Here's the thing. If you can't be moving, make staying worthwhile. And once you accept it, it isn't so bad.

This whole week has seen a high wind warning posted for Fiji, a warning confirmed by all the various GRIB files calling for 20-25 plus a few boats that have straggled in. It has been hard to believe tucked into our anchorage off the Jean Michel Cousteau Resort on Lesiaceva Point, where the water has remained nice and calm throughout. There are quite a few boats waiting like us to make the trip down to Makongai and then around inside the reefs to Lautoka, on the west side of Viti Levu. When we do all leave, it's going to look like a departing Armada!

On the afternoon of Don's birthday, we loaded up the dinghy with dive gear and zipped out to Savusavu Bay's outer reef to do a dive on a site Curly gave us the lead on called Nuggets. This first dive – a small area centered on two tall coral bommies with crisp hard corals, swarms of bright tropical fish and bright yellow soft corals hanging profusely from the roof of an undercut -- was a real gem, and it set the mood for an active week where "we" dove most every day.

By "we", I mean Bill and me. Unfortunately, we are down to two sets of dive gear on Tackless II. For some reason (perhaps just being a gentlemanly host), Don has insisted on snorkeling instead of diving. (Then again, ever since we left his hunting days in the Sea of Cortez behind, he just hasn't had the same eagerness for diving to sightsee.) My enthusiasm, on the other hand, has been reborn since the dives at Viani Bay, and to our surprise, the sites right here along the reef reaching out to Point Passage Light are almost as impressive. The incredible variety of beautiful and intricate hard corals here never ceases to amaze me, with the bright orange and lavender basslets swarming among them, and the spectacular soft corals come in such an array of brilliant colors. I do not understand what gives these soft corals their purples, oranges, yellows and pinks. Until Fiji most the soft corals have been dull tans and greens.

It turns out there are three buoyed sites from Nuggets to the Light itself, and despite some wind chop, Bill and I managed to dive all of them this week. Although I have a soft spot for the soft corals of Nuggets, the most dramatic is definitely the series of reef buttresses marching seaward along the wall below the lighthouse itself.

Meanwhile, we have renewed our friendship with the vigorous young couple – Tricky and Jane – aboard the Tayana 42 Lionheart. About our kids' age, Tricky is English and Jane is Australian, and they met, wed and bought their boat the past year or so in New Zealand. This is their first cruising season, and their enthusiasm and greenness is balm to our crusty jadedness. There have been several cockpit happy hours (a tradition much dimmed by the expense of liquor here!) diagnosing alternators and chargers etc, and Thursday afternoon, the young folk persuaded Don and Bill to leave me to my writing and go off with them on a tramp up in the hills.

Apparently this was invigorating for Don, because the next day he persuaded Bill and me to join him on the 6k walk to town. I think we about killed Bill (who insists there must four miles to every Fijian kilometer). I must confess by the time we reached town I was pretty stiff myself. But then, Saturday morning, Don was up and afoot walking to town AGAIN with Tricky and Jane! Think maybe we have a case of birthday-itis?

The walkers got a ride back to the anchorage yesterday with another young couple, Paul and Jo on their boat Overdraft (good name!). Clearly there was some conviviality on this run, as they all arrived in a highly sociable frame of mind. This led to a group of nine yachties (with addition of Bob and Margaret from the Nordhavn 46 Suprr) descending on the Cousteau Resort for their overpriced cocktails.

I haven't said much about this resort in my writings, which is hardly fair since we've spent so much time a stone's throw away. Although still called the Jean Michel Cousteau Resort, rumor has it the resort actually changed hands several years ago. It really is a handsome facility, with 25 luxury bures nestled on 17 acres of sand-fringed point, all shaded by thick stands of the lovely red-trunked coconut palms. Don and Bill managed to finagle a tour on their Thursday afternoon walk, and were particularly impressed that this resort, unlike many luxury resorts, not only welcomes families with children, but has a whole special play area set aside for them. They obviously are well-known as a dive resort, and still keep an actual marine-biologist on staff. They also market traditional Fijian weddings to the honeymoon crowd, and earlier in the afternoon we were able to spy on one as the bride and groom were poled from the beach to the jetty in a raft bedecked by fronds and flowers and powered by four bare-chested Fijians in grass skirts to a chorus of singers. Hopefully, they weren't offended by the line of laundry we had just pegged out!

The resort does not come across as particularly yacht-friendly, understandable since their priority must be their own guests. They probably needn't worry too much about being overwhelmed by yachties, since their prices are quite stiff and somehow the fancy drinks never wholly satisfying. Still it makes a nice setting for a special evening, especially if you can restrain yourself to one drink! The main pavilion is really handsome, with cushy seats and lounges in warm colors the bar area, and red-clothed candlelit tables for dining divided into family and "quiet" sectors, all around a lovely pool in which the nighttime torches reflect and flicker. They had a local string band playing, and there was kava in the tanoa, and the Fijian staff is always friendly. In May when we came ashore, business was quite slow, but this week the place seems packed.

It was raining when we returned to the boats last night, and the rain kept up much of the night. Sunday, however, dawned sunny and breezy, and the group, less the Overdrafts but plus Wind Pony's Dick and Lynn, shared out dive gear and went for a group dive back out to Nuggets. Things were quite choppy on the surface, and it seemed like every dive boat in town was making for the same spot! Fortunately, the one on the mooring made us all (four dinghies) welcome to tie off to their stern. Although conditions were nowhere as nice as they were when Bill and I first dove it, it was a big success with Tricky and Jane and Dick and Lynn, all fairly novice divers who were grateful to have Don and me shepherd them. All in all T2s dive compressor has been kept working pretty hard.

Tomorrow, Don plans a trip into town (by foot or taxi?) to get our circuit breaker (which has FINALLY arrived 10 days after shipping from the US) through customs, and it looks like I will have some of my newbie divers hankering for one more dive. The GRIBs and Fiji Met both promise a drop in the wind and sea state by Tuesday, so tomorrow afternoon we will haul the dinghy aboard for an early departure Wednesday.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

Rest, recuperation and repair – the mainstays of the cruiser's life. Monday was laundry and wash-down day. Tuesday, Don and Bill took me up the mast to retrieve the wayward topping lift and to re-wrap the flapping baggy wrinkles.

Wednesday, Don and Bill took a rental car across the island to Labasa where Don went to the dentist. We'd heard a great deal about this Dr. Kumar, and he lived up to his reputation, rebuilding Don's broken tooth point for F$40 ($25 US!), including the Novocain shot. The boys spent the night at Palmlea, giving Bill a quick look at north-side life (and the fantasy property), before they drove back Thursday. Meanwhile, I spent my time alone on the computer catching up on my Admiral's Angle columns, printing out 100 photos for Sera and Freddy back in Naviqiri, and doing other computer stuff.

On Friday, the boys finally tackled my Force 10 stove. This stove has been a trial to us since we bought it nine years ago. Never have I been able to have something in the oven and then use any of the top burners. Over the years Force 10 has sent us parts ostensibly to fix this problem, but they've never helped. In Central America, when our oven valve failed, it took two tries to get the right part. Trying to put that part in – without any directions provided – was not one of Don's happier endeavors. Since then, one by one the stove-top burners have been failing, so that upon Bill's arrival I was down to one working burner.

Uncle Bill, bless his heart, had taken on ordering all the needed replacement parts from Vancouver. He had even managed to get a printout of instructions. The parts we thought we needed had, of course, been discontinued, and instead he'd to buy three completely redesigned burner kits…which of course cost a bundle. Don, as you might guess, was sure it would have been better to make a dive site of this stove and to put those dollars toward a new one. Without Bill on hand, those new burners might well have slipped away to the spare parts netherworld. But Bill, naive as he was, was game to tackle it and dragged Don with him. It took ALL DAY, because the stove has to be largely dismantled to get access to the insides, and of course, dismantled, the parts and pieces had to be cleaned. But by golly, by sticking to it, the guys got it all reassembled, and get this…it works! I mean works the way it always should have!!!!! And no stray licks of blue flame around the edges, either. I guess there's a reason they redesigned those burners. And not only does it work – lighting promptly even when the oven is on, but it no longer rattles when we motor. For once, money and effort truly well spent! The chef is a happy camper!

Don't get the idea that Uncle Bill's holiday has been all work and no play. There wasn't a happy hour we missed, and we ate out pretty near every night. Savusavu is full now of boats we have come to know, so life has been quite social.

Saturday morning the boys went ashore for a haircut. This they found at a salon upstairs above the Bula Re restaurant. This turned into quite the cultural experience for Uncle Bill as the hairdresser was Reggi/Regina, a flamboyant Fijian version of what would, in French Polynesia, be called a faka leiti (a fake woman!) She/he did a great job with both guys, although she particularly liked rebraiding Uncle Bill's token pigtail.

We also tackled making a little video movie for Kai in return for the great DVDs he and his Mom sent out to us with Bill. Titled "PopZ and Gz on the Boat in Fiji", it's a little closer to sailing with Mr. Rogers" than "Sailing with Elmo!" Steven Spielberg we aint. At least it will give him some idea of what the boat looks like, both at anchor, and, yes, by golly, underway. We dropped the mooring after lunch, raised the sails and the boys and camera chased after me in the dinghy as a brisk breeze sent T2 flying out to the Point.

Yesterday, we finally got Uncle Bill wet with a little scuba refresher class and some exploratory dives along the reef. There are some amazing coral formations on the bottom here, and we were treated to a turtle as we swam through the cleft in Split Rock.

Today, Monday, is the 13th which means it is Captain Don's Birthday. We've started the day with a glutinous pancake breakfast and who knows what lies ahead. We SHOULD have gotten underway this weekend for Lautoka, Vuda and Musket Cove, where we plan to end Bill's visit. However, we ordered from the states a replacement breaker last week for the windlass, and it hasn't come in yet. And, wouldn't you know, the weather report is for a return of strong winds. Oh, well. Never have schedule.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Palmlea Farms, Savu Savu area

After another rolly night, the three captains were more than ready to leave Futuna Friday morning, even though it meant that we'd be arriving back into Fiji on the weekend, and so would be subject to their stiff overtime charges. Believe me, after two bad nights, the overtime fees sounded cheap!

Of course, first we had to get there. The better conditions Freedom Hunter reported at sea, we now know fell apart for him within hours. We, too, had pretty decent conditions starting out: sunny blue sky, puffy white clouds and a nice wind of about 18 knots sending Tackless II bounding over the waves at 6-7 knots. Bill set out optimistic, armed with seasickness meds in his system, but that lasted only a few hours. As the wind speeds increased and we took sea after sea aboard the leeward rail, his smile drooped, and by dusk, as we took the third reef in the main sail, Bill disappeared to the sea bunk in the salon.

The good news is the wind stayed just far enough to the east that we could actually sail. The bad news is that wind was so high – 25-30 sustained – that we could carry no more than staysail and triple-reefed main, and the big seas whipped up by the wind would intermittently stop and drop the boat into a trough. It was not pleasant sailing.

Our first mishap of the night occurred when Don, having opted for a bowl of "extra crunchy" French muesli for dinner, cracked a tooth! Then, later in the night Don noticed the topping lift flying free, winding itself up in the upper rigging. Without the topping lift tacking becomes impossible because the third reef does not hold the boom up enough to clear the hardtop and boom crutch. Hmmm. For the time being we were fine, as with luck we'd have the same tack all the way back.

The next day we ventured a handkerchief of head sail and managed to pick up our speed again. Our goal for the day was to get to and through the maze of reefs scattered across the way to the Somosomo straights by passing directly between Vetauua Island and the west side of Naqelelevu Atoll. But of course, the wind unhelpfully veered just enough more south, that our course over ground got pushed to starboard complicating that plan.

To get back east, we would have to tack, but to tack we would have to take the mainsail down. This we managed to pull off with me manually yanking the boom onto the crutch as Don lowered the sail, no mean trick in 27 knots. The problem was, with no topping lift, there was no way to get it up again. However, with no main, our forward progress, even with the engine running, was puny, the autopilot struggling to maintain steerage. Enough stuff was going wrong that we realized it was time to STOP, BREATHE, THINK and ACT.

Stopping in the open sea means heaving-to. We have heaved to in Tackless II on a number of occasions, but never in this much wind and sea. Even though it is the prescribed maneuver, we were not sure how well it would work, especially since we would be trying to heave to with the staysail only. We had just had happy-hour conversation with some skippers in boats similar to T2, who liked heaving to with staysail only, but having never tried it ourselves, we were skeptical. Don went forward and put the preventer on the staysail to hold the self –tending boom to windward when we tacked, and then we tacked her through and put the rudder hard starboard (up). The principle is that the rudder is trying to turn the boat one way while the sail is pushing the bow the opposite direction. Sure enough, presto, T2 came to a stop, hove-to neat as a pin! It was not quite as nice as heaving to with a main up, where our bow would angle up more toward the wind and sea. But even beam on the ride settled out considerably.

Now the task was to jerry-rig a new topping lift which we did using one of our running backstays. We took its tackle off and used a short piece of Spectra line from the boom through the shackle and back to a convenient cleat to allow us to adjust the height of the boom over the crutch. With the main already triple-reefed it worked like a charm.

Feeling rather chuffed (hard to beat Brit expression for feeling smugly pleased with oneself) by our successful contravention of the problem, we continued on, tacking twice to be able to enter the reef system where we wanted. We made our final turn southward just about sunset, and from there on the trip was a breeze. As the motion settled down, Bill was able to come up and take a watch so that Don and I could get some rest, and by the time I came back up around 1:00 am, we were sailing free and easy in fifteen knots with the moon breaking through the clouds. Now THIS is what it is supposed to be like! We passed through the Somosomo straights around 4:30am in the calm of Taveuni's wind shadow, and by 9:30am, the wind filled back in off our quarter and we made the long run back to Savusavu in a nice broad reach. Back in Nakama Creek, we picked up the very same mooring we dropped nine days earlier, and the officials all came out and checked us back into the country without a hitch. We didn't escape the overtime charges, but, as we slept soundly for the first time in nine days, we all agreed it was money well spent.

This morning we bundled heaps of soggy laundry ashore to the Copra Shed, and then we went on the fuel dock and old T2 got a thorough wash down. I'm sure we had salt as high as the spreaders. Sid of Freedom Hunter has been by to trade war stories, and we met the young couple on Helena moored behind us, who'd lost their headsail in the same weather system coming in from Tonga. In this way, crappy sailing experiences are transformed into fodder for happy hour sea tales. It's a damn good thing sailors have such short memories! Maybe we won't sell the boat tomorrow after all!

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Passages, Savu Savu area

With two new arriving boats on the horizon, we decided to drop our night's mooring and scoot into town before breakfast (but after coffee!) to ensure that WE'd get a mooring! Which we did, albeit one squeezed in among other boats at the far inner end of the harbor! Unlike when we left two months ago, Nakama Creek is packed full. Some are the same old boats that are based here, but most are new arrivals. It's amazing how many we know. There is a Kiwi boat we got to know last year in Tonga, an American boat we'd met in Zihuatenejo (on or northbound trip), and even a boat from Redhook in St. Thomas – Whimsey – whose new owners, Brian and Erin, we'd met in Trinidad in 2000 and who then built themselves a hardtop patterned on ours! What a small world cruising is!

Don and I spent Monday and Tuesday in a flurry of chores readying the boat for the arrival of our friend Bill Wednesday morning. He came in right on schedule, traveling pretty much non-stop from Tampa (no LA layover for him), but fortunately got some sleep n the plane. Good thing because, after a welcome breakfast at Copra Shed's Captain's Table, we kept him hopping all day.

When Bill finally dropped at eight that night, Don and I huddled around the computer and watched the first of our home DVDs of our grandson Kai. How much he has grown in just three months!

Our schedule never let up over the next couple of days, with final preparations for our quickie passage to Futuna and back filling every hour…well, every hour that we weren't eating and socializing with friends. We also did take an overnight out to Lesiaceva Point, ostensibly to clean the boat's bottom, but at least in part to give Bill an chance to test out his snorkel gear on Split Rock!

Still, by 3:30 Friday afternoon, all the official paperwork was done, Bill was officially signed on as crew, and old Tacky Two was checked out of Fiji. By plying my winsome feminine ways, I persuaded the officials to grant us permission to spend the night out the point prior to our planned 3 am departure. We may have regretted that for a few hours when, after a great grilled lamb dinner (making the seasonal debut of the BBQ), the wind unexpectedly backed into the west, and blew like stink, piling up the seas on the lee shore behind us. I suppose the smart skipper would have cast off and made use of the westerlies, but in the dark of night after a long day, nobody was mentally ready…on our boat or on our friends Steve and Rachel's boat, Apogee, making the trip with us. The good news is that despite the rocking and bobbing, we all did get some rest.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

We are waiting out weather at anchor out at Lesiaceva Point. A bigh HIGH to the south has brought strong winds and big seas just in time for our departure. We feel like we are about ready to take up residency! Have met another boat going our way for a bit. We are both poised to leave tomorrow.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area, Vanua Levu Circumnavigation

Saturday morning's battery exchange went like clockwork. We pulled on the dock, the delivery truck pulled in, and Joseph came the as soon as I called, accompanied by a friend with a taxi. The closest thing to a hitch was that the terminals on the Trojans are horizontal and on the LTHs they were vertical. However, the set of positive and negative connectors we have on the battery bank dates from St. Thomas when my old friend Deno did such a beautiful job of wiring in the ten (10!) new Trojans we started out with. We have second-guessed ourselves so many times on this battery bank, both in number and type, changing from Trojans to gels in Trinidad, and back to the LTH wet cells in Mexico, that the double-ought (00) connectors have been twisted this way and that enough they no longer resemble Deno's neat originals.

While Don was working on the batteries (hooking them back up, reinstalling the hydro-caps, and greasing the connections with electrical grease), I made a last pass through town picking up some things for him and scoring big on the pa'alangi vegetable delivery. Things like broccoli, red and green peppers, and celery are not grown locally, although green beans, eggplant, cauliflower and spinach are. The imports come in now and then by ferry and are priced like gold. In my view there is little worth spending money on more than veggies, especially ones that work well in stir-fries, so our departing fridge is packed as full as it can be.

We departed the harbor on schedule Saturday afternoon, and have been at anchor two nights back out at Lesiaceva Point. We have, of course, managed to miss the easy weather window. A young New Zealand couple we have gotten to know raised their anchor early yesterday to bash eastward to Fawn Harbor. Bashing is not our favorite point of sail, and the high pressure system bringing the strong so' easterlies is liable to hang around for awhile, so we are leaning more and more towards heading west.. Don wants to run the engine with its new alternator and watch the new batteries a while before we take off, anyway. We heard Captain Fatty (Fatty Goodlander, Cruising World writer and friend from the Virgin Islands) on the radio net the other day bemoaning that HIS new Trojans (from New Zealand) are not holding a charge. He now has to deal with the problem in Tonga, one of the worst places we can imagine to be in such a pickle. For once in our lives, we are actually in a position to insist on the warranty should be need to!

However, so far so good, and we are just ticking away at more little projects as we linger. Tomorrow we should be underway.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

Yes. We're still here! Can you believe it? Yesterday made one full calendar month we've been back in Fiji, and, with the exception of a couple of long weekends anchored out at Lesiaceva Point, we have spent the whole time on this mooring.

Well, you know how it is with boats; one thing leads to another. Our friends Steve and Iretta, having decided to go solar on their new house, put in an order for Trojan batteries. The batteries, solar panels, controller, etc. would come from Suva on a truck on the ferry. All we had to do was increase the order by six ("Sure, they're in stock.") and poof, they would magically appear. Since we always seem to be in remote locations when our batteries begin to fail, It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Our current bank of batteries – 6 LTHs (a battery made by Exide in Mexico) – were brought aboard in December 2003 in La Paz. They have actually performed quite satisfactorily these past 3.5 years, but we put such a load on them with our two refrigeration units, computers, lights, autopilot and other toys, that we have not had a great track record for long life. And for some reason, Don can't get our fancy Link 2000 to properly equalize them.

So, adding to Steve and Iretta's order at the last minute not only seemed like an ideal opportunity, but it saved us both money on the per battery price. Only, ....surprise, they didn't come last week when they were supposed to. Hence, our stay in Savusavu got extended one more week!

Working to the same schedule apparently is Savusavu's alternator guy. Don had arranged for two alternators to be rebuilt while we were in the US, figuring seven months was plenty of time. And sure enough upon our return they were finished, only, thanks to a little miscommunication, they'd been rebuilt as 50 amp alternators not 90. So, Pele ordered in heavier wire to wind a new stator. That took longer than expected, and guess what, when finally done, after 2-3 trips to the shop by Don, it didn't work. Finally with another three-day weekend bearing down, Pele ordered in a brand new 90-amp alternator from Labasa and sold it to Don at his cost. Since we have the repair money into the previous one, this is not quite the deal it seems, but Don bowed to the inevitability of island business and accepted. Imagine the guys' chagrin when, at 5pm on Friday afternoon after the alternator arrived on the bus, they realized it still had to be converted to an external regulator with field and tack wires added! Don was very late getting to the Yacht Club that night!

So, tomorrow at 4am the ferry docks, and the truck is promised to roll off. We will move over to the floating fuel dock for the exchange. Of course we have to do something with the old batteries, but that ended up being solved relatively easily . Rumor had it that Joseph, a somber Fijian man who works for Copra Shed Marina, was looking for batteries. When we made him the offer, he was so pleased he glowed. So Joseph will meet us at the dock and help Don with the heavy work of changing them out.

It's rarely a problem to fill time on a boat, so we have gotten accomplished lots of chores from the To-Do list. We also enjoyed another lovely weekend last weekend out at Lesiaceva Point, kayaking, snorkeling, and socializing. Several pulses of new boats have recently arrived in Savusavu from New Zealand, among them a group of Scandinavian boats. How often do you find yourselves surrounded by three Norwegian flags! Jan and Eva of the Hallberg Rassey 39 Necessity asked us to join them for cocktails ashore at Cousteau (officially The Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort). It was our first time ashore at the resort, and what a lovely facility. Expensive, but lovely. We started prudently with local beers, but, warming up to the event and the environment, we enjoyed a fru-fru cocktail on the second round and came home in the dark

Back in town, I spent a most productive morning with Patrick of Eagle Dancer, a solo sailor who has been around the world once and now bounces around the Pacific full-time. Patrick took several hours to go over Vanua Levu charts with me, in particular to mark out anchorages on the north side and to refresh my memory on how to handle the sevu-sevu ceremony expected in many of the traditional villages we might anchor near!

Most of our new acquaintances are heading east out of Savusavu Bay, toward the world famous diving of the Somosomo Straight between the Tunuloa Peninsula and Tavenui. After that, most of them plan to continue east and south to Qamea and the Lao Group. Our plan, however, is to circumnavigate Vanua Levu, and, to my surprise, Patrick urged us strongly to consider going clockwise around the island instead of counter-clockwise. Allegedly, it reduces your exposure to headwinds, and Curly seconded that! We hadn't heard that previously, so now we are trying to get our minds around heading off to the west! I don't honestly think we can say which way we are going to go until we are gone!

But gone we will be. I checked out this afternoon, so with cruising permit in hand we are on our way SOMEWHERE tomorrow after the battery exchange.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

One of the big advantages of being on this side of the dateline is that, since we are a day ahead, the forgetful have an extra day to remember important events. Of course, if you don't forget, then you have to hold the thought an extra day in order to sync the call to the calendar back home.

This worked rather well for Mother's Day since all the businesses in Savusavu are closed on Sunday, but Monday morning here is Sunday afternoon in Indiana and Florida. Thanks to some groundwork by Don, we were all set to call home by way of Skype on the computer at Savusavu Computers on the east end of the main street. A particularly nice thing about Savusavu Computers is that is it the only air-conditioned place in town!

For those of you not familiar with Skype, it is a free software and service whereby you can communicate by the Internet. With decent Internet service you can, via a headset, chat with folks halfway around the world at no charge computer-to-computer and for a small fee if a telephone is involved at the other end. If you've got really fast broadband, you can add a webcam and see one another. We had great fun with this Christmas morning sharing Kai opening his packages with Gpa & Gma Wilson in Indiana. While we were back there in the real world, we'd daydreamed of being able to video-Skype back to the family right from the boat via our new Vodaphone cellular broadband card. To our disappointment, not only can we not manage video, we cannot do voice! (Guess it would compete with their phone service!) All is not totally lost because we can "Chat" (type) which I guess is similar to Yahoo Instant Messaging.

Typing is really not what mothers want to do on Mother's Day, so ashore we went to avail ourselves of the better connection. We Skyped Gpa and Gma in Indiana, we Skyped Tiffer in Florida, and I Skyped my 89-year-old Aunt Jo up in Massachusetts. I think she was pretty tickled to hear from her wayward niece direct all the way from Fiji! We could have been in the same room!

So if you don't have Skype, Google it; download it, set up your own account, and put TacklessII in your contact list. And whenever you see us pop up GREEN, sent us a Chat message!

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

Monday morning after our great weekend at anchor I woke up with some of Don's symptoms, and outside the boat the weather had turned threatening with a wind and chop from our exposed quarter. So, up came the anchor and we motored back to Nakama Creek.

The silver lining, if there must be one, was that within hours of picking up our mooring, the first boat of the spring migration from New Zealand appeared through the rain. In the days that followed more and more boats trickled in or pledged to be bound our way on the morning SSB Net. This influx made Curly, the patriarch of Savasavu and the major force in making the town a popular destination or cruisers, a happy man. Overnight his morning VHF net perked up and fleshed out with all the information a new arrival wants to know, including organized meat, pharmacy and beverage orders the Bosun's Locker coordinates, special cruiser dinners at local restaurants, and a resumption of Curl's bi-weekly seminars on Fiji cruising.

Don's rationalization for coming back to town was that were I to feel as crappy as he had, he would be able "take care of me" by getting take-out! Pretty much how it worked out. The "bug", from my point of view anyway, was more like a flu – a nasty frame-wracking cough with bouts of fever, body aches and overwhelming lethargy. All the energy and enthusiasm I'd had while anchored out totally fizzled away. Some days I felt good enough to spend a few hours in town, but invariably I'd end up collapsed in the aft cabin leaving Don to cope with the Yacht Club Happy Hour on his own…poor dear!. Then I'd have a couple of days where I thought I might be on the mend, only to relapse a couple of days later. This lasted for two whole weeks. What a pain!

There were a few good days. We had a lovely dinner at our favorite restaurant Surf and Turf to celebrate with Rod and Dar of Saw-we-lah and Steve and Iretta of Rigó Dar's birthday. The birthday had come and gone during their passage down from the Marshall Islands, and Dar was determined to exercise her rain-check rights before they continued on their way to New Zealand (Yes they are going the wrong way!). I was careful to sit at the outer end of the table with my box of Kleenex.

Several days later, the six of us packed into Steve's pickup for a Saturday Bar-B up at the house. It was impressive to peek in at the progress that had happened in the two weeks since our last visit – mostly doors and windows and the just-stained floor that we were barred from walking on! No worries! The deck with the western vista was all we needed. It was a fine afternoon that wore away into evening as we sipped cold beer and nibbled away Dar's fine focaccia. Dinner was grilled on Steve and Iretta's favorite new possession, a proper Aussie barbecue, which is half an open-flame grill like we'd have in the US and half a flat-plate griddle. Iretta cooked up steaks and sausages on one side and potatoes and onions on the other, and I'd managed to score lettuce at the market to contribute a real mixed salad. We consumed all this by lantern- and starlight since the solar power system that will provide their electricity was yet to be installed. We stayed up quite late!

Back aboard Tackless, all did not come to a standstill. Even as I felt worse and worse, Don felt better and better. Every day he ticked something off the endless list of small repairs that the boat needs, the most impressive of which for the boat's self-respect was the removal of rust streaks fom her topsides and the sanding and touching up our painted caprail and trim. By golly, it brought her back to the "20-foot rule" (a standard based on the distance a cruising boat looks good!)

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

The only anchorage you can move to from Savusavu's Nakama Creek mooring area without a cruising permit is Lesiaceva Point, better known as the Cousteau Resort. Just inside the Point Passage entrance, this getaway is just an hour's motor from town and therefore pretty popular. It wasn't much of a surprise to get out there and see several boats we knew from town.

But what a difference! Don't get me wrong. Nakama Creek has got to be one of the most attractive ports of entries I've ever visited. But the bustle of town is constant and the Creek seems to be a trap for heat and humidity. Out at the point, the breeze seemed ten degrees cooler and the water was definitely more inviting. In the morning you hear the harmonies of birdsong not the clatter of trucks, and at night it is dark and blissfully quiet.

For me, the highlight of our long-weekend escape was getting in the water for the first time this year. All along the shoreline is a fringing reef that while not coffee-table book quality, is still a pretty healthy-looking assembly of corals, both hard and soft. A bit to the north of the anchorage is an unobtrusive mooring (floated by a coke bottle!) on a site known as Split Rock. Split Rock is a 30' coral bommie divided in two by an inviting canyon/tunnel bedecked with gorgonians, sea fans and soft corals (although without a tank or weight belt I refrained from a swim through.) Guides from the resort regularly bring their guests here, and because they feed the fish, hordes of colorful tropicals (led by aggressive sergeant majors) are in your face the moment you drop in. It was just the antidote I needed.

Unfortunately, Don did not bounce right back, and we finally had to face the reality that he wasn't merely suffering from the heat and jetlag, but an actual bug that's been making the rounds of town. In spite of that, we made the best of two days of sunny weather and got the rest of T2's sails, halyards, instruments, line and gear put back in place, PLUS we scraped and scrubbed the decks and cabin top until the boat is finally clean enough to start collecting rain water…of which there continues to be plenty!

I can't tell you what a difference it makes having the boat all cleaned up and put back together. It's like we've given her her dignity back. What's really bizarre is that several pieces of important equipment that weren't working a week ago, have spontaneously repaired themselves! We still have the leaks to solve and the teak to varnish, but both require a stretch of dry weather. In the meantime we're motivated enough to get back to town and apply for the cruising permit will let us go further.

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

Tropical Jet Lag
After nearly a week back in Savusavu, Tackless II is mostly put back together. This has been a bit of a challenge between the frequent showers, the heat, and our bodies' stubborn resistance to making the time adjustment. Fiji is five hours behind California and eight hours behind Florida, (albeit a day ahead.) This means that sunset feels like a really good time to go to bed!

This evening dullwittedness may have protected us from catching the land bug on our first exposure to land ownership in Fiji. It was after five when we loaded into our friends Steve and Iretta's new four-door 4WD Mazda truck for the drive up to their new place. As we turned right and left and skewed this way and that up the steep and muddy dirt road, they talked about what a nice walk it was up to their place! Perhaps, but we haven't a clue where we went, except generally west along the southwestward jutting point leading to Point Passage.

If You Bury the Anchor, Will It Grow?
Steve and Iretta's one-acre lot is high on a ridge in the midst of dense rainforest, and the view NW down a V-shaped valley looks out across the expansive Savusavu Bay to the layered mountain ranges of Vanua Levu. The new house, about three weeks shy of completion, is a sensible 1000 square-foot, two-bedroom abode with a nice-sized living room and kitchen opening onto a full deck across the back. A team of local guys has been busy clearing out the various plants and vines that run rampant if given half a chance, and Steve and Iretta have been moving in the more decorative flowering and fruit-bearing species. I saw banana and papaya and coconut, as well as a bush with tiny little hot peppers. They say you can plant a hammer here and it will grow! A creek chatters by along one edge of the property and towering rain trees spread their beautiful canopies overhead. We took the tour hearing the vision of gardens here and a guest bure there (all right!), and then, as dark settled, lit the lantern (no power as yet) and cracked open the cooler full of iced Fiji Bitter to the music of forest night critters.

Steve and Iretta are not sole pioneers in their home-building here. More than a few other cruisers we've known have done the same, and now of course, we're meeting the local gang -- some new investors, others who've been here for years and years. Normally, Don and I are suckers for this kind of thing; our imaginations taking flight at the mere suggestion of an opportunity. Here is the best of Fiji, a beautiful terrain, a friendly town, decent provisioning, good air service. There's even a simpatico yacht club watering hole and a truly fine new restaurant seconds away. They even speak English! What's not to like?

So it's got to be jet lag, the heat and the long project list that's got us moving so slowly. Maybe a little grandson withdrawal to boot. Already, having the sails back on and the boat cleaned up has sparked our spirits. What we need is a few nights on the hook and a good swim!

This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

We are safely arrived in Savusavu, Fiji and are back aboard Tackless II. There was a handmade card in the cockpit. It said:

"Dear Captains I've been trying real hard not to think about you all the time. It's not working. You left me for too long, and it was really wet...I missed you. Welcome Home! Tackless II"

The boat was in okay shape. Not as good as last year, but not as bad as two years ago in Raiatea. The mold and mildew inside was having its usual heyday, and all our efforts to prevent our usual leaks were for naught. The biggest mess was in the aft cabin where we had some damage to the liner against the transom. Evidently the drains of the wet locker on the aft deck got clogged, and the locker filled with water, overflowed and then leaked down the back "wall" to pool under the mattress!

However, getting back to the boat in the morning gave us all day to work wonders, and with a little help from the sun, the watermaker, the laundry ashore and a lot of Clorox, we were able to sleep in our own bed AND have coffee at home this morning...

It's still plenty hot and humid here. There's a decent breeze most of the time, and sitting in the cockpit reading would be very nice. Not on the agenda, however. Fortunately for us, there are almost a dozen cruising boats inthe harbor, who stayed through the rainy season, and one of them is Rigo, a boat we met in Costa Rica in 2002! How cool is it to come back from nearly eight months away and have someone recognize you the first five minutes on the dock. Steve and Iretta have built a little place "around the corner" on the hillside and we are heading off there this evening.

We anticipate being right here for a while as we get ol' T2 put back together. OOps gotta run. More later.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area

The Two Captains are going to experiment with blog-style postings during our cruise in Fiji. We anticipate returning to the boat in April.

Labels: Fiji 2007, Savu Savu area, Tackless II