Circuit Completed

3 hours in Futuna

Futuna from 10 miles out : the white spot on the right is a church at the Port

The last day of sailing brought me safely back to Savu Savu.  Once I had negotiated Scatterbreak Channel,  a sort of s-bend between the reef  named Cakau Vucovuco to port and  Cooks Shoal to starboard we were in sea that was much smoother because of other reefs to the south but not that far away. It was dark by then, about 9pm but even in the daytime they aren’t all visible, some are never exposed even at low tides, and its disconcerting to look across what seems like normal deep ocean but to realize lurking perhaps only half a mile away is doom for any unwary traveller. One assumes of course that the GPS and the navigation software that provides this information is correct – and it is well known, and there are warnings aplenty that this isn’t always the case – but in fact, when it indicates there should be things visible in certain places, they usually are, so in general, I for one assume the reefs are more or less where they are said to be. Never- the-less one always gives such structures a wide berth, as the PRECISE location may be off by  meters, hundreds of meters even.

Uninhabited except for coconut trees : Vetaaua Island

So, now in smoother water but still with 22 knots and our course altered to something less than a close haul, Sapphire moved faster and steadier as we tracked direct to Somo Somo pass , 40 miles up a long corridor 5 miles wide and flanked by  reefs and islets and obstacles to either side . In a straight line though there was nothing in the way. I reset the hydrovane to have us tracking up the middle and had a sleep. An hour and a half later I woke and checked : we were right on track, nearest obstacles was at last two hours away, so I had another sleep.

This time I woke from a deep sleep with a start – I just knew I had been asleep much too long – I felt a terrible sense of doom and panic as I fumbled for the light and the watch – my GOD I had been asleep for four hours, so tired I was from all the broken sleep and hard work of sailing – I had NEVER slept for four hours while sailing before - but here we were still going at six knots up a narrow channel.  Turning on the chart plotter, remarkably we were well up the channel, further than I had expected and still in the middle, exactly where we had been planning to be but of course the slightest  change in wind direction, or current…it didn’t bear thinking about…but I did, and imagined the sickening crash that could have woken me as we slammed into a reef, hard aground and in need of rescue, or salvage…I felt my heart racing as I contemplated the near miss. I knew I had just dodged a bullet. Tiredness – no, exhaustion - is the great enemy of the solo sailor. I remembered Jean Socrates a remarkable older American woman who went to sleep less than a hundred miles form competing a solo circumnavigation and woke when the boat ran onto the shore and was wrecked!

So I blessed my little yacht – a friend at Vuda Marina had called my little yacht a “Honey” – and the Hydrovane for keeping us on course, and of course the wind Gods that I had been cursing day and night long. Next, Coffee and some very early breakfast – it was about 2.30 – and I stayed awake to look at the stars and listen to the sound of the boat surging forward and watched as the sky lightened and as the sun rose I saw Taveuni, and Rabi, islands I had passed in the dark on the way out.  

Approaching SomoSomo Passge at Daybreak, Taveuni on Port

We had to motor through the pass as it was completely in the wind shadow of Taveuni, but once through and beyond the shadow, the wind picked up to 22 knots again and we reached westward, bouncing over a slow swell. I through the troll line out the back and for only the third time ever, caught a fish, and for the firsttime ever, actually landed it on the boat : a 1 meter long Spanish mackerel, a long dark blue ish with vertical stripes and a very pointy head and nasty sharp teeth. I felt sorry for it to start with, and then remembered that it attacked my lure thinking it was a smaller fish that it could kill, and decided it would be a nice present to give Aseri, the lovely Fijian man from the Waitui marina who looked after me in Savu Savu. Finally we went round Point Passage, and the wind was in front of us again but I unrolled the Jib and we sped back to a mooring at Savu Savu just before dark.  It had been one of those great days of sailing.

The First Fish landed on Sapphire

In the morning , I will clear customs.

24 hours in Hell

Everyone loves "champagne sailing" - its what we all imagine its ever going to be. But when its crap its bloody hell - like the last 24 hours - smashing into a 1 -2m swell, really rough sea and the wind crept up to 27 knots at about 1am, at wgich time I was stuiffed and ready to call for a taxi to get me the hell out of here. I took down sail and took down sail till there was a scrap of headsail only.and that was a mistake becasuse now the boat headed offwest rather than south but at least the boat wasnt crashing and banging and shrieking and rocking. I lay on the bunk in the hot wild oppressive dark and imagined the worst. I cursed so many things, most especially the Givernment officials who forced me out, who dealayd my departure, the wind that went from infront to infront when I turned around at Futuna, the GRIB that forecast 20 maybe, the guy who warned me about light winds and said "take all the diesel you can"...I imagined having to sail over the top of Fiji and try to enter from the other side, or maybe I would end up in Vanuatu...

The wind eased off to 22 by dawn and I reset sail and I am more or less back on track. The rain went and the sky is clear, we have all the 110 Jib out and two reefs in the main. Our heading is 180 but we are moving west of that and just managed to slide in under Cikobia Island to the north of me now, and its tail of reefs that looked like were inour path earlier....next in our path are two more reefs. one is Cooks Shoal, might pass to the north of the first then motor sail into the wind pass b ewteen nit and Cooks then turn back southy and pass Cook Shoal ntto its south.

Then theres a long stretch of open water that we will bash through overnight towards Somo Somo strait, a narrow passage between Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Should be daytime by then..

Bruised and battered, till tomorrow

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Three hours in Futuna

Arrived after dark last night so hove to and slept very intermittently, even thou7gh we were 8 miles off we slowly got closer and by sunrise we were 3 miles out so I motored in. Dropped anchor at 7am and pumnped up the dinghy and was ashore at 8am. Walked along the road of a tiny town with a couple of shops and found the Gendarmerie - he stamped my Passport : ARRIVE a Fuutuna July 4 then stamped it agin DEPART July 4. Next I walked back to the Customs Office on the wharf where a small ship was being unloaded of a few containers, gave them my papers and they issued my customs declaration in by 9am I was back on the boat, deflating the dingfhy and stowing it. By 10 I was heading out, I put up all sail, set the Hydrovane, we are close hauled ( of bloody course ) heading is 208M wind is SE about 16-18 knots , sea about 1 meter, mostly sunny with some high cloud and I havaenty had to do anything else except have food - bloody ants are ruining everything - and have some rest. Sun just setting so will have tinned fish and crackers for dinner then start sleepimg. Should be staying on this course for most of the way back. AT least we are laying our destination this time,

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Heaving to

As is usual with sailing, the wind is playing funny buggers. On the nose whichever way we were heading, or else very light, or from a perfect direction and strong once its too late to make landfall before dark..which was what happened yesetrday afternoon . So we arrived off Futuna just after sunset and too late to go into the Port so we hove to - sort of - 8 miles off and have been waiting for the sun to return before heading in. Very broken re4stless sleeping...if it was sleeping at all.

Once in I go ashore, get my passport stamped IN and OUT then head back to the boat and sail back to Fiji. Hope to be back SUnday evening or Monday am.

No dramas getting here - except for the wind - but one can never be sure what's around the corner.

Sunrise is in one hour.

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Better Late than Never

This is whats happened : I worked in Tasmania for three months and came to Fiji and worked in my capacity as volunteer Locum at the Lautoka Hospital for the next three months.  That bought me to the end of May at which point the boat was to have been in the water fixed up and all set to go. I was going to have two months sailing in Fiji waters then go to Nigeria with MSF for August.

But there have been a series of delays and frustrations that have almost driven me mad, which I shall outline in brief :

On returning to Fiji I spoke again to BaoBab Marine , at the Marina, who had told me last year they could fix the engine but it would take about two or three weeks.  I had 12, so plenty of time but I wanted them - and asked them - to get on with it so I could get the boat in the water and sort out everything else that may have developed over 20 months of inactivity. Yes, now I was back they will get on with it - to make it easier for them I had brought back the reconditioned pump and detailed instructions on how to repair the broken cam shaft, as well as the parts they would need, gaskets seals and "O" Rings.

Two weeks later nothing had happened and I asked why - they would do it next week they said. The next week something came up and they finally did it the week after that - they removed the motor from the boat and extracted the cam shaft. It was now week six. On week eight I went to see what had happened : they announced their workshop couldnt fix it and they would send it to another workshop - why they took two weeks to decide this is beyond me. A week later, week nine, they rang and said the "other" workshop couldn't fix it either. What they had to do was cut the broken end off the cam shaft at a precise length and fit the new end on with the two  special screws I had supplied from Sydney.

Shaft with broken end on left, new part bottom right

Now something REALLY outrageous happened : after they rang me, on a thursday afternoon, I went straight down to get the cam so I could send it urgently to Sydney to my mechanic at Wichard Marine who supplied the engine in the first place about 15 years ago. At the workshop I frankly but politely expressed my dismay at the enormous delays and time wasting that had gone on - there were only three weeks left and the boat was supposed to be back in the water by then - and was immediately verbally attacked by the Manager with an outburst of such shouting and a torrent of vulgar language and abuse for having dared to ask, for even bringing my shitty little problem to him to fix, for being such a f'ing little "C" for leaving my crappy motor in his workshop....it brought the entire workshop to a standstill as all the other workers shrank into their corners as this tirade of abuse continued and I feared this huge front -row forward hulk of a man towered over me bellowing abuse was about to assault me. He may have been surprised that I stood my ground and insisted I had a right to express my dismay and give him some feedback about the service, asked him why he was shouting at me and abusing me...he stalked off still shouting filthy abuse at me.

Two weeks later I returned with the repaired cam, it was now week 11, I had a week to go at the Hospital and the engine finally went back into the boat. By this time I had agreed to go to Kiribati for a week to conduct a training course for the young Doctors and midwives there, so instead of getting the boat lifted for a quick anti foul, as there was a whole week to kill I asked the painters to do a thorough job this time and strip all the old antifouling off and start all over again.  She would finally be ready to launch when I got back at the end of week 13.

Then, the day after I left for Kiribati, the Travel lift dumped someone else's boat right in front of Sapphire and blocked access to her - it was only for a day but yes that yacht was still there when I got back, and was finally removed at the end of week 14. The agreed job then took several more days but now I wished I had just paid for  the usual quick anti-foul job....

While this was going on I began a discussion with Customs and Revenue about the fact that Sapphire had been in Fiji longer than the routinely permitted 18 months.  I had several meetings with Officials who informed me I had broken the rules by  keeping her here nearly three months too long, and by working in Fiji. They made me pay $450 to get a formal valuation of the boat done and then assessed my liability under the relevant legislation : $FJD30,000.00. The fact that I had been working as a "Volunteer" for the people of Fiji for 5 months meant nothing. Not only that, I would not be able to use the boat until the debt was paid.

At that point, two weeks ago, Sapphire went into the water! What I needed to do was sail to Futuna, a French territory half way between Fiji and Samoa, then return to Fiji and reset the clock - I would be able to stay another 18 months! This is what I had planned for late last year, when the engine broke down and thwarted my plan to avoid the Tax. I spoke to my bosses at the Hospital - the Professor knew the Health minister and phoned him, I wrote and appealed, and eventually it was determined I would pay $2500 and must leave Fiji by the end of June. I received this notification on Friday 20th June at 5.12pm after everything had closed! At the same time my long term accommodation expired and I had to pack up and moved to a cheaper and horribly noisy and grotty hotel in an industrial part of Nadi. The boat was a mess and not ready for me to move aboard.

The following Monday I paid the money.  Over the weekend I was frantically cleaning out the boat, cleaning up the inflatable and the ants that had infested the boat, airing clothing and wet weather gear, - a million things needed to be done - checking the radios and the batteries - one was faulty and I hadto replace it , I pulled my self up to the top of the mast to check the fittings and adjust the Windex which was bent and stopping the wind instrument from spinning and recording wind speed - and so on and on and on in the steaming tropical heat.

Then I had to get a Coastal Travel permit and some other Clearance. Another day gone. Food and drink, water, diesel....and finally on Wednesday the 25th left Vuda marina under motor on a windless  morning, hurrying for Savu Savu the port from which I will leave for Futuna, the boat hastily sorted, poorly prepared, incompletely tested, my mind a jumble of frustrations, irritations, anxieties and disappointments.

But as I motored north and away from the Marina, some of the tension and the stress and the chaotic scrambling of the previous weeks started to drain away and I started to smile, and to breathe a bit easier....

Anchored in Vatia Bay, alone, the end of the first day back on the water

A few hours later the engine alarm sounded, a high pitched scream I hadn't heard before. There was no wind but a current was slowly moving us to the reef we were passing - I inspected the engine and immediately saw he broken fan belt - the mechanics had moved a hose so the belt was rubbing on it and the hose was broken and the belt snapped! The engine was baking hot but I had to pull the water pump off to replace the belt, burning my finger tips and all the while  watching on the GPS as we drifted towards the reef - it was 100 yards off when I got the motor going again!

The next day I motored for six hours to the north eastern corner of  Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji, swam off the boat and planned my crossing the next day to Vanua Levu. In the morning there was a breeze, and after creeping out through the reefs was at last in clear water, 30 miles across on a fine reach with no motor, the Hydrovane working beautifully, and then in through a Pass on the other side to Nambouwalu Bay for the night, anchored off a wharf in 4meters.

Oh yes we nearly sank on the way across  - a hose came off its attachment to the underside of the sink  and the cabin started flooding. Easily fixed but then a few dozen buckets of water to remove!

The fourth day I motorsailed to Savu Savu, passing through a remarkable natural shortcut that must save 30 or 40 miles, the Navisonisoni Pass with huge steep standing waves and strong currents pushing me back. And it was Saturday afternoon when I got here, so yesterday I wandered about the empty streets and checked the weather for Futuna..

A view at Savu Savu

Probably I will leave for there tomorrow. A few chores and the usual round of forms and notifications to do in the morning...

My next post will be when I have returned to Savu Savu - hopefully in  about a week

About "A"

I spotted this super yacht in Auckland yesterday - it was hard to miss - and went down today to look more closely at it. Google  tells me its name is  "A",  it is here for its third repaint in its 5 year life, and is owned by a russian billionaire described as a maths genius on wikipaedia but I couldn't find out why.  He apparently sued the last company that tried to  repaint it, for $100m, because he wasn't happy with the final finish. He and his wife also sued an artist that had been commissioned to make a 7 foot high sculpture for them that was less than 4 feet high on delivery. They paid 423,000 pounds for it and were suing for $2.9m!

Apparently stored inside A are three high speed launches that are longer than Sapphire.This monstrous vessel cost $300 million to build and $20 million a year to run. The diesel tank holds 757,000 litres.

The billionaires story, like most of the stories surrounding the new wave of post-communist mega-rich, is distinctly vague. However theres nothing vague about the descriptions of their yacht and their penthouses and private jets and collection of Monet paintings, or their variously estimated nett worth of somewhere round 10 or 15 billion, which leaves the poor fellow languishing down near 80th in the list of the richest people in the world.

I can barely find words to describe what I feel about people who live on the same planet as everyone else, and when they are trying to find something to do with their fabulous wealth, no matter how ethically it was acquired, the only thing that seems to occur to them is to spend it on themselves. 

What a pity these ghastly self centered people can't follow the lead of Bill Gates who has given away $28billion by the latest estimate, and yet remarkably is STILL the richest man on the planet! Clearly he could afford to give away a hell of a lot more but when you read about what is being done by his foundation - everything from health education to Malaria research and to funding the search for a better toilet (2.5 BILLION people do not have access to a toilet) - you are saved from the despair that looking at something like A tempts you to sink into.

Snaps of Tasmania

Ann Bay, NW Tasmania

Yes, Tasmania has a dark past, but having now seen quite a bit more of it, I have to tell you it is a wonderfully beautiful place. 

I took a tourist day cruise 14km up the Arthur River on the west coast, and looked at trees that are hundreds of years old in bush that has never been logged. We were told, and it was easy to believe that if the Tasmanian Tiger had survived, this is where it would be found. It was wonderful to imagine that maybe some were still there, hiding and watching. We were also told that if the locals ever saw one they would keep quiet about it because once the news got out, the "greenies" would see to it that plans presently being developed to expand logging in that area would be stopped. The "greenies"  were hated by lots of people out there, the fishermen and loggers whose livelihoods depended on being able to carry on chopping down the trees and catch whatever they could along the wild and desolate coast. 

Arthur River

I had planned to continue down that west coast along a back road through the forest, but there had been a slip, the road was blocked and I was turned back. I decided instead to go to the far southeast of the island, passing through Hobart to the Huon Valley, and the Kermandie Motel.

In the northwest the land is rather flat and the coasts wild and the beaches long and sweeping. By contrast, in the southeast, the coast is highly indented and tortuous with hundred of little bays and headlands, islands and small harbours. The land is hilly, even mountainous in places, with dense forest descending down to the long valleys of farms and cottage industries that sell raw wool and fresh home grown  vegetables, apples, cherries, jam, wild honey, and vegetables. The coffee shops are great, there are art and craft galleries everywhere, and you can stay in upmarket Hotels, B&Bs, cheap motels or set up tents in numerous campsites on secluded bays and bush sites. 

Across the road from my motel was a small marina. Fortunately the security gate was ajar when I went down at 6.30 on my first morning there, and it was such a pleasure to wander about in the still quiet morning air and admire the many beautiful yachts there. Later I took the car ferry to Bruny Island and then went for a wild ride in a high powered commercial speedboat. We went  out into a rough ocean with 30 knot southerly blowing onto the cliffs and saw seals and blowholes and a few albatross, as well as massive dolomite cliffs .

A bay in the far SE of Tasmania

Lastly I visited the extraordinary Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart. It was built and paid for from the gambling winnings of a maths genius who worked a system to beat the odds at race tracks and casinos round the world! Its set on a low headland jutting out into the harbour, and has a nice restaurant, open grassy area in front of a stage, and lots of space.Inside, the art is mostly New art - but there are Egyptian Mummies there! -  all housed in a modern maze-like building thats mostly underground, dark and cool. Its a place that should really be visited  numerous times - theres much too much to see and take in at a single visit.

The Entrance to MONA with a real tennis court beside it

And then I came back to work. The Road Trip had been a great success.