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Published: December 11th 2014
Cap’n’s report - 103 nautical miles over 12 Days.
Well after all the waiting in Vuda Point Marina for crew I almost have some. One maybe, an English woman who really wanted to go to Vanuatu for the diving or a couple of Swiss world travellers (Urs and Marianne) but they can’t leave till the end of October. So while I considered my options I headed out to Musket Cove. I had last been here in 2011 with Lorraine. Since one, if not two cyclones had hit then the place, so I wondered what it would be like.
On Sunday 12 October, I set off into a head wind so it was a steady, though lumpy, motor. The combination of head wind and short sharp sea sometimes slowed
Hakura down to a few knots but we were making progress. This was my first time solo in Fiji though it was not a big trip, as it would only take a few hours and all in good daylight.
During the trip, I released that it was better to go with a couple willing to commit as opposed to a maybe, so
I decided to go with the Swiss couple. The down side of waiting till the end of October was Campbell, my son in Tasmania, had offered to come up and help me sail down the NSW coast, however, this could only occur in early November as he would not be able to get time off work in December. As it would take us about 14 days direct sailing to reach Australia leaving at the end of October would mean that we arrived in Coffs Harbour too late for Campbell to be able to join me. Oh well, I have to work with the crew I have, so after mooring off Musket Cove, I rang them to see if they still wanted to sail on
Hakura, and if so, offer them the positions. Yep they were still keen and we had a deal.
The next day, as occurs in such situations, I received two emails from possible crew who could leave soon. However, I had made an agreement with Urs and Marianne so I had to turn both of them down. The worst part was they were both experienced and it would have been a change to sail
with such crew. Oh well, the decision had been made, so be it.
One of the great features of visiting a popular cruising hangout is that you can meet up with yachts and their crews that you last saw months ago. Such was the case at Musket Cove. I was able to meet with Mike and Sophie from Wanderlust who I had last seen in Tonga. A young couple sailing their boat back to New Zealand after buying it in the Caribbean. I had a great potluck BBQ with them and some other NZ yachties on Sunday evening. We even had a crayfish that Mike had caught that day.
The main change I noticed from previous visits is that the yachtie bar had been rebuilt in the style of a Fijian long house. It looked very solid whilst being very open so in the next cyclone the thatch roof would go but not much else. The other main feature of the whole island was that they were going through a prolonged water shortage with the laundries closed and no water for yachts. Maybe this is a sign of things to come for
northern and western Fiji.
After four days waiting the wind finally dropped. Actually when it did, it basically died away, but that is the pattern at this time of year around Fiji. So I was off for a motor (sail if the wind picked up, which it did not) to one of my favourite anchorages during previous visits, Navadra Is. The trip want smoothly, literally as there was no wind and no fish caught, either.
After I arrived at Navadra, the wind did pick up unfortunately, as it had a significant north component making the anchorage comfortable. I did sleep though not for the whole night. So in the morning I decided to head north to Waya Is where there were several anchorages for northerly winds.
One of the yachts also in Navadra was a small American cutter called Destarte crewed by Jerry and his nephew Brendan. I had first meet these guys in Vuda Point and again at Musket Cove. I enjoyed their company and we where both heading for northwest Waya, so started the Destarte/Hakura mini buddy boating adventure.
Destarte is a 28 foot Bristol Channel Cutter from the west coast of the US. Jerry is a retired US Navy doctor who has been sailing Destarte across the Pacific over 8 years. Brendan was having a break between finishing high school and starting university by sailing with his uncle.
Sailing is a loose term for it as from what I understood he had spent most of his time assisting Jerry to clean, sand and paint (mainly varnish) Destarte after Jerry had been home for a few months. They both had been putting in long hours getting Destarte back to her best and the result was very impressive.
An aspect of Brendan that I found very interesting was his love of history and classic languages like Latin and ancient Greek, both of which he could speak. He was also a good musician and was writing his own songs. A Renaissance man in a world where newest is the only important aspect. I wish him well and feel he will go far.
Jerry was about my age (young for those interested) who had studied medicine through the Navy and worked there for many years. He had a very different worldview to me, which may have been while we got on well, plus our mutual acceptance of each other. He is a strong Republican, does not like Obama and denies that climate change is a possibility, let along occurring right now.
This did lead to several interesting discussions with me trying to counter his objects to climate change while always suggesting that he should check out the original information and not take my word for it. I do wonder if I managed to get any cracks in his worldview. Whatever, I enjoyed the discussions and the different perspective.
I often think about the psychology of denies, in general and with regard climate change, in particular. Why do deniers not accepting the evidence before them? Is the information not available to them or do they only hear that parts that support their own worldview? The latter is common to all of us, but one of the important aspects of an evidence based view is that you need to change your views if the evidence does not support your views. This is one of the things that I think I can do. What do you, the reader, think? Am I right? You are welcome to let me know.
Well back to the trip through the Yasawa Islands. After a couple of hours of motoring I was able to anchor in Liku Liku Bay, which is the location for the Octopus Resort.
It was a very beautiful bay with the usual fringe reefs and the odd isolated reef, one of which I went over. It was five meters below the surface so no chance of hitting it but it was still a bit of a shock to see the depth suddenly come up from 20 meters to five. Hakura did a quick about face and headed back to deeper water.
I was still getting over a cold that I had had while in Vuda Point, with its associated swimmer’s ear infection, so did not feel much like swimming or snorkelling, however, it was a very relaxing place.
One evening I had dinner on Destarte, where Jerry cooked a very enjoyable Thai green curry.
After 3 nights, on the 20
th, we headed further north with the aim of anchoring near manta ray pass off Drawaqa Is. This would be the third season that I had stopped off at the pass, and associated resort, so I knew where I wanted to anchor. The motor over was very flat and again, no fish were caught.
As I motored towards the anchorage, it appeared to be rush hour with three other yachts heading towards the same place (plus Destarte behind me). Luckily one vessel continued on and there were no other yachts already anchored.
I was third vessel and smallest, so far, so I went inside the other yachts and decided to drop anchor in about 11 meters. Next minute I here a voice say “Hakura that is some nice reef your are over”.
Who said that? I picked up the handheld VHF radio and asked who was calling. They had not used their radio, rather a load speaker on the mast; anyway a voice came back over the VHF and said that the reefs where I was were very nice for snorkelling. That is all they said. I thought that they had said their vessel’s name was Huck, which was a 45’ US yacht just to port.
Well, I was in 11 meters and the reef was further inshore. On some of my earlier visits I had even anchored further in, so I stayed where I was. Later on I meet the people off Huck and it was not them who had called me. So it was the big (60+’) British yacht behind me. If they wanted me to move, they did not say so.
That evening I went ashore and joined Destarte and Huck for wood-fired pizzas at Manta Ray Resort, the pizzas where good, as was the company.
While ashore we found out that the manta rays had gone but there were still large fish and some sharks in the channel where the manta rays were usually found. So the next day Jerry, Brendan and I headed out in E2 to the channel to see if we could see the big fish and sharks. This was after I had come up with a way to get back into E2 from the water. Working this out was a lot of fun though I suspect not a pretty sight.
In the end, Jerry was the only one to get in the water. Both Brendan and I just leaned over the side and stuck our heads in. There were lots of reef fish and Jerry did see some big school fish but no sharks.
That evening I cooked a chickpea curry and a vegetable curry for Jerry and Brendan. They were impressed as they said that they had not met another cruiser who made curries from the original spices.
Jerry had decided to head back to Savusavu so he could do a quick trip to Wallace to restart the time Destarte was allowed to stay in Fiji. So next day, 22 October, they headed back to Lusaka to do a run across the top of Viti Levu, Fiji’s biggest Island heading east. I had enjoyed our time together and would miss the company and thought provoking discussions.
I decided to stay put as everyday I was not in Vuda Point was about $70 Fijian saved – what with marina fees, ice creams and dinner at the bar. I left for Vuda Point early on the 24
th and after another flat sunny motor I arrived off there about 3.30. On the way I had all the lines ready, fenders in position so it just needed a gentle run into the Marina and a few minutes later I was back and moored safely.
In the 12 days I was away lots of vessels had gone and new ones had arrived. Lots were heading to New Zealand and a few to Australia, like we were going to do. There were also many yachts being pulled out to be left in the pits for the cyclone season.
Thus ended my first solo voyage in Fiji. It was good though I do enjoy having people on
Hakura and sharing what is happening with them. A side effect is that I usually don’t take photos, because I am busy getting
Hakura somewhere and have come to rely on the photos taken by the crew, thus there are only a few photos this time.
Anyway enjoy.
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Chris
non-member comment
genital run
Not sure if I posted the last comment or lost it !! Anyway could not Leyland the "genital" run comment go without mentioning that Freud would have had a field day !!! Sounds all good D. Best of sailing henceforth. Love Chris xx