11/16/2011, Vuda Point Marina
Well, for two weeks while Bill was gone I expected him back on Tuesday. In my mind, I was SURE he was going to be back on Tuesday. At 7 am on Monday someone is banging on the back of the boat. I was SOUND asleep and bolted upright and looked out the portlights, I didn't see anyone, so I laid back down, a couple of minutes later, bang bang bang, I look out again and see Bill's legs in front of me. I pulled a pareo around me and went outside to be greeted by Bill and seven suitcases waiting to come aboard. What a shock that was to me. I had totally confused his arrival dates and days, I'm glad that I wasn't to pick him up at the airport!!!Yikes.
Jet lag has been a bit of a problem with him, the first day he was back, he was fast asleep at 7 p.m. Today, Thursday, he woke up at 4 a.m. is now taking a nap because he was falling asleep at the table at 2:30 p.m. I'm sure he will eventually get reaclimated, but so far it hasn't happened.
One of the things he brought back was a step down transformer to take the local 240 volt system to 120 volts to work with our American electrical system. We have been using our Honda generator on the back deck much to a French boats chagrin a couple of boats down from us. Yesterday, she came unglued at Bill and demanded we turn it off...didn't happen. Don't cross a jet lagged, electrically perplexed old sailor. It just doesn't work. Anyway, the transformer wasn't working with our boat system, it kept blowing the circuits for the marina. For two days the electrician for the marina tried this and that to fix the problem. They even changed out a 20 amp breaker into a 40 amp breaker to try to solve the problem. That didn't work. They contacted a couple of other guys who knew more. Yesterday, they tried again, but we were having pretty sparks come out of our circuit panel. Today, another guy joined the force and figured out that: 1. Fiji is wired totally different than the rest of the world.
2. Zephyr is a really American boat and is much more advanced than Fiji wiring.
3. The transformer is strange, two prongs put out 120 volts and one puts out 240. Hmmmmm.
So the long and the short of it is that the extension cords between the shore power is Fiji power wired, our transformer and boat is American and they had to redo the wiring in the plug so that what we as Americans thinks of as the grounding prong isn't hot and is actually a ground. So with that fixed, Bill's anxiety level went way down and life got better. I think he was getting ready to buy a ticket back to Colorado.
Just to add to his anxiety level, you should realize that the generator decided to stop working the day he got back and two days after arrived back the engine decided to do it's usual and die with air in the diesel lines. Today is did it twice while we were trying to charge the batteries. Zephyr can be a pissy little girl when she gets a mind to do so. So Bill figured out the generator problem and that is resolved...it had run out of oil and the auto shutoff was engaged, but we have to still work on the engine problem. It is getting really old. I'm sure Bill will tell you the same when he starts to blog again.
Tonight we are going over to First Landing for a pizza and beer night. Italy, Norway, Australia and the USA will be represented at the table. It should be just what the doctor ordered.
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Comments [1]
Susan
11/11/2011, Vuda Pt. Marina, Fiji
While Bill has been gone, I don't have any hours per se and I can get up and go to bed when I want and eat or not when I want. Today, I didn't budge out of bed until 9:00 am, how bad is that, huh? I made my breakfast and my tea and sat out in the cockpit and watched out the aft end of Zephyr at the billion dollar view we have overlooking the Nadi Bay looking to the west and seeing the Mamanucca Islands. Wow! It hits me every day that I'm in Fiji. I really never honestly thought we would make it this far, especially during that first year of hell we went through refitting Zephyr. Those days seem so far away and long ago....all but forgotten (at least I try to really hard). Right now the watermaker is running and the generator is running...nothing (knock on wood) has broken today and I'm in FIJI!
Have a great day everyone.
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11/11/2011, Vuda Pt. Marina, Fiji
Last night I had dinner with the cruiser's off Teka Nova, an Italian boat with a name I can't pronounce and Star Struck. We all went over to First Landing for pizza and beer. We had a wonderful time swapping stories. All of our boats are staying here for the cyclone season.
The weather is definitely changing. It is more humid and the thunderstorms pop up in the afternoons. The marina is no less traveled than it was last month, it is still full, but the difference is there are fewer people walking about. The boats headed to New Zealand are mostly gone and the days are getting slower. The heat probably. An average day is around 85 degrees, not bad you say, but the humidity is climbing into the 78 to 80 percent range. That makes life really HOT. The kids would just lie on top of the floor boards over the water tanks and stay put until the sun went down, so the ac unit has worked miracles in that respect. They, the kids, are friendly and sleep in their normal haunts of the cat tree or on the settees. Life is GOOD!
I went to the little market today that is on the opposite side of marina and bought some beautiful vegetables, gorgeous ripe tomatoes that were from a garden up the road a bit. I'm looking forward to a BLT tomorrow.
Bill has started to pack for the trek back. He thinks that he will be bringing back SEVEN bags. Qantas charges $5.00USD per kilo (2.2 lbs.) So I'm thinking the excess baggage is going to run around $400. USD. Bad, but still much less than freighting it in, it would be around $1000. +. Hopefully, the duty on everything won't kill us even more. Time will tell. He leaves on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Denver time and gets back on Tuesday 5:15 a.m. Fiji time. Long haul, about 20 hours in the air.
I had a marvelous lunch with Ib and Yadranka off Aeolus. Ib made Danish meatballs that were pure heaven. I asked for the recipe so I'm going to try to replicate them. We'll see how that goes. Any tips, Lene???
More later.
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11/06/2011, Vuda Pt. Marina, Fiji
I did a little of everything today. I started putting on the covers over the teak railings on the boat while it was cool this morning and I worked on that until I was dripping then we kept getting too close to the boat next to us on the starboard side and bouncing off with fenders between us. A little too close, so I worked and work with the lines and got us more centered in the little pie shaped space we are in currently. I thought everything was fine, I was satisfied.
Inside I went to have breakfast and surf the web for a bit, then I did a bit of stitching on my Prairie Schooler Rest & Be Thankful pieces. I read and finished a Janet Evanovich book then I had a wonderful dinner with Star and Paul of Starstruck. Lots of great conversation and delicious food. Thank you so much you two.
The one thing that did happen today that was unexpected was when I was going to get off the boat to go to Starstruck was that I climbed over the cap rail to make the long stretch to the landing and it was a foot or so farther than I could reach, so I had to totally retie the boat ! That made me really late to dinner. Star thought I'd had a heart attack or some similar malady. I was really late.... I guess I should have checked that out earlier. Hmmmm.
Anyway, it was a lazy day in paradise. Talked to Bill on Skype. Everything is perking along. So far only one company used the US Post office and the package got sent to our forwarding service. Hopefully, Monday it will show up there so we can get it sent to Colorado before Bill leaves next Saturday, Denver time.
Oh, I will be sure to say hello to Mohammed when I see him next.
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11/04/2011, Vuda Pt. Marina, Fiji
It sounds so strange to talk out loud in the boat when you are by yourself. The cats just stare at me, not much conversation there. Oh well....
Bill is crazy busy in Denver getting items on his list and getting the car to work again, it needed a new battery and some gasoline. The roof is still leaking over the entry to the house inside, so I guess the roofers didn't fix it last year when we were there, so they are suppose to arrive today and hopefully fix it this time. I guess only time will tell.
In Fiji, the people on the boat next to us are working on their boat, or should I say they are having someone work on their boat. They are sanding the railings, getting ready to varnish them. That is something we are going to have to tackle when Bill gets back, not varnish, but sanding.
Life is definitely on Island time here, it is so hot during the day, I just stay put inside and do little projects waiting for the sun to go down.
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Ken & Lori
11/02/2011, Vuda Pt. Marina, Fiji
Just a quick post to let everyone know that Bill safely arrived in Denver after flying about 20 some odd hours. His Fiji flight was delayed by 2 hours so he was at the airport for 6 hours waiting, I can't imagine how boring that would be. Ugh. His flight was about an hour late getting into LAX, so there was no time to waste getting to another terminal and checking into his flight into Denver.
A boat neighbor, Paul from Starstruck, helped me get the Vodafone internet to work, it took 2 1/2 hours but now seems to be working well, it just keeps telling me that my volume limit has been exceeded, not sure how, I'll have to ask Paul when I see him today sometime. He said he would bring his wife, Star over today, so we could talk and he could work on the computer some more and not be sidetracked. Hmmmm...did I talk too much???
The marina didn't have a movie last night, not sure why, they said Friday. Oh well, I wasn't in the mood to be blood sucked by mosquitoes anyway.
I think I'll start on the dodger repair today. That is a nice inside job.
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