Home again, home again

Evergreen left the marina today and is now safely on her home mooring. Another cruising season done and dusted.

Fiji to NZ. Arrived

We arrived Opua at 0700 this morning. 3 days of wild sailing and 6 days of non stop motoring. On the other positive side it was sunny and the days were warm right up to today and even then the rain did not start until the middle of the night after we arrived.  

Clearing customs wasn't bad. They did take all our fruit and veg and meat and the popcorn. Didn't matter if the veg was frozen either , if not commercially packaged out it went. Same with the meat.  All frozen, raw or cooked meat had to go. Even Dennis' half finished plate of huevos rancheros went in the bag. Not as bad this time as when we arrived in 2013 as we hadn't half the people and I didn't provision as much. Didn't help that we didn't eat for 3 days. 

We are now safely tucked into a slip at the marina. The boat has had its first rinse with the hose and is getting a second light rain rinse as we speak and we will power wash it down before we leave. We have salt everywhere!  After getting into our slip, which took two tries, we got yummy coffee and caught up with Jo & Rob from Double Trouble. We spent the afternoon doing a basic tidy, having hot, long showers and having a good chat with Josh (including video that worked!!!). We had dinner at the boat club and got home thinking to crash and burn. I had been up since 0100, so that seemed a reasonable expectation. That plan came together well for Dennis, who was out sitting up at the computer. Me, not so much. Ifinally crashed around 10pm and am now wide awake at 1am. Yep doing my watch hahaha.  It's now 3 am, so hopefully I will get sleepy soon. 

Today we will go to Kerikeri to the market to replace the fruit and veg and do a little provision. Lots of chores to get done and logistics to figure out now that we are here. Soooo good to be home, even though we are sort of homeless. Feels weird. 

Another adventure in the books. Stay tuned for South Island travels Jan thru April. Off to sleep.

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fiji to NZ day 7

another nice day. the sea state is flat rolling swell, minimal wind, minimal healing. I am cooking, so we are catching up from the first 3 days of semi starvation - as if it hurt either of us HAHA. The OMG rough seas diet.

Otherwise kinda boring - just the way I like it. Would be better if the engine was off, but we are moving along. 270 miles to go, so maybe friday am? that would be nice. Flat long sleep and a cold beer - sounds heavenly.

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fiji to NZ day 6

Another nice day of motorsailing. night watch was chilly, glad for my hat and wishing for gloves. I think i got the better sleeping deal though, as Dennis had to use the settee in the salon for his sleep while I was able to use the bed for mine.
By my calculations we did 160 miles yesterday - yay. hoping for a friday arrival in NZ. Nothing new or exciting today. We had the egg and bacon (ham) pies recommended by Dinah on s/v Maragarita - they were as yummy as advertised.
Big rolling swell today, not bad kind of soothing really. so, all is well. fingers crossed it stays that way....

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fiji to NZ day 5

Nice day today - finished drying things out and so nice to to come up salty when you touch anything - at least in the cockpit. We were able to sleep in our own bed last night, which tells you that the winds are still light and seas calm. We are still motorsailing.
It is getting colder at night, the comforter is on the bed and watch attire is now sweats, long sleeve shirt and jumper (hoodie).

Otherwise we are just motor sailing along.

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fij to NZ day 4

We interrupt this passage for 3 hours of maintenance.....

Winds stayed up through the night, but started to settle after sunrise, by 1130am it was pretty nice except no wind. gotta love it 30 kts to 7 kts in less than 8 hours. So, we had a nice lunch of chicken curry and then put up the full main with the stay and full jib. Since we were flat so I could cook, we decided to do some chores. I cleaned the kitchen sink (which was so gross it made me want to hurl), and because we are flat was able to open the drains yay! I applied more silicone to the port cabin port hole - that's a new issue. And the biggest yuckiest chore - Dennis fixed the aft toilet (yuck!). He gets lots of points in the "atta boy" column for that. Meanwhile I washed down the cockpit and finally when it was all said and done, we had showers. OM,G the best shower ever. So we are well fed, clean and have a functioning aft head. The interior is mostly dried out - haven't looked to hard at the port cabin, cuz really what can I do at this point? All is definitely well now. Of course there is still no wind, so we are motor sailing.

We did comment that it seems that we haven't gotten very far for how fast we were going, only like 350 miles, but that is as the crow flies and I think we did a bit of an arc. Anyway I will enjoy the ride while it lasts.

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Fiji to NZ day 3

Well, we are still rocking and rolling. JOsh its like the last day before Oahu only bigger. We are dragging the starboard rail and taking waves over the cockpit. Thank god for the new enclosure, we are at least mostly dry. The waves are 1-2 meters and feels like the kracken is trying to break into the boat - waves hitting etc. its been loud. All drains still closed and to add insult to injury the back head isn't working right. I spent time trouble shooting to no avail. Oh and speaking of taking on water (i wasn't but hey). The porthole in the port cabin is leaking - no Paul not thru your new seal - around the glass. REally we are so wet and not from sitting in the cockpit. Its a bit frustrating (ok a lot frustrating - be glad you didn't hear me practicing my sailor talk)!!

Otherwise Mrs Lincoln the play was fine. lol. The moon was beautiful on my watch last night - even with 30 kts of wind. And I am not all the way seasick, just a touch that is cured by sitting under the fan or going up on watch. Dennis not so much. Its been a struggle for him he finally kept some soup down at lunch and is being good about drinking fluids. Oh and it has been sunny and not too hot or to cold. At the moment we both feel okay and the kracken is keeping his hits to a minimum. We are managing to make our course to the southeast, so we are on track to hit (not literally i hope) NZ. Also on a positive note, we are having this miserable trip under sail, so not using up fuel and not directly into the wind. NOt on the beam or behind, but its an improvement on the trip up - marginally.

to sum it all up, we are good and the crossing has been what crossings are - a pain in the butt. has calmed down some this afternoon, so back to being bearable.

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Fiji To NZ day 2

Yikes been a crazy day and a half. first 24 saw fine weather and winds 15-20 kts. We cruised right along at 5-7 kts. A bit bumpy, but not too bad. Had to close the sink drains as we are on a good heal on this port tack. that is the downside of having drains all on the same side.
Today has been pretty much full on, wind has clocked around more from the south big seas with 20-25 kts of wind. Neither of us are feeling great, Dennis in particular. finally had to shut all the sink drains as the kitchen sink backflowed onto the counters and into the cupboard.
Are we there yet?

So yeah all is good, its just the usual crossing issues that have to be borne (sp).

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01 November

We are out of here at the crack of 0800. Haha. Good wind from a good direction main on the first reef. Its a go Houston. See you all in a weekish. Remember sailmail :)

Leaving Fiji

Bula from Fiji. This our last post from here. We are NZ bound. 

Our plan is to depart early am 01 Nov (NZ time). We expect to be 8-10 days. 8 would be awesome, but the wind is a fickle mistress. 

Position reports post to oceantracking.com.  Our call sign is WDJ9035.  You'll note that initially we will be heading a little more west. We will not be getting a rhumb line sail. Sadly. Once the high pressure system we are leaving on clocks around more easterly, we will head more southeast too.

So starting tomorrow we will be without internet. I will be posting on the blog. Www.evergreenadventures.blogspot.com.  As always we love hearing from you while we are underweigh. Our sailmail is wdj9035@sailmail.com.  Keep those cards and letters coming (who is old enough to remember that phrase ?).  Dennis will also be checking in each evening on the northland radio net .  We think it's 1900 hrs NZ time.  Josh is the adult in charge of us while we are off the grid. He mentioned that it is weird that in the US he can't have a legal drink but here he is our key go to person. We love you Josh.    (no, don't jeez mom me.)

We left Denarau today after a busy morning checking out and using up the last of our Fiji dollars. Back on the boat the dinghy came up on the deck and last minute things got stowed. The sail to musket cove was pretty full on and likely what we can expect the first few days. Not awful, but not a nice beam reach either. It is of course as windy as it been. Anchored in 20+kts of wind. Only took two tries .. 

I have been pre cooking some food, and we have a good selection of easy to cook meals. This is our first long passage just the two of us. Hopefully we will both arrive in one piece - Evergreen too. :)

Off to enjoy my last flat night for a week. Talk soon

Musket Cove

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4 October Fulaga

Wow time has sure flown by. Fulaga is awesome, we have really enjoyed our time here. The weather has been very windy, so we have spent our time in the village. Church and lunch on Sunday, hung out with Ma at the school on Monday - it is exam week and each of the villages does the food each day. OMG the food. and it is always eat Dennis, eat Carol Yikes!! I am pretty sure that if we had been fed like that for exams we would have been like, bring 'em on, yay food!!
Tuesday I stayed at the boat, cleaning and cooking - Ma, Teddy and Joshua came for dinner. Typical 6 yr old, Joshua watched 3 movies. It was a good time. Dennis was in the village all day - having lunch and kava at the school and looking at Ma & Teddy's water tank that was leaking. They decided it was the fittings, so yesterday when we went in Dennis fixed those. I taught Ma how to make cake over the fire like we used to do when camping. we made a dutch oven kind of thing and made wacky cake (no eggs). It turned out good. Her grandmother came to watch too. Dennis and I were surprised that cooking like that was something I could teach them. I also gave her a recipe for chowder - they just give the leftover yams and fish to the pigs - easy to get one more meal out of it.
So yeah very interesting to see how they live on a day to day basis. So friendly and giving. In return, and note to anyone reading this and thinking of coming here. Bring dollar store readers, masks for diving, fishing line and hooks, vanilla, cocoa, olive oil. The powder kava is okay to bring to give out, just not for the sevusevu, that has to be the plant.

We will leave this afternoon with the high tide and sail to Toyota which is 70 nm away. The wind has been strong for the last week, so I imagine we will have big wave action, but at least it should be mostly downwind sailing. We will end up at Vuda Point to get work done on the boat. Then if we have time we may go to musket cove. Before we know it, we'll be looking for a weather window to head back to NZ.

Off to make pasta for school lunch today - lol.

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29 September

We are now at Fulaga. Last stop before heading to Vuda Point. We got here on Tuesday afternoon. Upwind motorsail from Namuka, but not too bad. The pass into the lagoon here is narrow and shallow at the lagoon side. The light wasn't great, but we made it, and I only have a few new gray hairs to show for it.

Wednesday, we walked into the village for our sevusevu. It was about a 45 minute hike thru the bush. There is of course an easier walk from a different anchorage. But the walking is good for us. We have a host family. Ma, Teddy and their 6 year old son Joshua. They are the same family that hosted Doug and Carla on Moondance, whom they remembered with big smiles. Dan our teenaged guide showed us first to the wood carver - Dennis bought a really pretty bowl. After that we went to see Ma. She served us Tea, yams and pancake like things. Her grandma, auntie and another lady were there weaving a huge mat for her house. Eventually her husband (Teddy) came by and we were shown their house. Its a nice village, pretty simple, they have solar and I think the school might have internet. Dennis had a look at their inverter - needs a fuse that we might have. Unfortunately their TV is broken and not something we can fix or replace. They told us that since they are our host family, that we should come to them if there is anything we need or want to do - they offered fishing, clamming and of course church and food on Sunday. We will do the Church thing. Carla told me Ma loves chocolate, so I will bring in a wacky cake. After all that, we walked over to the close anchorage to check it out, then back to our boat. We dinghied around a little first to get a feel for the place. It really is cool. The lagoon is huge, mostly sandy bottom with the requisite bommies scattered throughout. It was cloudy and rainy , so I didn't take very many pictures.

Thursday was a spectacular, picture postcard perfect day. We gathered our gear and toured the whole lagoon. At some point I will post pictures, because even those won't be able to show just how amazing this place is. Lots of white sandy beaches interspersed with islets that look like sculptures that have been haphazardly placed. We explored like crazy, were able to go out a pass into the lagoon on the east side of the island, stopped on a beach where we say a white eel. We drove the dinghy out the main pass thinking we might snorkel, but way too much current. There is a cool beach with a lagoon to the outer reef just west of the pass also right out of a post card. We ended the day on a small beach close to the boat, just hanging out with a bottle of wine and snacks. I can see why people suffer the 2 day bash to get here from Suva. Its pretty idyllic.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day. The forcasted winds came, so we moved the boat to the anchorage with the easy walk to the village and yeah.... that was it.

Today is forecasted to be windy again. There is a picnic planned with all the boats and villagers. I imagine it will go ahead unless its pouring down rain. I am going to make a peach crumble. We are down to our last 6 eggs, so am having to plan what I bake around them. No eggs or butter to be had here - sadly.

So we figure we will be here till a good weather window next week then head off to Vuda Point on Viti Levu. That will be a 2-3 day trip, depending on whether or not we go straight thru or break it up. It is an overnighter (90 miles) to the next closet Island and at least that again to Vuda, but we'll see. We are trying to eat thru the freezer as we will have to turn it off when we haul out. It is hard to believe that we only have 4 weeks left before we head back to NZ. I am torn, as Fiji is pretty amazing, on the other hand a grocery store sounds pretty good too. hahaha

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22 september

Currently at Komo in the Southern Lau. Did our sevusevu yesterday with our guide Matai and the aging chief. Matai gave us a tour of the village and we were able to buy a few eggs. He said the supply ship was due today and in fact it came in last night just before sunset. It will be a busy but happy day for the village today as they unload supplies.

The anchorage is on the north side of the island and the pass into the harbour was easy. Good thing as our 5 hour sail from Labeka took all day as it was of course upwind. We arrived at sunset and happily got the anchor down in 30 feet on the first try. The village is on the south side of the island, about a 20 minute walk over the hill. The first thing we came to was the school. Funny how kids playing outside is a universal sound. Then paved path from the school into the village was lined with painted plastic bottles - a very colourful and pretty way to use that plastic. Except for one barking dog, everyone was friendly. Matai showed us his house, and promised us bananas today. In exchange, we copied some movies onto a usb for him. Note to self, next time bring more empty usb drives. We are also going to give him some of our recorded DVDs. hopefully they will work on his machine.

Yesterday morning was a work morning. The raw water pump we replaced in Tonga, started leaking like crazy, so we had turned off the valve to the water inlet, which in turn overheated the pump to the freezer. So, Dennis had to rebuild the old pump - thank you Josh for bringing the parts. It is a pain in the butt to remove and replace, but it is done and appears to working, and the freezer is working again too. A hard but productive morning.

Today the plan is to hand off the usb/dvds to Matai, snorkel and hopefully have a fire and dinner on the beach. Its raining at the moment, but its not socked in, so maybe it will clear up enough to go on with the plan.

We will be here a day or two, depends on the weather, the next island is not far, but really dont want another day of bashing.

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21 September

Arrived Komo late yesterday afternoon. Fixed the raw water pump again this morning walked to the village to do our sevusevu this afternoon. Standing on top of the hill hoping for internet to send this. 

20 September

Leaving Lakeba heading to Komo. Of course that is directly into the wind. Lakeba crazy anchorage and long dinghy ride into the village to do sevusevu. At least we were able to buy bread. Loosing signal. Bye

13 September Vanua Belavu

Nicer day today. did a repeat dinghy ride with the video camera in the morning. Ran the generator, dicked with the engine oil, changed a filter on the watermaker and been making water all day. Usual day in the life.

This afternoon we moved to Mbavutu Harbour. It was an interesting drive thru the channel between the reef and the island. Thankfully we had good light and good waypoints, so got here no problem. Its like a lake in here. blowing 15-20 kts in the channel to get here and less than 5kts where we put the anchor down. had lunch then went for another dinghy ride, walked on a cool beach, saw some turtles, then had a snorkel. A Great snorkel. We will go back, hopefully with a little more sun. lots of fish and interesting coral - and Dennis saw another turtle.

We have to laugh, busy anchorage (not) - one other sail boat when we got here. 2 houses up on the hill, an abandoned looking yacht club and a dock at the southish end of the bay where we are anchored. around sunset 2 more power boats arrived. So wow busy compared to the last few days of being on our own. Saw the 2 people that came in on the first powerboat, and heard the people on the second one (really big). But yeah, not a lot of activity.

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11 September 2018 Vanua Balevu

Evergreen and crew have arrived in the Northern Lau group - Vanua Balevu.
We left Qamea before the butt crack of dawn this morning for the 50 ish mile crossing. OMG 4 am is early and dark!!! We dodged the catamaran that came into Naiivivi(sp?)Bay after us and except for one little bump on a coral head (helps if you actually follow the way points carol), made it out of the bay, put up the mainsail and were off. Managed to get a couple of messages out on the internet as we rounded the southern end of Qamea, but lost sight of the tower quickly.
Our course was of course pretty much directly into the wind. We chose to leave today as the winds were forecast to be the lightest for the next 8 days. So, motor on and sails up we made our way here. All told not a bad trip. The sails helped some and the sea state was pretty flat. I guess if you have to motor, today was one of the best. We arrived approximately 2-pm, and are tucked in just north around the entrance. It has rained off and on all day, but just a light to moderate mist.
It looks beautiful and we are excited to explore.

There is vicious rumor that there is internet to be had we will see. Definitely not at our current position. So, folks its sailmail for now.

12 Sept

Moved anchorages this morning. Still rolly, lots of wind. put the dinghy in the water and went for a long wet dinghy ride. It is pretty spectacular here. Even in cloudy rainy weather. Hoping it will clear up some - better pictures. :) Quiet day after that. Just chilling out.

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Out of chronological order post

6 September 2018

Paradise Resort, Taveuni Fiji

I am behind since we got to Fiji, but just had to write this today.

Exciting day in the mooring field today.

Things started off to plan. Leisurely morning, coffee, run the generator. Dennis working on weather and route planning for our next couple of hops. North from  here to Matei and then on to Vanua Balevu in the Northern Lau. Yikes I did laundry and stowed dive gear and made water.
Around noon we went ashore  to drop off rubbish, refill the water jug i used for laundry and fill up on gas (petrol, not deisel).  Flat calm when we left the boat, but by the time we were  ready to head back it was rocking and rolling. No major though. We  got back,  stowed a few more things, had lunch and decided to sit out the bounce on shore. Really rocking and rolling by that time, but again no issues. Not fun, but not worrisome either.

On shore we were standing by the dinghy to make sure it wasn't rubbing on the rocks and chatting to the woman from the boat  moored in front of us. A couple of boats had already left, having decided to wait out the rollies in a more protected anchorage. As we chatted  we saw her boat moving down wind. Really,  that is not supposed to happen.

We quickly loaded her and her husband into our dinghy and Dennis drove them out to catch their boat.  (I swear she dove into the dinghy. Keeping in mind there was alot of surge, it was a spectacular leap) On the positive side they were able to board, get the engine started and get the boat under control. Sadly not before hitting Evergreen and damaging the port toe rail and breaking their own bow sprit. Our toe rail has two small fist size gouges and a 3 foot split. Dennis says that's okay, Ray will know how to
fix it!!!

To be honest, both boats are very lucky. Things could have been much worse. Two heavy boats colliding?  Yikes a recipe for disaster. And yet......Our toe rail is fixable and basically cosmetic. The other boat may have more damage, hard to tell at the moment. They are worried about their rigging
 
In the meantime on shore we were trying to move dinghies around so that the dive boat could come to the dock. After a pretty impressive chinese fire drill, the dive boat decided not to come in. Poor divers had to swim ashore.

During all this I am being told we have to leave the anchorage or wait, just add another line to the mooring, no leave, no....   in the end we are still here. Not having dinner ashore as planned, but oh well. All boats are situated, owners on board. Our anchor alarm is set tight, just in case. Sunset was beautiful  (no green flash) and fajitas instead of Fijian. Ahhhh the relaxing life of cruisers.......

Monday 20 August - Fiji

We made it. anchor down just outside of Savusavu, will have a good sleep and check in tomorrow. Overall not a bad crossing -82 hours. One fish, one broken and repaired whisker pole, a little rain, and no arguments. So another one for the books. More later

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sunday 19 august

unable to get the sailmail to send yesterday.
sunny and warm all day. winds calmed down. continued wing and wing through the night.
whisker pole down this morning. Motorsailing winds 5kts. would like to get to Fiji in this lifetime - lol. All is well.

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