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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day 1

Saturday morning and all is well. of course directly downwind. Been running wing and wing until 0200 when the attachment for the topping lift for the whisker pole broke. Dennis spent 45 minutes on the foredeck getting it down and out of the way. its fixed now and we are back going downwind wing and wing. lost a lot of speed and miles, but still did 118 miles. sunny today, crew is already tired and grumpy. hahaha.

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Leaving Tonga

Well, it was a 2 hour process with a little bit of chinese fire drill thrown in to keep it interesting.(i wonder what the politically correct term for that is these days?  Lol i am showing my age).  We are officially checked out of Tonga and full of deisel. Evergreen heavy is ready for take off for Fiji. 

We are currently at anchor, still in VaVa'u..we have spent the afternoon finishing prep for crossing- running the watermaker  (which of course wasn't in a cooperative mood but Dennis finally beat it into submission), checking and filling oil, running the generator,  a quick vacuum, dinghy on deck, stowing all rhe miscellaneous stuff that explodes out into open space and now resting before dinner. 

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning which puts us in Savusavu Fiji Tuesday (local time, Monday N.Hemisphere).  Knock wood the winds are looking like a friendly down wind/ behind the beam passage. Fingers crossed. 

Will post as we go via SSB.

VaVa'u Tonga

Tuesday, 14 August

Our time in Tonga is drawing to a close.  Hard to believe we have been here almost 3 months. It has been a great experience and as expected we have made new friends in the cruising and local community. 

Surprisingly and pleasantly so, it has not been particularly hot. I mean I know it's winter, but I expected higher Temps. I don't think its ever been more than 28C (82 F).  Yes, there have been a few nights with no breeze that were hard to sleep through, but overall surprisingly mild. 

We left Nuku alofa, the main city on the main island of Tongatapu in June. I wrote at length about our time there. Next stop was the Haapai group. 

The Ha'apai were amazing. Navigation was challenging at times, but its a beautiful group of islands. If we come back to Tonga we will plan to spend way more time there. 

VaVa'u has also been great. Navigation is easy, provisioning is easy, internet is abundant and we have had a great time. 

Josh came for 10 days. It was so good to see him. He enjoyed the break from Wellington winter.  But probably the best part for him was that he got to come to the boat, enjoy a new place with warm weather and then go home. A vacation not a lifestyle. Haha. 

Paul (our inepid and handy crew member) left us at the end of July to return to the states. He was great crew. Hope to catch up with him in NZ this fall (spring in NZ lol).

The water here continues to amaze me.  It is so clear and the color is beyond  pretty, it even photographs well!  The snorkeling is good, not great, but we still enjoy it. 

Speaking of the water, we had an Evergreen malfunction first in Nieafu. The watermaker was having high pressure issues - seems we sucked up a jelly fish into the water intake strainer.  Funny in retrospect, not so much at the time. Honestly at that point there were so many jellyfish  (moon jellies) that you could practically walk on the water. There haven't been anywhere near as many at any time since. Regardless, therehas been no watermaking in Nieafu since. 

Whales.  We expected to see more whales and i really wanted to do a whale swim. I am sure there is a human related reason, but we just haven't seen that many whales. We heard them loud and clear in the anchorage at Nuku  (#8) and have seen them from a distance. Their singing is pretty amazing. Whale watching/whale swims are big business here in Nieafu and I wonder if that is not part of the problem or it could just be how it is this year. Either way I am not willing to take the chance of paying the big bucks and not get a swim with them. 

So now we are back in Nieafu in the mooring field prepping to leave for Fiji. Its about 450nm. Hopefully only 3 nights. We will check in at Savusavu. Not a huge passage, but our first as just the two of us. I will post to the blog each day, and hopefully our position will come up as well. Exact departure is wind/weather dependant as usual, but these westerlies/south westerlies are due to clock back into normal east/southeast trades by Thursday. We need fuel and of course to get it duty free you have to get it on the day you check out. Yikes what a pain, but it is what it is. Right?

I will keep you posted.

Avalau. VaVa'u

First anchoragw in the VaVa'u group.  Good snorkeling. Did a circum nav of the island in the dinghy. Stayed til Tuesday then onto Neiafu to check in and provision.