Crossing an ocean without sails (but with a budget)
Discussion
Main story -
And off we go again, the wind had picked up overnight and it was getting pretty bouncy at anchor. I could see some white caps in the direction we were heading but it didn’t look too bad, we had certainly been through worse.
Just over an hour and we were entering Matagi Bay, it looked perfect, a horseshoe shape bay with several white sand beaches visible.
That evening we all met up on Lady Nada for sundowners and to discuss future travel plans. It turned out that Adrian & Nikki on LN had cruised these waters several times before and were very experienced sailors, they had tracks in and out of almost every island we had planned to visit stored on their chartplotter. Adrian (being an absolute legend) downloaded all their waypoints, tracks and routes to a pen drive so we could instal on our plotter – THANKYOU !
By now we were much further along than we had planned and, despite adding approx. 600L in Matei, were under fuelled and under provisioned to go seriously off grid for long. But the other boats were going to the Lau group, what were we to do ? Do we drop out now and run back to the safety of Fiji’s west side with all its resorts, tourists and marinas or we do become intrepid adventurers and go on where few cruisers venture ?
I say few but to give you an idea Fulaga (which is the jewel in Fiji’s crown and lots more will be written about it later) had 112 boats visit in 2022 so with an average of three people on a boat only 300 odd people got to see it.
Obv we chose to tag along, especially when we were told there was one more fuel/provisioning stop on the way. Anchors up and off we went !
We chose slightly different routes (Lady Nada and Vesper were sailing) and we arrived at Vanua Balavu first. We anchored inside the main reef but waited for the others to lead us to our anchorage for the night as there are numerous bays and tiny islands to get lost in. It also gave me time to deal to the approx. 15kg mahimahi I had caught on route.
When they arrived we moved on to our anchorage for the night, just off Dalconi village where we would have to do sevusevu the next day. Sevusevu is the presentation of a gift (normally a bundle of kava) to the village chief or headman and you ask for permission to stay in their waters. Some places explain any local rules they may have, others ask if you would like to join them for the kava ceremony (it tastes like muddy water to those who haven’t tried it and other than the faintest of tingles in my mouth I have had no other experiences/feelings/symptoms) and some ask you for just about anything they can think of.
Friends have been asked for fishing trips, phone top ups, alcohol, etc but we have only really been hit up for fishing lures, sunglasses and other small stuff.
The next day, after sevusevu in the village, we moved again into the area known as Bay of Islands. Steep rock walls, mushroom islands/rocks everywhere in the water it is both beautiful and sinister (in some lights).
We turned a corner and saw several boats anchored including one from our rally group, Hans Off. We spent the next couple of days exploring the bays by dinghy and kayak plus plenty of snorkelling. Beautiful, crystal clear water full of amazing coral and fish – we were really enjoying ourselves.
Time to move, we had all been looking at the weather and decided to move round to Batavu harbour which is a very protected area, we were joined now by Hans Off (a 37’ Hanse sailboat with the lovely Keith & Caroline onboard). Like a line of ducklings we arrived and anchored, only one other boat there which was Med moored by a small pontoon. This boat was probably my dream boat, I never found out exactly what it was but it looked a lot like a Nordhaven 78. OK it’s a bit big for two people but if you cant dream ……
Well it rained and rained and rained, we made sure we left LS at least once each day either for a kayak/SUP or a walk on land. There was one spot up high on land where you could get cellphone coverage so the boats would take it in turns to hike up there for weather reports (we had paused our Sat phone subscription when we arrived in Fiji thinking we wouldn’t require it).
We saw there was a ‘yacht club’ in one corner of the bay with some mooring balls infront of it so dinghied over. As suspected it was closed up and didn’t look like anyone had been there for a while, Covid keeping cruisers out for the last couple of years. Keith and I were chatting down by the water when we heard screams – WTF ! We both called out to our wives but there was no answer so we headed up to the yacht club where we found them dusting themselves down. The wooden staircase/steps at the side had collapsed as they were half way down it, Sonya had been holding the bannister/rail and grabbed it when she felt the drop, Caroline went with the stairs and landed with a thud – luckily no injuries and soon we were laughing about it.
The forecast for the next few days was good so as soon as we got a gap in the rain and clouds we were off again heading to Lomaloma.
Once out of the reef system I put a line in the water, as I was walking across the rear deck to put the other line in the first reel screamed and I went back over to it. Sonya had heard it too and was bringing LS to a halt. The line just kept going out, I had the drag on max and it was still going, must be something big (although it was on the smaller of my two rod/reels so maybe not). Soon I had it under control and started to reel it in, the run had tired it out and it gave up until close to the boat when it went berserk. It was a wahoo, my biggest so far by the look of it, and was soon onboard thrashing around.
A donk on the head with a small baseball bat subdued it then a spike into its brain saw it off, somehow it (not I obv) had managed to make a terrible mess over the rear deck and sugar scoop (much to my wifes disgust). I got it into the 100L chilly bin we have but its tail stuck out a fair way so I couldn’t close it, oh well I’d better cut it up now.
We were a little late to head in for provisions so anchored out and all agreed to go ashore first thing in the morning. Two of our small flotilla had kids onboard so their idea of going ashore first thing and ours are very different.
We headed in at 7.45am thinking stores would open at 8am and met Hans Off on the beach. Wives went grocery shopping and we went for fuel. Keith went first, at the counter of the local store you hand over your containers and they take them out back to fill. This was going to get confusing as he wanted 20L of diesel, 10L of Zoom which is 50:1 premix for 2 stroke motors (outboard) and 5L of 91 for his little genset. The Fijian Indian woman (who turned out to be owners wife) serving asked several times what was going in each container but didn’t seem to have it right, we asked if we could go round the back to keep an eye on it all. Well we went round to find an old shack with a number of oil drums marked with what they contained.
What I spotted straight away was the lack of any form of pump and was about to question this when I saw the teenage ‘filler’ stick some garden hose into a 205 drum marked diesel and start sucking ! Soon it was flowing into a measuring jug which was then transferred into Keiths first container. ‘Whoa, whoa’ he said and held the jug up to the light, it didn’t look good. Keith insisted they poor it back in the drum and that they open another for him which they did. A sample was taken and this looked much better, but not brilliant so I went and put my diesel containers back in the dinghy.
Anyway, the poor filler guy had to suck/syphon the three different types of fuel for us and eventually we were ready to go. I said to the owner that he needed a pump and he pointed to several broken rotary drum pumps in the corner. I said no an electric one with a counter and he replied that they could not be purchased in Fiji (admittedly everything was in short supply after Covid).
Being a salesman I was straight in “I have a brand new 240v electric fuel pump with counter, hose, nozzle, etc that I could sell you”, well he was hooked. “Get it, go get it, I buy, I buy” even before he knew the price. I said that I would bring it back over in an hour and it was $1000FJD, he didn’t flinch just begged me to return as soon as possible.
We had left NZ with many fuel pumps, 12v, 240v, rotary hand, jiggle syphon, etc. The 240v had not been used, it was quite heavy and really needed to be in a fixed position but that would limit which tanks I could fill with it so out it goes .
I found Sonya and helped carry back the groceries she had procured noting that there was not much fresh vegetables but plenty of tins and bags of rice, have I mentioned that I do all the cooking onboard ? Less than an hour later I was back with the pump in a plastic container, I carried it round to the fuelling area and started setting it up as I knew he would want a demo. I filled the container he gave me showing him the counter and how to reset it after each use, he was over the moon but the young filler didn’t look so happy - I hope he kept his job. Now the stalling and the haggling started, his wife handled the money and she was busy, could I come back later ? No, I’m leaving. Call in on your way back he said, no wont be back this way, etc. After about 30 minutes of this I went back round and started packing it up. “No, no we pay, we pay” and his wife materialised to start haggling with a first offer of $500. I carried on packing it up adding that they knew the price and had agreed to it. As I started walking out with it a grand came out of her pocket and then “You are good business man and the only yachtie who has ever done business in Lomaloma”.
Back onboard and a radio conversation with the others, they were now waiting until the afternoon to set off and sail through the night. We were still going to leave but stop at Latoya for the night which should mean we would all arrive in Fulaga around the same time.
This didn’t quite go to plan for us as we left later than expected and it was a very overcast day so when we arrived at Latoya we made the call not to enter the anchorage and to carry on overnight. Not great planning by us as we arrived at Fulaga around 4am the next day so circled around for a few hours outside the reef pass waiting for the sun. It didn’t come, just wind and rain getting steadily worse. We approached the pass at about 8am and couldn’t even tell where it was, the waves were breaking all the way along obscuring it. We knew it was a tight pass with plenty of current and although we had Lady Nadas tracks on our plotter now it would have been suicide to consider.
The others arrived and we all circled waiting for a break in the squalls, eventually around 11am there was a gap and in we went. The boats already inside the bay had been listening to our conversations on the radio and one very kindly sent up his drone when he knew we were coming in, we have some amazing footage of the four of us coming through closely followed by another couple of yachts who had been sheltering at a nearby island (Ongiya). The other thing everyone heard over the radio was me saying “Welcome to paradise” when I saw Fulaga for the first time.
And off we go again, the wind had picked up overnight and it was getting pretty bouncy at anchor. I could see some white caps in the direction we were heading but it didn’t look too bad, we had certainly been through worse.
Just over an hour and we were entering Matagi Bay, it looked perfect, a horseshoe shape bay with several white sand beaches visible.
That evening we all met up on Lady Nada for sundowners and to discuss future travel plans. It turned out that Adrian & Nikki on LN had cruised these waters several times before and were very experienced sailors, they had tracks in and out of almost every island we had planned to visit stored on their chartplotter. Adrian (being an absolute legend) downloaded all their waypoints, tracks and routes to a pen drive so we could instal on our plotter – THANKYOU !
By now we were much further along than we had planned and, despite adding approx. 600L in Matei, were under fuelled and under provisioned to go seriously off grid for long. But the other boats were going to the Lau group, what were we to do ? Do we drop out now and run back to the safety of Fiji’s west side with all its resorts, tourists and marinas or we do become intrepid adventurers and go on where few cruisers venture ?
I say few but to give you an idea Fulaga (which is the jewel in Fiji’s crown and lots more will be written about it later) had 112 boats visit in 2022 so with an average of three people on a boat only 300 odd people got to see it.
Obv we chose to tag along, especially when we were told there was one more fuel/provisioning stop on the way. Anchors up and off we went !
We chose slightly different routes (Lady Nada and Vesper were sailing) and we arrived at Vanua Balavu first. We anchored inside the main reef but waited for the others to lead us to our anchorage for the night as there are numerous bays and tiny islands to get lost in. It also gave me time to deal to the approx. 15kg mahimahi I had caught on route.
When they arrived we moved on to our anchorage for the night, just off Dalconi village where we would have to do sevusevu the next day. Sevusevu is the presentation of a gift (normally a bundle of kava) to the village chief or headman and you ask for permission to stay in their waters. Some places explain any local rules they may have, others ask if you would like to join them for the kava ceremony (it tastes like muddy water to those who haven’t tried it and other than the faintest of tingles in my mouth I have had no other experiences/feelings/symptoms) and some ask you for just about anything they can think of.
Friends have been asked for fishing trips, phone top ups, alcohol, etc but we have only really been hit up for fishing lures, sunglasses and other small stuff.
The next day, after sevusevu in the village, we moved again into the area known as Bay of Islands. Steep rock walls, mushroom islands/rocks everywhere in the water it is both beautiful and sinister (in some lights).
We turned a corner and saw several boats anchored including one from our rally group, Hans Off. We spent the next couple of days exploring the bays by dinghy and kayak plus plenty of snorkelling. Beautiful, crystal clear water full of amazing coral and fish – we were really enjoying ourselves.
Time to move, we had all been looking at the weather and decided to move round to Batavu harbour which is a very protected area, we were joined now by Hans Off (a 37’ Hanse sailboat with the lovely Keith & Caroline onboard). Like a line of ducklings we arrived and anchored, only one other boat there which was Med moored by a small pontoon. This boat was probably my dream boat, I never found out exactly what it was but it looked a lot like a Nordhaven 78. OK it’s a bit big for two people but if you cant dream ……
Well it rained and rained and rained, we made sure we left LS at least once each day either for a kayak/SUP or a walk on land. There was one spot up high on land where you could get cellphone coverage so the boats would take it in turns to hike up there for weather reports (we had paused our Sat phone subscription when we arrived in Fiji thinking we wouldn’t require it).
We saw there was a ‘yacht club’ in one corner of the bay with some mooring balls infront of it so dinghied over. As suspected it was closed up and didn’t look like anyone had been there for a while, Covid keeping cruisers out for the last couple of years. Keith and I were chatting down by the water when we heard screams – WTF ! We both called out to our wives but there was no answer so we headed up to the yacht club where we found them dusting themselves down. The wooden staircase/steps at the side had collapsed as they were half way down it, Sonya had been holding the bannister/rail and grabbed it when she felt the drop, Caroline went with the stairs and landed with a thud – luckily no injuries and soon we were laughing about it.
The forecast for the next few days was good so as soon as we got a gap in the rain and clouds we were off again heading to Lomaloma.
Once out of the reef system I put a line in the water, as I was walking across the rear deck to put the other line in the first reel screamed and I went back over to it. Sonya had heard it too and was bringing LS to a halt. The line just kept going out, I had the drag on max and it was still going, must be something big (although it was on the smaller of my two rod/reels so maybe not). Soon I had it under control and started to reel it in, the run had tired it out and it gave up until close to the boat when it went berserk. It was a wahoo, my biggest so far by the look of it, and was soon onboard thrashing around.
A donk on the head with a small baseball bat subdued it then a spike into its brain saw it off, somehow it (not I obv) had managed to make a terrible mess over the rear deck and sugar scoop (much to my wifes disgust). I got it into the 100L chilly bin we have but its tail stuck out a fair way so I couldn’t close it, oh well I’d better cut it up now.
We were a little late to head in for provisions so anchored out and all agreed to go ashore first thing in the morning. Two of our small flotilla had kids onboard so their idea of going ashore first thing and ours are very different.
We headed in at 7.45am thinking stores would open at 8am and met Hans Off on the beach. Wives went grocery shopping and we went for fuel. Keith went first, at the counter of the local store you hand over your containers and they take them out back to fill. This was going to get confusing as he wanted 20L of diesel, 10L of Zoom which is 50:1 premix for 2 stroke motors (outboard) and 5L of 91 for his little genset. The Fijian Indian woman (who turned out to be owners wife) serving asked several times what was going in each container but didn’t seem to have it right, we asked if we could go round the back to keep an eye on it all. Well we went round to find an old shack with a number of oil drums marked with what they contained.
What I spotted straight away was the lack of any form of pump and was about to question this when I saw the teenage ‘filler’ stick some garden hose into a 205 drum marked diesel and start sucking ! Soon it was flowing into a measuring jug which was then transferred into Keiths first container. ‘Whoa, whoa’ he said and held the jug up to the light, it didn’t look good. Keith insisted they poor it back in the drum and that they open another for him which they did. A sample was taken and this looked much better, but not brilliant so I went and put my diesel containers back in the dinghy.
Anyway, the poor filler guy had to suck/syphon the three different types of fuel for us and eventually we were ready to go. I said to the owner that he needed a pump and he pointed to several broken rotary drum pumps in the corner. I said no an electric one with a counter and he replied that they could not be purchased in Fiji (admittedly everything was in short supply after Covid).
Being a salesman I was straight in “I have a brand new 240v electric fuel pump with counter, hose, nozzle, etc that I could sell you”, well he was hooked. “Get it, go get it, I buy, I buy” even before he knew the price. I said that I would bring it back over in an hour and it was $1000FJD, he didn’t flinch just begged me to return as soon as possible.
We had left NZ with many fuel pumps, 12v, 240v, rotary hand, jiggle syphon, etc. The 240v had not been used, it was quite heavy and really needed to be in a fixed position but that would limit which tanks I could fill with it so out it goes .
I found Sonya and helped carry back the groceries she had procured noting that there was not much fresh vegetables but plenty of tins and bags of rice, have I mentioned that I do all the cooking onboard ? Less than an hour later I was back with the pump in a plastic container, I carried it round to the fuelling area and started setting it up as I knew he would want a demo. I filled the container he gave me showing him the counter and how to reset it after each use, he was over the moon but the young filler didn’t look so happy - I hope he kept his job. Now the stalling and the haggling started, his wife handled the money and she was busy, could I come back later ? No, I’m leaving. Call in on your way back he said, no wont be back this way, etc. After about 30 minutes of this I went back round and started packing it up. “No, no we pay, we pay” and his wife materialised to start haggling with a first offer of $500. I carried on packing it up adding that they knew the price and had agreed to it. As I started walking out with it a grand came out of her pocket and then “You are good business man and the only yachtie who has ever done business in Lomaloma”.
Back onboard and a radio conversation with the others, they were now waiting until the afternoon to set off and sail through the night. We were still going to leave but stop at Latoya for the night which should mean we would all arrive in Fulaga around the same time.
This didn’t quite go to plan for us as we left later than expected and it was a very overcast day so when we arrived at Latoya we made the call not to enter the anchorage and to carry on overnight. Not great planning by us as we arrived at Fulaga around 4am the next day so circled around for a few hours outside the reef pass waiting for the sun. It didn’t come, just wind and rain getting steadily worse. We approached the pass at about 8am and couldn’t even tell where it was, the waves were breaking all the way along obscuring it. We knew it was a tight pass with plenty of current and although we had Lady Nadas tracks on our plotter now it would have been suicide to consider.
The others arrived and we all circled waiting for a break in the squalls, eventually around 11am there was a gap and in we went. The boats already inside the bay had been listening to our conversations on the radio and one very kindly sent up his drone when he knew we were coming in, we have some amazing footage of the four of us coming through closely followed by another couple of yachts who had been sheltering at a nearby island (Ongiya). The other thing everyone heard over the radio was me saying “Welcome to paradise” when I saw Fulaga for the first time.
Maintenance for this week was -
Replacing bathroom light (old halogen spots) w/ 12v LED
Bathroom water pump stopped yesterday, had a spare so fitted it today and will get old one looked at when back in civilisation
Changed oil in genset , 75 hours
Replaced dodgy 240v wall socket
Moved another 240v socket
Changed charcoal water filter between tank and kitchen tap
Replacing bathroom light (old halogen spots) w/ 12v LED
Bathroom water pump stopped yesterday, had a spare so fitted it today and will get old one looked at when back in civilisation
Changed oil in genset , 75 hours
Replaced dodgy 240v wall socket
Moved another 240v socket
Changed charcoal water filter between tank and kitchen tap
POWER/BATTERY STUFF
Power Notes
When we bought LS she had two solar panels of unknown wattage and two x 340amp hour 6v deep cycle lead acid batteries. Lead acid can be drawn down regaularly to approx. 60% before damaging them so this meant we had around 200ah of useable power. On the pole moorings there was no power so we made sure everything was switched off and fridge/freezer was emptied after each trip (we were going out every weekend trying to gain experience). Engine alternators are standard Volvo so are probably 40 or 45 amp models but at our cruising speed/revs are probably only putting out 20a of which only a fraction made it past the start batteries.
When the decision was made to upgrade I started with online research, what was I thinking ? The keyboard warriors are out in force on anything boating related and it soon became clear that unless my new system was made up entirely of Victron and Battleborn/Renogy products then our boat would implode as soon as I switched the kettle on !
Our budget wasn’t going to cover those brands so I went back to my laptop and started looking at RV and home solar sites, still a few shouty types but lots more budget conscious options and tips. I also spoke to friends who had beach houses with solar setups, my thinking being that if they were coastal its almost like being afloat conditions wise.
Decision made and off I went to buy the hardware, as per beginning of our tale this was 4 x 200ah lithium batteries, 3 x 415w panels and 3 x 40a mppt controllers. I figured the cabling and connectors would be supplied by the installer and I would ask for top quality items. I should also add here that the installer recommended we fit dc to dc chargers on the start battery circuits which would push any excess to the house batteries a lot more efficiently than previously.
Lithium batteries CAN be drawn down to 15% allegedly without damage, I have heard people put that figure as low as 10% but ……………..
It all went on/in (thanks again to Brad at A1 Mobile Electrical and Sean at Condon Marine Services) and was ready for trial, I had charged batteries to 13.6v each prior.
All I need to say is that we now didn’t need to plug into shore power to keep everything powered/topped up (we were in a marina by this stage). I was going to LS almost every afternoon after work to carry out small jobs and was constantly checking/monitoring power levels and only on a handful of occasions was it not at 90%+. So now we were leaving fridge freezer on and stocked and knew that ,if any disaster should happen, the bilge pumps would run for more than 15 minutes !
The term used a lot when prepping a boat for cruising is redundancy so, although we had all this solar, we needed something else. Something I knew that was going was the old chest freezer in one of the front lockers, we had never switched it on, it was covered in rust and smelt like it had been used for bait. Whilst the solar install was going on I was attempting to put my back out by manhandling said freezer out of the hatch (tight fit) whilst climbing the ladder like steps out of the locker. Although tempted to throw it over the side and 5m down to the concrete (boat was on the hard) I decided to check if it worked and, if so, ask if any of my fisher friends wanted it for bait.
With measurements of both hole for it to go in and hole (hatch) for it first to go through I started searching for diesel generators around 5kw. As it was going to be a backup I felt that a simple air cooled unit would suffice, it would mean leaving the hatch open whilst it was running but there was not going to be anything in the locker that could be water damaged ( a bilge pump at floor level would sort any excess water anyway).
I went with a Hyundai 5500W silent (haha, I’ll do the jokes Hyundai) enclosed model that must have taken some steroids between leaving the factory where its specs were typed and being delivered to LS. With a forklift normally used for putting boats in the water from a drystack, a small Philipino guy (Manny?) from CMS and numerous ropes and chains we got it in place but it is never coming out again unless its in pieces. I ran a cable from it and through the entire boat to the rear locker where the 3way power switch is to select Shore, Inverter or Generator power. The guys at CMS installed an exhaust port in the hull and with stainless flexi pipe and silicon reducers made up an exhaust.
We left NZ and it had 2.2 hours on the clock, I think it had 1 when it was delivered and I had only started it and let it run for a short time to make sure its battery was good.
Lots has been written about the sun in NZ, nowhere in the world is it stronger (IMO anyway). TV weather reports always state ‘todays burn time’ and ten minutes is not uncommon, that’s the time it takes you to get sunburnt if not covered/protected. Now I hadn’t thought about this, just thinking if the sun is out its putting power in the batteries which wasn’t quite right and I refer you to our low battery alarm story at Blue Lagoon up there ^^^.
Anyway, what made me type up this ‘power supplement’ was that we have again been hit with the Blue Lagoon jinx and had been using the genset a couple of hours per day for the last few days to top up the batteries and be able to make coffee/toast. When we left yesterday (16 Feb) our batteries were on 60% and we motored for five hours through unpleasant conditions to our next anchorage. Zero sun and using the auto pilot most of the way meant they were only up to 79% on arrival at noon with very little chance of any solar all afternoon. Around 4pm I fired up the generator and plugged in the charger, everything was fine for about an hour when suddenly everything mains powered died. I quickly switched off the charger and went out front to investigate. Genset was still running but the control panel advised it wasn’t making power, I flicked the alternator switch back on and watched the panel, the figures were all over the place, 300v and 40hz or 204v and 60hz, etc so I switched it off. Back inside I checked the battery level and we were on 77%, plenty to get us through the night but we wouldn’t last another day without sun or genset. A weather check didn’t make the journey back to Vuda marina for someone to look at it look very good so I decided to do some internet homework and have a look at it myself first thing in the morning.
Morning comes and it is pouring down with rain, nothing I can do but get wet as batteries are now on 59% and I knew that would drop to 55 if I put the coffee machine on. Headtorch on and a selection of tools in a bag and off I went, just in a pair of shorts as its still warm and I didn’t want to have to add drying clothes to my list of chores. I closed the hatch on top of me and switched the torch on, topped the fuel up, swapped out the inline fuel filter (looked a bit suspect) and got the air filter out for a shake. Hatch open and fired it up, after a few mins to warm up I flicked the alternator switch and it soon showed 240v @ 50hz, the exact figures I wanted to see. I rushed back inside and flicked on the battery charger – phew, hopefully a disaster avoided.
Its now 9.15am and gen has been running for about an hour, batteries are climbing slowly and are currently 68% , there is also a glimpse of blue sky above us so a small amount of solar will be coming in now. Fingers crossed the gen runs OK for the next couple of hours and again tomorrow as we don’t really want to leave this bay until Sunday or Monday when the wind and swell should be going with us rather than fighting against it.
11am, weather has settled and I can see blue sky in the distance, we’re making a run (4hrs) for Musket !
Power Notes
When we bought LS she had two solar panels of unknown wattage and two x 340amp hour 6v deep cycle lead acid batteries. Lead acid can be drawn down regaularly to approx. 60% before damaging them so this meant we had around 200ah of useable power. On the pole moorings there was no power so we made sure everything was switched off and fridge/freezer was emptied after each trip (we were going out every weekend trying to gain experience). Engine alternators are standard Volvo so are probably 40 or 45 amp models but at our cruising speed/revs are probably only putting out 20a of which only a fraction made it past the start batteries.
When the decision was made to upgrade I started with online research, what was I thinking ? The keyboard warriors are out in force on anything boating related and it soon became clear that unless my new system was made up entirely of Victron and Battleborn/Renogy products then our boat would implode as soon as I switched the kettle on !
Our budget wasn’t going to cover those brands so I went back to my laptop and started looking at RV and home solar sites, still a few shouty types but lots more budget conscious options and tips. I also spoke to friends who had beach houses with solar setups, my thinking being that if they were coastal its almost like being afloat conditions wise.
Decision made and off I went to buy the hardware, as per beginning of our tale this was 4 x 200ah lithium batteries, 3 x 415w panels and 3 x 40a mppt controllers. I figured the cabling and connectors would be supplied by the installer and I would ask for top quality items. I should also add here that the installer recommended we fit dc to dc chargers on the start battery circuits which would push any excess to the house batteries a lot more efficiently than previously.
Lithium batteries CAN be drawn down to 15% allegedly without damage, I have heard people put that figure as low as 10% but ……………..
It all went on/in (thanks again to Brad at A1 Mobile Electrical and Sean at Condon Marine Services) and was ready for trial, I had charged batteries to 13.6v each prior.
All I need to say is that we now didn’t need to plug into shore power to keep everything powered/topped up (we were in a marina by this stage). I was going to LS almost every afternoon after work to carry out small jobs and was constantly checking/monitoring power levels and only on a handful of occasions was it not at 90%+. So now we were leaving fridge freezer on and stocked and knew that ,if any disaster should happen, the bilge pumps would run for more than 15 minutes !
The term used a lot when prepping a boat for cruising is redundancy so, although we had all this solar, we needed something else. Something I knew that was going was the old chest freezer in one of the front lockers, we had never switched it on, it was covered in rust and smelt like it had been used for bait. Whilst the solar install was going on I was attempting to put my back out by manhandling said freezer out of the hatch (tight fit) whilst climbing the ladder like steps out of the locker. Although tempted to throw it over the side and 5m down to the concrete (boat was on the hard) I decided to check if it worked and, if so, ask if any of my fisher friends wanted it for bait.
With measurements of both hole for it to go in and hole (hatch) for it first to go through I started searching for diesel generators around 5kw. As it was going to be a backup I felt that a simple air cooled unit would suffice, it would mean leaving the hatch open whilst it was running but there was not going to be anything in the locker that could be water damaged ( a bilge pump at floor level would sort any excess water anyway).
I went with a Hyundai 5500W silent (haha, I’ll do the jokes Hyundai) enclosed model that must have taken some steroids between leaving the factory where its specs were typed and being delivered to LS. With a forklift normally used for putting boats in the water from a drystack, a small Philipino guy (Manny?) from CMS and numerous ropes and chains we got it in place but it is never coming out again unless its in pieces. I ran a cable from it and through the entire boat to the rear locker where the 3way power switch is to select Shore, Inverter or Generator power. The guys at CMS installed an exhaust port in the hull and with stainless flexi pipe and silicon reducers made up an exhaust.
We left NZ and it had 2.2 hours on the clock, I think it had 1 when it was delivered and I had only started it and let it run for a short time to make sure its battery was good.
Lots has been written about the sun in NZ, nowhere in the world is it stronger (IMO anyway). TV weather reports always state ‘todays burn time’ and ten minutes is not uncommon, that’s the time it takes you to get sunburnt if not covered/protected. Now I hadn’t thought about this, just thinking if the sun is out its putting power in the batteries which wasn’t quite right and I refer you to our low battery alarm story at Blue Lagoon up there ^^^.
Anyway, what made me type up this ‘power supplement’ was that we have again been hit with the Blue Lagoon jinx and had been using the genset a couple of hours per day for the last few days to top up the batteries and be able to make coffee/toast. When we left yesterday (16 Feb) our batteries were on 60% and we motored for five hours through unpleasant conditions to our next anchorage. Zero sun and using the auto pilot most of the way meant they were only up to 79% on arrival at noon with very little chance of any solar all afternoon. Around 4pm I fired up the generator and plugged in the charger, everything was fine for about an hour when suddenly everything mains powered died. I quickly switched off the charger and went out front to investigate. Genset was still running but the control panel advised it wasn’t making power, I flicked the alternator switch back on and watched the panel, the figures were all over the place, 300v and 40hz or 204v and 60hz, etc so I switched it off. Back inside I checked the battery level and we were on 77%, plenty to get us through the night but we wouldn’t last another day without sun or genset. A weather check didn’t make the journey back to Vuda marina for someone to look at it look very good so I decided to do some internet homework and have a look at it myself first thing in the morning.
Morning comes and it is pouring down with rain, nothing I can do but get wet as batteries are now on 59% and I knew that would drop to 55 if I put the coffee machine on. Headtorch on and a selection of tools in a bag and off I went, just in a pair of shorts as its still warm and I didn’t want to have to add drying clothes to my list of chores. I closed the hatch on top of me and switched the torch on, topped the fuel up, swapped out the inline fuel filter (looked a bit suspect) and got the air filter out for a shake. Hatch open and fired it up, after a few mins to warm up I flicked the alternator switch and it soon showed 240v @ 50hz, the exact figures I wanted to see. I rushed back inside and flicked on the battery charger – phew, hopefully a disaster avoided.
Its now 9.15am and gen has been running for about an hour, batteries are climbing slowly and are currently 68% , there is also a glimpse of blue sky above us so a small amount of solar will be coming in now. Fingers crossed the gen runs OK for the next couple of hours and again tomorrow as we don’t really want to leave this bay until Sunday or Monday when the wind and swell should be going with us rather than fighting against it.
11am, weather has settled and I can see blue sky in the distance, we’re making a run (4hrs) for Musket !
Todays mission is a run down the Coral Coast to Cuvu Harbour where friends are stuck with engine issues.
Probably more for moral support than anything as my mechanical abilities are no greater than those already onboard.
If need be we can tow them out through reef passage into open water where they can sail up to Denarau
It also means 5 hours of deep water fishing , currently in about 800m
Probably more for moral support than anything as my mechanical abilities are no greater than those already onboard.
If need be we can tow them out through reef passage into open water where they can sail up to Denarau
It also means 5 hours of deep water fishing , currently in about 800m
Poor REAO, their motor is stuffed. OK compression in 2 cylinders, almost nothing in other 3.
Tomorrow at 6am we will tow them out of reef pass into open water, release and they can sail up to Musket where we can tow them into anchorage while they wait for parts.
Last night I rolled a big slab of tuna in herbs, pepper and soy then roasted it on BBQ, beautiful.
Tomorrow at 6am we will tow them out of reef pass into open water, release and they can sail up to Musket where we can tow them into anchorage while they wait for parts.
Last night I rolled a big slab of tuna in herbs, pepper and soy then roasted it on BBQ, beautiful.
Badda said:
800m! How much line are you letting out for that sort of fishing?
I run a squid type lure on one side approx 50m behind boat and a rapala (diving type) lure a little closer but both depend on sea state.The rapalas I have dive around 2 to 5m .
That tuna above took about 300m of line before I got to it as I had gone to other rod first (both hit at same time). Didn't put up much of a fight until I got it close then it kept trying to dive or get under boat.
Aaaaand back to story/adventure -
Well we had made it ! Fulaga in the Southern Lau group is the furthest outreach of Fiji, approx. half way to Tonga and, I believe, it has been argued over by those two countries for many years. Not that long ago (5 years ?) cruisers used to have obtain a special permit to visit the Lau, now it is included in the cruising permit issued upon arrival in Fiji. We know now that a total of 112 boats visited Fulaga in 2022, if we work on an average of three people per boat that is only a few hundred people who have visited. What are the visitor numbers for the Maldives or Bora Bora ?
Back to the entry passage though, prior to entering Vesper had radioed asking that we all keep a sensible distance going in and through the pass to which we all agreed. LN was first and we were following (both cats) when Vesper manouvered infront of us (LS), not sure what was going on there but monohulls react very differently and on one occasion we had to go into reverse in the pass to avoid ramming them.
We had been told to keep close to the rock formation on the left as you enter the bay (backed up by the waypoints/tracks now on plotter) and Sonya (who was out front watching/filming) could see why, some nasty looking rocks and reef just below the surface to starboard. We could see around fifteen boats anchored in the huge bay ahead of us but we were off to another bay to visit the village for sevusevu.
Its about a 30 min walk from the beach to the village, a well worn track but quite steep in places so a good workout. Not just for the legs as your arms are constantly fending off bugs too no matter how much repellent you put on.
We arrived at the village and were greeted by the headman, we were shown into the community hall (funds for the build were gifted by a passing superyacht owner a few years back) and shown to sit. Its been a while since I have had to sit cross legged on the floor but you get used to it. The chief arrived and introduced himself then took a seat and studied our offerings, four quite different sized bundles of kava. He asked who had brought each one and I could see he wasn’t impressed with one of them, not ours luckily.
He and the headman went through the motions/ceremony in Fijian then stopped and the chief outlined how things were going to work out.
There is a fee of $50 per boat to visit Fulaga
You will be given a ‘host family’ who will look after you (unwritten rule that you look after them too)
No spear fishing unless outside of main reef
No watersports, etc on Sundays (they like to see you at church but do not insist)
Now I thought this was great, especially considering how other friends have been accepted and then hit up for donations, gifts, fishing trips, etc when visiting other islands/villages. Some people we met, who are now back in NZ, are still getting texts asking for phone top ups, etc for the chief of a particular village on the west side of Fiji.
Back onboard and we decided to stay in the bay overnight and move first thing the next day. This was when we named it mosquito bay, they were everywhere !
Morning came and off we went, its only about 20 mins through crystal clear water around 6m deep and the views are breath taking. We had checked the weather reports before moving and had all decided that the boats already in the bay were going to be in the wrong place for the winds over the next few days, we anchored on the opposite side of the bay to them in 2m of water approx. 50m from the white sand beach – paradise ! Vesper and Hans Off had to stay a little further out as their drafts are just over 2m.
The next morning we were woken by anchor chains rattling through windlass’s, wind had picked up overnight and boats were arriving in our bay seeking protection, I looked over to where they had come from and only two catamarans remained (they did come over later that day). Soon the bay was filled with kites and wings, it was ideal foiling weather apparently.
Unfortunately it didn’t last long and what we now know to be BogiWalu (pronounced Boogie Wahloo I believe) arrived –
It refers to the period when there is a surge in the South East trade winds over the Fiji Group. The synoptic weather situation results after the passage of a frontal zone that moves from the (South) West to the (North) East. Depending on the intensity of the sub-tropical high pressure (anti-cyclone) that develops to the South of Fiji, after the passage of the cold front, the winds range between 20 to 25 knots and on occasions with an intense anti-cyclone, can reach up to 30 kn.
This meant that, for the next few days at least, we would be confined to our boats or the closest beach as dinghying across a large bay in those winds can be pretty dangerous. A guy almost died in the bay a couple of years ago when he got thrown from his dinghy in these conditions and didn’t have a kill cord on, the dinghy circled round and the prop tore his chest and face open.
It blew through quicker than expected and we were free to explore again, we kayaked, SUP’d , visited the village and hung with other boaties. Probably the highlight of this trip was the snorkelling, our friends on Hans Off had a Powerdive hookah system, a floating compressor that allows one diver to 12m or two down to 6m. We went out to the fake pass and jumped in, us with snorkels and them with the Powerdive and allowed the current to take us and our dinghies through. I don’t think I have ever seen so many colours, definitely not that many shades of blue, anywhere else it was absolutely amazing.
After a quick lesson we were given the regulators and hoses for the Powerdive and set loose with that, it’s a game changer for us and we had to have one ! Infact we ordered as soon as we got back to the mainland (and cell cover) and it arrived a couple of weeks later thanks to FedEx (we would now only use them or DHL for anything sent to Fiji).
I forgot to mention that there was no cellphone coverage from Batavu Harbour down so we were reliant upon our Iridium Go! Sat phone/modem. In my personal opinion this is the biggest piece of expensive junk you can own on a boat. It CAN send and receive text msgs, emails (text only) and weather files but it doesn’t do any of these jobs quickly or easily. As I have the patience of an angry chimpanzee asked to do a jigsaw puzzle this became a job for Sonya who has the patience of a saint (not just for being with me). In terms that you will all understand it would take approx. 30 mins to download a weather file of 100kb – yes kilobytes, not mega or tera. Add to that the fact that it takes two or three attempts to log on to sat network and soon an hour has disappeared from your day. Also we all expect such tech to be plug and play nowadays, well Iridium certainly isn’t, I presume they have just given up knowing Starlink is coming to put them out of business and haven’t improved/changed anything for a long time.
As mentioned before we were definitely under provisioned for this trip, especially with alcohol. The wine had gone, spirits were low and only one box of beer remained but we were not the only ones. Our travel companions were all low except one who had brought 20L of home distilled alcohol with them from NZ (legal to distill at home there). They were very generous with it but we all knew they had another three months left of their trip so didn’t take too much advantage of it.
Our last alcohol went one evening with Hans Off, a plan was hatched that would see us leaving together with the next decent weather window. Vesper and Lady Nada were heading back the way we had come but we wanted to see Suva and some of the bays along the Coral Coast. The next morning I looked out and saw a small cruise ship entering the pass, that’s probably an exaggeration , a large charter boat would probably be closer. Turns out they do adventure charters (diving, spear fishing, surfing, etc) and had a group of Australians onboard. I know this as I raced over in the dinghy once they anchored and asked if they had beer for sale ! Expecting them to want bar/retail price I had taken $250 with me but was very happy to hear that they only wanted $60 for a box (24) of Fiji Gold, unfortunately they could only spare one box. Keith on Hans Off had watched through binoculars what was going on and was waving cash at me as I dinghied past , of course I shared .
We had spent a lot of time together whilst in Fulaga, their generator had packed in so they came to LS every morning for coffee and every few days came for water as they could not run the watermaker from their solar panels.
The weather window arrived and at 8am we raced through the passage on an outgoing tide into open water, 27 hours later we were in Suva, Hans Off a few hours later.
Only exciting part of the passage was an early morning call from an NZ warship (well that’s how they described themselves but it was more like an expedition/maintenance ship when I saw it) asking what we were doing.
We picked up a mooring ball just outside the Royal Suva Yacht Club and dinghied in, oh dear. The marina looked semi derelict, a few nice boats but many looking abandoned or just unloved. I spotted a free berth at the end of one of the pontoons and we headed in to the office to discuss.
The actual RSYC is clean and tidy with an OK bar area and small café/restaurant plus all the staff are incredibly helpful. After some confusion between feet and metres the office staff said something along the lines of – If you don’t stick out past the sail boat then you can use the berth for a few days. Back to LS and we slowly motored in constantly checking the depth as we had now noticed some of the yachts were listing to one side on their keels as they were bottoming out in what was low tide. We were OK and were soon tied on to the dock with only just over a metre protruding past the aforementioned sailboat, ahem..
Although we were desperate for provisions there was a bar and restaurant here so shopping could wait and we ventured into the bar with a tablet to check out where we would be headed for all that we required the next day.
One thing I had been warned about is the ‘no caps’ rule in the bar, it’s a bit of a sport for the ex pat drinkers there and signs say you must buy a round if caught wearing one. Its certainly the cheapest bar we have found so far with a handle of Fiji Bitter/Gold for $3.50.
The framed photos around the walls show it in a different light/era than now, mainly from the 60s and 70s it looked wonderful and I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.
The next day we jumped into a taxi and went into town, no tourist rip offs like at Denarau and Vuda just metered taxis and the journey each way was about $4. Today was just going to be about food and drink so we hit the markets first and filled up a backpack with fresh veg then headed to a supermarket. The alcohol is normally in a separate area or store next door but here it was a meshed in area and you had to know what you wanted, I threw a tantrum as I couldn’t read any of the wine labels and decided to go back to LS and drop the groceries off before finding an actual bottle store/off licence.
A little internet searching got us to such a store and we wandered around saying ‘two of those, four of those, etc’, turns out the store was new (a franchise?) and the guy hadn’t had anyone stock up before so, maybe, just thought we were drunk. After a few minutes I asked if he was keeping up with the order and he asked if we really wanted it all – YES !
When it came to pay he had no idea what haggling was (or pretended not to) and it took a while for it to sink in that I wanted something thrown in to sweeten the deal, turned out to be some shockingly bad Cava but I tried. I asked him to call us a taxi so we could load up but he wouldn’t hear of it and if we could wait until closing time he would drop it all at the yacht club – perfect we would wait in the bar for him.
He arrived and we suddenly had lots of volunteers to get the 10 cases of beer, 18 bottles of wine and several spirits down to LS, we were politely declining as security arrived and said they would do it. When it was neatly tucked away and, for the first time in Fiji, the door was locked we went back to the bar for dinner with Hans Off.
They were having no luck finding a replacement generator in Fiji, they were specifically after a Honda EU20 but a Yamaha would have sufficed. No stock anywhere and no idea when they would arrive so they had no choice but to buy one in NZ and ship it out. They organised that the next day with a Honda dealer in Auckland and left Suva the day after that as it was being flown in to Nadi by Denarau.
I went shopping for oil and some other spares we needed and spent the rest of the day servicing both motors and putting new spark plugs in the outboard, 4pm rolled around and we headed into the bar (this was becoming a habit !)
On route to the bar I stopped at the fuel dock and asked how deep the water was, he suggested that we should only fill at high tide which would be at 9am the next day. That settled it we were leaving the next day and heading to Beqa (Benga) island.
Well that plan didn’t quite work as we noticed one of the composting toilets was beginning to smell, it had only been emptied on way to Suva so we knew it wasn’t that. Turns out the small fan that draws moisture out had stopped running. The next few hours involved me racing around computer stores (all taxi rides apart) looking for a 40mm x 40mm x10mm cooling fan – there were none. The smallest I found was 80mm so with a lot of duct tape I bodged up a system to draw the moisture/odour from the loo. Damn another night at the bar.
High tide was approx. 9.30am the next day and we threw off our lines and motored the 100m or so to the fuel dock where we were greeted with a ‘Well done, wwell done’ from the attendant. I did know that fuel prices in Fiji are set by the government but did not know that they had moved to monthly pricing since Covid. It was now the 1st September and the price had fallen overnight by about 70c per litre, quite a saving on the thousand or so we were about to put in.
Well we had made it ! Fulaga in the Southern Lau group is the furthest outreach of Fiji, approx. half way to Tonga and, I believe, it has been argued over by those two countries for many years. Not that long ago (5 years ?) cruisers used to have obtain a special permit to visit the Lau, now it is included in the cruising permit issued upon arrival in Fiji. We know now that a total of 112 boats visited Fulaga in 2022, if we work on an average of three people per boat that is only a few hundred people who have visited. What are the visitor numbers for the Maldives or Bora Bora ?
Back to the entry passage though, prior to entering Vesper had radioed asking that we all keep a sensible distance going in and through the pass to which we all agreed. LN was first and we were following (both cats) when Vesper manouvered infront of us (LS), not sure what was going on there but monohulls react very differently and on one occasion we had to go into reverse in the pass to avoid ramming them.
We had been told to keep close to the rock formation on the left as you enter the bay (backed up by the waypoints/tracks now on plotter) and Sonya (who was out front watching/filming) could see why, some nasty looking rocks and reef just below the surface to starboard. We could see around fifteen boats anchored in the huge bay ahead of us but we were off to another bay to visit the village for sevusevu.
Its about a 30 min walk from the beach to the village, a well worn track but quite steep in places so a good workout. Not just for the legs as your arms are constantly fending off bugs too no matter how much repellent you put on.
We arrived at the village and were greeted by the headman, we were shown into the community hall (funds for the build were gifted by a passing superyacht owner a few years back) and shown to sit. Its been a while since I have had to sit cross legged on the floor but you get used to it. The chief arrived and introduced himself then took a seat and studied our offerings, four quite different sized bundles of kava. He asked who had brought each one and I could see he wasn’t impressed with one of them, not ours luckily.
He and the headman went through the motions/ceremony in Fijian then stopped and the chief outlined how things were going to work out.
There is a fee of $50 per boat to visit Fulaga
You will be given a ‘host family’ who will look after you (unwritten rule that you look after them too)
No spear fishing unless outside of main reef
No watersports, etc on Sundays (they like to see you at church but do not insist)
Now I thought this was great, especially considering how other friends have been accepted and then hit up for donations, gifts, fishing trips, etc when visiting other islands/villages. Some people we met, who are now back in NZ, are still getting texts asking for phone top ups, etc for the chief of a particular village on the west side of Fiji.
Back onboard and we decided to stay in the bay overnight and move first thing the next day. This was when we named it mosquito bay, they were everywhere !
Morning came and off we went, its only about 20 mins through crystal clear water around 6m deep and the views are breath taking. We had checked the weather reports before moving and had all decided that the boats already in the bay were going to be in the wrong place for the winds over the next few days, we anchored on the opposite side of the bay to them in 2m of water approx. 50m from the white sand beach – paradise ! Vesper and Hans Off had to stay a little further out as their drafts are just over 2m.
The next morning we were woken by anchor chains rattling through windlass’s, wind had picked up overnight and boats were arriving in our bay seeking protection, I looked over to where they had come from and only two catamarans remained (they did come over later that day). Soon the bay was filled with kites and wings, it was ideal foiling weather apparently.
Unfortunately it didn’t last long and what we now know to be BogiWalu (pronounced Boogie Wahloo I believe) arrived –
It refers to the period when there is a surge in the South East trade winds over the Fiji Group. The synoptic weather situation results after the passage of a frontal zone that moves from the (South) West to the (North) East. Depending on the intensity of the sub-tropical high pressure (anti-cyclone) that develops to the South of Fiji, after the passage of the cold front, the winds range between 20 to 25 knots and on occasions with an intense anti-cyclone, can reach up to 30 kn.
This meant that, for the next few days at least, we would be confined to our boats or the closest beach as dinghying across a large bay in those winds can be pretty dangerous. A guy almost died in the bay a couple of years ago when he got thrown from his dinghy in these conditions and didn’t have a kill cord on, the dinghy circled round and the prop tore his chest and face open.
It blew through quicker than expected and we were free to explore again, we kayaked, SUP’d , visited the village and hung with other boaties. Probably the highlight of this trip was the snorkelling, our friends on Hans Off had a Powerdive hookah system, a floating compressor that allows one diver to 12m or two down to 6m. We went out to the fake pass and jumped in, us with snorkels and them with the Powerdive and allowed the current to take us and our dinghies through. I don’t think I have ever seen so many colours, definitely not that many shades of blue, anywhere else it was absolutely amazing.
After a quick lesson we were given the regulators and hoses for the Powerdive and set loose with that, it’s a game changer for us and we had to have one ! Infact we ordered as soon as we got back to the mainland (and cell cover) and it arrived a couple of weeks later thanks to FedEx (we would now only use them or DHL for anything sent to Fiji).
I forgot to mention that there was no cellphone coverage from Batavu Harbour down so we were reliant upon our Iridium Go! Sat phone/modem. In my personal opinion this is the biggest piece of expensive junk you can own on a boat. It CAN send and receive text msgs, emails (text only) and weather files but it doesn’t do any of these jobs quickly or easily. As I have the patience of an angry chimpanzee asked to do a jigsaw puzzle this became a job for Sonya who has the patience of a saint (not just for being with me). In terms that you will all understand it would take approx. 30 mins to download a weather file of 100kb – yes kilobytes, not mega or tera. Add to that the fact that it takes two or three attempts to log on to sat network and soon an hour has disappeared from your day. Also we all expect such tech to be plug and play nowadays, well Iridium certainly isn’t, I presume they have just given up knowing Starlink is coming to put them out of business and haven’t improved/changed anything for a long time.
As mentioned before we were definitely under provisioned for this trip, especially with alcohol. The wine had gone, spirits were low and only one box of beer remained but we were not the only ones. Our travel companions were all low except one who had brought 20L of home distilled alcohol with them from NZ (legal to distill at home there). They were very generous with it but we all knew they had another three months left of their trip so didn’t take too much advantage of it.
Our last alcohol went one evening with Hans Off, a plan was hatched that would see us leaving together with the next decent weather window. Vesper and Lady Nada were heading back the way we had come but we wanted to see Suva and some of the bays along the Coral Coast. The next morning I looked out and saw a small cruise ship entering the pass, that’s probably an exaggeration , a large charter boat would probably be closer. Turns out they do adventure charters (diving, spear fishing, surfing, etc) and had a group of Australians onboard. I know this as I raced over in the dinghy once they anchored and asked if they had beer for sale ! Expecting them to want bar/retail price I had taken $250 with me but was very happy to hear that they only wanted $60 for a box (24) of Fiji Gold, unfortunately they could only spare one box. Keith on Hans Off had watched through binoculars what was going on and was waving cash at me as I dinghied past , of course I shared .
We had spent a lot of time together whilst in Fulaga, their generator had packed in so they came to LS every morning for coffee and every few days came for water as they could not run the watermaker from their solar panels.
The weather window arrived and at 8am we raced through the passage on an outgoing tide into open water, 27 hours later we were in Suva, Hans Off a few hours later.
Only exciting part of the passage was an early morning call from an NZ warship (well that’s how they described themselves but it was more like an expedition/maintenance ship when I saw it) asking what we were doing.
We picked up a mooring ball just outside the Royal Suva Yacht Club and dinghied in, oh dear. The marina looked semi derelict, a few nice boats but many looking abandoned or just unloved. I spotted a free berth at the end of one of the pontoons and we headed in to the office to discuss.
The actual RSYC is clean and tidy with an OK bar area and small café/restaurant plus all the staff are incredibly helpful. After some confusion between feet and metres the office staff said something along the lines of – If you don’t stick out past the sail boat then you can use the berth for a few days. Back to LS and we slowly motored in constantly checking the depth as we had now noticed some of the yachts were listing to one side on their keels as they were bottoming out in what was low tide. We were OK and were soon tied on to the dock with only just over a metre protruding past the aforementioned sailboat, ahem..
Although we were desperate for provisions there was a bar and restaurant here so shopping could wait and we ventured into the bar with a tablet to check out where we would be headed for all that we required the next day.
One thing I had been warned about is the ‘no caps’ rule in the bar, it’s a bit of a sport for the ex pat drinkers there and signs say you must buy a round if caught wearing one. Its certainly the cheapest bar we have found so far with a handle of Fiji Bitter/Gold for $3.50.
The framed photos around the walls show it in a different light/era than now, mainly from the 60s and 70s it looked wonderful and I would have loved to have seen it in its heyday.
The next day we jumped into a taxi and went into town, no tourist rip offs like at Denarau and Vuda just metered taxis and the journey each way was about $4. Today was just going to be about food and drink so we hit the markets first and filled up a backpack with fresh veg then headed to a supermarket. The alcohol is normally in a separate area or store next door but here it was a meshed in area and you had to know what you wanted, I threw a tantrum as I couldn’t read any of the wine labels and decided to go back to LS and drop the groceries off before finding an actual bottle store/off licence.
A little internet searching got us to such a store and we wandered around saying ‘two of those, four of those, etc’, turns out the store was new (a franchise?) and the guy hadn’t had anyone stock up before so, maybe, just thought we were drunk. After a few minutes I asked if he was keeping up with the order and he asked if we really wanted it all – YES !
When it came to pay he had no idea what haggling was (or pretended not to) and it took a while for it to sink in that I wanted something thrown in to sweeten the deal, turned out to be some shockingly bad Cava but I tried. I asked him to call us a taxi so we could load up but he wouldn’t hear of it and if we could wait until closing time he would drop it all at the yacht club – perfect we would wait in the bar for him.
He arrived and we suddenly had lots of volunteers to get the 10 cases of beer, 18 bottles of wine and several spirits down to LS, we were politely declining as security arrived and said they would do it. When it was neatly tucked away and, for the first time in Fiji, the door was locked we went back to the bar for dinner with Hans Off.
They were having no luck finding a replacement generator in Fiji, they were specifically after a Honda EU20 but a Yamaha would have sufficed. No stock anywhere and no idea when they would arrive so they had no choice but to buy one in NZ and ship it out. They organised that the next day with a Honda dealer in Auckland and left Suva the day after that as it was being flown in to Nadi by Denarau.
I went shopping for oil and some other spares we needed and spent the rest of the day servicing both motors and putting new spark plugs in the outboard, 4pm rolled around and we headed into the bar (this was becoming a habit !)
On route to the bar I stopped at the fuel dock and asked how deep the water was, he suggested that we should only fill at high tide which would be at 9am the next day. That settled it we were leaving the next day and heading to Beqa (Benga) island.
Well that plan didn’t quite work as we noticed one of the composting toilets was beginning to smell, it had only been emptied on way to Suva so we knew it wasn’t that. Turns out the small fan that draws moisture out had stopped running. The next few hours involved me racing around computer stores (all taxi rides apart) looking for a 40mm x 40mm x10mm cooling fan – there were none. The smallest I found was 80mm so with a lot of duct tape I bodged up a system to draw the moisture/odour from the loo. Damn another night at the bar.
High tide was approx. 9.30am the next day and we threw off our lines and motored the 100m or so to the fuel dock where we were greeted with a ‘Well done, wwell done’ from the attendant. I did know that fuel prices in Fiji are set by the government but did not know that they had moved to monthly pricing since Covid. It was now the 1st September and the price had fallen overnight by about 70c per litre, quite a saving on the thousand or so we were about to put in.
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