Sunday, October 31, 2010
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!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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.
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.
-----------------------------------
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
 |
| 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.
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.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Haapai Tonga, May 27 - June 5, 2010
We had a great time in Ha'apai, the middle island group in Tonga. This group consists of mostly small, low lying, picture postcard looking islands set amongst numerous coral reefs. Think sandy beaches and palm trees and you've got the basic idea. A few of the bigger islands have small villages that run off generators, while the largest has a very small airport, a few stores a very small, very laid back resort, a dive shop and electricity.
We spent about two weeks in Ha'apai. Because there was no internet access, I've got a lot to report here, so I'll start with just a brief summary, for those who just want to know that we are still alive and have some idea of where we are. Basically, we were island hopping around Ha'apai and spending lots of time snorkeling, diving, spearfishing and fishing.
Most of the scuba diving has been on our own, as opposed to with a guide. Before we did much of this I was worried mostly about our safety during the dives themselves. This turns out not to be much of a problem - we just don't go super deep and we never push the time limits (mostly because we run out of air first anyway). The real challenges are figuring out where to go, and timing the currents right if there is current in the area, and not forgetting little details like taking your weights with you and having plenty of gas for the dinghy. But we're working out the kinks and having lots of fun while doing it.
We've also been enjoying Tom Kollmer's visit quite a bit, and Fred wants me to give a little poke to those of you have said you'll come visit, but never actually show up. I don't want to name any names, but Tim Farley, John Dagelman and Robin in Canada all come to mind. Seriously people, get your act together and get out here.
That's the quick summation. The detailed version follows.
We spent our first two nights at Nomuka'iki (iki means little in Tonga, so to find Nomuka'iki on the chart you first find Nomuka, then look for a little island near it). This is where we made our first attempt at diving on our own this trip, but we had to abort after our regular outboard engine decided to stall on us inexplicably just as we got to the dive site, which was about a mile away from our anchorage, next to our island but downwind, with no protection and no other land between us and Fiji. Luckily, We got our small backup dinghy engine started after a few anxious moments (during which I realized that we had never actually started our new "backup engine" before this and - we did, however, have the hand held VHF along also). Once we got the backup started, we decided to forget about the dive and get ourselves back to the safety of the anchorage. It was a slow trip since it's a small engine and there were four of us and all our dive gear aboard, but Fred assured us that if necessary he would swim us in while holding the dinghy rope in his teeth. Happily, that wasn't necessary, and after unloading all our gear and determining that the regular dinghy engine just needed a bit of help getting back into neutral, after which it was fine, we consoled ourselves with a marvelous snorkel near the boat.
Next we headed to the island of O'ua which we probably would have skipped normally, but some north winds were coming and there are relatively few places in Ha'apai with protection in that weather, and it seemed like the best of the ones near us that did. We weren't particularly impressed with O'ua itself, but we had a very fun potluck supper on Catina one night which was attended by us and Paul from Scott Free and the crew from Sol Maria and a good time was had by all. The next day we tried the diving thing again with Fred volunteering to be the boat guy, since there was nowhere to anchor the dinghy near this reef. Jeff, Tom and I went down and although the visibility and coral were not great, it was still fun to get a dive in with Tom and to have some success getting ourselves into and out of the water on our own.
Also while at O'ua, Tom befriended some of the local boys who would paddle out on an ancient and definitely unseaworthy craft to visit us each day. Tom asked the guys if he could take a picture with them and we were all surprised when the kids flashed some gang signs during the picture. Gang signs? In Tonga? We spent much time speculating as to where they could possibly have learned about gang signs, but had to leave it at speculation as neither their English or our Tongan language skills (of which we have none) were up to a real explanation. Tom did, however, delight the kid thoroughly when he gave him the bandanna off his head after the guy said he liked it. Presumably because it is his gang's colors.
While at O'ua we read about some spectacular diving to be had at Wickham reef, just south of us, that was only accessible in very settled weather, which was what we were expecting after the north winds went away, so we stopped there and it truly was spectacular. This was the biggest and healthiest reef we had seen since Rangiroa, and, in my opinion, by far the best dive we've done in Tonga. There was a huge area of beautiful coral with valleys to swim in and wonderfully colorful reef fish everywhere. It was really, really lovely.
Next we headed to Uonukuhihifo island and had the good luck to arrive the same day a mess of fish had been caught by the other boats that were there. They had planned a beach party potluck to share the wealth - woohoo. Tom was fascinated by the cows roaming this uninhabited island after he got over being startled by them while walking down the beach in the dark.
The next day we went out to both dive and fish from the dinghy. Unfortunately we had trouble locating a dive spot that wasn't too rough or didn't have too much current. While looking we realized that we had forgotten our dive weights, but as we fished our way back to the boat to get them, we caught a blue finned trevally. Our fish book listed it as "excellent" food quality and we agreed. It was delicious. Fish really is better the same day you catch it!
The next day Jeff, Tom and did a circumnavigation walk around the island and did a little snorkeling from shore. Tom then continued on to circumnavigate the neighboring island and attempt to get a picture of the cows, but they managed to hide from him.
After that we headed up to Uoleva, where we had been before in 2008. I was keen to visit there again because the snorkeling was fantastic, and the guys were keen to go because a Tongan feast was being organized which was going to include pig. We are all about the pig on the God Spede! The feast was in fact a feast and was unusually good food, and the guys had a nice chat with the folks from Mariner's Cafe who organized it.
The next day we did a drift dive in the pass with Lisa and Lester from Obsession and afterward Gavin from Sol Maria put on a spearfishing display. Gavin has competed in free diving competitions in the past and it shows. He can go quite deep and stop and wait for the fish to come to him. Fred got in with his spear gun also, but Gavin had already picked off the easy ones so Fred was left with only the smart ones to shoot at and they all survived to be shot at another day.
The next day we snorkeled in the anchorage and it was even better than I had remembered. I took a turn with the spear gun, but couldn't get anywhere deep enough to hit anything. Those fish were just laughing at me. But I did watch Lisa and Lester bag a crayfish (she spotted it and he grabbed it), so I learned something about catching dinner, even if I didn't actual do it.
Next we headed to Lifuka island with Ha'api's capital city of Pangai. We went on a shopping spree hoping to find some fresh produce, but the stores here have mostly canned goods. Well, to be more specific they have mostly canned corned beef. I swear to you that in every store at least one tenth of the aisle space is taken up by canned corned beef in an amazing variety of can sizes. Particularly amazing since there is not a variety of anything else. No other item comes in multiple sizes or brands, but there is always a huge row devoted to the canned corned beef. And let me be clear, I do not mean corned beef hash, it's just plain corned beef. Oh, and sometimes there are cans labeled simply "Corned Meat". I'm just not brave enough to read the label to find out what's in there.
In the end, after going to every store in town (which was easy to do since there are only six and they are all within a two block radius) we came away with potatoes, onions, frozen frying chickens and some good old American bacon, which we were very excited about.
Next we headed to Foa, where we went diving with a dive guide again. It was nice to have someone else fill your tanks and find the dive spot and lead you around to all the good stuff, although we do enjoy going on our own quite a bit too.
After that we spent one night in Ha'ano which had more really tremendous snorkeling and Tom tried his luck with the spear gun, unfortunately, again to no avail. The next day we motored to Mo'unga'one where I played boat person while Jeff, Fred and Tom did some diving right off the sail boat and I motored around in circles since there was no anchor spot nearby. They said it was a great dive with swim-throughs and a huge Napoleon Wrasse. After the dive we anchored off Ofolanga for dinner then left at 10 PM for an overnight sail to Vava'u, where we are excited to find cafes and banks and internet service. Ah, the comforts of civilization.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Southern Tonga, May 14, 2010
We made it to Tonga and have been here relaxing and enjoying Tom Kollmer's company for about a week now. However, I would be lying if I said it was a fun passage here. In my opinion it was our least pleasant passage to date.
Things started out OK, but a few days into the sail, instead of the 20-25 knot winds we were expecting we had 30-35 sustained winds and were having to sail upwind in it. This alone would be enough to make things unpleasant (sailing downwind is ALWAYS nicer and normally what we do), but we also had some technical difficulties on the way, just to make things worse. The new anchor locker hatches leaked so much that we burned out a bilge pump on the way up and had to replace it during the very roughest portion of our passage, and since we were so far heeled over from sailing upwind, we also had to hand pump water into the central portion of the bilge so that the electric pump could get it overboard for us. It was a lot of work in very unpleasant conditions, but our friend Sean, who sailed with us from New Zealand is an avid boater and his help was invaluable. He pumped and repaired like a maniac. Thanks Sean!!!
Luckily we were able to stop at Minerva Reef for a much needed rest on day 7. Minerva is a spectacular landless atoll, which means it's just a big ring of coral reef with no land on it in the middle of the ocean. Inside is about 2 miles across and the water is quite calm except at high tide when some of the waves sneak over the reef.
We were able to effect some more repairs here and when we left we basically glued the anchor locker hatches shut, thereby temporarily solving that problem. Then we had a two day trip from Minerva to Tonga with basically no wind at all, so we motored up in very calm seas and dropped the anchor off Big Mama's resort (which I've mentioned previously in this blog) and have been enjoying her fine hospitality since then.
We hope to leave in a day or two for the Ha'api group (middle Tonga) and will have no internet access there. We'll be there for a week or two, then up to Vavau in northern Tonga and will send another update and post some photos from there. These are short sails with lots of places to duck in if the weather gets bad, so we expect no trouble along the way.
Things started out OK, but a few days into the sail, instead of the 20-25 knot winds we were expecting we had 30-35 sustained winds and were having to sail upwind in it. This alone would be enough to make things unpleasant (sailing downwind is ALWAYS nicer and normally what we do), but we also had some technical difficulties on the way, just to make things worse. The new anchor locker hatches leaked so much that we burned out a bilge pump on the way up and had to replace it during the very roughest portion of our passage, and since we were so far heeled over from sailing upwind, we also had to hand pump water into the central portion of the bilge so that the electric pump could get it overboard for us. It was a lot of work in very unpleasant conditions, but our friend Sean, who sailed with us from New Zealand is an avid boater and his help was invaluable. He pumped and repaired like a maniac. Thanks Sean!!!
Luckily we were able to stop at Minerva Reef for a much needed rest on day 7. Minerva is a spectacular landless atoll, which means it's just a big ring of coral reef with no land on it in the middle of the ocean. Inside is about 2 miles across and the water is quite calm except at high tide when some of the waves sneak over the reef.
We were able to effect some more repairs here and when we left we basically glued the anchor locker hatches shut, thereby temporarily solving that problem. Then we had a two day trip from Minerva to Tonga with basically no wind at all, so we motored up in very calm seas and dropped the anchor off Big Mama's resort (which I've mentioned previously in this blog) and have been enjoying her fine hospitality since then.
We hope to leave in a day or two for the Ha'api group (middle Tonga) and will have no internet access there. We'll be there for a week or two, then up to Vavau in northern Tonga and will send another update and post some photos from there. These are short sails with lots of places to duck in if the weather gets bad, so we expect no trouble along the way.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Auckland to Opua, NZ, April 23, 2010
I am very happy to report that God Spede is on the move again. We just completed a meandering, relaxing twelve day sail from Auckland to Opua New Zealand. It is great to be on board and on the mobile again!
God Spede is looking better than ever. Fred lavished her with a big dose of TLC and she now has gorgeous new teak decks and a spacious anchor locker. The new deck was quite a project. It required every single deck fitting to be removed while the old deck was torn off and the new deck was laid down. Then every deck fitting had to be replaced and every screw hole checked for leaks and every leaky part removed again and remounted. It was a big, big job, but now the boat looks fabulous and is leak free - a big big plus when you live aboard.
Fred, Jeff and I have been back in New Zealand since January. We've spent some time overseeing and helping with the boat projects, and some time traveling around enjoying the scenery. And they've got some good scenery down here. We've also spent some time touring around with my Mom and Merv. Those crazy kids came down for 5 weeks and rented a camper van and toured the South Island. We had a really nice visit with them at the end of their stay.
We left Auckland on Sunday, April 11, after having a farewell dinner the night before with my Mom and Merv who had been touring New Zealand in a camper van for about five weeks.
We did a short sail out to Waiheke Island the first night and stayed in a bay we'd been to twice before on short shake-down sails. The next day we hooked up with our New Zealand friends Sean and Trace who were on holiday and were cruising in their boat, Heramana, with their niece Amber. We did a very relaxing day sail up to Kawau Island and spent the next two nights in a very lovely bay there.
Kawau Island is an interesting place. In the 1800s Governor Gray lived there and he was very interested in bringing different plants and animals to New Zealand in an effort to find new industries for his country to engage in. Apparently he had quite a few different animals brought in from Australia, but the only ones to survive the winters were the wallabies - those little guys who look like kangaroos. They not only survived, but prospered, and are all over the place still. I went for a walk there and saw six of the buggers in a few hours. They were really cute when they were sitting up on their big back feet with their little front paws hanging by their chests, but when they went to scamper away they leaned over and then they looked a lot like a big rat with their long skinny tails trailing along behind them. I'm really not sure if I'd want them in my back yard, but I did enjoy seeing them up close and free.
We spent a lot of our time in Kawau doing small projects, trying out some new gear, reorganizing cupboards and generally sorting things out. We also had Sean, Trace and Amanda over for dinner one night. Jeff and his increasingly talented sous chef, Fred, made penne with broccoli and garlic, ala Bon Apetit, with meatballs in red sauce on the side, and Trace brought home made bread and cookies. It was quite a feast! Six people is a squeeze for salon dining on the God Spede but Sean and Trace are the kinda people we're always happy to make room for.
After a few days on Kawau we parted company with Sean's gang, and we set sail for Great Barrier Island, about 25 miles away. We'd heard quite a bit about Great Barrier, since it is a big sailing destination in the summer here. We can certainly see why. The main harbor is huge and has lots of small bays within it, so you can always be very protected regardless of the wind direction. We tested that theory as we sat out a couple days of bad weather there. We were lucky enough to get the use of Ray Beale's mooring there. Ray had surveyed God Spede just before we left Auckland for insurance purposes, and when he heard we were going to Great Barrier he offered us the use of his mooring, which let us sleep well while the wind blew strong during our last night's stay there.
Ray's mooring was located one bay over from Smokehouse Bay which is a delightful little area created by boaters for other boaters. There was a big fresh water tank which fills up bath tubs, one inside for privacy and one outside if you choose to enjoy the fabulous view while you soak. There is a wood-fired hot water heater for the tubs and there was a big pile of driftwood that had been collected already behind the tub house. There is also a smokehouse to smoke your fish and grills to cook em up on, and a big fire pit, and picnic tables, and fish cleaning tables, and so on. I bet the place is a madhouse in the summer!
We discovered Smokehouse Bay on our last day on Great Barrier, so we didn't use the facilities, but we did take a short hike from that bay which went inland and over a ridge then down to the next bay which had pretty red rock cliffs.
The next morning we got up early and headed for Tutukaka. This is a very little town on the mainland which exists, as far as we can tell, as a base for fishermen and divers who want to dive the Poor Knight's Islands. These islands are 12 km offshore and are a protected marine reserve. We were quite excited to go scuba diving there because Jacques Cousteau had been there and given them two thumbs up, and because we wanted to try out our new dive gear while in the company of dive professionals before we go off into the deep blue yonder on our own. This turned out to be a very wise move since both our new gear and some of our older stuff needed a bit of professional tweaking before it would function correctly. Luckily, Craig at Dive Tutukaka was able to get us all sorted and off we went.
This was the first time Jeff and I had been diving in cold water, and I was not really excited about the cold, but I found that all the people who told me that the thicker wetsuits would keep your warm were right, but I also found that they had neglected to tell me how amazingly difficult it is to get those stupid thick wetsuits on! Not to mention that then you are still meant to be able to get the rest of your stuff on over it! Jeff said I looked like the snowsuit kid from A Christmas Story, and I certainly felt like him! Thankfully Fred and Jeff quickly realized I was struggling and were great about helping me get suited up and off the boat each time we went.
We did four dives in two days and I felt pretty spastic on the first dive each day, and then really enjoyed the second dive. We saw lots of short tailed sting rays and eels and there were cool caves and arches that we got to swim through. In between the dives each day the boat cruised around the islands for sightseeing and they are pretty spectacular looking, so that was fun too.
After Tutukaka we made the trip to Opua in two short day sails and arrived on Fri., April 23. The weather was so nice for this trip that we were able to sail through the skinny gap between Cape Brett and Motukokako Island (known locally as "Hole in the Rock"). Quite a difference from our last trip near here in 2008 when the waves were so big it felt like we were riding a bronco!
We'll be in Opua for at least a week while we finish provisioning and try to finish all our last minute repairs and check our spares list one last time. It's a bit daunting because once we leave New Zealand everything will be more expensive, and a lot of stuff simply won't be available, but at least this time we have a little bit of a clue as to what we might be able to find on the little islands and we know that you can often trade another cruiser for something if you really can't find it, which is all knowledge we did not have when leaving the US originally
We currently plan to head for Tonga sometime near May 1. Sean is going to sail with us up to Tonga if he can get his passport renewed in time, and Jeff's brother, Tom, is going to meet us there also, which we are very excited about. After Tonga we'll head for Fiji, Vanuatu, Palau and then maybe working our way towards Thailand while staying in the safe zone near the equator during cyclone season. I say this with the disclaimer that all plans are subject to change at any time!
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