Paying Attention to the Wind
In Savusavu
Its 6.00am and I awoke to the sound of a vessel passing us on our port side. Strange as the main channel up to now has been on Zoonie’s starboard side. Have we turned for the first time in 7 days? Indeed we have, so up to now all of us floating vessels have been facing the stronger force of the wind. So that mighty blow really has ceased.
It certainly enlivened the last stage of our arrival. By midday we could clearly see the headland at Lesiaceva Point marking our point of entry to 15 mile wide Savusavu Bay on the shores of which Savusavu rests up the little windswept Nakama Creek. But as I steered to Rob’s pre-marked waypoint it seemed to be putting us well to the west of the land which was the darker and closest of the land layers that lightened the further away they were.
A look at the larger scale paper chart we were now using showed the coral reef extended three miles to the westwards from the headland and on the end was a light tower, so we started looking for that. When I could see it with the naked eye it all became clear.
Three hours later we said goodbye to the big ocean after 1200 miles and entered the bay that is similar to Poole Harbour but maybe a little bigger. The flat reef was just awash and two tree topped islands sat on it. By the darker water we could see our safe passage in and Rob’s waypoints would have seen us safely inside had we arrived in the dark after 5.30pm.
Copra Shed Marina weren’t answering our VHF calls, maybe the land between us was blocking the calls, so we decided to pick up the first available buoy, of which there were a few. Not so now, a week later, as the three marinas here are full with yachts sheltering from the strong wind.
We were secure at 3.45 and at 4.27 the Health and Biosecurity Officers arrived. “How are you feeling?” The young Indian gentleman asked,
“Fine thank you,” and that was personal health done. There were numerous more questions for example the Fijian Lady asked,
“Did you see Waipawa in Minerva, the big motor yacht with the mast?”
“Yes and they flew a drone over us one night.”
“Really, no, that is unacceptable. The skipper is under arrest for concealing ammunition on board. Last year he hid guns and ammunition and got the same treatment.” One shady character in our view. So he gets into trouble concealing guns AND ammo, how does he think he will get away with just ammo and why is he carrying them anyway?
As soon as they left we dropped the yellow practique flag as a signal we were ready for Customs and Immigration. Again a male Indian and female Fijian filling these roles. Both friendly and helpful. Customs guy had a look around, didn’t count the open bottles of gin and Jamieson (phew) and couldn’t believe we had no beer left. He looked into the empty depths of the fridge and felt sorry for us, indeed I think he may have been on the verge of offering to go to the supermarket for us when Immigration lady said, “you were just in time to be checked in today as tomorrow (Friday) is a public holiday and it would have cost you much more to be checked in then”. Four times more in fact. That is why it was fortuitous when I released some of the Genoa to bring up Zoonie’s speed to 8 knots at times. Another hour at sea and we would have had to wait till the next day for clearance on the Youth Sports Day.
“On Monday you must go to all these offices to pay these invoices, we are done could you please call the office for our taxi and welcome to Fiji have a wonderful stay.” They are fiercely ant-corruption here, the officers issue the invoices and take no money at the time. Standing on the afterdeck awaiting their transport they joked on how they had been on Muktuk (who arrived 6 hours before us, so we had made up 18 hours on her) a few minutes ago when the gentleman had a call from his wife to hurry him home with some food offerings they would take to a shrine the next day. “I told her we were on our last boat of the day, but then you came in and I hoped she would not call again so I would have to tell her about another ‘last boat’.” They had missed the last boat back to shore so a few more pumps on the foot pump and we launched the dinghy, lowered down the outboard and Rob motored them ashore.
Then they were gone and we were free to soak up the surroundings and look forward to a normal night’s sleep in our snug after cabin.
I was determined, before the next setting of the sun, to clean most of Brian’s mess of our cherished boat. As you know British vessels flying the red ensign are not allowed to carry arms. That was just as well for Brian because knowing the mess his like can make the next such visitor may not get such a benign welcome.
Every Day is Market Day In Friendly Savusavu
However Saturday is the best and everyone and their dog is there. Buses rumble in to the station next door, pickup trucks offload goods and lots of the deep freezes are open, the owners selling their latest catch of fish. ‘Bula’ is the word of welcome and we used it countless times to smiling faces.
The market bus station area is really the hub of the town and around it are numerous shops including a pawn shop, food kiosks, some with tables and chairs, a DVD store, men’s hairdresser and the Vodafone kiosk, which in itself holds many roles. We used it to buy a local sim card for our NZ modem to get internet on board, also a sim card for Rob’s phone for local calls, essential to arrange our trips and we bought a bus card and loaded it with enough Fiji dollars (around $3fj to the £) to take us at 7.30am one morning to Labasa on the north side of the island for a look see.
There is always a queue outside the Vodafone kiosk and it’s nice to chat with the people while waiting.
Our shopping trolley bulging with fresh local goodies we then bought a couple of colourful sulis to wrap around our waists like a long skirt when we visit the outlying villages in the Lau Group for the Sevusevu ceremony. They also make excellent table cloths.
Rob bought some lovely Fiji made shirts for £10 each and we found the supermarkets which included a NZ New World equivalent to our Waitrose and located some of the restaurants that had been recommended for trying at some stage.
After that successful first sortie into town we enjoyed a drink with Andreas and Birgit in the Club Bar before they joined us onboard for supper.
It was so windy (31 knots on the mooring) on the Sunday our washing dried in no time. Despite warnings that Vodafone are having enormous problems with a major upgrade they are installing Fiji wide, I was able to send photo files on blogs as you can see and emails to friends which was just great.
Our only commitment that day was a seminar on sailing in Fijian waters with Curly Carswell who has been doing it for 44 years. We went because he would know a thing or two. There were about twelve of us and after the first hour of warnings, must dos and must not dos and some pretty startling statistics we were about ready to stay put for the season, safe on our mooring. Joke.
Three or four yachts are lost each year and a charter company named Moorings, whose mooring we used in Tonga, has pulled out of their enterprise in the Yasawa Group on the north side of the main island, Viti Levu because of the cost of repairs to their vessels, all skippered by qualified Yachtmasters, exceeded their profits. Might not be going there then.
Then fortunately Curly went on to tell us in detail where it would be best to go, using islands for protection against the strong SE Tradewinds. Curly used strips of grey ducktape to fix his ancient and well-thumbed charts to the wall and illustrate his routes. We had all taken our charts too so we could mark them if we wished. Starting eastwards, then possibly south into the remote Lau group, then west to the far side of Viti Levu. But first we want to thoroughly explore this island, Vanua Levu before we ‘go cruising’.
As part of our fee Curly provided us with a series of up to date chartlets with his own waypoints on them so we can set up the chartplotter before we leave the safety of our current location. He also wants us to email or phone him to get more waypoint lists for specific areas. He really wants to look after us and help us enjoy our cruising.
Curly has a chandlery and makes his own lures and he also does a radio net every morning at 8.00pm so we cannot complain about lack of local information.
Monday was a fun day. We went ashore to pay the various offices our dues for staying in Fiji and get some shopping. As we came out of the Health Department above the police station there before us in the yard below was a motley group of cuffed male offenders, including, I suspect, the skipper of the Waipawa although I didn’t feel inclined to ask one of the nice young police officers. They all seemed a little pre-occupied. I’d dearly like to know why he was watching us in Minerva.
Feeling in need of some liquid sustenance we went to the Club bar for a beer and met a Paul Newman lookalike named Peter from Washington D C. He prefers to be called Pedro now as when he is at home and not wandering the oceans by himself in his lovely clipper bow ketch, Jade, he resides in La Paz Mexico where he has a shipwright business.
We had a lively discussion about the history of the world, politics, Trump, Reaganomics and numerous other things before returning, somewhat Jaded (!) for a late lunch aboard.
Life in Savusavu
Repairs, Relaxation and Rescue
Pretty much in that order too. When we arrived the auto pilot was not working and the AIS (Automatic Identification System) spasmodically sounded the antenna alarm.
The auto pilot worked perfectly all the way to North Minerva while we were motoring as I may have mentioned, but as soon as we left, nothing. So we tested the electronics on route and they worked fine. We thought it must be the connection from the brains to the ram or from the ram to the steering quadrant that moved the rudder.
Zoonie’s stern deck was soon piled high with ‘stuff’ from the lazarette and Rob disappeared into the depths with his ammeter friend and popped his head up “Barb come and see this”. There languishing on the floor was the ‘curvy grip pin’ that was supposed to hold the ram rod onto the metal steering quadrant plate. We had been mentally preparing ourselves for the cost of a new ram at £3000 when we had already spent £1500 on Barry and Wayne’s ram that we had had serviced in Whangarei. I can tell you it’s not often in our little world that a repair is free and what’s more there was another free repair to come.
Rob took apart the co-ax plug on the AIS to find a single wire looking for a place to go. So Rob found it one and bingo no more antenna fault alarm. Sadly we were mistaken and as of 6th November the AIS is still awaiting repair.
My wizard hubby yesterday serviced the engine finding a large leaf and some barnacles in the cooling water filter which could have presented a problem and together we repaired the dan buoy flag. Using my Pfaff friend I re-stitched the intact outer end onto the nearest sound fabric, ok it’s a little shorter than it was. Then using the sail material from the discarded sail we found at the bins in Whangarei I made a sock for it so it doesn’t flap and Rob attached it back onto the post with two clips.
The port hand of the two big windows at the front of the coach roof has been leaking so Rob is out there re-sealing it with black sealer having masked the glass first. He had to take the dried sealer out of the nozzle of the tube before he could start and I have kept it in the bosun’s box, a small flexible water-tight plug could well have its uses.
Well of course all this hard work and positive results deserve some celebration and relaxation so we have so far visited two nearby bars. The Planters Club with the nice view from its grounds and silhouetted palm trees was set up by plantation owners over a hundred years ago as somewhere to relax, socialise and do business. Copra, cotton, sandalwood and sugar have all been grown and processed here in the past. The marina building is still called the Copra Shed because that is how it started life. Copra and sugar are still important industries here.
The club is a fine building and we sat sipping our beer on the wide veranda but although Curly says the folk are very helpful and informative we were the only couple there so we came away thinking we’d return maybe at the weekend.
Another evening we sat at the street side of the bar opposite the Marina Offices and said “Bula”to everyone as they passed. Then I looked to the left and there was Zoonie in a haze of yellow evening sunlight and just ready for her photo.
Curly’s morning net on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is what he calls a full net and he gives out lots of information about places of interest, good restaurants, services and activities and he had recommended the Surf and Turf Restaurant at the other end of town. It’s where we attended his seminar. So two nights ago we went with Andreas and Birgit for supper. The sauces on the food were amazing. Rob had Cointreau and orange on his snapper and the butter sauce on my Wahu with its herbs and coconut milk was pure nectar.
Andreas and Birgit had been busy spraying insulation foam in behind their fridge hoping to make it more efficient. The next morning Birgit could not get her usual containers into the fridge. The expanded foam was crushing the fridge. So they have had a tough job taking it all out and re-making the fridge poor things.
Yesterday was our planned car day and we were going to take Betsy and Ken from Alcyone and David and Reka from Pino across to the other side of the island for a look sea, but the day dawned with strong winds and heavy rain so we cancelled all that and witnessed a rescue instead.
There must have been a good weather window in NZ a couple of weeks ago because eight yachts spent the dark hours waiting outside Savusavu Bay ready to make a daytime entry. One, Voila (54 footer), had something around her rudder that was making steering difficult so they radioed for assistance.
It was around 7.00am and there is no coastguard here, they don’t need one as long as Curly is around. He did an excellent job finding a big vessel (see pic of her as she passed) and diver to go out and assist them if they needed it. He kept in touch with them with friendly and moral boosting comments.
Finally she made it in under her own steam and trundled up river to the yard where she could be lifted out if need be.
I also got a shot of Waipawa, our ‘friend’ from Minerva. Mark tells us he is out of prison now and the two ladies on board had cooked him a cake to celebrate. I wonder if it had a model drone on top like the helicopter on our retirement cake!
So our car day will happen Monday or Tuesday and until then the distant brooding mountains and the friendly locals are enough to entertain us.
A New Morning with Muktuk and Puff the Inflatable Canoe
Early mornings are cool before the sun brings its heat and I love to sit in the cockpit and take in the start of a brand new day. Soon the ball of searing heat would rise alongside Muktuk so that is why she is the main subject in the photos and also so I can send Birgit and Andreas the pictures of course.
Between Muktuk and us at the time was a little pale brown boat but what I wanted to show you there are the distant mountains becoming lighter as they appear further and further away.
On the opposite banks hot water from the hot water springs upstream flow into the cooler creek water in veils of steam, some mornings more prominent than others, perhaps when the tide is low and the proportion of hot water to cool is bigger.
Then one of the two ferries arrives, plants two anchors into the bay and swings its stern towards the quay pulling itself backwards until lines can be secured ashore either side of the vehicle ramp. We had to pass to port on our way in. During the strong winds after our arrival the ferry sprang a metal deck plate while on passage and had to spend two days here as the welders made repairs.
We sent the can of paint we bought for Kyle and Shelley to freshen up Bubbles on this ferry across to Vuda Marina on the other island since they will head off for Vanuatu before we get there. It cost $8 by local courier ($2.6fj:£1.00).
Re-fuelling Zoonie proved a much safer jerry can expedition than it had in Nuku Hiva in what seems like an age ago now. Here there is a nice wooden pontoon to tie up to and the filling station is a minute away across the road. A longer minute when they are full though.
On our third return her tank overflowed up the in pipe and judging by what was left in the can she took 210ltrs into the tank, add on the original 80 litres from the jerry cans = 290ltrs into the 142hrs we motored and you get 2.04ltrs:hour motoring. So our estimate of the engine using 2ltrs per hour was accurate. It cost £194 to fill up at 70p per litre. So we needn’t have worried.
We had one really busy day, just so you don’t think retirement is a doddle. Rob resealed the leaking big window and I washed Zoons curtains by hand. We lifted and cleaned Henry’s rudder and Rob rooted out the little anchor for the tender and attached it ready for our snorkelling trips.
In the evening we went to the other marina opposite us for a buffet supper Fijian style. Two new dishes for us were Taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and sea grapes, tiny beads of pale green – a particularly attractive way of eating seawater. I have cooked Taro leaves before when we were in French Poly. Raw they burn the mouth, as I found out, but cooked are a little like peppery spinach and in home-made coconut milk are delicious, although towards the end of my second helping I was sensing that familiar burning sensation in my mouth and throat.
Mark from Wavelength and Gordon on the eve of his annual flight back to the US joined us. The only table with any space had one young lady sitting there so we asked if we could join her and I was glad we did because she was so interesting. Born near the lakes 100 miles north of Frankfurt she started sailing when a young girl and then went to college where she found an interest in a life at sea. She completed her training to be an Officer and spent much of her training on research ships. She is now based on the 120metre German research ship Sona (Sun).
Her ambition will take her to the command of her own vessel in due course. “So your boat is just out there?” We pointed to Zoonie a few metres away. “I would like to have my own sailing boat. I have four months off now and I could do a lot of sailing around here in that time.” Buy the boat before you have a family I suggested then they will grow up with the life. She was confident in herself and yet modest and delightful company.
Latest news on the skipper of Waipawa, the police found 2000 rounds of ammo, a BB (ball bearing) gun and a paint gun on his vessel. He was drinking on the next table to us last eve and awaiting his hearing on July 30th. Didn’t say if they found a drone.
Last Sunday we inflated ‘Puff’ the canoe and wandered up the creek with our paddles as far as the furthest Marina where there are two haulouts, one a hoist and the other a trailer like the one we used in Tonga.
We had intended to paddle around the island next to us where the new hurricane safe marina is under construction but we could see the reef ran a long way from the shore of the island across the bay so decided to go back the way we came.
A matchstick house was under construction on the hillside above a mastless and abandoned sailing yacht. Some lovely homes approached by precipitously steep driveways, especially after rain, had fine views over the water to the mountains. The creeper that was introduced here during the Second World War, ‘Mile a Minute’, to create fast growing camouflage is growing up some of the palm trees and over vast areas of shrubbery and another tree covered with orange/red blossom introduced as a garden plant now thrives all over the island, the African Tulip Tree.
It is hard to tell what is indigenous, what species of plants have always been here and I’d love to know if there are any of the heavily forested sandalwood trees left and what they look like. We are off to the Botanic Gardens with Mark this morning so I should be able to report back to you about that soon.
