Fiji.

Repair marina! Still!

Crane on shore. Not shown. It will be here again in a day or two to drop in the new one. So out she comes.

It had developed several salt water leaks over the years. This one included leaking exhaust fumes. Rotted out the starter and was getting to the energizer coils. What you cannot see from this picture is that when mounted in the hull you have to remove the top of the sound enclosure and crawl over the top of the engine to even see this backside of the gen set. Really tight installation.

But when they are not working pretty hard fixing boats they like to burn stuff. The Fijians. They burn cane fields, hill sides, trash dumps, you name it. If it can burn they burn it. As a result there are very smoggy days here. In spite of it being an islands in the trade wind belt. Scratchy throats and itchy eyes for Vivo.

j

Just another day in Latoka. Right at the edge of town. Up she goes.

All for now.

M

Fiji

Here is some video that goes along with the previous post. Removing the transom to get access to the generator. There will be a crane involved in the installation as well. That should make some interesting shots.

They say that cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locations. Yup.

More from Fiji

Haven’t posted for a while because, basically, there is nothing going on that is fun to post. We are destroying Vivo to facilitate the repairs and equipment replacements we need. Took off the entire transom today. Ropes, pulleys, hammers, chisels, bloodshed, frigging nightmare! This is to be able to get the old genset out and the new one in. The new one is on a plane from Austrailia as we speak so you know that’s not going to be inexpensive. Hope it got an isle seat. The GNP of Fiji should see a nice blip from Vivo. We have anywhere from 2 to 6 contractors on the boat all day every day.

Got injectors overhauled on one engine to find that in addition to that issue I have a high pressure fuel pump that is on its last leg. Couple of boat bucks involved there for sure.

New dingy motor hopefully Monday. Should be a busy week. Most of the projects should be wrapping up. I/We want out of here BAD! Very tired of living in a working boatyard. When all of the outlining islands are calling us.

But heck, who gets to do this stuff?

Preparing to yank the transom cap off. 

Awesome.     Pulleys, ropes, coconut trees, crew, friends, neighbors  So now there is a big chunk of Vivo laying in the grass behind us. What a nice feeling.

So now we just hope for no rain. But wait, it always rains! Crap! That is one big hole in a boat! Nice shot of the generator that doesn't work next to the honda that doesn't work. Boat is destroyed!

Anchor locker repairs. Should have shot a picture of it before. I creamed it good! Its coming along nicely.

More to follow. Unless I go bankrupt first. Which is a distinct possibility!

M

Fiji

Still.  And will be for a while yet. Getting various repairs and equipment swaps done.

Taking advantage of some rocket fast WIFI I am downloading some miscellaneous vids from the trip so far. Not in any particular order.

This is in Suwarro. We eventually got used to the black tip reef sharks and went swimming with them. Till they got to be about a dozen or so in number. Then we seceded the sea back to them.

This is in Nuie. I wrote about the dingy docking. Here is some vid. The week after we left the next group had some bad weather there. They could not get to the dock as the seas were crashing over the pier. In the video you can see that we come up about 6 feet of steps from the water level. Picture this same scene with the seas coming over the top.

This is also from Suwarro.

Here are some poorly edited clips from some snorkeling we did. At the end there is a really beautiful little fish that we have not been able to find in any of our fish books.

Fiji

Fast run from Tonga to Fiji. Like scary fast. Like how the FFFFFF we going to get this sail down? Just about went right past. Had all hands on deck and waiting for a lull in the blow. It was topping out around 35 knots. We were flying a borrowed asymmetrical spinnaker. Heavy construction. Rated for 35 knots. Maxed it out. We were hauling Vivo azz. Got a lull down to the 20s about midnight and got to hauling it down. Went quite well but hope not to have to do that to many more times. At night anyway. Up until that point we were straight downwind. After the Asym came down we put out a triple reefed jib and turned up to get up the west side of the island. We hit 9.5 knots boat speed. That is with VERY little sail out. The swells that up until then were helping push us along are now hitting us broadside. Very noisy very wet. Mr. Toads wild ride. Saw 50 knots of wind at one point. Gale force. Would have taken in more jib but it would have been a bit unsafe at the time. The boat did great but I was sure tired by the time we got in. Three days or so with very little sleep. Gosh this is fun. Not at the time mind you. But afterword. A couple of monohullers we were talking to in the marina as we were tying up asked where we came from. Said Tonga. Asked how long it took. Said 76 hours. They were incredulous. “In those conditions?” Yup. Met another fellow some time later. When he heard what boat we were on he said “the 76 hours Tonga to west Fiji cat?” Yup. Word gets around fast in these little places.

Anyway. Here we are. In Vuda Marina. Nice place. WAY fast WIFI on the boat!! Going to be some big blogging! Only problem is we are stern to the dock wall and there is a 6-foot tide swing. You set up a plank to get across the 10 or 12 feet to the sea wall and an hour later the conditions require a different configuration. At high tide we pull the boat back and jump out of the dingy hanging on the davits onto a finger pier. That’s not to bad. Then the tide goes out and drops the dingy 6 foot. But late at night across the 2 X 10, 6 feet off the water, springing along as you go with nothing to hold onto is going to lead to a late night salt-water bath sooner or later. Not going to be pretty. Going to work on some better system as we plan to be here for a while. Have a lot of work to do and equipment to swap out. This is one expensive little hobby I have.

12 feet to the wall. Whats it going to be? Walk the plank or jump the dink. No good choice here. And the water is not something you want to be in here. Rather nasty.

So we have a lot of work to do and a lot of Fiji to see. We will be here a month. So far these are some of the nicest people we have met anywhere. And English spoken everywhere. The marina is a little loud though. The marina is essentially a big bowl with all the boats stern to in a wagon wheel configuration. And surrounding the perimeter of the bowl is a working boatyard. Grinding, welding, hammering, all day. Gets eerily quiet at night. Then 9:00 AM wham! Back at it. These people work hard!

Here is a throw back from Tonga. Ran across this picture from dinner and an evening we spent on Vivo with a wonderful young couple who are circumnavigating on their 41 foot mono. Mi and Conni. Mi, pronounced Me, from Japan, speaks three languages. Conni, pronounced Connie, from Sweden, would not fess up to how many languages he speaks but Mi said it was a lot. I think Angolan was one of them of all things. Anyway what an interesting and hilarious couple. He sounds like a Swedish Borat when he talks. Sorry Conni but its true. The stories they told had us in stiches for hours. So we get talking about boat names and how one arrives at one. Their boat name means white horse in some language. Vivo means Live. Or if you had read some earlier posts, in some South Pacific islands means nasal flute. So out come the nasal flutes (We have four. Doesn’t everyone?) and Lorenzo taught Mi the theme from the Pink Panther. Hope to see them again. They are a hoot. Safe travels Mi and Conni.

Lorenzo, Mi and Conni. Fun night on Vivo

New crew coming. Dave, an old friend but a stinkpot power boater, (going to make a sailor out of him), and Glada, Lorenzos girlfriend who he has not seen in 7 months. All onboard in the next week or so. That is the crew through Australia.

Side note: There is a pandemic of a mosquito born illness called ckiungunya throughout the pacific. It’s all over the Caribbean as well. If you haven’t heard of it Google it. It’s as far north as New York. It’s rather serious and I would guess it’s going to continue to spread. Its epidemic in Tonga. We cover ourselves in bug spray and hope for the best. We were in quarantine entering Fiji until a health inspector came on board. Interviewed us and fumigated the boat. Someone is going to get it though. There are about 100 people in the ARC at the moment. And none of us like bug spray.

More to follow as we get out and about some. See some Fiji.

M

Vivo

Was asked to post some more info and pixs of the boat. Vivo is a 60 foot cat. Built in France. Fountaine Pajot. Model called Eleuthera. Which is an island in the Bahamas I think. Sleeps 8 quite comfortably. Makes 8 knots pretty easily. Surfs 14.5 pretty scarily. My home for the next 17,000 miles or so. Awesome boat. So much living space. Great passage making platform. If you are silly/dumb enough to want to sail around the world this is a great way to do it.

Here are some shots of Vivo under way. The first ones are flying the Parasailor. We came across another ARC boat 500 miles west of Bora Bora on our way to Niue. They took the shots. Photo credits to Bradley on Alpharatz. Thanks Bradley.

There is a shot of our newest sail. An 80% heavy construction asymmetrical spinnaker. Can be flown in up to 35 knots. And we did. And holy smoke did we fly! Many thanks to Nexus for not only turning me on to this idea but actually loaning me his spare to try out. Which is crazy. I’m not giving it back! His replacement for this loaner is on order and coming from South Africa to Fiji.

In some conditions the Parasailor is faster. Its 188 sq meters. Huge. But you have to get it down at about 25 knots or risk blowing it up. In big following seas and big winds the heavy Asym is gold. We have a pretty well rounded out sail inventory now. NOW, the task is to not blow anything up. And as a fleet, the ARC is pretty good at blowing sails up. Sail repair shops love it when we come in.

One quick funny story about the Parasailor. It can be a chore to get it down. You luff it, (dump the wind out of it), and pull down on its snuffing sock. But if it catches its wind again while you are coming down it will take you right off the deck. Happened to Lorenzo one time. Maybe because he only has 110 pounds of Lorenzo to pull with. He has taken to calling the Parasailor “flying the Italian.” As in “Are we going to fly the Italian today?” That kid is a riot. He must be funny as heck in Italian because he is really funny in English. His third language.

Video of Vivo doing about 10 knots. Pacific crossing. Very very nice day of sailing

And in a rare moment when I wasn’t trying to fix something, break something, not hit something, hit something, catch something, kill something, or eat something, Lorenzo took this picture of me. Tizz I, your humble captain.    Michael.

peace

M

Tonga

Passage from Niue was not fun. Big winds. Big rains. And rather cold. Blew a couple of holes in the Parasailor. No sleep. Glad it was a short one. Came in in the dark and I will never do that again. It was dark like the inside of an inkwell. And the anchoring was quite close to shore. A shoreline I could not even see. Got some damage in the anchor locker from overrunning the chain as it let out. My bad. That will cost some boat bucks!

Clearing in was the usual circus of sorts. 4 or 5 people from various departments. Nice people. Raining, cold, they traipsed all over the salon in their best boots. Then off to a mooring ball and exploration of Tonga.

Our friends on Nexus met an Australian couple on a Gunboat Cat who have been here for 2 months. They have a lot of local knowledge and that is like finding gold. Next day after clearing in we hit the market for fruit and vegies to last a week and set out, the three of us cats, to see some spots they had been to previously. Went to a cave along a cliff wall that you dive down to enter into. Drove Vivo up to about 75 feet from the cliff wall to drop off the divers. The water dropped straight down from the island. Quite something. Three catamarans sweeping by to drop off and pick up swimmers. So close to the wall you could hit it with a ham sandwich. Then off to a small anchorage where we are the only three boats.  Near a reef called the Coral Gardens. Had a fun potluck dinner on Nexus and got to know the owners of Kiapa and their two guests from Perth. Nice folks.

Sorry, I am sure you are getting tired of me saying this but…. Just when you least expect it someone or something comes along. This time in the form of a Tongan family who live on the island we are anchored off of. They are its only residents. We have seen them come and go in their family boat. The Ausies have been here a while and know the family a bit. They said that they would roast a pig on the beach for us if we were interested. Well, duh? Yeah were interested. Details please. They provide the roasted pig, we provide everything else. For a donation that amounts to about 10 bucks each. Were in. Heck Yeah. Vivo, Nexus and the Ausies.

So we load up a picnic and head out around the corner to a small beach. And by small I mean about 75 foot of beach in between some pretty awesome coral cliffs. We get there before the family arrives and start setting up and anchoring our dinks. Not mine. The friggin Honda has crapped out again. Bummed a ride with Nexus. The family, who we have not met yet, arrives in their somewhat dilapidated fiberglass panga loaded down with firewood, kids, (5 or 6) and a small pig that about an hour ago thought he/she was in a pretty good place in life. Sorry dude/dudet. You’re on the menu tonight. So they proceed to unload the boat as it runs aground on the beach. He didn’t seem to mind. He left the boys, ages about 8 or 9 to tend to the boat and set about getting the fire going. The boat is now beaching and scraping and banging away. We jump in to help and the kids just kind of stepped back and thought…. Heck if these idiots want to keep this boat off the reef who are we to get in the way. I think the Dad knew he had a 3 inch thick fiberglass hull and this was not going to do any damage but….  let the tourists play.

Fire woods ashore. Pig is ashore. Beach being prepped for a roast. All good. They build this big hot fire and toss the pig right on it. It’s been slit and bleed out but the rest is all there. Not gutted. All hair and all. So, burn off and scrape the hair. Smelled great. Slice it up the butt and get the guts. Smelled great. Stick the guts on a stick and set one of the boys to roasting it over the fire. Smelled great. Liver, heart, some smaller bits. All on a stick and over the fire.  Big long pole that Dad (David) chopped down from the tree line. In one end of little piggy and out the other.  And onto the spit.  Forked stick at one end of the fire and David turning the stick on the other end. This is no Weber rotisserie.  This is literally a pig on a stick on a fire. Hand held. We took turns turning the spit and after about an hour and a half you have a perfectly roasted pig. And some really good pix of us taking turns tuning the spit.  And you actually have to go rather fast. Probably three rotations a minute. Or the fat ignites and you get yelled at for burning the pig. The kid with the guts on the stick is catching the dripping fat and roasting the entrails in it. The liver was pretty good. The other parts. Not so much so. As it cooked the 9 year old would come around with the stick and a knife and cut you off pieces of the gut pile. Didn’t sell particularly well but we all try it. Well, most of us did. Unique presentation anyway. Little kid with a big smile, stick full of charred guts, medium sized sharp knife, here you go!

Cooking complete they pulled the pig off the stick and started to carve it up. It, along with the side dishes we had brought, made for a truly spectacular feast. Sight, sound, smells. We loaded up our plates and stood in the encroaching tide with the waves lapping at our feet. No kidding. We had the tide coming in and the beach was going away. We ate standing in the surf.  They have flying foxes here. Nice name for a giant fruit bat. They were circling the area. I think the fire attracting bugs maybe. Huge wingspan. Hope they just like fruit and not ARC cruisers.

Then David got out a guitar. I had seen it in the boat. No case. Just lying there. One of his kids was playing with it on the beach. Sand covered. Rusty strings. And he played for us while we ate. And the kids had some songs they did with their Dad. They were beautiful. We were speechless. This family, who by our standards, have virtually nothing, singing together, clearly enjoying each other’s company, and more strangely, ours! They were incredible. I would have to post about a hundred pictures to do justice to the evening. This family, this place, and this moment were something.

Lorenzo played and sang beautifully. I played and sang and dogs howled. Then we said goodnight to our wonderful hosts. On the tiny beach in Tonga, with the family and the little pig to roast. These are the experiences that we all came here for. This one was off the charts. We are trying to figure out what we can do to repay the kindness. They said they need tarps. Because of the damage from last years cyclones. I wish I had brought my old mainsail. Don’t know where I would have stashed it to get it here but holy cow what a tarp that thing would be. We gave them a large canvas sail bag, and some fishing gear. Wish I had a 20 x 40 blue tarp. It would make a difference in the quality of some ones life. Kind of puts things in perspective doesn’t it.

But anyway. That was a long way of saying…..   That was one unforgettable night.

Guts on a stick. Nothing better!

Virgin Islands Beer Club in Tonga!

So, current status of Vivo: Dinghy is dead. Friggin Honda will not run. POS. Hoping to replace it in Fiji. I will toss it overboard. It has 106 hours on it and it is &^%$#ed. We row and bum rides and tows wherever we go. But one boat was out of gas so I was able to give them enough to get by. They asked if it would leave me short? %%$## Dingy doesn’t run. The only reason I need gas is to torch the %$$#@ thing. That will only take a gallon or so, so the rest I can loan out.

Wrapped a line in the prop coming back into the mooring field. Totally my fault. I was dragging a filter to clean it out and forgot and left it in the water. Wrapped the line, blew up a line clutch, stalled out the port engine. What fun. All good though. All fixable. With parts that the next crew will fly in with.

Due to an anchoring in the dark mishap and resulting damage I have about one more anchor drop and retrieval before it is shot. I have to get to Fiji on a “sufferance clearance” and get to someplace to facilitate some repairs. I’m sure that will be cheap. Our day-to-day activities are extremely limited now due to the mechanical issues we have. And this is definitely not the place to get anything fixed. There is nothing here. I need an engine, hull repair, stainless welding, and a s$$^t load more wine or I am going to loose my mind. Past tense on that one maybe.

So its not all fun in the sun. Actually we have two days of rain in the forecast. So its not all fun in the rain. Feel sorry for me yet? No? Who gets to do this stuff?

It has been a very eventful couple of days. Fiji should get a nice boost $$$ from us arriving. We have some things to get done. If there is such a thing a Fiji stock. Buy some now before I give them the economic boost that Vivo will provide.

All for now. That was probably more than enough anyway.

M