Off to the metropolis

Posted on July 5, 2011 by KC2RIY

At 8am I went ashore to pick up Aaroni who was going to travel with us to the seething island metropolis of Lomolomo. Once I had him aboard the dinghy we returned to Dignity to pick up Helen and then off to the next village around the coast. The wind was blowing from behind us so the trip was dry but it did not bode well for our return.

We walked through the village to the truck stop where we sat upon cinder blocks to await the transport. While we waited, other villagers from Daliconi arrived having walked the distance. We felt lazy and wondered if we should have walked rather than take the dinghy.

Soon the truck arrived. If the buses previously traveled upon were considered basic, this was more so. Our transport was essentially a large flatbed truck with a tarpaulin cover with a couple of slots to see through. The back was quickly filled with villagers and us and off we went to Lomolomo.

Lomolomo comprised two stores, a school, a hospital, a post office and a bakery which had been closed for a month due to a problem with their generator. The place was bustling (we supposed) due to the fact that the monthly supply ship had arrived the previous day. Folks were collecting sacks of flour, sugar and rice for their villages and the shops were full (to the extent this word could be applied) with stuff.

We took a short walk through the village to look around before returning to the shops to pick up some staples and some biscuits for today’s party/feast. We snagged some fresh bread that had appeared from somewhere and ate some there and then.

We eventually took the same truck back to the village where our dinghy was having spent an hour and a half in Lomolomo. More than enough to see the highlights. Our return trip back in the dinghy gave us all a thorough drenching confirming our thoughts that we should have walked to the truck stop.

I’d been in two minds about the weather. The forecast called for overnight westerlies. Eroni had suggested the waves could pick up to 3ft which wouldn’t be fun in an anchorage. Our plan was to move the boat behind some nearby mangroves. However, when I spoke to some other villagers I learned that the expected waves were far lighter and a move I deemed was unnecessary. While we’d been away in Lomolomo another yacht had arrived, Da Capo, crewed by ex-Brits (now Kiwis) and their 3.5 children (one in the oven). We’d briefly met them before in the Bay of Islands and it was nice to meet them again and see their 3 small children playing with the locals.

Back on the boat I chased UPS in Fiji to find out what has happened with our charger. It turned out they needed my approval to change the delivery address to the customs office in Savusavu so having given that it should now be on it’s way and should be there when we get there next week.

In the afternoon I went back ashore to start work fixing a few more things. The DVD player that I’d fixed previously had failed again that evening and sadly I could not figure out why. I had thought that an intermittent problem would have been traceable and fixable but I was not successful. Another DVD player that had the front smashed in was fixable and that I managed to sort out. A third was beyond repair with what looked like salt water corrosion to the main circuit board.

I was able to do all this work as someone had brought a portable generator into the village. Working during daylight is so much better. There were a couple of TVs left by the time it was getting dark. I’ll do these this morning.

I took Samu and his wife Lakour back to Dignity as they’d missed out on the previous invitation last weekend. It was nice spending time with them and hearing them open up a little about goings on in the village. We gave them a few of the things we have aboard for the folks out here as well as the two fish I’d caught while we were in the bay.

Helen and I finished the day with hot dogs and soup in keeping with July 4th celebrations back in the USA.

Today, as mentioned before, we’ll go ashore so I can take a look at the TVs and whatever else is place our way. This evening is the party/feast. We understand the villagers, including the school kids, have been practising their dancing and that Samu was planning to go out last night at midnight to collect sand crabs for us. We’re very much looking forward to this.

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Back to Daliconi

Posted on July 4, 2011 by steve

Around 10am we raised the anchor and headed back down to the village of Daliconi.

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Along the way we picked up the vodafone tower and were able to connect to the internet for the first time in a week. The world started flooding back in and it wasn’t all too bad. Better still, the bandwidth was better than it was previously so once we were anchored I was able to sort a few things out. Among other things, I booked our flights from South Africa to the Uk and ordered the toner for the school here. I checked up on the four Euler problems I’d worked on while in the Bay and found my answers to be correct.

In the middle of the afternoon we went ashore to say hello and find out about the ride to Lomolomo we’d heard goes on Mondays. We got the details from Aaron about the truck before heading up to Samu’s to say hello and drop off a few more DVDs. We learned from them both that the village is planning a party for us on Tuesday so we’re definitely hanging around for that.

We then went on a walk to stretch our legs. The only exercise we’ve had for the last week has been snorkeling and kayaking so it was good to be out and about.

We declined the offer of church as we don’t normally go and it was all in Fijian. Apart from the singing we’d have struggled to stay awake. So after our walk we retired to the boat for the evening.

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Mopping up

Posted on July 3, 2011 by KC2RIY

Usually Helen gets to read my blogs before I send them off and gets to add her perspective. Yesterday I sent it off before she woke up. Largely because she took a long time to wake up – the reason was something I should have blogged yesterday. And that is that during the early hours it rained very, very heavily. This had woken Helen up who’d gone rushing round to close the side ports and doors which normally didn’t let the rain in but in this case could hardly contain the block of water that fell from the sky.

The rain had fallen so heavily it had gotten into the void beneath the rear companionway, from there into the port lazarette and then into the port bilge. My makeshift double pump cobbled together a week or so ago worked fine but it did mean some time had to be spent draining the water out of these spaces during the morning while Helen went on a cleaning round.

Earlier in the morning I had popped around the corner to visit Sagittarius in order to swap hard drives so we could grab hold of movies, TV Series, etc. that we each didn’t have. Copying these onto my laptop took most of the day.

After lunch we took off on an extended tour of the bay in the kayak. Just to the south of us is an area with lots of small islands. Almost all the coastline round hear overhangs the coast by 4-5 feet. Put another way, the sea has eroded the land at sea level causing the rocky land to overhang. For the really small islands the islands seem balanced on a very small base. We were able to paddle the kayak in and out of this maze of small islands and inlets finding small clumps of mangroves inhabited by various birds. In the shallow waters we’d occasional surprise a school of fish which would dart about frantically beneath us.

We then headed over to the islands to the west of us over the other side of the bay where we found two more places where we could explore a maze of inlets and small islands. We returned to Dignity by paddling across the bay against the wind and chop. This left us feeling quite hot so we snorkeled the area near the boat.

The large amount of rain the previous night had left a layer of fresh water floating over the salty water below which made effects which we’d not seen since Niue last year when the various densities of water mixed as we passed through. In general the water was pretty clear and we saw a lot of fish. One of my favourites these days are the clusters of tiny blue fish that hover over a branching coral which then all dive for cover within the coral when one waves one’s hand near. We both got excited at one point when Helen spotted an enormous lobster sitting very still on the sand beneath us. Very still. Too still in fact. It was dead and hollow – perhaps a discarded husk from a recent moult. Oh well – it does mean they’re around somewhere.

At 5:30 Bob and Lynette came over for G&Ts and to return our hard drive. A couple of those and a beer and we were all merry. Once they’d left it was dinner and a bit of a movie before retiring for the evening.

We’ve had a glorious sunrise this morning so perhaps we’ll have a nice day (I don’t think this ‘shepherds warning business applies at sea – after all, where are the sheep?). We’ve had a really nice relaxing time (mostly) here in the Bay of Islands. We’ve really enjoyed our own company and that of others. But it’s time to move on. Right now, we’re still planning on heading back to the village today and staying a couple of nights before moving off completely.

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Not a lot

Posted on July 2, 2011 by KC2RIY

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.

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The Bay to Ourselves

Posted on July 1, 2011 by KC2RIY

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.

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