Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Shortly after breakfast it was time to take Judy and Colin ashore. To make things easier Helen said her goodbyes aboard so just the three of us headed ashore where I did mine.

A little later Helen and I went back ashore to provision and pick up fuel for the dinghy. Soon after returning to Dignity we were off to explore the islands within Budd Reef.

The winds were quite light but we had the time to sail over. We approached one possible anchorage but decided against it as it looked a little tight and rolly. We engaged the generator for the rest of the distance to our next anchorage. At this point I noticed a problem. It looked like we had another issue with one of our chargers.

When reaching our final anchorage I immediately performed some additional tests to help diagnose the problem. Things went from bad to worse. Without going into too much detail I’m going to backtrack and first perform a confession.

Back in New Zealand we spent some time considering our future options once we reach Australia. Continuing our circumnavigation would take us either up the Red Sea (not a good option these days) or round South Africa. As much as we like the system, we felt the power of the hybrid system was not sufficient for either of those legs given the conditions we may face and possibly have to motor through. A third option that was always on the table would be to sell the boat in Australia. From our research and contact with others it turns out that a second hand hybrid 420 is a lot harder to sell than a diesel version. It is sad but we came to the conclusion we would have to convert the propulsion to diesel once we reached Australia in 2012.

Having another issue changes our position on this. Our appetite for being out in a remote area of the Pacific if another issuer should occur has dropped somewhat. Having already made the decision to switch our thinking has now shifted to having the conversion done this year rather than next.

Lagoon are remaining remarkably supportive to us. They’re onside with providing us help and parts to get over the current issue and are with us in setting up a conversion either here in Fiji or in Australia later this year. We have friends due here in September and really don’t want to cut our time here in Fiji and miss them. At present it is unclear if Fiji has the facilities to do the work. That will take some research.

So how does this all affect us here and now. With this new issue we’ve abandoned our plans to head off to the remote islands of the Lau Group for now. In a way we’re glad this has happened now when we’re not so far from communications. I’ve sent off what observations and thoughts I can to the techs.

Depending on weather, either today or tomorrow we’ll head back to Taveuni and get back connected. There we can research haul out costs/facilities in Fiji. We can also get talking to the tech to determine what can be done in the short term. We can still motor but at reduced speed over distance and still gave full power from the batteries for maneuvering. That’s fine for getting on/off the hook. We even have a back up for the port charger albeit one which also has a problem. The redundancy of the system shows (if not the resiliency) but we do have to adapt our plans to cater for the changed risks/failure scenarios. Hopefully after a few conversations we’ll have the parts identified to be sent to Fiji, probably Savusavu where we can rendezvous with them in a few weeks time.

Being back in Taveuni will not be so bad as it gives us a chance to have a nice meal somewhere on our soon to arrive 25th anniversary. So it’s not all bad.

This is all a bit of a pain but things will still work out. With Lagoon working with us and remaining very supportive we are in a good spot. We’re keeping our fingers crossed we can get the big work done here in Fiji later this year. We will know soon.

The morning started with a bit of extra work as the genset impeller needed replacing before we could do a planned wash. Colin helped with the job and it was soon done.

We went ashore around 8:30 which, being high tide, made for an easy run over the shallows. We soon had a taxi flagged down and after a brief stop at the nearby supermarket we headed down the east coast road to Bouma National Heritage Park to walk the Tavoro waterfall trail. The work ‘road’ is somewhat generous as at times the road had the texture of a dry, rocky riverbed which, we imagined, it might well have been after a deluge.

The park office was located in a very nice garden and we were sold our access permit by the very nice Maria. The path to the first waterfall was well groomed with soft grass underfoot. It was also short, only about 10 minutes. The waterfall we stunning with a deep pool beneath into which we plunged. The flow was strong so approaching the base of the falls took a lot of effort. The water was refreshingly cool lowering our body temperatures in advance of the next section.

This next section was a steep climb taking us well above the first falls. The effort was more than rewarded by some spectacular views of the coast and the land below. There were two routes to the second falls. We took the left fork which was shorter but involved a slippery river crossing. A rope had been conveniently placed to help us across.

We reached the second falls and again entered the pool for a swim and a cool down. We then pressed on to the third and final falls. This trail was quite muddy but we had plenty of opportunities to wash the accumulation on our feet and shoes. Again, another swim and this time we stopped for a snack.

On the way down we took the alternate, longer route, from the second pool down. The earlier views were now even more stunning as the sun had shifted more behind us. Just by the first pool we noticed a table had been set up, perhaps for a romantic honeymoon lunch.

Back at the office we debated the pros and cons of continuing further on to do the coastal walk which would take us to another couple of waterfalls. It turned out we didn’t have the time to do it justice so we grabbed our sleeping taxi driver for the ride back to Matei.

We had hoped to stop at ‘Audrey’s’ for a late lunch as all the guides raved about the place. It was, unfortunately, closed until the weekend so we ended up at Coconut Grove. Here we had some heavenly fruit juice/ice cream combination drinks followed by lunch overlooking a magnificent view of the bay.

When we eventually arrived back at the boat I was too tired to go lobstering and snoozed for an hour or so.

The evening concluded with a BBQ. Definitely a good day. Enjoy the pics below. The last couple of days have also been uploaded.