Safe in Port

We had a fabulous sail to the Vuda Marina on Wednesday afternoon and night, enjoying easy-going wind, following seas, and a beautiful moon beam pushing us toward our destination with twinkling stars all around. As the light filled the sky with colors, we saw hills of green, welcoming us to the dry side of Viti Levi, with vibrant blue flat seas welcoming us into the inside reef serenity. We sailed until we literally stopped, due to lack of wind, very near the marina, making the most of our last day of peaceful, comfortable cruising; it was a wonderful way to end the season, helping us to immediately forget the wet, sloppy, uncomfortable passage. YEAH!  


The Vuda Marina is tiny and we are squished tightly between two yachts, with our bow tied to the circular wharf on the outside and our stern toward the center; this is how the boats are tied for hurricane season. We are temporarily here to get everything ready for the haul-out and placement in the ground on the hard. I will send pictures that show the details. The people are great, and we do have restrooms,warm showers, laundry facilities, a little store, cafe, restaurant and bar, and drinkable water. What more could a cruiser need? 


This morning I caught a ride with Milika, the manager in charge of the yachts, to Lautoka, checked in with customs at the port, made my way to the doctor's office she recommended, and Dr. Seeto asked for David to come see her. He is still not feeling well, even though we started anti-biotics yesterday, so I was able to contact him at the marina and he did make his way downtown. He does have a severe case of tonsilitus (there is a more technical name of course [Myron] ) and I am glad she did see him; now we are taking an additional medication to help get him back to health. This captain has not been a happy camper and I can't wait for him to feel better! 


While I waited for him, I browsed the municipal market that is awesome. Wish I had my camera with me; it has been a very long time since I have seen so many fresh vegetables and fruits! It will be great re-provisioning for our next season. The influence of the Indian population offers so many tantalizing tasty vegetarian treats, and it was great fun trying them. The Indian New Year's celebration of Diwali is happening this next week, and I look forward to venturing back to the city for fun. Lots of great shopping here with many stores blasting festive chants along with offering good prices, interesting little restaurants, and welcoming citizens. "Bula!" is the Fijian welcome word and it comes with a smile from everyone. I met a local Fijian woman selling tangerine juice at the market who said her choir made a trip to LA, Santa Ana, and San Diego, singing gospel music and she invited me to come hear the singing on Sunday at the Methodist church. Of course I will love that, as well as a visit to the Hindu temples in town with chanting and festivities. Looks like I am already having a great time exploring this new culture.  Pictures will help describe it all. Love to all as we ready ourselves to come home for the holidays.                          

Suva, Fiji

We are motor-sailing out of the harbor on our way to Vuda Point, which will take about 24 hours to reach from here. It was raining a bit as we left, but it seems to now be clearing, as there are wonderful patches of blue up ahead; very little wind is blowing right now, but hopefully it will freshen up and we will cruise to our next destination. (one must always dream :))  We had a wonderful restful night and I think the good night sleep was great for David. 


This morning, we took a taxi into town and hit the ATM, paid the health department, and checked out of customs, meeting warm, friendly people all along the way, in spite of the big city atmosphere; we actually look forward to coming back to Suva to shop, eat, and get to know a bit more about it. One definitely would not swim in this harbor, though! The Royal Suva Yacht Club manager, Romina, welcomed us warmly and aided in our adventure into the city; she also orchestrated the officials coming out to the boat yesterday afternoon, and our check in to the country was surprisingly smooth. All three of the officials were very cool and they made the process very easy in spite of all the horror stories we had heard about the Suva check-in. There will be internet access at the marina so the next time you will hear from us will be after we settle in tomorrow afternoon, maybe in the form of gmail.  Location: S 18 12' W 178 18'  Wind is now 15kts and we are flying! YAHOO!!

Change of Plans

Hi there. We have made a detour, set the sails for Suva and will arrive in about 3 or 4 hours to check in. Early this morning as we made our way to the next waypoint, not too far from Suva, we heard two other yachts close-by talk about the 50 kt winds they were encountering. We called Serendipity, one of the boats, and Harka told us he thought it was part of the front approaching Fiji from New Caledonia with high wind warnings. After further checking a weather source on SSB which gave us high wind warnings, and since we were so close to Suva, we made a decision to go to the "big city" instead of taking another day to work our way into the waters leading to Lautoku. Even though the check-in process is supposed to be more complicated and costly in Suva, thoughts of heading along the coral coast at night with possibilities of 50 kt winds make our pleasant sail to Suva seem like the smart response. 


Of course, now that we are heading there, the wind has subsided a bit, the skies are clearing, and perhaps it was just a random wind that came up this morning, and David just said he will feel like a "dumb shit" if Skylight and Whorrelwind, both quite far behind us, have no problems making their way to Lautoku. But I think it is important on a gut level to be as cautious as we can be; it will be fine to check out the capital city of Fiji anyway, and perhaps we can check into all of the islands in one shot this way. We just received a sailmail from Milika at Vuda Marina asking for a confirmation date of arrival and that is a great relief; we do have a guaranteed spot saved for us! YIPPEE! I will write you again tonight or tomorrow morning with an update. Our night was a grueling, squally, squishy wet one and we are so thankful to have a bit of sunshine right now. Ah, the life of a sailor!!!!   

Day 3

The seas have settled a bit today, and we are only sailing with the main out downwind averaging about 5 kts, which is fine with us. We are not rocking so much, and life is feeling much better. Both David and I have started reading novels and are somewhat settled into the routine now, although he is still feeling pretty shitty. He has been sleeping lots, and we hope tomorrow he will feel good once more. The sun shone through the clouds a bit today, and that always makes for a better passage. We have one more full day tomorrow and hope to arrive the following morning. Thanks for the info about the island; we actually saw the pictures posted by the sailors who found the island then. We heard from a couple who left four days before us that there was lots of ash in the water, so we have been keeping our eyes open. Bye for now. Suzi   Location: S 19° 01' E 179° 52' 

Day 2 of Trip to Fiji

The waves are huge and definitely not going in the direction we have to go in order to avoid a few uncharted reefs, so we are pretty much beside ourselves, thinking that sailing is probably the most uncomfortable not fun thing ever to do! Of course, it could be much worse, so, at the same time, we are couting our blessings that we have only 20-25 kt winds, that we are moving quite quickly to our destination, averaging 7.5 kts, and that we are not getting too many waves into the cockpit. One can see the advantage of having a covered cockpit, nice and dry, while traveling in this kind of weather! David has not been feeling well and I hope it goes away soon........sore throat, little temp, achey, and definitely weak. He has been sleeping most of the day and looks like he's feeling better right now. Time for me to get a bit of rest and hope the evening seas mellow out. Right now our location is: S 19 15.8'   W 177 44' We have about 350 miles to go.....ya hoo!  

On their Way to Fiji

Left this morning in about 15 to 20 kt winds, gray skies, a bit of spit, and choppy seas, but luckily the seas are better now (although doing anything below besides sleep is absurd). We are averaging about 6.5 kts on a bumpy beam reach with triple reefed main and a partial headsail. You'd love it! The skies have sort of cleared up, and a full moon just popped its head up, so we are lookin' good! We are quite close to Skylight, with Claudia and Brian from California on board, and that is comforting; several others are in the pack as well. Our location: S 18 54'  W 175 19'. I am ready for a nap before going on my watch and David is eating chicken noodle soup with Mr. Moon smiling down on him.  Wish for mellow seas.......that would be soooo nice!

Last Day in Tonga

The following pictures are from our last two days in Neiafu. Yesterday, when I made my way to the college (middle school and high school together), it had been raining all morning and school had been cancelled due to difficulty getting kids to school. So Rosilynn and I had a wonderful conversation with the vice principal, along with a tour of the very poor facility. It definitely made us fully realize that we truly are used to the land of plenty. Last night we saw the last performance done by the kids we have enjoyed getting to know and it was very special. The pictures are of Meagan, the little bright-eyed girl, Laula (or Laura), and Jasmine, the oldest, getting ready to take exams which will help her make her way to the university, if she can win a scholarship. Colette and Taupe are wonderful and we certainly do hope we can reconnect with them again someday. David would love to help Taupe finish his house........that certainly would be rewarding.  This morning's sun makes everything so vibrant, and the flowers all are doing their best to fill the air with sweet fragrance; we woke up to a fantastic rainbow which welcomed us to a pristine day in the anchorage.