and helpful people, the islands range from ordinary to really impressive, and I
think it would take a lot more time than we have this time around to get any
real understanding of the place.
Picking up from the last post here, we motored into the bay towards
Savu Savu to clear into the country. All radio calls were unanswered, until
eventually a cruiser on another boat responded to say that there is no radio
contact with customs or immigration here. You call one of the two marinas and
they fetch and carry the official personnel to the boat, one at a time.
Sure enough a boat came out from one of the marinas and ‘Asera’ hooked
us up to one of their moorings. He could bring out the officials, but they had
just changed to daylight saving so it was already 4:30, not 3:30, and the
overtime charge would be about $250. We decided to sit on the boat until
morning.
At about 8:30 Asera came along side with the first of 3 officials.
All arrived barefoot with loads of forms. They were all naturally warm and friendly,
and all enjoyed tucking into Sandy’s fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!
Savu Savu is a good introduction to Fiji. The town is small but has a basic
supermarket and the usual Indian stores one finds in 3rd world countries.
It took us 2 days to complete the clearing in but we were getting supplies and
planning the trip to Nadi to meet Bek and Anthony. Nadi was also where we
planned to get the generator repaired and the yankee stitched.
The obvious route through Bligh Water was going to need local input because the
reefs and passages form an almost impenetrable barrier.
Enter Curly Carswell, an ancient Kiwi delivery skipper who has lived in Fiji for
decades, and a really colourful character too. People from all over Fiji come to his
lectures on sailing here during the cruising season. He just happens to live on
a houseboat in Savu Savu.
We spent an hour going through his notes and it became clear we would
have to do day hops and anchor each night, travelling a tortuous route inside
many reefs. There was also a very strong wind warning which channels through the
gap between the two big islands and picks up even more speed with a ventury
effect. Even commercial shipping gives this a miss.
We decided to take the longer alternative around the bottom of Viti Levu, the big
island, past Suva and up the west coast to Nadi and Port Denarau.
We left early on the Thursday morning giving the strong wind a chance
to ease and it was a fairly straight forward trip, getting us there on Saturday
just in time to get to the airport to meet Bek and Anthony. We anchored in the
bay and by the time we got back from the airport the wind had whipped up the
water. Bek and Ant got a rough introduction to the sailing life. Both were
decidedly green!
On Sunday morning they got an introduction to the real sailing life
when the windlass switch failed and we couldn’t get the anchor up. Fortunately
it was only a corroded wire and with a bit of ingenuity from Ant, super glue
and a cable tie, we got it working perfectly.
It was a short sail, only a few hours, to Musket Cove on Mololo Lai Lai, but it was
a perfect sail as far as wind and sailing is concerned. Three sails up and doing an
easy 6 knots, but with our passengers still various shades of green.
Ant was doing better than Bek and starting to enjoy it.
The anchorage is deep but good once the reefs have been negotiated. We
always pull the dinghy up on the davits when we sail, but this was only a few
hours so I’d just let it trail on a long line.
Of course when setting the anchor, I never gave the dinghy a thought
and we reversed backed over the line.
Bek and Ant got their next sailing life lesson. The line wrapped around the
prop, jammed in tight and stalled the engine.
Fortunately the anchor had just set.
Ant and I spent the next hour diving with knives and trying to cut away the
line. With the job nearly completed we were exhausted and decided to finish
it the next day.
We all got into the dinghy and went ashore.
The resort is clean and seemed expensive. We had a walk along the beach
and decided $17 for a cocktail was a bit rich, even in Fijian dollars. We
subsequently found their prices to be average to reasonable by Fiji resort
standards.
The next morning we finished clearing the prop in no time, snorkeled
the nearest coral reef, then motored around to an anchorage on the NW side of
the island. We had it to ourselves and the water was clear, plenty of coral to
negotiate to the beach, and in the evening Sandy and Ant were pulling the fish
in, and throwing the colourful little idiots back.
During our research for potential repairers we got some very disturbing
news about Baobab Marine, the generator agents. The list of dissatisfied clients
is long and their blog entries of their experiences, plus local word of mouth,
convinced us we should find alternatives.
One of the alternatives was to talk to Tommy, a building contractor working on the
next island. We arranged to meet him and his mechanic at Musket Cove the next
morning and motored around bright and early.
Reef markers leave a lot to be desired here. If they exist at all they are just a pole or pipe hammered into the coral. Usually you can see them far enough ahead to work out which
side of the pole the reef lies.
Well, I was looking at reefs to avoid on either side and when I looked forward there was a
pole right in front of the boat. I hit reverse and zigged… I should have zagged.
The momentum we already had ran us aground and we were on a falling tide.
Hard reverse wouldn’t budge us and it seemed like only minutes before we were starting
to heel to port.
Boat folk being what they are, it was only a few minutes before ‘Chris’ from Whirlwind
came across in his dinghy, stuck on his goggles and established that we’d be best off going
straight back, not trying the alternative which was to pull the bow around.
Only a few feet of the keel was holding us there.
Unfortunately his outboard motor didn’t have enough power to add to ours.
I called Tommy who we were due to meet in 20 minutes and asked him how far away he was
and what size engine he has.
With the falling tide he was there in 10 minutes with another 130hp!
I had lines ready and we wasted no time in trying to pull us straight back.
Still we didn’t budge.
We took a line from the top of the mast to Chris’s dinghy so he could pull the boat over
on its beam.
It’s a standard refloating technique and has the effect of providing the boat with more
buoyancy from its fatter sides and at the same time lifting the keel a bit.
He didn’t have enough power to get us over.
But another tender arrived with a bigger engine and between them they heeled the
boat about 30 degrees while Tommy and I applied our combined 250hp.
We slid back off the reef perfectly and were soon at anchor as though nothing
had happened.
The interesting thing is, in Bermuda a boat had run aground on a falling tide right in
front of the customs shed. We helped him run lines across to the other side to pull him
over and together with a bunch of other boats got him free.
I guess this is why cruisers are so quick to help a boat in trouble.
It’s a nice culture.
The other interesting thing is, Whirlwind (Chris) was the second biggest and most
valuable boat there, probably a million dollar boat, and the last tender to come over
to help was from Encore, a beautiful, big (140ft) cutter worth $36 million! We actually
saw her in Tahiti so she’s made the same voyage across the Pacific, in a lot more comfort!
I suspect all the helpers were full time crew, but even so, there was no sense of big money
being above helping out.
The next day we took the boat into the Port Denarau Marina. In spite of all the planning,
they didn’t have their line handlers on the dock and we had to do some fancy maneuvering
with a big storm threatening and wind starting to build while they got a couple of guys to
the dock. It was a relief to be securely tied up.
The next few days were spent getting the yankee down and stitched, and having to get a
rigger in to work on the roller furler for the yankee. The swivel drum at the top had jammed
on a joint and we had to cut the yankee free to get it down.
We also had ‘George’ recommended to us and he sorted out the generator in a few hours.
It was a relief to find the generator repair, the rigger, and the sail repair came to a lot less than
we feared it might. Hourly rates here are $65-75 Fijian/hour. That’s about 40-50 Aussie.
The Marina was $55 per day, around $30 Aussie.
The last week has been one of exploring some of the islands of the Mololo, Mamanuca, and lower Yasawa groups. Way too little time and unfortunately in an area that is tourist fatigued.
Many of the resorts do not allow day visitors, even for a look around unless they have been sent
by the sales and marketing teams. We found the traditional Fijians really unhappy with this.
They are by nature so friendly, since they stopped eating visitors!
Sailing conditions have been pathetic so we’ve motored everywhere, usually with no wind at all. Anchorages we’ve picked have been beautiful and calm on arrival, and often change to rolly overnight. We’ve also had our share of uncharted reefs suddenly appearing under the boat too. Areas charted as 20-50 meters… don’t believe them.
We were approaching an anchorage in Yalobi bay and the depth went from 27 meters to 4 in
a boat length. We hit reverse hard and were so glad we weren’t sailing at the time.
Slowly we picked our way through the coral with Sandy on the bowsprit signaling left or right. Yalobi wasn’t the only time either. It can be nerve racking sailing these waters.
Poor Bek and Ant have been ranging from enjoying themselves to seasick a lot of the time.
I guess that’s life on a boat if you’re not used to it. At least they did get to see Modriki Island,
the one where the Tom Hanks movie “Castaway” was filmed.
If he’d just looked at the back of the island he could have been out of there in 20 minutes!
The villages in this part of Fiji have lost a lot of their traditional feel with corrugated iron
and cement block taking the place of traditional materials.
The sevu sevu ‘ceremony’ we were told was so important to them comes across as being a
pain they have to go through to grab the twist of the kava gift we were told to present.
It lacks dignity and is so different to the kava ceremonies I experienced in more remote
areas on previous visits.
But overall it’s been a good time. Right now we’re heading back down to
the anchorage at Mololo Lai Lai again for a last snorkel and bit of fishing, and
tomorrow early we’ll go to Vuda (Vunda) where we’ll drop Bek and Ant off for their taxi ride to the airport, and clear out for the 6 day sail to New Caledonia.
The next stop after that is Brisbane!
Until next time…