Vanuatu (pt 2) Sept 16 2007

Hi everybody.Lots happening here in Vanuatu, so this will be a bit long, but for those ofyou who may only read a few words before getting tired of our tales, I havea book to recommend. It will at the least entertain you and, at best, givethose of you who can't understand what the hell we're doing out here, aninkling of what our lives and motivations are. The book is "Getting Stonedwith the Savages, a trip through the islands of Fiji and Vanuatu", by J.Maarten Troost. Very funny, but true. Read it!!!Now back to our favorite subject, us. We left you with Rose in thevegetable garden on Epi and Rendezvous with a broken autopilot (we now havethe part--just haven't gotten around to installing it). We left Epi tobegin to make our way further north to Espirito Santo. We were heading toMalekula, one of the larger islands and the beginning of shark attackterritory. In our on-line cruising guide for this place, there was apicture of the local dock with "SHARK ATTACKS" painted on the side.Malekula is also known as the cannibal's island, and the last reportedincidence was only 30 years ago. That's reported. It was aFrenchman--anyway, we don't figure they just stopped all of a sudden--like Isaid this is National Geographic stuff here. It was a short sail over toPort Sandwich from Epi, and we had a field day fishing, getting 4 nice sizedtuna on the way. Since we're having a good bit of success and these wereskipjack which aren't too good, we decided to give them to the localvillagers. Makes it easy as well, since they eat everything and we don'thave to clean the fish first--tuna are extremely bloody. Joey gave themaway as he walked up to the local store about a half hour away. In return,we got some eggs and saw loads of pigs, cattle, chickens, etc. This is areal subsistence 3rd world place!!! A local guy asked us to shore thatevening for Kava, but we were too tired and opted out. Needless to say, wedidn't go swimming and left the next day for a hop up the coast of Malekulato a place called Wala Island. It was supposed to have a resort, but it hadfailed, and there were just dilapidated buildings around. We were justthere for the night, but about 10, there were some big lights in behind usand the local tramp steamer pulled in. Turned on all the outside lights soas not to get run down, and this was probably a good idea as the crew seemeda bit tipsy.Next day, Saturday, was a short 4 hour trip up to Santo, the second city ofVanuatu and the old HQ for the allies in WWII. We actually entered throughthe only pass that wasn't mined during the war, and we're still trying tofigure out how aircraft carriers and battleships made it in there! Wepicked up a mooring across from Santo (officially called Luganville) at AoreIsland Resort and hopped their free ferry over to Santo to check it out andsee customs (this is sort of like Fiji where you need to check in in eachdistrict) Customs was closed, and the whole town reminds one of a brokendown mining town in an old western. Once a bustling wartime boom town, itis now nothing but a rundown dump. We hustled back to Aore for a nice steakdinner at the resort. Ran into our friends, Tom and Katie from Mariner IV,who were on their way back to check out of the resort. (They were all bentout of shape because they thought they had negotiated a deal to leave theboat there for 3 weeks, but the resort reneged on the deal. This meant theywould have to sail all the way back to Vila and then back up to Santo againfor the boss. We guess they worked something else out somewhere as the boathasn't appeared back here in Vila.) Anyway, all was not lost in thisgodforsaken part of the world as they have the largest accessible intactwreck, the Coolidge, as a dive sight.This dive on Sunday was one of the highlights of our trip. Rose doesn'tdive, so she stayed on board. The dive company meets you at the Aore ferrydock and drives you to the office for the requisite paperwork. Then it'sabout a 20 minute drive up the coast to their private property with thewreck 50 yards off the beach!!! After the dive, you drive back and theygive you coffee and rolls while you wait for the 11:30 ferry. Great dealfor $35!!! The dive itself is spectacular. This is a 600+ foot longconverted cruise ship to a troop transport lying on its port side. Thecaptain, for whatever reason as there are many versions, decided to enterthe harbor through the wrong pass, hit a mine and sank. There was littleloss of life as they were right offshore. Anyway, you start on the bow inabout 30 feet and fairly quickly get down to about 130. There's all sortsof cool stuff like old shells, gas masks and even a bank of urinals, allwell preserved, just lying around. We did have a bit of excitement asJoey's air gauge decided to fail at about the 130 mark and he had to finishthe dive on the divemaster's octopus. I ran low as well and shared air withanother guy on the way up. It was all very professional with 2decompression stops and extra tanks in the water at that point so I guesslow air is a frequent occurrence.With nothing to keep us in Santo and the big magic festival coming up onWednesday in Ambrym, off we went on Monday back to the south. We were verylucky the winds cooperated and were out of the east so we weren't beatinginto it. We had rain, sun and easterlies so made it a bit further thanintended down to a secluded bay called Crab Bay. Caught a nice Mahi on theway, which is rapidly becoming our favorite fish--beautiful in the waterwhen catching it and really tasty to eat. Crab Bay used to have a copraplantation, but is deserted now with a beautiful beach and well protectedanchorage. It had the advantage of being due west of Ambrym, so, eventhough we had to motor into easterly winds the next day, we were in the leeof the island with fairly calm seas. We hooked some giant fish that broke a1" diameter jury rigged wood outrigger, moved the bolted down rod holder itwas in and snapped our 130 pound test hand line. Major bummer, but I don'tknow what we'd do with something that big anyway!!Ambrym is the "mystical" island with 2 active volcanoes and traditionalvillages. The festival, which involved an hour walk each way into thejungle is their way of making money now that copra is dying out. It wasvery cool, and several other yachts were there to attend. We're talkingguys in nambas (banana leaf penis shields with their nuts hanging out) andtopless women with grass skirts. All sorts of local dances, sand drawing,local magic Siegfried and Roy need not worry) and flute exhibitions, andmuch more which is too long to go into here. The captain rubbed his footraw on the walk the first day (Took 2 weeks to heal up as Vanuatu and theS.Pacific are known for nasty infections.) and had to pass on the third daywhich had the Rom Dance which is a highly sacred ritual with some kind oftotal body grass outfits. Definitely worth it and the real thing. They'reprobably still eating people not far from where we were!! The last night,the local chief invited us all to the beach for kava. We hadn't yet triedVanuatu kava which is supposed to be much stronger than Fiji's or Tonga's.Basically the difference is they don't dry the root before grinding it up.Used to be it was pre-chewed by pre-pubescent boys and then squeezed into abowl before adding water. Now, we hope anyway, they use a mortar andpestle. So--we have one bowl (a split coconut shell). Nothing. We haveanother. Nothing. Now this stuff is not exactly tasty. Sort of likepeppery muddy water. Joey, of course, is pounding these things--big manright. So the captain decides to have a third bowl. From stone sober toweak kneed and slurring in about one minute. Barely made it back to theboat. Fortunately, I was not worshipping the porcelain goddess or feedingthe fish like my son and most of the other cruisers who were overserved.Cheap high at $.50 a cup!!!Now, it's about the 26th and we needed to get back to Vila to meet up withRose's friend, David who was arriving on the 1st, so off we went back toMalekula to an island group, the Maskelynes, on the south shore. All theway back to Vila would have involved an overnight sail, and we didn't feellike hassling ourselves with that. Besides, these islands had a beach withmagic stones that, Rose, our resident gypsy, wanted to collect. If you bangthem together, a blue spark emanates and the weather turns bad. One couplewe talked to tempted fate and were stuck there for three days while the restof Vanuatu had beautiful weather. It was another 80 miles back down toHavannah Bay (About 20 miles from Vila) so we got an early start withcooperating winds which by now had swung north exactly as we'd hoped.In Havannah Bay, the lone Vanuatu patrol boat was checking all the boats'papers, and one poor guy must have had drugs or something. They spent aboutan hour--with 7 guys--on his boat, and then stood off all night and followedhim to Vila at 6AM next day. We, on the other hand, had all in order andeven gave them a tuna and barracuda we'd caught on the way in. They spentabout 10 minutes on our boat. We had an uneventful and quick sail back toVila the next day. But, just as we were entering the bay, we hooked anotherbig one. This one threw the 8o (i.e. very large) hook after bending ithalfway straight. Wait minute. Check the hand line and another one's on.This time, Moby Dick broke 100 pound test. I'm not kidding there are somebig fish here, and maybe that's why they even get great white sharks inthese waters.Okay, we're getting close to the end!!!! Back in Vila we ran into ourfriend, Paddy from Zafarse, and managed a few cocktails. Due to theridiculous costs of dockage in Sydney, we decided to do a rally he's in fromNew Caledonia to Bundaburg, which is about 600 miles north of Sydney andreduce the time we're spending there. No matter where I checked, a slipthere was at least AU$3,000/month without electricity. That's triple thecost of Auckland and, thanks to our current administration, almost 3 grandUS!!! That's more than I paid for the entire season in Chicago! And I gotfree cable.Let me digress for a moment to politics because, well, because it's myletter and I can. Also, I'm out here taking shit as an American and payingevery day for the deterioration of our currency. I think I'm becomingliberal in my old age, and this will delight some of my friends--you knowwhoyou are--who are somewhere to the left of Teddy Kennedy (for you non UScitizens, that's left of Marx). Sure, I've always been pro choice and nevercould understand the flap over gay marriage. Who cares? But, the lastdemocrat I voted for was Jimmy Carter, and I still think that George was abetter choice than Kerry or Algore. Nonetheless, this stupid war is killingme in the pocket book and I'm definitely not happy. Oh, you can argueBush'smotives for going to Iraq. Some of you are convinced it's a conspiracy withbig oil, or Halliburton or revenge for his father's sake. But few of uswouldargue it wasn't good that Saddam was kicked out. What I don't understand iswhy we're still there. Even my moderate liberal friends, not to mention thehard liners out there, believe we just can't destroy a country'sinfrastructure and then leave. Oh, they say, we'd lose face and the rest ofthe worldwould think we're awful. Well, let me tell you, with what has and is goingon, we have no face left anyway, just an ass the rest of the world wants tokick. We are never going to "Marshall Plan" an Arab country, because theyare not "western culture", and never will be. We have as much likelihood ofcreating awestern democracy there as we would in China, and you would think the idiotsin Washington learned that from Nam. We should get the hell out of thereand regainat least a sound economy since it will take years to grow a new "face",regardless of what we do now!!! Okay, that's the war. Now let's talk aboutthedrug companies. I used to ridicule the democrats for vilifying these guys asI, at least, used to be a staunch capitalist. Also I've worked inbusiness my whole life and am fairly confidant that all the conspiracy crapyou liberals throw out doesn't happen. However, why is it that the samedrug here in Vanuatu or NZ from the same company costs a fraction of that inthe States. These are not big government negotiations with loads ofbuying power like Canada or the UK. No, these drugs companies know ourscrewy health care system will pay the bill, so they buy market share bycutting prices in the entire rest of the world and letting the Americanconsumer pay the price. I'm not kidding you. One pill I needed for afungalinfection, Lamisil, is something like $10 a pill in the US and I paid lessthan $1 each in NZ, and that wasn't the even cheaper "National Health", butthe tourist price. These guys should be shot!!!Whew, I feel better now. So, we've been just sort of hanging out here inVila for a couple of weeks. We got a great view of the Luna Rosa eclipse ofthe moon, a first for all of us and really cool. Later,while Rose and Iwere at dinner one night, Joey and a buddy answered a damsel in distress whowas single handing and having trouble getting into the harbor at night. Joewent on board while the other guy hung nearby in the dinghy. There's twoversions of what happened next. Joe's is as soon as he got on board, hetold the chick to tack, and before they could come around, she ran themaground. Her version is that he came aboard, gave her bad advice and that'swhy she ran aground. Joe's friend verifies his version. This is a youngpolish women singlehanding around the world. Apparently she's married tosome Hawaiian guy she just met up there--too bad for Joe, the knight inshining armor. Then again, there was Sir Lancelot.Rose's friend, David, was delayed a week to attend a tax hearing in NZ, buthis traveling companion, Sue Ella, did arrive. We had dinner, the girlsshopped, and we all went out to the "Cascades", a waterfall about 1/2 hourout of town. We figure these are about the best falls we've seen, and theyeven had a guy rappelling down one of the side channels. So often one getsripped off and the falls are about 5 feet high or a 4 hour walk away in thejungle, but these were all they were cracked up to be. An easy 1/2 hourhike up through beautiful scenery and rapids, then the 100 foot fallsthemselves you could actually walk into and under. Really good. We alsohad some excitement with one of Joey's young friends. Seems they were outdrinking verrrrrrrrry late. Joe came back, but about 8AM, I get a callfrom this guy, Alan--18 years old, totally drunk, wanting Joe. He calledback about three times before I could get Joe up, and then he finallydinghied over to the boat clad only in boxer shorts. While almostincoherent, the story is he was on his way back to the harbor and some guysheld a knife to his throat and robbed him. Took everything, even hisshoes!!!! To shorten this up, he didn't see any point in going to the cops,and Joe finally took him back to his own boat. However, something wasrotten in the state of Denmark. Did I forget to mention that along with hisboxer shorts, he still had his nice imitation gold watch on. Wait a minute.Anyway, our theory is he was in bed with some chick when her husband,boyfriend, father walked in, and he did a runner out the window. Later thatday we confronted a more sober Alan and, of course, he denied everything,but we think the case is closed!!!Alas, not for you, but for me, I have come to the end of our story thistime, and we're getting ready to leave Vanuatu for New Caledonia sometime inthe next few days. We'll check out tomorrow and hit the duty free shops asbooze is very cheap here duty free. A fill up with diesel and water, andwe'll be ready to go. Forgot to mention the water maker is acting up again,but, fortunately, we have only a short 200 mile sail to New Cal so itshouldn't delay our departure.Cheers to allTim, Rose and Joe

Vanuatu (pt 1) Aug 19 2007

Hi everybody.I think we left you on arrival in Port Resolution (PR), Tanna--July 19, butI'm not sure as my computer crashed and I lost that email.Anyway, we arrived at about 8AM Thursday after slowing down to enter duringdaylight, and on Thursday as the G-men come over from the "capital",Lenakel, on that day only to check in yachts. Otherwise you have a $20 p/pback of the truck 2 1/2 hour ride over there to do it. As it turned out, wehad to go anyway as the quarantine guy didn't come and we all needed to getsome Vatu, the local currency---100 Vatu to the $. PR is really 3rd worldwith no stores, ATMs or anything except the yacht club which is a shed.We're talking grass huts and Peace Corps volunteers!! Anyway, we "sort of"checked in, met a few of the boats there and watched the rest of our armadafrom Fiji arrive.Next day bright and early we started off for Lenakel. The start time wasn'texactly fixed but it was for 8 or so, but the others were gesturing madlyfrom the bluffs to get going. Turned out they'd forgotten to change theirclocks--Vanuatu is an hour earlier than Fiji. Instead of over the river andthrough the woods, we went over the volcano and through the jungle to whatcan best be described as a backwater, but we got our cash, finished withquarantine and hit the local market where a giant palm fond basket ofMandarin oranges was $.50. Just as an aside, we had been led to believefrom the "literature" that Vanuatu was almost as expensive as Fr. Poly. Aucontraire, we have found for most things it's as good or better than Fiji.We just sort of hung out the rest of the day waiting to leave at 4 or so tovisit the volcano, Mount Yasur, the most accessible in the world--more onthat later. We also looked for Werry, one of the chief's sons whocoordinates things for yachties. We had an entire cabin full of stuff wehad brought up for the village as a favor for a friend of Rose's who is anhonorary chief and spends about 6 month a year on Tanna. We nneded thespace back and finally offloaded on Monday--island time, mon!Okay, the volcano was one of the coolest things we've ever done. You leavelate afternoon for a 45 minute ride to the base, followed by a 20 minutewalk up to the crater. As night falls you look down into the caldera withbrilliant lava pools and mini eruptions every few minutes. Best fireworksshow you've ever seen with lava spewed hundreds of feet into the air andloud booms. There's all sorts of seismic monitoring so one doesn't go upthere when there is a danger of a major eruption, but everyone has a storyof some poor bastard stuck up there running for his life. Our trip was notso eventful, but we have amazing photos and video of the eruptions.On Saturday we were all invited to the penis festival--yes, you read thatright. This is still very primitive and they circumsize the boys at 13 andsend them into seclusion for something like 3 weeks to heal. Afterwards,there is a big celebration and feast to welcome them to manhood. Some ofthe more traditional men still go around in "nambas", which are penissheathes made of banana leaves. There's also what they call the cargo culthere from World War II. It's the "Jon Frumm" movement, a return totraditonal values, and the Jon Frumm is a result of "John from America", andthey're waiting for his return with all the goodies the Americans broughthere back then. Vanuatu, then New Hebrides, was a major base during the warand which Michener wrote about in Tales of the South Pacific.Unfortunately, Saturday brought torrential rains and it was a long way up amuddy hill to get to the village, so we opted to stay aboard.Sunday was still sort of bad, but one of the boats organized "game day" andwe all went up to the yacht club and played games. The locals made some ofthe young boys bows and arrows and they went out on a boar hunt while we allplayed cards with a few beers. No boar, but they got a chicken and thelocal kids plucked it. As we planned to return to Tanna when Rose's friendarrived in September, we decided to take off Monday for Port Vila, about 130miles north. We unloaded our cargo and picked up a couple of passengers andleft around 10 or 11 Monday AM. When unloading, Rose ran into a woman,Margaret, who wanted a ride to PV to see her husband. Being the goodsamaritan, we agreed and then found her 1 year old, Andrew was also coming.Oh well. Actually as the trip evolved, we felt really bad as we had highwinds and seas, and, although astern so it wasn't bad for us, those two weresick the whole way up. As a Result, we're rethinking the idea of sailingback down into that. Once again, we slowed down to arrive at daylight.Just outside PV, Joey hooked something really big--he says a tuna since itdove. Bent the pole over double and we lost it. When we reeled in theline, the thing had bent the size 6 hook and thrown it.Coming in to PV is no problem and we were glad to be out of the seas. Theanchorage is deep and there is a big mooring field operated by YachtingWorld. We called them on the radio and they actually send out a boat tolead you in and assign your mooring. Turned out we were right in front offriends from Fiji. PV is really neat--small, but cosmopolitan--sort of anice RoadTown, but provincial all the same. The people are super friendlyand you can get just about anything there which was good as one of the highpressure hoses on the water maker blew. Amazingly, we got that replaced inabout 2 hours!!! This never happens and made our day. so we got squaredaway with a phone (country code 678 number 42289--it's small here so theydon't need as many digits), checked out the huge and good open air market,found cheap Chinese bootleg DVDs and hit the Au Bon Marche, a really goodsupermarket. FYI, Vanuatu, before independence in 1980, was co-adminsteredby the French and English so there are both influences here. I almostforgot, they having amazingly low duty free booze with which we'll load upwhen we check out!!! We're loving this place!!!It turns out independence day coincides with the Captain's birthday, so wecelebrated both. I made my favorite birthday dinner of Veal birds and thelovely Rose baked a chocolate cherry cake. We had a few friends over and,fortunately, did not need to drive anywhere!!!. The 31st was a slow day;the captain is either out of practice or getting too old for this!! Theyhave a cruisers net at 8:15 every morning and on Friday, they announced somedeal out at a horse riding place with fire dancing, etc and good burgers. Abunch of us went and had a ball. They have great beef here and a fromer probaseball player from Texas was cooking up burgers for $3!!. They had a firedance and then the woman who owns the place did a deal with one of thehorses involving jumping through a burning ring--you sort of had to bethere, sorry. Anyway, sometime in there--we spent about 2 weeks in PV,there's a knock on the hull and it's Mick, a friend of the Captain's fromTortola. For you BVI vets, he was captain on Tom Cat, then Lone Star.Turns out about the time we were leaving he picked up the captaincy on DouceFrance, which we noticed coming in and which is the largest private sailingcat in the world--40 meters!!! Mick and i reminisced a bit, but he had theowners coming in and was about to leave for New Caledonia. From there theygo to NZ or OZ, I forget, where he's getting off to pursue his lifeelsewhere.Back to the horse thing for a minute, we met Randy Repass' wife (he's thefounder of West Marine and off the boat for a week on business), and itturns out she's got the exact same thing as Rose, and now we're sure it'sLyme's disease. Kindred spirits and all that, but it confirmed oursuspicions that the docs in NZ were full of it and that Rose does have thisawful thing. They traded commiseration and detoxing tips and later, books,teas and all sorts of weird stuff to get rid of this. Rose has had a bit ofa relapse, so it was really nice to have someone in similar circumstances totalk to. You have got to figure Sally has had the best treatment anddiagnosis possible as Randy is rich as Croesus, but she's gotten the sameinfo. Just hang in there and build up your immune system, and it will taketime.We also saw a boat come in that looked just like a Voyage 58. Met the guyat a cruisers dinner--really a feast--at a Chinese joint, and it turns outhe had the last boat built with those molds before Voyage bought them. Wetraded Voyage, Tom & Deirdre Lubbe (owners of Voyage) stories. An older guywho's a reitred professor. When I got the water maker hose fixed, I alsomet a couple from the states who were on a homemade bright yellow boat thathad been cruising the Pacific for over 20 years. This guy was 75 and I onlyhope I look that good in 25 years when I'm his age--okay, so I'm now JackBenny. For those of you too young to understand the reference, ask yourparents or maybe your grand parents!!! About that time, some other friendswe've seen since the Marqueses pulled in, so we had a bit more socializingto do, including dinner at the Flaming Bull, a really good steak house.Without boring you with the details, customs here doesn't quite get it and,we had a helluva time getting some boat parts and mail released even thoughthey came in FedEx. Got it done though, and the weather turned a bit uglyso we just hung out for a few more days. While all that was going on, againwithout giving the long version, I managed to screw up the new computer andhad to do a system default restore which means it goes back to the way itcame out of the factory. Just today, I got the last of the new passwordsneeded to run a bunch of the software I needed to completely reload. Notthe end of the world as we had been having some boot up problems and thisrestart seems to have solved the problems.I know this is getting long again, but bear with us, we're getting up todate which is August 16th. Can't help it if a lot has been going on!!So--water maker fixed, boat parts received, nav software working, off we go,headed for the northen islands of the group. First stop, Havannah Bay just20 miles around the corner from PV and the staging area for the fleet beforethe battle of the Coral Sea which, by the way, destroyed the Japanese fleet,and marked the real beginning of the end for the Empire. Whoops. Put onthe autopilot as we left and the wheel just spun. Oh,oh, it was the onlything that hasn't broken and, after checking, we decided a spare was justtoo expensive to keep on board. Our little Vanuatu cruise could be donewithout it, but there's no way we're sailing to New Cal or Oz with handsteering. Right, and there is also no way there's a Raytheon guy around,and, oh, of course, it happens on a Satuday, so with the time changes anddate line we're looking at 3 days to talk to Raytheon in the states. Sentan email anyway, and got an automatic response that the guy was at aconference and out 'til Monday which is when we figured we'd hear anyway.Turns out we lucked out and got a conscientious employee who checks hisemail over the weekend. He gave us some trouble shooting advice--oops thisis getting too long. Anyway. It turns out it is the cheap rudder referenceunit and not the expensive computer and our pilot is old enough to bypassthis sensor, whereas newer units don't have that feature as the pilotdoesn't work as well without it. So we're back in business and can easilyreplace the part ourselves when we get it. Another major win!!!!Havannah Harbor is very nice, and there's a large (400 people) village onone of the nearby islands. Some local guys in dugout canoes came by ontheir way back from the village garden which is on the main island, and wetraded a can of tuna for some "real" tomatoes which were hard to come by inPV. They invited us over to the village and we went on Sunday. Met thechief who assigned on of his men to give us a guided tour which includedshowing us the sight of a WWII fighter plane that had crashed. Lots ofhistory here and very cool. We brought some lollies for the children andwere rewarded with a bunch of fresh fruit. Everyone is very friendly here.Spent a couple of days in Havannah, and left for Epi, about 60 miles north.Had a nice sail with fresh wind and following seas. The autopilot ain'tperfect, but it works. As we pulled in, we saw another boat we know fromFiji, as well as another from Tanna and PV. So that's where we are now.Mariner IV, owned by Dennis Tito, the guy who paid the Russians to go upinto space and also the boat thatfriends of ours are crew on pulled in asdid another boat with people we met in NZ. Rose is touring the localvegetable gardens up in the hills, and then we're off 20 miles or so to Malekula andup to Santo, a major US base during the war which is the 2nd city of Vanuatu. Last nightwe ate local food at the one restaurant on the island for $10 a head and itwas great. The bay is known for it's "dugongs", which most of us know as manatees. Saw a few of those and there are loads of turtles as well.CheersTim, Rose & Joe

Fiji (pt 2) & Passage to Vanuatu July 26 2006

Hello All.No doubt you've been waiting on pins and needles for this, our next letter,as we left you in suspense about our harrowing trip further north in theYasawas to Blue Lagoon. And harrowing it was. As we mentioned, the chartsfor the entire chain are iffy at best, and it looked like it would be easiergoing up the east side than west. Of course, about half way up a guy weknow called us on the radio to chat and when he found out our route,complimented our nerves of steel to go that way. To make matters worse, therains came and cloaked everything in a heavy mist, so it was nerve wrackingat best with reefs everywhere and limited visibility. We used 2 differentelectronic charts as well as, for the first time in ages, hand plotted ourcourse. So, discretion is the better part of valor, and we cut over to thewest side just north of Naviti for a longer but supposedly easier trip therest of the way. About half way up the next island just about to thewestern entrance of Blue Lagoon, along comes the Yasawa Flyer, the localferry, dropping people off at the myriad of backpacker places up there. Wewere chatting a bit with him when he urgently requested us to turn hard toport. Seems there was a reef out there not correctly marked on the charts.We just missed it!!Okay, we finally made it!! This is supposed to be the best anchorage in theYasawas and calm in all weather. Not! Not only was it kind of rough, butthere were quite a few boats in a smallish place making it all the moredifficult to find a spot to anchor. Well, it did finally calm down, and weended up staying for 4 or 5 days. The restaurant was excellent at the newresort there, and they were very friendly. We started to walk up to the topof the hills and over to the other side of the island, but it was a lotfarther than it looked and hot, so we opted out. Joe and Rose did do it thenext day and checked out the few places on the other side of the island.The lagoon isn't really a lagoon, but a bay enclosed by several islands.One across the bay is known for its tea and cakes so for FJ$3 each, Rose andI dinghied over and had tea and a piece each of home made chocolate andbanana cake. Best deal ever!! We also took a tour of the local villageacross from the resort on a different island. Georgie, our bartender, was aresident and picked us up in his boat. Then it was necessary for him tobring us to see the chief (actually the chief's son as the head guy was onthe mainland) where we had to go through the ritual sevu sevu where you givethem some kava root and ask permission to visit. After that, we walkedaround, and it is pretty primitive, even though this is a fairly largetourist area with plenty of jobs. A lot of people, Georgie included, livein thatched huts, and they pretty much live off the land. Of course,everybody does have their longboats and outboards to get around instead ofcanoes. This is the part of the Yasawas where Captain Bligh tried to landafter the mutiny on the Bounty and was chased by cannibals in war canoes,barely escaping to finally make landfall in Timor. The waters between themain island and the Yasawas are, therefore, aptly named "Bligh Waters".Blue Lagoon is a popular mini cruise ship destination as well, so those guyswere pulling in and out regularly. One had a complete wedding party andanother some kind of outward bound thing going on. A bit of partying overon their private beach.Our trip back was fairly uneventful. We gave Manta Ray island another tryand actually made it ashore this time. Unfortunately, in the middle of thenight the wind and tides worked against us making it very uncomfortable. Sothe new plan was to go down the west coast of Waya and see if Octopus wascalm enough. Last time, it was really very rough and difficult to land butvery friendly with good food. Octopus was okay, but we skipped dinner as itlooked like rain, but we did go in for breakfast the next day. Off we wentwith the intention of going to Navadra which, I'm sure you'll all rememberfrom our last letter, was the original deserted island destination we had inmind a week before. Alas, the wind gods were once again against us withnortherlies which would make Navadra untenable. No problem. Yolobi, whichlast time we had to leave in southerly winds was on the way. We didn't domuch there, and left early the next day to get back to calm anchorages andcivilization. But we did get out the underwater video camera just to foolaround. It was pretty funny when an entire school of squid mistook it for abrother or something. We are easily amused these days and spent some timejust watching the stupid squid. Oh, and of course that night the windswitched to the south making it rough in Yolobi. To be honest, by thispoint we were all sick of the Yasawas and to a lesser extent, Fiji, andready to hit the road.So--we headed back to Denerau where we could hit the Australian Butcher forpassage provisions. We also found out from the Blue Lagoon folks where toget ground coffee which you cannot find in the regular grocery stores. Atthe harbor, they've now completed a new complex, and it will be quite nicewith an upscale grocery store, several restaurants, and, of course, a pub ortwo. By now it was Friday morning (the 13th and nothing bad happened), andthe plan was to go over to the marina in Vuda Point, fuel up, reprovision inLautoka, spend the weekend, check out and then hide out at Robinson Crusoefor a few days. The idea is to arrive in Vanuatu on a Thursday as, in PortResolution on Tanna, our proposed landfall, the gov't boys take the 2 hourdrive over from the official port of entry on that day only. Otherwise, youhave to pay someone to drive you over there. Well the best laid plans---Over the weekend, we met a couple of nice yachties on two boats that wereleaving for Tanna on Monday after checking out. We partied a bit with themand had a really nice time at the yacht club party on Sunday. What thehell. We'd had enough of Fiji anyway and decided to make it a convoy. Feltbad about missing the chaps at Robinson Crusoe, but new horizons beckoned.We left Lautoka about noon on Monday after checking out. The other guysweren't quite finished yet, but we had no wind again and wanted to be sureto arrive on Thursday. As it turned out, the wind picked up about midnight,and we actually had to slow down a bit to time our arrival with dawnThursday. Had a nice spinnaker run most of Wed. Fishing was excellent theentire way Just outside the pass at Fiji we nailed a nice wahoo, followedby several tuna and a nice big Mahi Wednesday pm. I guess we're going tohave to become healthy fish eaters, but right out of the ocean, it's prettygood. During the passage, we spotted another boat and called them--namedArctic Fox and was part of the convoy. Another of the boats, Diva passed usduring the night when we'd slowed down--sort of competitive German guy on a2 year sabbatical from his consulting job at A.T. Kearney. The last boat,New Dawn, young Alaskan couple, were behind the pack but arrived later thatday. Coincidentally, all three of these guys are on the way to Australia tosell their boats and either go back to work, have babies (New Dawn) orsettle in at home for the lovely teenage years.

Fiji June 1 2007

Hi everybody.Well, you just cannot believe how nice it is to be back in the tropics. No shirt, no socks and still warm as toast. 80's during the day, 70 and nice breeze at night. Last year when we were here the weather wasn't nearly as nice and so we only planned a month or so here before moving on. It's so nice and the people are great, we'll probably stick it out to the end of August. It's a big place and there's tons to do, so we definitely won't get bored.Anyway, first things first. The political situation as known in the US and NZ, particularly, is a load of bollocks, as Rose would say. There was a "military" coup in December, and the NZ government, especially, is particularly strident in its condemnation of the usurpation of the rightful government. Well what really happened is the native Fijian commander of the armed forces here threw out a government as corrupt someone like Manuel Noriega. He's in the process of installing a civilian government now. About half the population is of Indian descent brought in in the 19th century to work the sugar cane business, and the old guys were taking away all their rights, including land ownership and voting rights. They totally raped the exchequer as well. Virtually everyone here from white guys to local Indians and Fijians all say it was the best thing to happen to Fiji in years. Unfortunately, they need a good PR man as the rest of the world doesn't seem to understand the situation. Also unfortunately for Fiji, tourism seems to be suffering as a result.So, back to the trip. Just a reminder even to those of you too cheap to call, our new Fiji number is country code 679 971317. Unfortunately, even though we have wifi internet on board, the phone system has figured a way to block Skype. We can bring it up; we can dial out, we can hear the person on the other end, BUT we can't do voice out. This was a bit disturbing to my daughter as she thought she was getting obscene phone calls when we tested it out!!On arrival, we had to go to Lautoka to check in. It's the sugar capital of Fiji, and there can be a lot of ash from the processing plants, but the season doesn't start 'til next week, so we dodged the bullet. We ended getting the same guy who checked us out last year. Everything was very easy and in one place. The guy even drove me to the ATM as there are heavy overtime charges on a Saturday. He was going to drive us around on Monday to renew our cruising permit as well, but we discovered we could just fax our old one in which came back renewed in an hour. Can any of you current or former BVI guys imagine that happening in the BVI? He even gave me his cell number in case we had any problems dropping our 4th crew. While we were trying to arrange fuel with port control, a good Samaritan came on the radio and suggested to blow it off in Lautoka and go down to Vuda (pronounced Vunda) Point--just around the corner and fuel up there. As we had to pull in there or Denerau--a little further on for some, you guessed it, repairs, we moved on after checking in.Vuda Point is a great little man-made marina, which claims the channel they cut through the coral is 25 meters wide. Based on the width of Rendezvous, we estimate 50 feet or less. by the time we arrived, the office was closed as well as the fuel dock so we just tied up there to wait for morning. An Aussie guy asked if he could raft up while he got water, which is FREE, so we chatted with him a bit--a Qantas pilot waiting for his crew to arrive deliver the boat for him to Sidney. I noticed it seemed to be taking a while for him to fill up which reminded me of an incident years ago where I also filled up my bilges with overflow while filling the tanks. Sure enough, about a half hour later, he checked and he's loaded with water. Then he discovered his bilge pump wasn't working. Poor guy, bought an old Footloose, which is a fleet of already old Moorings boats, and he had a nine inch crack in his fiberglass tanks and no spare float switches (which was his bilge pump problem) on board. My two young crew bailed him out and we used one of my spares to fix the pump. I say we, but the boys did the work while Rose and I checked out the yacht club bar. Nice place out on the point overlooking the lagoon. One good thing about the political situation, is the Fiji $ is down to about $.60 and drinks are pretty cheap as a result. So we met a bunch of nice people at dinner, and Fred, the Aussie, bought the boys drinks and dinner. As he was leaving in the morning, we promised to keep an eye out for his crew and let him know what was going on. For reasons beyond our knowledge these guys didn't show up for a few more days, but they did, and the boys showed them what repairs were necessary. As an aside, we saw them again at Musket Cove and poor Fred's head stay had broken on the way over. Better here than at sea!! We even ran into the people we had passed on the way up and talked to on the radio. Also ran into the guys moored right behind us in Auckland. Small world out here. Later, we met up with several people we knew from last year. The boys also decide to do a bit of "halyard swinging" off the boat while there. Genius Joey, against my admonition made the first attempt, managed to miss the water and swing right into the forward crossbeam. You can't believe the noise, and we were certain he had broken his back. Fortunately, I think there were beers involved and he escaped with just a few bruises. Halyard swinging was suspended!!!While we were hanging out on the fuel dock, the local South African dude who owns the boat yard was about, and we arranged for our repairs to be done first thing Monday. So Sunday the office was open as was fuel, so we fueled up and moved to a stern-to mooring in the marina proper. Sort of a lazy day with some cleanup, etc., after the passage. The yacht club had a big Sunday do going on so we found ourselves over there again for cocktails and dinner. Ran into our radio good Samaritan who gave us the advice about the cruising permit as well as other pearls of cruising wisdom in Fiji.So the work that needed to be done was this. The high pressure water pump for the watermaker sits on a hefty bracket bolted to the engine. You take out the bolts for the backing plate for the oil pump, pop on the W/M bracket and replace the bolts. For 8 years, with old engines, we never had a problem, but I'm guessing Voyage must have modified the original engine system as we found the weight of the pump was vibrating the bolts loose and actually stripped some of them. This was a small problem last year, but as we weren't making water in Auckland we forgot to get it looked at. The result of all this is the bolts loosen, and the bilge fills with engine oil. On passage, we finally just took the bracket off and clamped the plate on with great success, but no watermaking capacity as a result. Speaking of it being a small world, I was chatting with Brian, the South African owner of the boatyard, and it turns out he is one of Robin Downing's (the guy who runs Voyage Charters) buddies. Not only that, but one thing led to another, and he tells me Robin did the interior of his boat, and he was in West End in 2000 or 2001. Turns out I was moored right in front of him there, and Robin actually took me on board to show me the work of which he was rightfully very proud. So we must have met back then. Brian's an interesting guy, and Robin had told me he had a bunch of casinos in SA. I don't know the full story but there was something about the casinos being in the Homelands before they were reintegrated into SA after the end of Apartheid at which time they became illegal. Who knows, but I figure this guy must be in the witness protection program or something--really, casino magnate to boatyard jockey, I don't think so!!! Nonetheless, we had a great chat about the goings on in the BVI and SA. Really nice guy who did great work on the boat at a reasonable price. While George the actual mechanic was working on the boat, we discovered a recurring water flow problem with the genset which was supposed to have been fixed during our $4,000 rebuild of the genset in Auckland. George was great and diagnosed the problem in about 5 minutes which was a loose hose clamp allowing air into the system.Tuesday, repairs completed and with a full load of fuel off we go a bit further south to Smugglers Cove which one of our new friends recommended for the younger crew as there were a couple of backpacker places there. We were on our way to Denerau to drop off Piers, our 4th crew, on Thursday and to repair the outboard which developed a mysterious water leak under the cowling. On arrival the boys disappeared ashore. About that time Rose noticed a diesel smell, and, when the boys returned, we checked it out and found some fuel in the tank locker. Oh oh!!! Called Brian and told him to be on the lookout for us in about a week to fix a leaky tank. It wasn't that bad, and we were pretty much able to contain it with oil absorption pads, and didn't want to go right back in. Besides we had to drop off Piers and get the dinghy fixed. So the boys returned to shore and had an eventful night with the backpacker chicks, and we shoved off for Denerau in the morning. Just so you know it's not all work on Rendezvous, the lads went water skiing and "skurfing"--towing a surfboard behind the dinghy. Water's warm, I'm told. Might actually get in this week.Denerau was empty this year after being chockablock with super yachts last October. We really scored on the dinghy with a guy able to fix it right away, AND it was only a $9 diaphragm. What a win!! We also went looking for some teak as we lost another one of the back deck boards on the passage. Couldn't find teak, but we now have a really nice and cheap mahogany board back there. Ran into some guys we met at Vuda and had cocktails and shoved off again in the morning for Musket Cove which, if you read our stuff, you'll remember is a yachtie friendly resort on a little island at the west side of the barrier reef. On the way, you will not believe this, one of the engine alarms started chirping just a little. We were making water with our newly repaired watermaker. Joey checked that engine room and with great alarm tells me to shut down the engine. Turns out somehow, the system had overpressurized and blew one of the membrane endcaps right out so high pressure salt water was spewing all over the place. Sorry guys, I know this is getting really long, but a lot has happened in the 2 weeks we've been here. And I'm not done yet.Musket Cove, like Denerau, was also pretty empty, but it's early in the season. It was Thursday, and the place was just as nice as we remembered it. Unfortunately, our fuel leak was getting worse and our containment efforts were still allowing an oil slick to form behind the boat. Called Brian and told him to expect us on Tuesday back at Vuda as Monday was a holiday. Spent the first couple of days on the phone and email with the W/M guys and decided just to remove the damaged membrane and replumb the system. That worked, and we've been monitoring the pressure carefully. The regulator just doesn't seem to want to keep the pressure at the right levels. The system was overspeced for what we need anyhow, and this just reduced our capacity slightly. Okay, there's more, all of a sudden our Probe, forward looking sonar which is very helpful keeping you off reefs, etc. developed a big squiggle in the screen. This was just like the radar--works fine but the display was going bad. Email to Interphase, the manufacturer, revealed, once again, sorry, we don't make that anymore, but send it in and we can fix it.. Right, I'm going to leave a big hole in the helm for a few week while it's out. Thought I had a new one purchased from the web, but that crapped out so we're working with Interphase on a swap when, and if, they get an old unit in. As Bill Smith, my old boss would say "That's it!!!" And you all think we're out here having cocktails on the back deck watching sunsets. Just ask my son how nice the sunsets are in a dirty oily engine room at 110 degrees upside down changing stuff out. I actually used to do that myself which is why he's losing weight and I'm starting to look like Moby Dick. Actually, now that I'm getting some tan back I just look like a regular whale. The funny thing is, the weather has been so beautiful, it's hard to get pissed off about theses fairly minor inconveniences.So the saga continues. After a great weekend in Musket Cove, back we go to Vuda. The guys had to pump out the fuel tanks--nice that we had just filled up and carry 800 liters!!! Turns out the leak was not the tank itself but the shutoff valve and a fat diameter very short hose between the fore and aft tanks. It took about a day and a half and two guys to get sorted and, in the meantime, I had the brainstorm that Brian might like to trade me part of the tab for my old South African 12/120V freezer, which is really too large and has required way to much work to hassle with. After he looked at it, we BSed about the Caribbean and SA, etc., he got a phone call, had to leave, I asked how much I owed him, and he said he hadn't done the invoice yet and why didn't we just trade the freezer for the work on the fuel tank. Major win!!!!Okay, almost done. Left that Wednesday for Musket Cove again. Pulled in to see that "Tango Dave" , a guy we met last year, had arrived on a delivery job. Partied a bit, got a massage yesterday--I earned it after all the work Joey had to do and the stress involved for me paying for repairs, etc., and about the only other thing I've done is write this letter which is taking way to long. Next week, after we pick up some mail here, we'll get down to the serious business of cruising around. tons of little islands in this area with all ranges of resorts and it's all inside a huge reef system so you can anchor safely just about anywhere.So, until next time, CheersTim, Rose & Joey

Auckland (pt 3) April 29 2006

Hi everyone.This will be uncharacteristically short as nothing much has been happening!Rose has been gone for about three weeks visiting her new granddaughter inTortola. I'm so jealous--it was actually warm there. She returns today, andI guess Joey and I will have to readjust our diets from junk food and macand cheese to veggies and salads. Speaking of the weather, the Kiwis arereally something. For the most part, it has been very nice here, and it isconsiderably warmer than when we arrived. We thought they were all nutswearing shorts and t-shirts in November, but, in all fairness, it wasSpring. Now, however, it's Autumn, so, even though it is beautiful andabout 70, they're all wearing jeans and fleeces. Must be Pommieconditioning to the "rules"!!!Since our last chat, we recovered from our Hein and Vic hangovers , and Roseand I made a road trip up to Opua to visit Val, a friend from Tortola who isskippering a 60 foot cat for some rich American. Nice boat!! But in typicalnew boat fashion, all sorts of stuff is wrong with it. We spent the nightand had a nice dinner. They've now taken off for Fiji and we'll probablysee them again up there. She's got a whole crew from Tortola flying in to help, so it will be like old home week when we get there. The excitement was the return trip to Auckland.It was just pissing rain, and we thought, in spite of their protestations,we should skip breakfast and be on our way. Lucky we did as only a few of theroads were closed, but by the time we reached Auckland, everything wasclosed up there with major flooding, and people stranded all over the place.The only other time I've seen so much rain was after a couple of hurricanesin the Caribbean!! We've also had some pretty severe fog. On the 11th, youcouldn't see 10 feet in front of you, BUT, lately, it's been absolutelybeautiful (70's)during the day but cold (50's)at night. We did manage torig up a couple of 240V heaters in the boat, as the new compressors for the"in-boat" system had not arrived. Now we have everything working, buthaven't needed to run the boat heat as we have the portable electrics. I amhappy to report that everything is now working on the boat, and we're justwaiting to haul out next week before we depart for Fiji. After a bottompaint and buff and wax job the boat will not only look brand new but withall the work we've done, will be pretty much new. We also had to have ourreupholstery job redone as the fabric was pilling. Naturally we didn't usethe same fabric, but the new stuff is almost as nice and there was noargument about it being a freebie. Nice to win one now and then.Just in case you're wondering what we mean about a brand new boat, here'swhat we have had done here in Auckland (my broker will especially beinterested since he's wondering why my account is dwindling!!): repairmain, repair sail cover, resecure tramps, new windscreens, new cockpitcushion covers, new main salon upholstery, rebuild genset, rebuild scubacompressor, recondition A/C-heaters including new compressors, new A/C water pump, new hatchgaskets, new hatch lexan (waiting to install), new bottom paint, buff and wax entire boat, new deck hatch latches, two new heads, repair watermakermembrane tube and low pressure pump, rebuild all alternators, extensive electrical rewiring. repair second freezer, new radar display, new speedo display,redo patch on dinghy, full service outboard, new inverter, re-tin medicine chest mirrors, rewire solar panels, repair hot water heaters, replace gassolenoid, replace all running rigging, new anchor chain, replace holding tank access panels, service fishing reels, service tanks and scuba gear, service engines andsail drives, change propeller blades, gelcoat repairs, purchase transformer, paint most of the interior, multiple pump repairs or replacements, four new back decks boards, fix porthole leaks, and innumerable other small jobs and a thorough cleaning inside. I've probably missed a few but you get the idea. Whew!! No wonder we're ready for a little R & R in the tropics!On a humorous note, Dr. Tim had to operate on Joey. To make a long storyshort, the boys thought it would be cool to get a BB gun for a littleplinking about and boredom relief. Joey was shooting at a buoy and the gunmisfired, so what does he do? Yep, you guessed it, puts his finger over thebarrel to push down the sleeve that releases the air when firing. Bam,ow!!!, off the gun goes. We really weren't sure there was a BB in there buthe had put his index finger directly over the barrel like he was pointing atit. After a while we figured, uh-oh, there's one in there. Well, it waslike an old western. He bit down on a dish towel and I tried to pull thething out with tweezers. It was right down to the bone on the tip of thefinger--about a 1/4 inch in. Couldn't grab it with the tweezers so Ibasically had to pry it out. Man, that had to hurt!!! Soaked the finger inBetadine, gave him some Cipro, and all is well. The doctor rules!!! I'mstill waiting to use my surgical stapler, though.Joey and I went to see "300" at what was supposed to be Imax. Well, it's not like the other ones I've been to which are basically a huge circular room and screen, but this was a very big screen and definitely the way to see the movie. Still can't figure out why they chose a Scotsman to play Leonides, but we enjoyed the flick.I have to get up at 5AM tomorrow to pick up Rose who, by the way, seems tobe getting over whatever it was. I'll finish this off next week when we'reready to depart.Well Rose has arrived, hale and hearty, and we're scheduled to haul the boat Monday. We'll complete the Auckland saga and let everybody know we're leaving when it's time--about a week or two depending on the weather.CheersTim, Rose & Joe

Auckland (pt 2) March 18 2007

Hello everyone. Well, we have been so remiss in writing that a few of youhave actually emailed us asking what is going on. We didn't know youcared--most of you don't!!! Seriously, we've been living a somewhat mundaneand unnotable existence and admit to our communication failures.So, first things first. Rose's mystery disease. After something like 50blood tests, several other bodily function tests, and two ultrasounds, themedical profession has thrown up their hands. Every test is negative: nocancer, no parasites, no bacterial of viral infections, no hormonalimbalances, etc. Even the Docs here say this is a case for House, one ofour favorite TV shows. So the latest is we're trying a gluten free diet, and, there's no booze oranything else that remotely smacks of "non-healthiness". One guythinks it's probably some autoimmune reaction to a prior infection, maybefrom the tick, that has been long cured with only this reaction remaining. Hethinks it will just have to work itself out but suggested a regimen ofexercise to go with the health food stuff. Seems to be working and Rose istaking long walks every day and seems to be feeling better. This damncondition ebbs and flows, however, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.Oh, we've also spent a fortune on Goji juice which is some miracle Himalayanberry. What the hell? Something seems to be working and it isn't anytreatment from the medical profession!So--needless to say, Rose's weird ailment has somewhat limited ouractivities here in Auckland so there really hasn't been much to write about. On theone hand we'd like to be seeing more, but, on the other, this has been thecoldest summer in 14 years, and I don't think it's hit 80 degrees yet.(bahhhh, there's actually a forecast for snow in the mountains on the SouthIsland for today; how's that for summer). One aspect is nice in that whatwe are saving by not going out much has increased the kitty for the boat.By the time we leave here we will have basically repaired, replaced orupgraded everything on the boat. so it is just like brand new--knock onwood. While Lizzie and Ben were still here, we did hit the amusement park,Rainbow's End", a small but nice theme park as well as the Auckland Zoo.From the boat we observe at various times of the day, sometimes starting atdawn, a myriad of kayakers, lifeboat rowers and Maori War canoes, followed onWednesday and Friday night a fleet of yachts for the races.It's been nice to see Hein and Vic, although they work most of the time, andwe've had a few dinners with them as well as "gold" seats at the movies.That was pretty cool--we're easily amused these days--with big first classairline type seats and free popcorn and drinks during the movie. We had anice Christmas with Rose's friend, David, coming down, and he reciprocated forNew Years at his farm where we met a few more interesting Kiwis. For Rose'sbirthday, on January 25th (a big one) we all went to Cirque DuSoliel-Varakei. A successful outing enjoyed by all, especially Rose who hadnever been. We've also hung out a bit with a couple that are crew on Dennis Tito's boat(the guy who paid the Russians to go up in space) and another highlight was theDevonport Wine Festival which was not only fun, but we found some reallynice cabernet. Other events of note have been Joey quitting smoking andgetting laid off at the marine store as the season winds down. He seems tobe quite taken with a (non-smoking) chick from Wellington and has been downthere a couple of times. We also had an earthquake or two which, of course,we don't feel on the boat.Other than that, and I'll have Rose and Joey look this over for omissions,we're living a pretty normal existence. Rose is getting ready to go visitNathan, Skin and her new granddaughter in Tortola, and we're planning onheading back up north in May sometime. Yea tropics!!!Addendum 2 days later. Even though we have not had the autumnal solsticehere, the weather has turned even worse. Some strange front has gonethrough with 50 plus knot winds and low sixties temps. With a good eyetoday, Rose saw our friends from Australia walking around. They're the oneswe met in Aitutake from Brisbane and, last we knew on their way home to sellthe boat and tour Europe. Well, this life style lends a lot of flexibility(thank God), and the last we saw them, they were leaving Samoa for Fiji.Apparently they fell in love with Fiji and have purchased some water frontproperty and plan to keep the boat there and build a house. They came downto NZ because it was just too hot in Fiji this summer--God, I'm jealous.Addendum 4 days later. Finally got everyone to read this and add their comments. Had a going away soiree for Hein and Vic on Saturday (they're off to Tahiti today) whereby Rose fell off the wagon, so cancel all that BS about her purity in diet. Yesterday was a bit rough for all of us!!Let us know how you are all doing. We'll have good internet until we leave here.Tim, Rose and Joe

Auckland December 16 2006

Hello again everyone.We know it's been awhile. I think we've been in Auckland now for about six action packed weeks. On arrival, we parked the boat at about 7AM and headed off to brunch, then chilled out for the rest of the day. Our first order of business was to get a car, and it is amazing here. They have car fairs where people just bring their cars and you do the deal right then and there. Holly had gotten her car when we arrived (she spent last season here and kept her car) and she and her boyfriend gave Joey and me a ride out to one of the fairs. There must have been 500 cars there! NZ requires each car to be inspected and get a warrant of fitness every 6 months or so, so you're pretty safe buying one at the fair if the WOF is current. So, we looked and looked and looked. Only wanted to spend about NZ$2,000--US$1,300--and there were plenty of choices, but we settled on a 1990 Honda Vigor with power everything including a remote car starter. Everything worked and it was in good shape. Just needed a front right wheel bearing for about $150, so we bought it. NZ$840!!!! and it's in great shape. Of course, we're not naive. We figured other stuff would need to be done and, sure enough, a bunch of other stuff was required when we went to get the bearing fixed. Nonetheless, for about US$1,200 we got a great car. Enough on that.The marina is huge--something like 2,000 boats. It's very secure with keypad entry and security guards patrolling at night. We look west to the Auckland Harbor bridge and east to the city skyline We're about a 5 minute ride from downtown where you can actually still park on the street. NZ is really pretty, and all the pommies say it reminds them of Scotland. Cool right now and one of our missions has been to get the heat on the boat working. Hasn't been used for 8 years. Our berth is at the end of X dock which is about a 1/4 mile walk to the car. Long walk, but we have great views of all the activity in the marina and out into Auckland harbor. The marina was supposed to have electrical adapters, transformers, etc as power and water are included, but they don't. Another $1,000 down the tubes for that gear, but we'll need it again in Australia and most of the other places we'll be for the foreseeable future.Unbelievably, the captain, thus far, has only hit the casino once--won a quick c-note, but we have shopped 'til we dropped. It's pretty funny at the grocery, for instance, we have to remind ourselves not to overbuy since it will still be there tomorrow. The rule of thumb when out in the hinterlands is if you see something you need, buy it now and buy extra if you can since it might not be there tomorrow. Here, of course, there are ready supplies of everything, but the habits of cruising are hard to break. We won't bore you with the details of all the work we've done or are having done, but that has kept us busy and we're chipping away at the 5 page list of stuff to be done. We have new upholstery, painted the inside of the boat, and are getting other repairs done. Rendezvous will be essentially brand new when we leave here. Some stuff is really cheap, but we're finding it's cheaper to have West Marine ship some stuff in. On a side note, I really got ripped by DHL. Lizzie had shipped a small package to me in Fiji and the yahoos neglected to inform me of it's arrival until we were 100 miles south at sea. Okay, just forward it, we said. They tried to charge about US$300 for that on top of the rip-off $284 Lizzie had to pay for a 15lb package. We negotiated down to $150 for the forwarding, but that still put the total at over $400. By contrast, we're have West ship in three large boxes of stuff weighing over 50lbs for under $100. Thank you FedEx. I really hate DHL as they have ripped us off before!! Beware out there of crappy couriers. On a happy note, we did find some really nice stainless latches to replace the constantly corroding aluminum ones Voyage put on the boat. The problem was finding a similar footprint, so now we're fixed for life. Expensive but eliminating one of those nagging maintenance things. Oh, I've backtracked, but the really good news is they have some great electric heads here. You have to understand that marine heads are a maintenance nightmare, and we switched to electric several years ago, because it is no fun to turn around and hand pump the thing empty when you're done. The electric conversion units are about $300 just for the pump, don't last more than about 2 years and are very noisy. Here, however, we've found these "made in China" things that are reliable, whisper quiet and, get this, cost NZ$260--about $175 for the entire unit--not just the pump. This also saves me the tedious task of taking off and repainting the old toilet seats. You have no idea what a huge win this is. We are easily excited and amused here!!Okay, on to the more important stuff. Joey managed to get not one, but two, jobs. Almost immediately he was hired by Sail NZ to work on their old America's Cup boats taking guests out for match races. He wasn't getting many hours and managed to land what is now his primary job working at one of the marine stores here. Great deal. Regular hours, good pay, walking distance AND a 30% discount--yes!!!! On the love front he continues unfettered. You will recall he already had Helen here who he met in Rarotonga. Now we can't even keep track. There's Mel, Crystal and Emma that we know about.. Who knows how many others. Ah, to be young--two jobs, partying and several women to balance out. He's bound to burn out and die young if he keeps this up. Unlike last year, we were able to find a turkey for Thanksgiving One of our Kiwi friends from Tonga was baching it as his wife was off in Thailand, so we invited him. Did the whole deal and it was great. We ran out of wine, though, which was a bit mysterious after all we'd loaded up in Rarotonga. A day later we discovered from Holly that our very own Eddie Haskell had been raiding the wine locker in Tonga to share with "the girls" Good thing he has a job so he can afford to replace our stocks.The fact that we didn't notice the wine shortfall is indicative of what a calm and proper life we are leading here on Rendezvous. I should say that Rose and I have been living as Joe certainly isn't!!! Well, I'm sure you're all interested in the state of Rose's health which is one reason we're living like monks. One of the first things we did was to get her to a doctor here that one of our friends recommended. First thing he tells her is they don't have Lymes disease in NZ and orders about 10 blood tests. All clear, so he throws up his hands and sends her to an infectious disease specialist who orders another 13 tests, all clear! So he orders some more tests, a cat scan, x-rays..... all clear. Well, we figure BS. We're not going to the expense of the radiology right now, and we think the coincidence of the tick and all her problems plus her symptoms all say Lymes. Maybe she got it in Australia where they do have it.. The doc emphatically says no! So that's where we stand. We're going to get some ultrasound scanning done in lieu of the CAT, and Rose has started with her friend, David's, acupuncturist, as that seems to be the only thing that has worked (she saw a little Chinese guy in Suva who really helped). The guy here has depressed poor Rose by telling her all her body energy lines are screwed up and to come back for several visits. What the hell. It works, so that's what we're pursuing in concert with the conventional medicine. The symptoms are those of rheumatoid arthritis so Rose is tired and sore a lot of the time. The MD seems to think we'll get it sorted before we leave in May. Gee, that's only 5 months away--seems his sense of urgency is not the same as ours. We were hoping after all these tests, they would find the problem, give her a shot or two and, boom, we're good to go. These guys are very thorough, and Rose spent about 2 hours with the specialist, but they're as frustrated and mystified as we are. We still think it's Lymes. We'll keep everyone advised.Lizzie and Ben arrived on 11/27 and leave on 12/21. They've actually done some boat work, but, basically, they are being complete touristas and going to all the museums, hot springs, etc. Today, weather permitting, we're going to the "glowworm caves". Next week the Rainbow amusement park is on the agenda before they leave on Thursday. We've already done our Christmas with them, and they brought an entire suitcase full of stuff for the boat which was like a whole new Christmas. Nice to have the family around during the holidays and, surprisingly, we've actually all gotten along pretty well for the last three weeks. It'll be pretty sad when they leave, but they've got a new house and need jobs back in the states, so the new year will be busy, and they need to get back to North Carolina to get started.The other big news is we got an email from Hein and Vic, and their owner has decided they need to return to Auckland. We don't know for how long, but we're hoping it will be at least over New Year's. Ben spotted the boat a couple of days ago, but we haven't heard from them yet. Expect the owner is on board and they're restricted to the ship. Will no doubt catch up with them next week. In the meantime, we're loving it here. Have been to several good restaurants and the movie theatre even has a premium section (which we haven't attended) with easy chairs and servers for your drinks and food. Must try that before we leave--about NZ$30 pp.Left alot out so as not to bore everyone with our maintenance nightmares, but basically, we're just settled in and living a pretty normal life. Hoping the weather warms up as it gets quite cool at night and in the low 70's during the day. We like it hot!!!More laterTim, Rose & Joe