Crossing an ocean without sails (but with a budget)
Discussion
For the first time in 10 days I have the seats out on rear deck !
Couldnt while on hard as they would have got filthy and last few days has been shocking weather (tail ends of big storms that luckily passed well offshore).
A very social crowd here and I have fallen in with a great crowd who meet at the bar every day at 5pm for a couple of hours.
Mrs NNK is back on Monday so Sunday will be spent cleaning and doing laundry.
Monday morning I will taxi into town for provisioning, leaving it late as fresh produce doesnt seem to last very long even when refrigerated. The taxis from the marina are expensive but they will wait for you while you shop and bring you back.
Subject to weather we will head back out Tuesday morning, better catch something while motoring as the freezer is running low on wahoo/mahimahi.
Couldnt while on hard as they would have got filthy and last few days has been shocking weather (tail ends of big storms that luckily passed well offshore).
A very social crowd here and I have fallen in with a great crowd who meet at the bar every day at 5pm for a couple of hours.
Mrs NNK is back on Monday so Sunday will be spent cleaning and doing laundry.
Monday morning I will taxi into town for provisioning, leaving it late as fresh produce doesnt seem to last very long even when refrigerated. The taxis from the marina are expensive but they will wait for you while you shop and bring you back.
Subject to weather we will head back out Tuesday morning, better catch something while motoring as the freezer is running low on wahoo/mahimahi.
Continuing main adventure -
Back to Denarau !
My daughter and her friend Michaelina were joining us for a few days, we collected them and their very heavy luggage from the commercial dock (we slipped in and out in about 20 mins) and headed over to Musket , I was tempted to say that they should jump on a ferry to and from LS but decided it would be more fun for them if we picked up and dropped off. In true ‘child of NNK’ style my daughter (then 19) got busted one night at Muskets main restaurant. Not exactly crime of the century but she had helped herself to some of the desserts at the buffet. The staff there are pretty switched on and asked her what room she was in, quick as a flash she said 16, unfortunately there is no 16 so she admitted she was on a boat and gave its name – first black mark ! She paid for one person entry to the buffet, $65FJD so lesson learnt.
A few days later and we were guestless again – hurrah ! We had no plan but did know that some of the other rally boats were heading to Vanua Levu, Fijis second largest island. We had done some grocery shopping at Den so thought ‘what the hell’ and headed north, staying reasonably close to the coastline so within the reefs.
Fish on ! No idea what it was but it took quite a bit of line before we stopped the boat and I started to haul it in, it took a while but then I saw it, a BIG mahimahi. Another 10 mins of battling and I was down on the sugar scoop with the gaff hook, I leant over at the right time to see it spit my lure out and swim away super fast – bugger.
Neednt have worried , an hour later I got another slightly smaller one onboard.
As we were motoring between reefs it probably wasn’t safe for us to do an overnight passage so we found a bay that had a marked anchorage on and settled in for the night. This part of Fiji is definitely not the tourist part, farming and industrial would probably best describe it so no beautiful pics for our album.
We hauled anchor around 7am and set off, very little wind and the sea was flat so we made very good time to our next anchorage which would allow us easy access to the Nananu Passage through the big reef and out into the Bligh Water to cross over to Vanua Levu.
That evening two other boats we knew arrived, we were invited over for drinks and to discuss plans. Neither were from our rally group but we had crossed paths several times and enjoyed drinks/chats together. One was heading to Savusavu and the other straight to the Lau group (more about that wonderful area later).
We all left just before sunrise, the other boats had previous tracks on their chartplotters so we just followed them very closely.
A couple of hours later and Fenice changed course for the Lau, we tucked in behind Knockando (a beautiful 53’ Jeanneau yacht) and plodded across the open water.
Previously I had asked Knockando for some tips on fishing but now I was a pro, within a few hours they were some way in the distance as we had dropped back whilst catching three nice fish. Sonya had been messaging one of the rally boats (Paws Time) to find out their plan but they didn’t really have one so we just kept Knockando in sight and decided to follow them all the way to Savusavu.
Its all sounding very easy now isn’t it ? We soon got a rude awakening though. Nasonisoni Passage is about 1.5 miles long (from memory) and not very wide with nasty reef either side. We went in at 7.5kn and I watched the speed drop and drop and drop, we were soon down to 3kn the current was so strong so I pushed the revs up and we plodded on. The auto pilot didn’t like it, I had been setting a new way point every few hundred metres and letting it steer. The current and the many whirlpools we could see upset it and the system had enough, sharply steering us to port and the nasty reef. Sonya was stood out on the deck when this happened and swung round to see what I was doing, there was some choice language through the walkie talkie.
We made it to Savusavu bay and anchored outside the Cousteau resort for the night, obviously a few drinks were had and some fishing stories told. The next day I decided it was about time I greased the rudder bearings, an easy job except for the emptying of two storage lockers to get at them. Whilst in there I heard a strange sloshing noise and lifted the floor boards, oh f**k there was about 200L of sea water under the first and about 100L under the second on the port side. The clown who surveyed LS and then carried out work to get it to a certain standard had put the emergency bilge pumps in a place where they would never be able to keep up. I went to check the bilge pumps that had been installed in the sugar scoops (another storage area that had previously been used as live bait tanks) and found the auto function had stopped working on both sides. At a rough guesstimate I would say we had around 500L each side which would explain why we had been sitting a little low at the rear in the water !
I manually switched on the sugar scoop pumps and set about unattaching and moving the others. A couple of hours later with the help of my trusty Ryobi wet and dry vac we were dry and sitting better.
I believe I thoroughly deserved the beer my wife handed me when I stepped out of the shower.
We radioed ahead to the marina and booked a swing mooring for the next night as we knew a number of boats were due in to watch the All Blacks game that night on the TV at Copra Shed (bar at the marina). What a great spot it is ! A small marina with funky bar and restaurant, the town has a couple of supermarkets, butcher, fruit and veg market plus a small bottle store/off licence that must have the best range of wine and spirits in Fiji. Owned by a Korean family (I think) who were incredibly nice to deal with, we stocked up with wine and Sonya found cheese and nibbles that she thought lost until our return to NZ/Australia.
Back to Denarau !
My daughter and her friend Michaelina were joining us for a few days, we collected them and their very heavy luggage from the commercial dock (we slipped in and out in about 20 mins) and headed over to Musket , I was tempted to say that they should jump on a ferry to and from LS but decided it would be more fun for them if we picked up and dropped off. In true ‘child of NNK’ style my daughter (then 19) got busted one night at Muskets main restaurant. Not exactly crime of the century but she had helped herself to some of the desserts at the buffet. The staff there are pretty switched on and asked her what room she was in, quick as a flash she said 16, unfortunately there is no 16 so she admitted she was on a boat and gave its name – first black mark ! She paid for one person entry to the buffet, $65FJD so lesson learnt.
A few days later and we were guestless again – hurrah ! We had no plan but did know that some of the other rally boats were heading to Vanua Levu, Fijis second largest island. We had done some grocery shopping at Den so thought ‘what the hell’ and headed north, staying reasonably close to the coastline so within the reefs.
Fish on ! No idea what it was but it took quite a bit of line before we stopped the boat and I started to haul it in, it took a while but then I saw it, a BIG mahimahi. Another 10 mins of battling and I was down on the sugar scoop with the gaff hook, I leant over at the right time to see it spit my lure out and swim away super fast – bugger.
Neednt have worried , an hour later I got another slightly smaller one onboard.
As we were motoring between reefs it probably wasn’t safe for us to do an overnight passage so we found a bay that had a marked anchorage on and settled in for the night. This part of Fiji is definitely not the tourist part, farming and industrial would probably best describe it so no beautiful pics for our album.
We hauled anchor around 7am and set off, very little wind and the sea was flat so we made very good time to our next anchorage which would allow us easy access to the Nananu Passage through the big reef and out into the Bligh Water to cross over to Vanua Levu.
That evening two other boats we knew arrived, we were invited over for drinks and to discuss plans. Neither were from our rally group but we had crossed paths several times and enjoyed drinks/chats together. One was heading to Savusavu and the other straight to the Lau group (more about that wonderful area later).
We all left just before sunrise, the other boats had previous tracks on their chartplotters so we just followed them very closely.
A couple of hours later and Fenice changed course for the Lau, we tucked in behind Knockando (a beautiful 53’ Jeanneau yacht) and plodded across the open water.
Previously I had asked Knockando for some tips on fishing but now I was a pro, within a few hours they were some way in the distance as we had dropped back whilst catching three nice fish. Sonya had been messaging one of the rally boats (Paws Time) to find out their plan but they didn’t really have one so we just kept Knockando in sight and decided to follow them all the way to Savusavu.
Its all sounding very easy now isn’t it ? We soon got a rude awakening though. Nasonisoni Passage is about 1.5 miles long (from memory) and not very wide with nasty reef either side. We went in at 7.5kn and I watched the speed drop and drop and drop, we were soon down to 3kn the current was so strong so I pushed the revs up and we plodded on. The auto pilot didn’t like it, I had been setting a new way point every few hundred metres and letting it steer. The current and the many whirlpools we could see upset it and the system had enough, sharply steering us to port and the nasty reef. Sonya was stood out on the deck when this happened and swung round to see what I was doing, there was some choice language through the walkie talkie.
We made it to Savusavu bay and anchored outside the Cousteau resort for the night, obviously a few drinks were had and some fishing stories told. The next day I decided it was about time I greased the rudder bearings, an easy job except for the emptying of two storage lockers to get at them. Whilst in there I heard a strange sloshing noise and lifted the floor boards, oh f**k there was about 200L of sea water under the first and about 100L under the second on the port side. The clown who surveyed LS and then carried out work to get it to a certain standard had put the emergency bilge pumps in a place where they would never be able to keep up. I went to check the bilge pumps that had been installed in the sugar scoops (another storage area that had previously been used as live bait tanks) and found the auto function had stopped working on both sides. At a rough guesstimate I would say we had around 500L each side which would explain why we had been sitting a little low at the rear in the water !
I manually switched on the sugar scoop pumps and set about unattaching and moving the others. A couple of hours later with the help of my trusty Ryobi wet and dry vac we were dry and sitting better.
I believe I thoroughly deserved the beer my wife handed me when I stepped out of the shower.
We radioed ahead to the marina and booked a swing mooring for the next night as we knew a number of boats were due in to watch the All Blacks game that night on the TV at Copra Shed (bar at the marina). What a great spot it is ! A small marina with funky bar and restaurant, the town has a couple of supermarkets, butcher, fruit and veg market plus a small bottle store/off licence that must have the best range of wine and spirits in Fiji. Owned by a Korean family (I think) who were incredibly nice to deal with, we stocked up with wine and Sonya found cheese and nibbles that she thought lost until our return to NZ/Australia.
Hmm, the fishing hasnt been that flash since being back in the water - one dirty, old barracuda !
Gave it away to the first long boat (locals) we saw after anchoring.
Could be a lobster feast tonight as already had a couple of approaches from local divers, lets see what arrives at the back of LS today.
Gave it away to the first long boat (locals) we saw after anchoring.
Could be a lobster feast tonight as already had a couple of approaches from local divers, lets see what arrives at the back of LS today.
We are back at Blue Lagoon , very quiet at the moment as one of the resorts is closed for a couple of weeks and not many brave sailors have ventured out from the safety of Musket, Vuda, Denarau.
Two other boats here, one of which we have been travelling with. A 45' Catalina sail boat being soloed by a 68yo Californian guy who used to own a brewery .
The other is a big cat who we have met the owners of but they seem to keep themselves to themselves.
Overcast and showers today (has been beautiful the last week) with high winds expected tonight/tomorrow.
We have let out another 15m of anchor chain in preparation for what is supposed to be 35 knot wind, that should put our scope at 5:1 ratio (75m chain : 15m deep).
Met some people on the beach yesterday who are staying at backpackers/homestay on the island then later at the bar -
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|https://thumbsnap.com/B15CzJZS[
Two other boats here, one of which we have been travelling with. A 45' Catalina sail boat being soloed by a 68yo Californian guy who used to own a brewery .
The other is a big cat who we have met the owners of but they seem to keep themselves to themselves.
Overcast and showers today (has been beautiful the last week) with high winds expected tonight/tomorrow.
We have let out another 15m of anchor chain in preparation for what is supposed to be 35 knot wind, that should put our scope at 5:1 ratio (75m chain : 15m deep).
Met some people on the beach yesterday who are staying at backpackers/homestay on the island then later at the bar -
/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/B15CzJZS[Edited by NNK on Friday 3rd February 00:09
If anyone is interested here is an email received this week regarding upcoming weather -
The cool waters of La Nina are predicted to relax. The warm zones in the far northern Pacific and central southern Pacific remain much the same while the waters around New Zealand have noticeably warmed. The majority of models predict a return to a "Neutral El Nino - Southern Oscillation" (ENSO) in February.
Supporting this prediction are signs that the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is starting to strengthen over our region, indicating that the established La Nina conditions may be breaking down. Any shift of the SPCZ to our north brings an increased risk of tropical disturbances developing to our north and potentially affecting us.
Climatologically, February is the month with the highest risk of tropical cyclone impacts on Fiji. Historically, Tropical Cyclones affecting us have been more frequent in El Niño years than in La Niña years.
In the short term, the monsoon is set to return to northern Australia in the coming week and its return will likely bring increased rainfall. Tropical lows may develop within it, most likely in the Indian Ocean south of the Indonesian archipelago and near the western Maritime Continent.
There is the possibility of a weak tropical disturbance forming to the south of Kadavu next week. The models do not agree on whether or not it will develop.
This all coincides with the predicted eastward movement of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) which is forecast to weaken from its current moderate to strong intensity in the eastern Indian Ocean as it tracks across the Maritime Continent region and into the Western Pacific. The MJO is likely to have an influence on our weather through to mid-February.
Note that the last MJO pulse triggered TD04F "Hale", TD05F "Irene" and TD06F. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/mjo/
If you made it through that without falling asleep then you must care about us !
Have fun, take care, etc, etc
The cool waters of La Nina are predicted to relax. The warm zones in the far northern Pacific and central southern Pacific remain much the same while the waters around New Zealand have noticeably warmed. The majority of models predict a return to a "Neutral El Nino - Southern Oscillation" (ENSO) in February.
Supporting this prediction are signs that the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is starting to strengthen over our region, indicating that the established La Nina conditions may be breaking down. Any shift of the SPCZ to our north brings an increased risk of tropical disturbances developing to our north and potentially affecting us.
Climatologically, February is the month with the highest risk of tropical cyclone impacts on Fiji. Historically, Tropical Cyclones affecting us have been more frequent in El Niño years than in La Niña years.
In the short term, the monsoon is set to return to northern Australia in the coming week and its return will likely bring increased rainfall. Tropical lows may develop within it, most likely in the Indian Ocean south of the Indonesian archipelago and near the western Maritime Continent.
There is the possibility of a weak tropical disturbance forming to the south of Kadavu next week. The models do not agree on whether or not it will develop.
This all coincides with the predicted eastward movement of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) which is forecast to weaken from its current moderate to strong intensity in the eastern Indian Ocean as it tracks across the Maritime Continent region and into the Western Pacific. The MJO is likely to have an influence on our weather through to mid-February.
Note that the last MJO pulse triggered TD04F "Hale", TD05F "Irene" and TD06F. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/mjo/
If you made it through that without falling asleep then you must care about us !
Have fun, take care, etc, etc
And back to our main story again -
We stayed at Savusavu for a couple of days, enough time for provisioning but the only service station was 200m from the marina on the other side of the road. I did toy with the idea of taking jerry cans over and then dinghying them back but decided we had enough fuel onboard as we weren’t planning on going much further.
We set off again and passed some familiar boats at Cousteau resort, odd as they were supposed to be at Viani Bay by now which is where we were headed. Motoring ahead of us was a modern 40ish foot sailing cat and as it turned out of the Savusavu channel into open sea it started bobbing around like a cork, hmm this could be interesting. We studied the electronic charts and weather apps and chose a slightly different exit route. The other cat was hugging the reef so we went wide thinking there wouldn’t be so much rough water, correct !
However, the wind picked up and was against the current creating a lot of chop, we watched the other cat get thrown around and were wondering what to do. Ten minutes later the other cat did a 180 degree turn in front of us and headed back to Savusavu, we ploughed on – intrepid adventurers !
We plodded on smashing through the ever increasing chop and swell, it was not at all comfortable. We went up a large wave and at the top dropped suddenly into a trough, there was a huge bang from the rear and I rushed down from the flybridge to find my Weber Q bbq on the floor in several pieces with the fat trap crystals all over the place. I wedged it underneath the outdoor furniture and raced back to the helm just as the starboard engine died. I turned the key and heard the starter cranking but it didn’t burst into life. I suddenly remembered that we were still running on the front tanks only and they would be getting low , all the crashing around was causing the fuel to surge and after the big wave drop off it would have been starved. I swapped back to the mid tanks and tried to start the engine again – no joy.
For the next two hours we were slamming up and down and only doing around 4 knots whilst I changed fuel filters, primed fuel system and kept trying to start it but it just didn’t want to fire. The starter battery was getting low so I hooked up a jump pack , worked the pump primer, crossed my fingers and shouted for Sonya to turn the key. Ooooo, it sounded close this time so I ran up to the helm and took over. I am normally very careful with how long I crank starter motors, having seen some very expensive repair/replacement bills from my plant hire days but this time I just kept cranking.
Boom, back in business !
I shifted it into forward and pushed up the throttle to 2200rpm matching the poor port engine that had been doing all the work.
Sonya was not feeling too flash and the smell of sweat and diesel coming from me nearly tipped her over the edge, she went down and sat outside for a while, as the wind had dropped off the sea had flattened off and we were cruising again. A few hours later we were at Viani Bay, Sonya came to the helm and found me plotting a course through a passage that showed only a few metres of water depth. I was told no and that we were going round to the deep water entry passage which would add another hour to our little jaunt – happy wife = happy life.
We finally anchored in this beautiful spot, although in about 25m of water, and I sat down with a beer. The next thing I saw infront of me was a positive Covid test, oh that’s why she hadn’t been feeling flash all day.
We spent the next 5 days onboard, only speaking to a couple of people who dinghied over. The first was a guy from our rally group who was sailing with his wife and two kids, he said they had all just had it too, got it at Savusavu ! They were leaving that day and heading further north with two other boats, he said we should join them when we were ready.
It turns out that almost all of the dozen or so boats in Viani Bay were isolating after catching Covid at Savusavu, very frustrating for the dive shop/ bar owner who could see all the boats and was wondering why no one was visiting.
A week after our arrival we had both got over it and decided to move on, we need to go back as it’s a beautiful spot that deserves much closer inspection than through a pair of binoculars. Anchor up and off we went with assurances that we could get fuel at our next stop Matei.
We arrived and saw Vesper, Lady Nada and another boat we hadn’t met before. It wasn’t a huge anchorage so we moored at the rear of them all leaving room for them to exit if need be. All communications were done by radio as I should still have been isolating for another couple of days. The other boats left the next day after giving us the location of their next stop, one of them had been there before and they knew they would be there for a few days at least.
Day 3 at Matei and we felt it was safe to go ashore for provisions and to scope out the fuel. The local store is also the gas station so that was easy. What wasn’t easy was the fact that we needed as much fuel as we could get so I poured all of our jerry cans into the tanks and looked at the pile on the front deck. This was going to be a lot of dinghy trips. I peered through the binoculars along the coastline and spotted a group of long boats tied up on the beach, I had a plan. We went ashore and found a guy sat on the beach near the boats, did he know any of the owners ? Yes, his cousin owned one and would be happy to help us out for a small fee. He arrived soon after and we explained what we wanted, they would come out to LS and collect me and thirty jerry cans, take us ashore, fill and return. How much ? They looked at each other and decided $40 would work, my wife joined the negotiations and said $30 to which they agreed. It was mid tide so not ideal as we couldn’t get the long boat all the way up to the store, OK clambering across rocks with empty 20L cans but not so easy when full. The guys told me to stay at the pump filling and they would do all the manual stuff, it actually left me with nothing to do as it was pumped by an attendant.
Luckily my credit card went through, it was about $4FJD a litre at this time, and off we went back to LS. On the way I gave them $50 and told them not to tell my wife, they were over the moon and couldn’t have been more helpful when it came to transferring the cans back onboard (not always easy when there was a bit of swell). They left waving and then their engine died, I watched on as they shook the fuel can around to try and get the last of their fuel into the carb. It burst into life and off they went to the gas station with the $50.
We stayed at Savusavu for a couple of days, enough time for provisioning but the only service station was 200m from the marina on the other side of the road. I did toy with the idea of taking jerry cans over and then dinghying them back but decided we had enough fuel onboard as we weren’t planning on going much further.
We set off again and passed some familiar boats at Cousteau resort, odd as they were supposed to be at Viani Bay by now which is where we were headed. Motoring ahead of us was a modern 40ish foot sailing cat and as it turned out of the Savusavu channel into open sea it started bobbing around like a cork, hmm this could be interesting. We studied the electronic charts and weather apps and chose a slightly different exit route. The other cat was hugging the reef so we went wide thinking there wouldn’t be so much rough water, correct !
However, the wind picked up and was against the current creating a lot of chop, we watched the other cat get thrown around and were wondering what to do. Ten minutes later the other cat did a 180 degree turn in front of us and headed back to Savusavu, we ploughed on – intrepid adventurers !
We plodded on smashing through the ever increasing chop and swell, it was not at all comfortable. We went up a large wave and at the top dropped suddenly into a trough, there was a huge bang from the rear and I rushed down from the flybridge to find my Weber Q bbq on the floor in several pieces with the fat trap crystals all over the place. I wedged it underneath the outdoor furniture and raced back to the helm just as the starboard engine died. I turned the key and heard the starter cranking but it didn’t burst into life. I suddenly remembered that we were still running on the front tanks only and they would be getting low , all the crashing around was causing the fuel to surge and after the big wave drop off it would have been starved. I swapped back to the mid tanks and tried to start the engine again – no joy.
For the next two hours we were slamming up and down and only doing around 4 knots whilst I changed fuel filters, primed fuel system and kept trying to start it but it just didn’t want to fire. The starter battery was getting low so I hooked up a jump pack , worked the pump primer, crossed my fingers and shouted for Sonya to turn the key. Ooooo, it sounded close this time so I ran up to the helm and took over. I am normally very careful with how long I crank starter motors, having seen some very expensive repair/replacement bills from my plant hire days but this time I just kept cranking.
Boom, back in business !
I shifted it into forward and pushed up the throttle to 2200rpm matching the poor port engine that had been doing all the work.
Sonya was not feeling too flash and the smell of sweat and diesel coming from me nearly tipped her over the edge, she went down and sat outside for a while, as the wind had dropped off the sea had flattened off and we were cruising again. A few hours later we were at Viani Bay, Sonya came to the helm and found me plotting a course through a passage that showed only a few metres of water depth. I was told no and that we were going round to the deep water entry passage which would add another hour to our little jaunt – happy wife = happy life.
We finally anchored in this beautiful spot, although in about 25m of water, and I sat down with a beer. The next thing I saw infront of me was a positive Covid test, oh that’s why she hadn’t been feeling flash all day.
We spent the next 5 days onboard, only speaking to a couple of people who dinghied over. The first was a guy from our rally group who was sailing with his wife and two kids, he said they had all just had it too, got it at Savusavu ! They were leaving that day and heading further north with two other boats, he said we should join them when we were ready.
It turns out that almost all of the dozen or so boats in Viani Bay were isolating after catching Covid at Savusavu, very frustrating for the dive shop/ bar owner who could see all the boats and was wondering why no one was visiting.
A week after our arrival we had both got over it and decided to move on, we need to go back as it’s a beautiful spot that deserves much closer inspection than through a pair of binoculars. Anchor up and off we went with assurances that we could get fuel at our next stop Matei.
We arrived and saw Vesper, Lady Nada and another boat we hadn’t met before. It wasn’t a huge anchorage so we moored at the rear of them all leaving room for them to exit if need be. All communications were done by radio as I should still have been isolating for another couple of days. The other boats left the next day after giving us the location of their next stop, one of them had been there before and they knew they would be there for a few days at least.
Day 3 at Matei and we felt it was safe to go ashore for provisions and to scope out the fuel. The local store is also the gas station so that was easy. What wasn’t easy was the fact that we needed as much fuel as we could get so I poured all of our jerry cans into the tanks and looked at the pile on the front deck. This was going to be a lot of dinghy trips. I peered through the binoculars along the coastline and spotted a group of long boats tied up on the beach, I had a plan. We went ashore and found a guy sat on the beach near the boats, did he know any of the owners ? Yes, his cousin owned one and would be happy to help us out for a small fee. He arrived soon after and we explained what we wanted, they would come out to LS and collect me and thirty jerry cans, take us ashore, fill and return. How much ? They looked at each other and decided $40 would work, my wife joined the negotiations and said $30 to which they agreed. It was mid tide so not ideal as we couldn’t get the long boat all the way up to the store, OK clambering across rocks with empty 20L cans but not so easy when full. The guys told me to stay at the pump filling and they would do all the manual stuff, it actually left me with nothing to do as it was pumped by an attendant.
Luckily my credit card went through, it was about $4FJD a litre at this time, and off we went back to LS. On the way I gave them $50 and told them not to tell my wife, they were over the moon and couldn’t have been more helpful when it came to transferring the cans back onboard (not always easy when there was a bit of swell). They left waving and then their engine died, I watched on as they shook the fuel can around to try and get the last of their fuel into the carb. It burst into life and off they went to the gas station with the $50.
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