FIJI: Suva and Beyond

Since our repairs couldn't be done in Suva, we completed some errands and left as soon as we could.

Purchasing bundles of kava root, called yaqona, to present as a required gift
to chiefs in the villages we visit

From Second Wind, we left our dinghy at the police dock on the outskirts of Suva
and took a taxi into town for provisions.
Hopping in the car to go to the store will forevermore feel like a luxury.

The dinghy dock at the Royal Suva Yacht Club
isn't especially royal, 

though clearly the club has some meaningful history

Levuka, on the nearby island of Ovalau, was Fiji's first capital and is now an interesting UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The main street still looks like a frontier town

In the early mornings, young children squeal and chatter
and jump into the water from this bridge...

...while older ones climb into the back of this truck,
which serves as the island's school bus

Only a handful of the many formerly thriving establishments
have survived repeated cyclones and economic downturns.
Despite its outward appearance,

this little restaurant serves excellent food--as it has for decades

A day's sail away is the island of Makogai.

These structures are all that remain from what used to be a leper colony

Now the island is known as a breeding site for endangered giant clams

These one-year-old clams will soon be transported (transplanted?) to various reefs around Fiji

Inoke, village spokesman, with a giant clam shell washed ashore  by Cyclone Winston

Endangered turtles are also cared for here

Namena Barrier Reef attracts divers from around the world.

Unfortunately Winston devastated the dive resort on Namenalala Island;
more than 2 years later, it still has not recovered

The reef was severely impacted as well: most of the upper level corals are dead.
Beneath this unusually placid surface, though, we had ideal conditions to snorkel for hours in crystal clear water
with an astounding array and quantity of beautiful fish

We made a previously unplanned stop in Savusavu for a couple of days, needing access to a phone for post-collision business. I realized too late that I didn't take a single photo, no doubt because we already spent lengths of time there in 2015 and 2016 and had plenty of pictures. It's still the best town in Fiji for cruisers, because everything--customs clearance, provisioning, shipping of parts, cruiser camaraderie--is so easy (read: close, and inexpensive).

The only event worth mentioning is that during one lunch I cracked a tooth on a seed in a cracker (apparently appropriately named). A visit to a very competent dentist cost $5.70 FJD, which is $2.74 USD. Yes, the decimal point is in the correct place.

A 4' wahoo Art caught underway.
Wahoo!!!

We are in more remote places than ever this season, and therefore without internet access for long stretches at a time. Apologies for the lengthy gaps between blog posts!

When Big Boats Hit Little Boats

It was a dark and stormy night.

It wasn't supposed to be stormy. No meteorologist predicted a strong and prolonged squall, with winds estimated over 50 knots, to hit Suva Harbor. As South Pacific weather guru Bob McDavitt put it, "weather is a mix of pattern and chaos...this was part of the chaos."

Chaos, indeed.

Exhausted from the passage and eagerly anticipating blessed sleep, we had just finished dinner when there was a horrendous BAM!!! and scraping sounds, and our boat heeled over. Art rushed outside--yes, he did put a lifejacket on--and we got slammed again. He expected to see a sailboat and saw instead the huge hulk of an interisland ferrry, with a man leaning over its stern shouting "I have no power!"

The vessel pushed us onto the next anchored yacht, Ms Murphy. Art and Ms Murphy's owner, singlehander Gordon Gregg, struggled valiantly to keep us away from each other. Meanwhile, in close quarters with extremely limited visibility, I worked at the helm to keep us from drifting into other sailboats nearby. When our two boats were finally several meters apart, Art managed to pull up the anchor--only to discover it was entangled with Ms Murphy's anchor and also with a fishing net. Because the anchoring area is small and close to shore, soon both of our vessels were aground.

Our chartplotter at 11:30 p.m. shows the path we took after the collision,
and where we came to rest

Our keel is 7'1" deep, and already we were in only 6.5 feet of water. As the tide went out, that depth decreased to 4.5 feet. We spent the rest of that night cringing at the horrid sounds of  our keel grinding against the bottom. Our luck ran both ways: at least the bottom was mostly mud and sand, not coral and rock.

Joe and Ben from the RSYC clearing our fouled anchor

The next morning an assist crew (3 men in a small boat) from the Royal Suva Yacht Club retrieved our two boats' anchors and cut them free from the large fishing net. Ms Murphy wasn't in as far as we were, so she managed to get towed out by a harbor pilot vessel. We had to wait a few more hours for the tide to rise even further, and even then it took 3 separate attempts. By the time the RSYC boat and a similar boat from the local dive center returned for the third try, we had only 45 minutes before the tide started to go out again.

Art and Paul (RSYC) on the bow, directing the opration

Joe and Ben heeling our boat over with long lines from the top of the mast,
getting a better angle to pull her out

Second Wind shuddered and shuddered, fighting hard to break free. She would move a couple feet then get stuck in another shallow mound, over and over and over, struggling and stopping and inching forward and stopping...finally, with just 10 minutes left, she started to float. When I saw the depth meter read 15', I cried for the first time; the relief, the release, was overwhelming!

They towed us to the anchorage then cut a lot of fishing line off our propeller and prop shaft, so we were finally free. The diver's inspection didn't reveal anything immediately evident in terms of keel or rudder damage. We had dodged the most drastic bullet: the keel bolts were dry, and remained so. What a tough gal Second Wind is! Not wanting to spend one more night in that spot, we motored to a nearby bay and stayed there for the remainder of our time in Suva.

We are incredibly fortunate that the only damage was to stanchions, deck hardware, and the rub rail on the port side, and a lot of paint scraped off the bottom of the keel. Had the derelict ferry not swung away from us when she did, we would have been in much more personal danger and incurred much more damage. As it was, the Princess Civa went on to hit our friends Elysium, sideswiping their freshly painted hull and creating sparks as their rigging scraped along Princess Civa's hull. The ferry then hit the Australian SV Sahula bow on, damaging that vessel's windlass, bow pulpit and bulwarks. Sahula was shoved onto SV Squid (like Ms Murphy, NZ flagged), who lost the most expensive type of anchor and chain available. Ms Murphy had damage to her bow pulpit and propeller blades. Though it took several days, eventually all 5 anchors  were recovered by divers; and thankfully, the structural damage to all vessels was minimal compared to what it could have been. Most important, no one was injured. Again, our luck ran both ways.

We wouldn't choose to repeat the experience, but we did learn some things about boat handling in that situation, and about ourselves. We realized later that we were not frightened, as one might expect--we  were just very, very busy. The task at hand was to save our boat; we only had time to think about what needed to be done, and then do our best. 

Princess Civa,, now aground, near Second Wind

Acknowledgements

Though we would have preferred it be in different circumstances, we enjoyed getting to know the other sailors involved. Gordon Gregg told us later he appreciated that we weren't yelling--not at each other, not at him. Of course, yelling wouldn't have made anything any better, but it is often a first instinct when people get thrown into high-stress situations. We, in turn, appreciated that fact about him. He was very calm, worked to remedy what he could and took the situation in stride. It turns out he is the author of the well-named book Cruising with Murphy, which I will order on Amazon!

Anthony of SV Squid was very helpful and supportive throughout the following morning as the powerboats were trying to drag us out of the shallows.

David Haigh of SV Sahula is near the end of a world circumnavigation, and his crew partner is none other than Lin Pardey--whose writings about cruising we have read over many years! David was instrumental in organizing a group response and pressuring the ferry's owners to compensate for damages (successfully in the case of 2 boats, but so far not in ours).

Paddy Todd, Vice Commodore of the Royal Suva Yacht Club, has been tirelessly diligent in looking out for all of our interests.

Last but not least, sharing the experience friends Dave and Wendy Kall (Elysium) provided the decompression we all needed for several days afterward.

Thanks to all!   

Punctuated Passage

Our passage from New Zealand to Fiji had two extremes,
separated by a break at North Minerva Reef.

Opua to Minerva saw our best run ever: a combination of strategy and luck worked so well in our favor that we covered 800 miles in just 5 days. Though we often put 120-140 miles a day under the keel, we expect only about 100 miles "made good"--that is, toward our destination. Flying along averaging 160 nautical miles daily toward Minerva was exhilarating!

Stop.
Rest.

We'd hoped to anchor at South Minerva Reef but wind and swell conditions were too strong, so we revisited North Minerva (its higher reef gives slightly more wave protection). There is certainly something alluring about anchoring in the middle of the ocean!
Our May 2016 post has plenty of photos. A few more:

Anchored in 45' of water inside the circular reef

Though mostly covered at high tide,
it's possible to walk on the reef at low tide

At the edge of the (water)world

Our good friends from Sadiqi and Elysium ended up anchoring nearby;
we shared reef walks, a little snorkeling, and...

...huge crayfish!
We all tried unsuccessfully to catch our own,
but a professional fishing family on vacation
from NZ shared 2 of theirs--
plenty for a feast aboard Elysium

Elysium 
(Wendy)

Sadiqi, Second Wind, Elysium
(in landlubber lingo: Keith, Art, Dave)

There's always some project to keep us occupied--
in this case, jury-rigging a support for the windlass separator

Unfortunately the weather deteriorated, and the enclosed reef
gathered over 30 boats waiting to sail on to Tonga or Fiji
(hence the tee shirts in NZ touting the Minerva Reef Yacht Club)

Finally inching out way out the pass,

and back out to sea

The passage from Minerva to Fiji was the opposite extreme: we motored almost the entire way! We know many people who have ended up motoring across the ocean for days, but we had always been able to wait for reasonably good winds. This time, though, forecasts consistently showed no wind alternating with very strong winds + thunderstorms. Finally tired of being confined in Minerva, boats started leaving--some opting for the strong winds, others opting for no wind. We personally know two vessels who chose the strong winds and ended up with damage (plus some very unhappy crew). We chose no wind, driving most of 3 solid days to Fiji--easy, but not an experience we would want to repeat. We changed our check-in destination from Levuka to Suva, Fiji's capital and closest port, so we could refuel.

That turned out to be a fateful choice, with another experience we don't ever want to repeat...