo-Fijian population. It was flooded to a depth of 1.2 m in 2003 Ami but there is no sign of it now. We had an interesting day shopping in the industrial area for steering parts and then wandered through some of the clothing stores and the local market. We bought some Yagona (Kava) which we will need to present as Sevusevu when we wish to visit some of the Fijian villages. About 350g seems to be the going rate for this and in return the villagers must offer full hospitality and take responsibility for the safety of their guests.

Yagona for Sevusevu

We look forward to that experience with a little trepidation. We finally arrived back at the boat at 7.30PM, tired, dusty, hungry and thirsty but pleased to have had the experience.

One morning we heard the sound of much squealing and laughter. When we looked out, this is the sight that we saw. The locals make rafts out of bamboo but this one either had a floatation problem or was overloaded. However, everyone made it to shore, albeit, rather damp.

The temperature at the moment ranges from about 22-30°C and is extremely humid. Sleeping is a real problem but we are adjusting to it. Because the mooring area is up the Nakama creek it would not be sensible to swim due to the pollution caused by no sewerage and general rubbish dumping. So we have not been able to cool off that way. Therefore it was a real treat yesterday to pop the 15HP motor on the dinghy and go for a spin out in to Savusavu Bay and have a swim. The only difficulty with that was the problem of boarding the dinghy from the water. We haven’t done that for a long while and Mary, especially had trouble. Good job no one was near with a camera. It was a whale of a tale but we managed. Next time we will remember to wear fins as they give a good lift.

Our spares have now arrived from NZ which will, hopefully fix the steering, once and for all. Tony has also ordered some more bits and pieces from Labasa. The last order he made was delivered on the local bus. The cost of delivery was $3.00. That is certainly good service. We have also received and installed a new rope clutch for the main halyard which cracked on the way up from NZ.

Tony is now working hard to finish the work so that we can get back to cruising.

The water catcher which Mary and Wendy designed and made in Auckland out of a tarpaulin is working well and we have not needed to attain water from other sources. It is easy to put up at the first sign of rain. However Murphy’s Law prevails though and as soon as the catcher is in place, the rain stops. The forecast for the next couple of days is for 6-8mm over a six hour period and so our tanks should be full if that happens. Hopefully the rain will also cool the temperature a little.

The new look. Tony cooking breakfast

Passage from Opua to Savusavu, Fiji

2008-05-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

We left Opua at 8AM on 6 May with our good friends, Wendy and Warren. They
have done several passages to the Pacific several years ago and so thought
they knew what to expect but probably got more than they expected.

We had three days of ideal weather and seas, SW winds of 15-25 knots and
Windspirit sailed beautifully. We made 150-160 miles a day. None of us had
any issues with seasickness and were able to eat normal meals.

We had a small bird fly in to the cockpit on our third day out, a Welcome
Swallow. He came and went several times but was not interested in any
crumbs, just wanting to have a rest. He flew back and forth on several
occasions.

On the morning of our fourth day out King Neptune decided to give us hell.
The wind picked up to 35 and then 40 knots from the west and the seas
rapidly built up. The bad weather was a result of a deep low over New
Zealand. The weather maps showed three fronts and we experienced each of
these - periods of one to two hours of consistent 42-45 knots with rain.
The boat was taking it all very well until the auto-helm packed up, taking
with it our wheel steering. We were not too concerned about that because we
had an independent hydraulic steering system all set up and ready to go, but
never anticipated that it would only last four hours (electrics affected by
salt water) and leave us wallowing in those rough seas. Also the hydraulic
fluid had leaked everywhere and was impossible to clean up at the time. The
boat was bucking around and very uncomfortable. We were using a very
reefed staysail and a small amount of mainsail (trysail size) and after a
while were able to set up the boat to sail on just those at about 5 knots
and only about 30 degrees off course. We kept that up for two days until
Tony was able to isolate the wheel steering once the weather eased a bit and
we were then able to take turns at wheel steering. The wind settled down to
20 knots average after 2½ days but the seas stayed high and gradually
deceased towards the end of the trip.

It seemed to take forever to get to Savusavu from when we first sighted
land. It took us another two days to get up the coast as we had either too
little or too much wind and needed to do many sail changes but finally
entered Nakama Creek, Savusavu at first light on 11 May, very tired but
happy to get in to sheltered waters.

We had no trouble with customs, immigration, agriculture or health
clearances. We just had to promise not to take anything off the boat in the
way of food etc. The authorities were very good to deal with.

We were all exhausted but spent that day tidying up the essentials and
getting settled in. On 12 May we spent most of the day in the town trying
to find spares etc and also looking in to our Internet options. W&W flew to
Nadi that day where they were staying for a few days before returning to NZ.

Several days were spent cleaning up the boat. The hydraulic fluid has
ruined the carpet and has filtered in to every nook and cranny. We also
took on quite a lot of water in the rough seas and are gradually flushing
and drying out.

Pacific Cruise 2008

2008-04-22T20:08:00.001-07:00

Mary and Tony will be departing Opua bound for Fiji in early May 2008.

2007-04-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

11 October to December 2004

We had a very relaxing stay at Musket cove. Did lots of swimming, snorkelling and socializing. There are some amazing coral reefs and fishes very close to Musket Cove. We were feeling quite sailed out by this time and were ready to have a rest before the long sail home. We also spent over two days cleaning our hull, the second time since leaving NZ. We had applied new antifouling in November last year and it failed allowing an enormous amount of barnacles and marine growth to attach itself to our hull. That was a big disappointment to us and of course we are now having to pursue compensation from the company who supplied us with the product. We will also have to lift the boat out of the water soon and do the job again. Not something we are looking forward to.

We decided that it would be prudent to have one extra person to help us on the return journey to NZ and John Goldsbury from Opua had offered to crew when we met back in May. We contacted John and he was happy to join us. He arrived on 24 October and as the weather pattern looked great for the next week so we cleared customs and immigration the next day. That was no easy feat because it was Saturday. But Tony was able to use his charms, some kava and cigarettes to move mountains.

We cleared Fiji on Sunday, making our way out of the Navula passage on the south west corner of Viti Levu at about 1 PM, immediately running in to short, sharp seas and winds of up to 47 knots, but mainly about 30 - 35 knots. We had a disgusting couple of days, not much food was eaten and we were drenched even in the cockpit, which is not normal for Windspirit. After a couple of days the wind and seas gradually eased we started putting up more and more sail but after three days even they were not helping and we had to motor. Now, we are a yacht and it goes against the grain to motor but when out at sea it is best to get to dry land ASAP before more bad weather arrives and so we motored for nearly three days, finally arriving at Opua at 2 AM.

We were thrilled to have John with us, even though we had a very easy trip back to NZ. He fitted in to our routine really well and he and Tony spent hours chatting. They have so much in common. It is always a worry when you get crew but we picked it right this time. It was a great feeling to tie up and open the bottle of Bubbles that Janet and Colin from Tara Dawn gave us for that special moment. It went down very well. We couldn’t believe that after all those years of dreaming, planning and also lots of hard work, that we had actually done it and in no worse condition than before we left. However we were ready to get back to a real life and job (for a while).

Everyone asks us the same question. Would we do it again? The answer is a definite YES. Despite the hardships and fears we had a superb time and learnt so much about the countries and the people. We don’t know when we will next get the opportunity to go cruising but right now we have embarked on a new adventure.

Just before we left NZ Tony was approached by a head hunter company about applying for a senior role at Industrial Research in Wellington. Well the long and the short of it is that Tony was offered the role, resigned from Navman at the end of July and within three weeks of returning to NZ we had shifted to Wellington to live. Tony has taken up the position of General Manager of Research and Development at Industrial Research Limited. It is the ideal job for him as it draws on all aspects of his qualifications and experience and he is very excited about leading a world class team of around 300 scientists and engineers. IRL head office in Wellington and have offices in Auckland and Christchurch. He will miss Navman where he built the engineering team from 8 to around 200 staff over five years during which the turnover increased thirty fold.

Mary will once again become the boat lackey for a while (she loves it!)and then apply for a part time nursing job early next year. At present we are living in an apartment on the Terrace waiting for the delivery skipper to bring Windspirit to Wellington. We ran out of time and energy and decided to get her professionally delivered when the weather looks right. However since leaving Auckland (we each drove our cars down) the weather over the whole country has been awful and so we have to wait. We have arranged to stay in the apartment until Christmas anyway. We are looking forward to having Spike, the wonder cat, back with us.

Many thanks to Dave Annett of Annett Computer and Navman who hosts our website and has kept the site up to date despite being massively overloaded with his business and development responsibilities.

Many thanks also to Greg Storz and Matthew Laws for their assistance and shore support during our cruise – it is invaluable to have people that will chase things up in the real (?) world for us.

Thanks are also due to the many people that have assisted us in so many ways before, during and after our great adventure. They all have a special place in our hearts – the adventure is not just the trip but the preparation and the people you work with on the journey.

Back to reality
Windspirit left Auckland on Friday 3 December heading for Wellington via the east coast. We have secured a berth at Chaffers marina on the overseas passenger terminal right next to Te Papa museum. Visitors are most welcome. Our mobile numbers are unchanged. Our shore email address is still: windspirit at annett.co.nz

2007-04-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

16 September to 11 October 2004

Our trip to Nadi went very well. While waiting for the bus to go to the main road where we needed to catch the bus to Nadi we were offered a ride by one of the local Fijians. He owned a sand blasting business and we had a very interesting discussion with him about business, politics etc. He actually took us to the Lautoka bus terminal where we could get the bus to Nadi rather than waiting on the side of the road hoping that a bus would stop for us. It is so interesting speaking to the locals whether they be Fijians or Indians. The conversation always turns to politics and of course each culture has a different view. Many locals feel that the majority of Fijians are lazy but that a few have thrown off the hold of kava and done very well for themselves. However most Indians appear to be very hard working but say that they are hampered by the system which prevents them owning land and so they get stung by the high land rentals.

Anyway we had a very pleasant day touring the city of Nadi, which is very much a tourist town. The shops sell mostly souvenirs or Palangi (white people) food and clothing. Lots of touts trying to coax you in to their shop. There is also a small market. We also took an 40 cent bus to have a look at Denerau Island which is about 3 Km from Nadi. This is a totally artificial town of hotels and resorts. Not at all our cup of tea but interesting to look at. There is also and exclusive marina there.

On 20 September we left the boat at Vuda point Marina in safe keeping and flew back to NZ for six days. Our youngest daughter, Naomi was having her graduation from university and as proud parents we needed to be there. We had a great but extremely busy few days, just managing to cope with the cold. We had left Nadi when the temperature was 33'C but it was only 10'C when we arrived in Auckland. Although we often find the temperature in the Pacific overwhelming we think we may have become used to the warmth and will find it hard to keep warm when we return to NZ. We also used the time while in NZ to buy some of the things which we were finding impossible to buy in the islands. Therefore our luggage was very overweight on the way back to Fiji but we were lucky and not charged excess baggage.

We returned to the boat at Vuda Point on 25 September and spent the next couple of days stocking up with fresh fruit and vegs at Lautoka. We also spent a day washing and scrubbing the decks which had become filthy from a combination of leaves, bird droppings and soot (from the burnt sugar cane). Then on 1 October we set sail for Musket Cove on the South Western end of Vitu Levu. We had a pleasant sail in sheltered waters, just like the Hauraki Gulf, arriving at about 3.30 PM in time to see the reefs which we had to negotiate on the way in to the sheltered anchorage. At that stage we had decided that we would stay put for a while and relax.

It is a lovely place and you get the total run of the resort. We are enjoying swimming in the pool. Free use of BBQs and wood provided. A $3 bar runs from 11 am until late. Met up with a couple from Cambridge, NZ, and have had several good snorkelling expeditions with them. We also walked to the top of the island - pretty hard going but fantastic views once we made it. Also had sundowners on a 103 ft yacht - the people we had brought a large mat from Savusavu for. They had arranged for 3 containers of medical supplies to go to the hospital in the Lau group and the mat was the thank you card! What a boat. Two 5 cylinder 25 kw gensets and a 10 cylinder main engine - all Mercedes and immaculate. The boat is like nothing we had been on before. It was designed by Ron Holland.

Been pretty busy at Musket cove as the young Israeli couple next to us had their 9.9 Hp outboard motor fall off the back of the dingy while planing. The casting split across both screw holes for the securing bolts. It was quite a way away from the anchorage so I went to tow her back and ended up with me being boat boy while her husband used by dive gear and bottles to find the motor in 15 metres of water. Took 3 bottles of air over two days. he got it all going with a little help from me.

The bigger drama was a boat called Wayfarer (1936) from Dunedin that dragged her anchor in a blow (up to 41 knots from nowhere after several days of less than 10 knots, lasted about 8 hours) in the middle of the night. We were on anchor watch and saw it drifting past us so called on VHF and used the fog horn. They were in bed, got up but were too late to stop it going on the reef. A lot of the guys in the bay including me spent many hours the next day getting it off with expert help from the Fijian guys that work at the resort - turns out that they have done it many times!

We are trying to take things easy for the next week after which we will be waiting for a suitable weather pattern to sail to New Zealand.

Photos to September 2004

Whales at Nuitaputapu

Fire dancers at Apia

Vailimi - Robert Louis Stevenson's home in Apia

Wallis

Fish market, Upolo

Windspirit at Wallis Island

Police band at Apia

Rainforest on Upolu

Windspirit at Savusavu

Eastern side of Upolu

1 September to 16 September 2004

Samoa to Wallis Island
We arrived in the French territory of Wallis Island after a rather light and boring passage. We had to motor for the last 12 hours. Until then we were flying our multi purpose sail (poleless spinnaker), the first time on our trip and as you can see we finally got the wind behind the beam after 2000 miles of having ahead of the beam. Well after finally arriving at the entrance to Wallis Island the wind suddenly started blowing 20 knots and the seas built up within a very few minutes. The rain started over the island and the visibility dropped and we had trouble distinguishing the markers. After circling around several times and going in close to the reef we almost decided to head straight for Fiji but finally decided to give it a go and headed in to the pass. Apart from shaking in my (Mary)boots ( which I was not wearing ) and getting a huge wave break over the cockpit and dousing us we finally entered the calm waters of the lagoon. Even inside the lagoon the navigation is tricky, although true to French standards, very well marked, compared to all the other countries we have visited on this trip.

Wallis Island
It was nice to find a safe anchorage especially as it blew up more in the night and we would not have wanted to be out at sea. We went to the port and cleared in with the Gendarmery and Douane (customs)and got our passports stamped. They are very informal and don't even visit the boat. Then we want to do some sightseeing and expect stay here until the end of the week. If we had arrived a day later we would not have been able to enter the pass as the wind has been 25 knots since we arrived.

On Wednesday we had a great day ashore at Wallis. We need to know more French but everyone was very friendly and helpful and recognising the odd word helps. We printed off a couple of pages of French-English phrases and could point to them as well. Shopping was a challenge as the labelling is all in French. Bought some Baguettes and croissants as well as some French cheeses, pate and French wine. No trouble hitch hiking around the island. It has been blowing 25 knots since we arrived so a bit tiring on the boat and we do not feel that comfortable leaving the boat.

Wallis to Fiji
The trip to Savusavu, Fiji was a pleasure. We arrived in the river on Monday morning after a three day sail from Wallis Island. We made a seven knot average all the way with no motoring. There was a steady 20 -25 knot breeze and the boat just loved it, although the crew got a bit knocked about and bruised because it is hard to move about on a lively boat. Unfortunately we arrived too late to head in to a safe anchorage and at dusk the wind blew up and the sea state really came up. So we had to spend the night sailing 8 miles in one direction and 8 miles in another direction several times until day break and we were able to head in to harbour. Not good for one's nerves and temper! However it is really lovely here and despite all the information we had received, we had no problems with customs, immigration, etc. They were very pleasant and came out to the boat without us even calling. They even removed their shoes to come on board. Very respectful!

After a great night's sleep last night and were then ready to start exploring the town, looking for bakeries etc. We also visited the local hospital to collect a mat that we will deliver to Whirlwind, a super yacht that donated two shipping containers of medical supplies to the hospital in the Lau group. The mat was made by the ladies of Lomaloma to express their appreciation of his generosity. We expect to catch up with Whirlwind in Musket Cove soon.

Savusavu to Vuda Point
After an early morning departure from Savusavu on Saturday, we spent three days and two nights getting to Vuda Point. It was another annoying trip with the wind on the nose which ever way we went and then we arrived too late to enter the pass (that gains entry to the west side of Vitu Levu) and had to muck about all night again. That can be quite frustrating but it is too dangerous to enter passes when there is not good light and the distances are such that you just don't seem to be able to avoid it. It gave us a chance to play with heaving to, which worked quite well - lay about 70 degrees to the wind and slowly fore reached at 1 knot. Had the reefed staysail and heavily reefed main - wind was only 12-15 knots.

Vuda Point
We arrived at Vuda Point marina on Monday and are well settled in. Nice to have the power plugged in and unlimited water available, and being able to just step off the boat to land. It is not really a marina - each boat goes in bow first and has two bow lines to shore and two stern lines to mooring buoys behind with fenders between you and the boats on either side. It was scary coming in and so shallow and narrow.

We had a lovely time at Vuda Point on Tuesday after we were settled into the marina. It is not a true marina but you can get off your boat over the pullpit and water and power are supplied. There is a resort right next to the marina and for $25 everyone on your boat can use their very nice fresh water pool for a week and are free to use their bar, restaurant etc. We have paid for the pool and will have dinner there one evening - most nights they have special price deals. Last night we chatted to an American couple on their honeymoon staying at the resort and then had a shower and a drink (we have AFDs - Alcohol free days - when on passage)and then had lovely fish and chips with a bottle of Chardonnay (supermarket cheapie but cost $25 here). Then back to the boat and crashed - very deep sleep after two nights at sea doing 3 hours on and 3 hours off with the odd drama to get the other one out of bed.

On Wednesday we caught the local bus (90 cents Fijian for 15 km) to Lautoka where we explored the town and did a little grocery shopping. We had a nice Indian vegetarian snack for morning tea. The main market is very good - great selection of fruit, vegetables and fish. Everyone in Lautoka is very friendly. We only saw one or two other white faces all day - not exactly a tourist trap.

On Friday, we intend to get the bus to Nadi for the day - it is apparently very geared up for the tourists, having the international airport there, but should be interesting.

It is incredibly hot - 33C at 6pm and made worse by the lack of any wind - great for sheltering the boat but hell on the people.

We are looking forward to sailing around this western side of Vitu Levu as it is sheltered from the trade winds and has flat seas as it is largely enclosed by a barrier reef.

2007-04-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

10 to 31 August 2004

Today we were snorkeling with some friends on the reef at Nuiatoputapu, the northern end of Tonga and a dinghy came passed us. They called that there were whales in the bay. Well, we jumped in to our dinghies and raced out of the bay to see three huge humped back whales. There were two adults, about 40 tons each and a baby. It felt like we were right next to them but in reality we were probably about 100 metres away. What an absolutely awesome sight. They must have known we were there because they played, dived out of the water into the air and broached several times. Oh how we wished we had our camera there. We can't stop thinking about them and how huge they were and so friendly. It was scary being close because our dinghy seems so small and they are so big but they never seem to hurt people unless you come across them when they are sleeping.

We are very lucky because we now have some good shots of the whales. They were given to us by an other couple who were in the bay. We will put some photos on the web as soon as we get to civilization, which will now probably be Fiji.

While in the Nuis we visited the local bakery. It is hard to believe how such great bread could be produced in such primitive surroundings. The building was a tin shed. The bread was all hand mixed and kneaded on a large wooden table. There was an earthen oven. To heat the oven they burnt a few small sticks and then heaps of coconut shells. When the oven was hot the embers were shovelled out and then the bread put in to bake.

We left Nuiatoputapu on 16 August and set sail for Samoa, passing several whales on the way. The trip was almost uneventful except for a couple of squalls which, in the daytime, you can see coming and prepare for them. But at night they arrive suddenly and you are not prepared. I cant believe how heavy that rain can be. The good thing is that up here one does not mind getting wet because it is a chance to cool down. The sudden wind changes can be a challenge. At one stage, while trying to reef the sails I (Mary) managed to steer the boat in two full circles before getting back on course. It is a bit like flying blind. At least in a boat you know which way is up!

We were at sea for two nights before arriving at Apia early in the morning of, believe it or not, 17 August (Crossed the date line). It is surprising though, that you can smell the fires of the countries quite a long time before you arrive. Also the rubbish can be seen in the sea about 20 miles off shore. We even saw a drum (musical) floating in the water. After we got to Samoa we saw that the local men use the drums to keep time in rowing their large canoes).

We entered the harbour at Apia after a wee fright. Our GPS gave us the route in to the harbour but our eyes did not like the look of the breakers and eyeball navigation beats the best electronics in the world. I am chief steerer and refused to watch the GPS and so we made a safe passage in to the harbour, instead of over the reef. Oh the temperature of Samoa is really oppressive. It is hard to do anything. But there is so much to do and see that it is essential to accept the sweating and wet clothing and get on with it.

The day we arrived we spent most of the time doing the customs, port authority, dept of health and immigration details. When we fly around the world we don't realize how easy all those formalities are, and cheap. This little lot cost about $100 just to clear in and out Samoa. It is a lot more civilized than Tonga, but a bit too Americanized for my liking due to the proximity of American Samoa. Their navigation markers are back to front (bit scarey that, coming in to port). The Samoans use the American buoyage system of red, right, returning and they drive like maniacs on the wrong side of the road.

While in Apia we met the family of one of our Auckland friends. They are Samoan and have little English. We were fortunate that their daughter and son in law did speak fairly good English which helped. The Samoan people are embarrassingly generous and when you want to repay them the just shrug and say 'It is the Samoan Way!' It is interesting visiting a family's home and having a meal with them and using bits of English and lots of miming. We were even given a tour of the island, all day. We were quite spoilt.

It is impossible to sleep in at Apia harbour because every morning the canoes (40 manpower) practice their rowing at 6 am and before that at 5 am the church bells start ringing. One thing you don't need is an alarm clock. In Tonga it was the roosters and the church bell that woke us up. Then at 7.45 am the police band marched up the main road, raised the flag in the government foreground and marched back to their centre. A bit like changing the guard really.

We had a very enjoyable day at the house of Robert Louis Stevenson. What a beautiful home, especially for the era that he lived and what an interesting life he lived. The Samoans hold his memory in revere and his local name was Tuisetala (story teller). A very rich American has bought the home and made it a museum. He pays for all the upkeep. We even climbed the hill, which took just under and hour, and really steep, especially in the heat of day, up to his grave. The view from there of Apia was grand.

We cleared customs and immigration on Friday 27 August, leaving at 6.30 am on Saturday.

On 31 Aug (after crossing the dateline again) we arrived at the French territory of Wallis Island after a rather light and boring passage. We had to motor for the last 12 hours. Until then we were flying our multi purpose spinnaker, the first time on our trip and as you can see we finally got the wind behind the beam. There is a saying that gentlemen never sail to windward which I guess does not make Tony a gentleman because we managed over 2000 miles before we got the wind behind us. Well after finally arriving at the entrance to Wallis Island the wind suddenly started blowing 20 knots and the seas built up within a very few minutes. The rain started over the island and the visibility dropped and we had trouble distinguishing the markers. After circling around several times and going in close to the reef we almost decided to head straight for Fiji but finally decided to give it a go and headed in to the pass. Apart from shaking in my boots ( which I was not wearing ) and getting a huge wave break over the cockpit and dousing us we finally entered the calm waters of the lagoon. Even inside the lagoon the navigation is tricky, although true to French standards, very well marked, compared to all the other countries we have visited on this trip.

We were pleased to find a safe anchorage especially as it blew up more in the night and we would not have wanted to be out at sea. Today we walked up the road and hitched a ride in to the main village of Mata Utu where we needed to clear in to the Gendarmerie and Douane (customs)and get our passports stamped. They are very informal and don't even visit the boat. We had in interesting trip. My schoolgirl French was really not up to scratch but with help from a page of French/English phrases from a Lonely Planet guide and lots of miming we coped. Actually we had a lot of fun and met a very nice local couple who brought us back to the boat. He is a TV cameraman and she a school teacher. One of the courses she teaches is English, but her English is really only a little better than my French.

We are thinking of staying here 4-5 days before heading to Fiji. We wont have time to go to Futuna Island because we need to get to Fiji in time to get the plane back to NZ for Naomi's graduation.

26 July to 10 August 2004

Whilst waiting for the anchor winch to arrive we went to TePana Island for a few days to attend another cruiser's 50th birthday dinner at the Spanish restaurant there. It was a great evening with the woman of the house doing the flamingo and her husband and sons singing and playing guitar, drums, castanets and tambourines.

The night after the party, there was a huge electrical storm which lit up the sky like day and it went on for over an hour. We were very pleased that we were moored and not out at sea, because it was quite scary. Then to top it off we finally had hail the size of marbles, the first time Tonga has ever had hail, and then it poured down with rain. We even managed to get a couple of photos of the anchorage lit up with the lightening. We disconnected the antennae from our electronics to reduce the possibility of lightning damage.

The anchor winch arrived on the fortnightly container ship service from Auckland. The ship has all its own container loading and unloading facilities. It took less than three hours to clear the winch (two large cartons) and the total charge to customs including wharfage was only T$9.90

A couple of guys from other kiwi boats spent two days helping me fit the winch. Had a few challenges getting it to fit - had to add two layers of 12 mm marine ply on top of the existing plinth to get the underdeck clearance and had to bet some plastic waste pipe and fittings to remodel the chain tube. Only problem now is that Maxwell sent me the wrong chain gypsy wheel despite me giving them accurate (digital vernier) measurements. They have now sent the correct (I hope) wheel to Savusavu for us and we are coping with the one they supplied for now.

We then had several days blobbing out in anchorages that we had been unable to visit with no winch, had a beach BBQ with some friends. We then spend a couple of days getting the boat ready for the next ocean leg to Niuatoputapu group, the most northern group of Tonga. We then cleared customs and headed up to Nuiatoputapu Island where we are presently anchored. Went ashore yesterday and gave the villagers a large Tuna we caught on the way up. We had also caught a Kingfish and that filled up what space we had in the freezer. Today we walked to the other two villages on the island. It is very unaffected by the western world. Only two government buildings (which look like they are about to fall down) have generators. There are a lot of traditional fales made from local materials - straight stems from trees and covered in coconut fronds although a lot of them have incorporated corrugated iron into the lower parts of the walls. There are a number of more normally constructed houses but only to a very basic standard. I had to make a phone call so walked 10 km round trip to the satellite station which has 105 solar panels and used the phone at the counter to call Fiji. Telephone service only came here in 1998.

Sitting on the boat, we look out across the sea to Tafahi Island about 3 miles away - it is a classic volcano island and landing there is a wet business through the swell, with rocks and coral on all sides.

The anchorage mainly has boats from Europe heading to NZ for the cyclone season. There are boats from Germany, Sweden, USA, Canada, Finland, Scotland, Belgium and Australia.

We expect to head for Apia at the end of this week, once the winds are favourable. It is another 160 mile leg which we can do in a day and a half if the wind is suitable.

Photos 3 August 2004

Rowena

Naomi

Sunset at Pangimotu

Friends from Nuapapa

Blue lagoon, Vava'u

Naomi

Local bartering with us at Hunga lagoon

Naomi - Hunga lagoon

Daniel - teacher at Nuapapa

The girls at the Mermaid

Rowena

Tony on local boat

Daniel's boat

17 to 25 July 2004

We packed a lot of things into the last few days that Naomi had with us. We went to Hunga lagoon again, this time getting a mooring on the northern side by the game fishing lodge. The lodge is run by some kiwis that used to do big game charters in the Bay of Islands. It is easily the nicest facility (or building or any kind) that I have seen in Tonga. The day we went ashore, they had landed a 139 kg marlin which they would normally tag and release but a shark took a great bite out of it so it was done for. The lodge give the fish to the local villagers so it does not go to waste.

We have had further sightings of whales, some individually and some in groups. One was lying at the surface and seemed oblivious to our approach on our autopilot steered course. In the end we had to take avoiding action. Even then he did not bother to move but later turned around and dived.

We went to Mariners cave with friends from four other boats (all kiwis that we have got to know). Being as our anchor winch is dead, we went on Pied a Mer who kept station close to the cave entrance while we all went into the cave. The entrance to the cave is underwater (1.2 - 2.5 metres depending in tide state) just along the cliff face of the island. You have to dive down and swim about three metres to get in. It is a bit scary as you are diving into the hole and cannot see where you are going - it is all on trust and a case of mind over matter. Of course once we had done it, it was no problem going in and out. The air pressure goes up and down as the sea level goes up and down with the swell and the atmosphere gets quite misty at times.
We anchored off Kapa Island near Nuku and snorkelled on the best coral we have seen so far, pretty shallow and teeming with a wide variety of brightly coloured fish. Some of the coral was iridescent blue.
On Wednesday we returned to Neiafu so Naomi could get the plane to Nuku'alofa and do some sightseeing down there before flying back to NZ on Saturday. I spent Wednesday and some of Thursday fitting the spare circulation water pump on the Volvo main engine as the seal was leaking. Just as well that I had a reconditioned pump and the puller etc to replace it.

Our anchor winch is totally dead now so we are anchoring in shallow water (is less than 15 metres up here)or getting on a mooring when one is available. We are going to another cruiser's 50th birthday on Tuesday, she has arranged dinner at a Spanish restaurant on TePana island. Looks like there will be at least five boats worth of guests, most of which we know, so promises to be a great evening.

Filled up with water on Friday and got 60 litres of diesel to tide us over until we leave when we will buy duty free diesel (T$1.03 cf $1.56 retail/litre) as we will take on close to 500 litres then. Used some of our water to do several loads of washing yesterday. The washer/drier is great to have on board. We only use the drier if we it is raining - because then we have the water to run the machine. We have caught a lot of water since we got to Tonga but it has not rained in weeks. Friday was only the second time we have put a water hose in the tanks to fill up. Other than that, we have relied on the 1300 litres we took on at Opua and a total of 400 litres put on board in jerry cans, the rest coming from rain.

Hope to take delivery of our new anchor winch on Wednesday (thanks to Matthew for his leg work to make all this happen) and have it fitted by the weekend. Then we will be planning our trip from here to Fiji via Nius, Samoa (where we will visit Roger's in-laws), Wallis and Futuna Islands (where we will have to rely on Mary's rusty school girl French) and then Fiji where we will spend 6-8 weeks before returning to New Zealand.

Temperature at the moment (5pm) is 33 degrees and not much wind to cool us. Got the Hella fans running - great devices, draw almost no current and have a long service life.

2007-04-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

Update 10 July 2004

Naomi arrived today and is with us until 22 July.  This gave a few days
overlap with Rowena who flew to Nuku'alofa today after spending a little
over two weeks with us.  She flew on a 43 year old DC3 which is a unique
experience.  She is spending a couple of days in Nuku'alofa sightseeing
before flying back to NZ.

We all had a great time when she was here.  Saw a whale. We went to
Swallows cave, did some scuba diving, went to a church service and had a
meal with the school teacher of a tiny two roomed school.  The school
was demolished by the 2001 cyclone and the New Zealand government
provided the materials and paid for the labour to build a new school.
There is no power so they have one 36 watt solar panel and a battery
which provides power for the teacher and his family (who live on the
premises) to operate a radio and a light.  There is no lighting in the
classrooms.  Toilets are long drops.

Our anchor winch is beyond repair despite a lot of effort so we have
ordered a new one to come up on the fortnightly cargo ship from
Auckland.  Thanks to various friends in NZ that helped make the
arrangements.  It should be here in 8-9 days time.

We are starting to plan the next stage of our travels.  We will probably
leave Vava'u around the 8 August and go to Samoa via the Niu's and then
to Fiji via Wallis and Futuna Islands.  We were going to also visit
American Samoa but are told that it will cost us US$150 in fees to clear
in and out which is a big expense for a visit of several days.

EPIRB activation (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon)
Had a drama up here a couple of days ago.  On Thursday there were a
couple of pretty unofficial announcements that a 121.5/243 MHz EPIRB
beacon had been detected in the Vava'u area by the NZ satellite
monitoring station.  Everyone was asked to check their EPRIBS which we
did.  Later in the day, they said it was thought to be in the Nuapapu
area which is where we were so we checked again (we have 2 of that
model).  Later that day we moved to Hunga Lagoon.  The next morning
around 7:30 am we heard an aircraft and saw it was an NZ Air Force
Orion.  He did a low turn over the lagoon and then a few sweeps over
Nuapapu, the next island.  He then did a low sweep over the lagoon and
then called all yachts in the lagoon.  I responded and he asked me the
names of the boats in the lagoon - the lagoon is about 4 x 1 miles.  He
then did another low sweep and called me and said that he thought it was
coming from the SE bay and then said he was pretty sure it was from the
ketch.  This was the bay we were in so we volunteered to go over in the
dinghy.  Rowena and I did that.  The people were barely out of bed and
pretty stunned about it all.  Sure enough their EPIRB had fallen off the
shelf and turned itself on.  They were horrified that they had caused
the Orion to fly from Whenuapai to Tonga (1200 nautical miles) because
of their stupid storage.  I hope that they get a bill!  I was later told
that it is likely that the Orion trip was done as a training exercise.
Everyone knows to keep their VHF on channel 16 and yet they did not
monitor it, even when the Orion was flying over them several times.  If
they had heard the earlier announcements, they would have turned it off
and all would have been well.

Photos 10 July 2004

Some new photos from Tony & Mary.

Market at Neiafu

Pigs at Neiafu

Yacht swept ashore and now a houseboat behind the Mermaid

2007-04-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

22 to 28 June 2004

Tuesday 22 June
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent working on the anchor winch which was suffering from being well washed in salt water many times on the trip up from NZ. We also found some time to look around some more and met an American couple off Sea Crane while having dinner at the Mermaid. They are heading from here to Alaska via Samoa and Hawaii from here. It will be their third trip to Alaska on their yacht.

On Thursday we left Neiafu and went to Swallows cave. There are actually 2 caves near each other, both have very clear deep water which is an outstanding blue colour. The sailing guide said that you feel like you are floating in air and that is just what it felt like, with all the rock formations etc below you. I have since read that there is also a dry cave accessible from Swallows cave which we will have to explore when Rowena is with us. We then went to Matamaka Island which is about 10 miles away from Neiafu. It is a well sheltered anchorage on the western side of this narrow sliver of an island. It is reasonably easy to get into other than a narrow gap between two reefs, one of which had a small buoy at its end. As we came closer we saw there was one boat already in the anchorage and it turned out to be some friends of ours from Tauranga who had arrived earlier that day from the Ha'apai group. There boat is called Icy Red and flies a large Lion Red flag and Ian's favourite drink is Lion Red! Their autopilot died just after they left NZ so they have been hand steering for the last 1300 miles and will continue to do so from here to Fiji and on to Queensland.

On Saturday it rained all day and we caught a few hundred litres of lovely fresh rainwater. Good opportunity to do the washing and catch up on some reading and lots of emails. On Sunday we visited the northern village on the island (there is another village on the southern end). The track there was very muddy from the rain and lot of the ground had been broken up by pigs which are everywhere in Tonga. Everywhere you go there are pigs, piglets, dogs, puppies and roosters. The village was very poor with simple run down houses and sheds, no formed paths or power. There are two churches, one being constructed in concrete which served as the cyclone shelter during the last cyclone (2001). A young boy and his sister that we met showed us where their school was and we met Daniel, the head teacher. There are only 2 teachers and 2 classrooms. One classroom has years 1-3 and the other years 4-6. The latter has a total of 18 students.
English is taught as a subject so all Tongans that attend school have at least some English. Schooling is free but not compulsory. They largely follow the NZ education system. The classrooms were wiped out during the 2001 cyclone and NZ provided the materials and expertise to build the new two classroom school. We had brought up three boxes of school text books from NZ but they were for high school so we had already given these to Anna at Pangiamoto Island who will send them to her brother who is the headmaster of the high school at Nuitoputapu Island, 150 miles north of Vava'u. Daniel has invited us to come to their church with Rowena to hear the singing and then have lunch with him and his family. We will be doing this next Sunday. We have already attended a church service at Atata Island and the singing is certainly something special.

On Sunday we slowly got the anchor up after finding that we still had anchor winch problems. It was now pulling the chain in very well but was overheating on the back plate. I had emailed Matthew Laws about this and he phoned Maxwell winches and got some useful information for me confirming that the problem was the thrust washers.
We returned to Neiafu and picked up a mooring again, almost right outside the Mermaid again. I spent several hours on the winch, checking end float and clearances and fitted new thrust washers. Some limited testing indicates that it is working ok but the real test will come when we go to an anchorage and put out 40 -50 metres of chain. I am now fairly confident that it will survive the cruise after which I will buy a new winch.

On Monday, Rowena, our middle child arrived from NZ to spend 2 weeks with us. She brought us essential supplies like cheese, drinking chocolate, gin and some relays for the autopilot. The air service between Nuku'alofa and Vava'u terminated shortly after we arrived in Tonga when Royal Tongan Airlines went bankrupt. About 3 weeks ago a local hotel owner somehow leased a DC3 which is now providing an air service. You can only book in person and must pay in cash. All bookings are simply recorded in an exercise book, not a computer in sight. Anyway I phoned the airline four days before she was due to fly and found that here flight was now leaving at 6 am instead of 6:45 am. Rowena phoned us at 5 am Monday morning from Nuku'alofa to say that the plane was delayed as the airport had no aviation gas on hand and had to send a tanker to the fuel wharf. She eventually arrived at 1pm, five hours late.

Photos 29 June 2004

Jetty at Neiafu

Arriving in Vava'u early morning from Ha'apais

The Mermaid at Neiafu

Windspirit at Neiafu

11 to 22 June 2004

We left Uoleva on Sunday 13th June at 3 pm so we still had suitable light to avoid coral bommies on the way out. The total distance to Neiafu, capital of Vava'u, is 82 nautical miles (1 nautical mile = 1.51 statute miles or 1.85 km). In order to arrive at the beginning of the Vava'u group shortly after daylight, we kept the boat speed down to around 3.5 knots - very easy to know the required speed as the time of arrival shown on the Navman chart plotter is updated continuously. Had a 1-2 metre beam sea and only had about half the genoa rolled out so it was a rolly trip. We stood watches, 3 hours on - 3 hours off. On autopilot all the time. We have seen dolphins several times but no whales yet. The whales are just starting to arrive. People come from afar to do whale watching around here.

We knew that the GPS positions do not correspond with the charts so used radar to measure actual distance off islands etc from which we could be sure of our distance from submerged reefs. The chart plotter is great for knowing roughly where you are so there is not confusion over which island is which.

We arrived in Neiafu harbour around 9 am and picked up a mooring owned by the Mermaid Café which is a local institution. Most of the day was spent finding the customs office (have to get a coastal clearance from Nuku'alofa when leaving for Vava'u), sort out airline bookings on the DC3 service for Rowena, buy some bread and fresh fruit and vegetables. Met several other cruisers we knew from NZ or up here. Had dinner at the Mermaid with a couple off Jorum, another boat from Auckland.

When we were in Neiafu harbour we accurately determined the position of the boat and then applied map shift on the chart plotter which has been very useful. The GPS is approximately 0.16 nautical miles (about 300 metres) out, almost equally divided between latitude and longitude at this reference point. From subsequent cruising around Vava'u it is obvious that the GPS/chart discrepancy varies somewhat but at a second order level.

We had been having problems with our anchor winch overheating and lacking pulling ability so I did some work on the wiring, earthing etc on Tuesday and we generally spent the day tidying up the boat and doing regular maintenance. On Wednesday we went to the local hospital as we had a backpack full of medicines and dressings which Mary had got in NZ at no cost as they were close to date or out of date, or had been opened in error and resealed. The hospital is very basic and they were thrilled to receive the parcel.

On Thursday we explored around Neiafu and around the old harbour (very shallow) and went back to the market. It is very hard to buy fresh produce in Tonga. The shops are pretty basic although there is usually a cooperative shop in most sizeable places which sells tinned foods and basic items. Tinned food is very expensive. We managed to buy some carrots, potatoes and cabbages there. At the market, we bought bananas and pawpaws as well as some chockoes and Pele (bit like a cross between silverbeet and spinach). Bought a pumpkin that was the shape of a long watermelon but just like ours inside. Unfortunately we have not seen them again and are told it is the wrong season now. The market has some nice handcrafts but we are not really into that sort of thing.

We had a guy come out to our boat trying to sell large shells which we were not interested in (not collectors of anything except memories). The general advice is to not buy these shells as a market results in them being killed for selling risking the future viability of the species.

On Friday we went to Port Maurelle for a few days. It is a big well sheltered bay which we shared with two other boats. We snorkeled every day, sometimes more than once. Really beautiful, took some underwater photos on a disposable camera but will have to wait until we get back to NZ to see how they came out. We had a nice walk ashore on the lovely white beach and then along the track inland. The track was not a good idea as it was very muddy, rutted by pigs and heaps of insects. On Monday (21st June) we pulled up the anchor and headed back to Neiafu as the anchor winch was still a problem.

Photos to 16 June 2004

Royal Sunset resort, Atata Island

Atata Island

Fau harbour, Nuku'alofa

Stellite at Luangahu

Mary and Tony

Kelifesea

Report 11 June 2004

We left Ha'afeva Island last Sunday (6th June) as the wind was going to the North and we would not have had any shelter. We sailed with another boat, Stellite from Auckland, to Luangahu Island. We caught a skipjack tuna on the way. The island is uninhabited and is an absolutely classical South Pacific Island, basically a forest of palm trees fringed by a lovely white beach.
What you do not see, unless you are a yachtie and study the charts, is that the reefs surrounding the island are often more than five times the area of the island so navigation is hard work. This island offers a little shelter but the surrounding reefs offer a lot of protection from the swell so you sit with the wind screaming through the rigging in flat water. The entrance to this anchorage was very nerve racking (yet another!) with eyeball navigation from the bow at 2 knots with hand signals to the helmsman (Mary) and the depth sounder showing as little as 800 mm under the keel. Stellite, a steel boat drawing 700 mm less than us gallantly offered to overtake us and take the lead at that stage. He touched some coral going past us and no other problems. You literally have shallow coral bommies within 3-4 metres of you on either side at times.

Once you have anchored in these islands, you need to hop in with your snorkel (and togs) and see that you have anchored in a sandy patch rather than on some coral (which is not good holding and damages the coral) and also check that there are no large coral bommies within swinging distance of your boat. The bonus is that while you are in the water, you can snorkel on the bommies which are teeming with a wide array of brightly coloured reef fish. Have not had a need to scuba yet with such easy snorkeling but we have considered getting the gear on and just sitting on the bottom and watching the fish for a longer period.

There were two other boats in the bay, one we knew and the other we had shared an anchorage with a few nights before. Unfortunately the wind was forecast to shift to the south so we left the next morning and headed to Uoleva Island on Tuesday 8th June. Had a nice easy sail here. It is very well sheltered from the westerly semicircle so we have been able to relax a bit. We invited everyone in the bay (5 boats) to a pot luck dinner on our boat - we smoked the fish and others brought various yummy treats. It was a lovely social evening.

On Wednesday Stellite and ourselves each zoomed up to Pangai in our dinghies with large outboards on. It is about 5 miles, traveling inside the reef so reasonably flat water. It is a bit dodgy taking the big boat in there due to reefs and shallow water. It is a tiny place although it is the capital of the Ha'apai group. One bank, one post office and a telecom office is about it other than a couple of cooperative shops and very poor houses. We bought some bread (usually make our own using the breadmaker), some oranges and some green capsicums - that was all the fresh produce available other than taro.

On Wednesday night we had a meal at the local backpackers "resort". It is very native but a memorable evening - eight of us from four boats were told to arrive at 6:30pm sharp which we did to find the table set and the food set out in the middle. It was in a very basic shed, largely built out of local materials and lit by 2 kerosene lanterns. Had crumbed chicken, curried lamb (all fat and yuck), fried fish and raw fish with rice and breadfruit and caramelized fried bananas (my favourite). Other than the lamb?, very pleasant, all for NZ$10 each.

Yesterday we walked around the island a bit more and had lunch on another boat. Each day there are jobs to do - either maintenance or general chores. Last night it rained heavily all night and we caught 600 litres which filled our tanks (we hold 1300 litres) so Mary now has the washing machine on washing our bedding etc while we have water to spare.

We have plotted a course to Vava'u on the trusty Navman chart plotter (absolutely wonderful instrument and working faultlessly) and will leave here in the next day or two.

The air service from Nuku'alofa to Vava'u has been out of service since mid May but started again yesterday. They have somehow found a DC3 (or DC4 as it has twin rudders) which they have pressed into service. Yesterday I managed to get bookings on it for Rowena, our middle child, so we will not now have to sail back to Nuku'alofa to pick her up when she flies up later this month to spend 2 weeks with us. It is now Friday 11th June.

I am told that the website is getting an average of 12 hits a day so it is worth preparing copy for. Should be able to send a CD of photos by mail next week for the website

Report 11 June 2004

We left Nomuka Iki on Thursday last week after sitting out strong winds for the entire time there with about 8 other boats. Even going to visit people on other boats was a mission - wet weather gear and life jackets to go 200 metres in a nasty choppy sea.

From Nomuka Iki we had about a 30 mile sail to Ha'afeva Island. Had a nice beam reach sail and had a very big fish hook on to the lure but it broke the line before we could reduce the drag. We saw it leaping out of the water 6-8 times - he must have been really mad about getting a lure in his mouth. We were disappointed to not catch him but were a little relieved as I do not know how we would have landed it. Also saw a lot of flying fish - they have lovely coloured bodies and wings - blue and black mainly. I had always thought that they only flew for a few tens of metres but they were flying for 300 + metres, upwind.

We anchored off the west side of Ha'afeva Island. It was a very rolly anchorage because of the spate of SE winds - as noted by Colin Robinson (PCN) in the Tonga guide he lent us. We went ashore and walked around a lot of the island. Were surrounded by lots of children from 5 - 14 years of age that followed us everywhere. Got invited to the home of a family and were offered a plate of bananas to eat. She cooks on wood fire with stones in it to hold the pot, all on a concrete ledge in the kitchen which is a separate building to the living/sleeping building. They eat their meals in the kitchen. The kitchen is surrounded by a fence with step over low barriers at the gateways to keep the pigs out. Self foraging pigs and piglets are everywhere in Tonga, even Nuku'alofa. We managed to buy some bananas, breadfruit and paw paws from them this family but almost impossible to buy vegetables anywhere.

2007-04-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

11 June 2004

We left Nomuka Iki on Thursday last week after sitting out strong winds for the entire time there with about 8 other boats. Even going to visit people on other boats was a mission - wet weather gear and life jackets to go 200 metres in a nasty choppy sea.

From Nomuka Iki we had about a 30 mile sail to Ha'afeva Island. Had a nice beam reach sail and had a very big fish hook on to the lure but it broke the line before we could reduce the drag. We saw it leaping out of the water 6-8 times - he must have been really mad about getting a lure in his mouth. We were disappointed to not catch him but were a little relieved as I do not know how we would have landed it. Also saw a lot of flying fish - they have lovely coloured bodies and wings - blue and black mainly. I had always thought that they only flew for a few tens of metres but they were flying for 300 + metres, upwind.

We anchored off the west side of Ha'afeva Island. It was a very rolly anchorage because of the spate of SE winds - as noted by Colin Robinson (PCN) in the Tonga guide he lent us. We went ashore and walked around a lot of the island. Were surrounded by lots of children from 5 - 14 years of age that followed us everywhere. Got invited to the home of a family and were offered a plate of bananas to eat. She cooks on wood fire with stones in it to hold the pot, all on a concrete ledge in the kitchen which is a separate building to the living/sleeping building. They eat their meals in the kitchen. The kitchen is surrounded by a fence with step over low barriers at the gateways to keep the pigs out. Self foraging pigs and piglets are everywhere in Tonga, even Nuku'alofa. We managed to buy some bananas, breadfruit and paw paws from them this family but almost impossible to buy vegetables anywhere.

2007-04-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

27 May 2004

2007-03-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

New Zealand to Tonga

We have now left Nuku'a lofa and are anchored in a beautiful bay on the Island of Pangaimotu. See www.pangaimotu.to Yesterday we walked round the island and only met 2 people. We were able to slip off our clothes and have a swim with no one else around. The seas are beautifully clear and the colours of the fish are unbelievable.

The other day while we were in Nuku'alofa we went on a day tour with some friends, $30 Tongan each for the full day. Some of the sights were Ho hum but some were magnificent. We saw absolutely beautiful beaches and surf, huge blow holes, flying foxes (actually a form of bat), a
million churches, graveyards and villages. Most villages were filthy with pigs and scrawny dogs running wild. None of the dogs are spayed and are continually pregnant or feeding a litter of puppies. The highlight of our day trip was a visit in to a huge cave just like the Waitomo
caves with stalactites and stalagmites. We were the only people there and the guide took heaps of candles. We navigated through the cave with weak torches and candles until we came to a large underground fresh water pool. The guide dived in to the water with the candles and then
swam around the pool placing candles in strategic places which he lit. We then had a wonderful swim in the pool with only the light of the candles and one tiny opening of natural light from the opening of the cave which was a long way above us and really didn't give any light on
the pool. We did manage to get a couple of photo's but there do not do justice to to experience but serve as reminders thereof.

Today is going to be a new experience for me (Mary) because we are going to go ashore where there is a lovely swing chair and Tony is going to have a go at cutting my hair. Hmmm! Well we don't have any choice and it is that time again. I will also trim his hair and bushy beard. That
is not new to me because I always used to do it when the kids were little and the finances were even smaller. Then we are going to wash all the hair off by snorkeling around a wreck which should be interesting. (Both haircuts went well) We will leave for the Ha'apais in about 2 days, maybe, if the mood takes us.

As you can imagine we are having a wonderful time fulfilling our dream and do not regret any of the hard work and sacrifices it took to get here. Every time I think of our first sight of land after 7 days my heart fills with emotion. It is just an amazing feeling, quite overwhelming.

Mary.

Report 20 May 2004

Thursday 20th May. Nuku'alofa.
We went to the markets this morning - very traditional polynesian marketplace, really interesting, bought some baby bananas, some mangoes, pawpaws and watermelon but some funny looking tomatoes - we think they save the seeds and sow them, got an enormouse basket (made of plaited palm tree fronds) of Kunaras for $4 tongan. Get taxis everywhere for $3 and they are happy to wait for you at each place. Had a taxi this morning for about an hour, from the market to the (only) hardware shop to the only building shop and back to the boat for $10 (about NZ$8). Imported goods are expensive, $4.50 for a can of baked beans, $9.50 for 2 litres of icecream. Only 2 supermarkets in Nuku'alofa (ie all of Tonga), both very small and often run out of things. Had to order eggs for the next day. Went to the bank - bit like Burger Fuel in NZ - you get a number and then watch the LED sign for your turn. There are about 30 seats in rows where you sit and wait. We waited about 15 minutes.

Report 13 May 2004

We are now anchored just off Atata Island and will be spending a few days enjoying the facilities of the Royal Sunset Resort once we have caught up on some sleep. We anchored just less than 7 days after we left Opua marina so had a fast passage - about 1020 nautical miles.

Presently cleaning the boat and ourselves up before customs arrive. We had a great trip but never get more than about 4 hours sleep at a time, typically much less due to crewing the boat, radio, navigation, eating etc.

Tony.

Report 11 May 2004

The weather has not been suitable for sending emails but has improved enough for a short one to go on the website.

We have been close reaching at 40-50 degrees of the wind in 3-4 metre seas, wind speeds 25 -30 with gusts to 35. We set the staysail and reefed the main to the upper spreaders and made good speed. Some of the wind was caused by a low to our east so we changed heading overnight to due north to avoid getting closer to it. By this morning the low had moved enough for us to resume our course to Tonga.

We are typically getting daily runs of 140 - 160 nautical miles and expect to arrive in Tonga this Thursday afternoon. Getting weather faxes and satellite pictures on board and weather looks pretty reasonable for the next 2-3 days.

Tony.

Report 8 May 2004

Good to get your messages. Sorry I can not reply individually because we don't get enough computer time and also it is quite hard typing while the boat is rocking. We are doing very well here. It is our third day out and we have clocked up over 300 miles of the total of about 1000. The weather has been fair and the seas kind so far and we are hoping for more of the same. Well we could do with about another 5 knots of wind but must not complain. The only thing which is a bit off putting is the size of the swells but that just takes a bit of getting used to. When on top of the swell you can see for miles ( just sea, nothing else) and then when you are in the dip you cant see more than about 50 feet. We left Opua in calm weather and had to motor out of the Bay of Islands and then we set sail. For most of the first two days we had to motor sail because there wasn't enough wind to get us far enough away from the next NZ frontal system. The breeze finally built up in the wee hours of this morning and when I went off watch at 6am I managed to help Adam to set the genoa and we turned off the motor. We are now sailing at about 6-7 knots with the wind on the side and ahead of the beam. Beautiful. Clear skies and I am now into wearing shorts again. But at night it is still a bit nippy and so I need my trackpants and sweater.
We have now got in to the rhythm of watches and sleeping odd hours. We are also in to the habit of putting on our harnesses as soon as we get out of bed and clipping on to the safety lines before going in to the cockpit. My watches are 4-6am, midday - 3pm and then 9pm - midnight. But I usually get out of the midday - 3pm watch because I prepare meals and do the motherly thing. I prepare dinner for 5pm when it is still light and then go to bed from 6pm til 9pm. Then I sleep from midnight for 4 hours and then again from about 6am til about 9am.
None of us have so far been seasick ( touch wood) and we feel Ok. I have read a book a day. Tony says I cant keep up that pace. We will run out of books. I will have to get my embroidery out soon.
We haven't caught any fish yet even though I bought a flash new rod and reel and we have it out from dawn to dusk. We don't keep it out at night because it would be a bit tricky to bring in a fish in the dark and also dangerous.
Well I had better get off so that Tony can get a weather fax.

Mary.

Report 7 May 2004

HI Everyone

We left Opua at 9:30 am Thursday and have done 175 miles since then. Light winds and a bit of a sea running so spent quite a bit of time motorsailing yesterday but are now sailing at around 5 knots in the right direction.

We are doing 2 hour watches between midnight and 6 am, then 3 hour watches - Tony - Mary - Adam.
Mary is doing most of the food preparation. Tony is doing the weather info and radio schedules and is on call if the person on watch needs a hand. Adam is on call for Tony when he is on deck. Adam also does some of the galley cleanup.

Looks like a 7-8 day trip, depending on wind speed and direction and how much we motor. We have used 80 litres so far and have about 450 litres left, do about 1.5 nautical miles per litre.

Adam has had the fishing line out during daylight but no fish on the menu yet.
We have not seen another boat since leaving the bay of islands.
We are all feeling well with no signs of seasickness.

Our position is being updated once per day on the link on our website.

Tony.

Report 1 May 2004

This is just a note to say that, even though we were scheduled to leave NZ today, there is a gale warning and northerly winds. Therefore we have chosen to rest and relax at Opua marina until such time as the weather is more favourable. We have finished all the important jobs related to going off-shore but, because it is a boat there are always heaps more jobs for us to do.
Thank you for all the good messages. Please keep them coming. We enjoy hearing from you all.

Tony.

Report 29 April 2004

Windspirit left Bayswater on Sunday late afternoon, spend the night at Kawau Island before leaving at 9 am Monday morning to sail to Russell, arriving at 2:30 am having endured intense rain squalls from Cape Brett to Russell. Windspirit is currently berthed at the Opua marina where Mary and Tony are doing the "last few" jobs while waiting for a suitable weather pattern to head for Tonga. Adam is on call to bus up to meet the boat when the call comes. Long term forecasts are suggesting Monday or Tuesday departure.