Fiji

May 13, 2009

We arrived in Fiji yesterday and did all the paperwork. I believe we can stay for four months. It is cloudy but humid this morning. After breakfast Mike installed the window screens. They have mosquitoes here and you can get quite sick with dengue fever if bitten. Alan and Kristen picked us up to go to town. We were able to get a cruising permit that allows us to go to the group of islands called Mamanuca’s and the Yasawa’s. We had lunch at the ‘Sugar City Mall’, a very small dark mall. They don’t use much lighting due to the heat. Then we went to the market for produce. It is early in the season and nothing looked as good as last year and it was more expensive. But we still bought fruit and vegetables. Back at our boat Customs asked us to move our boat farther away from the wharf. Then we had appetizers on Charisma and tried to figure out a plan. But decided to take one day at a time. Tomorrow we go to Vuda Point for fuel, water, internet connection and do a little laundry, especially our sheets. It is hot, 91 degrees and light wind. We were complaining about the cold in NZ and now we are so hot!

May 14, 2009

Alan rode his bike to town to buy Kava for both of us. It was $45F for three bunches. It is a root that is traditionally given to the village chief in the Yasawa’s as a gift and then you are able to request permission to swim, snorkel and anchor in their bay. There is a different chief on every island. We are asked not to fish in the bay as it is the local’s livelihood. At 10AM we pulled anchor and headed for Vuda Point Marina. It was disappointing as the marina’s OB engine died so they didn’t have a dinghy to help us tie our stern. It wasn’t going well for Charisma so the marina guys borrowed a dinghy and helped them and then helped us. We were happy about that because it is almost impossible to do it by yourself. After we checked in we had lunch at the yacht club with Charisma, Bill from Airstream and Argonaut. Later we washed our boat down to get rid of some of the anchor mud and salt water on our decks and enclosure.

May 15, 2009

It was so hot last night we did not sleep much. It is 90 degrees this morning. After breakfast I did wash. Mike sewed slugs in the sail, 5 ripped out under sail on our passage. This time he used metal slugs at the reef points, hoping they will last longer. I bought bread and ice and ordered 1KG of cream cheese to split with Kristen. Mike walked to the place to buy propane as one tank is out. You can see the place behind the marina but you have to walk about 2 blocks to the gate. They had Mike sign three different forms to buy the propane. Then he was lucky as he started walking back a man gave him a ride, right up to our boat, that was great because the tank was very heavy after it was filled. Kristen and Alan came over for appetizers and then we were going to pizza and movie night at the yacht club but it rained, so that canceled that. We spent $9F on Tomizone internet access and Mike called Bud and I emailed friends and family of our status in Vuda and our safe passage.

May 16, 2009

We are leaving this morning, so we worked until 11AM getting ready. But Mike accidentally put water in the fuel tank, what a bummer. We had to empty the fuel tank to get the water and fuel separated before we could go to the fuel dock. By noon we were able to fuel up and motor over to Musket Cove. I made lunch under way, it is 99 degrees and we are hot. We arrive at the markers that lead you into the bay with the sun in our eyes. We are trying to follow a snail trail and watch the markers that are difficult to see. While we were conferring about where to go we ran into a sand bar, before we hit Mike realized the depth and had put the engine into reverse. But we were stuck. I was on deck and said “Jesus help us” and when I opened my eyes there was a dinghy with a 40HP OB engine and I asked him if he could pull us off the sand. He said yes and we got off pretty quickly. Thank you Jesus! We were able to get on a mooring ball and felt safe and sound at last. We planned to go ashore for dinner, since we had a rough day, after the refer was cooled down, it was at 30 degrees and after an hour of running the generator it only dropped to 27 degrees, that is bad. I guess the engine is too hot. So we will try again later. It turns out the dinner being served at the yacht club was for rally people only, but we lucked out they had extra and served us too. The news going around was one of our buddy boats, Elusive, had sunk. What a shock, we are so thankful for our safe passage. But we do hope tomorrow will be better.

Elusive was taking on water and they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Their boat sunk and they lost everything, basically their home. Luckily the boat Scarlett O’Hara was close to them and was able to rescue them before their boat actually went down. Buddy boating is a good thing!

May 17, 2009

A beautiful sunny day after a hot and sleepless night. We had breakfast, hung out the laundry and cleaned up the boat. Then we paddled our kayak to shore. We checked in to the marina and walked around the resort. What a nice place. Dave was on shore so he gave us the tour of the resort. There is a laundry, showers, general store, café, restaurant, swimming pool and more all free to use with the cost of a mooring, $15F, which is about $7US. We went for a short swim before paddling back to our boat.

May 18, 2009

Another beautiful sunny morning after another hot night. The wind really blew so we were able to use the wind generator to charge the refer up both in the morning and in the evening. The wind does make it difficult to go anywhere but we took our kayak ashore and went for a swim and checked out restaurants but ended up paddling back to our boat for lunch.

May 19, 2009

It is sunny this morning and warmer. Today I have to make banana bread as all my bananas are too ripe to just eat. We were able to get email today and also did a Skype call to Videen’s, it was so nice to hear their voices. Late morning we went out to a sand bar in our dinghies with Kristen, Alan and Bill to snorkel. It was pretty good snorkeling but I kept getting stung by tiny jelly fish. You couldn’t see them, you just end up swimming through them and would get stung. It is not painful but after awhile I was tired of it and got out. After we got back we were bored so we went over to Charisma, we invited ourselves but we brought appetizers so they were happy. Alan let us taste his new hooch, coconut rum.

May 20, 2009

Beautiful sunny mornings seem to be the thing here and last night we slept much better. Mike worked on the bilge pump this morning. I made more banana bread. Bill stopped by to see if we wanted to go on a hike. Of course we do. I have been eating too much and the wrong stuff. I need to buy cabbage as that really is good for my diet. We hiked up a bluff and it overlooked the bay, it was beautiful. We walked around the airport too where they land small planes and then went back to our boat.

May 21, 2009

Today started out sunny so we kayaked over to Charisma and gave them a mouse pad. Then we kayaked around the bay a little before returning to the boat. I made more banana cake and have now used up my bananas. Warm Rain came over and invited us to their boat for a sundowner. They invited everyone on moorings, about 10 boats, but it was fun. I frosted my cake with cream cheese frosting and topped with coconut. Everyone loved it and wanted my recipe, it did turn out good. We moved to another mooring ball closer to shore in hopes of a better internet connection.

May 22, 2009

This morning is hot. Mike worked all day on repairing a broken bilge pump handle and it broke again on the first pump. Bummer! I cleaned rust off stainless and discovered a broken turnbuckle. A T bolt toggle, so glad it did not break the rest of the way while we were under sail. As it turned out we had that spare part too. It sounds like several boats are coming through the pass today. Morning Light and Scarlett O’Hara made it to Lautoka to check in already. The rest of the fleet should be right behind. We went to shore to BBQ along with Charisma for dinner. Kristen made a pea salad and I made a cabbage salad and we shared. Another boat Mahaurangi, Earl and Marsha joined us too. It was fun. The yacht club provides plates, silverware, napkins, salad dressing and salt and pepper for free, such a deal, no dishes to wash! Nice dinghy ride home with a clear sky and lots of stars.

May 23, 2009

Cooler morning but comfortable, we had coffee in the cockpit. Kristen asked me to go snorkeling, so we took our kayaks and snorkel gear and found a spot to snorkel. I was a little nervous but it turned out good, there were lots of fish. I did follow her through one shallow spot where I thought my stomach or legs would touch coral, which I don’t like at all, I wanted to turn around but couldn’t in the small space, I think I started to hyperventilate but I told myself I could do it and it didn’t look like Kristen’s body actually touched anything, so I kept going and we were fine. Then we kayaked over to a place they were digging with a back hoe in the bay and they dug out many shells that we were happy to collect. We had never seen so many different kinds of shells in one place. We just had to be careful no critters were living in them. I had to throw back a couple of critters. Mike spent his day computing. We were going to BBQ again tonight but it started raining very hard, so we ate on our boat.

May 24, 2009 I lost a day somewhere.

May 25, 2009

It was a calm sunny morning at first and then the wind kicked up. Mike worked on the electrical wiring today. I have been doing the usual cleaning up and laundry. Kristen called today and asked if I would like to go shelling again. I said yes and we took our kayaks back over to the same place. It was really great all the shells were found, only we forgot to get a bag or something to put the shells in, so I used my hat and Kristen used her shirt. The wind was getting stronger by the time we decided to leave. I got in my kayak and started to paddle but the only direction I could go was out to sea, away from our boat. I said Lord please give me the strength to paddle the right direction. But the Lord showed me the white sandy beach that I could paddle too, so off I went and Kristen followed. It was low tide and one part of the bay goes almost dry. So we ended up dragging our kayaks over the dry bay, it was a shortcut, but it was still a long way. We ended up at the yacht club where I called Mike to come and tow me home. We were totally exhausted but happy with all our shells. Later we had BBQ for dinner at the yacht club with other cruisers. Someone had roasted a coconut over the fire and someone else added chocolate to it, yum! They shared it with everyone, it was so good.

May 26, 2009

Another day in paradise, a beautiful sunny morning. I hand washed our sheets in a bucket, this is loads of fun! And hung them out to dry. We went to shore and played tourist. We bought Mike a Fijian shirt at the boutique and we bought both of us long sleeve Lycra shirts to help protect us from the jelly fish stings. And we went out to lunch. We saw Bill and Janet on Airstream, she finally arrived. Going back out to our boat our prop on our OB quit working, not sure why but got it fixed. And now it started raining. Swan arrived today and they brought us vegetables from the Lautoka market. I bought cabbage here in Musket Cove and it was $15F per half head, which is crazy. We went to shore to BBQ with other cruisers. The moon was a thin yellow sliver in the dark sky with a single star just above it. Too bad we didn’t have our camera, it was beautiful.

May 27, 2009

Sunny with a light breeze. Mike was up early climbing the mast to check the sheave for the main halyard and he had to switch to the backup halyard. Later we went to shore with Rhonda and Kristen to swim, read and just relax by the pool. We also checked in the boutique to see if our Fiji flag was in, but it wasn’t. We ate leftovers for dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.

May 28, 2009

It was a nice day to do wash, so we did lots of wash and hung it to dry. Later we went on a hike with Rhonda and Dave and this time we took our camera. The view from the bluff overlooking the bay is beautiful, you can see forever. After hiking we went to the café and had a mango smoothie. So yummy! We walked back to the boutique and picked up our Fiji courtesy flag to hang on the boat. We also bought postcards for the grandkids. It seems odd to me but the postage was 50 cents Fijian, so 25 cents US to mail a postcard 5,000 miles. Excellent deal! We swam, I did 12 laps and then we took showers. Picked up a BBQ pack and went to the yacht club and built a fire, they provide the wood and BBQ tongs too. Charisma and Swan ate dinner with us. Our clothes smell like smoke so now we have more wash.

May 29, 2009

Today we checked out of Musket Cove and as we were getting ready to leave Jim on Gecko paddled over in his dinghy. He wanted to borrow our BBQ tongs as a sea snake had gotten into his dinghy and he didn’t have anything to get it out with. We heard this happened a few times and the snakes are poisonous. They don’t seem to bother you while swimming and we have only seen one other one. We followed snail trails to an island called Mana. It was a little scary going at first because the snail trails did not show the way out of the bay and there are many reefs here. But we made it just fine. We passed the island where they filmed the Tom Hanks movie Castaway. The entrance to Mana was also tricky and Charisma hit coral twice before anchoring. Thank you Jesus there was no serious damage. Alan caught a rainbow runner fish, great white meat, anyway he shared it with us for lunch. I made a salad and Kristen has chocolate for dessert. The water and beach are pretty here but there are lots of tourist activities including jet skis. It is just too busy here.

May 30, 2009

It’s a nice morning here so Mike and I pick up Alan and Kristen to go check out the island. After we were half way to shore our engine died, so we all took turns rowing. We walked a loop around the island basically it was a resort and had little houses in a village for the workers. We decided we needed to leave because there was wind coming that we would not be protected from, so it was time to go. We paddled back to Charisma and then our engine started when we left their boat to head to ours. We pulled up anchor but we could not figure out how to get to the marked channel, there seemed to be coral all around us. Finally we got through. As we were leaving Swan showed up. He didn’t want to go with us and we didn’t want to stay. So we parted hoping to catch up again. We headed to Navadra Island. We followed snail trails all the way. And we caught 3 Bonita, we shared one for dinner with Kristen and Alan. Now we are on par with Alan in number of fish caught since NZ. We have about 20 meals in fish frozen so we are done fishing for now. There are a couple of boats in the bay already and the guide book says there is only room for 3, bummer. It is too far to the next anchorage so we scope it out and decide to stay. There seems to be plenty of room. Later two more boats came and stayed too.

May 31, 2009

Memorial Day in the US. It was a rolly night and it rained too. It’s cloudy and cooler today. Mike wants to stay and Alan wants to go. If we stay we may be stuck for three days with weather coming. We went to shore to explore, we collected shells and snorkeled. Really nice beaches and pretty good snorkeling. I made grilled tuna sandwiches for lunch. We had coconut we collected off the beach, with chocolate. Alan has a machete so he opens the coconuts for us. Now the sun is out so I guess we are staying. Mike and I go kayaking to the other beach, there are three beaches here, very pretty. Lots of shells on shore but most seem to be inhabited. Went to Charisma’s boat and discussed plans again, but everything really needs to be based on the weather. Watched the movie Mama Mia, very good.

June 1, 2009

Today is mom’s birthday, I hope she received the card I mailed from NZ before we left. She is also moving to Idaho as I write and I didn’t have her new address. I want her to have a happy birthday! We decided to sail to the next anchorage today, which is Waya. We checked out the South side and it is way to rolly with the wind blowing directly into the bay, so we sailed on to the next anchorage on the North side of Waya where we would be protected from the wind. As we were leaving the south side our Auto Pilot failed. It runs from under our bed so I went down to tear our bed apart to investigate. The snap ring broke and the whole device came off the mount so it couldn’t work. Unfortunately it is not an easy fix so now we must hand steer through our tour of the Yasawa islands. Mike stayed at the helm due to high winds and rough seas. Once we rounded the point things calmed down and I took the helm to give him a rest. We were following snails trails which we became uncomfortable with as the trail crossed a shallow spot marked on our chart and our depth dropped rapidly to 4 meters, yikes! We anchored in a really pretty bay with a village and the locals were out fishing. One man was in a corrugated aluminum canoe trolling with a fishing lure. We did see him catch a couple of fish. We watched a movie and then bed.

June 2, 2009

The wind seems to be dying down this morning. I did some laundry while Mike computed. We see activity on shore in the village. We see three dogs and hear a goat. Kristen saw some locals kill a pig and goat and throw their carcasses in the water, we won’t snorkel here. Then we saw a boat full of locals arrive, so we think there must be a party going on. We all kayaked ashore away from the village, it was like snorkeling the water was so clear as we were going over the coral we could see the fish really easy. We checked out the beach and collected a few shells. Later Kristen and Alan came to dinner and I made curry fish burritos, pretty good.

June 3, 2009

Today we went ashore and hiked over the hill to a resort on the east side of the anchorage. We had to walk through a pig farm, some were fenced in but most were out of their pens. There were a lot of cute little baby piglets but still I was freaked going through there. Funny thing was, those pigs didn’t seem the least bit interested in us. There was an amazing view from the top of the hill. There were steps leading down the other side to Octopus Resort where we heard you could go for lunch. There were a lot of stairs, something like 170 or so, so we were ready for a cold drink and lunch. They didn’t serve lunch until 12:30 and they said they must serve their guests first, since it was only 11AM we decided to have a drink and hike back, through the pigs again. On the beach a huge pig was rolling in the sand. We decided to motor farther North. We went to Tokatokaumu Pass, at first it seemed like there was not enough room between the reefs but we found a spot about 12M deep with just enough room for two boats and protected from the wind. We went snorkeling right away and it was very pretty. We are between two islands so we could do lots of exploring.

June 4, 2009

Lyn’s birthday today, we miss her and hope she is having a great one! It is a nice morning although a little cloudy. We kayaked through Qaracuva pass, our guide book says to take your boat through here if you want to live dangerously. At low tide our kayak barely made it and we hit the reef in some spots. We discovered a resort here but didn’t go ashore. Kristen snorkeled and the rest of us kayaked, very pretty fish here. We saw a fish skip like a rock about 5 times on the surface of the water, we think it may have been being chased by another fish, but it was cool to see. I decided to go for a swim but I just kept getting stung by jelly fish, so I decided to read. Later in the afternoon we went in Charisma’s dinghy to the other side of the island where we were surprised by manta rays, huge ones about 6 feet in wing span. There were four of them swimming around the dinghy, Alan got in the water but then they swam off. When he got back in the dinghy they came back. After that we went shelling on the beach and found quite a lot of nice shells, Mike found a lime green bowl, a nice size, a little larger than the pink ones we have, which he deemed his new cereal bowl, but for now it is my shell collecting bowl. HA! On our way back to our boats the manta rays came back again, Alan tried to swim with them again but they left again. They were great fun. We had lamb steak on Charisma for dinner, they were very good, it is the first time we have had that much lamb.

June 5, 2009

This morning is cloudy and cooler but calm and peaceful. We decided to move to Coconut Bay where we met Paul and his wife Nasow. Alan went to shore and they gave us all a drinking coconut and invited us to tea. I made a banana cake to take too. I wasn’t sure if tea was lunch, dinner or snack time. It turned out more like appetizers, they served tea and rotis. Rotis are like tortillas only sweeter and a little thicker, and they soaked them in coconut oil. Very good. They cooked them on the open fire with rocks on each side of the fire to hold the pan. The kitchen is basically outside, they wash the dishes with water they get from the creek, where they do their laundry and bathe. They house is one room made out of corrugated aluminum with assorted tarps or woven mats to cover the sand floor. The table is a blue tarp that they put out to eat on at each meal. They move it around to where ever they will be shaded from the sun and wind. I have no idea where the toilet was, perhaps the jungle? They ask us for kava and sugar, so we gave them one Kava root and about 4 cups of sugar. When they served tea they put a huge amount of sugar in each cup. They didn’t have enough cups so they served tea in bowls. They grow kasava, a potato of sorts and yams and they have lemon, coconut, papaya, mango and banana trees. They gave us some lemons and papaya. They also fish and collect snails and crabs for meat. Their life is like camping everyday with no running water, it seems like a hard life but they seem happy. They invited us to have kava with them and since none of us had tried it we agreed. The guys went off to a resort where they pulverized the root to powder form. Then they brought it back home where they put the powder in a cloth bag and dipped the bag into a special ‘Kava bowl’ of water. When they finished mixing the kava and water, it looked like muddy water. Before they serve you everyone claps their hands three times and it is served in coconut shells to the first person, who drinks all of it, and then everyone claps three times again, the same coconut shell is circulated through the group. And of course everyone who walks by the house is invited to join the group. It tastes a little like peppermint and makes your mouth tingle. One sip was enough for me but everyone else had 3 cups before we left. Apparently the locals drank it until 2AM, they said it makes them sleep like a baby. Fun and interesting time. We were invited back for breakfast in the morning.

June 6, 2009

It was a sunny hot morning, we didn’t sleep well as it was hot and rolly anchorage. We went to breakfast this morning and they served the same thing, rotis and tea. They wanted us to eat first, which feels weird but we did, we could only eat half of what they made, but they seemed happy to eat anything we didn’t. I brought along some books and magazines for them too. The guys all went fishing, we thought it would be spear fishing but they used hooks too. It seemed like they only caught bait fish, about 20 of them, called Black fish. They said we were going to have a BBQ at their place tonight. I made a green bean dish and Kristen made a curry rice salad. While the guys went fishing, Kristen and I kayaked. I had to launch the kayak by myself since Mike was gone, it was my first time and it went well. We went to shore and had tea again, this time something like thin fried bread, very good and tea. They named Kristen Mama K and named me Auntie as they couldn’t remember our names. Preparations for dinner started, everyone seemed to help. They needed oil, onion, garlic and tomato paste which between Kristen and I we had it all. They set up the BBQ fire right next to the tarp, they got preparations for a bonfire ready on the beach so we could burn our trash, the fish were gutted but the heads were left on. They cooked yams and kasava so we could see the difference, they were served plain and were rather dry. At dark the brother started cooking the fish. By this time a lot of friends and family showed up, they didn’t have enough plates so they insisted we eat first and then the next group could eat, if there was anything left. I ate one fish but it was difficult to see what you were eating in the dark, they only had one little lantern that did not put out much light, and I didn’t want to eat the fish head. Paul insisted that I eat more fish but I refused, besides if we ate more then what would the other family have left to eat? We were told to eat Fijian style with our fingers. Later they passed around a bowl of water to wash your hands and I had a towel to dry our hands with. They had another kava ceremony but I just went to the bonfire to burn trash. It was a nice evening and they are really generous people.

June 7, 2009

Today is Sunday and we planned to go to church with Nasow. She had asked if I had any spare nail polish so I brought her a bottle and some perfume. She was so happy. At the last minute Paul said he was going to church with us and she had to stay home and cook. That was weird, she was near tears. Anyway she had to do what her husband said so we walked to church along the beach on this beautiful sunny morning. The village beats the drum to let everyone know they need to start walking to church. The church was AOG and in the Korokula Resort. It seemed as if they required the resort guests to attend, there were about 30 guests in a variety of attire ranging from swim suits, shorts and no shirt, to dresses and Sulu (skirts the men wore). People were from France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, England, Italy and the US of course. The service was on John 3:16 and preached in English and we knew all the songs. The pastor was very friendly and chatted with us for a few minutes before we left. Nasow had washed our dishes last night and returned them to us before we left. Paul helped us carry our dinghy out to deeper water, the tide was out and we had to carry the dinghy about a block. We pulled anchor and went to Narewa bay an uninhabited beach. Alan caught another Rainbow Runner so we were invited to dinner. We went to shore to look for a trail that leads to the other side of the bay where there is said to be a sunken WWII plane. We are not sure but we think we found it and will go on the hike tomorrow.

June 8, 2009

Nice breezy sunny morning at 10AM we hiked to the other side of the island with Charisma. It was about ¾ of a mile through thick jungle and then through grass that was about 2 feet over our heads and across a few small streams. Alan tried to make the trail better with his machete. On the other side of the island we met an elderly couple who live alone in this settlement. They were very kind and they maintain this area like a garden and it was huge. They had a variety of large shells that lined the bank along the water. Apparently there was a storm not too long ago that washed the bank and many shells away, they seem very sad about it. The woman gave us instructions to follow to the sunken airplane that you can snorkel over. With the instructions we had no problem finding the airplane, it was in pretty shallow water, kind of a cool siteing. The fish were around it just like a reef. Alan took a few pictures so we hope they turn out. We chatted with the couple a few minutes before leaving and the woman who is 70+ told us she had trampled the tall grass down to make the trail obvious so they would have guests come and visit them. We watched her weave panels for her home out of palm leaves. She was very fast at weaving them. Fun time. We hiked back to our boat and again had to carry our dinghy back to deeper water. Kristen and I snorkeled a small reef before going back. On the boat we showered and read. Mike made a 12 volt light to hang in the cockpit so we could see when Kristen and Alan came over. But when we tried to use it at dark it wouldn’t work. We made pizzas for dinner out of flour tortillas. They were great, except Alan questioned why we didn’t have a yeast crust, well because we are cruisers! After Kristen and Alan left, the light started working, isn’t that the way!

June 9, 2009

Beautiful morning, we are in Narewa Bay and plan to move to the Blue Lagoon, the most protected anchorage in the Yasawa’s. We had breakfast, cleaned up and motored out of the bay at 9:30AM. We followed snail trails for 3 hours and our engine really smelled hot. We are so thankful we arrived safely. It is a beautiful but busy anchorage. Our guide book says there is only room for 3 boats to squeeze in but right now there are 6 and room for more. Kristen and I swam to the reef to snorkel. There are lots of beautiful fish and big angel fish. On the way back I heard Kristen scream, she saw a big gray shark! The locals said that there aren’t any sharks here but Kristen is sure that she saw one. We went to the Matacawalevu Island to go to the store. The store didn’t have much, mostly canned fish and boxed milk and kava for sale. Kristen was able to buy eggs. They only man the store when they see someone coming and it was very dark inside. Mike and Alan went back to our boat to get Kava for the chief of this island. Us girls walked the beach while waiting for the guys to come back. One of the local men showed us the chiefs home and said go to the door, take off your shoes and say “Dura Dura Dura” before entering. The chief and his wife Andi met us at the door and invited us in. We all sat on the floor in front of the chief and he clapped and then prayed over the kava and then clapped again. Then he prayed for protection for us on our travels. We now have permission to visit their island but we are not sure there is anything to see. It is a very quiet village. Andi gave us each 3 limes, they were green on the outside and orange inside. They have a stove but they said it didn’t work. Mike and Alan looked at it and said they may be able to fix it tomorrow when they could bring tools with them. We had dinner on our boat and watched the movie White Squall.

June 10, 2009

Early this morning a local man stopped by to see if we wanted to buy a fish he had caught. We were not mentally prepared to deal with a fish so early in the morning, we weren’t even out of bed, so we said no. Mike was sick to his stomach most the night and Kristen is sick this morning. Mike gathered some tools and him and Alan went over to see if they could fix the chiefs oven. I decided to do a major cleaning and polishing on our stove. It is much better now but could still use more TLC. The guys were able to fix the chiefs oven and they were very happy. Andi made lunch for the guys. Rice with yellow split pea lentils yams, pikelets and tea. Mike brought home the leftover pikelets, they were very good. The chief asked them to come back in the afternoon as he has a generator he doesn’t know how to work, it was still in the box, a gift from his son. So Mike and Alan went back and set up the generator. Mike told the local children they all had to cross their fingers when they pull the cord or it wouldn’t start. It started right up and everyone was cheering. They plan to run lights for their house with the generator. They had tea again before coming home. Mike said you could spend a month in the village they have so many issues like this.

June 11, 2009

Today it is very windy but sunny and hot. I spent the day cleaning the cabin, deck and cockpit of sand we keep getting aboard. Alan decided to take out his little sailing dinghy and his mast broke so Mike went out to help him. He ended up dropping part of the mast in the water so he had to dive for it. Luckily he found it and no sharks got him. After all that we went to shore for burgers at the resort on the other island. Beer cost $5, Tea $7, and coffee $9 Burgers $17. We decided to go for a walk around the island, a sign said you could do it in 1.5 hours. After we were about half way I got a huge blister that popped and I couldn’t wear my sandals. With the rocks you really needed shoes but I couldn’t stand to wear them. We also came to a part where we had to walk a lot farther or swim across the bay. Mike and I didn’t want to do that so we all turned around and walked back. My feet were very sore when we got back to our boat. The chief and Andi were at Charisma when we returned. So we all had lemonade and cookies. They brought us yams and limes. They just wanted to say thank you again.

June 12, 2009

It was windy all night and still windy this morning. Mike printed the pictures he took of the chief and fixing the projects and took them to the resort, they will give them to the chief when he comes by. We decided to go to the next anchorage today called Nacula. Our guide book says they charge $30 per boat but that was back in 1994, so we will see. We started sailing but then as we headed North the wind was on our nose. We made it into the bay without snail trails and no trouble. Mike and Alan went in to see the chief and present kava. The chief and 7 other men were already drinking kava, so they gave Mike and Alan some too. The chief never said anything, like thank you nor offered any prayer. He did say they were having a fundraiser in 2 hours and everyone was expected to come. We went to shore at the specified time and everyone seemed dressed up. The women had on necklaces that they wove out of palm leaves, they were fresh like made today. We walked around the village and met some locals and saw the church. Many people seemed to have cell phones and we did see a tower. Finally we went to the grass hut, which seemed to be made for this occasion. There were CD’s playing music and men were sitting on woven mats where we were also instructed to sit. After about a half and hour the ladies came in singing a song and sat on the other side of the hut, only most of them sat just outside the hut even though there was room. Kristen and I sat on the ladies side too. Then they started a kava ceremony, the chief was there and drank kava but said nothing. This time the men mixing the kava prayed many times over the kava and did many hand signs and motions. We have no idea what they said or what the motions meant. Then they served kava to each man but it was a very formal serving and clapping. After the men they served some women but it seemed most women didn’t want to have any. Normally women do not partake and we were told today they were honoring the women and the fundraiser was to earn money to fix up the church. Kristen and I each had a small cup. They had a variety of coconut cups, actually some were like large soup bowls and yes you drank it all at once while everyone watched you. This was the fundraiser, so we decided it was not really that fun and sitting on the mats was hard so we left. We did make a donation and the group all clapped. They never said anything about paying to anchor. Back on our boat we had appetizers in the cockpit and Mike’s light would not work again, so we used candles. It was a beautiful starry night.

June 13, 2009

Cloudy and only a little wind. We think there is a cruise ship coming here today so there may be festivities on shore so we decide to stay another day. Kristen and Alan snorkeled but I wanted to keep my foot dry, it is not looking to good, so I stayed on our boat. Later it rained pretty hard so all we did was read. We were able to collect about 3 gallons of rainwater. A local man came by at dark and wanted magazines but also was going to give us a fish or papaya, not sure.

June 14, 2009

Today is party cloudy and light wind. We plan to go to the next anchorage that has the caves everyone talks about. The local man from last night has yet to show so I guess we won’t wait. We arrived in Sawailau Bay, it is very complicated track into the bay with lots of reefs. Once inside the bay it is so beautiful. The bay is surrounded by 4 islands, there are a couple of channels that lead to the open water. Mike and I took our kayak through one of the channels and it was beautiful shallow clear water and limestone formations along the shore. We saw a flying fish skip across the water right in front of our kayak. I made a carrot cake back on the boat and we watched Seinfeld episodes.

June 15, 2009

Pretty sunny morning. We took kava ashore to meet the chief. The young boys showed us the way to his house. He had been sleeping and we woke him up. He seemed like he was in a drug induced state, too much kava? We were told to remove our shoes and hats and sit on the floor in front of him. We gave him the kava and he just sat there. Finally Alan told him we were from the boat in the bay. He asked us how many boats and how long we were staying and if we wanted to visit the caves. He also told us there were bananas, papaya and spinach for sell. The young boys showed us around the village and it was fun. When we were back at the beach, there were several ladies who wanted to show us the ‘shell market’. Our guide booked warned us “the ladies are keen to sell their shells’. This was very true, in minutes there were ladies all around us with a mat spread out and their shells and jewelry to sell. We didn’t have any money so we said we would come back. We came back right away and I bought papaya and one necklace. There was also another little dark store and I bought yeast. I was going to make bread but one of the ladies said she would make me some home bread for $5. So I ordered one loaf and it was to be ready tomorrow morning. Kristen arranged a time tomorrow to bring items to trade. I said I would too. Mike gave the boys in the village a Frisbee to share. They seem to know what it was but didn’t have one. So that was fun. Mike went back to shore and picked up two local 12 year old boys that want to see our boat, Kojo and Wis. I set out cookies and juice. They said they hadn’t been invited to any boats before and really enjoyed the visit. We did too, they shared lots of information: Girls are sent to the city for education while the boys are schooled on the island as they have to stay and protect the village. Each person has a job in the village that takes care of everything that has to be done. Some fish, some work on the plantation, some protect, etc. The next chief, will be the chiefs son. Kojo’s grandfather is the current chief so Kojo will be chief one day. They wouldn’t eat the cookies without saying grace, and they were very polite. They talked a lot about ‘respect’, they said it was important in their village that everyone be respectful. Mike let them drive the dinghy and they were very good at it. They showed Mike a hurricane hole in the mangroves, they said we could take our boat there but our dinghy could barely go in due to the shallow depth. Mike tried to explain that it wasn’t deep enough or wide enough for our sailboat. They must take their dinghies there in storms. Mike took pictures of them before taking them home. They thanked us both for the visit. It was very fun for us too!

June 16, 2009

This morning Mike printed pictures of the boys and we took them to shore to give to their mother, the kids were in school. I put together perfume, lotion, and conditioner to use to trade for shells. I didn’t want to pay for shells as we can collect them too. Some of theirs were better than what we have seen so trading was fun. They love hair stuff and especially perfume. They were very generous in trading. Kristen had lots of lotions and nail polish to trade and was able to get one really large shell. She was very happy about that. After that we picked up our bread, she gave us each a sample taste first and it was very good. The loaf was very large too, I wish I would have bought two. The ladies in the village all seemed to wear long nice cotton dresses while cooking over the fire and doing laundry. I don’t know how they can dress like that when they live so rustic, like camping. Everyone seems to be very clean too. They seem to have running water but not in their homes. There is a shared faucet outside. I used the bread to make roast beef sandwiches before we left for the next anchorage. The next anchorage is called Land Harbor an uninhabited island about an hour away. We were able to sail most of the way. We did see a man on shore that was gardening and we saw a man that was fishing in a kayak. Later he brought us a fish called sweet lips but we declined and he asked us for sweets for his kids. We had some chocolate from Tonga that we shared with him. He was from the village over the hill. He was very nice. For dinner we ate yams that locals gave us. Mike peeled them and they were very slimy. They were okay to eat with butter, salt and pepper.

June 17, 2009

The weather today started off cloudy but the sun did come out. Kristen and Alan said they were going snorkeling and then they would be ready to leave this anchorage. After they snorkeled they came over and told us they saw a turtle, very cool. We motor sailed in light winds to Narewa Bay. We saw a pod of 8 dolphins that swam directly in front of our bow. I felt like we would run them over but they are fast swimmers so no harm done. We also saw lots of fish jumping out of the water only to be caught by birds. We had already been to the first bay so we agreed to go to the middle bay. When getting into the bay we saw friends, Dorothy Marie, Destiny and Morning Light so we anchored in the same bay as before. Fishermen were in the bay selling fish and lobsters they caught. We didn’t buy any because I don’t know how to fix them but I wish we would have. Charisma and Dorothy Marie did buy lobster for $20 each. Apparently the other night they were selling at 3 for $25. Charisma invited everyone over for appetizers, it was a little crowded but fun to see everyone. We had a great time sharing stories. Mike fixed his little cockpit light again, it just needed a new bulb, and we were able to see it really well to find our way home.

June 18, 2009

All our boating friends left early this morning, so we decided to go back to Waya as we are making our way to Port Denerau. We had a scare right off when our depth suddenly dropped to 6M. We were fine though. Mike put out our fishing lines first thing. We arrived at the North side of Waya fishless, not fair, Alan caught 4 but only kept one Rainbow Runner. So we are having dinner together again. We had lots of trouble anchoring, it was grass and we kept dragging. On our third try we seemed to hook. Let’s pray we did. We had a lovely dinner with Charisma, we made scallop potatoes and I cut up a papaya and made a fruit salad with it. I had also made a pudding and for dessert we put it over the rest of the fruit salad and added caramel sauce. Kristen also had chocolate gingersnaps, very good. Ending the night with a shot of your favorite hooch!

June 19, 2009

It was really windy last night and Mike thinks our anchor may have drug. The latest weather shows the wind direction changing so this anchorage won’t work. So we decided to move to the South end of Waya, it took about 2 hours in big waves. This anchorage is beautiful it even has a waterfall. We had to anchor in 50 feet. It was hard to find a spot to anchor, we tried twice and so did Charisma. We ended up near shore with reefs on two sides of us, but with the wind we should be fine. We relaxed the afternoon and read books and watched movies.

June 20, 2009

The wind was gusty all night with growing swells. We collected about 5 gallons of water so we can do more wash, oh yea! Two more cruising boats showed up today. I baked some bread with my yeast and made another banana bread and jello. We had to keep checking our anchor status since it was so gusty. One gust blew a solar panel forward and broke the line that had held it down in position. Late afternoon we were suddenly getting 6’ fetch. We decided to put out another anchor but that did not work so we decided to move across the bay before we ended up on a reef. I tried to pull the anchor up and while we were on top of a swell the chain would yank out of the chain locker and when our bow was buried in the swell it would come in. I had to sit on my knees on the deck as the swells were jerking the boat around. Mike came forward and almost fell in. At one point the chain had gotten stuck so I had to go below to try and fix it, thank goodness it was easy. Mike was at the helm trying to keep us off the reef. Finally I got the chain all up. We had hand held radios trying to communicate but the wind was blowing so loud we couldn’t hear each other. Two other boats were already moving to the other side of the bay too. We ended up anchoring between them in 50 feet of water, which didn’t make them happy but the choices were limited due to the deep bay. Charisma came over to this side too. The wind changed direction again and Gordon on Vari was shining his spot light on us to see where we were. We had an anchor light but he couldn’t see it very well, so Mike put out our cockpit light and that really helped. We stayed up all night keeping watch, we had 35 knot winds, not a fun night.

June 21, 2009

The wind blew all night and is still blowing hard. The wind generator is crankin out 11 volts, that’s smokin! The latest weather report says this will last 5 days! We are so tired, we hope the report is wrong. We had breakfast and are sitting tight for now. There are 3 or 4 villages in this bay and a school. The locals seem to dinghy around in this weather with no problem. They seem to have a lot of 40HP and 60 HP Outboard engines on panga type boats. They are very expensive we wonder how they can afford them. They are not government subsidized from what we hear. The wind lightened during the day but picked back up during the night. Mike took a couple of nights. Since our water tanks are full and we ran the main engine we were able to take hot showers, so nice. Mike slept in the salon so he could hear the anchor alarm if our boat moved more than 150 feet. There are 3 other boats now anchored in the bay.

June 22, 2009

The weather seems a little calmer but the swells are huge and driving me crazy. Alan called early and said they are ready to leave. So at 9AM we pulled anchor and started to head to Port Denerau in big swells. It was very difficult to steer, when you fell off a swell it turned the boat and you had to keep correcting. My arms were so tired after 20 minutes. We arrived near Port Denerau about 3:30 but decided to anchor near the Nadi airport in very shallow water. Alan says he was just following the snail trail. We dropped anchor and then went over to Charisma and after a few minutes we noticed our boat almost hit Charisma. At first we thought we were dragging and hurried back to our boat to re anchor but as it turned out Charisma was dragging. So they had to re anchor and we were fine. There were no other boats to worry about hitting so we were hoping for a good nights sleep.

June 23, 2009

We had a good night sleep and at 9AM we were ready to go to shore. We heard you could get a taxi from the airport called Turtle Airways who had float planes and a dock they let us use. They also called a taxi for us and negotiated a good rate to Port Denerau where hopefully we could figure out what to do about our boat issues. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Café, and ice cream and visited the bakery. After surveying the anchorage we decided it was too risky, the marina said boats have been know to drag, but no worries. No worries to who? We decided to go back to Vuda Point Marina. We took a taxi into Nadi and went to MH, the grocery store, and then to the Nadi market and back to our boat. We had bought too much so Alan took Kristen and her stuff first and then came back for us.

June 24, 2009

This morning we are going to Vuda Point Marina again. We must arrive before low tide as it is a shallow channel, our depth sounder read .6, yikes! But we made it safe and sound. It was very difficult getting tied up, they put us in a big yacht slip and we had to have 150 stern lines in order to tie up. We normally only use 50 foot lines, so we had to tie lines together to make everything work. Airstream and Argonaut helped us tie up and then we all went to lunch at the yacht club. After I showed Kristen the resort pool it was much cooler there. Dave and Rhonda were lying at the pool enjoying themselves. I signed up for email, we had 82 messages, it was so nice to hear from everyone.

June 25, 2009

Lots of work to do today. It is sunny and nice outside. I washed sheets in the laundry room washer and hung them to dry. There is only one washer available and a fight to get a turn. All three local marinas have mostly broken washers and dryers. What a pain that it. I hand washed everything else, at least at the dock I have water. Mike fixed a loose belt on the engine which may account for batteries and refer not charging and the hot smell. He got his auto pilot part back from Baobab and is working on re-installing the auto pilot. I got the Cost U Less grocery list and worked on an order that will come next Wednesday. Later I went out to collect my laundry only to find one of my sheets almost in the salt water, thank goodness I got it in time. We went to dinner at the First Landing with Janet and Bill on Airstream and Charisma. Nice evening!

June 26, 2009

It is hot today even though it is cloudy. We did email, Skyped family and friends and did laundry. Was a fun day. Later we went to First Landing again for dinner. This time it was a good deal, it was half price pizza. So we paid $10 for a 15” pizza, pretty good but not as good as the yacht clubs pizza. Dave and Rhonda were our dinner partners and we watched some local dancing put on for the resort people. We discussed our routes home together to get other ideas. We met up with Liz and Mike from Argonaut there too and well as other cruisers.

June 27, 2009

It is cloudy today but warm again. More laundry and more email. Mailed a few birthday cards too. Our neighboring boat is leaving their boat for a couple of weeks and want to shut off their freezer so they gave us bread, broccoli, pea and fish, God always blesses us. So we invited Argonaut over for dinner and cooked the peas and fish. We had a nice time. We gave them our snail trails and our paper chart of the Yasawa’s.

June 28, 2009

More wash and read my book. We went to Dave and Rhonda’s and had appetizers and looked at their charts. They are going to Tuvalu and the Marshall islands before heading to Vancouver towards home. That means one passage will be approximately 42 days at sea, that is a long time. I don’t want to do that. So we planned a tentative route : Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga-Niuatoputapu, this will give us the easting we need for a more comfortable sail to Hawaii, pulse we have not been there before, then on to Suvorov, Western Samoa, Christmas Island then Hawaii, Vancouver and home, at least for now this sounds reasonable.

June 29. 2009

It was hot today so we made it a pool day. First I emailed my grocery list to Cost U Less. Then went to the pool, Mike wasn’t really into it and didn’t stay long but I stayed with Janet and Rhonda. We invited them all to dinner and made tuna curry. It was okay but not that great. During dinner it poured down rain, we were so glad for our cockpit enclosure, it gives us more room and keeps us dry too.

June 30, 2009

It continued to pour down rain all night. Last night our bed got soaked so we slept in the forward cabin, it is a smaller bed and it was so hot Mike decided to sleep in the salon. Small bed and hot nights don’t work too well. I met Rhonda at 8AM and we took a taxi to Millie’s and from there we went to town. Millie was also taking her in laws, Francis and Linda, to town so it was a tight squeeze in her car but not bad. I was only going to get cash for my Cost U Less order and Rhonda and Millie had doctor appointments and Francis and Linda were getting new glasses. While at the doctors I met an Indian family. They had three teenage girls named Jezebel 1, Jezebel 2 and yes Jezebel 3. They must go by their middle name but they didn’t say that. I chatted about a half and hour and then they wanted our boat name and invited us to their home. Since we don’t have a car and were also planning to leave we didn’t go but it could have been fun. I was able to go to the chemist and get Mike’s heart medication, 250 tablets for $35F, that is so cheap! Why is it so expensive at home? We stopped at a video store and I bought a DVD, and then the market where I got better prices on produce than at the local big market. We had lunch in a small Indian restaurant where I ordered a spinach fritter which turned out to have jalapenos in them, they were so hot, I thought I was going to die. The woman at the counter scolder the clerk who helped me and said she should have told me about the jalapenos. Rhonda likes jalapenos and she couldn’t eat one either. Back at the boat Mike had done all the dishes, we had company so there were lots of dirty dishes, what a nice guy! We had leftover fish curry for dinner and I even gave some to Dave since he thought it was so good.

July 1, 2009

It is sunny and hot this morning. I did laundry again, using all the rain water Mike collected from yesterdays rain storm. At 11AM I went to wait at the café for my Cost U Less order to arrive. It was noon and still hadn’t come so we went to the yacht club for lunch with Bill and Janet. Cost U Less was late today, they came at 2:15. Millie told them to take our order to our boat, that was great because it would be so heavy and a few trips to carry it all. After I checked the order in we had been charged for 3 coffees at $11F each and only received two. I called them and they agreed to send the coffee to Musket Cove for us. Bill and Janet are staying at First Landing until their new engine is installed in their boat. We went over to check out their room, pretty nice and inexpensive too.

July 2, 2009

Today we picked up our new stainless steel grates that go on our stove top. They are beautiful but ridiculously expensive, if we would have known the cost, which was $433F, about $215US, we would have passed on the order. They can never seem to give you a quote, so we had to buy them. Janet invited me to go for a walk with her. We walked down the train tracks to the next resort, about a mile. We had a fruit smoothie and sat in lounge chairs over looking the sea. It was nice. Then we walked back. We are ready to leave for Musket Cove tomorrow but I don’t want to leave until I have had pizza at the yacht club, there pizza is really good but more expensive. Dave, Rhonda, Bill and Janet all came. After dinner they all came over for banana cake and coffee and traded movies.

July 3, 2009

Beautiful morning and we are leaving so we fill all our water tanks, jugs and buckets first and then get fuel, we have to wait until noon for the tide to be high enough to leave. We paid our marina bill, which is about $10/day US, not bad. John and Nancy on Meridian helped us leave, they got on the unoccupied boats on each side of us and George was in the dinghy to until our stern lines. It went pretty well but not perfect. We had trouble getting fuel too, this time Mike put in the fuel while I was chatting only down below the fuel was coming out of the tank and spraying everywhere! What a mess! I have to clean it up while Mike pays for the fuel. Then we leave and realize the engine smells hot again, so tightening the belt was not the problem. What a bummer! On the positive side our auto pilots now works excellent! At Musket Cove we were able to anchor by Charisma, a little far from shore but it saves us mooring fees. We went and had a coke with charisma and then over to Scarlett O’Hara’s we hadn’t seen them for a couple of months, Rene was doing laundry and not home but we visited John. Then they boat came over after dinner and had banana cake with us. Tomorrow they are taking off for Robinson Crusoe Island Resort.

July 4, 2009

Beautiful morning, so after running the genset to charge the batteries and refer we went to shore for a swim in the pool. Mike ended up leaving with a headache. So I stayed with Kristen. Alan gave me a ride back to our boat later that day. I fixed Mike lunch but his head was still hurting him. The Yacht club had a 4^th of July BBQ with Hamburgers for $7 and Apple pie for $4, pretty good deal. I heard there were to be fireworks but we never did see any. It was a fun evening, we even met Steve and Linda on the boat Linda. They arrived at the Marquesas the same day we did but we just met them. Nice people.

July 5, 2009

It is a beautiful morning and we are going to church with Alan and Kristen. The church was about a 15 minute walk on a hill side over looking the bay on one side and the local dump on the other side. The wind was blowing and you could smell the dump during the service. The pastor preached about love and that you can do all things through Christ, He is our protector. He spoke in English and Fijian but all the songs were in Fijian. There were quite a few men and their singing was beautiful. We walked back and decided after lunch we would go snorkeling on a reef near our boats. It was pretty good snorkeling and we saw two of the biggest angel fish I had ever seen. Later we dinner on shore with Charisma, Bold Spirit, and Colleen and Tom who we just met, don’t remember their boat name.

July 6, 2009

It is Bud’s Birthday today, we hope he received our birthday card we mailed. We traded pictures with Alan and Kristen, some times one of us doesn’t always take a camera to shore, so we just share. We kayaked around the bay for something to do and then had lunch. It is so hot today and Mike has a headache again! We copied Alan’s Seinfeld DVDs as we also enjoy watching those reruns.

July 7, 2009

It was very windy all night and still is, thank you Jesus our anchor held. We stayed on our boat all day. We watched a couple of movies and did email.

July 8, 2009

It is beautiful and sunny today. Liz and I took our kayak over to where the locals had been digging with a backhoe and we collected many great shells. I am trying to collect a lot for some art project ideas I have that I want to do when we return home. Mike helped Mike on Argonaut with his computed while we were shelling. We went to shore to check on our coffee that Cost U Less was to ship to Musket Cove but we have to wait until they unpack their order. We sat by the pool to visit with other cruisers for a while before going back to our boat.

July 9, 2009

Another beautiful morning, we had toast and coffee in the cockpit while we charged the batteries and refer. Then we went to shore to swim, shower and check on our coffee. Still no answer on the coffee. We bought a chicken BBQ pack to have for dinner tonight at the yacht club. This time we had dinner with Charisma, Bold Spirit, Dorothy Marie, Linda and Destiny, we all were able to squish together at one table. After dinner we walked to the Plantation Resort and watched the local dance performance. It was interesting but not very good. The people who serve the meals were the performers and they didn’t all seem to have their heart in it.

July 10, 2009

Another beautiful and busy morning. I cleaned the rust off the stainless and Mike was repairing the stainless for the dodger. I did a little laundry and copied my banana cake recipe for Barb on Destiny. Now I am working on updating this journal, lots of work. Mike plotted our course home on a chart so we could see the miles between islands, so we would have an idea of how many days at sea. Or how long do we go without normal sleep cycles. We stayed on the boat all day due to strong winds. We are anchored between two reefs and must keep watch.

July 11, 2009

It was windy all night, reports said up to 30 knots. At noon it is still blowing hard but Mike went to shore to check on our coffee, no one knows anything, this is so frustrating. While he was gone I clocked the wind at 26 knots, not the best time to be in a dinghy. We heard a radio report that said a cruiser just hit a reef on Likuri Island near Robinson Crusoe. The boat had a single hander, Lisa, who went to sleep, she had been at sea 21 days on a passage that took most of us 10 days. She was so tired she put out 150’ of chain hoping that the anchor would catch before hitting anything. But she hit a reef and they can’t seem to get it off the reef even at high tide. It sounds like she is going to lose her boat and she just put much money into repairs on it in NZ. She was rescued and she was able to get some of her belongings off the boat. I worked on our journal all morning, we hadn’t updated since April 20^th. Our internet signal is not strong enough for us to upload our website. Mike tried until midnight with no luck. We watched Seinfeld reruns before going to bed.

July 12, 2009

It rained, thunder and lightning all night, we had to close our windows so it was too hot to sleep. The wind blew between 20-25 knots all night. We ended up getting up early and went outside in the rain to open our water tanks and we filled everything we could find to put rainwater in buckets, jugs coffee pot, tea pot, juice pitcher, sink and laundry sink in the bathroom. We had so much water we took our bed sheets off and put them to soak. The overflow valve inside the boat at the sink was pouring water so I used it to wash everything I could wash. Too funny but great. Water is a precious commodity. The wind has blown our boat on its anchor very close to a reef and there is no sign of it letting up. We just keep praying our anchor holds. We pray this storm passes quickly.

July 13, 2009

The storm has calmed down and seems to be ending. Thank you Jesus we did not drag on our anchor. We went to shore to check on our elusive coffee again. The store manager says it never arrived. He will call Cost U Less for us, however by the time it could arrive we will be gone. Kristen, Sally, Liz and Mike and I went on a walk to the local Gallery. Many local artists sell them art to tourists. On the way back we took showers and then had lunch with Liz and Mike at the café. Pizza again, we must try all the pizza, it is really not planned. We love pizza. We stopped by Argonauts boat since we had never seen the inside. It is a Cal 40 but very small inside and not really comfortable looking. As we were leaving they gave Mike a bottle of wine as a thank you for the help he gave them on their computer. Very sweet of them. Then we hurried back to our boat to get something to BBQ, we are going to the yacht club for a last dinner with Dorothy Marie, this could be the last time we see them. They are heading to Hawaii and we are heading for Vanuatu. I don’t really think it is the best time to go to Hawaii but they think it will be fine. We tell them to keep in touch. They have family in Silverdale so we hope to see them again.

July 14, 2009

Today we are leaving for Lautoka to check out. We didn’t sleep much last night, it was too hot and we may have been a little nervous about starting another passage. I got up early and hung our sheets to dry, made breakfast and checked out of the marina. We readied the boat to go and were on our way about 8:30AM. We arrived at 1PM in Lautoka, the wind had died so we had to motor about half way. Alan had gone to shore to go to the airport to pickup a package and Mike took Kristen and I to shore to buy a few provisions before we head out to Vanuatu. Kristen wants to catch a bus to town but I am not sure where. I put out my thumb and a man with a small pickup truck told us to get in the back of his covered truck. There were two men in there already and there was a bench to sit on. I wondered what I had gotten us into but he took us right to MH which is the local grocery store. We hurried to buy what we needed. As we were leaving we ran into Janet, there boat is still on the hard in Vuda-bummer. We got a taxi and Kristen wanted him to take us to Jack’s so she could shop for just a minute. And then we headed back to the wharf. The Customs guy checked our bags and then helped us load them into the dinghy, what a nice guy! We met Alan who had just checked out of Lautoka and Mike going to check out. Alan took our groceries to our boat and I went with Mike to check out. We did it in record time which was great because Alan was chomping at the bit to leave. We still had to deflate our dinghy and put groceries away before leaving. While I was shopping Mike changed the belt on the engine and thank you Jesus it works now. At 4PM we were headed to Momi Bay to spend the night, or so we thought. On our way the wind picked up so as Mike and I thought Alan wanted to keep going. Oh well, we were so tired but we agreed to keep going since we had wind. The only real concern was going through the narrow passage in the pitch black. Since we had gone through before we know the course but there is also current which impacts the boat direction and the pass isn’t that wide. But God was with us and hallelujah we made it! Once out in open water we had 20 knots of wind and big seas that rolled the boat back and forth for hours. Mike took first watch.

July 15, 2009

On my watch things seem to calm down a bit, or else I just got used to it. Last night we hit speeds of 8 and 9 knots surfing down waves. We figured we made 120 miles in the last 24 hours of sailing but we had to go 20 miles to Lautoka from Musket Cove and back track to get to the passage, too bad you can’t check out in Musket Cove. In Lautoka we had to fill out the same paperwork as when we checked in to the country in triplicate. It seems rather crazy. This morning we are going between 6.5 and 7.5 knots Now that Mike put on a new fan belt on the engine we were able to charge the batteries and the refer with the main engine for the first time in a long time. This is another hallelujah! Our secondary bilge pump has an alarm and it went off, scaring me half to death. I thought we could be sinking, like so many boats lately but we had just taken on a little water and the primary pump seems to be clogged and Mike had turned it off and didn’t tell me. The winds have dropped and so has our speed, we are only doing 4.5 – 6 knots. Charisma is 13 miles behind us and a new buddy boat, Ariestor is 3 miles behind us.

July 16, 2009

The morning light came a little after 6:30AM and along with it a beautiful sunrise at 7AM. We are almost half way to Vanuatu. We had coffee early this morning and granola bars. I was hungry after my watch and too tired to cook. We used our Monitor wind vane steering all night so that saved our batteries. We still used GPS, computer and Radar so battery one is at 90%, we don’t like to let them get below that or they are difficult to charge. We had to charge our batteries at 2AM. Charisma is now 15 miles away from us, if you say behind us, he is upset. Ariestor is still 3 miles behind us. The wind is clocking around to the East and should clock around to the North based on the grib files. We had a late breakfast and took showers, it felt so good! Mike decided to clean the forward head, what a guy! This is a first! The wind is really slack now and we are only going 4 knots. We are fishing too. We keep seeing flying fish in front of our boat and we don’t want to catch them. We caught two fish today but they were both small and we threw them back. A patrol plane from NZ flew very close to our boat, he called us on the VHF radio and wanted to know our boat name, our destination, ETA, number of crew, and who our buddy boats are. We never had this happen before. While all this was going on Mike was trying to free one of the fish we caught, its tail was wound around in the fishing line about twenty times and of course our two lines were a tangled mess. Not good. Mike changed the boat back to the auto pilot as there is not enough wind for the wind vane to steer. The wind has clocked to the North and we are sailing on a close reach at 6 knots.

July 17, 2009

I got up about 6AM and it is windy and sunny and we are sailing at about 6 knots. Mike ate cold cereal and went to bed, he is very tired. If the wind holds out we should only have one more night of night watches. This morning both Charisma and Ariestor are 20+ miles behind us. It is Mikes turn to sleep but I keep having to wake him up. I hit -1 on the auto pilot and the alarm just goes off, I don’t know what to do. I tried it a couple of times and the same thing happens. As it turns out the wheel is already turned as far as it can go so we do almost a 360 to get back on course. The wind kept clocking around so Mike decided to tack to get us back on our rum line. It was pitch black and we couldn’t see our sails and our tack was not successful. We ended up doing another 360 to get back on course again and I had to hold up the flash light so we could see our sails. Now we are under way and on course and it decides to rain.

July 18, 2009

We made it through the night but did not get much sleep, I got more than Mike. It is windy this morning and our speed is between 4 – 6 knots. Charisma and Ariestor now 39 miles behind us. At 1:30 we are 20 miles from Port Vila and 12 miles off shore. We decide to heave to, even though it is possible to make it in the light but only if the wind holds. We do not plan to go into port in an unfamiliar place in the dark. The sea swell is 8 – 10’ making the boat roll quite a lot. We are trying to relax anyway, HA! Mike made us lunch, grilled cheese and corn beef, chips and apple, excellent! It is sprinkling rain, no sun and just cloudy. We think we see land through the clouds. We are drifting South at about one knot. Charisma decides to heave to not far from us only they are drifting north, towards land, they can’t take this and the roll so they decide to follow a passing cruise ship into the bay.

July 19, 2009

We stay, that is until we wake up to the sound of an engine at 3AM. We look outside and see a fishing boat closing in on us fast. Yikes! The fishing boat has lots of lights on but we have no idea if they are aware of us or not. There was no time to call on the radio to see. Mike is quick to react and starts the engine and moves us away in the nick of time. However this causes our main to jibe and breaks our traveler. A bolt snapped off as the main slammed across the boat. Now in the dark again we have to set our sails and it is really windy, about 25 knots. We end up only using a reefed head sail to control our speed and not arrive in the dark. We arrived in Port Vila on Sunday just after day break. We anchor three times before our anchor sets and we are not sure how set it is. The guide book says ‘poor holding’ and they are right. We can’t get off the boat until we check in with Customs and it is Sunday and Customs is closed. So we go to bed and take a long nap, have dinner and go back to bed until morning.