On the hard at Vuda Point

En route to Vuda Point we anchored in Nadi Bay whilst we were waiting for our haul out date to be confirmed. A decent enough anchorage we were within dinghy distance of Port Denerau. This place is on a private island and with that comes luxury prices! This place is seriously commercial and a total culture shock for us having been out of the real world for some time. Big super yachts berthed in the marina, many luxury brand shops and restaurants including Hard Rock Cafe lined the harbour and western tourists tottered about the dock in high heels. Great for people watching but not so great for yachties on a budget, we spent 2 days anchored off then headed for Vuda Point.

Sunset at Vuda Point

Temple in Nadi

Orion is due to enter Australian waters where they can be a little particular about the growth on one's hull. As there was a little play in the rudder due to wearing on the bush (she has done 12 000 miles in the last 20 months!) and the antifouling needed to be done, we decided to haul before we got there.

Strangely enough it is pronounced Vunda Point. It is a lovely little marina and haul out and we had as good a time as one can have whilst being hauled out of the water and covering yourself with blue antifouling dust everyday to look like a smurf whilst baking in 35 degree heat to really get it into the pores.

Gremlin stirring the antifouling

We scraped, sanded, varnished, painted, sweat (a lot!), cleaned, polished and waxed Orion until she was sparkling. I must admit we hired one guy to help us, at $3 USD / hour he worked really hard to help us speed up time spent on the hard. The main job was the rudder and I'll leave that to Dylan and another post to explain in more detail how we did it but suffice to say, it was easier than expected and cheaper than budgeted. A nice surprise for a change in the world of cruising.

Chief painter

I am making it sound like it was all work and no play but that isn't entirely true. One of the days we rented a car with 2 other young boats in Vuda Point and drove to Suva to go on the renowned shark dive. Up at 4am we piled into the hire car and drove for 3 1/2 hours to Beqa Adventure Divers where we then jumped on a boat to Beqa Lagoon. Call us slightly crazy but we paid to dive with bull sharks that were being fed fish heads in front of our eyes. We donned 5mm wet suits, extra weights on our belt and sank like a stone to 30m where we knelt behind a coral wall. The feeders then came with a big bin full of fish heads and we watched on as 30 bull sharks (one guy's job was to count them) had their lunch no more than 10ft away. Absolutely amazing experience and photos / film courtesy of a friend's Go Pro (Thanks Ninita).

Fiji has been a food frenzy for us. We started in Suva where we gorged on authentic curries and continued when we arrived at Vuda Point. The locals are super friendly here and we both turned into Yes Men. Every time a local asked us home for dinner, we replied with yes, straight away. By taking this attitude we clocked up 4 nights of eating at local Fijian's houses, countless memories to relive, a Fijian church ceremony and many new friends. Our first night of eating out at our taxi driver's house was a real lesson in Fijian Indian culture and Muslim etiquette. We learnt how to sit on the floor for a prolonged period without getting pins and needles, how to eat curry and even dhal soup with our fingers and how to drink 'grog' (kava) like a local. I'm keen to carry on the tradition of eating with fingers on Orion, saves washing all of the cutlery! Dylan is keen to continue drinking "grog" when we get back to civilisation. 

One of the local families, this lady made and gave us the mat below

Eating at another local's house

Cute kid

Eating at another local's house

After 12 days on the hard and way too much food consumed, we were ready to launch Orion looking all sparkly and white. A rum party was held that evening to celebrate being back in the water and a few of our neighbours were less than enamoured with us the following day…marina living eh!

Ooooo sparkly

Proud owners

Unfortunately we have not seen much of the outer islands of Fiji but one cannot see it all. We have seen Fiji from a very different perspective and the warmth and hospitality of the people has been overwhelming. 

We set sail for Vanuatu today, off to peer into an active volcano! 

Soggy Suva

Clearing out of Tonga in Vava'u wasn't the best experience that we have ever had. You have to bring your boat alongside the dock, no matter how much you beg this is their rule and there is no getting around it…unless there is no dock space. The dock is awful, it was spring lows, we came alongside all fenders out and as we neared, realised that the top of the stanchions lined up exactly with the dock overhang. We managed to avoid a prang but only just. Blood pressure back to normal and stern words with the customs officials who didn't even come anywhere near our boat (why couldn't they just accept us pointing at it on a mooring outside their office?), we left pronto and headed for Suva.

The passage was uneventful just how we like it, little wind so a slow one but it was easy navigation between the Lau Group and we arrived in Suva 4 days later. We call Port Control…nothing, we call Royal Suva Yacht Club…nothing. It's 3pm on a Friday by now so we presume everyone has clocked off early, celebrating our arrival with our very last tin of pringles and tub of salsa (it's the small things in life), we settle down for the night and decide to deal with bureaucracy tomorrow.

Soggy Suva

OK so in hindsight we should have got in the dinghy and demanded we see customs before they clock off at 4 as we got stung with overtime fees. In total I think we paid USD$200 extra for clearing in on a Saturday so word of warning, clear in between 8-4 Monday to Friday and if they don't answer during that time, get in the dinghy and go ashore to the receptionists at the yacht club to sort it out for you.

Suva is dirty, smelly, ugly and it constantly rains…but we loved it. We had been told that with such a high concentration of Indians in the city, we would be able to get a decent curry and these rumours were not wrong. I think on one day we had two each! Upstairs in the MHCC mall is a food court, and in this food court is a stall called Singh's Curry House. Hooaaa just thinking about it now makes my mouth water. For FJD$8 you can get a curry complete with rotis / rice, curried dhal and soup. That's less than $4 and a decent sized portion! There was just no need to cook onboard when food was for sale at those prices. So we took full advantage of not having to wash up and ate out every day we were there. Rotis on the roadside were FJD$1 so we snacked on those too!

Rotis on the roadside

One of the many curries we ate

Once your appetite has well and truly disappeared, only then should you check out the fruit and veg market. It is absolutely enormous and full of fresh goodies at amazingly low prices. 

Upstairs from the veggie market is where you find the kava for taking to the outer islands (I'll do a separate post on kava ceremonies). Kava is a type of root that acts as a narcotic when ground, mixed with water and drank. This witches' broom looking root is presented to the chief of a village when anchored in their bay so we stocked up on 4 bundles to keep us going as we tend to cruise the Mamanucas and Yasawas. Amongst the stalls selling kava came the most incredible smells. Nicknamed Little India, the place was rammed with sacks and sacks of spices. I made the unfortunate mistake of inhaling some particularly feisty chilli powder whilst walking past one vendor and spent the next 10 minutes wheezing, my eyes streaming whilst Dylan tells anyone that will listen that I am 'Britishy' and can't handle my spice!

Kava bundles

Making our kava bundles

Another great find in Suva was an eyebrow threading place. I have an obsession with eyebrows, I don't know why or where it came from but I can pretty much recall most people's eyebrow's shape after our first meeting. To feed this obsession when living in London I used to get my eyebrows threaded every 6 weeks but when we went cruising I had to kick that habit despite me persuading Dylan that wielding a piece of string between his teeth really mustn't be that hard. Walking past an Indian jewellers in town I see the sign, double take as…well…why would a jeweller do eyebrow threading…and waltz right in. A slight diversification from their actual service, the wife sits me in a plastic chair and threads away in the middle of the store in front of all the clients for 5 mins all for the sum of less than £1. £1! I pay £12 easily in London for the same service albeit in a leather chair not a plastic garden one (don't tell Dylan that though, he really doesn't understand these things). Dylan looked on in horror as I willingly let this stranger turn my eye sockets into a bright pink swollen mess and even thanked and paid her for the torture.

We enjoy collecting items for our next home from all the countries we visit and Suva allowed us to add to the collection tenfold. The Municipal Handicraft Market is….wow. You can find locally made wooden carved goods at non touristy prices. The big stores like Jacks of Fiji buy from here then mark them up for sale in their swanky shops. Shop around as there are many many stalls selling similar items of differing quality and all sellers we found were up for a good haggle. The other factor that makes you warm and fuzzy is that some of the stalls are people selling on behalf of their family members located in the outer islands who receive a percentage of the money. We tried to buy only from these guys. They mark the items with cruise ship prices and we managed to get them to about a third of the asking price, at times even less if you bought more than one item. I think we are sorted now for all of our friend's and family's birthdays for the next 5 years. Not quite sure how we shall be getting all of these goodies off the boat but shall worry about that nearer the time…

Checking out the wooden carvings

Oooo so many choices

Chopped sea slug on a bed of seaweed anyone?

Lovely local flowers

We aim to haul Orion at Vuda Point in the next week and one of the things on our list is antifouling. We were told the paint was very expensive to buy on the western side and were recommended a Korean dealer in Suva. It's an unpronounceable, unspellable Korean name located on Foster Road, 4/5 blocks down from the yacht club. If you don't mind painting your hull dark red (as that is the only colour they do) then this is the place to go. For FJD$650 you get 15 litres of Jotun Seapro used on the long liners. This is US$150 cheaper than what we paid in Grenada and for 5 litres more!

Keen to move to the drier side of the island before we grew webbed feet but sad to leave Suva, we upped anchor and headed for Vuda Point.

Running an SSB radio net

Well, I ran my first radio net the other morning. After many months of being either a participant or troll (someone who lurks and listens in but does not check in) I was roped into running a net. 

The net we listen to is the Pacific Magellan every morning. It started with a group who left Panama at roughly the same time. As the group spread out over time so it fractured into the Eastern Pacific Magellan and the Western Pacific Magellan. It seems that most of the group are slower than us as many are going to New Zealand and as such we moved into the Western Pacific Net with only a few vessels checking in (hence I did my bit to pick up a morning or two). 

It is reassuring thing to know that there are people out there that have your lat and long up to date within the last 24 hours should anything happen. 

Here is my script:

Good morning cruisers; this is Orion for the Western Pacific Magellan net, can I get a radio check please?

<Wait for a vessel further away to confirm your broadcast strength and readability>

Firstly I will call for any emergency, medical or priority traffic. Any emergency, medical or priority traffic, please come now.

<Wait 10 seconds for any broadcasts> 

Nothing heard. {You can ask another vessel to rebroadcast / relay for any priority traffic if your SSB has poor propagation} 

Any vessels underway, please come now. 

<Wait as vessels underway check in with their vessel names> {If you are like me, it pays to write down the vessel names / order as they check in}

Vessel {xxxx} please go ahead with your check in.

{As net controller, you need to write down all the passage details for the vessel as you may be responsible for relaying it on to others should there be an issue etc. The details to collect for each vessel include:

Lat & long

Course (magnetic or true)

Speed (knots)

Weather conditions (including wind direction and speed, swell size and direction)

Other (destination)

After the vessel has broadcast, you need to repeat all the details they have offered to ensure correct documentation.}

All well on board? 

<Wait for reply>

Anything further for the net? 

<Wait for reply> {sometime a vessel may request traffic with another or have a question for the fleet}

Clear with {vessel name}. 

{Repeat vessel check in for all the vessels}

{You could ask a vessel further away to perform a relay for additional vessels underway if you wish}

Any vessels at anchor who wish to check in, please come now.

<Wait as vessels underway check in with their vessel names>

{Go through the list of vessel names that checked in and they will give a brief summary of where they are and if they require traffic with another vessel}

Anyone have anything further for the net today?

<wait for any further traffic>

{If there is nothing further…}

This is Orion for the Western Pacific Magellan net closing the net for today. 

{If there were vessels that wanted traffic with each other, you let them know that the frequency is now clear for their traffic}

…Then you listen in (read eavesdrop) to hear if they have any interesting gossip. Which generally they don't. 

As a note, if you are reading this to run a net (these are fairly informal cruisers nets) please don't  bore everyone with you boat name AND call sign. No one cares that you are "Whiskey, Alpha, November, Kilo, Echo, Romeo, 5, 9, 1, 6!!!!

Dylan out!

Swallows Cave - Tonga

This cave is deep enough to take the dinghy right inside and best done 2pm onwards when the sunlight is just right to shine right in and light up the walls and water. Stalactites and stalagmites are littered everywhere and the sound of birds (not swallows but starlings apparently) make the most of the acoustics, sound bouncing off from every angle. We didn't spend too long in there as it is..just..a..cave but the snorkelling on the outside was great. We did a drift dive, Dylan with spear in hand, me with camera and marvelled at the clear waters, abundance of fish and healthy coral. Whilst we were underwater the sound of a mother and calf whale was so loud that I managed to catch it on video. We have been hearing the whales in the water nattering away since Niuatoputapu and I was keen to catch it so everyone else could experience it too. Sounds like someone playing violin very badly and I don't think it would do as a relaxation background CD for me! Check it out but make sure you have the sound turned up:

Whale Watching

We've seen humpbacks breaching in the Caribbean and Pacific, sailed past a sleeping basking shark, dinghied past pilot whales frolicking in the ocean close to anchorages and been on a ferry through the San Juan islands that went very near a pod of orcas but we were yet to swim with the beasts, Vava'u offers just that and we couldn't wait to grasp the opportunity.

Humpback whales make the 6 000km journey from Antarctica to winter breeding grounds, of which Tonga is one of them. The whales begin arriving in June and the calves are born between July and September. 

It was one of the best experiences so far on this adventure only second to the engagement (of course!).

The tale of how we came to do the whale watching is worth telling before I continue. Coming into Vava'u we had caught a 20lb mahi mahi that we didn't fancy attempting to demolish by ourselves so I sent Dylan off in the dinghy to distribute to other yachties in the anchorage. One yacht he went to was home for a week to an Australian couple on holiday and they traded the fish for a dozen eggs. Awesome!! But not only did they provide us with the protein they also mentioned a whale watching day that they were no longer going on as they had been already and didn't need a second day. Sooo we took them up on the offer as we had heard you have to book far in advance in peak season and arranged to meet up with them the next day for more details. The next day comes and Chris and Kerry insist on giving it to us for an engagement present. Can you believe it? We had known this lovely couple for less than 24 hours and they were keen to provide us with such a fantastic experience for free! This is another example of what we mean about meeting such interesting, generous, inspiring people that we never would have met were we still in London working our corporate jobs. It contributes to our new philosophy of 'paying it forward' 

We arrived at Dolphin Pacific for 8:30, given a wet suit and shuffled onto a boat with 6 other people and 2 guides. The aim of the game is to keep a look out for whales, if we see one shout and a guide will get in the water to see if the whale is still nearby, if so it's our cue to jump in and swim over to observe the beast. So we were suited up and spent the morning chasing spouts of water with no whale willing to hang around for us tourists. After lunch we were starting to think that this may be a day where the whales just don't want to play when we spotted another spout that turned out to be a surfacing calf. Yay it was hanging around and we were the first group of 4 in the water. 

We swim over and squint into the deep blue, just making out some white barnacles presuming they were making themselves at home on the calf. I start snapping away thinking this may be the best we get…when the calf starts to surface. Woooooow. The shape starts to become very apparent, then the mouth, the fins, the huge eye staring at us. It swims right up to us, giving us a good eyeball whilst Dylan and I just float there, frozen in awe, squeezing each other's arm daring not to move and at the same time wanting to move to back away slightly from this beast of the ocean. It passed an arm's length from us, taking a gulp of air and submersing back into the murky depths.

Now the second time we went in the water, the calf made it even more exciting. Once again it emerges from the deep, comes right up close to us, even closer than the first time so that the left fin was centimetres from us and then it decides it wants to play /fight and slaps it's tail right next to our heads. Like a collection of squid, we all inked ourselves there and then as the water around us turned into a soda stream and we checked each other for all limbs still attached. Nervous giggles were exchanged by all. Phhhheeeewwwweeeee it was amazing. The guide found it hysterical (perhaps he also inked himself) as we just stared at each other jaws to the floor. Absolutely unbelievable, the power of these beasts experienced first hand, 2 tons of flesh raining down right near our heads. Here's a video of our second swim with the cheeky denizen, unfortunately in my shock must have twitched my right forefinger and shut the film off right as the tail comes down but you wouldn't have seen much anyway apart from bubbles and our fins flailing about. Another yachtie had a Go-Pro so will ask him for the footage.

See what I mean about the proximity, this isn't zoomed in, in fact I kept automatically trying to zoom out then realising we really were that close!! Not the best video I have ever taken but the excitement kept taking my attention elsewhere as my eyes tried to take in everything happening in front of us!

An experience not to be missed for all those that find themselves in this part of the world.

What I learnt from Steven Callaghan

Adrift by Steven Callaghan is a true story of a single hander who was lost at sea for 76 days in the Atlantic ocean. It is an awe inspiring story of courage and endurance. 

Without spoiling the plot, it is safe to say that he survived (how else would he have written the book).

What I took away from the story is a few things with regards to abandoning ship.

1. A satellite phone of some sorts is almost essential as no one would know that you are lost until many days after your expected arrival date in the next port. Imagine abandoning ship 1 week into a 4 week passage that could take up to 6 weeks. There are at least 5 weeks before people would start to wonder where you are…

2. EPIRB used in conjunction with the sat phone to help with pinpointing your position and notifying the authorities.

3. A handheld VHF is very useful as 9 ships passed him by and did not see his flares.

4. Handheld GPS to let the world know where you are. 

5. Some form of solar still should be included in your grab bag (and jerry cans of water available to take into the life raft with you)

6. A small speargun proved very useful for catching life sustaining fish (line and hooks included in the liferaft kit bag less so)

7. Good book on survival at sea and how to cope would probably also be high on my list of what to stuff in the grab bag.

If the right people know within hours that you are in your life raft, the chances of rescue increase significantly.  

I would walk 10 000 miles...

"and I will sail 10 000 more". As The Proclaimers might have sung had they been sailors. 

Yes, we have reached the 10k mark on Orion in less than 18 months. We worked out that if one drove all this way in a car (at 60mph) it would take about 7 days of continuous driving. 

In this time, we have received our 25th stamp in our passports (which are running very low on pages). 

We have another 2000miles to Australia where we plan on selling the boat and going back to work. All good things must come to an end eventually i suppose.