Musket Cove anchorage!

Beautiful view from the top of the hill!  The light coloured bits are reefs!  You can just see Toketie....dark hull to the far right!

On a hike!

....miles from nowhere....

Take a hike!

Eh!

Coconut Plantation!

The ubiquitous coconut!

....great with rum!

Andre, Sivo & Manasa

These young pastors were collecting sea cucumbers on the reef at low tide!

Sunset in Musket Cove!

....and another glorious day comes to a close in Fiji!

Relaxing!

Actually got into the water yesterday!  First time since Tonga last year.  The Island Cruising Association rally fleet were having a picnic on a sand bar, at least for a few hours they were, till the sand bar disappeared with the tide!  I drifted out to the edge and snorkelled over some beautiful clumps of live coral full of tropical fish.  Later we inflated the kayaks and spent a couple of hours drifting around the bay.

Today was a 'pool' day!  Hot sun drove us in to swim in the pool and lounge on the beach.  Tonight we will have Tom & Dawn from 'Warm Rain' over and say goodbye as they prepare to leave with the 20 rally boats to Vanuatu.

We will stay behind and struggle to maintain this hectic pace!

The view from our deck!

This is the Fiji we were looking for!  

Life's a 'Beach'!

Watch out for falling coconuts!  Lounge chairs all along the beach!  Hammocks galore!  And the sunset....every night!

The pool at Musket Cove!

This resort is very 'yachtie' friendly!  We have complete access to all their facilities.  Enjoying the pool!

The Island Bar!

$2 drinks!  bar b q pits!  laid back folks!  jimmy buffet where are you?

Paradise found!

Today we finally arrived in Fiji!  At least it felt that way, the hot tropical sun, the white sandy beaches, the clear water and coloured fishies!  We left the Vuda Point Marina after our two day haulout and patch to the minor damage caused by the reef.  Shortest haulout this year, mind you it was also the third haulout this year!

We motored in very light air across a flat sea to Malolo Lailai Island in the Mamanuca Group.  I can see why people spend extra to fly here.  It is truly beautiful and that's not only because we spent the last two months in rainy Suva!

We are connecting with friends we have not seen since NZ, tonight we went in for the bar b q at the Island Bar where they fire up the pits and you bring your own to throw on the fire.  The climate here is very comfortable with a nice breeze to offset the heat of the tropical sun and it cools off enough at night to sleep!

In fact, we like it so much here we have decided to park Toketie for the cyclone season and fly home to reconnect with family and friends.  

Meanwhile it is time to relax and enjoy this incredible place!  Tomorrow is a beach day!  The first since Tonga last year and we are due, the list of boat chores can wait....at least another day!

Good news!

Today we hauled out to survey damage from going on the reef on Snake Island!

minor scratches to bottom of keel!

what a relief!  After pounding on the reef for almost an hour, this is the only superficial damage we sustained!  Now we appreciate why we have a steel boat!

Seke!

Seke works for Baobab, the only game in town.  Very professional, very knowledgeable and took care of us same day!  Also a nice guy eh!

primer coat

After sanding down the area with a grinder, Seke applied the first coat of primer!

epoxy coat

same day, second coat of epoxy applied....we are lookin' good!

Snake Island!

At high tide you cannot see the reef but this is where Toketie went aground at 3AM when a squall came through and broke us from the mooring!  No snakes in sight at the time fortunately!

The dock at Tradewinds anchorage

This is what we scrambled up and down on every trip to town.  It was much steeper at low tide!

Vuda Point Marina

Toketie is now stern tied with two lines to moorings and bow tied with two lines to the concrete shore.  To get off, we pull one of the forward lines in and step off the bowsprit onto the stubby dock alongside.  We are scheduled to haulout and survey the bottom tomorrow to ascertain whether we were damaged on the reef.  It is definitely sunnier this side of Fiji.  Today the wind is up though with 30 knot gusts out of the SE.  We are safely sheltered in the marina though and spoiling ourselves with hot showers, boat washdowns and a laundromat!  Last night we even found half price pizza night at a nearby resort.  Feels like luxury after living on the hook for so long!  

Keep on the sunny side!

Another 12 hr day saw us around to the W side of Fiji. Even got to sail some of it! Anchored in Momi Bay as the sun set in the sea to the W of us with darkness close behind. Will relax here for two nights before going into Latauko to clear in. Much clearer sky and sunnier here than Suva. Last night a billion stars turned the sky to a magic canopy with the Southern Cross always hanging in the S.

left Suva!

Toketie has finally left Suva! Almost 2 months gone by there. Now anchored about 40nm West and half way to Lautoka. Weather sun and cloud with 20kt tradewind pushing us along.

Toketie heading to Oz!

We just had multiple entry long term visas approved for Australia so have decided to bypass Vanuatu this year and head for New Caledonia before making our way to Brisbane, Australia or nearby for the cyclone season.  But first we still have to go around to the other side of Fiji and haulout to make sure we did not sustain any major damage to the hull.
If anyone reading this has contact information for John & Masumi or Ted & Helmie in Australia, pls email it to us or post it as a comment on the blog.
Sun shining today!

Still in Suva!

We are still in Suva!  One thing after another seems to delay us.  Getting close to ready now and looking at the weather for a chance to slip around the corner to Lautoka area.

More tails from the snake pit!

Outboard motor is running again!  Finding pieces of dead snake daily as they come flying out the flywheel!  Still stinks in there so there must be more.  Gearshift no longer shifts so when you crank the engine, its off you go!  Speaking of which, we hope to be ready to go in a few days!

July 1st – Canada Day Eh!

A day in the life of a cruiser!

Actually let's start the evening before.  Sitting in the cockpit at dusk, fortunately we do not have a problem with bugs here.  The sun has gone down and we are enjoying a glass of a blended dry French red wine!  Buying wine here is always a gamble.  Most of it comes from New Zealand or Australia.  Anything else costs an arm and a leg.  This particular blend of French is quite drinkable, though our standards may have changed somewhat from the days of storing hundreds of bottles in the cellar, all individually chosen and brewed to perfection by our own personal winemaker at Grapes to Glass Winery in Victoria!  But those days are long gone and now we get by on what we can find and what we can afford.  As we gaze off into the SW, lightning flashes illuminate the horizon, forecasting the thunderstorms we have been led to expect.  But today we had enough sun to keep the batteries up so treated ourselves to a movie.  We are adding to our collection from the street vendors selling pirated movies for $1 or $2 and that is Fijian $ so really only costing half that!  Tonight's treat, 'Nim's Island', a delightfully light family story with a bit of the S Pacific thrown in!

Morning brought overcast skies but the rain seems to have paused momentarily so I remove the shattered piece of glass from the dodger to take in as a pattern.  A small blue cloud can be heard overhead but fortunately is hidden by the large gray clouds filling the sky.  Cutting a broken piece of glass out of its caulking in the heat and 99% humidity proves to be a challenge but perseverance will out and what's left of it is bundled between two pieces of plywood for transport to the glass cutting place.  Yogurt and bananas for breakfast and just as we drop the dinghy into the water, the heavens open up and a deluge sets in!  So we abandon all hope of going to town and pick up our books again.  But within the hour, the rain lightens up so we make a dash for it and with our new umbrella over us, manage to make it to the dock in a light sprinkling and decide to take a taxi for all of $4f to the glass place.  We leave it and walk downtown, stopping at an internet café to check the email as the wifi onboard was not working this morning.  We have also found an Acer laptop dealer in town and they claim they can get a new motherboard to replace the one we lost in the knockdown last fall.  So we are communicating with them to see if it is possible.  Its only about a 20 minute walk downtown so we dodge the rain, hiding under our umbrella and shuffle down among the hustle and bustle of the city core!

We find the narrow stairway going up to the small room that is Rainbow Jewelers where Linda left a pearl from Polynesia a few days ago to be mounted on a pendant.  Work like that is very inexpensive in Fiji.  The quality is a bit crude but I guess we can look back on it someday and remember how it came about!

By this time we are getting hungry and though we usually find a curry place full of locals, today we want something lighter and find some fish and chips in a mall.  A few items from the supermarket for dinner, a couple of bottles of wine and we walk back to find the glass cut and ready.  The heavens open once again and we hide under overhangs of building to hail a cab which takes us back to the dilapidated fisheries dock and our dinghy.

Shuffling carefully down the slippery ramp and around the holes and piles of rubble, we load our treasures in the dinghy and climb aboard under a light rain. We cast off and much to my surprise the pull cord on the outboard does not return and the engine did not start.  As we drift away from the dock and the rain begins in earnest, the little blue cloud can once again be heard to hover over me!  But I pull the cover off the top of the outboard and jump back as the tail of a coral snake greets me thrashing from within the top of the engine!  Seems one of the little guys has crawled up inside and when I pulled the cord, I must have wrapped it around the spring.  Now what?  I can't see the snake as he is now buried inside the pulley the starter cord wraps around to crank the engine.  Hmmmm!  So I poke the end of the umbrella along the edge trying to rewind it manually.  Remember these little coral snakes, though not aggressive, are one of the most venomous snakes in the world and this guy is probably not happy at the moment!  For more info check out 

http://www.tigerhomes.org/animal/banded-sea-snake.cfm

I managed to rewind the cord, the tail of the snake disappearing in the process and give it a yank, hoping to release the snake and the engine but to no avail.  Once more, I rewound it manually and gave it a yank!  This time Linda, who likes snakes about as much as Indiana Jones does, lets out a shriek that has me jumping up and down in the dinghy in the rain, thinking the thing has gotten loose and is about to attack me!  Then I notice about 4 inches of snake, the tail end, lying in the bottom of the dinghy.  I guess cranking the cord ripped it up inside and it must be wound around the pulley.  At this point the rain is starting in earnest and the wind is picking up so we row our way out to Toketie and unload our precious cargo, leaving the poor Laticauda colubrina, or what's left of it, to fend for itself inside the outboard.

We are soaked to the skin but having replaced the hot water heater only days before, hot showers were in order.

This followed by a bottle of bubbly they threw in when we bought the wine and much laughing about how the day went.  So warm and dry and home again with a new piece of glass that might get put in tomorrow, weather permitting.

A stiff rum and coke, some wine with a fresh pasta dinner and cruiser's midnight sneaks up on us at the usual 9PM!  

As we drift off, exhausted, dreaming of snakes, we wonder what tomorrow might bring!

"On the Rocks!"

This however was not the traditional with two cubes of ice!  

I have been procrastinating reporting this adventure partly not to concern people and partly because it affected us more than we would care to admit.  About a week ago, at 3AM on Monday morning (these things always happen in the middle of the night) the mooring we were on broke at the bottom and we woke up with Toketie hard aground on a reef.  Fortunately it was at the inside edge of Snake Island, a small island in the bay we were in.  The wind had been up off and on all night, and I had been up off and on with it.  But during one of my naps, we drifted across the bay and struck bow first into the reef.  The wind, of course, had picked up again and was now pushing us sideways as we were jammed between two high spots below us.  It was an extremely unnerving experience.  We both scrambled out, got the engine going (luckily we did not have a fuel pump in pieces) and put it into reverse and gave it as much power as we dared.  The rudder was jammed in the rocks and we did not move at all.  The tide looked to be very high and that meant if we did not get off soon, we would be high and dry in a few hours and lying on our side!  We then got on the VHF radio and placed a Mayday call to anyone listening, hoping to get a power boat to help pull us off.  A local Fijian boat came back and was too far to assist but phoned the police on a cell phone and relayed that they were heading to their boat at the yacht club in the next bay and would make their way over to us.  This did not sound like it would help us in time.  Another local cruiser in a catamaran heard us and responded as well.  They were anchored at the yacht club and could not navigate the reefs to our bay in the dark but offered to assist at first light if necessary.  We thanked them and signed off.  I then went back to trying to budge the boat using the engine.  I could manage very small motion forward but since that was driving it up on the reef, I put her in reverse again and left her running at high revs.  By the grace of Neptune or whoever looks after fools, children and sailors, a big gust of wind came along at just the right time, heeled us over enough to break free and we slowly crawled backwards away from Snake Island and into the howling wind.  In darkness we anchored somewhere in the middle of the bay, dug the hook in, breathed a huge sigh of relief, cancelled the Mayday call and made a pot of coffee!

If bad things happen in threes, this would be the third for us!  Our knockdown last fall out of Tonga, the recent storm and losing the engine, and now going on a reef so hopefully its all sunny skies from here.  Fiji has been rough on us in some ways.  On the brighter side, we have actually enjoyed our forced stay in Suva!  The engine is now repaired.  Today we found a place that can make us a new panel of safety glass for the dodger (did I mention that falling out on the passage?), the people are very friendly.  

Yesterday I dinghied over to the owner's home to meet him.  He was aware of what happened, as I had talked to his brother the next day when they were repairing another mooring in the bay.  Tony Philp is an Australian businessman who owns several marinas and chandlery shops in Fiji and we had been told that he is very approachable.  So after a brief chat, he offered to lift Toketie for free at Vunda Point Marina so we could examine the bottom more thoroughly.  We know we have scratches to our new paint job on the keel but further than that we cannot tell here.  Vunda Point is about two days away (depending how many stops we make) and on the West side of the island.  We have decided now to skip the more remote Northern areas we wanted to explore and head around to the West side where there are more resorts and tourists but supposedly it is sunnier there as well and the water will be clear enough to swim in some of the anchorages.

This cruising life can be trying at times!  Will try to have something cheerier to report on the next episode of the trials and tribulations of the Toketie and crew!

New fuel pump!

Well, the fuel pump arrived today!  All went smoothly through customs with no duty or taxes for a yacht in transit.  And the good news is, it fits!  So today's job was to remove the old one and replace it with the shiny new one that does not leak.  Then the fuel lines had to be bled and primed but all is well now and our engine is back on line.  So we have a few errands to do while in the city and now we are thinking of skipping the Northern section and just going around to the West side of Fiji, the sunny side apparently!

Mooring!

This kind Australian businessman has generously allowed us to use one of his moorings while in the bay!

Waiting for Godot!

That is Godot, the fuel pump…with apologies to Samuel Beckett!

Hard to believe we have been in Suva for 2 ½ weeks now. The Eastern side of the islands really is the rainy side, although we did have a few nice sunny days recently. The village of Lami is nearby and it is a short walk in for bread and eggs. The Fisheries dock where we park the dinghy though is falling apart. That does not seem to deter the workboats that are crowded around it. But it is no longer connected to the wharf and two planks with boards nailed across them allow access between the semi-submerged, somewhat afloat section of dock and the concrete wharf. One treads carefully up and down this slope that varies with the tide, trying not to step into the holes that would easily submit your entire leg to the murky waters below. Our neighbors on the only other yacht moored in the bay tell us they have found small black and white banded, highly venomous sea snakes in their dinghy several times now. We have not been so fortunate yet!

Water is available at the wharf. Our hose fittings do not fit so we cannot use the filter. On asking if we could fill some jugs with water to carry back, the workers on the dock directed me to the Fisheries building about 10 minutes down the road and said to talk to Saresh. Well I found him and he was a very busy looking official with piles of paper on his desk. Once he realized we did not want to pull Toketie up to the dock but only wanted to fill some jugs with water, he was quite relieved and directed us to Captain Liga (pronounced Linga) who is responsible for security at the dock. Liability was his major concern!

The bustling downtown city of Suva is only a 20 minute bus ride away and at $1.60Fijian (about .85Cdn) for both of us, it is fast and easy to ride the noisy, diesel fumed, public transport filled with easy going Fijians, East Indians and a pot pourri of Melanesian culture. Riding home last night as the sun was setting, the whole city was alive with people looking forward to a long weekend. We thought NZ drivers were aggressive! Here, they are crazy! But its all done lightly and no one shouts at anyone, the horn honking is carried out with big smiles and a complete lack of competitiveness or at least a general acknowledgement that it doesn't really matter who gets there first. The whole city reminds me a lot of India, the smell of street vendors preparing cheap food for the workers mingled with the faint odor of raw sewage in the humid tropical air.

On board Toketie, we have managed to completely remove, disassemble and strip down three of the portholes, a project we meant to do in NZ but never had enough dry weather to carry out. The metal behind the portholes was worn over time and rust was seeping out the edges. It was a bigger job than anticipated, always is somehow, but they are all re-sealed and re-painted inside, with new rubber gaskets and should hopefully last another 20 years. Only 7 more to go! The sandy beach on the island around the corner beckons. Maybe today we will take the dinghy around and explore it. A local told us it is municipal property with a caretaker living on it and it costs $1F to use the beach.

Thunderstorms forecast for later this evening, then more sun and rain tomorrow. Meanwhile time is drifting away as the rhythms of Fiji blend one day into another. Looking forward to getting out and exploring some of the more remote islands, swimming in crystal clear coral lagoons and meeting the locals!

A day in the country!

Our friend, Rakesh, had to drive out to a resort to fix their generator and offered to take us along for the ride.  It was a very pleasant day and we got to see some of the interior of Viti Levu.  An hours drive or so saw us take a winding gravel road over a hill and down to Waidroka Bay where a beautiful little resort was located on a beach inside the reef.  We wandered the grounds and had a very nice lunch.  The resort caters mainly to surfers as nearby are some of the primo surf destinations.

Tradewinds Hotel

We are moored near the old Tradewinds Hotel which is partially open and mostly under renovation.  The bay is pleasant, though not clean enough to swim, and the people are very friendly.

Two steps forward, one step back....

We have moved to Draunibota Bay, the next over from where the yacht club was!  Still in Suva, the capital of Fiji but now on a mooring ball in front of the old Tradewinds Hotel which is under renovation.  The bay is more sheltered, cleaner and the little town of Lami is about a 20 minute walk down the highway.  A bus can take us into Suva for pennies.  Might try that today!  There is one other cruising boat here and they have been here for three months.  We are the first other boat they have seen in that time.

The good news with the engine was that we cleaned the tank and fuel lines and got it running again, only to discover that the fuel pump was leaking.  No luck sourcing one here so had a friend back in Victoria locate one.  Now all we have to do is get it here from California and hope it fits!  Meanwhile we are on the rainy side of Fiji so it is overcast most of the time with occasional rain showers.  When we get the pump installed, we should be able to head off to some of the Northern Islands and see some of the 'real' Fiji.

Port of Suva

not exactly the way the brochures showed it....

but the neighbours are friendly...

Suva fisherman!

Suva, Fiji!

May 29, 2009 and we have now had our first good nights sleep in two weeks!  After the 50 kt winds and big seas that struck us as we approached the Koro Sea, and then losing our engine, we are relieved to be here safely.  We did have to be towed in but that is working out well as the engineering firm that ran the salvaged tug also lent us one of their mechanics to help diagnose the engine problem.  Seems the cork gaskets they used to seal the access hatches to the fuel tanks in Mexico disintegrated and clogged the fuel lines.  The good news is that no damage was done to the injectors and the fuel pump did not fail, either of which would have been expensive to repair.  So the engine is running again and we only have to clean out the tanks and replace the gaskets.  Another post-Mexican poor quality of work symptom!

So though we are anchored in a dirty busy commercial port in Suva, the capital of Fiji, we actually really like it here.  It is very 'real'!  The little yacht club is friendly and the Fiji Gold beer is cold and cheap.  You have to watch for hustlers and pickpockets if you go downtown but most people are very pleasant.

We will get the engine sorted out and think about exploring some of the more remote islands next week!  Sorry for the delay in communications!  Had very low battery power after attempts at engine repair at sea!

The camel's back!

Toketie is diverting to Suva. The best efforts of the skipper to get the old diesel engine running were defeated. Becalmed and adrift for over a day in the Koro Sea, we are now underway, slowly to meet a tow that will take us into the port. All is well on board, though if pressed we may admit to a bit of fatigue!

Twas a night!

Most wind we have ever been in (so far)! Seems a small High Pressure system developed locally and no one forecast it. We clocked 47 knot winds but rode it out under trysail fairly comfortably. Seas were very large with spume blowing horizontally off the tops! Quite impressive really! Now back down to normal and making our way to Savu Savu. Have not had a chance to figure out why the engine quit a few days ago!

last leg

Still 200 miles to go through the Koro Sea among the islands of Fiji. Forecast is for headwinds so we will have to work for it!

Day 10 NZ to Fiji

330 nautical miles to Savu Savu, Fiji. Steady 20-25 kt winds from SE for days...making good time but hanging on in big seas is tiring! Reading lots of books...Agatha Christie to Sir Walter Scott!

Wonderful sailing!

The milky way spills through the night sky, alight with a billion stars! The seas are kind and one could wish for naught but that tall ship, the fair wind and a GPS to steer her by!

Day 8

Passage from New Zealand to Fiji! We seem to have finally picked up the tradewinds. Nice steady 20-25 kt from the South East. Great sailing overnight and still holding today. Making better progress on the rhumb line to Fiji!

Rockin n Rollin!

Wind came up in the night! Gusts to 35 kts! Had to go out in the rain and reduce canvas. Seas building. But we are now heading in the right direction and making better progress. Love that trysail! Mate is in the galley making pancakes...she is a keeper! :)

Distance!

We have now covered about 50 nautical miles and have about 800 to go to Savu Savu, Fiji. That takes into account the extra 120 or so we went West to avoid a low pressure system. We are now back on track and at least pointing towards Fiji. Of course the wind has been coming from that direction but has just clocked around to the South and is behind us again. It is forecast to stay South and East of us now for the rest of the way! We can only hope!

Snailing along!

Very little wind at the moment! Motor-sailing way too much. Eating well though and getting more sleep. The passage rhythm has taken over.

S/V Elusive

Sad to report that last night S/V Elusive reported to Pac Sea Farers that they were taking on water. Within 2 hours she was abandoned. Steve, Wendy and son Allan are all safe on board S/V Scarlett O'Hara who were nearby to assist. We are now sailing on the S edge of a low that is giving us strong winds and big seas. We hope to go around it by tonight and then get back on course for Fiji! All well on board Toketie...though somewhat tired!

Birthday Greetings!

Not quite what we planned for Linda's bday but seems we cannot control the weather! Beautiful sunny calm day out here! No wind and motoring West! Yes, West! Fiji is NE but we are going West! Why? Because all of a sudden their seems to be a very deep low forming directly ahead of us with with strong winds and big seas. The boats ahead of us have actually turned back and are headed south! So this must be the calm before the storm! Expected to hit us about midnight tonight but by going West we hope to stay on its 'good' side! Say your prayers tonight eh! :) Oh for a life on the bounding main...

3rd day out

Had a great overnight sail! Clear sky, half moon, gentle breeze! We are in passage mode now and forecast ahead is light winds.

Toketie en route!

We cleared customs early Wed NZ time and are now about 130 nm offshore en route to Savu Savu, Fiji. Good winds all night, lumpy seas but we are sailing and making good progress. Looking forward to warmer weather!

Adieu NZ?

The large very disturbed low pressure system that has been bringing strong winds and heavy rains to most of NZ is predicted to move off on Wednesday (Monday today)!  And about time too!  So even though it may leave a trail of sloppy seas and unpredictable winds in its wake, we are tired of 'provisioning' for the last time so unless they forecast a tropical storm, we intend to clear out and head North.  Meanwhile we left the mooring in the bay today for a couple of nights at the dock.  We can plug in and charge the batteries, plug in the electric heater and Linda can even use her hair dryer!   The dinghy is hoisted and stowed on deck.  The anchors are lashed down.  Time to get the TV out and watch another episode of 'The Tudors'!!!!

wither the weather!

Missed a pretty good weather window but were not ready!  Another low pressure system on its way so might have to wait for it to pass and try to ride the back of it out of NZ...maybe by the weekend!  

Putting the fire on at night and in the morning to take the chill off.  Heavy fog yesterday!  Fall in NZ!

Ship Trak position reports

Check this out!   Seems Pacific Sea Farers that we maintain radio contact with when on passage also update this site with a google earth background.

 

Enter our callsign VA7DXF in the callsign box and watch Toketie's track across the Pacific!

 

http://www.shiptrak.org/

 

Yotreps and Winlink Position reporters will be active again when we leave NZ but they drop the record if you do not report for a week.

Provisioning!

....one of many loads....now where to put it...and more importantly...how to find it again!

Tucker Thompson under almost full canvas!

The local square rigger on a breezy reach!  Derek....we should be on it!

last night at anchor!

glow of the sunset off the rocks in Otaia Bay

Snowed in!

Not literally of course!  But 'snowed in' is what it feels like lately.  Unless you grew up in the tropics, you will all know what it is like when the big storm hits and the roads and schools are closed and no one goes to work except policemen, firemen and people who own honking big four wheel drive SUVs and need to justify all that gas the rest of the year!

We, however, having made our way back to Toketie yesterday afternoon against strong headwinds and whitecaps, are now riding it out on the mooring.  Our poor little four horse Johnson outboard could just barely make progress and threatened to run out of gas at any moment, which would have seen us blown back to the marina!  It almost feels like we are at sea, with the boat moving to the seas and the wind howling in the rigging.  It is not uncomfortable out here but not worth the dinghy ride in so we relax, do research, read books, drink coffee and stare out the porthole at the raging blizzard, metaphorically speaking!  For fun, we turn the wind instrument on and sit in our totally enclosed cockpit shelter and watch the digital readout climb over 30 knots…all the while gazing about to see whether anyone has lost their dinghy yet!

We follow the progress of three coast guard rescues on the VHF radio, including a helicopter lift for medical reasons.  Another large sailboat managed to get 300 miles offshore and into very rough wind and seas only to have the engine fail and the sails shredded.  We saw them at the dock after being towed in.  Not sure what they were thinking as weather forecasting is a highly evolved exercise here and the systems that move across the Tasman Sea from Australia are fairly predictable.  Other than the occasional 'bomb' of course, like the famous Queen Mother storm of 1994 that caught the fleet on their passage up to the islands.  These are rare and develop so suddenly, they can not be forecast.  So we prepare for the worst and plan for the best!

Meanwhile we have applied to upgrade our boat insurance to blue water coverage again.  The new batteries (did I mention the new batteries?) have arrived but we have to wait till the weather settles down to haul the 300 pounds out and install them.

The weather gurus say it should start to calm down on Sunday, which would be the day after tomorrow!  

We are almost ready to leave New Zealand.  We have decided not to check into Suva, the capital of Fiji due to recent civil unrest.  We have been assured it does not affect the rest of the country and they eagerly welcome the cruisers so we may go further North to Savu Savu and check in at a more remote location, far from the politics that seem to plague the country.

But for now, the wind howls and we keep busy until the daylight fades and we can watch another episode of Battlestar Galactica!

Back in Opua!

Well, the Toketie crew are back in Opua on the mooring.  The weather is typical for fall in NZ, heavy rain and strong winds as low after low move across the Tasman Sea and hit the islands.  But we are getting things organized and in a couple of weeks we will be looking for a 'weather window' to escape North to warmer climates!  I know, going North doesn't sound right but you have to remember that everything is upside down on the other side of the world!

The Bay of Islands!

A dramatic coastline!

working out!

NZ style!

Urupukapuka hill trail!

Great hiking and greater views!

raupo(roofed) storage pits

The Maori hid their communal supplies of kumara in these pits, to preserve them from enemy attack!

Otaio Bay!

That is Toketie on the far right.

Urupukapuka Island

We are anchored in beautiful Otaio Bay! Today we hiked for two hours and had a picnic at the top of the island where we could look down into great chasms and many other little bays all around, as well as out to sea. Clear sky and hot in the sun but expecting 20 knots of wind tonight so should be cosy in here. Finally patched the slow leak in the dinghy which was driving us crazy! Will send pics when we get to real internet....someday!

Toketie on the move!

We finally got out of the Whangarei town basin! Nice as it was, it was time to move on. So we were up at 0630 to catch the tide down the river. By 1100 we were clear of Cape Bream and moving N. By 1500, we were anchored in Tutukaka. That was Easter Friday and today on Saturday, other than diagnosing the alternator and changing the oil and filter, we are relaxing!

The original plan to go S to Great Barrier Island had to be postponed, perhaps next season, as we spent too long tying up the loose ends in town.

Our last night in Whangarei was an enjoyable evening spent with our neighbors on the dock, Warrick and Dylis on 'Senior Moment'. They are residents and avid local sailors who made us feel very welcome while in Whangarei. The fish chowder was a wonderful treat and much appreciated.

And tomorrow we hope to take on fuel and make our way N towards the Bay of Islands where with any luck we can explore a bit before picking up the mooring in Opua to prepare for sea.

Our plan at the moment is to clear out of New Zealand before the visas expire mid-May and head N about 1100nm to Suva, where we will clear into Fiji.

Once we are underway, I should be able to post position reports in Yotreps and Winlink once again.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Sukanuk-mobile

The Nissan that Derek and Anthea from Sukanuk were so kind as to let us use while they were away is now all shined up, fueled up, vacuumed up and ready to pass on the their friends in Opua.  This is a special thank you as it made our lives in NZ so much easier!

Our medical supplies have arrived and we are fast running out of excuses to stay at the dock!  The weather is supposed to improve by the end of this week so we are now planning to head out and hopefully explore a bit of the area before making our way up to Opua for the end of April.  There we will make final preparations for the 1100nm jump to Fiji!

April 2 – still in Opua!

We seem to be delayed in Opua!

 

We sent the chain and anchors out to be regalvanized and tomorrow it will be a week overdue. We are also waiting for a package of medical supplies to arrive from Auckland. So meanwhile, we work away at the boatchore list and for every one we cross one off, we add two on!  Might be quicker to throw the list away and go hiking!

We have put in a six month supply of provisions though and that took a few trips to various supermarkets. We have located the Fiji clearance and visa application forms and are trying to figure them out! We are also looking into insurance coverage for the bluewater passage up to the islands.

So we still hope to tie up the loose ends here and head off to Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf for a bit of exploring before returning to Opua to clear customs and await a weather window to head North.

The nice weather ended yesterday with rain and strong winds so we probably would not be going far anyway.

tree trunk

....nice one!

Glow worm caves hike!

Spent a delightful few hours with Linda Wyntersea exploring caves.  We parked along a country road, followed a trail to a pasture and the cow path to the entrances.  The rock formations in the fields were spectacular and we finally solved the age old problem of whether the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence!

spelunking we did go!

...down into three such caves with streams running through and waterfalls, stalactites/mites...

glow worms

....all over the ceilings and walls...this is a close up with an arrow pointing out the worm..(click on the picture to enlarge it)....the dangling sticky tendrils are to capture the bugs flying into the caves, attracted by the glow....food for thought!

eons of erosion

leave exotic formations in the stone

strange exotic animals...

...watching our every move...

even stranger rock formations...

...litter the fields....look volcanic but weathered like limestone....

Is the grass greener on the other side of the fence?

.....obviously!

Back in the water!

Survived the second haulout and are back in the Whangarei townbasin for a bit.  Very pleased with the job they did at Rudolph's yard but it is nice to be back in the water.

 

Maybe we will go and buy some charts for Fiji!

shiny prop!

the prop has not looked this good in years!

the fix!

....so we sanded the bootstripe off and sprayed it with the green paint we carried....will have to do until the proceeds from that novel I have not written begin to pour in....

Rudolph's Day 9

......just when we thought we were out of the yard....disaster strikes!

 

All done, last coat of paint and we rip the masking tape off the waterline.....the bootstripe and green topsides came with it!

 

2 steps forward, 1 step back....

Rudolph's Day 8

....black anti fouling is applied....

Rudolph's Day 7

.....on the 6th day they rested....but on the 7th day, being Monday...they managed a coat of red ablative antifouling......only one more coat of black to go.....then we let it set for a few days and hopefully back in the water on Friday!

Taking a hike! eh!

Between paint layers we managed to find these beautiful trails along a river and through a forest of Kauri trees to a waterfall!

the river

.....great trails in Whangarei that follow streams like this...

the trail

.....through the kauri...

hiking

....the waterfall at the end of the trail....

Rudolph's Day 5

.....a great day.....following the second coat of epoxy with the first coat of hard anti-fouling.....horrible green colour but done so that when the ablative anti-fouling wears down, we know it is time to put more on!