Do you think we whinge too much????

Our favourite hangout in Neiafu and what we left the last days in Tonga, sigh...

Suva, says it all really

Today is probably not a good day to write my Blog.....today has not been a good day overall, then nor was yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that! Let me think? The last nice day we had was the first day on passage from Tonga. I'll fill you in.....

We left Neiafu with forecast for light, very light winds. In fact our favourite Cafe owner Lisa from Aquarium (a yachtie herself) kept asking why we were leaving when there was a forecast for no wind?? She was baffled. But we felt after the last passage from hell, we would rather light winds than be thumped by strong winds. We got a nice surprise just a few miles off Neiafu a pod of humpback whales mother and calves guarded us safely out. It was fabulous! What a great omen I thought! Just wish I had got to the camera in time. In fact I was actually on the Satellite phone talking to my Ma on deck when Geoff yelled that we were surrounded. It was a lovely farewell to a favourite destination of ours in the South Pacific.

We were motoring in very light winds when within an hour we got a nice 10 knot NE'er, then it slowly increased to 10 – 12 knots. The seas were dead calm from the days of fine windless weather Vava'u had been getting. So, it was quickly decided it was Spinnaker time!! Yep the old horse of a Spinnaker we bought second hand in Alameda from Rhode Island got dug out of the bowels of the locker and set up. With it flying nicely we were averaging around 5.5 – 6 knots, just wonderful. Yay at last a great day of sailing in the South Pacific. Hah! By dark the kite was down and by dinner time we had northerlies! By 2 am we had Northwesterlies????? By dawn of Day 2 we were dealing with 10 -15 knot NW'ers and the start of lumpy confused seas. Oh oh. Mid morning it was WESTERLY!! You got to be kidding, we were dumbfounded? This is the South Pacific milk run in winter....your not supposed to get westerlies. On top of that Geoff's minor head cold is worse and he looks terrible and sounds miserable. Throughout that day the winds clocked around to the SW. By later that night we were thumping into 15-20 knot SW'ers, water over the bow, dull sky and the boat is lurching and hobby horsing all over the place. Geoff is suffering and I'm slightly seasick. But wait it gets worse.....during the morning on Tuesday the winds increase and the boat is really pounding into it. At 10am we have a 180 long miles to go. As the wind kept fluking all around the place the seas continued to get very confused and made the boat a very uncomfortable place to be. Nothing was easy, but....you've heard that all before! Needless to say I was totally nauseous and Geoff was queazy and sick. Fun cruising, yeah right! That night we were up to 1 am as we tried to miss the reef islands that are in the Lau Group on the east side of Fiji. The wind didn't help, though it slowly backed off, it kept coming from the worst possible direction to get around these two islands right on the south end of the Lau Group. Geoff now has a fever. And had done so many trips onto the forward deck to change the whisker pole over from side to side, that I was sure he was going to drop on me, it was pretty worrying. Morning of Day 3 heading north for Suva and we have 56 miles to go and the wind is gone! We are doing 4 knots. We are going to have to enter Suva in the dark! 5 miles out of Suva and we have a friendly visit from whales, pretty close and they are Killer whales!!! Geoff called me on deck, I was stunned I thought Orca's only inhabited colder waters along the northern coasts of Canada and the US. Wow, I tell you that it was an amazing site and so close to the busy harbour of Suva....just incredible. Anyway, with Geoff's setting up of GPS co-ordinates, the Radar and the leading lights we edged our way into Suva Harbour, just as the skies started to drizzle rain and the wind started to pick up. Dropped anchor, tired and beaten by 8pm. We contacted Harbour Control on VHF channel 16 and told them of our arrival requesting clearance for the next day. Phew, now we can rest and relax. Hah!!!! Lucky we arrived when we did, it blew up to 30 knots throughout the night as a trough with an embedded low moved over the top of us. Heavy rain too. And a 56' footer who arrived the next afternoon was full of tales of high winds and damage to his roller furler. How lucky were we?

Suva. We waited Thursday for the official visitation of Quarantine and Health officers on our boat, so we could get the first part of our clearance done. By lunch they were not here? By 2 pm they were not here? By 3 pm we radioed to ask. They said stand by. We did. 45 minutes later, they returned the call. Sorry they can't come out today. I politely confirmed that, “you mean we cannot be cleared today to go ashore?” Yes. “you mean we are bound to stay on the boat till tomorrow?” Yes. “great, thank you” We tried to ease our frustration with a DVD for the afternoon, to take our minds of the curry we had planned on having ashore for dinner!! We had packet mashed potato – crumbed and pan fried with tomato sauce for dinner...yum.
So that leads to today, at last we got action, by 8.30 am the pilot boat was alongside with the two officers from Health and Quarantine. They acted shocked and sorry that we had been stuck on the boat all Thursday? Shaking of heads and tisk tisks all round. But within 20 minutes their requirements met, they were gone and we headed ashore to complete our clearance. We were told by the officers on board that Customs and Immigration would take 15 minutes and we just had to head down to the wharf area for the office.

Royal Suva Yacht Club is the Marina/Yacht Club that has remained an institution in Suva for years and years. It has that old British empire kind of feel, a little tattered around the edges but designed by and for yachties. We are anchored off the Yacht Club and you tie your dinghy to their dock and go through the Club house to get out onto the streets of Suva. The cold beers and chit chat would have to wait.

As we walked out into the street memories from 13 years ago flooded back. Ah yes the Prison is just outside the Yacht Club gates, oh the old bumpy roads, the Chinese restaurants, the greenery, the big big smiles of Fijians. A lot busier but the same. We got lost trying to find Customs. But in the end with many questions we found it is on the actual Wharf, we had to walk through the container area to get to the little office! Immigration first. The Fijian officer was friendly and efficient, yay! He said now you go around the building to the Customs officer for the final part. That was easier said then done. Eventually we found it. We were asked three times why we had not checked in earlier? Two taxi rides later to visit Health and get our cruising permit and we were cleared in. We still have to clear in to Lautoka on the west coast but that is after we clear out of Suva first. We thought we should probably try and clear out today in case the procedures took as long as it did to clear in. We are meeting Geoff's brother Peter in Nadi on Thursday. So Geoff tried to clear out, but you are given 24 hours to leave after that and that meant leaving tomorrow!!! So we will cross our fingers and hope that it is a faster procedure on Monday and get going for the west coast asap and brace ourselves for a similar experience in Lautoka in a few days!!

That leads me on to the non official part of the day, lunch was Pies and Sausage rolls. A coffee at Gloria Jeans, a cruise around the big shiny department store. Then a taxi ride back to the Royal Suva Yacht Club to join as temporary members. A couple of cold beers (yes one for me, Geoff has taught me how to drink beer on this trip!!) Purchased a Wifi card for access on the boat, a quick peak at the Olympics on the TV in the bar and back to the boat.....what a long day it has been. Tomorrow we relax, we'll get some authentic curry from the one of the many local cafe's, we'll drink cold beers at the yacht club and make the usual yachtie small talk. Filling in the time till both of Geoff's brothers arrive, Peter on Thursday and Bill on Saturday. It's going to be fantastic to have them on board and were really excited. It will be like old times on Interlude, Geodesy and Timana.

Oh the good news is that the fuel running through the filter is showing crystal clear, so Geoffs hard work of cleaning the tank of algae seems to have been successful!