Blog Tonga to Fiji to NZ
Well, finally I'm going to give a brief update. I'm so far behind now that I'll have to give a short breakdown of what's happened since we left Tonga on Sept. 26, 2011.
We left Neiafu, Vava'u, Tonga on Sept 26, 2011 at 12:10 PM heading to Suva, Fiji. We passed the time line at 180 perall which puts us 24 hours ahead. We lost a whole day somewhere:>)!! Actually it jumped ahead so it's really confusing. It took us 3 days to get to Suva and, it wasn't a bad trip, but we had to pin a stabilizer fin on the port side as it was banging and clanking with a pentensiometer problem. We had parts sent to Carolyn & Steve who were coming into Fiji on October 8th so we could, (hopefully) solve the problem before traveling on to New Zealand. Therefore, it was a little more rolly than we would have liked. But it wasn't too bad. The reefs through the passages had us a little worried, especially at night. We'd gotten charts which were fairly accurate, and reef waypoints that were not listed on the charts from other cruisers who'd done this passage previously. Our Northstar 6000i with it's Navionics charts have proven to be almost dead on for most all of the South Pacific and the Islands with their reefs, thank goodness. Our passage took us thru Lakimbra Pass, which was not recommended on the cruising guides to travel at night ( which we wound up doing at 3:AM:>) we had as the reefs weren't lit with navigation lights. But with the information that we had, we felt safe enough to go this route. We had some strange weather with lightning all around us the night before we got into Suva. It was pitch black and we heard no thunder although it looked as if the lightning was very close to us. It's always a worry with lightning and electronics on a boat. But we made it through with no hits or even any close by.
We got to Suva, Fiji at 12:30 PM on the 29th of September. So it took us 3 days to go from Tonga to Fiji. It wasn't a bad trip and we averaged 6.3 kts. We anchored out in front of the Suva Royal Yacht Club and had to wait until the following day to get checked in. We weren't allowed to get off of Storm Haven until the quarantine folks came out to check us in and make sure Bootsie was all healty. We had to put up a $1,500.00 (Fijian) bond for her which was returnable when we left Fiji. When we finally got to go on land, we went to the dingy landing at the SRYC from where we walked into the town of Suva. Our first impression of Suva wasn't very good. The South end of the town is really dirty and the people weren't as friendly as we'd experienced at other places. But as we walked on into the main part of town, we saw another view of Suva. The North end is beautiful with parks and museums and a lot of historical sites. The President lives in his palace at this end and his home can be seen from the main road. It's beautiful , and although we didn't get to see it up close, looked very exquisite. We toured the local Museum and it was very interesting. As we were walking back towards home, we passed a large grassy park with the Fijian Military practicing for their annual parade to celebrate Fijis' independence from Britain. At this point, I can't remember how long ago it was, but it seems like somewhere around the 1970s that they declared Independence. Anyway, it was very striking to watch them practice marching all in straight lines with straight knees and hundreds all seeming to act in unison with each other. It was at the field where the first trans-Pacific flight in a mono-hull plane landed to refuel called the Southern Cross with Pilot C.Kingsford Smith Co-Pilot C.T. P. Ulm on June 5, 1928. The local men had to clear out a hugh area of trees and brush in order for the plane to land. So it is now a hugh park. We didn't see the parade as we had to leave to go towards Denaru. But the practice was awsome! There's a old hotel there that President JFK and Jackie Kennedy and Prince Charles and Lady Diana stayed at. The story we were told was that as soon as JFK and Jackie Kennedy got back he was shot and killed and as soon as Prince Charles and Lady Diana got back home from their stay there they were divorced. Not a good track record, I'd Say. But it has been closed for the last 20 years and is currently being remodeled and upscaled while keeping the original building as original as possible and adding an additional wing on each side. We couldn't go in as it was a "work in process" but we found it very interesting.
Our friends, Caroline & Steve of sv "MutineerV", flew into Nadi, Fiji on October 8, 2011 to stay with us and cruise with us to New Zealand. They met us at the Marina in Denauru after taking a cab from the airport at Nadi to Denaru Marina. We were so excited to see them. We played around Denauru, which is a very touristy place with all the big resorts are located there. The area around the Marina has a lot of shopping centers etc. and so we just walked about and enjoyed the area the first day. The next day we went into the little town of Nadi by cab whom we had told to just drop us off on the main street. But he insisted on taking us to a local curio shop that had the usual handmade items in wood, ect., with bangels & beaded handwork and normal curio shop items. But they made a very big deal about giving us a cup of Kava and doing a welcome ceremony. They had us all sit around a bowl of kava and dipped a coconut shell cup out full of kava to each of us one at a time. We were then required to clap our hands and chant their welcoming chants and end with saying "BULA BULA" and chug the kava down. YUKKKKK! It looked like muddy water from a dirty river and tasted very similar!!! Steve, especially, said he didn't want seconds and that that was a two in one (first & Last) for him!! But it was awful stuff. The experience was great though and even though it was awful, I think we're all glad we at least tried it. It makes your lips and tongue numb!! We all worried about if they'd washed the one coconut cup from the previous people or not. We all survived without getting anything noticeable at least!
We stayed and played around Denuaru for about a week and then decided to head out to the Yasawa Island, which is part of Fiji. The custom here is to take bunches of whole kava roots for each chief of the different towns and islands we visit to get permission to anchor out and go into their villages. So, before we left we went into the town of Latokas' open air produce market and bought several bunches of kava root. Then we headed out towards a place just southwest of Denauru called Musket Cove. It is a big spot for cruisers to anchor down away from the main town and we even joined their "yacht club" at $5/a person. So we are now official "Musket Cove" Yacht Club Members:>) Then we headed on out to another Fijian Island called Waya, Nauauwaki. We stayed there for a couple of days and went into the little village and were met by a group of women sitting out on the beach under a tree weaving coconut leaves into mats, etc. A young girl of 21 met us as we came up to the beach in our dingy and asked if we'd like a tour? Of course we were absolutely delighted! Her name was Sharon and she was so sweet. She took us to the local primary school which was Kindergarten through 8th grade. Though they are so very poor, the kids and the teachers and principal were so nice and excited to see us. The principal was at his desk (a kids school desk:>)outside of the school building doing his business. The teachers all stopped their lessons and let us interrupt their class lessons so we could talk to the kids and they could ask us questions. Of course they all wanted to know where we're from and what we were doing. They were so excited and their excitement certainly gave all four of us something to smile about for days! As most all Fijians are black, they were absolutely fascinated with wonder about what we thought of President Obama. I think they were disappointed when we said we were none too happy with him.
We asked if we should go back to the boat to get the kava to take to the Chief. But, for some strange reason, none of the women thought that was a great idea. They told us they would just wait there on the beach and we could bring it to them and we'd all have kava with them. We had the impression they weren't too fond of the chief but didn't ask any questions. Of course we decided it probably wouldn't be in our best interest to drink the kava with the women on the beach and not ask permission of the chief. Therefore we stayed on the boat and we hoped we wouldn't get into trouble for anchoring out and not going through the proper protocol with the kava and the Chief. As we didn't hear anything, we squeaked by that one!
We then went to another Island next to Waya called SoSo Bay. A big cruise ship was in when we got there and we anchored a ways off. The next day Caroline & I went kayaking about and the boys did boat stuff on Storm Haven. I love the kayak but don't use it nearly as much as I'd like. It's kind of hard to get up and down and I have to have Don help me. He's usually doing something else and I hate to ask him. But I hope to use it a lot now that we're at Vanuatu for a few months. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
After checking the sailmail email we found that our "Weather Guru", Bob McDavitt had written saying we had a window to cross to New Zealand in and to not "Dilly Dally". Problem --- In order to get our $1,500 bond on Bootsie back we had to give the Fijian Quarantine 3 days notice as they had to send a check to Latoka, where we had to check out to head for New Zealand . Being that it was Thursday when we got the email, they couldn't get a check for us (we had to give them cash, but we had to cash their check --- trials of travels:>) until the next Tuesday. By the time we finally got back to Denauru and got checked out of Latoka and cashed the check, it was Wednesday before we could leave. Of course this put us about a 24 hours behind the weather window we were given. Now the trip to New Zealand, no matter where you come across from, is known for being rough and ready! This trip was no exception. Carolyn & I fixed some "crossing" food so we wouldn't have to cook so much in rough waters, thank goodness. When we left Fiji on October 25, 2011, we hit rough waters almost from the start. We had 35 kts of wind, mostly on the nose, which is a very uncomfortable ride. The seas were anywhere from 6' to 17-18' waves and close together. Our stabilizers were still not working properly even with the new part, and Don had to keep the port side (left) pinned back so it wasn't working. The other helped a lot, but not nearly as well as it would have if both had been working. Although in those waters, it was just going to be rough, no matter how well the stabilizers were working. The angle that works best for our Stabilizers is from a quartering angle slightly to the bow (front) of the boat. This was on our nose or , later, broad beam, which makes a very rough ride. We took one wave that went over the top of Storm Haven and took her to approximately a 45 degree angle. Carolyn was in the Salon reading on the sofa and Steve was sitting in one of the chairs across from her. Tiny little Carolyn went flying through the air like a rocket. Thank goodness Steve caught her before she hit the other side of the wall!!! After that, Don turned to get a better angle of the waves hitting us and we tacked back & forth for most of the rest of the way to New Zealand. It took us a little over 6 days to get to Marsden Cove, New Zealand. We were all soooo glad to get into a marina and stopped!
I'll quit for now and go into the New Zealand portion next.
Thanks again for reading about our adventures:>)
Paulie, Don & Bootsie (A whole 'nother story with Bootsie and quarantine and NZ:>)

Next update Fiji to New Zealand