Sailing to Micronesia, Day 6

All is well on board on Day 6 of our longest passage since the New Zealand - Tonga run. We are headed almost due north and we crossed the equator yesterday. We had a small crossing ceremony which included some sacrifices to Neptune which included some Solomon Islands coins, a NY giants winter hat, a Vermont National hat (which had been worn to death already), some swimming apparel and a bit of rum, since it's rumored that Neptune appreciates the fire water, and we most definitely want to keep Neptune happy.

It looks like we'll be sailing for another three days or so. The wind has swung around to the east more, which is what we needed to go to Pohnpei, so that's where we are headed. Unfortunately, the wind has died a bit more than we'd like, and we're close to the equator, so, once again, it's HOT. But it's not as hot as the passage to the Solomon Islands or the time we spent there. We have read that 81 is the average high in Micronesia year round, and we are very excited about this. 95+ is a bit much on a regular basis without any AC.

It's also nice to see the entire Big Dipper again. At night it's low on the horizon in front of us and the Southern Cross is low on the horizon behind us. It's very nice that it's been calm enough the last few days to appreciate these details. The first few days were much rougher than we had anticipated, so it was hang on and try to keep nourished and sleep a bit sometimes. Now it's calmed considerably and we've had some time for bread making and book reading the last few days.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention my dissapointing equator crossing toilet flush experiment - it is definitely NOT swirling in the opposite direction now that we are in the northern hemisphere - what's up with that?

Sailing to Micronesia

We are on day 4 of our passage from the Solomon Islands to Micronesia. We are hoping to make landfall in Pohnpei, but we are sailing close hauled (as close to the wind as a sailboat can sail) now, and if the wind shifts any the wrong way we will need to bear off and head to Truk instead. It's 850 miles to Pohnpei and a bit longer to Truk. We have about 520 miles to go still to Pohnpei. All is well on board but it's getting hot again as we approach the equator.

We left on Christmas morning, from tiny Sikopo island which is in the passage between Choiseil and Santa Isabella islands. Sikopo is uninhabited and we spent a couple nights there waiting for the right weather for departing. On Christmas eve we went fishing in the dinghy and caught two barracudas, one of which was enormous! We didn't get to measure it, but it was at least 4 feet long. Jeff fought it from the dinghy for about 45 minutes as we motored slowly back to the sailboat. Then Fred tried to jump onto the sailboat from the dingy as we motored past still fighting the fish. Unfortunately I was driving the dinghy at the time and did not quite understand this was the plan, so we didn't quite make it, but he was of out of the water pretty quick and grabbed the gaff and was able to gaff the fish from the sailboat as we made another close pass in the dinghy. It was pretty exciting! We will post some pics of the monstrous creature as soon as we get to the next internet connection.

We were all excited to try eating the barracuda. None of us had ever had any before because you can't eat it anywhere ciguaterra is present because it will give you fish poisoning. However, there is no ciguaterra in the Solomon Islands, and we'd heard it was delicious - and after trying it we agree! Jeff pan fried some iwth a lime beurre blanc for Christmas Eve lunch and then served some battered with tartar sauce on the side for Christmas lunch. Yum yum yum.

Sailing to Micronesia

We are on day 4 of our passage from the Solomon Islands to Micronesia. We are hoping to make landfall in Pohnpei, but we are sailing close hauled (as close to the wind as a sailboat can sail) now, and if the wind shifts any the wrong way we will need to bear off and head to Truk instead. It's 850 miles to Pohnpei and a bit longer to Truk. We have about 520 miles to go still to Pohnpei. All is well on board but it's getting hot again as we approach the equator.

We left on Christmas morning, from tiny Sikopo island which is in the passage between Choiseil and Santa Isabella islands. Sikopo is uninhabited and we spent a couple nights there waiting for the right weather for departing. On Christmas eve we went fishing in the dinghy and caught two barracudas, one of which was enormous!!!! We will post some pics here once we get to shore.

We were all excited to try eating the barracuda. None of us had ever had any before because you can't eat it anywhere ciguaterra is present because it will give you fish poisoning. However, there is no ciguaterra in the Solomon Islands, and we'd heard it was delicious, and after trying it we agree! Jeff pan fried some iwth a lime beurre blanc for Christmas Eve lunch and then battered some with tartar sauce for Christmas lunch. Yum yum yum.

Solomon Islands, Gizo

We've had a nice time here in Gizo and surrounding areas.  We spent two days diving with dive Gizo and saw some more fabulous reefs, a sunken Hell Cat plane and a sunken Japanese boat from WW II. 

Did a bit of shopping in Gizo the next day then headed out to an outlying island and picked up the mooring ball in front of Fatboys resort.   It's another small relaxed resort here in the Solomon Islands.  They have a few lovely bungalows, and more important to us, lovely clear, crocodile-free, waters to snorkel in.  We've really enjoyed being able to jump off the boat to cool down whenever we want to, and we've taken the dinghy over to the outlying reef a few times for snorkeling and had some luck fishing there yesterday also.  We caught two rainbow runners and a small skipjack tuna in about 40 minutes of trolling.  Threw the skipjack back and had the rainbow runners for lunch.  Jeff pan fried them and we had them rice, cucumber salad and tarter sauce.  Yum.

We are back in Gizo today for a bit more shopping, then will probably head back to Noro soon to refuel and then planning to leave sometime between Tues and Thurs to sail up to Micronesia.  This wil be a 900 mile trip and unfortunately we are expecting very light winds again.  Since we also will be crossing the equator again on this trip we expect it to be another very hot sail, but we are very excited to get up to Micronesia (which is malaria and crocodile free - hurray!)  We'll also probably be at sea for Christmas, but it doesn't feel much like Christmas here anyway, so no big deal.

We'll have little or no internet access before we leave, but I'll try to post a few short blogs from the sat phone as we go. 

So, Merry Christmas in advance from everyone here on the God Spede!

Solomon Islands, Vona Vona Lagoon

Ringgi Bay

Our first stop in the Solomon Islands was Ringgi Bay. After a hot hot hot passage from Vanuatu of seven days and six nights, I was very excited to pull in and have a shower, a cocktail, a dinner we could eat off of plates on the table (most meals on passage are eaten out of a bowl you hold in your hand while bracing yourself somewhere in the cockpit) and a full night's sleep. I know some people say they love the passages, but I much prefer the arrival to the journey.




There isn't really a town in Ringgi, and we were not able to clear customs there, but it was a good anchorage that we could reach before dark, so we stopped there and spent our evening resting up. The next day we motored about 15 miles over to Noro where we thought we were going to be able to clear in, even though it was Sunday, but alas, that was not to be. Apparently, just as we reached town, Billy, the customs guy, was leaving for Gizo, where he was going to clear in a large ship, but he said we could clear in first thing Monday morning. The Lonely Planet guide we have said there wasn't much in Noro other than a fish canning operation, and Fred, who had gone ashore to find Billy, agreed with this assessment when he returned. He did, however, say there was an ATM, a few small stores, and a place that sold fuel and a market near the dinghy dock. All of this was good news, since all of our Solomon Islands cruising guides are so old that all their info about onshore facilities is completely out of date, so we weren't sure what we could hope for.

Noro

Later that afternoon a gentleman and a young girl paddled over in a canoe, and we first assumed that they had carvings or fruit for sale, since this is a common practice here, but instead it was the Quarantine official who had heard from Billy that we had arrived and decided to paddle out so we could complete our paperwork with him. Curbside service - nice. The gentleman had Fred fill out a couple forms in duplicate because he didn't have a copy machine and this way both he and Fred could have a copy.



The next day we planned a three pronged attack into Noro which was designed to get our check-in and provisioning done in the morning so we could leave Noro and head for a resort in a lagoon that we had heard good things about. The plan was for Fred and Jeff to go to the ATM, then Fred to go to customs to check us in while Jeff hit the stores and the market while Ashley and I filled some of our jerry cans with diesel and returned to the boat to empty them into the tanks, then returned to shore, refill the cans, collect the guys and be on our way. However, when we got to shore we realized that Fred didn't have his shoes (and hookworm is common here so shoes ashore are advised for visitors even though many locals go without regularly), so I hopped back on the dinghy, got the shoes and came back and was tying up the dinghy wondering where on earth the gas station was, since that was where I was supposed to meet everyone. I'm looking up the hill trying to see some kind of Mobil or BP sign up in the air when I see Fred standing in front of a shack about 20 feet away, that has a big sign saying "Petrol Sold Here". Apparently, it's a fuel shack, not a fuel station, that I should be looking for. The guy here had fuel in 50 gallon drums with a handpump which he used to fill up two stainless steel containers that looked very much like very large measuring cups, which is apparently what they were. He filled these up to a certain line, then poured the fuel into our jerry cans.



For those of you who are interested in the entire fueling processs, I'll say that the following steps are to lug the jerry cans to the dinghy, get them into the dinghy without dropping them in the water, dinghy out to the boat, lift them up onto the boat without dropping them in the water, find the baja filter we use to filter out any water or foreign materiels that may be in the fuel, put this into the fuel fill hole, then lift the jug up high enough so the fuel goes into the top of this foot tall filter and try to pour the fuel into the filter without spilling it all over the deck and make sure you pour it in slowly enough that the filter does not overflow. All this while the boat is bobbing around in the waves, sweat is literally dripping off of you, and some flies are buzzing around. It really makes you appreciate a normal fuel dock when you find one!



Noro is also notable as the place of our first encounter with betel nut chewers. This is a very common practice here. It's apparently a bit of a pick me up, but if you chew lots of it your teeth are stained first red and eventually black. There's also a lot of spitting that goes along with the chewing, and in many places the dirt on the ground is stained red from the spit. The betel nut itself is mixed with mustard stick and lime (not citrus ime, lime from crushed coral) and it apparently tastes awful. I'm not sure I'm adventurous enough to try this one, but apparently lots of people like it because a lot of market stall space is taken up by people selling it.

Diamand Narrows

Our three pronged Noro approach was successful, and later that day we pulled out and headed down Diamand Narrows into Vona Vona Lagoon. Diamond Narrows is aptly named in that it is in fact quite narrow. It's a skinny passage between two islands, but it felt more like going up a river. There were houses near the shore which were built only about a foot above water level, which we saw right in Noro as well, but I don't understand what happens to them in a storm. Now mind you, some people would call some of these buildings shacks, and say no big loss if it got washed away, but others looked like fairly well constructed buildings with big covered porches.

Diamond Narrows houses

After Diamond Narrows we turned into Vona Vona lagoon. The other "lagoons" that we have visited prior to this were areas inside of a coral atoll which usually had only a few small islands inside, but with lots and lots of coral heads scattered all about. Vona Vona lagoon was an area of fairly shallow water with lots and lots of small islands inside. The water inside was three or four amazing colors of blue, depending on the different depths. This lagoon was bounded by two fairly large islands with some reefs across the entrance on the remaining side. As with the other lagoons, the area has not been well surveyed so the charts show no depth measurements and just have words saying "numerous coral heads" in certain areas with no attempt made to actually show the individual hazards. We did have a hand-drawn map that had been sent to us by Joe, the owner/operator of the resort we were headed to. He emailed it to us while we in Vanuatu, and it was VERY helpful since route we needed to take in the sailboat was definitely not anything approaching a straight line, or even a very direct route. we'd heard about this map from the blog of our friends Randy and Hideko, on Swingin On a Star, who passed this way in the fall of 2008. We were then able to find the resort's website and email to ask for the map before we left Vanuatu. That internet thingy really is a handly little invention.



The next two days we spent diving with the guys from Dive Munda. They came by and picked us up off the God Spede each morning and took us to see some amazing reefs. I'm not sure how to say how great the diving is here without just gushing about it. The reefs we saw were all huge and healthy. Our dives ended only when we ran out of air, the reefs appeared to just go on and on and on. One of the dives had some of the most amazing soft coral I've ever seen. One coral had little green flowers coming out of it. They looked exactly like someone had brought some little plastic green flowers down to decorate the place, but if you waved your hand near them they would retract into little buds, so I'm pretty sure they were real. Another dive was along a sloping wall of coral and there were big schools of small fish. One school was swimming down the reef in a skinny but long grouping - they looked very much like a fish waterfall cascading down a coral mountain. Gorgeous.



Lunch with the Dive Munda guys



The dives themselves were all outside the lagoon, but close enough to it that we came back each day to have lunch on one of the lagoon islands. Lunch consisted of bread, crackers, canned chili tuna, peanut butter, slices of pineapple so sweet it tasted like candy. The chili tuna was new to us. It came from the cannery in Noro, and was just like our canned tuna from home except that it had thin slices of spicy red chilis marinated with it. It was served drained, but without mayo. I liked it quite a bit, but not as much as the guy we met later who was headed to Noro to get a case of it to take with him.



Also notable, Ashley walked out onto a nearby sandspit on our lunch break one day and saw 3 or 4 reef sharks swimming around off the beach. There were also a resident gang of 3-4 reef sharks that hung out off the dock of the Zipolo Habu Resort. Luckily, these reef sharks are not very aggressive, so they wouldn't necessarily prevent us from swimming, unluckily, the salt water crocodiles who also like to hang out in the lagoons here do prevent us from swimming off the boat. This is kind of a big bummer here, because it is really hot. This is definitely the hottest place we have been, except for maybe Savu Savu in Fiji, which was only so hot because they were having a spell of exceptionally light winds while we were there. Here, this is the normal hot, and it's hot. Temps in the mid 90s are the norm and we've measured 100+ a couple of days. Our normal response to this kind of heat would be to swim frequently, but I think the fact that the locals term for the cruiser who recently got bit by a croc while swimming to check his anchor was "dim dim" kinda says it all.



After our diving days, we spent a relaxing day enjoying the Zapolo Habu resort. The resort's dining room/bar area is right near the water, and raised up a bit, with open air walls and a thatched roof. It is a very relaxed and relaxing spot. We enjoyed all our meals there immensely and Fred got to watch the Patriots trounce the Jets live via their satellite TV, which lives in it's own thatched roof hut separate from the dining room. Very civilized. We all enjoyed their satellite internet connection and their huge pile of magazines along with their cheerily lit up Christmas Tree. I'm having a hard time believing that Christmas is right around the corner. I hadn't realized until recently that this will be our first Christmas spent on the boat, or in the southern hemisphere, and I'm just having a hard time believing it's going to be here soon. I've never sweat this much in December.

Zapolo Habu Resort dining room and Christmas tree

The next day we did a provisioning run into Munda on one of the power boats from the resort along with another American couple who had arrived on their boat a few days after us. It was great fun zooming along in the lagoon with a driver who knew where all the reefs were. We could just sit there and enjoy the breeze and watch the islands go by. Later in the afternoon Jeff, Ashley and I took the dinghy over to a nearby snorkel spot. Since we'd just learned that a crocodile had been shot on the resort's island earlier that day, I was a bit concerned about one biting us while we were snorkeling. I mean we really weren't that far away. But then again, we were in the resorts snorkel spot - surely if people got eaten there they wouldn't send you, right? Yes, that sounds quite reasonable - right up until you're actually in the water. Then all I can think is that I may be the next one the locals are calling "dim dim', which doesn't make for very relaxing snorkeling.



Munda market



The day after that we took the dinghy over to have a look at Skull Island. Fred initially assumed we were going to an island shaped like a skull, but actually, it's a very small island that has been used to store some people's skulls. Ashley read somewhere that the skulls were from warriors and powerful chiefs. I assumed that we would be required to take a guide with us to visit the island, and that the guide would explain it all to us, but we were told we could go on our own, we just had to pay a Kastom fee, which we could tack onto our bill at the resort. Very convenient. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but I was surprised that the skulls are just there sitting in some rocks. I suppose it's a reflection on me that I'm surprised that they haven't all been stolen. Certainly if they were left unattended like that in the US somebody would come take 'em.



Skulls on Skull Island



That afternoon we left the resort and went halfway up the lagoon. The water got cloudier and cloudier as we went up into the skinnier part of the water. Ashley was on croc watch (we assume the murkier the water the more likely that there will be crocs), but she did not see any.

Vona Vona Lagoon

The next day we left the lagoon and came over to Gizo, the capitol of the Western Provinces, or the Wild West as the area is referred to affectionately by those who live here. Today was our first day in Gizo and we went into town to arrange some diving for tomorrow and take a look around. There are lots and lots of very small shops, many of which sell the same stuff. There is one main street that follows the waterfront and we walked along it past the huge construction site that will one day be the new hospital out of town to a place that seemed to be public water access spots where people were doing their laundry in the spigots that were provided. WE walked back through town and poked our head into a couple of the shops and then had lunch at PT 109 (which is named after JFK's boat the little island he and some other guys landed on after their boat was torpedoed is right near here) with some other cruisers then headed back to the boat for a swim after being assured by the local dive shop operator that we'd be safe from crocs here. Hooray! We got out the shampoo and the soap and jumped in, then onto the boat to lather up and then back in again, and repeat. Jeff got a big cheer from some locals passing by when he jumped in off the rails as they went by, and Fred and Ashley were both brave enough to do back flips off the rails, which fascinated two very young local boys who were passing in a dugout canoe that kept sinking on them.



We'll probably be in the Giza area for a week or so while we do some diving and some provisioning, then we'll wait for good weather to head up to Micronesia, where we hear the average temps are in the 80s and swimming off the boat should be the norm again - Hurray!!!

Made it to the Solomon Islands

We made it! We are anchor down as of 4:15 PM today. No night watches tonight, full night's sleep for everyone - hurray!

We can't check in till tomorrow, so we'll spend the evening on the boat, but I think that's all I have energy for anyway. Very happy to be here in a very breezy anchorage.

Arrived in the Solomon Islands

We made it! We are anchor down as of 4:15 PM today. No night watches tonight, full night's sleep for everyone - hurray!
We can't check in till tomorrow, so we'll spend the evening on the boat, but I think that's all I have energy for anyway. Very happy to be here in a very breezy anchorage.

Sailing to the Solomon Islands Day 6

All is well onboard on day 6 of this very very very hot passage. We left Vanuatu expecting a few days of very light winds with better winds following that. Instead we have had very light or no wind for most of every day. This means that instead of sailing we are slowly motorsailing along under cloudless skies near the equator, which in turn means that it is ridiculously hot. Only in the evening do we stop sweating, and even then only if you are in front of a fan sitting still. We put the motor into neutral yesterday and took turns taking a swim to try and cool off, but the water is so warm that it wasn't super refreshing, but at least we all smell a little better today. We hope to reach an anchorage tomorrow night, but we need at least a little wind to appear to make it.

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Headed for the Solomon Islands

We left Luganville, Vanuatu this morning. Headed for Noro in the Solomon Islands. It's a 750 mile passage, which would normally mean about 5 days, but there are particularly light winds forcast for a good portion of our journey, so it may be more like 6 or 7. We've had a very pleasant first day at sea.

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Vanuatu, Luganville

Our wonderful dive guides

On our sail from Port Vila to Luganville on Espiritu Santo we anchored off a little island off of the south east corner of Malekula island for an afternoon to take a break and a swim after an overnight sail up. It was a beautiful spot, but our enjoyment of it was a bit spoiled by a local guy who yelled from shore that we could pick up a mooring ball that was there, rather than anchoring, and then came out in his homemade outrigger canoe to collect some money for it (no problem there, we're happy to pay for the use of a mooring ball that someone else maintains). The problem was that after he collected the money for the mooring Tom then wanted to sell us everything from vegetables to guided snorkel tours. Normally these are things we'd be interested in, but we'd just stocked up at the market in Port Vila and were more interested in a nap than a snorkel right at the moment. Then Tom proceeded to tell us that some cruisers give him donations to help pay his kid's school fees (school is not cheap here in Vanuatu) and he wouldn't tell us how much to give, since it was a donation, but he made it pretty clear that he did expect one. We felt a bit strong armed, but gave him some more dough to get rid of him. Unfortunately, we understand from reading cruising guides and other boat's blogs, that this will be more and more the norm in certain places as we go. Some places in the Solomon Islands it's the norm to have about ten canoes surround you as you are anchoring to try to sell you things. I understand that these folks don't have many customers and that on our very not-homemade looking craft we must seem like very wealthy people, but the thought of having to deal the full effect hustle even as you are still trying to get the boat anchored wears me out already. It's also tough because I do like to meet the local people, and I don't like to be rude, but sometimes you just want to be left alone and it can be difficult to tell someone to go away. But apparenlty it's something we'll have to get better at as we go.



We did have a nice nap and a very refreshing swim off the side of the boat. That was a nice treat after a week in Port Vila where swimming off the boat was not an appealing option. Swimming is basically our air-conditioning on the boat, and we definitely miss it when we can't. We left in the late afternoon for another overnight sail to Luganville, and as soon as we left the channel we were met by a pod of dolphins. We all went up to the bow to watch play in our bow wake. It is amazing how powerful they are and how close they can swim to the front of the boat. There were a couple very small ones which we assumed were babies. After they left the bow of the boat Jeff spotted one doing a flip far off the stern quarter of the boat. Then we saw another flip and and another and another. Amazing! What a nice way to start a sail.



Luganville, mostly referred to as Santo, was a main base for American soldiers during World War II. More than half a million military personnel were stationed here over a three year period and there were often as many as 100 ships moored in the protected channel off town. During that time, the USS President Coolidge, a luxury liner that had been converted to carry troops during the war sank trying to come into the channel. The story we heard was that they were supposed to meet a pilot boat to lead them through the mines in the channel, but when they arrived they knew an enemy sub was behind them and the pilot boat wasn't there yet, so the captain decided to take his chances with the mines rather than the sub. The captain did hit one of the mines and ran the boat up on a reef to prevent it from sinking. The troops were instructed to get only themselves off with the plan being to return the next day for their gear. Unfortunately, the boat rolled off the reef in the night and taking all the gear, including the entire supply of quinine for the South Pacific. Oops.



The good news is that today the Coolidge is one of the most accessible wrecks for scuba diving in the world. It is also one of the best preserved in that there are still rifles, gas masks, boots, and even some artwork still there to be seen, if you are willing to go deep to do it. And I do mean deep. The wreck lies in 20 - 60 meters of water, with the stern being the deepest. I was surprised that we didn't need Advanced Open Water certification to dive it, but our guide told us Vanuatu is the only country in the world where your Open Water certification allows you to dive to 60 meters and I'm sure it's specifically for this very famous wreck that the rules are written this way. Any time you mention Vanuatu this wreck is mentioned as a must do, so we've really been looking forward to it and we were not disappointed. It is really amazing.




We did four dives on the Coolidge, starting with shallower ones and getting deeper each day (this is not optional, the dive guides want to assess your abilities and your air consumption as you go along). The first day we went to about 30 meters and saw the ships big turret mounted gun and then swam back to the bow along the top of the boat seeing rifles and helmets laying on the top and looking down in holes to the inside of the boat. The ship is now laying on it's side, so when I say "top" I mean what is now the top which is what used to be the starboard side of the boat. The second day we did our first decompression dive ever and went inside the boat to see "The Lady" which is an original piece of artwork that has been restored and replaced by the local diveshops, and some chandeliers, and a row of toilets. It was funny to see the toilets hanging off what seems like the ceiling. The next day we swam into the engine room and saw the gauges and telegraphs and the big turbines, then through a corridor with bed frames and rifles. Jeff saw a pair of boots that he said appeared to be in almost perfect condition. Most things have a good film of coral on them now, but even so can pick up the rifles and easily identify the helmets, but Jeff said coral must not like leather because the boots were quite clean. Our fourth and last day we dove down to 60 meters and saw the boats enrmous rudder (about the size of a barn door), the name Coolidge on the stern and the swimming pool and then did our first safety stop swimming about 5 meters above the boat along almost it's entire length. I really enjoyed that part since you got a real feel for just how big the ship actually is. And there is some really lovely coral growing on it and beautiful fish to see as well. On this deep dive we had 15 minutes of bottom time and then it took us 45 minutes of safety stops to come back up. It was fun, but it's going to have to be something equally spectacular to get me interested in going that deep again.



The Coolidge dives were are first dive every day. Our second dive most days were on reefs. Tutuba point was my favorite. It was really really large patch of really really lovely healthy coral. One day our second dive was Million Dollar Point. This is where the US forces dumped a huge amount of surplas equipment after the war. Apparently US manufacturers gave the government good prices on equipment during the war with the caveat that none of it be brought home afterwards. Apparently we offered to sell the equipment to the goverment here at the time (Vanuatu was then under joint control by the French and the British) for pennies on the dollar, but they did not respond. Some people say they were holding out for a better price, knowing that we couldn't take the equipment home. Others say that the military personnel were just as happy to dump it as sell it since then they didn't have to take an inventory. In any case, everything from giant bulldozers to jeeps to cases of coca-cola were dumped into the sea. I'd been told the story, but was still amazed to see how big the pile is. We swam along it slowly for 20 minutes on our dive, and it is a very tall pile. Astounding. It was hard to tell what most of it was, but there were lots of axles and tires, and just the size of the pile itself made it worth seeing.


Matthew enjoys our Ryobi radio with ipod (we like it too!)

 


We had increasing long surface intervals between dives as our first dives got deeper. We went with Santo Island Dive and Fishing and each day they served us wonderful lunches and we had lots of time to chat with the our dive guides who were all from Vanuatu. They were a really nice and friendly group of guys and getting to know them some was a great treat. We met them for kava a couple times after diving and that was great too. Their favorite kava bar is called Nemo's and is right on the water so you have a nice view with a breeze coming in. It was a very relaxing spot at the end of the day and seemed to be frequented by mostly recreational kava drinkers, none of which, I am happy to report, were throwing up. The gentleman who owns the dive shop and the manager of the Beachfront, the resort we are anchored off of, go there for kava almost every day as well, so we got to chat more with them also and got a lot of information about the wreck and the local history from them.



We really enjoyed our stay here and if you are a diver and thinking of coming to Vanuatu, I whole heartedly recommend you do so. I also whole heartedly recommend Santo Island Dive and Fishing. Their guys are "numba wan" in my book!

walking on the sandspit

After we finished diving we learned that the weather was not going to co-operate with our original departure date, so we decided to rent a jeep and take a tour up the east coast of the island. It was beautiful and we waded out a sand spit onto a deserted island (deserted except for the cows who apparently wade out too - it always surprises me to see cows wading in the ocean) and checked out one of Vanuatu's blue holes. I was excited to finally see one, because the guide books we have tell you they are cool and say you mustn't miss em, but they never explained what they were. Annoying. Turns out they are big pools of fresh water that has been filtered through lava rock. The water if very clear and very blue, and the one we were in was quite cool, which felt really nice after driving in the car all day. There were a couple rope swings and Fred and I went off them. I somehow ended up on the high one, and I really thought twice about going at all once I saw the sharp lava I would have to swing over, but I figured I might never get another chance to rope swing into a blue hole, so I went for it. I scraped my feet a bit on some lava at the low point of my swing, but made it in relatively unscathed. Ashley was very sad she didn't catch the moment of our flip camera (which we have courtesy from Tom Burke - thanks Tom!), but truthfully I am just as glad that the moment is not captured on film, but it was fun!

blue hole - the water really was a strange blue

Vanuatu, Port Vila

We spent a relaxing and fairly uneventful week in Port Vila. For me the highlight of the week was running into our very good friend Roy Dickson who sails on a boat called Peggy West. We originally met Roy in 2008 in the Marquesas and it has been our pleasure to run into him again many times. The only small problem this time was that Irene, who is another of our favorites wasn't currently on the boat with Roy since she was on her way home to Ireland to visit her family. We had a couple nice nights with Roy this time. One was out for Friday night happy hour and one night he had us all over for a lovely dinner aboard his boat. He also helped Fred and Jeff repair our dinghy. Thanks Roy!

On the way back from Friday night happy hour we were walking along the waterfront and I was drawn to the sounds of some serious hip-hop music coming from a big bandstand set up in the park. There was some sort of break dance competition going on and one of the Ni-Vans was busting some old John Hughes moves up on the stage. We only saw a couple performers before some sort of break occurred but I was pretty impressed. In the daytime in this same park there are stalls set up selling woven bags of varied construction. Apparently each island has their own style (I got an orange and white strappy number). The contrast with those and the break dancing is the kind of thing I love about the towns in the South Pacific islands.


Port Vila was also the site of our first visit to a kava bar. Kava is a drink found in many South Pacific countries, which is embraced very enthusiastically here in Vanuatu. We've been told by many people that the kava in Vanuatu is quite a bit stronger here than anywhere else, and here there are actually bars set up where you can buy the kava prepared already. The other countries we've been in you could buy kava root in the markets and make it yourself, but we were a bit confused as to how exactly you were supposed to make it. The traditional preparation calls for the root to be chewed by young boys and then their spit is collected in a bowl and that concoction is drunk later. We neglected to bring any young boys with us on the God Spede, so that method was out for us, and although we'd been told there was an alternate method that involved straining stuff through a sock, the instructions for this method were always vague, and we know where our socks have been, so we never tried this method either.



In Vanuatu, however, there are bars where it is sold ready to consume, so we decided to give it a try. We went with Rueben and James, two nice guys we had met earlier that evening when they drove us to dinner. We hailed them down thinking they were driving a taxi. We we asked if they were a taxi, and they said yes, but something about the way they looked at each other first, then looked around a bit and shrugged, made me suspect that they were just two guys out driving around. We later learned that all taxis in Port Vila have a T or a B on their license plate, but at this point we had just arrived in town and were still learning the ropes. Anyway, Rueben and James were very friendly and chatted with us on the way to dinner, and gave us their phone number, so we called them after dinner and asked them to take us to their favorite kava bar. They took us to Ronnie's, which we had read in a book was the place all the ex-pats and government officials liked to drink their kava. I was a little surprised that it was an open air place with plastic garden style tables and chairs on a dirt floor under some big trees with parts under a roof. I guess the word "bar" had led me to expect something else, but open air really is the coolest way to go in these parts, so it makes sense.



We all walked up to the bar and got our first bowl of kava. It was served in little plastic bowls, something like you'd use to serve cereal to a five year old back home, and looked exactly like muddy water. It got scooped into the bowls out of a big plastic bucket. It tasted pretty much like muddy water with pepper added. Truly vile, but we had read enough to expect that and knew to just slug it down and not sip and savor. Even having been forwarned, I was surprised at just how bad it tasted. It's giving me shivers writing this thinking about it. Ugh. Anyway, I thought the effects were quite nice. The first bowl made my mouth a bit numb and gave me a very mellow feeling. The second bowl gave me a nice little happy glow, much like a second glass of wine. I decided to stop there because we'd just had a big dinner (we found out later that you're supposed to eat after having kava) and one of the bad effects of the kava is that it will upset your stomach if you drink too much. As we sat there having a nice conversation with Rueben and James, I became of all the spitting going on around me. It does leave a nasty taste in your mouth, so apparenlty spitting on the ground next to your chair is considered perfectly acceptable. Then I noticed some people getting their kava and taking it to a trough that seemed to be built for that very purpose. They'd drink their kava, take a sip of some beverage, and spit it out into the trough, then repeat the rinse and spit then rinse their bowl and return it to the bar. This was all well and good, but I'm glad that I was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a gentleman a few tables over who was occasionally leaning to one side of his chair and throwing up. Yes, I'm really glad I missed that part!



After a bit Rueben and James drove us back to the dinghy dock and we all went home and slept like babies. Kava was traditionally used for ceremonies and rituals, and women were not allowed in the same room as the kava bowl. Now, it is touted by many people in the US as a cure for anxiety, insomnia and back pain. After talking to lots of people here in Vanuatu, I'd say it's just considered the normal thing to drink after work with your friends. It's kava time, so you go have a few "shells" before dinner.



We also did a day of diving at Port Vila. We dove a wreck in the harbour called the Star of Russia. This was an old sailing ship designed by the same people who built the Titanic. This was my first time inside a wreck and I just wasn't super impressed. The visibility in the water was not great and another group of divers went into the wreck before us and I think they stirred up a bunch of silt, so it just seemed like swimming amongst a bunch of sharp things without seeing much. We have a lot of supposedly good wreck diving coming up so I was sad to be so nonplussed by this first experience, but decided to wait and see, and since then we've done some truly awesome wreck diving, but I'll get to that later. The next dive was on some very nice coral just outside the harbor.

Sorry, for some unknown reason we took no pics in Port Vila.

Vanuatu, Tanna

We did it. We stood on the rim of an active volcano in Vanuatu. We heard it rumble and saw sparks and some pretty big chunks of lava fly up out of it into the air. It was pretty impressive, and a little bit scary, but not terrifying as I had read it can be, and as I'm sure it is when the volcano is more active. I was a bit concerned when our guide pulled us aside when we first got to the rim and said, very calmly, "When the volcano goes off don't be in a big hurry to run. Stop and look to see where the lava is going and only run if some is coming towards you". Don't be in a big hurry to run? RUN? I might need to run from lava? On this skinny volcanic lip that has little lava rocks sticking up everywhere? Seriously?

Volcano rim with lava rocks

Well, I guess sometimes people do have to run because those lava rocks on the rim weren't placed there by some landscape designer, they got there when the volcano blew them out. However, the day we visited the wind was pretty stong at our backs and the lava chunks that reached our height stayed comfortably far away horizontally, which was fine with me. I was also happy that we weren't seeing a big lake of smoldering lava when we looked down into the volcano, which was what I had imagined. Actually, I had hoped to see just that before we got there, but once I saw how skinny the rim we were walking on was and how steep down both sides went, I was pleased to see that if I fell off into the volcano there was a big rim about 50 feet down to catch me. Now, I'm sure it's warm on that rim, but not as warm as molten lava, and I was grateful for it.

Lava fireworks



But I'm getting ahead of myself here, let me go back some and tell you about our stay from the beginning. We had a nice calm four day passage from Fiji to Vanuatu with unusually large seas being the only real problem. These waves had been kicked up by some bad weather farther south of us. We motorsailed most of the way trying to get in before some thunderstorms which were on the way reached us. As we were approaching the harbour, Fred saw a bunch of birds working the water near us and Jeff threw in the fishing line and caught a little skipjack tuna almost immediately. We find that skipjack tuna is delicious when eaten the first day, but gets bit strong tasting the next day, so catching a little one is perfect, and we had just enough for dinner for four. Jeff made a great stirfry with this one, which we all enjoyed, while also enjoying our first dinner in four days where we could put our plates down on the table without having them fly off into our laps. On passages most our meals are eaten out of bowls while we brace ourselves in the cockpit.



We got into Port Resolution on Tanna at about 4 PM. We enjoyed some arrival cocktails while we got the sails covered and the lines coiled and the shade awnings put up and caught our breath. We also enjoyed knowing that nobody would have to get up in the middle of the night for watch duty. No matter how good a passage goes, I'm always happy for it to be over and can just feel myself relax.



The next day we went ashore to see if we would be able to check into the country on Saturday. Some places you can, but you usually have to pay an extra fee. We pulled the dinghy up on the beach and Fred went up to the yacht club to make enquiries, but the place was deserted. In the meantime a very nice gentleman named Phillip came down to the beach to say hello. I was surprised out how excellent his English was. We had read that there are more than 100 local languages in Vanuatu, and that the common language, Bislama, was a form of pidgen english that includes some French and spanish words thrown in for good measure. We read that the correct way to refer to the Pope in Bislama is "numba wan Jesus man". So, given that and that Tanna is a fairly remote island in Vanuatu, I was afraid we would have a very hard time understanding anyone, but Phillip's English was outsanding. Possibly better than mine. He explained that he was not from Port Resolution, but had come over from a nearby village for church services. He was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church and their services were held on Saturday. He told us that we would not be able to check into the country until Monday, but that it was OK for us to walk around the local village and the nearby areas before then. This was good news, since sitting the on the boat for two whole days was not super appealing. Phillip was nice enough to walk up us the trail a bit and point us towards the village, which really was a village. This is one of the few places I've been which really seemed like a village. Most of the houses were made of local materials. The walls were woven from leaves with a very nice diamond pattern on them. A few of the homes had some corrugated tin for some of the walls, and some had concrete foundations, but most of them looked probably as they looked 100 years ago.

We saw a gal walk across a field with some buckets and fill them up with water from a well, and saw another lady doing her laundry in some similar buckets under a tree. Everyone we saw was very friendly and gave us a big smile and some came up and introduced themselves to us and welcomed us to their village, which I thought was very nice.



We walked across the peninsula and came to a lovely beach with fringing reefs which formed a safe, shark free place for swimming, and there was a big group of kids down a ways having a grand time playing in the water. There were some homemade benches under some shade trees here and we sat down there to admire the view. Johnson came up then and introduced himself to us. He said he was the one in the village in charge of people on yachts and he would arrange us a car on Monday to take us across to Lenakel, on the opposite side of the island, so we could check in. He also said we were welcome to enjoy the village until then. Ashley and Fred took a quick dip and then we headed back to the boat to rest up a bit more. Sunday was mostly spent relaxing also.

Swiming hole

On Monday we went ashore and climbed into the back of a Toyota pickup that had very skinny benches built all around the outside edges and a big metal cage overhead with a rain covering over it. We were told it was two hour ride to Lenakel. we went about half a mile and then stopped to pick up a lady with a live chicken and a few kids. We went another half a mile and stopped to pick up some more people. Another half a mile and we stopped for a few more people. We began to suspect that the trip to Lenakel wasn't very far distance wise, but it would take two hours because we were going to make a million stops. Eventually, when there were 16 of us plus the chicken in the back, the driver must have decided he had a full load and we were off to Lenakel. I passed out some bubble gum and everyone had a good time trying to blow the biggest bubble. My pathetic efforts were greeted with gracious smiles. After we asked a few questions about what we were passing everyone began calling things out as we went along. Schools, Churchs, and markets abounded. We also went through ash plains generated by the volcano. They looked like big grey sand dunes. Then the road got pretty steep and there were a few times that the truck was slipping and sliding and I thought we might have to get out and push, but our driver, David, got us through it each time without any assistance from us.

Bubble blowing contest

We were pretty happy to get out of the truck and stretch our legs when we reached Lenakel. We hit the bank, then Fred went and checked us into the country officially, then James, our guide for the day, took us to the market where they had all the taro and kava you would ever want for sale, but not a whole lot else. We did buy some sweet bread pastries that were for sale, but passed on the rest. Next we stuck our heads in the some of the small stores next to the market. For some reason, Lenakel has at least 20 stores, most of which are tiny. There were lots of big bags of rice, and local sugar, and then a very random selection of other non-perishable items. We saw some Pringles in one store, and were excited until we got a look at the flavors. I kid you not when I say that the three flavors were Soft Shell Crab, Shrimp and Blueberry with Hazelnut. Has anyone else ever seen these? I certainly hadn't. We decided to pass on them and got back in the car for the long bumpy ride home.

Lenakel outdoor market

Later that day the same truck came to get us and we went to the volcano. This time we were accompanied by only our guide, a few young boys, and two rather serious looking fellows with machetes. I offered the bubble gum around again and was surprised that the machete weilding chaps were vert excited to get some. They did not look nearly so menacing once they were chewing gum. They got off fairly soon, but the kids came with us to the volcano and had a great time. They were running around rolling rocks down the side of the volcano. Jeff called it lava bowling. Then as we were walking down from the high point of the rim we looked up to see them doing a truly crazy dance and laughing their heads off above us on the rim. It was great.

Dancing boys

We arrived at the volcano in the late afternoon, while it was still light, then walked around a bit and picked our spot for later. James gave us our briefing and showed us some photos on his digital camera that he had taken the night before, so we would have some idea what to expect. Once it got dark the real show started. They call it fireworks and I can see why. It really did look like someone was lighting an enormous roman candle down there. Then a big boom would come and everyone would gasp and that's when the larger chunks of lava would come flying out. The closes one came to us was to land on the big lower rim below us, but it was a pretty amazing show.



On the jolting truck ride home in the dark I started thinking how ironic it was that James had a cell phone and a digital camera but the cooking in the village was done over open fires and the laundry is done in buckets. I had seen one bank of solar panels in the village about the size of a big door, and a wind generator, and I expect there were some mechanical generators as well, so I guess it makes sense that you could have small electronic devices when you don't have running water or propane tanks, but given that we'd read that in Vanuatuan society the women are expected to do almost all the work, while the men make almost all the decisions, I suspected that the housekeeping conveniences simply aren't given a very high priority. If we had had more time to spend in Port Resolution I may have come away with a different impression, but then again, maybe I would have found that the huts had big screen TVs inside and been even more convinced of my half-baked theory. In any case I would have been happy to spend more time in Port Resolution getting to know the friendly folks there and finding answers to some of my questions, but our time in Vanuatu is going to be limited because we need to leave here and head north out of the cyclone area before the cyclone season begins in December, so on Tuesday we pulled up the anchor and headed off to Port Vila.

We had downloaded weather information and were expecting 10-20 knot winds for this 130 mile sail, but instead we got more like 20-30 knots and quite a bumpy ride. Fortunately it was only an overnight sail, as it was a bit unpleasant. The harbour in Port Vila is very protected and we felt like somebody had turned the wind off as we came in. We were able to pick up a moooring ball in the harbour and have been enjoying the town very much, but I'll write more about that in my next entry. Our current plans are to stay here till Tuesday to do some minor repairs and take advantage of the excellent stores here, then head north to Santo where there is some very good wreck diving.



As always, we hope all is well with all of you!



Arived in Vanuatu

We made it safe to Vanuatu. Anchored in Port Resolution on Tanna at about 4 PM. Have not left the boat yet, but looking forward to checking out the local scene tomorrow. Also looking forward to an full night's sleep - no getting up in the middle of the night for watch tonight!

Sailing to Vanuatu

As of Friday morning Fiji time, which is Thursday afternoon US time, we are about 200 miles away from Vanuatu. Hopefully we'll be able to reach the anchorage Friday before dark. The trip has been pretty uneventful so far - which is just how I like a passage to be! Fairly light winds and big waves, but we are motorsailing right along making good time. We plan to check in on the island of Tanna so we can visit it's active volcano. I just hope it's not too active while we are there!

Vanuatu Bound

As of today everything looks good for a Vanuatu departure tomorrow.  We will do a final weather check in the morning, then if all is well we'll do last minute provisioning in Lautoka and then clear out with customs and immigration.  Should be a 4-5 day sail to Tanna, the island we plan to make our landfall in Vanuatu.  Hoping for a boring passage - that's my favourite kind!

Rest In Peace Tom Kollmer

Most of you who read this blog probably already know that the recent interruption in blog posts was due to the very sudden and very shocking death of Tom Kollmer. Tom has featured prominently in the last couple boat blog entries because he came sailing with us in Tonga and Fiji. On August 2, shortly after Tom returned to the US, he died suddenly while hiking in Vermont. We were devastated, but very, very glad we got to spend two extremely fun months with him when we did. He still seems very present on the boat because of all the fond memories we have of him from that time. We miss him very much.

Tom Kollmer

Jeff and I learned about Tom's death while we were on the boat in Musket Cove. We are very grateful to the staff there for all the assistance they provided. With their help we were able to leave that very afternoon. Patrick and Sophie on the marina staff were particularly helpful with arrangements for the boat and many other staff members were extremely sympathetic and also very helpful with travel arrangements during this stressful time, and we are very grateful.

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On October 10 Fred, Ashley and I flew back to Fiji while Jeff remained in the US to finish some business. Ashley, Fred's girlfriend, is the newest member of the crew and appears to be unfazed by the fate of our last fourth crew member.

Ashley

Our first few days in Fiji were spent unpacking the 300 pounds of gear and supplies we had brought back with us from the land of plenty, and putting the boat back into cruising shape. We also enjoyed a few of Musket Cove's many amenities including drinks at the tiki bar, beach lounging, windsurfing, paddle boarding and the Thursday night pig roast followed by a demonstration of the local dancing skills. When the dancers came in to begin the program they passed close by my chair. As he went past, one of the warrior dancers lunged at me and let out a war yell right in my face. I let out a very girlly scream in response, much to the warrior's and Fred's delight. This may have been Fred's favorite part of the evening, winning out over even the delicious cracklin they serve as part of the feast.

These guys are scary!

Next we went to Vuda Point for some repairs. Ashley got certified for scuba diving while we were there also. Unfortunately, Vuda Point was every bit as hot as I remembered it being. The only relatively cool working hours are from 6 AM to 8 AM. Any time after that the place is like a giant open steam room. Fred, who always sweats a lot, was literally drenched with sweat the entire day, and I was not much drier. Thankfully most of the work got done quickly and we were able to rent a car and escape the heat for a few days.

Angie windsurfing at Musket Cove

We drove over to Pacific Harbour and tried to do the infamous Beqa shark dive, but found those dives were booked already for the days we were able to be there, we did soft coral dives instead and saw an underwater wreck, and some really cute, little, blue and yellow ribbon eels.



After that we went into the big town of Suva for a mad provisioning spree. Much to our amazement we found a Costco-like store and got so much stuff there that the car was scraping a bit each time we hit a dip on the way home. Suva itself seemed like most big cities in that there were some great parks and other seeming nice attractions (we didn't actually see any, only the inside of grocery stores), but also some areas you wanted to avoid entirely.

Musket Cove Beach

After that we drove back to Vuda point and sailed the next day back to Musket Cove for a joyful reunion with our friends Lisa and Lester on Obsession. It is always a joy to see these two! We were also happy to note that most of the repairs made in Vuda seemed to have taken, with the unfortunate exception of the refrigerator, which just wasn't working quite right.



Next day we sailed back to Port Denerau on the mainland for another joyful reunion with our last arriving crew member Jeff who flew in Tuesday morning. Hooray, Jeff is here!!!



Fred was also able to arrange that a part for our fridge got flown up from New Zealand with an incoming crew memeber for Obsession, which was quite fortuitous as the part is not available here and we know from previous experiences that having something mailed to an island in the Pacific is an extremely slow and frustrating process.



Our plans for the near future are to finish the repairs on the fridge (Ali is working on it as I write this), then head for Vanuatu as soon as the next weather window presents itself. We are all very excited about Vanuatu despite the fact that shark attacks occur there more frequently than anywhere else in the Pacific. Great. We are told, however, that the problems occur mostly in specific areas and if we follow local advice about where not to swim we should be ok. The "mostly" and "should" are a bit worrying, but we are still excited to go and see for ourselves.

Fiji, June 24 - July 15, 2010

We had an uneventful three day passage from Tonga to Fiji. It was a bit uncomfortable at first because we had some big waves coming from right behind us which makes the boat rock quite a bit side to side. Nobody got much sleep the first night, but we recovered the next day just before one of our fan belts shredded itself to bits. This belt was for the intake water pump which cools the engine, so the engine immediately overheated, and we had to shut it off and wait for the engine to cool down before Fred and Jeff could begin attempting to fix it. We had the replacement belt, but it put up a fight going on, but eventually Fred and Jeff convinced it to cooperate it, which was good news because we were just a few miles away from a pass through the reefs that we did not want to negotiate under sail power alone. But all ended well, and we made it through the pass and arrived in Savusavu on Vanua Levu, the next day. We were very impressed with the efficiency and friendliness of the officials here. They all came out to the boat and we were cleared through in about a half hour, which is pretty amazing, especially considering that we arrived late in the afternoon.

We really enjoyed our time in Savusavu despite the fact that it was unbelievably hot while we were there. The anchorage in Savusavu is a little ways up a wide river,
backed by fairly steep hills, so the anchorage area is very protected. This is a nice feature when the wind is blowing, but makes it very hot when it's not. The river was also not very inviting for swimming, which is our usual method of cooling off. Fortunately, we were on a mooring at the Copra Shed Marina which is a very nice place with very friendly staff and free showers onshore. Onshore showers are a pretty big luxury since fresh water is always in short supply on the boat. We took many long, cooling showers ashore while we were in Savusavu.

Savusavu has one main road that follows the river with about six blocks of businesses along it. Both the town and the people who live there seemed much

livelier than Tonga. We found the people in Tonga to be very nice, but also very reserved. Not so in Fiji. You hear "Bula", the local greeting here, everywhere you go, even from strangers passing you on the street, and it's usually delivered with a big smile. One day, when I was walking by myself just to look around a bit, an Indian lady got out of her car and crossed the street just to ask if I needed a ride anywhere. Then after we chatted for a bit she invited us all out to see the sugar cane plantation she and her husband manage. I told her we would come if we rented a car one day (which we did not get around to doing) and she then assured me that if we had any car problems in Fiji we should just walk to the closest house and knock on the door. She told me that anyone would give us any assistance we needed from use of their phone, to food and drinks, and a place to stay for the night if we couldn't be rescued before then. Nice.

We also liked the food in Savusavu. There are a lot of people of Indian descent in Fiji. They are called Indo-Fijians, and luckily for us, some of them run restaurants. We became quite fond of Indian style curries while in New Zealand, and we've been looking forward to more since we left. Fred and Jeff particularly enjoy very spicy curry dishes, and it's rare that anyone not of Indian descent makes them hot enough. The Indians, however, seem to have no qualms. You tell them you want hot and head sweating hot is what you get. I have no idea how anyone can eat more than one bite of many of the meals they get, but those two seem to love it. We also had some very good Chinese food in Savusavu. They even had potstickers (fried dumplings) which are another God Spede favorite. And did I mention that the food is quite reasonably priced in Fiji? So much so that we rarely ate a meal on the boat while we were there. It just didn't seem practical. Woohoo, no dishes to do!

We went diving with KoroSun Divers while we were in Savusavu. They are not actually located in Savusavu, they operate out of the Koro Sun resort which is on the other side of the peninsula, but they came to the marina and picked us up, and then apologized for having to detour one of their homes along the way, but since it was at the top of a ridge with fantastic ocean views, we just figured we were getting a little extra bang for our buck - a driving tour in addition to the diving. We did two dives with them, one with lots of swim throughs and one near a pair of gigantic coral mouintains. The coral here was really amazing and we enjoyed ourselves very much. Colin, the owner and head dive guy, was also nice enough to tell us about a marine reserve that was too far away for him to take us to, but that we could dive ourselves if we went there on God Spede. He told us many of customers said this reserve was their favorite dive spot in all of Fiji, and he gave us GPS co-ordinates for a couple dives there, so we decided to make that our next stop.

This marine reserve is in the lagoon surrounding Namena island (sometimes called Namenalala) and located about 25 miles southwest of Savusavu. The island is surrounded by a huge stretch of reef that juts out from the mainland and encompasses Namena island. The island is private, with a small resort on it, and boaters are not welcome ashore, but the resort maintains a mooring ball that you can stay on for free, and it is off of a lovely beach with great snorkeling, so we didn't mind not going ashore too much. While snorkeling in the anchorage we saw a five foot long moray eel swimming out of it's hole, which was pretty cool.

We planned on staying there two nights with one full day of diving in between, but our first dive there was so spectacular, and we got some more co-ordinates to other dive spots in the reserve, so we decided to stay for three more days and dive as many of the spots as we could find. I'm really glad we did. This was some truly world class diving and our fee for diving it all was $25 per person which you pay to dive in the marine reserve. The only other people diving this huge area while we were there was one guy from National Geographic who was staying at the resort on the island, and some people on a big charter live-aboard dive boat. The dive boats guys were very nice about helping us find more dive spots and invited us to come aboard one evening, but they anchored very far away from us at night, so we never took them up on that offer. Every single dive we did near Namena was amazing. Some were big coral pinnacles and some were drift dives. The first pinnacle we dove was 65 feet deep at the bottom and the top was at about 15 feet, and it was about 30 feet across. We went down deep and then spiraled slowly back up. It was beautiful, and amazing how many different types of coral there were, how healthy it all was, and how much things changed with depth. We came spiraling up about 5 feet shallower each go round and some something different each time. The top of the pinnacle was like an underwater aquarium. The drift dives were also very cool and we saw white tip and black tip reef sharks as well as a turtle on one of them.


The only bad part of our time at Namena was that I managed to burn my leg on the dive compressor while we were trying to quickly fill our tanks so we could dive again the first day. The compressor shuts off after one tank is filled and then you have to disconnect and reconnect the hoses to the next tank you want to fill and then restart the compressor with the pull cord. When I pulled the cord I did it at a funny angle and the compressor tipped over onto my leg. I didn't think it was a big deal at first, but it turns out I cooked my leg a little. Not need to go the hospital cooked, but I did lose a bit of skin. It's healing up nicely now, and I'm well past the possible infection stage, but am still wearing a bandage for sun protection until it heals completely. The bandage also makes me look more piratey, which I like.

After Namena Island we made our way down to Lautoka on the big island of Viti Levu. This trip wasn't very far as the crow flies, but it took a few days since we had to wind our way around some of Fiji's many reefs. Looking at this place on a regular map is very deceptive. It looks like big stretches of open water between the islands, but in fact there are these huge reefs everywhere and you have to go miles out of your way to get to a pass through them. We did NOT want to travel at night
in these conditions, so it took us two and a half days to get to Lautoka. We caught another Blue Trevally along the way. Those fish are delicious!

At Lautoka we stopped just long enough to do some food shopping and some official paperwork before heading off for Musket Cove Resort which is west of Nadi on a small island called Malololailai. We had to thread our way through more reefs near the resort and as we rounded the corner we were amazed to see all the pleasure water craft that were buzzing around. There were kayaks and hobie cats, and windsurfers and jet skis and day sail boats and boats that had taken people out to an offshore sandbar for picnics and snorkeling. Since then we've also seen helicopter tours and parasailing. I know these are all normal activities at resorts in the US and the Caribbean, but it's NOT been the case in any other place we've been in the South Pacific. It's been ages since we've seen anything like this and it makes a great change! Things got even better when we found out that for a very small fee we could join the Musket Cove Yacht Club (you must have arrived on a boat from another country to be eligible) and then we were welcome to use all the resort amenities. Not necessarily for free, but we are welcome to use them. Oh, and also their are free onshore showers and a spa. Did I mention the spa? And a pool. And the special beach bar which is on a peninsula near the dinghy dock where they serve cheap drinks and have wood fired barbecues that the boaters are welcome to use for free. And they give you plates and wash them for you afterwards - heaven! Now, to be honest, I must admit that I think they built this bar special in the hopes that the rowdier boaters would stay out there and the resort guests wouldn't necessarily have to deal with them, but hey, whatever makes it so that I can have free reign of the place works for me!

After a few days of soaking up the resort ambiance, and a day of diving for the boys, we sadly left Musket Cove and headed back to the mainland to prepare for Tom
and Fred to fly back to the US. The marina at Vuda Point is where we went, and it's a bit strange, but I'll explain about it later, since Jeff and I will be back there next week also. On this first visit, Fred managed to co-ordinate some different people to do some repairs and engine maintenance starting next week.

On Fred and Tom's last night in Fiji we treated ourselves to a very nice dinner in Nadi and then went out to Ed's bar, which we were told was THE place to drink in Nadi. I can't speak to that, since we haven't tried anywhere else yet, but drink at Ed's we did. And then we drank some more. And then we had some shots. Great idea. I don't know what time Ed's closes, but I finally threw in the towel and convinced the boys to take me home at 3:30. Ed's was still going strong. When we got back we turned on the boat stereo, forgetting to fade out the outside speakers, and managed to wake up our neighbors who called security. Great. I woke up the next morning with the worst hangover I've had in a long, long time. Will I ever learn? The boys felt better than me to varying degrees, which is good, especially since two of them had big, big travel days ahead of them. Tom flew out in the early afternoon, then Fred left later that night, and now Jeff and I are on our own for a bit.

We did some mainland provisioning the next day and then brought the boat back out to Musket Cove Resort, where we have gone into serious relaxing mode. We'll stay here for a week, then we go back to Vuda Point Marina while the boat is being worked on which will probably take about a week. After that, maybe we'll come back out here, or maybe we'll rent a car and tour the main island some. A lot will depend on how long the boat work actually takes and whether or not Jeff will be returning to the US also, and if so, when. Maybe, if we tour with a car, we'll save money on hotels by showing up at people's houses late in the evening and telling them our car is broken down... we'll keep you posted.

Vavau, Tonga, June 7 - 15 2010

After arriving in Vavau, the northern island group in Tonga, we spent 4 days in the main port town of Neiafu. While there we enjoyed many of the comforts of civilization such as internet cafes, non-internet cafes, stores and restaurants.

We also celebrated Fred's birthday with a very nice dinner ashore, what a treat! After dinner, we went for a few beers at one of the bars on the water, and then, after we returned to the boat, Tom, aka the birthday devil, tried to convince us all that we must have Jim Beam in order to celebrate properly. Fred is not a bourbon fan, so I helpfully suggested Jaagermeister instead, and away we went, thereby insuring that everyone felt at least one year older the next day. I may have forgotten to mention before that Tom also nearly killed our freind Sean on his birthday, which occured while he was with us in southern Tonga, by encouraging him to drink way more Jim Beam than is good for anyone. We notice that Tom has timed the extension of his stay so that he will be with us for Jeff's birthday but then gone before his own birthday arrives 10 days later. We think this is cheating and would like to lodge a formal protest with someone.

We spent about four days in town, more than we might have otherwise because, of course, we had some gear to repair. Unfortunately for us there was almost no wind while we were there, and the port is very protected with high hills on all sides, so it was very very hot, and some enormous jellyfish were visiting the port also, so we were hesitant to use our normal cooling method of diving off the boat and paddling around.

Because of the heat we were very happy when we finished our town errands on Thursday and headed out to the outer anchorages. When we pulled into Port Morelle, the spot we had intended to anchor at the first night, we changed our minds quickly when we saw that it was also protected by very high hills. Instead, we went another mile and anchored at Nuku where we could sit downwind of a sandbar between two islands so that our breeze was not blocked at all. Heaven!



We did a quick scan for jellyfish, and seeing none, we all jumped into the water. The guys got out the mini plastic football and commenced their game of jumping off the bow pulpit and trying to catch the ball on their way into the water. It seems to be a bit tricky to throw the ball accurately enough while you are treading water, so completed passes are rare enough to warrant wild celebrations.

Just as I was about to get out of the water anyway, I felt a sharp sting on the inside of my forarm. I looked around, but didn't see anything in the water, but got out quickly anyway. That evening a string of itchy bumps appeared on my forarm, but nobody else had been stung, and we didn't think too much about it, these things do happen from time to time. Next day Fred went for a long training swim during which he felt a bit like he was being stung also, but he didn't have any marks on him afterwards so he decided it was all in his head.

Later that day we moved to a different anchorage off Ovalau island. We detoured past Mariners Cave along the way and Fred volunteered to be the boat man while Jeff, Tom and I swam in. There is an underwater tunnel into the cave that you can snorkel through and then you come up inside the cave itself. The top of the tunnel is about 6 feet underwater and about 12 feet long. The trick is not to come up too early so you don't hit your head on the edge of the tunnel. We had gone in before in 2008 with our dive guides, but this time we were on our own, so it seemed a bit spookier. We got directions to the cave from the skipper of a very lovely 76 foot Swan that was circling around outside while some of it's crew swam in the cave. Fred offered to trade his 39 foot Swan for that fellow's larger boat, but oddly enough his offer was not accepted. Fred then brought us in close to the cliff and



the rest of us jumped off the boat and swam over to the opening. The swimmers from the other boat all came out of the cave as were approaching, so we had the cave to ourselves after we got in, which we managed to do with no mishaps. Once inside the cave we saw the fog effect that is created as swells come into the cave and compress the air inside. Tom Kollmer was not impressed by the fact that someone had left candles on ledges inside the cave, or he was annoyed that we didn't have matches to light them with, or perhaps both. I tried to swim down inside the cave to see the lower entrance to the cave, which is 65 feet deep, but although our free diving skills are increasing, I couldn't get anywhere near the top of this second tunnel. We do know people who have swam through it, and supposedly one of them went all the way to the bottom and d lost.

After we swam back to the boat, we headed over to Ovalau island. This was described in the book as a day anchorage with excellent snorkeling, and we thought we could use the settled conditions to our advantage and stay there overnight, since the winds were again expected to be very light. Jeff and I went for a snorkel and Tom swam ashore with his book while Fred filled the dive tanks and did not get in the water. Jeff and I could see that the reef here used to be quite impressive, but most of it was dead now, with a few patches of new growth which were home to some lovely but very small fish. Our Tonga guide book is a few years old, and we've been told that the reefs have been damaged by several large storms since it was written.



The next morning poor Fred looked like he had the measles. He had stings all over his arms, legs and most of his chest. He said that he had barely slept the night before because they were so itchy. We knew he had gotten the bites during his morning swim because he didn't go in again after that. I also had gotten quite a few more bites, during my snorkel swim, but we were puzzled because Jeff and Tom, who had been in the same water at the same time, had nothing. We got on the radio and got some information from other cruisers. Apparently we were being bitten by either microscopic jelly fish or sea lice. Sea lice? Great. We were told that the effect of the stings could be lessened considerably by applying vinegar to them as soon as possible, which would be great if we were feeling the bites immediately, but we weren't and we didn't have enough vinegar on board for all of us to drench our entire bodies after each swim. We also learned that these things had never been in Tonga before. Apparently this was their first visit. Lucky us that we were here for it.

The next day Fred and I decided to go diving anyway. We have full wetsuits so we thought we'd be safe. Jeff and Tom stayed on the boat and circled around while we were down since there was no place to anchor near our dive site. We dove the south west corner of the reef around Euakafa island. It was a good, but not great, dive, and I saw two new fish that I hadn'tseen before, but they don't seem to be in my fish book. (Note to self - look for new fish book in Fiji). I got a few new stings on my hands and feet on this dive, but again didn't feel them till later so the vinegar was not effective. We are all now afraid to go in the water because these pesky bites are very itchy and they last about four days.

After the dive, we motored around to anchor off of Tapana Island, home to a spanish restaurant called La Paella. We'd heard wonderful things about this place when we were here in 2008 and were disappointed not to get there then, so we were determined to go this time. We were not disappointed. They serve a four course set menu that varies a bit based on availability of ingredients. Our dinner started with two courses of tasty tapas, followed by a very nice paella (which our spanish friend Irene says tastes just as it should) with some delicious ice cream to finish it all off. Entertainment is also included in the evening. The spanish couple who run the place sing and play guitar after cooking dinner. We understand that the duration of the singing varies quite a bit, based in part on audience participation and in part on how late the previous evenings performance went on. We only got a few songs We were basically there for the food anyway, and in this we were not disappointed and would highly recommend it to others. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we did see a first for us there that evening. There was a dog in the restaurant throughout the evening, which is something we've become accustomed to, but after dinner was over a goat wandered in also! It is pretty common here to see goats and pigs in people's yards even right in town, but this was definitely the first time we'd seen one in a restaurant!

Because of the small stingy things, and the huge jellyfish, and the fact that the reefs here are just not that impressive for snorkeling or diving, we have decided to leave for Fiji sooner than we originally planned. We have managed to successfully shanghai Tom Kollmer into staying longer and making the passage to Fiji with us. We expect it to be a three to four day sail and hope to leave at the end of this week weather permitting.