Month: May 2021

Sunday May 30, blueberry pancakes for breakfast! We video chatted with all our kids. Boat cleaning day, dinner with Mike and Sue here at the marina.

Monday May 31, the infamous FedEx package finally arrived to us! Our friends Kate and Graham on s/v Barracuda of Islay brought along from Tahiti. The package arrived after we left. Our Visa had expired we couldn’t wait for it. It contained movies, important mail, photos, a watch and toilet seat hinges we were unable to find anywhere in French Polynesia.

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For dinner, 6 of us went to the Daku Resort, Mike, Sue, Kate, Graham, Dan and I. Small world coincidence, the owner of the resort stopped at our table, turns out she went to school with Kate!

Tuesday June 1, Today we say farewell to our buddy-boat Mike and Sue on s/v Ocean Sapphire. We met them in Tahiti on April 13th, and sailed together for the past 7 weeks. They are sailing home to Australia.

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Another rainy day, took a trip to the grocery store for a few items,

Wednesday June 2, another rainy day in paradise! Apparently it rains a lot in eastern Fiji.

Thursday June 3, and another rainy day. Dan went back to the doctor today for his ear. He was given a few different prescriptions. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather myself. Might have been a touch of food poisoning.

Friday June 4, feeling better today but still not back to normal.

Saturday June 5, Kate and Graham rented a car for the day. We went with them on a road trip across the island to Labasa, the largest city on Vanua Levu.

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For dinner 12 of us, 5 boats, went to dinner at the Daku resort. They had a pre fixe meal for us, starting with pumpkin soup, then chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables finished with a fruit pastry. There was also vegetarian option, stuffed sweet potato.

Sunday May 23, we arrived in the Bay by 8am, dropped anchor near the island. We are not allowed to go ashore. Namena Bay a Marine Protected Area. It is a barrier reef system home to a variety of rare species of fish, invertebrate, and coral. In February 2016 the eye of Cyclone Winston passed directly over Namena destroying all the buildings. All the trees were knocked down in the strongest winds ever recorded in the Southern hemisphere. It is also a migratory pathway for bottlenose and spinner dolphins, minke, pilot, sperm and humpback whales. Namena is also a major seabird nesting site with approximately 600 pairs of protected red boobies.

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast, today Mike and Sue joined us. We’ve been teasing them for weeks about our Sunday breakfasts. Later we snorkeled.

Monday May 24, it seriously rained most of the day! Where we are anchored is quite protected, with the wind and waves the boat was rocking. A lazy day! We watched a few episodes of “The Big Bang Theory”, we’re now on season 11, the movie “Hillbilly Elegy”, and the four part documentary “This is a Robbery, The Worlds Biggest Art Left“. Also with buttered popcorn of course.

Tuesday May 25, another rainy day here in paradise. Dan slept most of the day. He has an ear infection probably from all the swimming, we have antibiotics on board he’s been taking.

Wednesday May 26, *Sourdough Notes* 1 Belle loaf in the works.

We took a dinghy ride around the small island here in the lagoon.

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Later, Mike and Sue came over for sundowners.

Thursday May 27, *Sourdough Notes* baked the loaf of bread in the morning, just as it finished baking, the tank ran out of propane. Good timing! Meanwhile Dan went with Mike and Sue on their dive. Dan was their “driver”, he stayed in the dinghy following them as there is current along the edge of the reef.

Sundowners on Ocean Sapphire. We were joined by s/v Cachalot, Alison and Mike. She’s from Scotland he’s from New Zealand. They arrived here this morning, but have been in Fiji for more than a year.

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Friday May 28, another rainy day, Sundowners on Ocean Sapphire with Alison and Mike too.

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Saturday May 29, 7:30am we departed Namena, arrived back in Savusavu by 1pm.

Dan was able to see a doctor for his ear, our diagnosis was correct. An outer ear infection, swimmers ear. Liquid antibiotic drops were prescribed.

For dinner we went to the Surf and Turf restaurant on the north side of town. We were joined by four other boats that are here at the marina. There were 15 of us, and were the only patrons there. We are all in the same “bubble” been on boat for more than 14 days, quarantined and COVID tested upon arrival.

Saturday May 15, with wagon in tow we did a bit of provisioning. Found this nice store on the north end of Savusavu selling fruits and vegetables.

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We departed the marina early afternoon and anchored by the reef at entrance to the bay, snorkeled in the shallow water. Mike and Sue are divers so they were along the wall of the reef.

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Sunday May 16, departed the reef for Fawn Harbor, it is a very protected bay surrounded with mangroves. Sundowners with Mike and Sue after we arrived.

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Monday May 17, we snorkeled in morning by noon we were off to Viani Bay, arrived just before sunset. For dinner I made Ground Beef with chopped cabbage.

Viani Bay is home to the Rainbow Reef it is one of the most famous dive sites in the South Pacific. Also here is The Great White Wall, a popular scuba diving site. It is named because of the white coral that lives between 50 and about 200ft.

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Tuesday May 18, did some snorkeling, best coral we’ve ever seen.

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There are 7 boats here in Viani Bay. Last night 5 of us, boats, gathered on s/v Pogeyan, Rich and Michelle from Kansas, for sundowners.

Wednesday May 19, boat projects today plus we checked out the error code my camera is flashing Err. The code indicates the camera body is not communicating with the lenses. We cleaned the contacts, still has an error 😞.

Dan and Mike dove down to our anchor checking on it.

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Sundowners gathering on s/v Ocean Sapphire.

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Thursday May 20, rainy morning. Several of the divers went out early to dive the White Wall. Dan went along too. He kept the guide company and also snorkeled a bit. 5 of 7 boats here are divers. Michelle took some awesome photos of the dive, you can see them here and here. The other 2 boats, we snorkel.

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Dive Academy Fiji here in the bay, prepared a Lovo for all of us. A lovo is an underground oven used as a traditional Fijian method of cooking food in large quantities. A Fijian version of a barbeque or grilling, with smoky flavors. A variety of meats and vegetables are wrapped in foil and banana leaves and placed on hot rocks lining a shallow pit dug into the earth. The food is covered and left to slow-cook in the steamy oven to produce a traditional Fijian feast.

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On the menu, Watercress salad, Tubua with miti (that’s the Fijian spinach, with the coconut sauce), Dalo (tarot) and Kasava (tavioka) served with a pesto from basil with Kotta (coconut cheese) and peanuts. Pumpkin in coconut, Ika (fish) wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with lemon before going in the lovo, served with miti. Bull makau (beef) kovu (a hot pot with beef, also cooked in banana leaves in an iron pot), Toa (chicken). And we finished with a pudding crumble, Also on the tables were Basil water, mint water, Fiji Sea Salt. All the food was spiced with differently flavored sea salts. Everything was delicious!

We purchased 2 different bags of flavored sea salts, Pesto and Lime.

Friday May 21, it rained pretty much all day, in the afternoon we streamed “News of the Day” staring Tom Hanks, on Netflix.

*Sourdough Notes* started a Belle loaf today to bake Saturday morning.

Saturday May 22, in the bay here there is a coral farm run by the Dive Shop. It is a forbidden area to fish or be in. This morning along with 3 others and 2 paid guides, we snorkeled the area as they explained about the growth on the farm.

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Saturday May 8, Savusavu is located on the south coast of Vanua Levu Island, the second largest island in Fiji.

it rained most of the night, off and on all day. Great time to get my blog post published. While on passage, I write them in “Notes”, them transfer to WordPress when we have internet.

Sunday May 9, Happy Mother’s Day🌹, Dan made blueberry pancakes for breakfast!

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we walked around town. Most places are closed on Sundays.

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We had dinner at the restaurant here at the marina.

Monday May 10, we resealed the teak rails with Semco teak sealer.

Our buddies were released from quarantine. Had sundowners and dinner with them.

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Tuesday May 11, we are waiting to get out Fiji islands cruising permit and flag. The flag is to let inhabitants of the other islands know we are COVID free. There was a bit of confusion as to who was to do the paperwork, the marina or our agent. They both said the other one was to do it. In the end our agent came through and she’s doing the papers.

Rained off and on most of the day. We joined Mike and Sue at The Captains Table for dinner, this restaurant is at the marina. The crew of s/v Swell was there too, a fun evening. The food here is exceptional!

Wednesday May 12, walked to town with our wagon. Stopped at a few stores picked up provisions, fruit and beverages.

The code sail was brought to the lawn to “unroll” it, it was very tightly wound, back on Day 11, the halyard broke. We had some communication with Harken regarding this furling device. They basically said the cable should be tight but not as tight as a guitar string. Dan is going to add another turning block we’ll see how this goes. Our overpriced high maintenance sail, the saga continues.

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Later we went to dinner with Mike and Sue at Snowy House & Grace Road Kitchen, it’s an organic food restaurant.

Thursday May 13, Cruising permit issued! “Blue Lane” is a program to bring yachts to Fiji COVID safely. It also shows other islands within Fiji that we are COVID free.

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*Sourdough Notes* baked a Belle loaf this morning. the dough was quite billowy so it was baked in a cast iron pan opposed to a loaf pan.

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Together with Mike and Sue, we we toured the KokoMana Farm and Chocolate Factory. Cocoa is grown under best practice ecological principles. The tour covered the full process from “tree to bar”, concluding with chocolate tastings. A very similar process to coffee. Needless to say we purchased several bars. 85%, 70%, 70% with sea salt, fudge and Cocoa nibs. We will ration this stash as we did before, 1 bar every Sunday and Thursday.

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Friday May 14, to market to purchase Kava. When visiting a local village, it is customary to bring some as a gift to the community as a token of respect.

Kava is made from the roots of a relative of the pepper plant and has been used by Pacific Island cultures for centuries. The roots are pounded into a fine powder and then mixed with water, served in a large wooden communal bowl.

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The broken halyard was restrung down the mast. Codey was then raised at the dock. While attempting to furl it, if the cable was tight, it furled from the bottom up. When the halyard was slightly loosened, the top rope twisted, the furler was not spinning, that’s how it broke halyards. Another email was sent to both Harken and North Sails. Something is not right, we’ll never has been right since the sail was purchased.

Friday May 7, Day 1 of Quarantine in the books!

The yellow floating thing is how they “locked” us the quarantine area. Our boat with a full keel and protected prop and rudder, I’m sure we could scoot over it.

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Day 2 of Quarantine. This morning we were released!!! Motored over across the river to the marina. There we waited for Immigration, Customs and Bio-Security to board our boat before we could get off. Passports stamped all is well!

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Purchased a SIM card at the ships store so we can be connected! As we walked around the complex here we spotted s/v Swell. They were in quarantine with us. Jim and Shannon, their their two adult daughters and a son in-law, from Hawaii. We joined them at a picnic table at the dock restaurant for about 6 hours, lunch, dinner and several adult beverages. Great time!!!

Thursday , May 6 9:00am local time, we arrived in Savusavu, Fiji. Greeted by the Fiji Navy we were escorted to the quarantine area where we’ll waited for the Health Ministry to come administer COVID tests. We will need to stay here until the results are available, within 72 hours. There is currently one other boat in quarantine who arrived shortly before us. A catamaran from Hawaii. 2 more boats are expected tomorrow, one of which is our buddy s/v Ocean Sapphire.

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COVID tests in the afternoon by the Health Ministry.

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The Fiji Navy delivered the most beautiful flowers to us, Mother’s Day flowers and card from Beth, Kevin, Max and Dylan.

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The rest of the day was spent cleaning the inside of the boat. Collecting items to be laundered, R & R.

*Iridium Go Notes*

Arrived in Savusavu, Fiji

Thu 6/May 09:20 GMT+12

16º 46.553 S  179º 19.951 E

Arrived in Savusavu,Fiji on the island of Vanua Levu. All is well. Waiting for clearance and COVID Testing.

Wednesday , May 5 Happy Cinco de Mayo, Flashback one year ago today we were in Santa Barbara, California with John and Joy with Margaritas and Taco pie!

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120 miles to go!!, we should arrive Thursday morning.

We had good winds last night so we went with it. Cruising 7-8 knots most of the night.

Lots of rain mid-day. The wind hit 29 knots at the start then dropped to 5. The squall took the wind away.

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*Iridium Go Notes*

Last Night of the Passage

Thu 6/May 00:57 GMT+12

17º 00.904 S  179º 55.031 E

Course: 257° true, 4.8 kt

We’re approaching Savusavu, our “check-in” destination. Arrival in the morning (Thursday).

Motoring now, no wind, calm seas.

Enjoying stars not blocked by the scattered clouds, before the moon rises.

It’s dark out there!

Tuesday, May 4, 225 miles to Fiji!

It has rained all day! We finally saw the sun and blue sky as it was setting.

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We made homemade chicken noodle soup in the pressure cooker for lunch, so good on this dreary day!

*Iridium Go Notes*

Drive Thru Boat Wash

Tue 4/May 23:58 GMT+12

16º 24.323 S 177º 40.727 W

Course: 291° true, 6.4 kts

Much of Tuesday morning was sailing in the rain, so the salt spray has been throughly rinsed-off. Winds have been brisk during the completely overcast day, 12-22 knots, now at 21.

Making good progress on this moonless night (the moon rises at 0025, 28% waining). Boat speed is around 7 knots, broad reaching.

We’d like to maintain a VMG value of 5 knots or better to arrive in Fiji on Thursday. Velocity Made Good “VMG” is a measure of how fast the boat is approaching the destination regardless of which way the boat is pointing. Our current VMG is around 6.5 knots!

Monday, May 3, Distance to Fiji 355 nautical miles

The Vava’u Group, part of Tonga, the Friendly Islands has restricted waters because of COVID. The waters are patrolled within 12 miles of their islands. If caught within the limit you will be fined or worse if you get too close.

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It’s a very gray day, winds range from 12-22knots. We are located between a high pressure from the south and the Southern Pacific Convergence Zone to the north of us. The SPCZ is like the doldrums, it can have many rain squalls.

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*Iridium Go Notes*

Rocking-n-Rolling

Mon 3/May 23:57 GMT+12

16º 58.270 S 175º 47.453 W

Course: 310° true, 4.6 kts

All day we were sailing downwind with big waves that rocked the boat back-n-forth and back-n-forth. A great abdominal workout day!

Now sailing northwest to avoid some storms.

Saturday May 1 and Sunday May 2, the entire weekend in one day!

Tomorrowland, we crossed the International Date Line, Day-16. Typically it would be 180.00 longitude but it does a bit of of a zigzag between islands so island groups will be in the same time zone. Samoa wanted to be part of the western pacific where American Samoa wanted to be on side the USA is, the Date Line run between them. For us, “tomorrow” will be at 172.45w. Saturday at 3:31pm, with the blink of an eye it was 2:31pm Sunday! 10:31pm Saturday Philadelphia time.

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Three additional books I finished reading on this passage, “Well Girl” by Jamie Amerine. A spiritual self help book, not my kind of read. Also finished “Seeds of Hope” by Debbie Tremel, kind of Hunger Games meets QAnon. Two books I personally would not recommend. The third, “Blood in the Low Country” by Paul Attaway, this was a good story, I liked it. I won these Kindle books from Goodreads giveaways.

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*Iridium Go Notes*

The International Date Line

Sun 2/May 14:28 GMT+12

17º 30.436 S 172º 44.616 W

Course: 275° true, 5.7 kts

We crossed the International Date Line. A different number on our calendars, yet in Universal Time, it’s just another moment that passed by.

Real nice sailing on Saturday, which is now Sunday. We sailed close-hauled to the north. Then the wind turned, coming from the southeast, and pointed us directly at Fiji on a close reach, All in 10-25 knots of fresh breeze.

There is high pressure weather system to the south. If the brunt of the wind makes it up to here, sailing may be a little rough for us in the next few days,

About 400 nautical miles to go!