Great Sandy Straights and Wide Bay Bar

In order to continue our southward journey onthe Great Sandy Straight, we had to be up very early to be at an extremely shallow "dog leg" in the channel, for high tide. We are back in a part of the world where tide changes are big and currents can help or hinder your progress while underway. This particular spot is only 3 feet deep at low tide and 13 feet deep at high tide; we need a total of 7 feet to float the boat across. It was a game of follow the leader, as there were a gaggle of boats lined up to make the passage through. Slow going, but not a big challenge. We have to anchor up again at the end of the channel beside another sandy strip, as we need to cross the bar the next morning on high tide. Tonight's high tide would get us out into the open, but then we would have to travel overnight to get to our next marina stop. Hey, we're on holiday, no schedule -Yet! It's not really so tough to hang on the hook and watch what the Aussies do and we have a dinner date on Oso to look forward too. It is amazing how shinny you can make boat stainless with a couple of spare hours, rubbing away and enjoying the sunshine. The Aussies on shore are all busy bouncing around in their 4x4's staking out the prime beach fishing spot for the day/afternoon/night. We are at a place called Tin Can Inlet inside of Inskip Point. As far as I can see, the whole of the eastern side of Australia is one great big sand pile and the locals love to play in it, fishing, surfing, camping, sunbathing and 4x4ing, Oh, and boating too.

 

Next morning: our journey through the Wide Bay Bar at 6:30 am is uneventful (just how we planned it). You call into the local Coast Guard office and get the way point coordinates to follow as the sand bar changes with weather conditions and water movement, then just connect the dots with your boat to get to the outside. We are blessed with a gorgeous flat ocean so no big swell to bob over and no wind waves to splash through. We are now headed to Mooloolaba Marina and the water conditions are fantastic. You'd never guess that we are in the middle of one of the biggest "storm factory" pieces of water in the world. Somebody is watching over us and we are Thankful. At this point, we are about 150 miles North of Brisbane. So after Mooloolaba (mouthful!), Oso Blanco will motor on into the Manly Harbour in Brisbane and we will do a night passage around Moreton , North Stradbroke and South Stradbroke Islands to gain the passage into The Gold Coast Marina (slightly south of Brisbane) which is our final destination. The inside passage is just too shallow for us to comfortably navigate. For now, we are basking in a great day of cruising under a clear sky and even clearer waters, the 25 degree C temp. makes it pretty much perfect.

Moving Southward from Bundaberg

The Great Sandy Straights Marina on Hervey Bay is a pretty decent place to call home for a day or two. It has an extensive network of shops and services at the top of the ramp and some pretty decent restaurants and bars. We wandered over to the Hervey Bay Boat Club one afternoon for a beer and were amused to find that it was a great big open hall with tables, a bar, a bandstand and gambling machines. The place is packed with 70 (plus) year old Gramas and Grampas just kicking up their heels to the 60's duet that was playing. Glen teased the very young bar girl that he felt like a teenager here! Our new favorite beer is Toohey New. From here we wandered down the impossibly long Esplanade that runs along the ocean past four different beach front communities. We only made it as far as the middle of the first downtown before making our way back to the boat. Everything is different in Australia as far as the trees, the birds, the animals, it is amazing. Our attention is riveted to a rainbow of colour in one of the bushes, it is a beautiful Rainbow Lorakete (kind of a parrot type bird). Oh, he was so charming and exquisitely coloured, just like a rainbow!

 

The next stop on our way south is an anchorage in the Great Sandy Straight, beside the Kingfisher Resort on Frazer Island. Frazer Island is the biggest all sand island in the world and is a complete national park. The thing to do here is hire (rent) a 4x4 and blast through the bush on a single lane sand road - the sand is baby powder fine and about 2 feet deep, it is like driving through snow banks. There are a multitude of destinations, but there are only so many you can see on a one day rental so with our lunch box packed we spin out of the parking lot at 8:00am, Eric, Ann, Bear, Glen (driving) and me (navigating) and bounce our way across to the Eastern Beach. This beach is 75 miles long and is the best highway on the island. You access all of the sights by deeking in from the beach and then back out to travel up to the next one. We saw a dingo! Dingos are not dogs, but they sure look like dogs. On our itinerary are two beautiful inland lakes, one head lands look out - that is stunning, a beached wreck of a very large ship, the beach itself, rainbow sand cliffs and a small resort. It is a great day and we enjoy the rugged beauty that unfolds before us. Glen even got us through all of the rough spots without getting stuck - a big change from when we would 4x4 as youngsters - the goal then was to see how often you could get stuck and then get out! Sometimes it is nice to be older. Our day was finished in fine style at the Kingfisher's pool bar, Bear got to swim and we adults refreshed ourselves with drinks, Pizza was our dinner. What a great day.

Australia - Bundaberg

Australia

We're here, we're here! Safe and sound and not too badly shook (a word?) up. Actually the passage was great except for a couple of 6 hour stretches.

 

We arrived at Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia, as planned at 9:00 am on Nov 4/11, both Oso Blanco and ourselves. Because the marina was short of space, due to all of the "yachties" arriving from various South Pacific ports, we had to raft together on the end dock. That means Oso tied to the dock and we tied to Oso. It looked pretty neat to see the two big "Nordies" snuggled together out there. Nordhavns certainly are popular boats in this region, everybody comes down the dock to see them and ask questions. It is a good way to meet the local people and get information on what is entertaining and special in any given area while they are quizzing you about your boat. Customs clearance was a piece of cake compared to many of the other foreign ports we have attended and in no time we were free to step on land and begin our Adventures in Australia.

 

My first foray into the "outback" (which is technically a wrong statement because we are coastal) was a brisk walk over to the nearest grocery store (IGA) to pick up some fresh produce having surrendered our "stores" to the quarantine fellows. Guess what? We saw a kangaroo lounging in the shade, just off the road! The groceries are much the same as in any store in North America and the prices were pretty decent considering it was just a small outlet. We have been hearing how expensive Australia will be. So far, other than the 4 cents extra we have to pay to compete with their dollar (vs. Canadian) it is pretty much like we are used to at home. Our next day in Bundaberg had us catching the local bus and riding the 18 km into the town. The Mission - get some consistent internet connection. We are now the proud owners of a cellular wifi unit that works beautifully. Yeah!! Bundaberg is a relatively small town, it's claim to fame is the production of Bundaberg Rum. The local economy is sugar cane agriculture which fits with the production of rum perfectly.

 

We did a meet and greet with the yachting rally group, but didn't know any of these boaters, except Oso Blanco. We did catch up with John and Sheryl from Sea Mist, fellow Canadians that we have seen in various locations all over the South Pacific, and had a good visit with them.

 

Nov 6 we headed further south to the port at Urangan to see something new, as we wind our way down to the Gold Coast where we will keep the boat for most of our time here.

Day Three - New Cal to Australia

It is 9:00 pm and of course dark. The water conditions are much nicer tonight than last night. Both boats are chugging along without incident so far. We expect to be in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia by early morning on November 4th for our Customs and Immigration check-in. Nothing exciting happened today, that is probably a good thing. Our location is lat. 23.39.088 S and long. 157.10.334 E

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Moon Light

I stare through the forward window into the blackness of a very dark night. Slowly a pale silvery pool grows in the distance as the 1/2 moon breaks through the clouds. Suddenly a clear path shimmers before me on the churning water. Maybe, now, I am not so anxious for the way to be lit when I see how large the waves really are! Sitting in the Captain's Chair is the most stable place to be. I can imagine how well Glen is sleeping below, his body first pressing deep into the mattress then lightly floating above it as the motion of the boat rocks, not so gently, through the large swells before us. Not to mention the noise created when one of the waves "slaps" the hull, broad side. The moon light brightens a bit more and a flash of white catches my eye off to the side of the bow. An albatross teeters back and forth gamely trying to balance on the railing. Crazy bird! We knew to expect these conditions, but we always hope the weather guy is wrong. When he predicts smooth weather he is! Supposedly this "Junk" should only be a duration of 12 hours. Right now that seems like a week away. But I must quit complaining because it can certainly be a whole lot worse. We've had 36 hours of idyllic travel conditions prior to tonight. The moon slips back behind the dark veil of cloud cutting off my vision and I imagine that the motion is much smaller than it was moments before.

Our position is lat. 23.10.430 S and long. 160.24.097 E. We have 19 knots of wind and it is 20.8 degrees C. Our speed is 8.6 knots at 1346 RPM - we've been getting a great push from the current.

Here's to a smoother tomorrow!

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Fianl days in New Caledonia

We definitely needed a few days in port. One to get some business done and two to restock the galley. We washed all of the salt grime off of the boat. Yes, we know it will get dirty again. Compare this action to washing your car in winter, it just has to be done. Since we are preparing to leave to Australia on Oct 31 and Monday and Tuesday are holidays here, we have to clear customs and get our duty free fuel on Friday the 28th. Oso Blanco and Jackster came in to do the same. The three of us bid farewell to Noumea and headed to Island Maitre to anchor out and enjoy the now calming weather conditions. Our final three days in New Cal are going to be the finest we've had and help us to see why many boaters consider this country "a little slice of Heaven".

It is unbelievable how blue and smooth the water can be and how white and inviting the sandy beaches. We find a good dive site at Maitre, lots of large fish, two turtles, an octopus and more. The island itself is just a strip of sparkling sand with a many star resort perched on top. The boat gathering is on our boat tonight. We are all so excited about being able to get into the water again, we go for the big stretch and opt to head to the Amedee Light house for the next couple of days even though it is not classed as an overnight anchorage.

Amedee, another sand pile, but big enough to support a beautiful old light house from 1867 and a handful of "day use" buildings. It is a daytime destination for people coming by fast boats from Noumea and quite popular. There is a couple of wrecks to dive and an accessible reef wall dive. It's pretty and calm and we finish our final two days in New Cal playing in the water by day and gathering on Oso to eat and visit by night. We even have a Halloween night for Bear where we dress up and he gets treats. His Mom and Dad brought him "trick or treating" to our boat and to Jackster. Goofy, yes, but kids need some kid stuff (adults do too).

On the morning of October 31 we holler our final goodbyes to David and Jacqui on Jackster as we lift our anchor one last time from New Caledonia waters. They will head to New Zealand for cyclone season and Oso Blanco and us are headed for Australia. We have a four day run ahead of us. For the most part, the weather is favorable with a small bit of rough stuff at the mid way point. Here's hoping the weather guys can keep being wrong!

It is now 11:00 pm on the 31 st and I know, that you all know, that we must be on passage as I have finally gotten down to completing my blog entries. Sorry for the deluge. There was a 1/4 moon shining, but it is dark black now, there is a moderate swell so the ride is comfortable and there is only 6 knots of wind. Our position is lat. 22.37.784 S and long. 164.04.602 E.

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Anchoring Practise

Finally, we imagine that the winds have died down, at least our weather program indicates that they should only be about 12 to 15 knots (normal trade wind speeds). Regardless, we have done all that we can in Prony Bay and need to move on. Our choice destination is Mato Island. Mato is a submerged horseshoe shaped reef with a large rock island (the size of a large barn) on one side. There are three sail boats anchored inside the light blue sandy reef and there are kite surfers racing back and forth over any clear space. The weather guy is wrong again, the wind is still pushing 25 knots and there is a 2 foot chop on the water in the anchorage. Well, why can't we anchor on the lee side of the big rock island? It is sheltered from the wind and the water is nice and calm, but after three attempts to get the anchor hooked, we understand why there is no little anchor symbol on the chart... the bottom is smooth rock with no holding. Mato is another beautiful little white sand, blue water location that needs flat calm weather. Off we go to our next choice, the west side of Ouen Island, to hide from the south easterly winds, in the bay of the Turtle. According to our guide books, this should be a good anchorage and it has some interesting things to see and do on land. We anchor once beside a catamaran. The wind comes up and over the hills in front of us and the swell seems to find us too. The catamaran moves on and we decide to move to where it was anchored, closer to shore and maybe out of the swell. Still no peace. We up anchor again and head north along the island's west coast to Bay Ue, it has to be better there! There are three sail boats all hugging the shore line in a row, so we pull up the end of the line and anchor for a sixth time today. There is still strong gusting wind, but no swell. Whew, we can rest here and well deserved after a full day of anchor practise.

We find a great dive location at the small islet Tioae, off shore of the bay. Between the dive (we found Four octopus here!), climbing a shale covered hill to get a bird's eye view of the bay and long walks on the mile long beach picking shells, we manage to spend a couple of peaceful days.

Its time for some company again. Jackster and Oso Blanco are out of the marina now, so we agree to meet them at Island Mbe Kouen. This is our choice of anchorage and it is strongly recommended for winds such as we are "Still" getting. I don't know what kind of boats these guide writers traveled in, but they certainly had to be tiny craft to consider these "recommended" anchorages any kind of good. Mbe Kouen is literally a pile of sand with a reef around it and another reef at a right angle to it. Oh, no, another gorgeous bit of tropical beach and water that could use a big dose of calm weather. But we three boats are hardy sea boats now, so bring on the wind and waves, we can take it! We have pot luck dinner on board Oso Blanco. David plays taxi service with his dingy as it is too windy at 30 plus knots for us to set ours down safely. He is soaked to the skin after bashing through the waves from boat to boat. The evening is full of laughter and good food while the wind huffs and puffs outside our doors. By morning, Oso has exploded their anchoring bridle and all of the chaffing gear on ours is shredded. Eric's creaky voice (from lack of sleep) comes over the radio at 7:00 am "Anybody else had enough yet?" We all had. Jacqui was charged with picking the next anchorage and off we all trooped, two 64 ft Nordhavns and one 54 ft Amel sail boat, to Tiare on the main island of New Caledonia. This turns out to be a more protected bit of water, but sadly still too rough for us to do anything more than dingy to shore for a long beach walk. The sun is at least shining. We make the gruesome discovery of the body of a large turtle washed up on the beach. No visible causes of death, maybe the ingestion of a plastic bag which turtles mistake as jelly fish - their favorite food. The winds have calmed a bit by evening and our local boat gathering on Oso is as boisterous as ever. Why always on Oso? Because Eric and Ann's young son Bear (9 yrs) has all of his entertainment there and doesn't have to be bored with "adult stuff" by coming to either our boat or Jackster.

The next morning dawns, sunny and wouldn't you know it, dead calm! Great! (said with disgust) Glen and I have to head into the marina to get our visas to Australia applied for and inform the proper authorities of our upcoming arrival. This requires internet. Needless to say we are greatly disappointed to think we are going to be missing out on snorkeling and maybe even diving in these wonderful conditions. Oh, but our sadness is short lived as by the time we reach the marina, the ever present wind is happening again and reports from "the Gang" say the water fun, proved negative. So, O.K., fine, we'll go do some work!

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Isle of Pines

We wake up to find that we are anchored in what seems like the middle of a huge body of water. We are in the west arm of Rade du Norde an arm of Prony Bay. Who cares? We had a nice calm sleep with no visitors.

Our destination today is Isle of Pines, one of New Caledonia's Gems and as the name would imply, it is covered with their signature, tall, graceful pines. We are meeting Oso Blanco there, they have been anchoring out for the past two weeks with guests on board and are short of some supplies (liquid supplies) which we are bringing for them. The anchorage is Bay Kuto and it is definitely popular as there are about 15 boats all tucked in. It is truly a beautiful place. We do a dingy ride to shore so that we can do a walk around and are treated to the finest, white sand beaches we have yet to encounter. Like baby powder, rich, soft, shimmering. There are sunbathers everywhere as there are a number of resorts and guest houses. We are in search of the elusive internet signal, but the New Cal's have seclusion down to an art. There is internet there, but not for us to access. Rats! It is so hard to keep up with business and communications to home out here. O.K. so when on a beautiful beach….. take a walk and enjoy it. So we did. Eric and Ann have made dinner reservations (us included) for a nice restaurant on the beach. Happy Hour is done on the boat then we all dingy'd in for a very nice dinner and good company. They leave in the morning to slowly make their way back for their guest's departure.

The idyllic conditions of the bay were not to continue. During the night, the winds increased to 25 knots and the swell came into the anchorage making for a very rough night which was made even rougher by the early 5:00 am awakening by the sound of scrapping on the boat's hull. One of the other sail boats had dragged it's anchor and was sitting under our bow scratching up and down on our stainless bow plate and nearby fiberglass. We have finally been scared by our cruising life! Much French exclaiming and waving of hands (whatever that all means!!!) we both pull up and re-set further apart. We hang out for the day, hoping that things will calm down but by the next morning, we've had enough and head out to find calmer waters. The Isle of Pines is beautiful, but only in beautiful weather.

Back to Prony we go, it is a vast protected inlet really, with multiple bays. In this direction of wind, Prony is the only secure anchorage we can see in the South Lagoon. We stop for one night in Baie de la Somme. It isn't all that pretty, the area is rather dry, with red cracked hills covered with scrubby growth, but there is a dive site near here that we want to do, "the Needle". It is an underwater pinnacle formed by a hot mineral spring coming from the ocean floor. The architecture is wonderful and the sea life is varied and interesting with some very large fish as permanent residents. This area, New Caledonia, is colder water diving, average water temp is 73 degrees, where as Fiji was 80 degrees, so we dig out our 5 mil wet suits in order to enjoy the below surface sites. Another day finds us in the Carenage anchorage , there is a nice walk here and a hot pool (luke warm). In all, we hang out for three days hoping for the winds to go away. Not much like a tropical paradise right now!

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Exploring New Cal's South Lagoon

We've met a very nice couple from Australia, Norbert and Sharon, their boat Cadeau is docked behind ours. They have been a fountain of information for us with regard to Noumea and for our upcoming trip to Australia. They walk everywhere! (We are getting better at that - taxi prices dictate!) We all hoofed off to the Yacht Club at Port Pleasance (a mere 100 miles away) in order to watch the semi final world cup rugby game between France and Wales. Upon entering the building the first people we see are David and Jacqui from Jackster, they have JUST arrived from Vanuatu. They've thrown the anchor out, changed their clothes and dingy'd over to watch the game. Jacqui is a ruby NUT. Glen and I are still trying to sort out the rules, but Norbert/Sharon and David/Jacqui are all happy to coach us through the game, even though the commentary is completely in French (only Jacqui speaks French). We have a great time razzing the fellows across the table who are cheering for France as we have all aligned ourselves with Wales on Jacqui's recommendation. It is a fun evening. On the walk back, Norbert and Glen whinned so much about being hungry that Sharon had us on for some snacks and of course a night cap.

It is Oct 16, 2011. We've walked to and from Mass on this lovely Sunday morning. David and Jacqui are at our boat when we return and the kidnap case of the Costa del Mar sunglasses is concluded. They return Glen's sunglasses. Coffee on the back of the boat is so much nicer when it is shared with friends. At 1:30 pm we cast the dock lines off to head out for 10 days of exploring the Southern Lagoon. The weather has been warm and windy but wind doesn't matter when you are on the dock.

Because it is a short day of cruising, we head for the north side of Ouen Island for a tiny indented bay, Kouo, arriving about 5:00pm. It is a lovely snug little bay surrounded by palm trees, mangroves and their famous towering pine trees. We are the only boat there. The late afternoon is magical as we relax on the back deck and watch Mother Nature get ready for night time. There are several turtles breaking the surface of the flat clam water as they bob up and down feeding. It is such a thrill to see them just doing their thing. The trees are filled with song birds that are trying to outdo each other with their music. Slowly darkness falls and everything becomes still and silent. By now Glen and I have finished our BBQ dinner and are on to our next level of entertainment, the underwater lights off of the back transom. It is very interesting to see what little sea creatures and fishes are attracted to the glowing lights. Tonight though, we attract something very un-desirable!

A small motor boat, overflowing with 9 young men, pulls suddenly up to our back swim grid. They are local Kanak men, all sporting "Bob Marley" hair-do's, and they have clearly been doing some sort of partying. They are all speaking loudly and at one time, each saying something different. These are not the shy respectful locals that we have become accustomed to from Fiji and Vanuatu. They are aggressive and bold. A demand for whiskey or beer! Where is the owner? How many people on board? This is OUR island! ... Glen managed to diffuse the situation like a true diplomat, discouraging them from coming on board and eventually getting an invitation to visit their village the next day. When they finally left to continue their "good times" we were sooo relieved. A snap decision was made to up anchor and head out in the darkness to someplace safer just in case they decided to come back later.

In the blackness of night we venture into Prony Bay, hoping that the charts are accurate so we don't run ourselves up on a rock. The big nickel mine on the shore of the bay is lit up like a small city. We coast into an area where there are several other boats and put down our anchor. Good night!

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New Caledonia - Noumea

We arrived into the pass on the reef to enter into New Caledonia exactly as planned at 6:30 am. The visibility was good, the currents non existent and we made good way on through to the town of Noumea, Port du Sud marina. The clearing in went seamlessly with Chloe from Noumea Yacht Services doing all of the work. French is definitely the language of choice here and we would still be in customs trying to explain ourselves.

So far, we haven't done anything extraordinary. A walking tour of the down town area, eating out at a few nice restaurants, cleaning up the boat, checking out the market to replenish all of the stuff we had to throw over board because quarantine wouldn't allow it into the country and just hanging out. We could have been gone to the outer reefs a bit sooner, but we really want to go to Mass at the St. Joeseph's Cathedral on Sunday and will head out after that.

A side note - drinking the water from green coconuts and then cracking them open with the machette (without whacking your hand off) to eat the soft pudding like flesh, is truly a delight that we have discovered in the South Pacific. Just wanted to record that for memory's sake.

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On to New Caledonia

Vanuatu has been great. This is definitely someplace that we will come back too. We have only briefly touched the secrets and treasures that she holds. There is such a rich cultural fabric here and the people are very nice.

So now we are traveling south to New Caledonia. This is the second night shift and we should be arriving at the outer reefs at 6:30 am - planned for daylight entry. Current position lat. 21.58.165 S and 167.15.782 E long. We've only encountered three other vessels so far. Pretty big ocean. The travel conditions have been great, low swell and light winds. It kind of sucks entering some of these countries as they restrict all of the food items that you can import, so I've had to get rid of all of our fresh food. It is a good thing we don't want to eat too much when we travel. Yeah I know it is the same in Canada and the U.S. but it still seems like such a waste.

So New Cal, here we come.

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Tanna Island and Yasur volcano

The easiest way to explore a town when you are boating is to have to find the immigration and customs offices to check in. No body ever knows where they are and you get a different set of directions from each person you ask. Finally we have the check in detail taken care of and actually browse around the town a bit. It is a nice place with everything you need for shopping, the usual arts and craft stores, Chinese everything stores, several supermarkets and even some upscale clothing stores (French influence). They have a fantastic market. Glen scores his coveted white radishes and a watermelon.

Oct 7 We say goodbye to Abbie, she flys home to Australia today. Now it's just Glen and I on the boat again.

Oct 8 - 5:00 am is an early wakeup call because we have to be on shore for 6:00 to be picked up to start our day tour to Tanna Island and the volcano of Mt Yasur. Yasur is the world's most accessible active volcano. Currently it is in Stage 2 activity with Stage 4 being the highest or most unstable grade. Earlier this year Yasur was in Stage 4 and was closed for viewing. We chose to do the day tour thing because it is a day's time to travel by boat, the anchorage there is rough and unreliable, plus your boat gets all covered with volcanic ash - a cleaning nightmare. So we fly at 7:30, arrive at 8:00 and by the time the guide/driver/tour operator get organized we head out at 8:30. It is a 2 hour drive to the volcano, you should have an hour at the volcano and a 2 hour drive back to check in for the 2:50 flight back to Port Vila. The drive is interesting as we see most of the island, but our driver decides to play "bus" picking up and dropping off anybody who wants a ride along the way thus increasing our drive time and shortening our volcano time to 1/2 hour as now there is concern that we can't make it back to the airport in time. But after rushing us through our volcano visit, they take another road back and wonder of wonders, it turns out to be a much better/faster road and we make it back with about an hour to spare (that could have been volcano time!), plus they hit us up for another $1000 vatu (they felt the tour operator hadn't paid them enough for taking the day off of work to show us around). But the volcano.....! The raw power that the earth holds! The mountain is a pile of volcanic ash looking much like a huge pile of black sand. It is a two minute walk up to the crater from the parking area. That caused me to huff a bit - been on the boat too long - to carry a 30 lb pack and ascend straight up. You would laugh at my whining, it is a poured concrete ramp - looks like wheel chair access, but not - too steep. Yasur greets us with a loud roar of puking lava that we can see over the rim as we walk up. There are three vents, A, B, C. A and B are most active. In the short time that we are on top looking into the bowels of this angry sore on the earth's crust we are treated to regular mini eruptions. The sound effects are much the same as the jet cars staging on the drag strip, loud and vibrating. The molten lava is flung high into the sky, (you probably aren't going to like my analogy but this is what I thought when I saw the first one go off) to me it resembled dead bodies being thrown into the air and flopping gracelessly back to the earth in a crumpled fall (yeah I know - gross). We could have watched for a very long time, it is quite mesmerizing. The belching steam and gas, the red glowing lava that cools to black rock in the time it goes up into the air and tumbles back to the earth. It would have been nice to hike around the rim, which a person could, but we didn't have time. They have several resorts near by that cater to volcano watchers and you can come to see it at night too, that would be wild. Maybe next time.

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Efate Island - Havannah Harbour

Our 6 hour trip from Maskelynes to Efate is boringly smooth. Glen and Trish were disappointed (Not) that we didn't have huge waves and howling winds. Upon arrival we adjust our chosen anchoring spot several times based on a variety reasons and finally decide on a spot directly in front of the village of Port Havannah. It is a beautiful spot and two other sailing vessels are anchored there as if to confirm the wisdom of our choice. A small river veiled by mangroves sends out a procession of local dugouts from the village. Frank engages us in conversation and we run down a list of fruit and vegis that we could use and are happy when he says he can get us fresh tomatoes and green coconuts. He'll come back in an hour. His spunky young son is paddling beside Frank in his own canoe that he has made and is quite proud to pose for a photo. They'll be back in an hour, so we decide to see what is behind the mangrove curtain and pile into the whaler to check it out. A surreal world of rain forest jungle and quite greets us. The river is only about 2 feet deep and clear as glass so we can see the little critters crawling on the bottom. It is fun creeping along through the overhanging branches and vines, glimpsing houses set back on the bank. One family has built a retaining wall of coral rock thus creating their own private swimming hole, which in today's heat is being used to it's purpose. An Australian woman calls hello to us and our ensuing chat reveals that this is the home of her son and daughter-in-law. We learn lots things just by saying Hi to strangers. The river shallows to the point that we get grounded and have to turn back. Frank is waiting by the boat for us with our shopping. Nice. Happy hour consists of homemade pina colodas using our new fresh coconut water and flesh with the last of our Fiji pineapples. A dash of Malibu Rum - Yummy. The usual evening calm is disrupted by a sudden squall. Rain dumps from the sky and we get our howling winds. Guess what? Yep, the catamaran anchored beside us drags off of it's anchor and comes very close to impact with us before he gets his engine started and moves off to re-set. All kinds of entertainment for us.

The morning breaks bright and sunny. We move out back down the harbour about 2 hours to a location called Paul's Rock. This is noted to be a great dive site. We anchor the big boat away from the reef and ferry to the site in the whaler. It really is a nice dive with lots of fish, some new ones that we have only seen in books before, so that is a bonus. Our dive takes about an hour, we rinse off the gear, haul anchor and head for Port Vila - about an hour away. Port Vila is the capital city and is located on the south east corner of Efate Island. It has a large deep harbour. Our initial parking spot has a slight roll to it, but is manageable for comfort. The guys are ecstatic, they finally have internet. Wow, the stress it causes to be disconnected for 2 weeks. About 5:00 pm a rain storm rolls in challenging our holding position and filling the whaler with rain water. Thankfully it passes in an hour and we can bail the whaler out (self bailing pump is broken - new one still in package!). We are wanting a bit of urban pampering (dinner out) so break out the flash light to find the dingy dock as we motor slowly through the sleeping boats (boats are sleeping - people aren't it's only 6:30 pm, but dark). In Port Vila, they have these buses (mini vans) that charge $150 vatu per person (approx $1.50) and take you pretty much door to door, but they do pick up and drop off others along the way. This is much less expensive than taxi rides if you have the leisure time to ride around a bit. So we grab a bus and head for Kanpai - Japanese Restaurant. It is a lovely evening out and no more rain. Unfortunately though, the storm has raised the swell level into the bay and we spend the night rocking. Trish figured it could be patented as "fitness in bed" as you have to brace your body from one side to the next to keep from rolling out.

Needless to say, but the first thing we do in the morning is up anchor and go searching for a calmer spot.

Today is Oct 5 and Glen and Trish fly out of Vanuatu for Australia. We finish our day off doing boat stuff, it is "Constitution Day Holiday" here.

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Maskelynes

From Ambrym Island it is a three hour hop over to the Maskelyne Islands. This is a group of small islands off of the south tip of the very large island of Malekula. We choose to anchor in a calm bay beside the island of Awai. It is picture perfect calm and before very long there are several dugout canoes full of people, mostly older children - it is Saturday today, silently gliding around the boat so that they can get a better look. One man stops to chat and ask if we would like any vegis or fruit. You can trade or pay for produce, it just depends on what you have to offer and what they are needing. Everybody in Vanuatu speaks pretty good English and the main mode of travel on water is by outrigger dugout canoes. There aren't a lot of fuel stations around for motor boats. We have some great pictures of the people in their canoes. To throw a little contrast into the scene, we drop our whaler down so that we can travel in relative speed and comfort to visit the large village of Peskarus on the island of Uliveo. It is Saturday and everybody is just hanging out. We pull in as close as possible to shore and hop out into knee deep water to wade in, toss the sand anchor out and let the boat float free. We meet Gren (sounds like Glen) the Chief, who is conveniently sitting in the shade of a huge tree along with several of other village men. After our chat, we have asked permission to anchor in their water and to tour their village, Josaiah is elected to be our guide. The village is large and picturesque. The house yards are set in a grid pattern with well packed walking paths as dividers. Everything is so clean - the Chief strictly enforces village rules and no littering is one of them. The same thatched houses with raked dirt yards, stake enclosures for the coveted pigs, the odd dog - in god shape, not many cats, some chickens and loads of children (again I have forgotten my candy bag - must be boatzymers). We travel down a wide packed dirt road to the school where we meet the headmaster, Benson and a young teacher, Bill. Bill is the son of the Chief on Avok Island and he agrees to ask permission for us to dive on the reef tomorrow. With our tour now finished, we discover that the whaler has floated away from the beach on it's anchor line. A quick word from an elder on the beach has a gaggle of small boys bobbing out to guide the boat back to shore. It is so cute, they are like a flock of little ducklings and make as much noise too with their chatter. They happily pose for a picture with the stray boat. Our afternoon is spent lazing on the boat. It is sunny with a light breeze, things just don't get much better. We won't get into any cultural activities here, though the area is rich in history, as we don't have the time to spend. We have to have Glen and Trish to Port Vila for a flight to Australia by Oct 5.

Our dive the next day is good. Especially for Glen G. this is his third open water dive and we get to spend a long time underwater oogling the fishes and checking out the crevices and caves. It is not nearly as packed with life as we are used too from our Fiji experience, but still good. Again we loll around all afternoon like we are guests on a cruise ship. Not too many canoes out, it is Sunday. One fellow does stop in to ask if we would like some lobster. Of course! So he promises to get some for us tonight (same promise was made yesterday). About 1:00 am I am awakened by.... what? Then I notice a light reflecting off of the boat. A quick inspection out of the port hole confirms that somebody with a flashlight is outside of the boat. Glen and I go out to meet them - four fellows in a large dugout - they have eight beautiful lobsters for us. For a mere $7000 vatu ($70.00 cdn) we have the makings of a feast. Our lobster dealer tells us that he went hunting for the lobster last night too, but he took his wife with him and she is not very good help, so tonight he has proper hunters with him. The guys catch the lobster at low tide at night when the lobsters come out on top of the reef. They shine a flashlight into their eyes and sneak a hand in sideways to grab them. One guy asks if we have cigarettes, but Glen tells him "No. Anyway smoking is not good for you." To which one of the other men responds to the first, "Yeah, It is not good for you!" They all got a laugh out of that. Nice guys.

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Ambrym Island

By now, heading out for the 6 hour passage from Santo to Ambrym Island doesn't phase Glen and Trish at all. They can even walk up and down the stairs while we are underway and carry things in their hands to boot! We anchor in front of the village Ronon. This is our first village visit in Vanuatu and we are not sure what the protocol is for greetings and permission. It turns out that the Ni-Vanuatu (what the people are called - Ni-Vans for short) have it figured out that it is better to charge a nominal fee for everything rather than accept a gift of kava like the Fijians do. You still need to ask for a chief. We are met by a fellow named Ruben and he gives us the low down. Glen and I arrange for a village tour for tomorrow as well as a performance of their traditional Rom Dance. The Rom Dance is one of many traditional dances, each island of Vanuatu seems to have their own special dance. Back at the boat we all kick back and enjoy a beautiful still evening, no wind and flat calm water. We are dining on the top deck, soaking up the perfect weather and in the fading shimmer of the day on the water a dugon lazily feeding is our entertainment. Dugons are similar to manatees.

Abbie decides to forego the village tour so Trish and I and the two Glens pile into the rubber dingy and head to black volcanic sand beach. The gentle swell breaking on the shore is going to be a challenge for us to land and not end up capsized sideways. Good timing on Captain Glen's part sends us in between waves and everybody climbs safely and gracefully out of the dingy and onto the beach. Ruben and Barry meet us. Barry is going to be our guide for the $850 Vatu per person tour (roughly $8.50 Canadian). He is a professional guide for their village. What a lovely clean and organized village. The houses are mostly made of traditional building materials - pole frames covered with palm leaf thatching on the roof and woven panels for the walls. Barry indicates that the houses are quite durable and very easy to replace if they get cyclone damaged. There are a gaxillion children and I have forgotten to bring my big bag of candies for them. The people of Ambrym are well know as being some of the best wood carvers in the South Pacific, so part of our tour is spent shopping at each "carver's" home. Both Glens are lucky to find the perfect souvenirs for themselves. Before we head back to the boat for lunch, Barry wonders if we would be interested in having a feast on the beach in the evening. Great, this will be a great cultural experience for Glen and Trish - we accept.

Our Rom Dance is scheduled for 3:00 pm. The truck to taxi us up to the village of Fanla to see it is late (no problem, Barry calls this "Black Man's time", in reality, just some repair work needed to be done. Trish gets the cab seat of the little Toyota 4 X 4 truck and Glen, Glen, Abbie, Barry and I get to sit in the box. Just like being back on the farm! It turns out, that the trip in the truck through the rain forest, 4 wheeling through ravines and up a very steep path (can't really call it a road) is a very good part of the outing. If all we had gotten to do was drive through the forest, that would have been fantastic, getting to see Fanla village and the Rom Dance is a bonus. There are two volcanos on Ambrym and it is the center for traditional magic and sorcery, there is a lot of meaning to this dance and it would take pages for me to do a history lesson here. There are only male dancers half of them are completely covered in a cloak of dried banana leaves and have large carved masks with flowing beads and hair attached - they look like scary little huts stomping around - they carry a woven thing that looks like a club, but has rattles on it. The other half of the men are nearly naked - they have a wide belt of bark around their waist, a banana leaf wrapper on their penis and a tail made out of leaves. These are men of rank as they wear curled boar tusk necklaces. They also stomp their feet, but they are the singers. One man beats a rythym on a hand held wooden tube. It was quite different to any of the South Pacific dancing we have seen thus far. I am imagining that google should have some pictures of Rom dancing. I remembered to take a bag of candy and Glen gave sweets to all of the children and smiling older women. He gets the kids to pose for pictures then delights them by showing them the results.

We have time to head back to the boat for "Happy Hour" before our feast on the beach. It is dark now and all 5 of us are in the dingy using a flashlight (that doesn't shine more than 10 feet out) to find our way to Barry on the beach. There are five different versions as to where we should head. Finally a flash light from the beach gives us a point to aim at and we arrive in fine form. Barry and his wife (he calls her his girlfriend) have prepared roast suckling pig, taro with coconut cream drizzle, cooking banana with pumpkin topping and kasava with green cabbage/coconut milk topping. Everything is displayed like a big plate of cakes on several huge banana leaves layered over some packing quilts on the sandy beach. Desert is big wedges of papaya and fat ripe bananas. You don;t need plates and cutlery just pick it up and eat it. I know you won't know what most of this stuff is or have any idea of how it tastes, but let me assure you that it was fabulous. We supplied the beverages. Barry's Uncle brought some kava. We ate and peppered Barry and his family with questions. The conversation was good. The funny thing about being invited for dinner though is that they don't eat until after you have gone, even though we pleaded with them to eat, they waited until we left. Very gracious hosts. We slid seamlessly back to the big boat and re-hashed our very full, very fun day.

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Rendevous of Friends

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, all of us (5) pile into the rubber tender to go to the Aores restaurant where we catch the water taxi across the channel to Luganville. We are going to explore it's great expanse.... one main street. Half way across, I am reminded that we are leaving port the next morning very early so we have to clear out of Luganville Customs today. So while everybody else gets to enjoy a lovely lunch and some sight seeing, I head back on the water taxi. Now I wish I could say that I am an accomplished dingy driver, but sadly that is not the case. I am equiped with last minute instructions from Glen on starting. I pleased myself greatly by being able to get the engine swung down into the water and started! So far so good. Some helpful soul cast my lines off and now I am at the mercy of "The Dingy"! It stalls. I restart it. It stalls. I restart it and without releasing the choke put it into gear (luckily forward).....Whoa! the gears clunk and the little rubber pony bucks back in the water before jumping forward like a race horse. I shut the choke, the dingy stalls. *&%$@! I'm floating aimlessly out in the channel. O.K. once more.... same technique aaanndd we go. OMG steering is not nearly so easy as Glen makes it look. As I am now doing donuts one way and then the next, not even being cool enough to look like that is what I am planning to do, issuing all kinds of surprised "oops" and "aak" sounds (and God knows what else - my "remember this moment" recorder was not ON). I did not even look back to give a sheepish grin to the people on the dock. I was now trying to feather the throttle between flying and dying. I finally arrive at the boat and the decision of "head on collision" (at low speed) with the swim grid is how I choose to transfer myself from one vessel to the next. Hummmm? Glen didn't tell me how to shut it off once the stupid thing doesn't stall when you release the throttle. I assume that the "kill" switch will do the trick until I find out if there is a better way. I boost my energy level for the return ordeal by having a tasty lunch of leftovers (it was good). Going back was not quite so traumatic and thankfully there was nobody around to witness my crash into the dock (why change what works?) to get tied back up. Finally I am back on the Luganville side of the water and we get ourselves cleared for departure. A trip to the market was in order and we stocked up with beautiful local produce - I love these markets.

Whilest the Glens and Trish were out for lunch they met up with David and Jacqui of Jackster fame (their boat name) so invited them out for a drink on board then dinner out at Aores resort. We had already made arrangements with Eric and Ann on Oso Blanco to do the same as they are planning on leaving for New Caledonia in the morning. As well, we had Scott and Annya from Beach House over as well. Big crowd for the old Mystery Ship, but she handled it. The staff of the Resort sent their water taxi out to get us (big numbers and money talks) which was way easier than taking three dingys (drunk dingy drivers are even worse than me on the water). The evening was too short, the conversation never stopped. Suddenly we are saying goodbye to everyone. We borrowed Eric's whaler (way faster than our rubber dingy - our whaler is still up on big boat) to drive David and Jacqui back to Luganville, they still had a taxi ride to another bay and a dingy ride back out to their boat. This was a really good day.

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Luganville - Vanuatu

We slid into Luganville on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu at about 1:30 pm and anchored in front of the town, hopped into the dingy to go see the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine people. This is not hard, just time consuming as it entails visiting three different offices and a trip to the bank then a trip to the Govenment Cashier, all at different ends of the town. Each place has it's own set of forms to fill in and the cashier closes at 3:30 pm. There was a very long line in the bank, so yes, we were not completely sure that we would have the process done in one afternoon. Oh we stress so much. We did get the formalities done and even had a bit of time to pick up phone SIM cards - must be connected you know. Back to the boat - we had to sweet talk the fellow, whose house dock we used without permission (how were we to know) to unlock the yard gate so we could get our dingy - then get to the boat. We upped anchor and moved across the channel to a slightly more protected area in front of the Aore Resort. This is a bonus as we are tired of boat food and are very happy to all pile into the dingy to go out for dinner. Glen and Trish are quite sporting and thought nothing of trusting our wobbly little boat to deliver them to shore and back. Even though we have had a wonderful crossing from Fiji to Vanuatu, we are all very happy to be sitting calmly in still water.

Well we waste no time - the next morning we are up early, getting our dive gear all in order so we can go dive the President Coolidge with Aqua Marine Divers. This will be Glen Gurr's first ocean dive! The dive master whisks us down to a numbing 100 ft below the surface to see the ghostly remains of the once proud vessel. Her hull is still mostly intact and she lays on her port side. Wreck diving is not really my thing, I don't like to go into small dark places under so much water, but this was more an exploratory dive around the exterior, so O.K. There are divers who come from all over the world to dive this old ship numerous times to penetrate every nook and cranny. All but two of the 5000 plus personnel escaped with their lives when the ship was intentionally run aground in an attempt to save her after she had run into some of her own country's mines. But the holds are still filled with her cargo, weaponry, etc. An underwater treasure box. Our second dive of the day is equally interesting and pertains to WWII also, Million Dollar point. This is where the US general ran every piece of equipment that the US army had in Vanuatu off of a long jetty into the deep water, when the presiding French/English governments of the day refused to pay for what they perceived was equipment that was going to be left behind anyway upon the US withdrawal after the war. Trucks, tanks, bulldozers, jeeps, cranes - you name it - is all in a mountainous heap of tangled wheels and metal just off shore in about 100 ft of water. This dive I liked, the sea life has made it's home amongst the litter which is nice, but it is just such a shocking waste when you think of all the good this equipment could have been used for, in this developing country, in it's after war life. We replayed all of our adventures for Trish when we got back to the boat. She had spent a leisurely day on the upper deck reading and watching the activity of the surrounding bay.

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Final Stretch to Vanuatu

It has been a great day on the water today. We spent the majority of the day enjoying ourselves on the upper fly bridge. First land encountering should happen at 7:00 am Sept 26/11 when we pass between Pentecost and Ambrym Islands. We'll angle north toward Luganville on Espiritu Santos from there. I am imagining that I can smell land even as I sit here typing. In truth it is possible, it's just I don't believe my senses are that acute, so it must be wishful thinking. Current position - 16.10.353 lat and 168.44.554 long - 2:51 am Sept 26/11. (I believe we have a time change here, so it is probably only 1:51 am - it is dark! O.K.?)

A speck on the radar (another vessel) ran parallel to us for the better part of the day before the boat hailed us on the VHF radio. It is the catamaran "Beach House" whose owner and crew we met in Viani Bay. It was entertaining to hear of their travels in the midst of our now "old" crossing experience. Small things are greatly amusing right now.

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In the Middle

We've reached our mid way point on our trip from Fiji to Vanuatu. Strangely it looks exactly like every other point along the way since we lost sight of land - Go figure! Also a bit of a surprise is the number of fishing vessels (four so far) that are exactly on the same route as us, but in reverse, so with all of this ocean around us, the possibility of a head on collision is rather high. Glen and Trish are holding up well with the water conditions being very nice, just an easy swell and not much wind, so the boat doesn't move around too much. It is a pleasant 23 degrees right now at 4:20 am as I write (type) this and it was up to 25 during the day. For the google earth people, we are at 16.50.171 lat and 171.48.978 long. A very tiny speck in a very large ocean.

It seems that the Coolidge dive site in Luganville is very popular and that there are a lot of tourists in Vanuatu. Our friend boats, Jackster and Oso Blanco have emailed us to say book now so we can get a spot to dive this week. You can only dive the sites with local dive companies and they are fully booked. Who'da thunk? So we have. The Coolidge is a WWII ship that sunk after hitting friendly mines (that sounds so strange!) Also in the same vicinity is what they call "Million Dollar Point", this is where the US army bulldozed all of their equipment into the ocean when the French decided not to pay for it, opting instead to take what they wanted when the US went home. So no money, no equipment! We are looking forward to seeing both of these underwater steel graveyards.

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Leaving Fiji for Vanuatu

So I guess you can tell that we're back on the boat, based on the flurry of blog entries, I finally have time to write. We had such a frantic month at home trying to fit all of our work in that all of my good intentions for uploading lots of pictures and writing adventures never happened. Even out here on the boat, my freest time for writing is when I am on late night watch and everyone is asleep. Yes, I can multi task - watch so I don't run over anybody out here and write at the same time.

We arrived back in Fiji Sept 20 along with our friends Glen and Trish Gurr. We have a few days before we can head out as we await baby calm ocean waters and winds. We really want this to be a good experience for Glen and Trish, having them be sea sick for the first part of their holiday just wouldn't be good. A market experience fills one day with a stop at an Italian deli - yes, really - with wine tasting and food sampling, thus toping up the ship's stores for travel. Glen and Glen finished the AC glycol top up without any further excitement (we had to import a proper pump in our suitcase). Now we are one day out on our way to the island country of Vanuatu. Supposedly a little bit less developed than Fiji with lots of wilderness and equally friendly people.

I need to tell everybody about packing our suitcases. We have all of our clothes on the boat but each time we travel from home to the boat we have two full suitcases. Full of boat parts, coffee beans, cheese whiz, Miracle Whip, Lindt Milk Chocolate bars, magazines, books and whatever else we need that we can only get at home. Quite funny at screening times in the airports. So far so good with not having anything taken away from us.

The current conditions on the water are - 2 meter swell, short period intervals, light wind and dawn is happening. All is pretty good. Lat 17.31.093 S. Long 174.58.777 E.

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Fiji Highlights

Fiji has been everything and so much more than we had expected. The people stand out with their friendly welcoming attitude. They all holler "Bula!" and smile widely when they meet you. The landscape is beautiful, though no more so than any of the other island countries that we have been to. The weather really has been pleasant. Hot, but not too hot, sunny and the occasional rainy day. The diving has been nothing less than superb. My number one spot has to be the "chimneys" by Namena Reef. The visual excitement of seeing such voluminous clouds of brilliantly colored little fishes that move with the unison of a single thought will stay in my memory forever. I don't need photography for me to recall the awesome beauty of the clustered soft corals with their kaleidoscope colors or the thrill of finding two miniscule red and yellow cleaner shrimp in a crevice. My number two favorite diving spot is shared by Nananu i Ra and Jack's Viani Bay - Rainbow Reef. Both fantastic beyond description. Basically, you can fall into the water anywhere is Fiji and have a good dive

A tumble of feelings occur when you shower on the swim grid of the boat for all of the world to see. (Don't worry, I'm wearing my swim suit so I don't freak anybody out.) The bay is calm and secluded (almost) and the sun is gently shining, warming the cool fresh water that rinses the salt away. Feelings - giddy, because it feels like a guilty pleasure - vertigo, as I lean my head back over the ocean behind me, eyes closed - tingly toes, my heels are hanging over the edge of the swim platform and my toes are my only solid contact (will I fall backward?) - happiness, for the freedom of it all. Showering off the back has become something I look forward to after a day of saltwater activity. Fiji is the perfect environment.

We will definitely return to this country, sevu sevu and all.

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Nananu i Ra back to Port Denarau

Our next day diving with Papoo off of Nananu i Ra is a change up. We head out into extreme current and claw our way along a rocky outcropping to a spot where sharks are known to feed. Just reef sharks, so we are not afraid of being the main course. There are quite a number of sharks there and lots of other kinds of fishes who are attracted to the extra food that the swift current brings. Luckily - in my mind anyway - we didn't have to watch the sharks chewing their way through the other fish. I guess they were already full before we happened on the scene. Our second dive was a lovely maze of rock tunnels, passages and outcroppings, lavishly covered with plump soft corals in every color and magnificent fan corals. I have not yet found a sea horse here and no frog fish. All of the local divers tell me they are here in Fiji, but maybe it is just their habit of saying "yes" to everything

Papoo and his shop sponsors, Jane and Charles, held an impromptu party/feast in the evening. Glen, I and Abbie picked up the couple we dove with the first day from their resort in our whaler and made our way to Papoo's shop. Another boater, Philip, and his friend were there too. We brought the beer, Jane and Charles brought the food and Papoo brought the kava. It was a fun night of good food and good conversation. This is our final exploration destination in Fiji as tomorrow we will make our way back across the north side of Viti Levu Island to Port Denarau and that was our starting point two months ago.

It takes us the better part of 8 hours to make the trip from Nananu i Ra to Denarau. The day on the water is one of the finest we have ever had. It is dead calm, the water is so flat that the boat barely causes a wake as we make our way. The reefs are completely visible, such that we could make our way through all of the narrow channels without our charts (a real rarity). Obviously we are on the upper deck soaking all of this finery up. If you appreciate and enjoy the wonderful days, I think they last longer and become more memorable. Glen, not one to spend over long romancing on the splendid surroundings broke the calm by catching a little skip jack ( a type of tuna). A short time later we were all savoring fresh sashimi for lunch and we'll have seared tuna on the BBQ tonight. Yum!

Back at the dock in Port Denarau it is the usual wash the boat and get everything stocked back up and any little repairs taken care of for our next foray into the ocean when we return after our month at home. So it is a couple of busy days before we fly. One of the tasks we need to have done is increasing the percentage of glycol in our air conditioning system so that the compressors don't freeze up should we ever decide to turn on the AC. Two Indian/Fijians from a local refrigeration company come to the boat to do the work along with Glen. So they have to pump the glycol into an already pressurized system. Glen's little on board pump turns out to not be strong enough so the fellows go and get one of their own. They get it all hooked up dockside where the container of glycol is and Glen is monitoring the input down in the lazarette. On goes the pump, BOOM! There is sticky glycol everywhere, all over the back cockpit,floor, walls and dripping from the cockpit ceiling, the hatch to the upper deck was open and the glycol erupted through it to spray the whaler and half of the upper deck. Glen sprang out of the lazarette hatch with a loud "WHAT THE ____!", thus shocking several passersby and causing all of the adjoining boat crews to pause in their work and catch the excitement. Standing on the dock, the two technicians are drowned and dripping with glycol, their stunned expressions convey complete confusion and befuddlement. The one guy is slowly shaking his head as he stares at the blown seals in his pump. Glen is ranting about the mess and this poor fellow still can't believe what has happened to his pump. Remember that these guys are supposed to be the experts!!! Well that particular job did not get done and luckily glycol is easy to clean up. We had quite a giggle afterward, mostly about the tech's stupified reactions.

Our time at home was Aug 18 to Sept 18. Fantastic weather at home too.

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Musket Cove, Yasawa children and Kava

Bad Fun – Good Fun

I awoke at about 5:00 am to what I thought was lightening. I registered that the wind was indeed blowing and it was raining. I was about to roll over and continue my sleep when the lightening happened again (no thunder). Hummmm, better look out the window and see how bad this storm is! The good news is that the storm is not so bad, the bad news is that one of the sail boats is dragging anchor and is headed right toward us. "All Hands on Deck!" We rush around making preparations for impact which luckily doesn't happen – all the shouting and flashing of lights woke the fellow and he managed to get hooked in solid again.  Now there are three of us all huddled in very close anchorage vicinity.  When day finally breaks, the sail boat moves back to his earlier location and because the swing of the other fellow beside us is a little too close for comfort we decide to move also. Two moves later, we have secured ourselves where we are comfortable and NOBODY is going to bother us. This was the bad fun.

We have a taxi booked on the main island of Viti Levu for 10:00 am so off we head for the boat basin at the Wananuka Resort – a short five minute boat ride. Our taxi ride to Rakiraki (the town) was 15 minutes through sugar cane fields and farms on a very, very bumpy road. We only really needed to go to the bank for some cash to feed our diving habit, so once that was done we toured the town – all four streets – it is actually a big square. It is always mandatory to see the local market and there we found Glen's coveted radishes and his necessary watermelon. He has such fun chatting up the selling ladies. After only an hour we have the place covered so we ask at a furniture store (we were getting "top up" cards for our airstick – go figure) where the best place in town was for lunch. The helpful young man directed us to Raj's Wine and Dine. Wine and Dine turns out to be a clean, if spare place on the second floor above the trucking terminal office, we are the only patrons. In normal "safe" tourist mode, we order beer for our drinks and are slightly surprised when they show up in quart bottles – liquid lunch? As we are waiting for our lunches to arrive, the maitre 'd asks if we would like a lesson in making roti – our lunch roti. He traipsed us all back to the kitchen where a smiling young Indian woman (it is an Indian restaurant) showed us the finer points of making roti. We laughed and giggled and took pictures and we think we know how to make roti now. Lunch was very delicious. One final stop was made before we called our taxi for home – I am now the proud owner of a roti board and rolling pin - $6.00 Fijian. This was good fun.

We whizzed all of our goodies back to the big boat, hung out for a bit, cleaned our grubby little boat person selves up and sped back to the Wananuka Resort for a night out and a fantastic "lovo" (traditional dinner). We stopped to talk to their dive shop guys and were shocked to hear that they were going to be putting 44 divers in the water the next day. Boy, are we ever glad we didn't call them for our dive experience – what a gong show that will be. Our way back to the big boat in the dark (3/4 moon – so not too dark) the water is like smooth like oil and the air is a warm caress as we glide almost noiselessly along. Beautiful.  This was also good fun.

Nananu-i-Ra

This is an accidental discovery on our part. No tour books or cruiser advice directed us to stop in Nananu-i-Ra, it just looked like a safe place to anchor on our trip back to Denarau.  After wending our way through the entrance reefs we pulled into the perfect parking spot between two sail boats who where up against the island. Beautiful scenery of lovely resort homes to our front, the clear blue ocean to our rear – perfect sunset watching location and the main island of Viti Levu off to our right. There are a couple of resorts on the points facing us on Viti Levu and they are open to outside diners which is a plus, so we'll check that out another day. Diving looked like it would be the thing to do with all of the surrounding reefs (and you know we hate diving J) so we rang up Papoo Divers who are located on the island and arranged to go out the next day. Papoo and his fellows did not disappoint us. They arrived on time to pick us up from the boat and we sped off to the first dive site, Golden Dream. There are two other divers with us, so it is a small group which is the excellent (the only way to be better would be if it were only Glen and I). Golden Dream was exactly that – the tall rock pinnacles were densely covered with beautiful golden soft corals, there were enormous fan corals and of course everything else. It was a fabulous dive that only needed a touch of filtering sunshine to make it glow.  Our next dive spot was "Canadian Mushroom". We figured that Papoo was pulling our leg(s) with the name, but he said "no, it was named by a couple of Canadian girls who dove with him when it (the site) was un-named". It turns out to also be an awesome dive. O.K., so now we are hooked, instead of picking up and heading out to the Yasawa group, as was our original plan, we make the choice to stay here for the next four days and dive some more.

Ugly Weather Moves Us On

Today has been...well...just one of those days. First we had to move our boat to a less rough spot for the night which still left us rocking and rolling throughout. Namena Island is a small dot in the middle of an ocean level reef, so when the wind gets up and the waves start rolling there isn't much shelter. The weather forecaster seems to be off by a day with his predictions. So that was last night, the set up for today. We all wake at dawn, probably because we weren't asleep anyway. Before we can even have a cup of coffee to clear our heads, the first problem is discovered, the railing has torn off of the whaler. Usual practise is to tie the whaler lengthwise along the swim grid when it is not resting atop the big boat, kind of like our own little docking system. I guess the poor little Dear was just having a really wild ride last night and something had to give. $$$$$$$$ Well we are out of here! Enough of this. O.K. I'll put fuel into the day tank and the wing tank (so we have stuff for the engines to work on). Remember, I haven't had coffee yet...Is that really an excuse? Somehow, I make the error (yes, me)of not shutting the wing tank valve off as I move on to fill the day tank and overrun the diesel all over the raw teak decks. AAAAAHH!!!!@#$*&%@%**! Now we are scrubbing decks and pulling the anchor and trying to control the whaler off of the back deck..What a ZOO. We were planning to move back to Makogai island today anyway so our route is all in place. As we poke our nose around the edge of Namena, we discover that we have been in the "smooth stuff".
A bumpy three hours later we have our anchor set in the bay a Makogai and I can have my coffee for today as I sit and complain to the world in general about crappy weather.

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Be Amazed!

These are the words that suddenly pop into my mind as I am 50 feet below the water's surface staring up at a column of rock that is over-adorned with every conceivable hard and soft coral, with a million (yes, I mean a million)fishes in the most dazzling color hues that any human mind can possibly imagine (even those minds with chemical enhancements). There is no greater "high" than the thrill one gets from displays by Mother Nature(God), such as this. Be amazed! So in fewer words, we had a great dive at the "chimneys" on Namena Reef. The anchorage is a bit suspect as we are quite exposed while we cling to the edge of a tiny island on their mooring ball. We had a pretty stiff wind blowing us onto shore and we finally chickened out and dropped our own anchor several 100 yards further out. We were convinced that we were dragging the mooring ball (should have put our dive gear on and checked!) We are the only boat here. There are six guest "bures" (houses) on the island, but they are on the other side, so it is pretty quiet here.

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Be Amazed!

These are the words that suddenly pop into my mind as I am 50 feet below the water's surface staring up at a column of rock that is over-adorned with every conceivable hard and soft coral, with a million (yes, I mean a million)fishes in the most dazzling color hues that any human mind can possibly imagine (even those minds with chemical enhancements). There is no greater "high" than the thrill one gets from displays by Mother Nature(God), such as this. Be amazed! So in fewer words, we had a great dive at the "chimneys" on Namena Reef. The anchorage is a bit suspect as we are quite exposed while we cling to the edge of a tiny island on their mooring ball. We had a pretty stiff wind blowing us onto shore and we finally chickened out and dropped our own anchor several 100 yards further out.

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Viani Bay and Rabi Island

Apologies all around, I just re-read my last blog and the spelling and grammar could have been proof read a lot better. Hope you got the drift anyway.

Sooo, we met some boaters on our last night in Savusavu, three couples from New Zealand. Sat with them in the yacht club for a beer before dinner. They have traveled in Fiji for many seasons and provided us with a wealth of information regarding what to do and where to go. Sometimes it is interesting finding out what fellow boaters did for work in their "old life". We've come across many people who have been in the computer business - in one form or another, a financier, a dentist, a freighter captain, construction company owners (we fit in here), a pilot for Swiss Air (he was also an Italian Duke!) and now we've met a past dairy farmer. It is very interesting to discover other cruiser's reasons for being on the blue ocean, discovering new places and people.

From Savusavu we make our way to Viani Bay on the east side of Vanua Levu. We prefer to call it Jack's Bay as Jack Fisher is an old timer here who is re-known for showing off the best dive sites in his Fiji. We spend 5 days here and dive every day, sometimes twice a day. The "white wall" is surreal dive site at a depth of 100 feet. We drop into the clear blue water and swim down through a tunnel in the reef that opens from a sheer rock wall into the deep blue of the wide open ocean. We are suspended in blue. To our left on the face of the deep ocean wall is the most amazing display of perfectly set snow white soft coral. The ocean current gently nudges us along the wall so we can marvel at the breathtaking beauty of it all and then the current deposits us on top of the reef again where the multitudes of colorful fishes and other stunningly beautiful corals are found. This is a rather rough description of a fabulous dive experience. The diving here in Jack's Bay tops everything. I won't bore everyone with details, just let it be known that this spot is World Class Diving. On one of our evenings here, Jack's family puts on a dinner for all of the boats in the bay (oooh another social event) and we met several new groups of people. The dinner was a delicious mixture of Indian and Fijian foods with the best tortillas I have ever tasted - even better than Mexico.

Our next place of discovery is Albert Cove on Rabi Island, which is to the east of Vanua Levu. Rabi Island was purchased for the people of Ocean Island in 1945. They are from Banaba and are of Micronesian descent. So not really Fijians, though they are now citizens of Fiji. Very nice people. The families of the cove were happy to talk to us and arranged to get us some bananas and green coconuts. We keep asking the fishermen for lobster, but as yet none have had any luck finding some for us. We have seen the lobsters on our dives, but we keep their locations secret (we would really rather look at them underwater than eat them). Once again, the winds and weather are going to invade our beautiful anchorage so after only one night we have to move to a different bay on the island. But this is not a problem, as it is a new village and group of people for us to meet. There is a large Methodist church perched on the hill of the village, overlooking the bay. We visit this building during our walk on shore. A cyclone in April 2010 really did a lot of damage to it, but the villagers are slowly putting it back together. While we are walking, an engaging young woman invited us to a fund raiser for the church that they were putting on that evening. The ladies of the church do this - a traditional dance show with coconut refreshments (right out of the shell) - when ever they get a collection of boats in their bay. Today, there are five boats. What fun, they really put a lot of energy into the dancing.

Weather, weather, weather! We have to move again. The weather has been sunny and very warm, so no complaints there, it is just the wind that keeps switching around which makes certain anchorages not so comfortable to be in. We will head back to Jack's Bay. If we have to be stuck someplace, we may as well be stuck with awesome diving.

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Makogai to Savusavu

Well I guess we have to work sometimes on the boat, so on the morning of our next day at Makogai Glen and I dive the underside of the boat to clean things up a bit and replace zincs (so the salt water doesn't eat our propellers and such). In the afternoon, Cameli has told us that it is a very nice walk from the bay where we are anchored to the village on the other side of the island. He made it sound like a short easy walk. So we head off with our bag full of candies for the children and some scribblers and pencils for the local school, taking a leisurley pace. We walked and walked, spotting ruins in the forest from the days of the leper colony. People from many of the south pacific islands were sent here and they were all housed in segregation from any other countries people. Finally we almost decided that we should turn back as the sun goes down at 5:30 and we don't want to be hiking in the bush in the dark. Only a little way further, we finally break onto the beach on the other side and visit the school teacher and hand candies to all of the children. Glen feels like Santa. They are all so nice and friendly. Our walk back, done at a much brisker pace gets us back to the boat before dark. we'd still be wandering amlessly about otherwise. It is time to say goodbye to Cameli as there is weather coming in the next few days and we want to be in Savusavu before it comes. Such is the never ending story of living on the water - always watching the weather.

The trip to Savusavu is easy - only 6 hours at sea and the water is pretty calm. It is a lovely sunny day - these seems few and far between here. Everybody says this is unusual for this time of year, it should be sunny and dry, not overcast and rainy. well at least it is gloriously warm. Savusavu is a small town on a large bay at the south east corner of Vanua Levu, the second largest island of Fiji's group. It is kind of an ex-pat place so there are lots of restaurants and a few little bars and good provisioning. The marina has mooring balls to tie too and we are enjoying being only a two second dingy ride from the dock. dinner out the last few nights to break the monotony of my own cooking which we will be having to endure for the better part of the next month as we head out into less populated areas. Excellent Indian food here! We're finding the social scene a little quieter this season compared to last. All of the boats that we befriended seem to be making the reverse trip around Fiji to what we are and the boats we've been meeting..... wait, there haven't been any other boats yet. Crazy, but cruising boats are pretty rare in these areas that we are in. Hence another reason we are liking our visit to Savusavu. We did a car trip around the island today, up to the only other major town - Labasa - it is a busy place and no (and I mean NO) tourists. It is the sugar cane hub of commerce. We did a hike in the forest preserve and marveled at all the different types of vegetation. We discovered some very interesting fresh water shrimp/crayfish in a waterfall stream. And finally we checked out some of the exclusive resorts in the area. Jean Michelle Cousteau has a resort here - diving is the draw - nice place. Our boat still suits us fine though.

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Suva to Makogai

We said good bye to Cassie in Suva. The ninety mile run back to Nadi by boat just wasn't appealing (for any of us). Options were, rent a car (What! Are your crazy? says Romina the Royal Suva Yacht Club assistant manager)- the roads and drivers make that a NO!, hire a taxi from Suva to Nadi - too expensive, take a coach - very good alternative - you can see lots of country side and don't have to do the driving - but the schedule was too close to her flight time to allow for any hiccups, so she caught a flight from Suva to Nadi and we were all happy. She has confirmed her safe arrival to Calgary. I think she had a good time. She got to see Fiji by land and sea, drink kava with the Fijians, eat some great Indian food (Mom's cooking was still the best - that's me!), do some fantastic diving and she even got a few days of sun. It was great to have her here.

Suva is a very un-glamorous port city. The yacht club is very welcoming and a nice "normal" place to hang out for a few days. We did find some awesome Indian restaurants and ate out as much as we could (Mystery Ship cook took a holiday!). We stocked up on our fresh produce at the extensive open market and picked up some "give away gifts" for when we visit more villages from the multitudes of discount "knock-off" stores.

After an 8 hour cruise from Suva to the north east, we arrived at a lovely little island/reef called Makogai ("Makonguy"). We wove our way through the rocks of the reef and anchored off the small village on the west side. This was once the site of a leper colony - upwards of 5000 people, now they have an aqua-culture station for giant clams - very impressive. The "headman" Cameli, is charming and informative and was very happy to explain in English the blessing over the "sevusevu" (a gift of Kava roots from visitors to the village) and the "whys" of some of the village etiquette expected of visitors - skirts for men and women, no sunglasses or hats, no bags or gear slung over your shoulder - funny stuff like that but when explained make sense. The whole deal is much like taking a bottle of wine with you when you go to somebody's house for dinner. Just manners. He told us where we might find some good diving on the reef too. So once we were done with our formalities, off we went to dive and I must say - This the most fantastic diving we have done to date on our travels. I think I've said that before, but this is it, right here. There was so much underwater life - corals/fishes - that your head can't turn fast enough to take it all in. we dove twice in one day and if we get more days here, we'll go again and again. This is why we travel!

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So how IS Fiji???

Our trip to the outside of the reef for Robinson Crusoe Resort was smooth. The resort was a fun little anchorage with a rustic bar and outdoor restaurant. We arrived to see the guests in the middle of coconut jewelry making - kind of fun. The sun was dazzling. We had a hitch hiker from Musket Cove - a sea snake - quite poisonous. He was all curled up in the leg of the whaler's engine.  It certainly surprised Abbie when she noticed it. A brave young Fijian rescued us by taking the snake away. We have a funny picture to prove it all! Dinner was an "order in advance" affair and served in Family style which was interesting as we met all of the resort guests.

 

Kadavu  Group was an 8 hour cruise in slightly turbulent water - at least Cassie thought so - she ate our whole box of saltines. We parked up in Tavuki Bay. One custom that we are having a bit of difficulty with is that of "Sevu Sevu" .  This is where you go ashore to the closest village and offer a gift of Kava roots and ask permission to anchor in their water, dive, swim, walk on their beaches and maybe visit their village. Which is a rather polite thing to do, But… somehow they manage to make it a time consuming effort by having to find the Head Man of the village, then rounding up some of the Elders and the Chief, then they want you to sit around and join them for a bowl of  Kava. It definitely must be an "acquired" taste. We are so used to conducting business in a timely and efficient manner that we really have a tough time accepting that "Time" has no value for some places of the world.  Now if this was something that you did once or twice in your visit to the islands, it would come off as being a very quaint traditional practice. But every anchorage you go into, there is a village and you must do Sevu Sevu each time you come to a new village….. All we want to do is dive. Now! Do you think this will teach us patience? We only have about 20 more anchorages to do in the next few months. That's a lot of Kava drinking!!!

 

We moved on to Ono Island after three days at Tavuki and we met Ase when we went in to do our sevu sevu. He is a nice young man and offered to take us out to the reef for diving and for a day of hiking on his island. So we take him up on it. He introduced us to many of his village people and people in the adjoining village, took us on a beautiful 2 hour (one way) hike through the island fields. His wife made us tapioca squares and lemon leaf tea - quite a treat. His cousin Seewah showed us the best dive site we have found to date in our travels, we dove it several times. We gave candies to the village children and scribblers and pencils to the local school, traded a gallon of gasoline for four green coconuts and gave another gallon away for free to a fellow giving the village children a ride to their boarding school and we gave Ase's cousin a ride to Suva (6 hour boat ride) so he could attend his brother's funeral. We are involving ourselves.

 

The weather has been pretty awful - when you consider that it is supposed to be hot, sunny and calm this time of year. It has been cool, rainy and windy - quite the contrast.

Cassie will go home with out too much extra color on her tan and not much sleep as the boat does all kinds moving around in the waves and wind at night. But we have done some awesome diving and we have seen some "inside" views of Fiji with her, so all is good.  

Fiji is Marvelous!

Marvelous weather!!!! We arrived from rainy, rainy, cool Calgary to 30 degrees C, with clear skies and no wind. We have been using all of our outdoor spaces - the flybridge, the back cockpit, the boat deck - you name it. Star gazing in perfectly calm evenings, so calm that the stars reflect clearly in the water below. Cassie is with us for two weeks and she is soaking it all up. We arrived at 5:30 am on June 21 and used this day to provision the boat with fresh fruit and vegis and get our clearance papers from Lautoka (we rented a car to do all of this). The next morning we departed from Denarau and headed for Musket Cove, a boat hang out, this to give Cassie a short distance to get back into the swing of boating again. the day was perfect, we didn't even splash the boat on the way over. We met up with Dietmar and Kurt on Carinthia and got all of the good places to go for diving, as they have been traveling around during our trip back to Canada. We all did a dive on the Pinnacle the next day and a first for us was sighting a Lion Fish swimming! The fish was huge - about basketball size and so beautiful - his lacey fins spread wide, but so dangerous - we don't bug him...he doesn't bug us. It was good to be in the water again. The boat group put on a bon fire on the beach at 6:00 pm, it is a tidal affair - the tide goes out enough to expose a beautiful mound of sand in the bathtub warm, blue water, they build a fire and everybody brings their beverage of choice and visit and party on the sand until the tide comes in again and extinguishes the fire several hours after the start. Very unique indeed. We only have 12 hours of daylight right now, 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Today we are on our way to a place called Robinson Cruso, we'll see what kind of fun we can have there. Again we have another beautiful day, a bit more breezy than before no big deal.

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