Cyclone Season in Fiji

Interlude's home for Cyclone season.  The one with the brown tarp on the right is Interlude

In the pit

We had decided to get the deck repainted by a different company this cyclone season, so from the end of Jan to the end of Feb we lived in the marina’s Cabin and Cottage and then on a friend’s boat Summer Spirit,  oh the gypsy life.  Karen went to Canada the middle of Feb to Mid-March while Cheryl stayed around the marina supervising the paint job and doing odd jobs off the boat.  Since cooking on our boat was not an option we ate at the restaurant a lot.  Good food, but for tooooo long. Cheryl had the menu memorized as she had eaten there every day while Karen was in Canada. Karen finally convinced Cheryl that we could go on Interlude and get things off that could be worked on off the boat to do off the boat projects.  So Karen sanded and varnished our floorboards.  Cheryl did the last coat when Karen was in Canada, took several last coats as people had to see if the varnish was dry by touching the boards, or a bird dropping or 2, or dust.

Karen hard at work sewing

Since we didn’t go on Interlude but we wanted to be around to supervise the work, we ended up spent a good deal of time helping our friends, Ian and Colleen on Summer Spirit. It is a big steel power boat.   We helped paint, which includes sanding, fixed things and even hung pictures so that they didn’t move underway.  And in the end Cheryl spent two very hectic days finishing the swim platform on Summer Spirit, literally the day before Colleen’s family arrived!  Working on Summer Spirit was good for us, gave us something to do, a place to be and deepen our friendship.  We played cards many evenings and had many lovely dinners, particularly Sunday roasts!  We would have gone insane if not for Colleen and Ian, oh and their cute little Koli, which we nicknamed Wiggle Butt Humps a lot Wells!

Wow, Canada was cold.  Arrived on a crystal clear morning, -23 degrees C, with wind chill of -32!  No problem, my brother Bruce picked me up at the airport with a Tim Hortons coffee and my ski jacket, life is good.  I spent most of the time with my brother, the primary purpose of my trip, with time to see many friends and family.  Thank you all for making time to see me, it means so much. As usual I came back with full bags and just like magic the stuff just seems to disappear in every nook and cranny on the boat “not so much”.   Basically you have to rip the boat apart to stuff things away but it does disappear eventually.

Another highlight of the cyclone season was the morning coffee clutch, we would solved the problems of the world each morning and over then drinks each evening solve more world problems.  There was Swimmer Jim, Ed on Time Out, Luis on Sorcha, Tom on Tanga, then Nick on Borealas (boat being renamed). The Save the World Gang.

Eventually in Mid-March people starting to come back to their boat and off course like Karen brought bags full of boat stuff, so we arranged a swap meet for the marina.  This time we sold more than we bought.  As always if becomes quit a social affair.  It is amazing how much stuff we stow, somewhere deep in the bilges of our boats.

We put Trouble, our dinghy together, found a leak and then treated it with a sealant, like that for a car tire.  Then painted it with a product, Tuff Coat, Cheryl found on line.  Trouble looks new and is holding air!!  It would be nice to get 2 more seasons out of her, even though she is about 14 years old!

For Easter the marina held a Dinghy race, since Troubles was not quite ready for her premier, Karen joined up with Dustin on a hard bottom dingy and Cheryl joined up with Elizabeth on Proximity on Allie’s rubber dingy….There were 4 dinghies in the race; 3 hard rowing dinghies and one soft rubber one.  If you have ever rowed your rubber dinghy you know what it is like.  But all was good, Karen and Dustin came in first and Cheryl and Elizabeth 3^rd.  After celebratory speech from Dustin, the prized rum was passed around to all the competitors.  A fun day for sure.  And yup Cheryl and Elizabeth did win something, the best dressed, after all it was Easter so of course you need a bunny and an egg.

Cheryl Aka Bunny and Elizabeth Aka Mutant Egg

Exciting stuff: The Job list for this season.

Varnish and paint everything downstairs.

Install new water pump and water tank.

Wash old water tank. Ok, then had to change the main water line as it was too small and clogging from the forward tank.

Clean water maker lines.

Paint Transom, after replacing the two aft port lights. 

Install new lights downstairs.

Put boat back together.

Install new head sail.

Life raft re certified.  This was way cool we actually got to see the raft inflated and hope that that is the only time we see like that but it was great to get a look see.  It is probably the one item on the boat you buy but don’t know what it looks like.

 Engine work, the oil change and coolant change and transmission fluid change and fuel element change, and rust work and cleaned the pulleys and did the gapping.

We sanded and painted the bottom, 3 full coats!

Actually it was 4 page excel spread sheet of jobs and yup it all got done and now the new list starts! 

                                                                Interlude looks good.   

All new stuff ready to go in the water

                              And then into the water!  No issues. Yippy

As we step into fall, the start of the sailing season, the best part is not the work, but all your friends coming back!  Proximity, Buffalo Nickel, Don, Bella Vita…  Though this was sad too as several of the boats are moving on and we are spending another season in Fiji, but we know that someday our paths will cross.  So bye for now.

After a day at the dock at Vuda and few more goodbyes mostly to the staff who have become great friends.  We moved all of 8 miles to Port Denarau marina as there docks are easier to get on and off the boat, did some last minute work and provisioning, and some play time.   A group of us from Vuda got together to go Zip lining, the owner of the zipline told us that most people over the age of 50 only go around once while by then we had gone around 3 times he said the record for the place is 4 times so not to be out done by the young wiper snappers we went for a 4^th some went for 6.  Plus we hiked to a waterfall, yup who said we are old.  It was a great day.  


Look no hands...yup that is Cheryl

Okay now we are ready to leave the dock.  But a Chilean wine tasting is in 2 days…..okay we have to go! We met up with Buffalo Nickle, Stan and Val and Summer Spirit Ian and Colleen for a lovey evening of tasting the grapes of Chile, yup someones has to do it.  Yummy

Then it is really time to leave the docks after a quick breakfast with Carla and Doug on Moondance who we will see out cruising with us later, our first stop anchorage of the season was Momi Bay.  While it would have been a short trip to Robinson Crusoe, the thermals in the afternoon make it a nasty last 15 miles, so we spent a lovely night in Momi Bay and carried on the next day.  As we were leaving Momi Bay, Karen no sooner had the fishing lines in and she caught a Walu!  36 inches. Karen was doing the happy dance and doing her WALU cheer. !  Awesome.

In Robinson Crusoe we booked for theSaturday night dinner and show, while after we got our Lurikuri marina membership, $1 Fijian for life and you get 10% off drinks!  The dinner was roast pork and beef with local trimmings, lovely.  The show was amazing, fire dancing, fire walking and Polynesian dancing!

Next day Dustin (Karen’s Dinghy race partner) came into the anchorage, with plans on joining us in Kadavu but the timing was not right for him and his guest so off we motor sailed to Kadavu, home of the astrolabe reef, the forth longest barrier reef.  We stopped the first night in Vunisea Station, the largest village in Kadavu.  Funky getting in, only 1 of the 4 marks on the chart was present.  And yes, it is surrounded by reef!  We then moved onto Naqara Bay on Ono.  As we passed the Ono pass, yes Karen had the lines in, we caught a yellow fin tuna!!  Our first yellow fin.  SUSHI SUSHI…After putting down our anchor we went into the village, to do the Sevu Sevu, had a tour and told them about the fish and that we would like to give them some.  They suggested that we take what we wanted and leave them the rest.  So Karen cut out a good chunk and left them with 15-20 pounds of fish.  We flagged down a local boat to take it in as it was low tide, with big smiles and thank yous from the guys on the boat, we knew our fish was going to be appreciated in the village.

Now it time to blow some bubbles, Mai Dive picked us up at the boat and took us to Alacrity Rocks just 3 divers, sweet.  It was very nice to be in the water again and it was a very gentle dive with lots of little fishes to play with and very little current.   But we do have to say that it has gotten cold already.  Yup we are wimps, so much for being Canadians.  We moved anchorages, to Kavala on Kadavu as we are forecast to get some bigger winds and it is more protected.  We had fun raising the anchor as we were of course wrapped around a couple of bommies or rocks, welcome to Fiji! The anchor was raised without Karen having to go in the water, BONUS.   We are tucked in very nicely in Kavala Bay surround by mangroves!  We did two more dives with Mai dive, both sides of the Naigoro Pass, very nice and once again very little current but no big fish so we meandered along both sides of the pass wall check out all the corals and little things that live in the little holes and cracks on the walls.  We had a lunch at the resort, should have taken a picture, it was so beautifully presented.  Fish on a bed of potatoes on a bed of water crest with a tomato and topping on top, lovely.

Look closely it a little crab waving at you

Today we tried to do our Sevu Sevu here.  We went to the village but the cruising guides have it wrong, it is not a Methodist island, rather Seven Day Adventist so today is the Sabbath and we have to go back tomorrow!  It was lovely though; all the children were out, helped with the dinghy, and showed us to the chief’s house.

And that is it for now as we wait for a weather window to go the southern Lau.