Fiji October 12 2006

Hi Everyone.I believe we left you on the dog watch on our sail to Fiji. Well, another roller coaster ride. The conditions were about the same as those from "New Potatoes" to Vava'u, but, this time we were going with it so it was a piece of cake. Wind a steady 30 knots, with 15-20 foot seas. Wow, we hit over 18 knots at one point. As we got closer, the weather tidied up and we shook out the reef--took us about 2 1/2 days for 460 miles so our average came way down from when we started out. I forgot to mention in my last letter, one of the crazy guys we had met actually jet skied out in that crap to wave goodbye. Joe caught a rather large Mahi on the way, but we had consolidated freezers and didn't have room to keep it. Seems New Zealand is very sticky about bringing in food from other places so we've been whittling down our stocks and figured we'd save the power consumption from the second freezer. There's a volcano erupting about 100 miles south of our track and we actually ran into a floating pumice field. In our case, they were just small stone or pebble size, but some people have run into 3 foot deep fields with significantly larger chunks. Really can screw up one's water pumps and cooling systems, but we had no damage. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant passage with no mishaps or breakdowns for a change.Our arrival was a bit harrowing, however. With the reduction of speed on the second half, we just missed hitting Suva harbor during daylight. Our choices were to press on through the reef or drive around all night waiting for daybreak. Well, we have radar, charts, etc. so in we went. After a while another boat called us and asked if we knew where we were going---two lost sheep. Let me tell you, everything looks different at night, not to mention, they changed the color of the range lights from red to blue which we only learned after calling Port Control. Anyway, with all hands on lookout, Joe bitching about how stupid we were and a verrrrry slow entry speed, we reached the anchorage at about 9 that night.Our first day was marked with torrential rain, but checkin was a snap, contrary, once again, to the cruising guides. Suva is a large town (Fiji had 750,000 people) and a commercial harbor which is on the dirty side. Cabs are dirt cheap which is handy because the anchorage is only within walking distance of town for fitness freaks which we ain't. You bring the dinghy into the Royal Suva Yacht Club, and cab it from there. The club charges $5 Fiji a day for anchoring, garbage, water and social services. (The Fiji $ is just under 2 to 1 US$) Food there was also good and very cheap with a full shrimp dinner only about $10. Beer and drinks were in the $2-3 range. They even had WIFI internet for $8 for 2 hours--a real bargain. While there, we saw the sun once. In fact, today, two weeks later, we finally saw the sun for the first time, except maybe 15 minutes in Suva, since our arrival. So I don't have very much more to say about Suva. It was generally, hunker down and watch videos. We took the opportunity to try the new DVD burner we got in Samoa, but had a problem with it not wanting to format the blanks. There's supposed to be some software to download to fix the problem, but, in the meantime, Phillips sued them for patent infringement and nothing we tried worked. Another is on order so we can burn some of the videos we have. It was pretty funny, though, we got it to work well enough to copy some of the Stonich home videos to DVD, including the dumpy 60 YO stripper they hired for me on my 50th. The captain also took the bad weather as an opportunity to try out his fancy knotwork book on the wheel. We now have a nice triple Turks head marking the center rudder position. Only took about 50 tries to get it right!!! We did do some shopping which was also good prices, and Rose went to the acupuncturist--an old Chinese gut--for her Lyme's aches and pains. It really helped. Joe and the captain were on a mission to get some of the advertised fireworks and did find a few things. Unfortunately, the authorities had just banned firecrackers so we only got those fountain things. Put on a nice show for the bar at Musket Cove which got us a round of applause. There was also a Pan-Melanesian Arts Festival, which we checked out but were unimpressed. Rose did buy some goodies, however. We're also here during something called DiWali, festival of lights, which is an Indian thing. About half the population is of Indian descent. Most of that is private, but explains the fireworks. Oh, it was also Fiji Day--independence--this week. More on that later. Finally, in Suva, I figured I better get some decent charts as we were going around to the west coast and my computer charts are not really detailed enough. These things aren't cheap, folks. I needed 2 and they were $85 each. the second was out of stock and while we waited, it dawned on me that Norman had given me a copy of Cmaps nav. program and that had charts. I finally found the on-disc manual and ran the thing, and it is a thing of beauty. I don't think I would use it to actually navigate as the directions aren't too good, but it has detailed charts of the whole world in there. Saved me $85 for the 2nd chart as well as gave us peace of mind as the GPS fixes seem to be extremely accurate.So last Sunday, the 8th, I believe, under overcast skies, off we go to Musket Cove. I forgot to mention the south island of Fiji is huge, 2nd only to the big island of Hawaii in the entire Pacific, and it is 110 miles "just around the corner". So we decided to do it in 2 days. Once again we had good speed conditions and actually pressed on to a farther port that night. It's really only a cut in the reef, and, of course, as soon as we turned to drop the main outside the pass, the wind kicked up to 35 knots. We got in without a problem, but did drop the second anchor in case the wind stayed up. It was a short trip into musket Cove from there and the wind died completely as soon as we passed through the westside reef. Musket Cove is on an island about 7 miles off the west coast and has two large resorts, one of which caters to yachties. We're on a mooring at $40/week and you get to join the Musket Cove yacht club for $1, but only if you arrive from a foreign port, and get all sorts of discounts. It's a bit more costly than the mainland, but they have a grocery, cheap bar, etc. We're doing the "pig roast" tonight for about $30 pp. On arrival we met up with our Kiwi friends from NZ, and did a BBQ at the beach bar. They provide the BBQs, wood and all the eating paraphernalia, all for free. Most important, they also clean up after you! It was Fiji Day, so the hotel put on a show of sorts later with all the staff doing dancing, etc. Great deal and lots of fun. In Fiji, one has to check out and back in when moving from one district to another, which we had done, so the next day we had to go to Lautoka on the main island to do that. We met a Swiss couple at the bar who also needed to go so off we went with warnings from everyone not to let on the boat wasn't there (another 20 miles) or they wouldn't allow the check in. "Don't ask, don't tell" was the order of the day which worked, but it took us all day to get it done as we had to ferry over and bus it the 25 kilometers up there. Guess we'll have to go with the boat when checking out for NZ, which, all in all, is probably easier anyway. Fortunately, the Kiwis were taking their boat over to the main island the next day, as we broke a couple battens and tore the luff of the main on the way over. We'll get it back on the ferry next week but it was nice of the guys to take it over for us. On our return from the BBQ, we had a text message on the phone from Hein and Vic asking how to get to us in Suva. HAH, turns out they were where we were taking the ferry the next day, so we've arranged to hook up with them in Musket Cove this weekend. Originally, they were to stay with us, but the skipper on their boat decided to bring it over to the cove. In the meantime, the crew has been in a flurry of activity cleaning the boat so we won't be embarrassed when they arrive. Oh yeah, it's a far cry from "charter ready", but we, or rather they, are getting there with the cleaning. Hein and Vic arrive tomorrow which is Friday, so I imagine some cocktails might be consumed over the weekend. The weather has actually improved today, so, hopefully we might get back to what paradise is supposed to be like. We're all losing our tans!!!