June 13-16, 2010; Return to Albert Cove and a 50th Birthday Party

We spent 3 days back in Albert Cove, two of them rained like the devil meant business. Our second night was spent on "Scallywag", celebrating Gloria's 50th birthday. What a party! The usual suspects were in attendance: "Northern Winds", Just in Time", "Destiny", "Ivory Quays". Paul turned up his i-Tunes, cleared away the table in "Scallywag's large cockpit and we danced and sang like teenagers until 2:30 in the morning.
The next day apparently no one was moving very fast, including Frank. He pulled out the James Patterson book he was reading and settled in for the day. I hitched a ride out to the reef with Kim and Bob ("NW") for a snorkel. This was by far one of my top 10. We couldn't believe how healthy the coral is and how brilliant the colors. There were lots of Christmas tree worms of a variety of colors none of us had seen before, nudibranchts (SP?), huge formations of brain and star coral and a vast variety of colorful fish. Kim and I could have gone nearly all day we were enjoying ourselves so much, but then after a while we noticed that Bob had gone back to the dinghy and was fast asleep so we called it a day. We wished that we'd had good enough weather to dive the outer reef but it was not to be. On the 16th, all but "Northern Winds" left for Viani Bay. The sail over was absolutely perfect. We arrived in time to set anchor and enjoy a quiet evening on board.

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June 8 - 12 -Naqelelevu; Aftermath of a Cyclone, Lobsters, Coconut Crabs and Good Times - Part 2

We all gathered in our dinghies over by the rocky spit of coral reef, equipped with snorkel gear, cameras and spears.

We were armed for battle and ready to fetch some lobsters. The three boys, James, Bill and took us over to an area that looked like lava rock formations. We soon found that they did not need our help in the least - they got down to serious business diving under rocks and craggy coral formations with long spears, working like mad to get into the smallest crevices to hunt the elusive crustaceans and they knew their territory well. Soon they had speared 3, and then were ready to move along to the next area. We all walked along behind them pulling our dinghies and basically frolicking like children watching in awe as the boys continued to snare one lobster after another. By noon they had gathered 7. We continued to snorkel about and try to offer some assistance although everyone knew that they needed no help from us. We managed to see some beautiful marine life in the process, including several beautiful giant clams. At one point, Paul on "Scallywag" asked the boys if they ate the clams and how they prepared them. Their response was that they are lovely, just raw and so they gave us an example. Paul took his dive knife and cut one loose from a rocky outcropping. They pried the large clam's "jaws" open and sliced the flesh out of the shell, taking care to identify the white meaty portion that is edible. We each had a taste and agreed it is delicious! Then James explained to us that we must replace the mussel of the clam and return the shell to its home so that it will regenerate. They are very mindful of protecting this environment and respecting the natural order of things. By just past mid-day, we had a total of 9 lobsters of varying sizes. We took the boys back to their home and agreed to all meet back on the beach at 4 PM for a lobster and crab feast.

I prepared Cajun dirty rice, and we packed up our plates and drinks. Then we made a care package for the three boys, including large bags of sugar, flour, rice, t-shirts, caps, old shoes and some batteries. The other cruisers did the same. They boys impressed us by building a fire on the beach and rigging three thick tree branches to support a large cooking pot. They had already prepared the coconut crabs, but we needed to cook the lobsters. We managed to get three in the pot at a time, but then the last three were so large that they had to be cooked individually. We had so much food that even between the 13 of us, we could not finish 2 of the lobsters. After dinner we stargazed and visited with the boys, and then reluctantly said goodnight and set off for our respective yachts.

The next morning, part of the group went for a snorkel of a sunken Japanese fishing boat out on the outer reef. The current is very strong and can be dangerous, therefore, Frank and I opted out, spending the day just swimming in the lagoon and taking it easy.
Our final day there, we met again at the beach to hike to the lake in the middle of the little island for a swim with the turtles. One of the conservation efforts this community makes is rescuing sea turtles when they are hatchlings, and transplanting them into the lake so that they can grow large enough to be released back into the wild. We were so excited! Regrettably, the plan got aborted after we trudged our way through the fallen trees and managed to reach the lake. The tide was out causing the lake to recede so far that we would have had to wade in mud up to our thighs for several hundred feet in order to get to the water. A few of our men gave it a go and after getting shoes and other items sucked off in the mud they declared it unsafe for us to venture further. We turned back and opted for a snorkel in a nearby lagoon. The snorkeling was great fun. Afterward we walked back over to the "village" area and were met with 2 surprises.

The boys had brought back one of the juvenile turtles for us to see. He was beautiful. We got to touch him and watch him walk (scoot) along the beach and them swim around in a sheltered area of the shallows. I got a picture of Frank holding him up. He was quite heavy, measuring about 3 ½ feet in diameter. The second surprise was a lovo feast the boys had prepared for us. A lovo is an earth oven, prepared much like a luau, cooked in the ground and covered by palm and banana leaves for several hours. They had cooked roasted 7 of their chickens for us. They were absolutely some of the most succulent and delicious chickens we have ever eaten.
To end our visit to this charming island, we brought the three boys out into the anchorage - each of us taking a turn bringing them onto our boats and visiting with them for a little while, sending them along to the next yacht with a bag full of goodies and necessities. They were thrilled to get a chance to see how we live and to tour our boats. When we said goodbye to them we all had tears in our eyes. They told us that they have never before had 5 yachts in their bay at one time. In fact, last year they only saw 2 the entire season. I felt a stab of anxiety leaving them and pray that they will succeed in their efforts to rebuild their little home.
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June 8 - 12 -Naqelelevu; Aftermath of a Cyclone, Lobsters, Coconut Crabs and Good Times - Part 1

Anchors up at 6:00 AM, we started out for Naqelelevu (pronounced, Nahng-eh-leh-lehvoo). It is a little known ring of coral, 11 miles across with a tiny little island along the eastern most side of the ring. We had a long trip ahead of us, expecting to arrive in late afternoon, and of course the winds were right on the nose, but the skies were clear and we knew it would be a lovely day to negotiate in and around reef systems. All five of the yachts in our little group made the trip, and most everyone was up for a day of fishing en route.

Arriving at the reef pass we had a feeling of déjà vu. It reminded us very much of the Tuomotus, and in fact was just as lovely if not better.

Once inside the reef the waters were crystal clear aquamarine and dotted with tall coral heads. We chose the deepest passage and made the 1+ hour trek across the lagoon to the anchorage in front of the little island, setting the hook just after 3 PM. Wow! Eye candy. We could not get enough of just sitting and looking at the sandy beach, the swaying palms and the sparkling clear water.

I grabbed the binoculars and saw that there seemed to be some structures on land indicating a village of sorts, however closer inspection revealed a sad state of topsy turvy-ness to the structures. We knew this area had been hard hit in the cyclone. In the meantime, Gloria on the cat, "Scallywag" called us all to inform us that they had caught a huge mahi mahi which they wanted to share if we wanted to pop over with a small container to place it in. We had a delicious dinner of seared mahi mahi and then hit the sack. We were pooped.
The next morning we gathered on shore with bundles of kava, ready to meet the inhabitants of the island. We were in for a big surprise. There were only 3 young men - boys really - who live here at present. The story they told us was quite sad and tragic. Their family owns the atoll, and at the time of the cyclone they had a small village for the 21 inhabitants. When the storm hit, the island was submerged, they had no cave in which to hide, so they all sought shelter in the largest and strongest building. That building and all of the others were swept away. In fact everything they owned was destroyed, but fortunately no lives were lost. One of their three boats made it through the storm. They all fled to the island of Taveuni to live with extended family, but for 8 young men who are charged with remaining on Naqelelevu to guard the interest and to try to rebuild. The 8 boys rotate every few months. The 3 who are here now will remain until August. The youngest is 16 and the oldest is 22. They are all very well spoken and educated and were so excited to see us all. We could see that they had some small lean-tos and not much of anything else. We asked them if they had food and clothing, and how on earth they were getting by. They smiled and said, we eat coconut crabs and lobster and sometimes one of our chickens. God Bless them! They took us on a walking tour of the island, showing us the nesting places of some red-footed boobies and other sea birds, then they took 4 of our 10-person group who had worn decent walking shoes (not us) hunting for coconut crabs. The rest of us returned to the anchorage with the promise to meet them in the shallows the next morning at 9:00 to go lobstering.
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June 4 - 7, 2010 - Albert Cove, Rabi, Fiji

I awoke to Frank dancing around telling me Happy Birthday! I was thinking, "is it my birthday already?" He gave me a sweet card and a beaded necklace as we had our breakfast and then we along with "Northern Winds" left for Albert cove. We had a wonderful 4-hour sail over to the island of Rabi and when we arrived at Albert Cove, Bill from "IQ" came out in his dinghy to lead us through the reef pass. After we got anchored, Frank and Bill went to shore to meet the local family and to ask permission for us to have a BBQ on their beach that night, then went around to the other boats to tell them we were having a potluck on the beach for my birthday. The group was "Scallywag", "Just In Time", "Ivory Quays" and "Northern Winds".
We went into the beach a little early to visit the local family and to take them some kava. This precious family immediately touched our hearts! There were two men, a woman and a young boy. Their smiles were as wide as the Grand Canyon. They spoke little English but were able to communicate with us quite well. They are originally from Tuvalu, another S. Pacific Island Country that is "sinking", but were relocated to Fiji when it was no longer safe to stay in their home village. They are very attractive people, dark-skinned and with lovely silky hair. They immediately invited us into their home, which is little more than a thatched roof covering an area of palm frond pallets on the floor used for sitting and sleeping, and an outdoor area of dirt that has been cleared and covered with woven palm mats. She was busily weaving baskets and filling them with limes for each of us. The men wanted to prepare kava for our guys. They told us about surviving the cyclone of this past season. They had run to a cave and hidden while the storms ravaged the island. The high winds and flooding destroyed literally everything they had; all of their crops including the kava and indigenous fruit trees such as bananas, pineapple bushes and papaya (paw-paw), their homes and cisterns were swept away or mangled beyond repair. Yet here they were sharing what little they had with us, and preparing the kava we had brought them to serve to our group. We invited them to participate in our little dinner party. As the rest of our cruiser friends arrived, they said, "We thought Barb's birthday is tomorrow". Frank said, "No it's today, June 5th". They all laughed telling Frank that today is June 4th! We both felt like idiots. Frank had been going by the date on his laptop, which is set on UTC time, and according to the World Clock it was June 5th somewhere in the world. Well we had a good laugh over that one and partied on anyway. We invited the family to join us. They built a large bonfire and contributed a huge bowl of tapioca - cassava root. They quickly built a long serving table by pounding sturdy tree limbs into the ground and then laying a big piece of corrugated metal on top, covered with palm branches. We had a great party!

The next day we conspired to take care packages to our new island family. Frank and I packed up rice, sugar, flour, hard candy, canned goods, hats and shirts. When we took our goodies in to them they were so excited they could hardly sit still. The lady excitedly weaved headbands for each of us gals as the men attempted desperately to share some kava with the guys. We politely waved off and returned to our yachts.
Jock and Leanne (JIT) came by to wish me Happy Birthday and invited everyone to have a "proper" party on their cat that night after dinner. So once again, we all donned our party smiles and went over for a night of merrymaking. Jock cranked up the i-Pod and as the evening progressed we were all singing and dancing and laughing until our guts hurt.
We had intended to leave the next morning but few in the group felt well enough to travel. Our next destination is a full day sail on the open ocean. It is times like this that I'm happy I gave up drinking, although I must say I envied the abandon with which some of this group partied last night. The day was spent being lazy. I used it to finish a Diana Gabaldon novel that Kim had loaned me which had me pretty well hooked. We had intended to snorkel, but the lazy bones got us.
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May 30, - June 4th, 2010; Viani Bay, Fiji

Protecting Viani Bay, are the reefs that boast world-class diving and snorkeling. In fact we are again cruising in waters that a sailing yacht would not attempt to enter without plenty of direct overhead sunlight so to avoid going aground on a reef or coral bombie, of which Viani Bay had plenty. The sail over from Cousteau's was more of a beat, with winds of up to 30 knots on the nose, putting us there in late afternoon. We had difficulty finding a good area of sand to set the hook, and on the third drop decided that we would have to tolerate the sound and unpleasant reverberation of our anchor chain scraping across coral. Immediately, several of our friends dinghyed over to give us the lay of the land and to tell us about Jack who seems to be the patron of the bay, and through whom all things are arranged; diving, snorkeling, trips to Taveuni, trash disposal, etc. The next day we would dive at 9:00 AM.
Jack charges $10.00 per person to dive or snorkel. He comes aboard your boat and takes you out to the reefs, chooses the spot and then picks you up after the dive. This is serious drift diving. We hauled our gear over to "Scallywag", tied our dinghies to the back and dragged them out to the reef to dive The Purple Wall. Jack anchored the big catamaran and then boarded the lead dinghy, with ours and Jock and Leanne's in tow to the drop point. After we all hit the water, he stood watch up top and then brought the dinghies to meet us at the end of the dive. This was to be a 30-meter dive so we had to drop quickly to the bottom to avoid being swept away in the current. That was the plan. When we hit the water everyone got quickly to the bottom. I let the air out of my BCD but did not have enough weight to get down. I made the mistake of wearing a new wetsuit that was thicker than normal for me, and was only carrying 12 lbs. of weights. On top of that my right ear would not clear, so I was focusing on relaxing my body for descent and trying to clear my ear when one of my fins shot off my foot and got carried away in the strong current. I fervently swam after it and by the time I had gotten it back on my foot I'd lost my depth. I frustratingly tried to get back down and saw Jock swimming toward me signaling, "did I need help?" I had already cut into the others' precious bottom time and waved him off intending to get back to the dinghy, get more weight and then rejoin them down the way. I surfaced about 30 yards from Jack, and by the time I got to him I was worn out. He helped me up into the dinghy and I decided this was not my day to dive so I aborted, and just sat visiting with Jack. We picked up the divers who raved about what a splendid dive is - so much purple. I determined to make tomorrow a better day.
The next morning we took Destiny out to the reef and dived a different area called (I think) Fish City, a 25-meter dive. This time I wore my dive skin that is a full-body lycra suit and did much better. Afterward we were all sitting around deck relaxing and having a snack when we noticed a catamaran approaching. It was our friends, Michael and Jackie on "Lady Kay". That night they joined us on Destiny for sundowners and Jackie gave us a lesson in stargazing. We just marvel at how bright and brilliantly colored the stars are out here. We have a very clear view of stars and constellations that do not appear in our northern hemisphere.
The next couple of days were overcast and rainy so we did boat projects and had a couple of potluck dinners on each other's boats. "Lady Kay", "Liberation" and "Avant Garde" left but we had promised to wait for Kim and Bob ("Northern Winds") to arrive from SavuSavu. June 2nd they popped into the bay. We all got together that night, and then on June 3rd, everyone but "N. Winds" and us left telling us to meet them at Albert Cove on Rabi (pron., Ranbi). We enjoyed a quiet day visiting with Kim and Bob, having Viani all to ourselves.

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Saturday, May 29, 2010 - A rainbow at night????

We awoke cheering because although we have enjoyed SavuSavu immensely, we had never intended to spend most of the month of May here.  By now we had envisioned being much further along in our travel plans on Fiji's eastern side.  That's all right.  We have had a chance to spend some special time with Bob and Kim (Northern Winds).  They even tried to convince us to stay a little longer and leave with them next week, but we are itching to go.  We tied up to the water dock, filled the tanks, gave Destiny a nice bath, hit the market, the bottle store and finished up every little thing we needed to before bidding adieu to this charming little town. We went all of 4 miles today, anchored just outside Cousteau's resort.  We enjoyed just sitting and having a relaxing lunch.  I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning the fruits and veggies I'd picked up at the market, shelling purple-hull peas, and watching the boats shuttle resort guests back and forth to the reef for snorkeling. Frank spent most of the day watching it all through his high-powered binoculars and giving me play-by-play descriptions of the activities at the resort.  Late in the afternoon I was downstairs in the galley and heard him laughing his head off.  I popped up the companionway to see what was up.  He told me that a resort boat had come by our bow with white people in it decked out with film gear, and some guy was filming our boat with one of those professional cameras with the big furry microphone attached.  While they were doing this, Frank was eyeing them through his binoculars.  So they were filming him watching them? It gave us a big laugh.  Who knows who or what was being filmed. This resort is apparently quite high-end.  It's still run by Jacques Cousteau's son, John Michel. It was such a pleasant night that we decided to dine in the cockpit.  It was just after 8 PM, we were chatting about the beautiful full moon and how pretty the sky looked as the stars were twinkling just so and how the big dipper is SO big here, then along came a cooling sprinkle of rain and a nice breeze.  I noticed a strange color configuration in the sky and said to Frank, "I know you will think I'm crazy, but I think I see a rainbow!"  He leaned out and sure enough we were looking at a very large gray-scale rainbow that went all the way across the bay.  Neither of us has ever seen a moon rainbow.  It was just spectacular.  We could barely see the hues of the color spectrum. How I wish we had professional camera equipment to capture this amazing sight.  We kept saying to one another how special this was and how fortunate we were to be at the right place at the right time to witness this phenomenon. What a thrill! Tomorrow we have an 8-hour trip over to Vianni Bay where we hope to meet up with Ivory Quays, Just In Time, Scallywag, Liberation and Avant Garde.

May 28, 2010

The past week has been strange. Our wifi has not been working, so we called the guy who owns the service. He came out to the boat, fiddled around with our external antenna, disconnected our router, looked thorough our bag of cables and parts, took some things including two spare routers that we had, said he would trade us these for an external antenna for my laptop which he would sell me for $289 but that he didn't have in stock just now, then told Frank that his laptop needed to be serviced to make it work more efficiently and left the boat with all this equipment saying he had another appointment. After the smoke cleared, we realized he not only had some expensive equipment but Frank's computer as well and we didn't really know what had just happened. My head was spinning because I couldn't believe how smooth this guy was. We got Frank's laptop back the next afternoon but have no idea what he did to it because it seems to be working the way it was before. Meanwhile I researched the antenna that the guy wants to sell me, and found it on Amazon for $39.00. I do not think I will be buying his! I have left it up to Frank to deal with what we are going to do about that guy taking our "stuff". I'm too angry to deal with it.
Digicel is one of Fiji's cell phone operators and has just come out with their broadband stick. We can purchase one for $99.00 and pay 04/mb of usage, via "top-up". Several of our friends who had gotten fed up with the wifi guy, had bought them and were very pleased. Frank and I decided to follow suit. We went down to the Digicel shop and bought one. It would not work on either of our laptops (his Dell, my Mac), even after several yachties tried to assist. We took it & Frank's Dell to Digicel to see if they could get it to work. After 4 more hours of their fooling around, it would not work, so they took it and told us they would get us a new one. They were out of stock but more are coming in on Wed. That was on Monday. They now have our $ and our stick.
Then we heard that we could get a sim card for our Vodafone stick. There is no longer a Vodafone dealer in SavuSavu, so we ordered one to be delivered from the Vodafone representative who comes once per week. He arrived on Tuesday but with the wrong type of sim card. He assured us that one would be delivered to us by 8:00 AM Wednesday morning. It did arrive, and Frank and I spent the better part of the morning trying to get it to work on either his Dell or my Mac - Is this Déjà vu or what!?!? Fortunately Bob and Kim from Northern Winds had arrived from Opua the previous day so Bob helped Frank get his installed. It will not work on my Mac, although the materials state that it will. Apparently these things are so new to Fiji that they aren't configured.
Tuesday, we received a message that our CV joint/shaft had been shipped and were given a tracking # from DHL. YAY!
Wednesday arrived. Digicel said our stick didn't. DHL said our shipment would be here in the afternoon. Frank's Dell went haywire - we got the big bad loud alarm and a scary blue screen with white writing that said some intimidating things. We shut it off. We took both laptops into the wifi guy's shop to try to download security updates on his and for me to check our emails on mine. Our friends on Mahurangi have not been heard from for over a week and they supposedly departed Opua on May 17. They are not responding to emails (Sailmail) or radio calls. I was hoping to hear from them. I did get an email from them saying they were securely anchored at Minerva reef and had a story to tell us when we see them in Fiji. Thank God they are safe. The internet was so slow it took me over an hour and a half to download his security update. Then we got the blue screen again. We packed it up and walked it down to SavuSavu computers, which is run by an American guy named Erik. He said he would need to keep it to run some diagnostics. OK. Fine.
Wednesday afternoon arrived. DHL said the part did not. It will be here Thursday AM. Digicel said come back at 8:00 AM, Thursday.
Thursday arrived - no shipment and no Digicel stick. Most of our friends have now left and have gone cruising and diving. Thursday evening we are sitting at the yacht club waiting for Kim and Bob to go to dinner. Cell phone rings. It's DHL. The part just came in on the plane - they are driving it over to us at the yacht club. Hip, hip, hooray! Frank stowed it on the boat and we went out to a lovely dinner. We made plans for Friday to install the part, go to Customs to get checked-out to leave here, hit the market, pick up Frank's laptop and hopefully get our Digicel stick.
Friday morning we got up early and installed the new CV joint and shaft. It was a two-person effort and we merrily made it our first priority. We then got a call from Digicel. The stick is here! I trotted on over with Frank's new Sony laptop because his Dell is still in the hospital. Frank headed over to see wifi guy about our stuff he took the other day.
After many failed attempts the Digicel ladies got it to install, and then said all we have to do is buy the "top-up" so we can get online. I told them we had already bought the top-up and that they should apply that. Uh Oh. That top-up went with the other modem/stick. I said, OK, just give us another one. They called the main office. Can't be done. It went away with the other stick. I said OK, give us a credit for the amount and we will apply a new top up. It doesn't work that way. They said come back tomorrow. I said "No". They said come back after lunchtime. Meanwhile a horn honks, someone yells my name. I turn around to see Frank driving away with wifi guy and yelling, "be back soon". I gathered up our stuff and walked back to the marina, plopped down with a book and ordered something to eat. It is 10:45 AM. Frank shows up at noon. (be back soon???). We return to the Digicel place where I leave him and go to pick up our Dell from the hospital. The Dell is fine. There seems to be something we are plugging into it that is causing these problems - perhaps the Iridium Sat phone - that is making it unhappy. I took a few minutes to get online and check emails and send a couple. A friend sees me online and mentions how sad it is about the loss of (a mutual friend whom I will not name). I didn't know, so I asked. Turns out my friend checked into a hotel and committed suicide. I'm crushed. I packed up everything and went back to find Frank. He is still at Digicel. He still hasn't gotten to Customs to turn in our paperwork. So off he goes and I stand there wondering what is going on. It seems there is some difficulty getting the top up loaded. Frank returns an hour later - it is now 4:00. The Digicel people have blown out the stick and now it doesn't work. They have no more sticks. We got our money back and left. I felt so sorry for those girls at the counter.
So, we are back on board Destiny. It's 5 PM. We are going to get cleaned up and go for a nice dinner with Kim and Bob. We're checked out of SavuSavu. Tomorrow morning we'll hit the market and take care of a few last minute chores that didn't happen today and be off. We are heading to Viani Bay to do some world-class scuba diving and some snorkeling.

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May 20, 2010 - Taking care of business

The internet signal has been down and this time not intermittently, but completely down.  We heard that it is out on the entire island for who knows why and for how long. Yesterday we went separate directions; Frank in pursuit of propane gas and for a fitting that broke off our tank when he disconnected it; me for other things.  Primarily, I'm trying to find some kind of rubber mat that is large enough to lay on top of the freezer and fridge in order to keep help keep the cold in.  With this heat, our freezer compressor never shuts off and is working itself to death.  We found that if we pile folded beach towels on top of the counter, large enough to cover the door seams it helps but because I need use of the counter space towels are not a good long-term solution.  In fact, neither are mats but they are easier to deal with in the meantime.  I went into nearly every hardware and miscellany shop in town before finding something suitable.  They are bright purple!  Who cares at this point? Then I trotted over to the video store to see what I could find for sale.  These video stores are not altogether legal.  They sell & rent copied and pirated movies.  I do have principles and refuse to buy the pirated DVD's, but have no problem laying down my $2.00 per for decent copied ones.  I made sure to ask if these were authentic copies (there's an oxymoron), or are they the ones that someone sat in a movie theater with a video camera to film.  I managed to buy 16 DVD's for the princely sum of $32.00, Fijian. By now the sun was getting high in the sky and the heat is just about unbearable.  I went into the market for some fresh veggies and was so overcome with profuse sweating that I forgot what I needed.  I settled for a couple of salad items and then left to meet Frank at the yacht club.  After lunch I had to beg and plead with him to walk across the street to the grocery store so that I could pick up the few things I still needed.  All he wanted to do was return to the boat, turn on the A/C and take a nap. Me too! We chatted with neighbors, Ivory Quays and Just in Time, and found that no one else had the energy to do anything. Cop Out, Lady Kay and Shilling have all left to go sailing.  We of course are still awaiting the CV joint to arrive from the States, so we are going nowhere soon. For dinner we agreed on fresh fruit and yogurt smoothies and a movie.  So we settled in to watch "Invictus".

May 18, 2010 – Leaks and more leaks

Sunday night I was awakened from my slumber 3 times to the sound of the bilge pump working away.  Of course Frank does not awaken so easily.  The third time occurred at 3:00 AM, and it went on for quite a while as I heard water gushing out of the thru-hull at the stern.  I got up, grabbed a flashlight and began looking in bilges.  I saw an obvious stream of water running down the side of the main bilge and then a bubbling trickle in the engine compartment.  I woke Frank up to tell him, but his response was a groggy; "What do you want me to do about it now?  The boat isn't going to sink before morning."   This gave me no comfort but I returned to bed and slept fitfully until 7:00 AM. Frank got up, and after we had our coffee and some breakfast ("brekkie" in these parts), began looking for the source of the leaks.  I heard a lot of "Oh, no's", and "Shoot's", and some other expletives. We have sprung two separate leaks, which I'm sure he will explain on his blog.  He spent most of the morning trying to sort it out.  Because he had taken away the companionway stairs and opened the generator compartment, I was stranded in the cockpit with my book.  I couldn't get down no matter how hard I tried so I sweated and read. Finally at around noon he emerged and announced that he had to make a quick trip to shore…"Be right back!"  It was not quick, and he was not right back.  He was literally gone for hours.  Two or three times I happened to look out to see him racing to and fro in the dinghy, but to where I could not discern.  What on Earth?  He returned after 3:00 with a hose and mumbled something intelligible that I understood to be an attempt at jury-rigging something.  Of all the spare parts and pieces we carry, never are they the ones we need. My god it is hot here!  When a breeze comes we just lay our heads back and enjoy the precious moment of relief.  But my poor husband did not have that luxury – he worked and sweated in that swelteringly hot compartment for hours.  I kept pleading for him to let me help him, but he said that there wasn't anything I could do and that there just wasn't room for us both even if I could, so I returned to the cockpit and began shelling black-eyed peas for dinner.  I have been informed by other yachties that there are blue jobs and pink jobs. This was apparently a very blue job. When he stuck his head up again it was 4:30.  He said, "I'm going for a beer, wanna go to the yacht club?"  I declined because by now I was involved in my own pink project.  He needed a few hours with the blokes at the bar.  It is therapeutic and sometimes educational.  As a matter of fact when he returned he was feeling a little bit enlightened and better about our problems after hearing the other guys share their woes.  We are not alone when it comes to yacht maintenance and feeling helpless.  Frank's biggest concern is that even simple parts are not easily attainable in Fiji, nor are they affordable.  Tuesday's project will be spent searching for parts.

May 17, 2010 – Hanging around SavuSavu, Fiji – and congrats to my daughter!

Saturday, after hitting the market fairly early we and a few other cruisers decided to get of here and spend a couple of days anchored outside of the city harbor so that we could swim and make water.  The harbor is definitely NOT a swimming hole, nor a safe place to make water. Ivory Quays, Liberation, Just In Time and Lady Kay shot directly over to the chosen spot; a pretty anchorage over by Cousteau's Resort. We had a lovely sail out in the large bay, and decided to enjoy the winds a little longer before going directly to the anchorage.  Suddenly, the winds blew a squall our way just as we turned to head toward the other boats.  We couldn't see 10 yards in front of us.  The winds whipped up so suddenly that we reefed in the sails and slowed down until we could make our approach safely.  The surrounding area is littered with fishing buoys and floating nets, so we had to have a visual to pass through the gauntlet.  Eventually the rain let up allowing us to get settled.  I thawed out a corned beef brisket for dinner and then we settled down to watch the rainsqualls come and go for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.  It certainly cooled things down for us.  The next day was sunny and pretty.  Frank and I were sitting in the cockpit contemplating a swim as we watched Michael and Jackie (Lady Kay) dive in and swim by.  Jackie was seemingly enjoying a leisurely breaststroke, when she quickly turned and headed back to her boat.  I called out asking, "How's the water?" She yelled back that it was fine except for the little stingy things that were attacking them.  They both scrambled back aboard Lady Kay. That put a big damper on my desire for a nice swim.  I pulled out my book.  Frank did the same. Michael and Jackie invited everyone over for sundowners at 5:30. We thought perhaps we'd go snorkeling over by the reef but then the winds switched direction turning our comfy lee shore into a bucking bronco.  Waves were whipping all around us and tossing us to the point that we were getting un-cozy real quick. After chatting up our neighbors, one of them told us that he had checked the grib files and noted that we would be in for a rough night if we stayed here, so reluctantly we all decided to hightail it back into SavuSavu.  We were the last boat in the group to weigh anchor, and as Frank was using the boat hook to guide ours in, the darn thing flew out of his hand and away it went into the washing machine (that's what the waves had become).  It is a floating boathook, so we felt confident that we could retrieve it.  I was tempted to dive in after it but I was manning the helm and could not.  We both tried to keep our eyes on it as Frank unlatched the dinghy from the davit and got it deployed.  The chop was getting worse and the winds fierce as I was fighting the to keep the helm into the wind so that he could deploy the dinghy.  I wanted to tell him to forget about the boat hook, but we really need the darn thing to get back onto our mooring.  What a mess.  The dinghy was bucking violently as Frank tried to board it. Oh my god.  I lost sight of the hook.  He did too, and poor baby drove all around searching for it in vain.  After about 15 minutes he threw in the towel and then we stared the dance all over again trying to get him back on board Destiny.  He looked so defeated.  By now it was too rough to get the dinghy back up onto the davit, so he bridled it and we towed it behind.  We raised the sails, and enjoyed a fantastic broad reach back to the channel leading into SavuSavu.  Once in the mooring field, a couple friends in their dinghies came to help us get the mooring secured.  We freshened up, I whipped up a baked brie stuffed with toasted pine nuts, drizzled some apricot preserves, grabbed some crackers and off we went to meet up with everyone for a fun evening aboard the Lady Kay.   Later in the evening, with the help of our new external wifi antenna, I got online to check email, hoping to hear from my daughter.  Yes!  She did it!  She bought her very own first house, and closed on it this very day (actually yesterday).  I am sooooooo proud of her.  Go Jen!