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by KC2RIY, on July 2nd, 2011 ( Fiji, Saggitarius) The forecast showed lots of rain coming in with an overnight wind shift from the north. We figured where we were anchored was more or less the best place to be. We did shift the anchor further into the bay to give us more room to swing in all directions. Sagittarius came past and Bob and Lynette swung by to say hello. They’d found the anchorage by the village rolly and had a bad nights sleep so they’d returned to the Bay of Islands for some flat water. They were too tired to be social yesterday. We may meet up today.
I did a little more fishing off the back of the boat and snagged an small emperor sweet lips which went in the bag in the freezer with the previous day’s grouper. With the boat swinging around in the variable winds the hook / weight would drag on the sea bed and I lost two sets of weights / hooks in rock/coral.
The rest of the day was spent reading and playing cards.
Looking further out the weather looks temperamental for the next few days. We expect some light northerlies for the weekend with some rain. It looks like another front will come through Monday evening followed by light southerlies. Sometime after that we’ll need to leave. We would like to put in another visit to the village and maybe take the truck overland to Lomolomo on the other side of the island which goes on Mon,Wed,Fri. We’ll see. May not work out.
By the time we had woken, Just in Time and Ivory Keys had already left the area as planned. I’d borrowed a USB stick from Sagittarius the night before and so after breakfast I kayaked over to drop it off. I stayed for a coffee and a chat so by the time I was paddling back to Dignity they were also off. Without leaving the kayak, Helen joined me to explore the nearby area and to get some exercise. After our paddle we decided to try out another anchorage.
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For the rest of the day we had the entire Bay of Islands to ourselves which was nice. I spent a little time fishing in the afternoon and bagged a small grouper which ended up in the freezer. In the evening we had barbecued steaks.
We have no firm plans yet for today. Much will be dependent on the weather. We know another system is bearing down on us and we do know that once it’s passed we’ll start working our way back west. We need to be at the west end of Viti Levu by the end of July to meet up with our friends and have more or less worked out our route to get there. Our charger, as far as we know, has still not reached Savusavu so we have time to get there. From Savusavu we expect to take the inside reef track north of Viti Levu stopping off at Makongai along the way. Prior to reaching Savusavu we have a few places we want to take in but it will all depend on the weather.
The evening of my birthday saw a fork go overboard. Our usual trick is to tie a line to a bag of weights and on the other end of the line tie a buoy. This is all dropped overboard as soon after loosing the utensil as possible so a morning recovery is possible. Once it was light enough I donned my gear and went on the prowl. The first problem was that the buoy/line had evidently been caught up on the boat overnight and dragged around the sandy sea floor. It was fairly easy to trace the path the bag had been dragged so I move the whole affair back to it’s starting point so I had a good reference. I eventually found the fork half buried in the sand and brought all back aboard the boat.
Shortly before 11 we decided to move the boat a short way, just for a change of scene. As we headed out of our little alcove we saw two more boats approaching the general area from the north. They were both kiwi boats and we remembered seeing them in Savusavu and one in Opua just before we left. We decided to invite them over for the evening so once we’d anchored and settled, as had they, I zipped over in the dinghy to invite them all over along with Sagittarius.
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After a left over curry lunch we had a lazy afternoon reading broken only by my swim down to the anchor to make sure it was all ok. In this case I decided to move the anchor a little to put it behind a lump of coral as the sea bed where we are is somewhat rocky.
In the evening the Sagittarius’s, Ivory Keys and Just in Time’s all came over for drinks and nibbles and left rather late. It was nice to have company and, as ever, it was a good evening.
by KC2RIY, on June 29th, 2011 ( Fiji, Saggitarius) I enjoyed my birthday – mostly due to it’s simplicity. The strong winds calmed down and it was mostly blue skies. Better still, the remaining south westerly winds were cool and dry. After brunch we went off exploring in the dinghy. I hadn’t mentioned before but there are a lot of bats around here in the mornings and evenings. While out we found their tree and took a few pictures. I think we woke one up which flew around and woke a few more up who flew around who woke the rest up. Soon it was a scene out of Scooby Doo so we moved on wishing them their day time rest.
We explored another possible area to anchor before heading back. On the way we stopped off to say hello to the one other sailboat in the area, Saggitarius, with Bob and Lynette from Nelson, New Zealand aboard. We stayed and chatted for a while. This is their third visit to this area and they reckon it’s the best in Fiji having come to the broader area for years. We’ve invited them over for drinks and nibble this evening so we should learn more.
Back at the boat we snorkeled around the small area we’re anchored in. It was not spectacular but good to get in the water and see a few interesting things. I managed to spot a lobster but it was a juvenile and needed to grow up a bit more to become my dinner.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was with ourselves and was very enjoyable. We watched a good movie, Bucket List, to round the day off. The clear blue day time sky gave way to clear heavens. Perfect.
by steve, on June 18th, 2011 ( Fiji, Scream) Latest news first. It does appear that our replacement charger is on it’s way and we have agreement from Lagoon to do the sex change in New Zealand next February. The detail has still to be exchanged and agreed but for now we are free to move on. We will.
I did actually get onto doing some chores around the boat. I checked the house batteries – all fine. I inspected the standing rigging, tightening one of the locking nuts in the process. I cleaned the water strainer for the water maker as well as fixing a small leak where the nipple screwed into the cock. Bilge pumps tested fine.
In the evening we visited Scream for dinner, drinks and cards and got back tired and late.
Looking at the weather we have NE to N light winds for the next couple of days. Not perfect but it’s not bad to help get us east to the Lau group. With the details for our boat work sufficiently progressed we can leave today. First hop will be a short one to the east side of Taveuni which we’ll do in good light. That’ll position us well to leave early tomorrow for a longer passage east.
It’s exciting to leave and get going again. The sad side of all this is that this may be the last time we’ll see many of our friends here in this anchorage. But that’s cruising.
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