Waiting for a window

After a day of recovery after Lynn and G left, we started preparing for our passage to NZ.   One of our sails needed a few repairs, the rig needed to be checked, lines replaced and the boat generally prepared for this long anticipated and, slightly feared, final sail home.  

We talked to our weather router and established a possible departure at the end of the week, five days away.   We decided to head to Musket Cove, a small island close by with a popular anchorage for yachties, so we could clean underneath the boat and enjoy some down time before the long sail.  

Musket Cove on Malolo Island, is only 15nm sail from Denerau, and has a number of resorts, serviced by regular ferries and tourist boats.   The large bay has two reefs in the centre which divide the area into three distinctive anchorage areas.   In front of the resorts is a busy channel servicing most of the ferries and pleasure activities for the resort guests.  A couple of mooring buoys give easy access to the beach and resort facilities, which are normally open for yachties to use.   The centre area offers a large anchorage with a short dinghy ride to a good dinghy dock and a popular yachties bar.  The third area is a quiet, secluded anchorage close to the big island of Malolo.   We chose the centre anchorage as we were, once again, using our small outboard on our dinghy as our bigger, main engine had been out of action since Tonga and we had been unable to get the necessary spare part.  

One afternoon I smelt burning while in the boat.  It is not unusual, in fact very common, to see fires on the shore and plumes of smoke hanging over the anchorages is a regular event.  This smelt like burning plastic and we frantically went around the boat checking wiring ana d cables to make sure it was not a fault on board.  Steve went outside and reported it was stronger outside so we assumed the smell was coming from some unseen fire on land.  Later I noticed something, I thought bird poo, on one of our solar panels and on investigation found that one of the cells had melted.   We immediately disconnected the panel and considered ourselves very lucky that the outcome was not alot worse.   

We socialized with other cruisers at a beach bar near the dinghy dock.  Being aware little bity things come out in the evening I went hunting for some of my preferred repellent and, while gabbing a tool for Steve, discovered a bottle in his tool cupboard.  Thinking it must have been put in there by mistake, I liberally sprayed myself with the repellent and headed out.   It was only later that I discovered Steve had re-purposed the bottle and I had sprayed myself with a lubricating oil (not THAT kind…) used to service winches, not wenches!   It seemed to keep the bugs away, but our bed sheets may never recover!

We spent a few days, joining a large group of other cruisers, watching the rugby world cup games and cleaning the bottom of the boat while keeping a watchful eye on the weather.   Our weather router advised us there was a possible window developing in a couple of days, so we returned to Denerau to provision and make an appointment with customs to check out on the Friday morning.   We decided to treat ourselves to a meal out on our last night in Fiji and checked the weather while waiting for our meals to arrive.   While the weather looked good for most of the passage, the forecast for our predicted arrival day in NZ looked awful, with the tailwinds from cyclone Lola, an early cyclone expected to hit Vanuatu, mixing with a depression over NZ and causing terrible conditions on our arrival.   What was most worrying was the different weather models were agreeing on this forecast and we suddenly became very uneasy about leaving Fiji the next day.   We contacted our friends on SV Diva whom we were buddy sailing to NZ with, and together agreed it looked foreboding.   In the morning we contacted our weather router who responded quickly telling all boats considering leaving later that day to cancel departure and wait for the next window.   I was relieved as the weather on arrival in NZ was my biggest concern and with a forecast this bad, I did not want to risk the boat, or our lives purely because we were eager to start the passage.   While the final decision to leave is always ours, we pay for professional advice so have to put a great deal of faith in their more experienced knowledge of the weather. 

We returned to Musket Cove to watch the rugby world cup final and continued to monitor the weather from there.   As it transpired, the decision to wait was the right one as extremely strong wind battered the north of NZ for two days and we would have been caught in the middle of it all.   It was awful watching the progress of a few boats who had decided to continue with their planned departure and were left to face 50knot winds and huge seas as they struggled off the coast of NZ with one boat, who we didn’t know, having to be abandoned with the solo skipper rescued in horrendous conditions.  

While waiting for the next opportunity to depart, we explored a few other islands in the Yasawa’s as well as snorkeling a few of the reefs.   The clarity of the water was superb, and we had not seen coral as good or healthy, since Bonaire.   The reefs were full of fish, and we saw Eagle rays, turtles, squid and lots of colourful fish.   One morning we left Mama Island early and anchored on the NE side of a tiny sand bar called Nukuimana Reef.    We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed a few hours of snorkeling the beautiful coral in crystal clear water before several tourist boats arrived mid-morning so we pulled anchor and headed to a quiet anchorage on the north of Malolo where we were once again the only boat and were able to continue cleaning our hull.

Another departure window was opening, so we headed back to the mainland, this time returning to Saweni where, unlike the previous time we had anchored here, we were the only boat when we arrived in the early afternoon.   We lost no time heading ashore and walked along the railway line towards the port town of Latoka.  Here, we made use of the excellent supermarkets and fresh fruit and veg market and stocked up on everything we would need for the next few weeks, intending to do one more fresh shop the day of our departure.  

The next day we awoke to a beautiful, windless morning in the bay and once again returned to the beach, this time following the rail track in the other direction, towards Vuda, where there is a big marina and several friends we wanted to catch up with.   One particular boat of friends was DanceMe a Belgium boat we had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific with and caught up with in Colombia, Panama and Marquesas.   They were on their way from Niue to Tonga when they were dismasted and they had to cut away not only the mast but all their sails and, with enormous damage on the boat, motored the remaining 300nm to Tonga.   In Tonga they were helped to build a jury rig (makeshift mast and rigging) and were donated sails and other essential items by fellow cruisers.  They then sailed 500nm to Fiji – the closest place where replacements and repairs could be organized – maintaining a speed of around 3.5knots a day.  Hans and Lisbeth are the most positive people you can meet and it was lovely to see them again and have the opportunity to see the temporary rig.  Losing your mast is any sailors worst nightmare and often ends with abandoning ship, so to hear the story of what happened in the first few minutes after the dismasting was interesting from a learning perspective and based on what they told us, we went out and bought a thicker blade for our grinder, just in case! 

Fiji has one of the strictest checking in/out procedures we have encountered and, once the paperwork is completed, insist you immediately return to your boat and leave the country.   The weather was still looking ok for a departure on Saturday, although a Monday departure did currently look more favourable, but with past experience telling us that, with Monday a few days away, all that could change and we now had appointments we needed to keep in NZ, we left Denerau in beautiful sunshine one Saturday morning to commence our last passage home.   This one is not the longest passage but would be the one that pushes us and Cerulean to our limits and the one we had feared the most.