Our first greeting was a huge Bula (means Hello) from the officials
and after doing our paperwork and laying out about $200 we are now allowed to
step off the boat.
Now that the year is really over we planned a menu to go
with the bottle of Cliquet Veuve that Jennifer had given us to celebrate the
year. Champagne requires smoked salmon
and fois grasse! A lovely way to
celebrate a year of travel!
We then spent a week getting quotes for work we needed to
have done. This meant staying in the
water in an area with 2 meter tides and fixed docks. At low tide we could get off Interlude
easily, but at high tide we couldn’t climb up!
We had great neighbours, we used whoever’s boat was easiest to get off and
on our boats. (Just imagine having your legs over your ears, BEFORE coffee. Or walking a tightrope after a glass of wine.) So we
were happy when we went on the hard and into the cyclone hole!
Now the work begins to put Interlude to bed. Fiji is right
in the middle of cyclone area. So what
does it mean putting the boat to bed, well first
thing is they haul you and place you in a hole completely surrounded by tires, then you start to take everything off the
deck. It is amazing how much stuff we
have on the deck. We dropped the rudder
as we had a continuous leak in the stuffing box, (found that coral had made its
way up the rudder post and had scored the post and making a rough edge which
tears up our packing). Since we have our steering apart we decided to check our
steering system and have now replaced the steering cable as we found a couple
of burrs it. We fixed Trouble again and found a tiny pin hole it looked like a
staple hole, okay leak found yeah. Then
as we put her back together we find she is still leaking. So we patch the new spot and continue putting
her back together. Painted and put 5
coats of varnish on the V-berth cabin and bathroom. Aft bathroom was painted and varnished. 5 coats of varnished was done on the engine
mounts, cockpit table, flowerbox. Karen sewed, not exciting things, but strapping,
re-stitching the sunscreens as after 4 years the sun had eaten the thread, new
cover for the horseshoe ring, cover for the door…Cheryl scrapped and put 2
layers of primer and 3 layers of top paint on the fridge, now it has 3 months
to dry.
With Interlude put to bed we got ready to head to New Zealand
for our 3 month vacation.
Off to New Zealand!
