24 March 2021
Second Cyclone Season Recap- Success

First Day of Fall just passed here in Fiji and already boats in the Vuda Marina basin are pulling their anchor chains from the base in the middle and cleaning them off in hopes of getting out cruising once gain. The hum of last minute projects or rush to finish procrastinated jobs is evident on most every boat. End of April is the official start of cruising season; so really we have five more weeks that could summon a major storm. The consistent easterlies are giving us maybe false confidence that we are back in the safe travel zone. NaDraki Weather is a local forecast service here in Fiji. Craig forwarded us advice from the NaDraki weather man when Ora asked for research about heading to Kadavu a bit early this year. It appears the La Nina conditions are easing (except the dateline still has cloudy water) but the MJO may still have some surprises for Australia and possibly Fiji. Irony is that many of the "famous" YouTube cruisers took off for the safety of Australia and ended up with some very bad storms and extreme flooding this season.

Tabu Soro has been out and about in the Yasawa's and running for cover as needed or just in to be spoiled by markets, people and restaurants on the mainland. We have our favorite island anchor spots that make living easy and entry less stressful. It is still necessary to try to arrive and anchor when sunlight is overhead or a bit behind you for visibility to avoid setting anchor over coral. Fortunately internet is mostly available out in the Yasawa's due to all the resorts so we monitor weather reports before making any moves. The Yaswa's also have fairly good electronic charts of the reefs but it would just be dumb to travel during rain or evening hours anywhere in Fiji.

The goal this last month has been familiarize myself with the underwater camera housing that arrived in February from BackScatter via our care/parts package from the United States. I was just beginning to feel pretty good with my free diving weights and scuba gear. This big buoyant blob of camera gear has humbled me. It took me over two hours to assemble everything the first time around with frequent YouTube checks and another two hours to dry, clean and disassemble. Finally I entered the water only to find myself totally discombobulated. The camera wants to stay up and I want to go down. I've stuck to snorkeling and some free diving through Manta Pass and can now manage to take some pictures that are in focus. Nothing spectacular nor any close-ups but I know it will get better. We added two more dive tanks to our little boat so the guest quarter berth is full up. We are headed back out to the close islands again and this time I will try to scuba dive and use a camera. John and his Mom warned me that sometimes the photography takes all the fun out of the dive.

John is happy to be out at anchor but then happy to come in when our parts/care packages arrive to get repairs done. It seems like he has rebuilt the BBQ and stove and now a replacement water heater element is coming soon. He just installed Tabu Soro's Christmas present - a new stack pack for the main sail! Our next big challenge is for us to catch up on the varnish work before we take off for Kadavu or the Lau Groups in April/May. There is a mighty fine timeline between rain squalls and 90 degree heat to get sanding done and varnish applied.

Maybe I should not risk jinxing us, but the irrational fear I had of staying through cyclone season has turned out to be some of the best sailing experiences. Despite the work to pull all the sails and canvas for each storm threat, we have gained a lot of skills and confidence on how to deal with this boat in crazy conditions. Tabu Soro can take more than I gave her credit for and she is built to withstand water and flooding-unlike the houses and roads in Fiji. The recent tsunami warning put some fear into me but despite an 8 point quake between Fiji and New Zealand, all open ocean, there was no actual tsunami wake. Probably due to all the surrounding protective reefs. We were out at anchor but on the lee side of any tsunami wave action. Still we found ourselves holding our breath and ready to go out to sea if we got a heads up that this was the real thing. Vuda Marina did a total evacuation of the marina to higher ground up by the oil tanks which also turned out to be just an excellent disaster drill.

The first year 2019/20 I had assumed we were covered by our JackLine insurance being in Vuda which is a recognized cyclone hole. Fortunately our agent, Rachel, was in touch to renew the policy for 2020/21 and began asking questions and updates to the policy and offered a cyclone storm endorsement for very reasonable amount. At first it was intimidating to provide her with our Tabu Soro cyclone "plan". Then I checked with Jacinta at Vuda Reception and she electronically sent us the Vuda Cyclone Guide Requirements Manual. This document/photos along with our first year of experience where we were locked out of Vuda and caught in Suva during Cyclone Harold, the plan was approved almost immediately by the Underwriter. Good thing too as Cyclone Yasa passed safely over us the very next day!

Fiji is still doing very well with no new local cases of Covid. About two flights a month leave as scheduled for Australia to US depending on what level of Covid Australia is facing. The Yacht Blue Lanes are already beginning to draw the Super Yachts back to Fiji. When we went to Port Denarau for the dive shop both "BOLD" and "Su Ri" had just finished quarantine and were offloading trash and on-loading pallets of supplies. We know several cruisers now that were approved by the Fiji Ministry of Health via Blue Lanes and flew back to their boats in Fiji. It has been a long painful year everywhere. For this lovely little country's sake, I hope they get a break soon.