Sailing from Vava'u Tonga to Savusavu, Fiji, the trip.

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Well so started the slow process of finding crew for the sail to Fiji. It is only 3 to 4 days with the wind from behind so should be a good sail.



I placed adds in the 4 main cafes in Neiafu and most mornings did a short add over the Cursers Net. No responses so far.



So on the 16t I went out sailing by myself. I headed out towards Tapana Is as I knew the Geoff and Jo where heading out that way. I came across them at Nuku Is, with their collection of day crew – five on a 27 foot yacht. Not a lot of space. It was funny to watch they all sitting in the tinny cockpit.



After anchoring just north of Tapana Is I invited Geoff and his crew over for a cuppa. They duly arrived and the three young ones where overcome by the space. Two of them were possible crew to Fiji so I was behaving myself.



They left with an offer to come sailing on Hakura next weekend – this was my plan to get them into the idea of sailing to Fiji. I actually thought we had an arrangement, however, I was to learn that the young couple did not think they had made a date nor did they get back to me to discuss the idea. It dawned on me that they would most likely not be a success as crew.



On Sunday I motor sailed out and soon saw some whales in front of me. I headed in their direction and followed at a distance. There appeared to be two large whales following a single whale. They were heading southeast past Eunice Island (the home of Treasure Island Resort). I had never gone on the eastern side of Eueiki Island before so after checking the charts I decided to follow the whales. I thought that they would head through the pass and on to the outer reef areas.



Nope, that was not their plan, they started to cycle around with Hakura in the middle. Occasionally there would be lots of activity and white water around the two large whales. I just kept moving Hakura into the middle, as I was not sure of which way they would go. In the end they slowed down and stayed under water longer then headed off towards the southeast.



I think I was watching two large males chasing a smaller female. The males appeared to engage in some rough housing whilst chasing the female. She did not go to fast or far away so she most likely was interested in at least one of them. There may have even been mating towards the end during the quite periods when they stayed below.



I am very glade that I was not in the water with them. They were not the quite laid back whales I had swam with.



After leaving the whales, or more correctly after they left me, I had a chat with a couple from Sydney who were at the resort and had been watching the whales from their kayak. They were also glade that they where not closer.



I headed back to Taunga Island where Geoff and Jo where anchored. They reported that the snorkelling was good with a good drop-off. They had even seen a shark and some tuna. In I went, and I did enjoy the area though the visibility was not great.



I decided to go back to Ovalau Is for the night. As it turned out, this anchorage has not been good this trip. I was awaken at 1 am by the movement and finally managed to get back to sleep by moving into the main cabin.



I had a short snorkel into the island and actually went ashore. This was about the first time I had gone ashore on any of the islands. I really do enjoy being on Hakura and don’t feel the need to get off. So different to some of my crews, at you will read about later.



Later on Monday I moved over to Vaka Eitu Island. The anchorage on the north side of this island is one of the safest as the larger Nuapapu Island forms a large semi enclosed bay. I had anchored here with Geoff and Jo when they came out with me a few weekends back.



There was another yacht in the bay, the 24 foot “Gannet”. A very small yacht from the west coast of the USA sailed by a guy on his fourth or five circumnavigations. This boat is the smallest on he has sailed so far. It is so small, and he is over 1.9 meters (6’ 1”), that he can only sit up straight if he sits on the floor.



I was enjoying a quite time mid afternoon when a boat pulled up. It was a local from one of the families on the island. He asked to borrow some tools to take off the 40 hp outboard and fit the 25 hp motor. Sure, I leant him a spanner and vice-grips.



Then I thought “him will need a hand to lift the motors” so I jumped into the dinghy and motored ashore. Together we changed the motors. Actually I doubt I was any help. Every time we picked up an engine he did most of it. I was helpful, though, in showing that there was power going to the spark plugs.



Spot the health and safety issue here. Tongan guy is in the boat. Doug is standing in the water. Motor not firing, so Doug holds the spark plug leads close to the spark plug to see if there is a spark.



I don’t see one but I sure did feel a blood big jolt up my arm. I even said, “Fuck”. Then I remembered that he was changing the motor because the church wanted its motor back. “Sorry about that”. He laughed.



The motor finally fired and he was happy that he would be able to take his kids to school in the morning and drop off the motor. Mission accomplished. My payment was a couple of beautiful pawpaws.



Tuesday midday, after the usual ablutions, I slowly headed back into Neiafu. As is usual, I went to pick up mooring no. 44. What, some new comer was on my mooring. I took one that was closer to the cafes and to the shore, only 5 meters of water.



I had been working on my talk over the past few days, and felt it was going pretty well. It was a summary of some of the interesting and funny events over the past 40 years starting with a letter from 10 year old me wrote to 25 year old me, saying that I would be working at the Smithsonian studying whales (I had predicted the place but thought it would say dinosaurs). At the time I found and read the letter, when I was in my late 30s, I was studying whales at the University of Tasmania.



I included interesting events I had had with different whales plus some facts I find fascinating about them. There was also the story of my saying “Yes Prime Minister” to Helen Clark, the NZ PM about protecting Great White Sharks.



I think the talk went very well, lots of people said so. In Fiji, I am still getting people saying that they were there and enjoyed it. It took about an hour, included a couple of questions at the end. Mike from Aquarium started to end it, and I decided to add in a plug for crewing with me to Fiji.



Afterwards, while I was chatting to some regulars, a young lad came up to me and said that his girlfriend and he wanted to sail to Fiji with me. When I had finished answering the question at hand, I went over to their table and met Henrik and Mona. They are from South West Germany and are travelling around the world and have been doing so for the past 12 months. Yep they would love to come. No, they had no experience. Nope, they did not know if they got seasick.



The usually with young backpackers, the main thing is that they were keen. Thus, I rated the talk an all round great success.



The next stage was to get them out on Hakura. The first issue was that I thought I had an arrangement with the three people from last Saturday. Well by Friday I had only heard from Kat (an Australian aid worker with Vava’u Environmental Protection Association) and she could not come, so I texted Henrik and Mona inviting them out for the weekend. They were available Saturday arvo, so we now had a plan.



Come Saturday arvo we were off to Port Maurelle, I think that I could even go in there in the dark by now. Next morning, we all had a snorkel then we went for a motor sail under headsail. The trade winds had developed between 15 and 20 knots so we had a good time. While coming back past Mariner’s Cave, I saw birds working off to starboard so we hauled in the headsail and started to head over to the school. To ensure we did not tangle the trolling line out the back I looked back.



“Bloody hell, we have a fish”. Yep, we had a small skipjack tuna, the first of the whole voyage. How long it had been there, I could not say, however, it was aboard and would make a nice starter. So when we were anchored back in Port Maurelle, we eat our first fish.



Before the rest of dinner, there were drinks ashore with the other cruisers who were in the bay. We had an enjoyable evening ashore, including watching a small shark hunt in the shallows just off the beach. I was a bit concerned when a woman told the story of how one of her crew jumped overboard and swam ashore just off American Samoa because he could not face being any longer at sea. My crew started to be concerned, where they getting into a dangerous situation (I suspect that this story played on Mona’s mind during our voyage, more later).



Next day, Monday, 25^th of August, we were going to go sailing with the main and headsail, however, this did not happen as the skipper had the shits, and did not feel like going anywhere. It was only a 24 hour attack though we stayed put all Tuesday as well, returning to Neiafu on Wednesday to prepare for the voyage.



This involved stocking up on stores; canned and other long life stuff was brought on Wednesday arvo. Fresh veggies, fruit and bread were brought on Thursday. We also visited two of the three officials – Ports to pay our port fee and Immigration for their stamp in the passports. Customs would be done early Friday morning, plus any last minute shopping. Another job was sending advanced notice to Fijian customs. This was done with the help of Greg in the Café Tropicana.



Thursday was also the day of saying farewells, to the people at the Poolside café, and finally to the crew at the Aquarium Café. Mike and Laurie say that they aim to make the place your home away from home. I willingly say they did that for me. They included me in many activities and were always welcoming. I was sad to leave for after 3 months I had begun to know lots of the local palangis. I had also done two things I thought I would not do again, go to a whale stranding workshop and give a talk about whales. I really enjoyed both, thanks guys for letting me do them again.



We cleared Customs on Friday morning and with the last minute shopping done. We sailed out, our first go with the main. We headed out to Hunga Lagoon, an enclosed bay with a very narrow and shallow entrance. All went well and we got in with 1.4 metres below the keel. It was a lovely spot and we were able to do the final jobs to get ready for sea. This involved dismantling, cleaning and stowing the dinghy and closing off the anchor locking and stowing the anchor below decks. The last of these were finished off on Saturday morning just before we headed out.



We finally left Tonga midday on Saturday and headed out to the open sea. We had a southeasterly and as we were heading northwest the wind was from behind. To reduce the risk of gybing we headed more northerly and used a preventer (a rope from the end of the boom tied as far forward as I could get it).



Initially we had a gentle following sea, though as we cleared the shelter of the islands the swell picked up. The winds were about 15 knots to begin with and slowly dropping to about 10 for most of the trip.



I was enjoying myself though I was not sure about Mona and Henrik. Shortly afterwards they started their conversations over the side with Huey. They were to continue the conservations all the way till off the Fijian coast, the usual three days. Unfortunately for them the total voyage was only 4 days. They had stopped taking the seasickness medication before we left. Oh dear, I thought that was not a good idea and now there was no time left to take it.



Mona had made chilli beans with cooked potatoes before we left. Nobody was up to eating on the first day, I had some bread with jam and peanut butter, and Mona had some of the potatoes. Henrik just sat outside on watch or with Mona or was down below trying to sleep. To their credit, neither of them failed to make their shifts during the voyage.



As we had a following sea and due to the rick of gybing I decided to keep the auto helm (or as Henrik correctly pointed as it said on the instrument panel “Auto Pilot”) on full thus it was using a lot of power. It was such that I decided to run the motor for an hour every three, to ensure that we had sufficient power. Initially this meant I had to wake before and after the motor runs to turn the correct switches on and off.



During the run we did not see another vessel and only a few birds. No other signs of life. This was another aspect that I think worked on Mona’s mind. I am not sure she had been so far from other people before.



Late during the first day I came up and thought I could smell diesel fumes, which I put down to the following winds. It was not till later I released that it was the smell of the islands of Vava’u, most likely from the coconut palms.



The first sign of Fiji was a similar smell coming from the northern Lau islands as we started to enter the outer reefs at the north passage. This passage was about 10 nm across and very deep, though Jimmy Cornell suggested that it was tricky due to currents. I used one of his waypoints (a known position that is entered in the GPS and you use it to sail to or near by). On checking on the chart, I discovered that it would take us over the reef I wished to avoid. I took the waypoint north 5 nm, closer to the middle of the passage, and we were now heading past the reefs to the south and north of the passage. On the morning of the 3^rd day Henrik sighted land and gained himself a biscuit issue. He had recovered sufficiently to be able to eat and enjoy the biscuits.



For the rest of the day we sailed slowly past Taveuni. It was now clear that we would arrive at Point Passage just after dark and since I had not entered Savusavu before I was not willing to do so at night. We, therefore, slowed down and spent a quite night motoring at about 1 or 2 knots away from the Point, until about 3 am when I headed Hakura around and we headed for the Point.



We passed Point Passage about 8 in the morning of 3 September and were anchored off the commercial wharf at 9:30 waiting for the Health official to come and fumigate Hakura. This was because we had come from Tonga and Fiji did not want any mosquitos from Tonga. After that Hakura had to be closed for 20 minutes though we could move into the inner harbour of Savusavu. This was done with the assistance of a guy from the Copra Shed Marina. For a fee of $10 Fijian he would ferry the officials to and from Hakura and show us to the mooring; a great service.

Next aboard was the Quarantine official. He was interested in rotten food and not much else. He left after leaving a bill, as had the Health official. I needed to visit them tomorrow to pay the fees.

Now we were waiting on officials from Immigration and Customs. All this time Henrik and Mona had been waiting patiently to be able to get off. At least I thought they were being patient. Mona started to talk about have a cold coke as soon as she could. Then she started to ask when were the next officials coming?

She had changed into her longest dress – which actually was a little black dress more suited for an evening of cocktails. She looked good but I think the black added to the heat and she started to get hotter. After several more questions she wished that she could go for a swim at least. I then said that was fine as long as she did not swim ashore.

Splash, over the side she went, fully clothed. She then swam around Hakura and climbed out. While standing by the boarding ladder, Mona took off the dress and began to ring it out and dry herself off. She is now standing in her bar and paints (black so they would look like swim wear from a distance).

After changing below, she reappeared happy. I offered her my hand; saying, “Thanks you have ruined the reputation of my boat in the harbour. Good job, well done”. For those who don’t know me well, I was very happy. I had now had a young lady jump off my boat in a cocktail dress, swim around it and then dance around in her undies. I think at that stage Mona released what she had just done, and I hope she was not upset with herself. Henrik and I enjoyed it.

Shortly afterwards the Customs man arrives and he did both Customs and Immigration so we are now officially in Fiji, Bula. We can go ashore and Mona can have her Coke while Henrik just enjoyed being ashore.

Well we were in Savusavu, a small town on the southern coast of Vana Levu. It is a great place with several good eateries, mainly little Indian places with limited menus and very cheep, and great food. There are several supermarkets and a local veggie market. It was a smaller version of the markets in Suva and Nadi. Still it has beautiful veg and fruit plus lots of laughing women giving me cheek as I walk round.

Before we arrived, the crew were saying that they never wanted to get on a boat again. On the way into Savusavu, Mona did say that she had enjoyed the last night with the stars, bioluminescent and sunrise. Their plan was to get off as soon as possible and not come back. After a few hours of sitting in Savusavu harbour they wanted one last night aboard Hakura then get off. After dinner ashore they wanted to stay one Hakura of a night and have two nights ashore then come out for a farewell trip out to Point Passage. Also, the stories of how bad the crossing was did decline with time. It was unfortunate that they did not have a longer passage, as they did not really have the chance to settle in and enjoy being at sea.

Overall, they were a good crew; they did their watches and helped whenever I needed some, which is what I ask from a crew.

On the Saturday (6^th Sept) we did go out for the afternoon though they needed to be back on Sunday before 2 pm as they were catching the overnight ferry to Suva.

We steamed out and anchored near a spot known as Split Rock, a nice snorkelling site in a marine reserve. They swam inshore and looked at the fringe reef and said there was not much there. Next morning we moved closer to Split Rock and all swam over. There were lots of fish that hung around as the local resort had a feeding station there. I saw several large fish, which made a pleasant change from Tonga. The coral was not very good though this may have been due to runoff from all the holiday homes across the road.

Henrik’s great dream was to see a sea turtle; unfortunately he did not (foot note, about a week later I did see one while snorkelling in the same location, sorry Henrik).

We arrived back at the Copra Shed in time for a quick lunch and then wave goodbye to the crew as they headed off to the ferry. The lunch as mainly meant to be cheesecake, which Henrik had said, was the best ever. Of course when we arrived there were no cheesecake left (“oh if you had been here a few minutes earlier”). We did manage with chocolate cake though.

Come 2pm and no sign of the ferry and Mona is beginning to be like a cat on a hot tin roof. Finally she asked the staff, and was told oh it is often late but usually is here before 4. This did help her to calm down though to her German mind a late ferry should not happen and in Germany the price would be cut in half. The best bit was when the ferry hoved into sight and they knew the ferry was coming.

At 3 pm they loaded up with their giant backpacks and head off for the ferry. I hope they enjoy the rest of their stay in Fiji and find Australia as enjoyable as they found New Zealand. Go well guys.

Now I had to start planning the next stage. I wanted crew and to get out among the islands. One of the issues was that this was the end of the usual cruising season and most of the boats had headed west, taking with them lots of crew. I had been facebooking with my Welsh mate Mark who was now in New Zealand looking for a yacht to buy. I had been half expecting him to arrive in Tonga, now he was in New Zealand. I got a few comments on Facebook from him saying he would come on up to Fiji to look at a boat. Next minute I get a message from him saying he was coming on Friday and did I want anything brought up? Fantastic, and too bloody right, I only had a short shopping list of three items.



Well Mark was coming and would be here on Friday. So I had my crew and we would soon have a plan. I will write about the mad adventures of Mark from Wales and Cap’n Doug next time.

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Photos

Sails made sure.
The artist comes out at sea.