A Passage to Remember

We headed out from NZ on 28th May - bound for Tonga. A nice BFH (big, fat high) sat over the sea, and there seemed to be little to remind us of the fateful Queen Mothers Birthday Storm of a few years ago when so many yachts and lives were lost in the very same stretch of ocean.

Unfortunately the new underdecks autopilot (an hydraulic Course Master out of Australia) decided it didn't want to play, so we altered course and headed for Fiji. (I therefore, will not be able to swim with the whales again as I did last year - an absolutely amazing experience - albeit on a miserable day with little opportunity. I am very sad about this.) However - no sane cruiser wants to be without the most important crew member - Otto (auto) so that was that. Luckily we had an electric wheel pilot (an ST 4,000) 'whingeing Winni' - which actually managed very well.

After about 3 days we started to get some pretty strong winds and the seas became less than comfortable. However, we reefed down 3 times and ended up with a tiny mainsail and no foresail - and still found ourselves making over 5 knots! I seem to suffer from a form of sea sickness and didn't feel altogether well until 7 or 8 days out - not much fun even though I am a generally functioning body. Those nasty confused seas of about 3 - 4 meters didn't help at all - even though it was good to know that we were making such excellent progress.

Other yachts making the same trip at other times had horrible stories about having to 'heave to' (set the sails in such a way as to stop the boat making much forward progress whilst still maintaining a comfortable and safe angle to the waves - usually only done in really bad weather). We seemed to be bouncing along in fine form - all down to our extremely sturdy, elderly chariot. (Wed cut a piece out of the deck to install equipment in New Zealand - and found it was about 2 inches thick! Even the side wall are about 1/2 inch thick. Just imagine how much faster we could be if we had less weight!)

CC has a nice new 'enclosure' over the whole of the cockpit and that makes us a lot more comfortable and keeps everything warm and mostly dry - it's almost like a sun room (in the right conditions). We don't get all the salty winds and even though a few of the really curious waves made themselves felt inside the cockpit, we didn't suffer. A few of those nasty waves made their way through some overhead hatches as well - not good - especially when one is asleep - and not prepared to be entertained by a cold shower!

Suva has to be just about the most rained upon place on the globe! I read that here we can expect temperatures of abot 20 - 26 with approximately 4.3 sun hours per day in July. we will recieve about 160mm of rain each day, with about 17 rain days each month.

We planned to slow down so that we could go through the harbour entrance in the light. Not so - the wind kept up and CC kept on trucking! Eventually at about 5 am - lightening all over the place, rain squalls blacking out the radar screen for miles around, we saw on our new AIS system that a big ship in the harbour was moving. We called the Port Captain toenquire about this and he said the ship was coming towards us. It made a nice wide detour around and past us. (Backing up; the Automatic Identification System is a receiver that we have installed - toys for boys - that monitors all ships over 300 tons. They are required to install a transponder that sends out continuousl signals. With our receiver we can see the ships moving across a small screen, read the angle and speed, also the name of the vessel (sometimes). We can, if we need to, call them up via VHF radio and attract attention - something not always easy to do when these big ships are so poorly manned.

So there we were - at the entrance to an unknown harbour - reefs on either side clerly evidenced by the wrecks of large ships - with, by this time, the engine running. We suddenly smelled diesel fumes - heard a gushing noise and the automatic bilge pump started up. Mike investigated, and found the exhaust pipe (newly constructed by our new engine - yanmar 40 - installer and mechanical expert) between the exhaust and the engine had failed and exhaust fumes and water were gushing.top the engine (at that time we didn't know if we had water actually in the engine itself - luckily this was not so).

We called up the Port Captain and asked for help - this is Fiji remember, post coup - and, not unexpectedly - they were unable to assist. BUT - oh, joy - a friend at anchor in the harbour said he'd come out and tow us in! Some time later (we had drifted about 5 miles) we were rescued by Nancy and Berger in company with Don from Lutana 2 on the good ship Halakai. It is SOOOOO amazing what one's yachtie friend's will do to help out - we are so very grateful. We do have boat insurance now - but it would have looked mighty suspicious that we had sunk so near land and especially when our insurance is only days old!! Hiring a tug to come and rescue us would have involved all sorts of money and who knows what other problems, not even considering a time factor in a treacherous area!

When officials came to our boat much later in the afternoon we were charged 106 dollars Fiji for their ferry ride out to us. And this charge was the same for each yacht - even if the ferry visited three or four at once. Who knows what the 'overtime' charges would be if one arrived at the weekend or on a holiday! No wonder there are so few yachts checking in at Suva - and given the weather - not surprising that so few even bother to visit. (Now there appear to be new rules about yachts returning to Fiji - rumours of 47% duty to be paid. Soon there will be no cruisers here.)

On shore, checking in with Customs and Immigration - believe it or not - we ran afoul of the local "Manager - Border Control" a nasty bully with a very bad attitude. (Yes - paranoia is alive and thriving in far away Fiji.) He lectured and threatened us with all sorts of nasties - he must have come off really badly in the Monday morning meeting. We had to make formal written statements, plead, cry, NOT argue etc etc. bah! A little unsettling as we try particularly hard to conform to local customs and rules everywhere we go - and in this case we had merely followed instructions from another official. The local goal looks pretty uninviting - we meet the work gangs quite regularly on the road outside the yacht club. (Actually the men in the gangs look perfectly ordinary - they hail us with the local "bula, bula!" - hello, hello! and big, wide smiles. Those working in the nearby grounds wave and yell to attract our attention. I think the hard cases are kept inside the horrible looking, barbed wire topped main prison area.)

Our liferaft was overdue to be serviced - it costs a lot less here than New Zealand (someone remind me why we went to NZ?) - but we discovered that a valve was broken which may have been faulty since we got it. However - new flares - torch batteries, some water (none before), seasickness pills - an hermetically sealed pouch and we will be as good as new - and a few hundred dollars poorer!

When all is said and done - its great to be out in the islands again. It's hot (joy after NZ) very humid and extremely wet, but the local market is vibrant with all the veggie stalls, barrow boys hoping to carry your heavy purchases, pickpockets on the make! Lots of assorted fruit and veg - cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, celery, cucumber, beans, some sprouting beans - oranges, mandarin, limes, banana, lots of coconut, tallo - other mysterious roots and even a few tender baby lettuce. We even saw octopus the other day and although I haven't visited the fish market yet it is probably excellent as well. There are fresh bread stalls - supermarkets (not quite 1st class here), hundreds of little shops selling all manner of goods, - one can buy the latest movie releases (we got the recent raiders of the lost arc for 2.00 Fiji), have clothes made overnight, and sample all the varieties of local cuisine.

Indian food, sparkly clothes and beautiful gold jewelry is everywhere, Hindu and Moslem and Fijian mix and mingle. The Fijian women dress head to toe in bright, vibrant colours with huge floral patterns; the indian and moslem women are very recognisable in their dress style. We dress conservatively - it may not be quite so important in the big city of Suva, but elsewhere we (females) should, for politeness sake, cover our shoulders and knees. In the villages we (visiting yacht) are required to present a gift of kava to the chief and sample the liquor of same gift in a small sevusevu ceremony. In addition we cannot wear hats, sunglasses or backpacks. And we should be careful not to sit with our feet pointing at anyone. (There used to be cannibals here you know - don't want to kick start that tradition!)

We hear there is actually sunshine on the other side of the island - hope to sample same very soon - maybe next week.