Crossing an ocean without sails (but with a budget)
Discussion
Hi all
This may be of interest to some of you, our journey from the start of this adventure.
Cars, bikes and home sold - now all we have is our boat and a (vague) plan/route.
I'm still searching for the hard drive with pics of other boats we viewed on, hope to add those soon.
Its a slightly different route in life than I was expecting when growing up in London (left for NZ at 33).
Whilst sat at the bar at Musket Cove Yacht Club in Fiji during a weeks holiday we heard about a couples adventures sailing around the South Pacific for ten years, it sounded great !
We got back to Auckland and, almost immediately, went into the first Covid lockdown. This gave us plenty of time to start our search for the right vessel so we could start our adventure.
The ‘we’ in this tale were Kevin 53/Sonya 46 at its beginning and the youngest of our five children from blended families was about to turn eighteen and had already gone flatting.
We both had some boating experience, mainly lake boats for skiing and wakeboarding. I had spent a little time on friends boats in the Mediterranean many years before.
What would it take to buy a boat, kit it out, learn how to sail and get it to Fiji ? We started with a budget of $150k NZD for purchase and $50k to get her ready, this snuck up to $200k and $100k quite quickly.
At that time we were looking at sailing as every boat at Musket marina was a yacht and that’s how we thought it had to be.
Looking online we soon had a shortlist, plus an almost free boat that a friends father was trying to get rid of. Lockdown ended but still not much travel or association was allowed, the list got longer.
Brokers were obviously being inundated with enquiries at the time as they either never got back to us or lost interest once they heard the plan.
Anyway, we went to see the almost free boat at Gulf Harbour. It appeared to be in pretty good shape but needed a new motor hence the almost free. The big downside for me was its size, a fraction over 10m, how could we live onboard something so small ? Sonya fell in love with it immediately, “Lets have it, learn how to sail then find the boat we really need”.
I talked her out of that idea and off we went to Whangarei to look at some more. Now I fell in love, from the pontoon at the marina I could clearly see the Mason 48 we were there to view but couldn’t get through the gate to it ! It looked perfect, fresh paint, newly stained teak and deck fittings polished to within an inch of their lives. Finally we got onboard, the owner and broker had been onboard plotting while we were waiting. Covered pilothouse, large living area, rebuilt motor, new electronics to be installed – it was looking good. In my mind the cabins were too small but I was quickly told they are that size on yachts. The owners cabin didn’t even have a double bed, maybe a king single at best. There was room for the bed frame to be extended and I mentioned this to the broker, “You wont sleep together on passage and it will be too hot in Fiji so don’t worry about it” was his answer. The Mason was currently in first place on our list.
Next was an aluminium Ovni 43, on the hard with a young French couple living onboard. They wouldn’t get off for the viewing so five of us crammed into a very small space for almost an hour. It was immediately struck from the list.
On the way back to Auckland we stopped to see another near Warkworth, I remember little except it was 53’ with a very dark wood interior and plenty of green paint, two no goes for me.
The Mason was looking to be the one, I rang the broker to go further and was advised that the price no longer included new electronics or the tender and outboard – WTF ? An email arrived from him listing what we would probably have to spend to get her ready to sail, anywhere not to Fiji. It soon became clear why I had fallen for her, there was no clutter on the deck, or anywhere for that matter. The only thing that hadn’t been removed was the rigging. There were no sails, lines, fenders, nothing. It was all to be bought – by us !
The only other yacht worth mentioning was a Moody 43 we were shown at Gulf Harbour. Sonya loved its white interior (the purple leather on the couches needed replacing) and decent size master cabin. I was dubious of the 2.4m draft and the oversize sails (very experienced racer owner apparently). A phone call from the broker one evening advised us it had to be sold and offers would be looked at. Sonya wanted it, I didn’t. We knew nothing about sailing in Fiji (or anywhere else for that matter) but I remember being told that the deeper the draft the further away from the islands you had to anchor (oh how I laugh thinking back to that now). I also didn’t want to learn how to sail in a semi race boat. Sonya made a drunken offer, it was accepted – I was not happy. I have never wriggled out of a deal before, a shaken hand or an offer always was a done deal previously but, on this occasion, I just couldn’t. Nothing was in writing so I got us out of it.
Back to the internet and I started looking on YouTube for ocean crossing powerboat videos. Aha, it could be done, trawler style were the key words and, if you are working on a larger budget than us, Nordhavn was another. Quickly on to TradeMe with new search parameters and a very shortlist was in place. No point going to see any of them until I did some more homework, out came the calculator.
I based everything on the crossing to Fiji taking six days (144 hours) so, in an ideal world, something that burnt ten litres an hour (10l/hr) would be perfect but we could go a little higher if need be. Do you remember what the price of diesel was in May/June 2020 ? A lot less than now !
Hmm, this was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Most powerboats are……. Powerful, which wasn’t going to work in my plan. There were a few trawler styles available but either small or expensive (maybe just out of our meagre budget). What I needed was something to jump out at me and make me want to go view it.
There it was, a 1963 DeVries 17m steel motor yacht, powered by twin 110hp motors, it had arrived in NZ in the 80s so had definitely crossed oceans before. Apparently much money had been spent by the current owner getting her back to a useable state. I spoke with the broker, advised our plan and organised a day to view her, he also thought he had a couple of other listings that may be of interest. Once again I was travelling to Whangarei on the road that I hated the most in NZ, single lanes, logging trucks, steep hills, 50kmh through villages – grrrrr.
I rounded the corner and started to see boats on moorings and then….. there she was, side on, looking majestic. I imagined Grace Kelly stepping off of her in St Tropez in the 60s, maybe James Hunt in the 70s. The broker arrived and launched his dinghy, we putted over to her, my love fading with every metre but there was still hope surely ?
We climbed onboard via the, what I considered, very classy folding steps and platform. My first step on deck was greeted with a squirt of water through the teak just infront of me – oh ! Every step caused another squirt or puddle, I now knew why it needed new teak but instantly I thought ‘what will the steel be like when the teak is removed?’
Into the bridge and there was water on every surface, no seals on the sliding windows allowing rain and spray in constantly. The ‘electronics’ package reminded me of that from a submarine in a WW2 movie. Further in and my mood was lifted, money had definitely been spent in the galley and main bathroom. Stainless steel tops throughout galley, full size stove, decent cabinetry and plenty of room for refrigeration to be added. The bathroom had been tiled throughout and resembled a wet room style seen in hotels – very nice.
Down to the engine room, I don’t remember too much here other than there being no history whatsoever of any maintenance and no hour meters !
I left still with some hope but that was quickly dashed when I got back home and started researching teak decks on steel boats, MAN engine rebuilds and electronics packages. Actually, what crossed it off my list more than any of those was the broker saying that the price was firm, the owner would not budge a cent on the price, despite it having been on the market for a long while.
We loaded up the dinghy and drove another 20km to launch again. I could see the boat about 400m away, it certainly wasn’t pretty to look at. If it had been grey I would have expected a gun on the front, maybe it will deter pirates ?
The closer we got, etc etc. I knew some paint was required but OMG it looked terrible with rust and rust stains all over the white topsides. When climbing on I could see that the blue hull paint was bubbling everywhere too.
Apparently built to do exactly the trip we were planning the owner lost interest at the end and had a quick coat of automotive paint applied without sandblasting and sold it on. I understand, but cannot confirm, that the owner we were dealing with now was told this and was going to get it properly repainted but did nothing for the three years he owned her allowing her to fall into this state.
Luckily I had gone alone to these viewings as Sonya would have not even gone aboard, if she had I think there would have been screams. There were beer cans throughout ! Empty cans and some bottles strewn everywhere, no carpet could be seen and cigarettes had been put out on the galley benchtops and in saucepans. My super sight saw through all this and looked at the modern style and luxury fittings used, the captains seat and the array of electronics, the amazing visibility through huge windows – it would be perfect !
Down into the engine room and I was in love again, a single MAN 400hp (detuned for continuous rating) with only 300hrs on the clock. Possibly a bit thirstier than we wanted but I’ll come back to that. Ten house batteries, fuel polishing system, fuel transfer system for balance, watermaker, etc, etc – yes please !
Back home and I had some serious work to do on my wife. I had told the broker that it had to be tidied up (a lot !) before I could possibly bring her to view, no amount of explaining what it could look like inside while tripping over beer cans was not going to work. ‘Sorry darling I left my phone in the car’ got me out of showing her anything other than the brokers website pics and a warning that the exterior needed cosmetic attention (‘maybe 20k darling’) got her to agree to take a day off work and join me on the terrible roads to Whangarei again.
Broker advised it was tidy, date and time was agreed and off we went. Her smile was dropping a few millimetres with each 50m we travelled across the water until it had become a frown. My hopeful grin did not improve the situation. The electrically operated duckboard had been lowered (I don’t remember using it on first visit) and we climbed aboard. I think the original plan would have been to use wood but, maybe, in the final cost cutting a piece of white plastic (think kitchen chopping board) had been used. Unlike a kitchen chopping board it was incredibly slippery and thr three of us skated in through the transom gate and on to the checker plate style rear deck. Sonya immediately saw the built in washer/dryer, sink and chest freezer, a hint of a smile ? But she soon went back to looking at her feet and the rust that was either plainly visible or bubbling up through the white painted checker.
Inside and I was thankful that the owner had done a pretty good job of tidying up, not a beer can or ciggie butt in sight. We wandered around and the smile was definitely returning – hurray ! Up to the flybridge and it started to go again, more rust and stains everywhere. Even I was now dreading to see a paint quote.
So a deal was struck subject to the usual survey and sea trial but I also had built in get out clause if the paint quote was more than $60k (yes I drifted up a little bit on my original guestimate).
I joined her a couple of weeks later for the cruise round to Whangarei harbour where she was to be hauled out, paint quoted then surveyed. She went amazingly well, cruising at 9kn I think the motor was under 1000rpm, and docking was easy with bow thruster and joystick steering from the flybridge. I just couldn’t believe she was in our budget.
While still in the water one paint guy arrived, looked and walked away saying it was too big for his company to tackle. The next arrived and he said yes they could do it and would prepare a quote as quick as possible. A couple of days later and I got the call I wanted but without the news I wanted. ‘We are up to $120k and haven’t finished, do you want me to go further?’ I disappointedly said no and we chatted about how it had got so high, I also found out there would be lots of extras that couldn’t be quoted for. The entire boat needed sandblasting which meant removal of every deck fitting, window and electrical item. There was every possibility most of the windows would break during this procedure apparently and removing rusted deck fittings is an unknown quantity so there would definitely be some fabrication work too. A chat with the broker then a further call advising the owner would not renegotiate at all meant we were walking away. Despite being a pretty ugly boat it would have been perfect if the owner had just done what he should when he bought it.
My wife had had enough ! ‘I’m not looking anymore’ she said, ‘I need a break from boats’.
So I rang our broker, he was the only one we were dealing with now, and advised him not to call for three months while we got over our disappointments and relaxed a bit. It was only a couple of weeks before I saw his name flash up on my phone screen ‘this had better be good’ I answered with.
He said it was and asked if I remembered the powercat he had mentioned, yes I did but it was well out of our price range (the last advert I saw said $295k and I knew it had started off around $375k). Apparently the marriage breakup it was involved in had become so toxic it had to go, plus the marina berth it lived in (with the wife living onboard) had just been sold and they had done quite well with that. Off I went on my least favourite road to Tutukaka marina.
So, Westaway was a 15.2m Ron Given design sailing catamaran that had had its sails and rigging removed and a flybridge added. Apparently the owners had a sailing cat but wanted a powercat for fishing trips too. At this point I will mention that getting any info about the vessel was quite difficult, the wife not knowing too much about its original purchase and the works completed and the husband not really contactable. That may have had something to do with the time it had been on the market but I think the main reason was that it had such a limited customer base to appeal to. As a sailing cat it would have sold immediately at its original price point (high 3s) or as a powercat with twin 300hp engines but a sailor didn’t want to pay for diesel and a power boat owner, normally, wants to get somewhere quicker than her 65hp Volvos would allow. For us things were looking good.
I left with plenty of pics and drove back to AKL to my wife’s office, we then drove to Gulf Harbour as I had organised another viewing for the day. A 42’ trawler style with a newly rebuilt 135hp motor and new electronics, for sale by owner. It was a lovely craft, in pristine condition throughout, and, if I’m honest, I preferred it over the powercat. Its only downside was the ladder to the flybridge, my wife had recently had surgery on her knee and it hadn’t made it any better so would be an issue. That evening she studied pics and listing details on TradeMe, finally announcing that real estate was king and we should go for the bigger of the two. Not quite my way of narrowing down a purchase of this magnitude but who was I to argue ?
I wanted to offer $200k but thought it a little too harsh, as I thought a broker would take 5% we went in at $210k so they would get a clear $200k (it turns out 10% is the norm, oops), obv subject to survey and sea trial.
Now, big advice time, DO NOT employ the services of a surveyor because of their nice website and because they seem like a nice chap. Ask friends, ask at marinas, etc and look at sample surveys. I did not do this and it caused many problems and expenses down the line. Also, never ever use the services of said surveyor who advises he is also a boat builder and can deal with all of the issues that arose in the survey in a timely and professional manner ! That is all I will say on the matter apart from it was nearly seven weeks later we got to collect our (unfinished!) boat , now named Lazy Sunday, from Whangarei and not the two weeks we were advised.
Now the big job started, learning how to operate this 15.2m x 6.9m beast was fine but docking was not so easy. Another tip, do not buy a boat and then try to find somewhere to keep it (unless it’s a trailer boat and you have a quarter acre section). We had no idea that there were so few catamaran berths in AKL and even less idea that they were all full as very few had been able to leave NZ because of Covid. Brooklands Boat Club (BBC) at Clevedon (Wairoa river) came to the rescue and offered us an 18m pole mooring. I had no idea what that was but took it anyway and drove down to have a look. What could possibly go wrong ? There were lots of boats there including a much larger cat than us (Cool Bananas, a lovely looking vessel) so how hard could it be. Well for someone who knew very little about currents, windage, etc it was pretty tough but a great learning curve. Much shouting from helm to deck on both departure and arrival from the BBC strengthened our marriage too (I can say that now but at the time……) It actually got to the point that we both got nervous and snappy while driving to the BBC to leave or when we pulled anchor somewhere to head back. I would highly recommend Brooklands, it was incredibly friendly with knowledgeable people and had some services, all for an incredibly reasonable price.
It was whilst investigating places to be hauled out that I came across Tamaki Marine Park (TMP) at Mt Wellington. I drove out to look at the facilities one day and realised that I had been down the street many times but had no idea there was a river or marina at the end !
Whilst organising the haul out I asked if they had a berth free for us after, yes was the answer so more paperwork was signed. Now I could organise contractors to carry out some of the works I knew were required that were too big for me to do. Three weeks later we zigzagged down the Tamaki river to LS’s new home.
Condon Marine Services at TMP turned out to be one of our best finds, all work carried out in a timely and sensibly priced fashion to a super high standard. I even started turning up for Friday pm beers with them each week, they were polite enough never to tell me I wasn’t welcome !
Here is a list of works completed by myself and other contractors over the next year, most of this was done while in the water, only a few jobs required hauling out and I would pack those together so we only spent a total of three weeks on the hard in that year.
Raymarine Axiom 9+ chart plotter & Auto pilot
Raymarine Quantum Radar
Complete rewire
Solar install – 1245w of panels, 800ah Lithium Ion batteries, 3x mppt
Dinghy arch
New forward hatches (750x750)
New anchor chain 100m
New rope rub rails
New bilge pumps , 8x 750gph
New water pumps & accumulator
New hosing throughout
New basins, shub, taps, etc
New plastic diesel tanks fwd & aft plus shelf in front locker for 15 x 20L jerry cans each side
Watermaker fitted (Rainman)
Composting toilets installed (Natures Head)
Side portholes resealed
New VHF radio x 2
New floodlight
New flare packs
Fire extinguishers throughout
Hulls repainted
Flybridge repainted
Kiwi Grip on deck repainted
Liferaft (8man) installed
New steps to flybridge
New sugar scoop steps
New convection oven, induction hob, etc
New dock lines
New fenders
New latches throughout
Our other amazing find was Brad at A1 Marine Electrical, after being let down by several electrical companies either not turning up or, at the last minute, advising they were too busy he was a god send.
I had done quite a bit of online research regarding solar on a boat, the general consensus was that unless you had a full Victron/Battlborn system it would fail completely and burn your boat down in about a month. I also did some research with friends who owned coastal baches and had solar which proved interesting. One of these friends previously owned a boat and said he had seen no difference in the quality of equipment installed on that than he purchased for his bach. He gave me the suppliers details and off I went.
I wanted 3 x 415w panels and between 800 and 1000ah of lithium batteries all to be used in 12v. I don’t know why I insisted on 12v as lots of people advised me 24 or 48 would have been better. Maybe my limited knowledge of electrical stuff contributed, yes that will be it and the fact that the Volvo’s are 12v.
My opinion remains that the solar system is only as good as its installation so more thanks go to Brad at A1. We didn’t even plug into shore power at the marina in NZ after its install and we have only used the generator here in Fiji on a few occasions when there has been bad weather for several days.
It was whilst on the hard at TMP the first time that someone mentioned this thing called Cat 1, apparently some sort of safety thing to stop stupid English/Australian couples taking to the waters of NZ before heading to the islands. It turns out this wouldn’t affect our plan as we had registered LS overseas because we did not know where we would end up with her. In the end it did affect our plan as once my wife got wind of it she said the rules were there for a reason and we should abide by them plus we left NZ with the Island Cruising rally (huge thanks to Viki Moore) who required a letter from a Cat 1 inspector confirming that LS was up to a high (if not quite Cat 1) standard. The only couple of things I think we wouldn’t pass on are window storm covers on the flybridge and internal floors screwed down (I needed to be able to check engines each day). We did the medical courses and in sea survival (well my wife did, I couldn’t swim at that point so no point me doing it !). Oh yes, you have to have at least one experienced blue water crew member onboard for Cat 1 as well. We already had one crew member sorted, a good friend who had some boating experience but was calm under pressure and had some mechanical and electrical knowledge. My Wife decided that we needed a fourth and spoke to the parents of her daughters friend who were volunteers in the Coastguard. The father would love to but couldn’t at the time we wished to go so they put it up on the CG chat group and the next day we got an email from a chap who became the fourth musketeer.
On the 4th May 2022 the four of us were sat on the back of LS going through a few things when my wife announced “I feel that because of Kevin’s cavalier attitude to safety and procedures I should be skipper on the passage”, she sat back in her seat and waited. “Yes, I think so too” said I and the other guys agreed. She let out a sigh of relief and laughed “that was easier than I expected”.
So with a new skipper (not at the helm) on the 6th May 2022 at 11.30am we left Opua marina knowing that we had seven or eight days to get to Denarau before some bad weather hit Fiji, no pressure then !
There were five or six other rally boats within sight for most of the day and a couple stayed with us for most of that evening. We had been doing quite nicely at 2000rpm staying around 7.2 kn but as the winds and sea increased our speed starting dropping off which allowed a sailing cat past us during the night. I came back on watch in the morning after a pretty rough night and checked our progress – not good, averaging about 5.9 if I recall. I upped the revs to 2200 and on we crashed. The first two and a half days were pretty awful, 3 to 4m swells, plenty of chop and wind on the beam.
During day 3 everything calmed and we were able to move around the boat without fear of falling over and we could use the outdoor furniture, we even caught a fish ! It stayed like this for a couple of days and spirits were high, everyone had showered, had hot meals, a laugh and our speed was back on track. By now we were at 2400rpm to make up some of the time we lost earlier. As a cost saver the new diesel tanks in the aft lockers were not plumbed in, just storage tanks which we had to pump out from. Much merriment ensued as I did the port side only to find the rotary hand pump sprayed a nice jet over me with each rotation – back in the shower !
Day 5 and the wind and chop returned, we didn’t care now and as the front and mid fuel tanks were full again we wouldn’t need to be outside unless there was some sort of emergency.
We were a dry boat on passage but had all agreed that a beer or glass of bubbles would be fine when we saw land. Land ahoy ! was shouted early on day 6 but a no one wanted a drink.
So 147 hours (6 days, 3hrs) after leaving Opua we were tied on at Denarau marina, one other boat (Leopard 46 I believe) from the rally already there (some were going to Savusavu), now it was time for those bubbles !
If there is any interest I will continue, if not I will stick to reading The Lounge, Biker Banter & Porsche sections !
This may be of interest to some of you, our journey from the start of this adventure.
Cars, bikes and home sold - now all we have is our boat and a (vague) plan/route.
I'm still searching for the hard drive with pics of other boats we viewed on, hope to add those soon.
Its a slightly different route in life than I was expecting when growing up in London (left for NZ at 33).
Whilst sat at the bar at Musket Cove Yacht Club in Fiji during a weeks holiday we heard about a couples adventures sailing around the South Pacific for ten years, it sounded great !
We got back to Auckland and, almost immediately, went into the first Covid lockdown. This gave us plenty of time to start our search for the right vessel so we could start our adventure.
The ‘we’ in this tale were Kevin 53/Sonya 46 at its beginning and the youngest of our five children from blended families was about to turn eighteen and had already gone flatting.
We both had some boating experience, mainly lake boats for skiing and wakeboarding. I had spent a little time on friends boats in the Mediterranean many years before.
What would it take to buy a boat, kit it out, learn how to sail and get it to Fiji ? We started with a budget of $150k NZD for purchase and $50k to get her ready, this snuck up to $200k and $100k quite quickly.
At that time we were looking at sailing as every boat at Musket marina was a yacht and that’s how we thought it had to be.
Looking online we soon had a shortlist, plus an almost free boat that a friends father was trying to get rid of. Lockdown ended but still not much travel or association was allowed, the list got longer.
Brokers were obviously being inundated with enquiries at the time as they either never got back to us or lost interest once they heard the plan.
Anyway, we went to see the almost free boat at Gulf Harbour. It appeared to be in pretty good shape but needed a new motor hence the almost free. The big downside for me was its size, a fraction over 10m, how could we live onboard something so small ? Sonya fell in love with it immediately, “Lets have it, learn how to sail then find the boat we really need”.
I talked her out of that idea and off we went to Whangarei to look at some more. Now I fell in love, from the pontoon at the marina I could clearly see the Mason 48 we were there to view but couldn’t get through the gate to it ! It looked perfect, fresh paint, newly stained teak and deck fittings polished to within an inch of their lives. Finally we got onboard, the owner and broker had been onboard plotting while we were waiting. Covered pilothouse, large living area, rebuilt motor, new electronics to be installed – it was looking good. In my mind the cabins were too small but I was quickly told they are that size on yachts. The owners cabin didn’t even have a double bed, maybe a king single at best. There was room for the bed frame to be extended and I mentioned this to the broker, “You wont sleep together on passage and it will be too hot in Fiji so don’t worry about it” was his answer. The Mason was currently in first place on our list.
Next was an aluminium Ovni 43, on the hard with a young French couple living onboard. They wouldn’t get off for the viewing so five of us crammed into a very small space for almost an hour. It was immediately struck from the list.
On the way back to Auckland we stopped to see another near Warkworth, I remember little except it was 53’ with a very dark wood interior and plenty of green paint, two no goes for me.
The Mason was looking to be the one, I rang the broker to go further and was advised that the price no longer included new electronics or the tender and outboard – WTF ? An email arrived from him listing what we would probably have to spend to get her ready to sail, anywhere not to Fiji. It soon became clear why I had fallen for her, there was no clutter on the deck, or anywhere for that matter. The only thing that hadn’t been removed was the rigging. There were no sails, lines, fenders, nothing. It was all to be bought – by us !
The only other yacht worth mentioning was a Moody 43 we were shown at Gulf Harbour. Sonya loved its white interior (the purple leather on the couches needed replacing) and decent size master cabin. I was dubious of the 2.4m draft and the oversize sails (very experienced racer owner apparently). A phone call from the broker one evening advised us it had to be sold and offers would be looked at. Sonya wanted it, I didn’t. We knew nothing about sailing in Fiji (or anywhere else for that matter) but I remember being told that the deeper the draft the further away from the islands you had to anchor (oh how I laugh thinking back to that now). I also didn’t want to learn how to sail in a semi race boat. Sonya made a drunken offer, it was accepted – I was not happy. I have never wriggled out of a deal before, a shaken hand or an offer always was a done deal previously but, on this occasion, I just couldn’t. Nothing was in writing so I got us out of it.
Back to the internet and I started looking on YouTube for ocean crossing powerboat videos. Aha, it could be done, trawler style were the key words and, if you are working on a larger budget than us, Nordhavn was another. Quickly on to TradeMe with new search parameters and a very shortlist was in place. No point going to see any of them until I did some more homework, out came the calculator.
I based everything on the crossing to Fiji taking six days (144 hours) so, in an ideal world, something that burnt ten litres an hour (10l/hr) would be perfect but we could go a little higher if need be. Do you remember what the price of diesel was in May/June 2020 ? A lot less than now !
Hmm, this was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Most powerboats are……. Powerful, which wasn’t going to work in my plan. There were a few trawler styles available but either small or expensive (maybe just out of our meagre budget). What I needed was something to jump out at me and make me want to go view it.
There it was, a 1963 DeVries 17m steel motor yacht, powered by twin 110hp motors, it had arrived in NZ in the 80s so had definitely crossed oceans before. Apparently much money had been spent by the current owner getting her back to a useable state. I spoke with the broker, advised our plan and organised a day to view her, he also thought he had a couple of other listings that may be of interest. Once again I was travelling to Whangarei on the road that I hated the most in NZ, single lanes, logging trucks, steep hills, 50kmh through villages – grrrrr.
I rounded the corner and started to see boats on moorings and then….. there she was, side on, looking majestic. I imagined Grace Kelly stepping off of her in St Tropez in the 60s, maybe James Hunt in the 70s. The broker arrived and launched his dinghy, we putted over to her, my love fading with every metre but there was still hope surely ?
We climbed onboard via the, what I considered, very classy folding steps and platform. My first step on deck was greeted with a squirt of water through the teak just infront of me – oh ! Every step caused another squirt or puddle, I now knew why it needed new teak but instantly I thought ‘what will the steel be like when the teak is removed?’
Into the bridge and there was water on every surface, no seals on the sliding windows allowing rain and spray in constantly. The ‘electronics’ package reminded me of that from a submarine in a WW2 movie. Further in and my mood was lifted, money had definitely been spent in the galley and main bathroom. Stainless steel tops throughout galley, full size stove, decent cabinetry and plenty of room for refrigeration to be added. The bathroom had been tiled throughout and resembled a wet room style seen in hotels – very nice.
Down to the engine room, I don’t remember too much here other than there being no history whatsoever of any maintenance and no hour meters !
I left still with some hope but that was quickly dashed when I got back home and started researching teak decks on steel boats, MAN engine rebuilds and electronics packages. Actually, what crossed it off my list more than any of those was the broker saying that the price was firm, the owner would not budge a cent on the price, despite it having been on the market for a long while.
We loaded up the dinghy and drove another 20km to launch again. I could see the boat about 400m away, it certainly wasn’t pretty to look at. If it had been grey I would have expected a gun on the front, maybe it will deter pirates ?
The closer we got, etc etc. I knew some paint was required but OMG it looked terrible with rust and rust stains all over the white topsides. When climbing on I could see that the blue hull paint was bubbling everywhere too.
Apparently built to do exactly the trip we were planning the owner lost interest at the end and had a quick coat of automotive paint applied without sandblasting and sold it on. I understand, but cannot confirm, that the owner we were dealing with now was told this and was going to get it properly repainted but did nothing for the three years he owned her allowing her to fall into this state.
Luckily I had gone alone to these viewings as Sonya would have not even gone aboard, if she had I think there would have been screams. There were beer cans throughout ! Empty cans and some bottles strewn everywhere, no carpet could be seen and cigarettes had been put out on the galley benchtops and in saucepans. My super sight saw through all this and looked at the modern style and luxury fittings used, the captains seat and the array of electronics, the amazing visibility through huge windows – it would be perfect !
Down into the engine room and I was in love again, a single MAN 400hp (detuned for continuous rating) with only 300hrs on the clock. Possibly a bit thirstier than we wanted but I’ll come back to that. Ten house batteries, fuel polishing system, fuel transfer system for balance, watermaker, etc, etc – yes please !
Back home and I had some serious work to do on my wife. I had told the broker that it had to be tidied up (a lot !) before I could possibly bring her to view, no amount of explaining what it could look like inside while tripping over beer cans was not going to work. ‘Sorry darling I left my phone in the car’ got me out of showing her anything other than the brokers website pics and a warning that the exterior needed cosmetic attention (‘maybe 20k darling’) got her to agree to take a day off work and join me on the terrible roads to Whangarei again.
Broker advised it was tidy, date and time was agreed and off we went. Her smile was dropping a few millimetres with each 50m we travelled across the water until it had become a frown. My hopeful grin did not improve the situation. The electrically operated duckboard had been lowered (I don’t remember using it on first visit) and we climbed aboard. I think the original plan would have been to use wood but, maybe, in the final cost cutting a piece of white plastic (think kitchen chopping board) had been used. Unlike a kitchen chopping board it was incredibly slippery and thr three of us skated in through the transom gate and on to the checker plate style rear deck. Sonya immediately saw the built in washer/dryer, sink and chest freezer, a hint of a smile ? But she soon went back to looking at her feet and the rust that was either plainly visible or bubbling up through the white painted checker.
Inside and I was thankful that the owner had done a pretty good job of tidying up, not a beer can or ciggie butt in sight. We wandered around and the smile was definitely returning – hurray ! Up to the flybridge and it started to go again, more rust and stains everywhere. Even I was now dreading to see a paint quote.
So a deal was struck subject to the usual survey and sea trial but I also had built in get out clause if the paint quote was more than $60k (yes I drifted up a little bit on my original guestimate).
I joined her a couple of weeks later for the cruise round to Whangarei harbour where she was to be hauled out, paint quoted then surveyed. She went amazingly well, cruising at 9kn I think the motor was under 1000rpm, and docking was easy with bow thruster and joystick steering from the flybridge. I just couldn’t believe she was in our budget.
While still in the water one paint guy arrived, looked and walked away saying it was too big for his company to tackle. The next arrived and he said yes they could do it and would prepare a quote as quick as possible. A couple of days later and I got the call I wanted but without the news I wanted. ‘We are up to $120k and haven’t finished, do you want me to go further?’ I disappointedly said no and we chatted about how it had got so high, I also found out there would be lots of extras that couldn’t be quoted for. The entire boat needed sandblasting which meant removal of every deck fitting, window and electrical item. There was every possibility most of the windows would break during this procedure apparently and removing rusted deck fittings is an unknown quantity so there would definitely be some fabrication work too. A chat with the broker then a further call advising the owner would not renegotiate at all meant we were walking away. Despite being a pretty ugly boat it would have been perfect if the owner had just done what he should when he bought it.
My wife had had enough ! ‘I’m not looking anymore’ she said, ‘I need a break from boats’.
So I rang our broker, he was the only one we were dealing with now, and advised him not to call for three months while we got over our disappointments and relaxed a bit. It was only a couple of weeks before I saw his name flash up on my phone screen ‘this had better be good’ I answered with.
He said it was and asked if I remembered the powercat he had mentioned, yes I did but it was well out of our price range (the last advert I saw said $295k and I knew it had started off around $375k). Apparently the marriage breakup it was involved in had become so toxic it had to go, plus the marina berth it lived in (with the wife living onboard) had just been sold and they had done quite well with that. Off I went on my least favourite road to Tutukaka marina.
So, Westaway was a 15.2m Ron Given design sailing catamaran that had had its sails and rigging removed and a flybridge added. Apparently the owners had a sailing cat but wanted a powercat for fishing trips too. At this point I will mention that getting any info about the vessel was quite difficult, the wife not knowing too much about its original purchase and the works completed and the husband not really contactable. That may have had something to do with the time it had been on the market but I think the main reason was that it had such a limited customer base to appeal to. As a sailing cat it would have sold immediately at its original price point (high 3s) or as a powercat with twin 300hp engines but a sailor didn’t want to pay for diesel and a power boat owner, normally, wants to get somewhere quicker than her 65hp Volvos would allow. For us things were looking good.
I left with plenty of pics and drove back to AKL to my wife’s office, we then drove to Gulf Harbour as I had organised another viewing for the day. A 42’ trawler style with a newly rebuilt 135hp motor and new electronics, for sale by owner. It was a lovely craft, in pristine condition throughout, and, if I’m honest, I preferred it over the powercat. Its only downside was the ladder to the flybridge, my wife had recently had surgery on her knee and it hadn’t made it any better so would be an issue. That evening she studied pics and listing details on TradeMe, finally announcing that real estate was king and we should go for the bigger of the two. Not quite my way of narrowing down a purchase of this magnitude but who was I to argue ?
I wanted to offer $200k but thought it a little too harsh, as I thought a broker would take 5% we went in at $210k so they would get a clear $200k (it turns out 10% is the norm, oops), obv subject to survey and sea trial.
Now, big advice time, DO NOT employ the services of a surveyor because of their nice website and because they seem like a nice chap. Ask friends, ask at marinas, etc and look at sample surveys. I did not do this and it caused many problems and expenses down the line. Also, never ever use the services of said surveyor who advises he is also a boat builder and can deal with all of the issues that arose in the survey in a timely and professional manner ! That is all I will say on the matter apart from it was nearly seven weeks later we got to collect our (unfinished!) boat , now named Lazy Sunday, from Whangarei and not the two weeks we were advised.
Now the big job started, learning how to operate this 15.2m x 6.9m beast was fine but docking was not so easy. Another tip, do not buy a boat and then try to find somewhere to keep it (unless it’s a trailer boat and you have a quarter acre section). We had no idea that there were so few catamaran berths in AKL and even less idea that they were all full as very few had been able to leave NZ because of Covid. Brooklands Boat Club (BBC) at Clevedon (Wairoa river) came to the rescue and offered us an 18m pole mooring. I had no idea what that was but took it anyway and drove down to have a look. What could possibly go wrong ? There were lots of boats there including a much larger cat than us (Cool Bananas, a lovely looking vessel) so how hard could it be. Well for someone who knew very little about currents, windage, etc it was pretty tough but a great learning curve. Much shouting from helm to deck on both departure and arrival from the BBC strengthened our marriage too (I can say that now but at the time……) It actually got to the point that we both got nervous and snappy while driving to the BBC to leave or when we pulled anchor somewhere to head back. I would highly recommend Brooklands, it was incredibly friendly with knowledgeable people and had some services, all for an incredibly reasonable price.
It was whilst investigating places to be hauled out that I came across Tamaki Marine Park (TMP) at Mt Wellington. I drove out to look at the facilities one day and realised that I had been down the street many times but had no idea there was a river or marina at the end !
Whilst organising the haul out I asked if they had a berth free for us after, yes was the answer so more paperwork was signed. Now I could organise contractors to carry out some of the works I knew were required that were too big for me to do. Three weeks later we zigzagged down the Tamaki river to LS’s new home.
Condon Marine Services at TMP turned out to be one of our best finds, all work carried out in a timely and sensibly priced fashion to a super high standard. I even started turning up for Friday pm beers with them each week, they were polite enough never to tell me I wasn’t welcome !
Here is a list of works completed by myself and other contractors over the next year, most of this was done while in the water, only a few jobs required hauling out and I would pack those together so we only spent a total of three weeks on the hard in that year.
Raymarine Axiom 9+ chart plotter & Auto pilot
Raymarine Quantum Radar
Complete rewire
Solar install – 1245w of panels, 800ah Lithium Ion batteries, 3x mppt
Dinghy arch
New forward hatches (750x750)
New anchor chain 100m
New rope rub rails
New bilge pumps , 8x 750gph
New water pumps & accumulator
New hosing throughout
New basins, shub, taps, etc
New plastic diesel tanks fwd & aft plus shelf in front locker for 15 x 20L jerry cans each side
Watermaker fitted (Rainman)
Composting toilets installed (Natures Head)
Side portholes resealed
New VHF radio x 2
New floodlight
New flare packs
Fire extinguishers throughout
Hulls repainted
Flybridge repainted
Kiwi Grip on deck repainted
Liferaft (8man) installed
New steps to flybridge
New sugar scoop steps
New convection oven, induction hob, etc
New dock lines
New fenders
New latches throughout
Our other amazing find was Brad at A1 Marine Electrical, after being let down by several electrical companies either not turning up or, at the last minute, advising they were too busy he was a god send.
I had done quite a bit of online research regarding solar on a boat, the general consensus was that unless you had a full Victron/Battlborn system it would fail completely and burn your boat down in about a month. I also did some research with friends who owned coastal baches and had solar which proved interesting. One of these friends previously owned a boat and said he had seen no difference in the quality of equipment installed on that than he purchased for his bach. He gave me the suppliers details and off I went.
I wanted 3 x 415w panels and between 800 and 1000ah of lithium batteries all to be used in 12v. I don’t know why I insisted on 12v as lots of people advised me 24 or 48 would have been better. Maybe my limited knowledge of electrical stuff contributed, yes that will be it and the fact that the Volvo’s are 12v.
My opinion remains that the solar system is only as good as its installation so more thanks go to Brad at A1. We didn’t even plug into shore power at the marina in NZ after its install and we have only used the generator here in Fiji on a few occasions when there has been bad weather for several days.
It was whilst on the hard at TMP the first time that someone mentioned this thing called Cat 1, apparently some sort of safety thing to stop stupid English/Australian couples taking to the waters of NZ before heading to the islands. It turns out this wouldn’t affect our plan as we had registered LS overseas because we did not know where we would end up with her. In the end it did affect our plan as once my wife got wind of it she said the rules were there for a reason and we should abide by them plus we left NZ with the Island Cruising rally (huge thanks to Viki Moore) who required a letter from a Cat 1 inspector confirming that LS was up to a high (if not quite Cat 1) standard. The only couple of things I think we wouldn’t pass on are window storm covers on the flybridge and internal floors screwed down (I needed to be able to check engines each day). We did the medical courses and in sea survival (well my wife did, I couldn’t swim at that point so no point me doing it !). Oh yes, you have to have at least one experienced blue water crew member onboard for Cat 1 as well. We already had one crew member sorted, a good friend who had some boating experience but was calm under pressure and had some mechanical and electrical knowledge. My Wife decided that we needed a fourth and spoke to the parents of her daughters friend who were volunteers in the Coastguard. The father would love to but couldn’t at the time we wished to go so they put it up on the CG chat group and the next day we got an email from a chap who became the fourth musketeer.
On the 4th May 2022 the four of us were sat on the back of LS going through a few things when my wife announced “I feel that because of Kevin’s cavalier attitude to safety and procedures I should be skipper on the passage”, she sat back in her seat and waited. “Yes, I think so too” said I and the other guys agreed. She let out a sigh of relief and laughed “that was easier than I expected”.
So with a new skipper (not at the helm) on the 6th May 2022 at 11.30am we left Opua marina knowing that we had seven or eight days to get to Denarau before some bad weather hit Fiji, no pressure then !
There were five or six other rally boats within sight for most of the day and a couple stayed with us for most of that evening. We had been doing quite nicely at 2000rpm staying around 7.2 kn but as the winds and sea increased our speed starting dropping off which allowed a sailing cat past us during the night. I came back on watch in the morning after a pretty rough night and checked our progress – not good, averaging about 5.9 if I recall. I upped the revs to 2200 and on we crashed. The first two and a half days were pretty awful, 3 to 4m swells, plenty of chop and wind on the beam.
During day 3 everything calmed and we were able to move around the boat without fear of falling over and we could use the outdoor furniture, we even caught a fish ! It stayed like this for a couple of days and spirits were high, everyone had showered, had hot meals, a laugh and our speed was back on track. By now we were at 2400rpm to make up some of the time we lost earlier. As a cost saver the new diesel tanks in the aft lockers were not plumbed in, just storage tanks which we had to pump out from. Much merriment ensued as I did the port side only to find the rotary hand pump sprayed a nice jet over me with each rotation – back in the shower !
Day 5 and the wind and chop returned, we didn’t care now and as the front and mid fuel tanks were full again we wouldn’t need to be outside unless there was some sort of emergency.
We were a dry boat on passage but had all agreed that a beer or glass of bubbles would be fine when we saw land. Land ahoy ! was shouted early on day 6 but a no one wanted a drink.
So 147 hours (6 days, 3hrs) after leaving Opua we were tied on at Denarau marina, one other boat (Leopard 46 I believe) from the rally already there (some were going to Savusavu), now it was time for those bubbles !
If there is any interest I will continue, if not I will stick to reading The Lounge, Biker Banter & Porsche sections !
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/8ed7Uttg.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/3T7qzDTH" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/3T7qzDTH.jpg)
We did joke at the beginning that we should try a YouTube channel, it would certainly be different to the likes of Sailing Zatara & Gone With The Wynns - a 50+yo skinhead swearing as he skins his knuckles while changing a fuel filter in 3m swells.
Todays issue (and accompanied bad language) is that our 12m old AB ali floor dinghy is letting in water - grrrrr.
Looks like the Hypalon has come away from ali underneath, obv no AB agent in Fiji !
Now where is that tube of Sikka 291 ?
Todays issue (and accompanied bad language) is that our 12m old AB ali floor dinghy is letting in water - grrrrr.
Looks like the Hypalon has come away from ali underneath, obv no AB agent in Fiji !
Now where is that tube of Sikka 291 ?
Badda said:
That looks superb. Obv it wasn’t but it looks it.
ETA the first one, the DV I assume.
Correct.ETA the first one, the DV I assume.
She was lovely but was a little too much of the unknown for us to take on.
If we knew then what we knew now it would have been a more likely proposition.
I understand it did finally sell about 12m after I viewed, it was being renovated and going to live on a lake in the South Island of NZ.
We were soon visited by a health worker for our arrival Covid tests. I suspect they had been told that there would be no positive tests carried out at Denarau as the cotton bud that had been forced up my nose and down the back of my throat on many occasions in NZ was merely waved around infront of our faces, maybe lightly touching a nostril. Within a few minutes we were given the all clear and off he went to advise other officials that we could be boarded.
It was about 3pm by now and we were sat around enjoying a cold beer, it was about 28C and humid despite it being Fiji wintertime. 4pm and still no one arrived, 4.31pm here they are.
After 4.30pm everything becomes ‘after hours’ to the officials and they mention this when turning up, offering us to check in tomorrow if we would prefer. We knew it would cost a little more but didn’t fancy sitting onboard at the quarantine dock for the night listening to the music and fun coming from the bars and restaurants of Denarau.
The three officials came aboard and insisted on sitting inside, we offered them cold drinks (never alcohol) and put our beers back in the fridge. Most of the talking and form filling/signing was done by our skipper (not so stupid now am I ?) and we were only asked to confirm something verbally a couple of times each.
The duty free alcohol limit is 2.25L each and includes spirits, wine & beer. We were probably a little over but it had been spread around the boat and we could certainly have plead ignorance regarding the beer being included in limit. We needn’t have worried (and should have brought lots more!) as it wasn’t checked, pork however was a different story.
An official rummaged through the fridge freezer and held up a pack of sausages, ‘Pork!’ he exclaimed. Sonya glared at me (I’m the cook onboard) saying something like ‘I thought all the pork had been eaten’. I looked at the packet and announced ‘Lamb !’ then showing him the ingredient list of the lovely lamb & rosemary sausages I had been saving for a cooked breakfast. He seemed disappointed and carried on the search, soon a smile appeared again and a pack of Thai pork meatballs were found that I had forgotten about – oh well.
Everything was in order and all our passports were stamped, the only thing we didn’t get straight away was our Cruising Permit, we would have to collect that the next day from their office. Now it was time to hear more about the ‘after hours’ service.
We knew everything had to be paid in cash as they don’t carry mobile card machines so had plenty of FJD onboard. Hand written receipts were presented from each official then the ring leader/senior official spoke about the after hours fees. Apparently we had to pay for their taxis home, each living in different direction so a taxi each. One official (who apparently didn’t normally work at Den) said she had her own car so it was not necessary. That didn’t go down well and she got a mouthful in Fijian from the senior and went quiet. He explained to us that she would require her dinner paid for instead. No problem we said and asked what the total was. He ignored that and went on to advise that, again, this fee must be paid in cash and no official receipt could be issued. ‘Is that a problem?’ he asked. No problem, how much. We got the figure and handed it over, also noting that the Thai pork balls had been removed from the black bin liner and put in a sports bag.
Everyone in our rally group lost some form of pork during their search and each time it was removed from the rubbish bags before leaving the boat. It sounds like most of us who arrived at Den paid the out of hours fees, the people who checked in at Savusavu were appalled to hear of it and the rally organiser was going to write to the officials. Personally I didn’t have a problem, Fiji had been empty of tourists/boats for two years and a little ‘back hander’ to grease the wheels was fine. I’ve paid more in on the spot speeding fines whilst in Europe without receipts over the years.
We were good to go ! By go I mean move from the quarantine dock to a berth on the other side of the marina which would be our home for the next couple of days while we refuelled (1500L approx.), re provisioned, cleaned and packed away ropes, safety lines, liferaft, drogue, etc ready for our new cruising life !
It was about 3pm by now and we were sat around enjoying a cold beer, it was about 28C and humid despite it being Fiji wintertime. 4pm and still no one arrived, 4.31pm here they are.
After 4.30pm everything becomes ‘after hours’ to the officials and they mention this when turning up, offering us to check in tomorrow if we would prefer. We knew it would cost a little more but didn’t fancy sitting onboard at the quarantine dock for the night listening to the music and fun coming from the bars and restaurants of Denarau.
The three officials came aboard and insisted on sitting inside, we offered them cold drinks (never alcohol) and put our beers back in the fridge. Most of the talking and form filling/signing was done by our skipper (not so stupid now am I ?) and we were only asked to confirm something verbally a couple of times each.
The duty free alcohol limit is 2.25L each and includes spirits, wine & beer. We were probably a little over but it had been spread around the boat and we could certainly have plead ignorance regarding the beer being included in limit. We needn’t have worried (and should have brought lots more!) as it wasn’t checked, pork however was a different story.
An official rummaged through the fridge freezer and held up a pack of sausages, ‘Pork!’ he exclaimed. Sonya glared at me (I’m the cook onboard) saying something like ‘I thought all the pork had been eaten’. I looked at the packet and announced ‘Lamb !’ then showing him the ingredient list of the lovely lamb & rosemary sausages I had been saving for a cooked breakfast. He seemed disappointed and carried on the search, soon a smile appeared again and a pack of Thai pork meatballs were found that I had forgotten about – oh well.
Everything was in order and all our passports were stamped, the only thing we didn’t get straight away was our Cruising Permit, we would have to collect that the next day from their office. Now it was time to hear more about the ‘after hours’ service.
We knew everything had to be paid in cash as they don’t carry mobile card machines so had plenty of FJD onboard. Hand written receipts were presented from each official then the ring leader/senior official spoke about the after hours fees. Apparently we had to pay for their taxis home, each living in different direction so a taxi each. One official (who apparently didn’t normally work at Den) said she had her own car so it was not necessary. That didn’t go down well and she got a mouthful in Fijian from the senior and went quiet. He explained to us that she would require her dinner paid for instead. No problem we said and asked what the total was. He ignored that and went on to advise that, again, this fee must be paid in cash and no official receipt could be issued. ‘Is that a problem?’ he asked. No problem, how much. We got the figure and handed it over, also noting that the Thai pork balls had been removed from the black bin liner and put in a sports bag.
Everyone in our rally group lost some form of pork during their search and each time it was removed from the rubbish bags before leaving the boat. It sounds like most of us who arrived at Den paid the out of hours fees, the people who checked in at Savusavu were appalled to hear of it and the rally organiser was going to write to the officials. Personally I didn’t have a problem, Fiji had been empty of tourists/boats for two years and a little ‘back hander’ to grease the wheels was fine. I’ve paid more in on the spot speeding fines whilst in Europe without receipts over the years.
We were good to go ! By go I mean move from the quarantine dock to a berth on the other side of the marina which would be our home for the next couple of days while we refuelled (1500L approx.), re provisioned, cleaned and packed away ropes, safety lines, liferaft, drogue, etc ready for our new cruising life !
I will keep tapping away on the keyboard with our tales here but if anyone wants to be more up to date with our adventures (and lots more pics) we are on FB as Lazy Sunday and Insta is cruisinglazysunday .
Dont be thinking they are huge social media accounts, I think we are followed by 250 friends and family, of which 50 odd are other cruisers we met during the last season.
Happy to answer any questions here too
Dont be thinking they are huge social media accounts, I think we are followed by 250 friends and family, of which 50 odd are other cruisers we met during the last season.
Happy to answer any questions here too
Badda said:
Please do carry one here!
Quick question and one I’ve never considered before….
Do you get bow thrusters on cats? If so is it on one or both hulls? Do you have a stern thruster too?
Funny you should ask, a bow thruster would have made life simpler so many times but, we were told, they are not required on a cat as the engibes/props are far apart.Quick question and one I’ve never considered before….
Do you get bow thrusters on cats? If so is it on one or both hulls? Do you have a stern thruster too?
The first time we entered our berth at TMP sone guys were on the pontoon and grabbed our ropes whilst shouting 'use your biw thruster!'. When we tied on I explained we didn't gave one and they were amazed that a 50' boat didn't have them but they only had experience with mono hulls.
Anyway, If I was doing it again I would have a/one bow thruster .
Badda said:
Interesting! Yes I imagine the distance between the two props should give a decent bit more manoeuvrability but still…
So if you did, it would be on just one hull?
Yes I think so.So if you did, it would be on just one hull?
I have seen some slightly bigger (but much heavier) cruising cats manouvering in marinas and, after chatting, found they were using a single bow thruster.
If noone is watching I can slip us in and out of tight spots like a champ but if eyes are on me ........
Two days later my wife, myself and Dave cast off dock lines and headed out of Denarau marina, this was going to be our first day getting used to the hazards of boating in Fiji. So far we had only encountered one reef, the Navula, and the pass is approx. 500m wide, we were now headed for Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai so had to negotiate a narrow reef passage.
We use Navionics charts on our chart plotter and tablets plus I have Open CPN running as a backup and for satellite images on a laptop, all using the latest (paid) subscriptions.
Marker buoys that are on the charts often aren’t in the water ! Washed away in cyclones, stolen, never there ? I have no idea but it makes navigating tricky passages even trickier.
The next island, Mana, has a very tricky entry that is marked with poles/branches set into the coral reef but more of that later.
On this pic from the plotter basically yellow is land, green reef, white deep water and the darker the shade of blue the shallower the water.
This was all new to us, apart from the odd rock that was marked on the NZ charts you could pretty much go wherever you wanted and in a straight line !
So we enter the passage and there is a ferry coming the other way, a big catamaran doing approx. 25kn vs our 7kn. I held course and was hugging the right of the channel as per our charts, he passed and I steered to port to avoid being pushed off course by his wake.
I watched his track (AIS) on our plotter and saw that he was going over the top of where reef was marked – hmm interesting.
As mentioned before, almost none of the marker buoys on charts are physically there now, maybe two green ones on the way in and a couple of black marker poles when in the bay outside Musket Cove and Plantation Island resorts.
Sonya & Dave were out the front peering down into the clear water hoping to spot any hazards before our hulls found them. We needn’t have worried and threaded our way through without issue, now we don’t bat an eyelid and even arrive in the dark on occasion as we have plenty of tracks in and out of Malolo (see pic) and a number of other islands.
The next issue was anchoring, in the Hauraki Gulf around Auckland and its many islands it is normal to anchor in about 4-6m of water so putting out 25-30m of chain with our 33kg Rocna anchor was plenty most of the time, only increased in strong winds.
Most of the anchorages we have come across in Fiji are around 20m so most of the time we have 70-100m (all we have!) out. I suffer from mechanical sympathy and feel for our Maxwell HRC10 windlass every time the poor thing has to pull up all that chain and anchor, I also know that at some point its just going to refuse to do it – that will be a long day !
The other problem is knowing where everyone elses anchor and chain is, fine if the wind has been blowing in one direction since the first boat anchored but if it has changed direction and boats have turned you don’t have much of an idea.
Fiji is obviously an international cruising ground so, although English is widely spoken, not everyone understands when you call out asking where (direction) their anchor is. We have gone to drop anchor and someone on another boat has called out that they think we will be dropping on top of theirs, my wife was a little aggrieved by this but I thought it was great, better to move now than be pulling up and trying to untangle two lots of chain and anchor. I have seen the damage caused by an angry powerboat owner who picked up four chains and anchors as he sped from a bay (in AKL during Americas Cup) so would rather avoid that.
Anyway, we had been through a passage and anchored out for the first time in Fiji, time to go and have a cocktail at the Island Bar, Musket Cove where the plan for this adventure had first hatched !
We use Navionics charts on our chart plotter and tablets plus I have Open CPN running as a backup and for satellite images on a laptop, all using the latest (paid) subscriptions.
Marker buoys that are on the charts often aren’t in the water ! Washed away in cyclones, stolen, never there ? I have no idea but it makes navigating tricky passages even trickier.
The next island, Mana, has a very tricky entry that is marked with poles/branches set into the coral reef but more of that later.
On this pic from the plotter basically yellow is land, green reef, white deep water and the darker the shade of blue the shallower the water.
This was all new to us, apart from the odd rock that was marked on the NZ charts you could pretty much go wherever you wanted and in a straight line !
So we enter the passage and there is a ferry coming the other way, a big catamaran doing approx. 25kn vs our 7kn. I held course and was hugging the right of the channel as per our charts, he passed and I steered to port to avoid being pushed off course by his wake.
I watched his track (AIS) on our plotter and saw that he was going over the top of where reef was marked – hmm interesting.
As mentioned before, almost none of the marker buoys on charts are physically there now, maybe two green ones on the way in and a couple of black marker poles when in the bay outside Musket Cove and Plantation Island resorts.
Sonya & Dave were out the front peering down into the clear water hoping to spot any hazards before our hulls found them. We needn’t have worried and threaded our way through without issue, now we don’t bat an eyelid and even arrive in the dark on occasion as we have plenty of tracks in and out of Malolo (see pic) and a number of other islands.
The next issue was anchoring, in the Hauraki Gulf around Auckland and its many islands it is normal to anchor in about 4-6m of water so putting out 25-30m of chain with our 33kg Rocna anchor was plenty most of the time, only increased in strong winds.
Most of the anchorages we have come across in Fiji are around 20m so most of the time we have 70-100m (all we have!) out. I suffer from mechanical sympathy and feel for our Maxwell HRC10 windlass every time the poor thing has to pull up all that chain and anchor, I also know that at some point its just going to refuse to do it – that will be a long day !
The other problem is knowing where everyone elses anchor and chain is, fine if the wind has been blowing in one direction since the first boat anchored but if it has changed direction and boats have turned you don’t have much of an idea.
Fiji is obviously an international cruising ground so, although English is widely spoken, not everyone understands when you call out asking where (direction) their anchor is. We have gone to drop anchor and someone on another boat has called out that they think we will be dropping on top of theirs, my wife was a little aggrieved by this but I thought it was great, better to move now than be pulling up and trying to untangle two lots of chain and anchor. I have seen the damage caused by an angry powerboat owner who picked up four chains and anchors as he sped from a bay (in AKL during Americas Cup) so would rather avoid that.
Anyway, we had been through a passage and anchored out for the first time in Fiji, time to go and have a cocktail at the Island Bar, Musket Cove where the plan for this adventure had first hatched !
The next day we left Malolo through a different reef pass and headed towards Mana, we had been warned of the entrance here but were keen to dive straight in especially as we still had a crew member Dave onboard for a few days.
Its only a short hop, just over an hour, which gave me just enough time to get really nervous about entering !
When Mana is first visible through binoculars it looks like you could just motor in a straight line, enter the bay and drop anchor. Unfortunately not as the whole island is surrounded by reef with only the narrow passage to enter.
As previously mentioned, the reef pass here is marked mainly with poles/branches set into the reef but there are red and green marker buoys at the entrance.
We were advised to go in just after low tide so the current through the pass would be slower, for once I took the advice.
With only the odd shout from the deck and waving of arms advising me which direction to steer I got us in , without hitting any of the turtles that were bobbing around either.
We went to a marked anchoring spot and started to drop. Next thing a long boat (local fibreglass boat w/40hp outboard used for fishing, transport, etc) came over with two guys in masks. We were told Mana was a Covid quarantine area and we could not anchor. We asked if we could just stay in the bay and not go ashore , a very strong No !
Out we went through the pass again, oh well at least we had tracks in and out on the chart plotter now.
We went across to a small, uninhabited island and anchored just off it, the three of us then jumped in and went for our first snorkel in Fiji waters.
Now is probably a good time to mention that I cant really swim, I had lessons as a kid and got the certificate but ever since my water activities were hotel or resort pools with swim up bars or wakeboarding/skiing with a PFD (lifevest) on.
Anyway, we were having a great time but the wind had started to build so we hopped back onboard to find a better anchorage. The other side of the island would give us some protection but it was 40m deep so that was a no.
Long story short but each of the next three islands we were chased away by locals on long boats. It turns out that this is where Survivor is filmed and the producers didn’t want boats in the background of any shots. We had heard it was all filmed on one island and should keep away, not from the whole group of islands (Mamanucas).
If you are a viewer it is a scam, they all stay in resorts and are whisked around to be filmed on different islands by long boat - not quite what they would have you believe.
It was now getting dark, about 4pm, and we needed to find somewhere quick as the winds were still building. We found ourselves at Tokoriki and could see the lights of a resort so in 20m of quite choppy water we dropped anchor. Ten minutes later a boat arrived telling us to move on as this was a no anchoring area due to the coral – hmmm, I don’t think so. Words were exchanged and he said we could use the resorts mooring ball overnight, we lifted anchor and motored 200m or so to a 20L plastic drum marking the mooring. It obviously hadn’t been used in a while as the rope was alive with growth. We broke a boat hook trying to lift it there were so many mussels, oysters, etc living on it.
Tied on we could relax, except for the nagging doubt that the rope on the mooring could snap at any time as our 15t pulled on it in the wind.
We all got some sleep and were having a coffee on the back of the boat at 6am when another boat pulled up. A mid thirties white guy sipping from a takeaway coffee cup started shouting that we had to go and what were we doing using the resort mooring ? My wife is a lot more diplomatic than I so she did the talking, he ranted that his GM had been calling him saying guests were complaining that a boat was obscuring their view. Now I know LS isn’t the prettiest vessel on the water but what a load of b
ks. Sonya advised we would be gone in 30 mins but that wasn’t good enough, he wanted us gone now ! I felt it was time for me to join the chat and took the few steps to the side of the boat, Sonya noticed and held out her arm to keep me back. ‘Give us twenty minutes and we will be gone, best we can do’ she said, he nodded and motioned for his driver to take him back to the resort.
We did as we said and started motoring back to the safety of Musket Cove, there we could ask for advice on where was safe to go.
Over the next couple of months we did our best to avoid the area completely, when coming back from an island group fifty miles above we were hugging the outer reef staying as far away from the islands as possible but still we were greeted by angry long boats. I explained that the weather wasn’t great so I would not go outside of the main reef as they were asking but would continue my current course which meant the closest we would be to the island they were filming on was about five miles. Eventually, after asking to speak to the producers who were barking orders at the locals by VHF we were told that was OK.
Just to clarify, I have no issue with the locals who were just doing what they were told but if the producers of Survivor don’t have in their budget the ability to ‘photoshop’ one pixel out of a long shot then they probably shouldn’t be filming. I gather it is a nice earner for the island group but also wonder who gets the bulk of the $$.
We have been back to Mana several times now and are known by the owners of the bar and backpackers (with the blue roof) who are wonderful hosts.
Its only a short hop, just over an hour, which gave me just enough time to get really nervous about entering !
When Mana is first visible through binoculars it looks like you could just motor in a straight line, enter the bay and drop anchor. Unfortunately not as the whole island is surrounded by reef with only the narrow passage to enter.
As previously mentioned, the reef pass here is marked mainly with poles/branches set into the reef but there are red and green marker buoys at the entrance.
We were advised to go in just after low tide so the current through the pass would be slower, for once I took the advice.
With only the odd shout from the deck and waving of arms advising me which direction to steer I got us in , without hitting any of the turtles that were bobbing around either.
We went to a marked anchoring spot and started to drop. Next thing a long boat (local fibreglass boat w/40hp outboard used for fishing, transport, etc) came over with two guys in masks. We were told Mana was a Covid quarantine area and we could not anchor. We asked if we could just stay in the bay and not go ashore , a very strong No !
Out we went through the pass again, oh well at least we had tracks in and out on the chart plotter now.
We went across to a small, uninhabited island and anchored just off it, the three of us then jumped in and went for our first snorkel in Fiji waters.
Now is probably a good time to mention that I cant really swim, I had lessons as a kid and got the certificate but ever since my water activities were hotel or resort pools with swim up bars or wakeboarding/skiing with a PFD (lifevest) on.
Anyway, we were having a great time but the wind had started to build so we hopped back onboard to find a better anchorage. The other side of the island would give us some protection but it was 40m deep so that was a no.
Long story short but each of the next three islands we were chased away by locals on long boats. It turns out that this is where Survivor is filmed and the producers didn’t want boats in the background of any shots. We had heard it was all filmed on one island and should keep away, not from the whole group of islands (Mamanucas).
If you are a viewer it is a scam, they all stay in resorts and are whisked around to be filmed on different islands by long boat - not quite what they would have you believe.
It was now getting dark, about 4pm, and we needed to find somewhere quick as the winds were still building. We found ourselves at Tokoriki and could see the lights of a resort so in 20m of quite choppy water we dropped anchor. Ten minutes later a boat arrived telling us to move on as this was a no anchoring area due to the coral – hmmm, I don’t think so. Words were exchanged and he said we could use the resorts mooring ball overnight, we lifted anchor and motored 200m or so to a 20L plastic drum marking the mooring. It obviously hadn’t been used in a while as the rope was alive with growth. We broke a boat hook trying to lift it there were so many mussels, oysters, etc living on it.
Tied on we could relax, except for the nagging doubt that the rope on the mooring could snap at any time as our 15t pulled on it in the wind.
We all got some sleep and were having a coffee on the back of the boat at 6am when another boat pulled up. A mid thirties white guy sipping from a takeaway coffee cup started shouting that we had to go and what were we doing using the resort mooring ? My wife is a lot more diplomatic than I so she did the talking, he ranted that his GM had been calling him saying guests were complaining that a boat was obscuring their view. Now I know LS isn’t the prettiest vessel on the water but what a load of b
ks. Sonya advised we would be gone in 30 mins but that wasn’t good enough, he wanted us gone now ! I felt it was time for me to join the chat and took the few steps to the side of the boat, Sonya noticed and held out her arm to keep me back. ‘Give us twenty minutes and we will be gone, best we can do’ she said, he nodded and motioned for his driver to take him back to the resort.We did as we said and started motoring back to the safety of Musket Cove, there we could ask for advice on where was safe to go.
Over the next couple of months we did our best to avoid the area completely, when coming back from an island group fifty miles above we were hugging the outer reef staying as far away from the islands as possible but still we were greeted by angry long boats. I explained that the weather wasn’t great so I would not go outside of the main reef as they were asking but would continue my current course which meant the closest we would be to the island they were filming on was about five miles. Eventually, after asking to speak to the producers who were barking orders at the locals by VHF we were told that was OK.
Just to clarify, I have no issue with the locals who were just doing what they were told but if the producers of Survivor don’t have in their budget the ability to ‘photoshop’ one pixel out of a long shot then they probably shouldn’t be filming. I gather it is a nice earner for the island group but also wonder who gets the bulk of the $$.
We have been back to Mana several times now and are known by the owners of the bar and backpackers (with the blue roof) who are wonderful hosts.
WTFWT said:
Have you changed the props from the low drag sailing type (some of them self feather) to a more efficient design better suited for motoring?
They are a std prop, non feathering as far as I am aware.I would just rather slightly larger as there is a small amount of room but where do you stop ?
Maybe if I take a chunk out of one (hope not) they will get replaced but until then our $$ are allocated elsewhere .
AndrewCrown said:
NNK loving this thread... Tremendous detail...
We're in the planning phase of a UK to Greece to Bordeaux we too have decided to use a Motor Yacht
Similar considerations...
Awesome !We're in the planning phase of a UK to Greece to Bordeaux we too have decided to use a Motor Yacht
Similar considerations...
I hope you have as wonderful time as we are. Its been an amazing mix of learning and fun so far.
Fishing !
I had never fished before buyng LS, often invited out but always declined as I had other hobbies (cars, bikes, wakeboarding, hunting, etc) that didnt get enough time spent .
After a few weekends in Auckland I knew that standing there with a rod over the side attempting to pull up a snapper of legal size was not for me so left the fishing to my wife and any guests.
However, I liked the idea of game fishing so when we left I bought myself a second hand rod & reel that I thought would be up to the task. Also Dave (crew) arrived onboard with a rod which he very kindly gifted us when he flew back to NZ.
It has now become a passion and the 30 series reel on the rod I bought has been replaced with a whopper of a Tica 80.
The gifted rod/reel combo went in for a service last month but instead I walked out with a new Shimano combo (TLD50LRS).
Free food almost everywhere we go !
The fishing on the East is far superior as there are no resorts, less people, etc. On one occasion I hadnt even made it to the other side of the boat to put second lure in when the reel screamed and a big mahimahi had thrown itself on to the hook.
I use a rapala diving stick lure (wahoo, waloo, Spanish mackerel) one side and a skirted, squid type on the other (mahimahi, tuna, marlin).
My wife and I have quite a good system going now, reel screams I go out to rods while she takes over the controls.
If its safe to do so (no reefs around) she will come down when the fish is close and either gaff it or hang on to the rod while I gaff it and bring it on.
Luckily we have salt and fresh water hoses at rear as it generally looks like a crime scene after I've killed/ bled our victim.
Kokoda (raw fish soaked in lime juice then coconut cream) is normally the first dish, then crumbed and fried and the rest goes in the freezer . We do eat a lot of fish curry onboard so there is always a bag or two of smaller chunks in the fridge or freezer.
I have hooked a marlin once, a 45 min battle before its last leap about 15m from boat and spat out the lure.
Although disappointed at the time looking back I'm pleased now that it did as there was no way my wife and I would have been able to get it onboard, it was def as big as me !
I had never fished before buyng LS, often invited out but always declined as I had other hobbies (cars, bikes, wakeboarding, hunting, etc) that didnt get enough time spent .
After a few weekends in Auckland I knew that standing there with a rod over the side attempting to pull up a snapper of legal size was not for me so left the fishing to my wife and any guests.
However, I liked the idea of game fishing so when we left I bought myself a second hand rod & reel that I thought would be up to the task. Also Dave (crew) arrived onboard with a rod which he very kindly gifted us when he flew back to NZ.
It has now become a passion and the 30 series reel on the rod I bought has been replaced with a whopper of a Tica 80.
The gifted rod/reel combo went in for a service last month but instead I walked out with a new Shimano combo (TLD50LRS).
Free food almost everywhere we go !
The fishing on the East is far superior as there are no resorts, less people, etc. On one occasion I hadnt even made it to the other side of the boat to put second lure in when the reel screamed and a big mahimahi had thrown itself on to the hook.
I use a rapala diving stick lure (wahoo, waloo, Spanish mackerel) one side and a skirted, squid type on the other (mahimahi, tuna, marlin).
My wife and I have quite a good system going now, reel screams I go out to rods while she takes over the controls.
If its safe to do so (no reefs around) she will come down when the fish is close and either gaff it or hang on to the rod while I gaff it and bring it on.
Luckily we have salt and fresh water hoses at rear as it generally looks like a crime scene after I've killed/ bled our victim.
Kokoda (raw fish soaked in lime juice then coconut cream) is normally the first dish, then crumbed and fried and the rest goes in the freezer . We do eat a lot of fish curry onboard so there is always a bag or two of smaller chunks in the fridge or freezer.
I have hooked a marlin once, a 45 min battle before its last leap about 15m from boat and spat out the lure.
Although disappointed at the time looking back I'm pleased now that it did as there was no way my wife and I would have been able to get it onboard, it was def as big as me !
|https://thumbsnap.com/Nxz1eUEE[/url]
AndrewCrown said:
Those fish are monsters
I havent even mastered the art of holding them to look bigger !I cant find the pics of the biggest mahimahi or wahoo I've caught, prob on wifes phone.
A guesstimate puts biggest wahoo at about 35kg, it was about 1.6m long.
One side went into a curry for 22 people plus some in the freezer and the other went on the bbq at the Island Bar and fed lots of people !
Caught a couple of big barracuda too, gave them away to the locals who were pretty happy.
Edited by NNK on Saturday 24th December 02:06
Dave was now gone, we were alone onboard ! I know Sonya was nervous about this and suspected that we would soon be tagging (following) along with other boats as we made our way around the treacherous (in her mind) waters.
Sure enough the next day we were setting off with a sailing catamaran of similar size (and experience) up to the Yasawas. We knew at least one other boat from our rally group was heading that way too so there should be a few familiar faces at our destination.
Travelling with sail boats isn’t ideal as they often cannot take the direct route that we do, something Sonya hadn’t thought about, so we spent a lot of that day alone (apart from the resort boats, ferries, etc) with our companions several miles away.
Fish on ! I rushed down to find the smaller of our two reels letting out line at a great rate. I pushed the drag up as Sonya slowed us down and started winding in dinner. Well not quite, I got onboard the nastiest looking fish I have ever seen which proceeded to go mental and start thrashing around all over the rear deck. No idea what it was at that point but it looked edible so I’d better kill it, easier said than done when it was trying to remove my hands/fingers with its big teeth. Eventually I dispatched it and threw it in the chiller bin, unable to close the lid as its tail was sticking out so def the biggest fish yet. I filleted it while we were waiting for msg responses from proper fishermen we knew and was surprised at the lime green colour of the bones. A quick Google of, something like, ugly fish with green bones told me it was a needle fish that wasn’t great eating and could have worms – oh well, back in it went. Yes I know that’s wasteful but I didn’t know any better then, now I would give it to the locals to use as bait (or eat !).
Motors back up to speed and it wasn’t long until the line screamed again, same routine but this time there was no stopping the line peeling out even with the drag at max. Sonya brought us to a halt and I was able to start winding it in, slowly. Every five minutes or so it would make another run for it and take us back to square one with the amount of line out, I wish it had have taken the other lure on the bigger reeled rod. Not being a fisherman I had no idea what to do or how to make things easier, I even thought about just cutting the line but being a cheapskate and not knowing where to buy another 500m of braid stopped me. It was about then that I saw something amazing, whatever was hooked leapt from the water, shook itself and splashed back into the water. Its long bill and tall fin gave me an idea of what I had and I started shouting to my wife – ‘get a picture, no one will believe this’.
Long story short, after several leaps and splashes, I lost it and none of the fifty or so pics she took contained what I later found out to be a striped marlin – bugger !
Whilst approaching the anchorage outside Octopus Resort I was glued to the chart plotter and satellite pictures on laptop. Not the worst we had entered but it was still going to require some concentration, especially as there were now just the two of us onboard. I needn’t have worried and we made our way past the reef and into the large bay.
More worrying was the way some of the anchored boats were moving around, there was quite a lot of swell here by the look of it. We found a spot, a little further off the beach than our friends, and dropped anchor (as always feeling sorry for the windlass having to spew out about 70m of 10mm chain).
A radio conversation shortly after advised us against going ashore as it was coming into low tide and we wouldn’t be able to get our dinghy back over the reef/rocks when it was. Fine by us, we all met for drinks on another boat. Whilst there we watched a couple of monohulls pull anchor and head off, we met up with them later and they said it was just too ‘rolly’ in there for them. Actually the other cats that we met up with there said the same the next day, maybe it was because they were closer in than us ?
The next morning we headed out and further North aiming for Boat House, Nanuya which was supposed to be another welcoming spot for boaties. It was, we came through the pass and spotted about twenty boats anchored in a large bay. We found a spot (at the back) and dropped, a kite foiler whizzed past the back of LS followed by a, slightly slower, wing foiler – we had stumbled into the watersport capital of the Yasawas.
Quick reminder, this is winter in Fiji so the days were warm but quite short. As we had been moving almost every day before our motors were putting charge into the house batteries as well as the solar. I had been a bit slack on checking battery levels because of this and hadn’t noticed their gradual decline over a few days. We came back from the bar one evening and I switched on the TV and also decided to cook something. At 3am an alarm was going off, a loud bleeping, WTF was that ? Staggering around in the dark I was getting closer to the source, then I realised it was the low battery alarm from the inverter – oh st ! If we had normal lead acid batteries they would have been toast (although I’m sure the settings would have been different and I would have been alerted at 60% not the 20% our lithiums were on now). So at approx. 3.30am I was climbing down into a locker at the front of LS to fire up the generator that had only been used previously to check its start battery had power ! I hooked up the Projecta 25amp charger I had and waited and waited and waited. A 25a charger doesn’t do much to an 800a battery bank in the short term, at 7.30am (and several coffees) I think we were only on about 32% and the sun wouldn’t start putting anything in for another couple of hours. I felt terrible as we were, what I thought, quite close to other boats who would want to relax in the morning. Luckily, although our silent (haha, I’ll do the jokes Hyundai) diesel genset was only loud onboard, neighbouring boats could hardly hear it and those who did dinghied over to see if all was OK and not to moan about it. Lesson learnt, must check battery levels more regularly !
Sure enough the next day we were setting off with a sailing catamaran of similar size (and experience) up to the Yasawas. We knew at least one other boat from our rally group was heading that way too so there should be a few familiar faces at our destination.
Travelling with sail boats isn’t ideal as they often cannot take the direct route that we do, something Sonya hadn’t thought about, so we spent a lot of that day alone (apart from the resort boats, ferries, etc) with our companions several miles away.
Fish on ! I rushed down to find the smaller of our two reels letting out line at a great rate. I pushed the drag up as Sonya slowed us down and started winding in dinner. Well not quite, I got onboard the nastiest looking fish I have ever seen which proceeded to go mental and start thrashing around all over the rear deck. No idea what it was at that point but it looked edible so I’d better kill it, easier said than done when it was trying to remove my hands/fingers with its big teeth. Eventually I dispatched it and threw it in the chiller bin, unable to close the lid as its tail was sticking out so def the biggest fish yet. I filleted it while we were waiting for msg responses from proper fishermen we knew and was surprised at the lime green colour of the bones. A quick Google of, something like, ugly fish with green bones told me it was a needle fish that wasn’t great eating and could have worms – oh well, back in it went. Yes I know that’s wasteful but I didn’t know any better then, now I would give it to the locals to use as bait (or eat !).
Motors back up to speed and it wasn’t long until the line screamed again, same routine but this time there was no stopping the line peeling out even with the drag at max. Sonya brought us to a halt and I was able to start winding it in, slowly. Every five minutes or so it would make another run for it and take us back to square one with the amount of line out, I wish it had have taken the other lure on the bigger reeled rod. Not being a fisherman I had no idea what to do or how to make things easier, I even thought about just cutting the line but being a cheapskate and not knowing where to buy another 500m of braid stopped me. It was about then that I saw something amazing, whatever was hooked leapt from the water, shook itself and splashed back into the water. Its long bill and tall fin gave me an idea of what I had and I started shouting to my wife – ‘get a picture, no one will believe this’.
Long story short, after several leaps and splashes, I lost it and none of the fifty or so pics she took contained what I later found out to be a striped marlin – bugger !
Whilst approaching the anchorage outside Octopus Resort I was glued to the chart plotter and satellite pictures on laptop. Not the worst we had entered but it was still going to require some concentration, especially as there were now just the two of us onboard. I needn’t have worried and we made our way past the reef and into the large bay.
More worrying was the way some of the anchored boats were moving around, there was quite a lot of swell here by the look of it. We found a spot, a little further off the beach than our friends, and dropped anchor (as always feeling sorry for the windlass having to spew out about 70m of 10mm chain).
A radio conversation shortly after advised us against going ashore as it was coming into low tide and we wouldn’t be able to get our dinghy back over the reef/rocks when it was. Fine by us, we all met for drinks on another boat. Whilst there we watched a couple of monohulls pull anchor and head off, we met up with them later and they said it was just too ‘rolly’ in there for them. Actually the other cats that we met up with there said the same the next day, maybe it was because they were closer in than us ?
The next morning we headed out and further North aiming for Boat House, Nanuya which was supposed to be another welcoming spot for boaties. It was, we came through the pass and spotted about twenty boats anchored in a large bay. We found a spot (at the back) and dropped, a kite foiler whizzed past the back of LS followed by a, slightly slower, wing foiler – we had stumbled into the watersport capital of the Yasawas.
Quick reminder, this is winter in Fiji so the days were warm but quite short. As we had been moving almost every day before our motors were putting charge into the house batteries as well as the solar. I had been a bit slack on checking battery levels because of this and hadn’t noticed their gradual decline over a few days. We came back from the bar one evening and I switched on the TV and also decided to cook something. At 3am an alarm was going off, a loud bleeping, WTF was that ? Staggering around in the dark I was getting closer to the source, then I realised it was the low battery alarm from the inverter – oh s
t ! If we had normal lead acid batteries they would have been toast (although I’m sure the settings would have been different and I would have been alerted at 60% not the 20% our lithiums were on now). So at approx. 3.30am I was climbing down into a locker at the front of LS to fire up the generator that had only been used previously to check its start battery had power ! I hooked up the Projecta 25amp charger I had and waited and waited and waited. A 25a charger doesn’t do much to an 800a battery bank in the short term, at 7.30am (and several coffees) I think we were only on about 32% and the sun wouldn’t start putting anything in for another couple of hours. I felt terrible as we were, what I thought, quite close to other boats who would want to relax in the morning. Luckily, although our silent (haha, I’ll do the jokes Hyundai) diesel genset was only loud onboard, neighbouring boats could hardly hear it and those who did dinghied over to see if all was OK and not to moan about it. Lesson learnt, must check battery levels more regularly !Happy New Year to anyone reading !
You may be pleased to know that the weather here over the hols has been pretty awful, lots of rain and wind.
We are currently on the marina pontoon at Musket Cove and unlikely to leave for next few days.
Infact we will prob stay here until 8th then motor round to the mainland where we are being hauled out for some minor repairs and maintenance
You may be pleased to know that the weather here over the hols has been pretty awful, lots of rain and wind.
We are currently on the marina pontoon at Musket Cove and unlikely to leave for next few days.
Infact we will prob stay here until 8th then motor round to the mainland where we are being hauled out for some minor repairs and maintenance
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