Worrall Wind Update - Fiji -Shakedown Cruise to the Yasawas

UTC/Local Time: 0600/6:00 p.m.

Latitude: 17 10.315 S
Longitude: 177 112.12 E

Leaving Vuda Point Marina through the Channel in the Reef

Update: May 27, 2011
Today was a great reminder of why we love sailing.. Just a little over one month after our return to Vuda Point Marina in Fiji, we cast off the bowlines and headed northeast to the Yasawa Islands. The sun was out, the wind was blowing 10-15 knots, and the boat was ready to go. The 2 Sail R's were
ready too, even though our hearts were pumping rapidly. It's been seven months since we've been sailing with WorrallWind, and we wondered if we remembered all the things on our check list.

READY
Since our return to Fiji from New Zealand, we've been scrubbing, polishing, reorganizing, shopping,

Bus Trip to Port Denerau

Nadi

Nadi Market Place

Stacked, Sweet Green Mandarins

working on this project and that. In between boat tasks, we've enjoyed the company of friends, dined out,

Suzi Sidewinder, Roz WorrallWind, Lori Trim

Russ WorrallWind, Ken Trim, David Sidewinder

explored the local area,

Garden of the Sleeping Giant Ho Ho Ho

Beautiful Orchids!

played cards, lounged around the pool reading books, learned to scuba dive, hunted and found some geocaches, and watched the royal wedding and the reports of Osama Bin Laden's demise on the big
screen TV's in the bar.

SET
We've actually been ready to go for the past week, but themweather wasn't quite ready for us. First it was rainy, then too windy, then moderate to strong seas, then a slow moving troph, then high overhead clouds.

GO
All of the reports and visuals looked good to go this morning, so we paid up our bill, unplugged the electricity, disconnected the water, and were eased out of our slip by the marina staff. It was a tricky process as we were rail to rail and bumper to bumper with our slip mates. We waved goodbye,
at least temporarily, to Trim, Sidewinder, and other folks we had met. We'll be back to Vuda in a week or so for final provisioning and fixes before we check out for Vanuatu.

The tide was low, but still deep enough for us to exit the channel even though the reefs were exposed on either side.  Russ had meticulously keyed in all of the waypoints through deep water channels to our first anchorage in the Yasawas.

By 9:00 a.m. the fenders that were needed in the crowded marina to separate us from our neighbors were stowed, and we were motoring across a calm morning sea with no wind to the first
way point. There was a balmy sea breeze on our faces as we headed west.

The wind picked up about an hour into our journey. We raised the main, jib, and mizzen and then cut the motor.  Silence….only the gentle lapping of the water against the hull and the rush of the wind in our ears.

We really hadn't expected to sail today. Our wind vane steering system was not yet set up, but it didn't matter. It was fun to hand steer and to feel the acceleration of Worrall Wind to 6 knots as we
skimmed through the water. Besides we needed to be very alert and on task navigating through the reefs.  Aaah!

We should reach our destination by 4:00 p.m. It's only half way to our ultimate destination at Blue Lagoon where the movie with Brook Shields was filmed. The last part of today's journey will be the most dicey as we thread through some reefs. Fortunately, we are following the waypoints we
recorded on our reconnaissance mission we took a couple of weeks ago on the ferry. When we get to that point, we'll be going slowly, and I will be on the bow.

We bought some radio headsets called "marriage savers". We no longer have to yell at one another and make spectacles of ourselves while anchoring. Well, we may still make a spectacle of ourselves,
but no one will hear us yelling at one another. ;)

Our tack changed directly into the wind around 2:00 p.m. We pulled in the jib, tightened the main, and turned on the engine. By the time we got to where we thought the reefs were, the tide was high and we couldn't see anything breaking like we did the day we were on the ferry. We could only hope
that the waypoints we had recorded were correct.

It was close to 4:00 p.m. by the time we got to the Manta anchorage and the sun was behind us, not great for seeing reefs or water color changes, so we went very slowly and stayed tightly on our waypoints. We would have been better leaving at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. I stood on the bow while
Russ was at the helm. Our radio headsets worked well, and we could carry on a normal conversation. If you consider this a normal conversation. "Do you see any reefs? I don't see any reefs!"

TIME TO RELAX

Home for 2 Nights

When we passed the last waypoint that indicated we had cleared by the reefs, we were both mighty relieved. I'm curious to see when the tide goes out where the reefs are and how close we came to them. We are now anchored in 62 feet of water with 180 feet of chain out. The wind has died, the sun is setting, and there is only one other large sailboat in the anchorage
with us. It's time for a glass of wine.

CONNECTING WITH US
Oh BTW….we don't have any 3G or WIFI service at thisanchorage, so I will be sending this blog through our radio.  Family and friends should use our sail mail address if you need to get in touch with us while we may not have Internet, not hotmail or gmail. For our cruising friends with SSB radio. We will be monitoring these frequencies for 10 minutes in the morning and afternoon if you
would like to get in touch with us.

2100Z 0500Z (5:00 p.m. Fiji Time)
14.315 for five minutes, switching to alternate frequency
6.150 for additional five minutes, then clearing.

Our VHF will be monitoring 16.  We are sometimes (often actually) forgetful about these times, but hopefully we will be able to connect.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Fiji - Splash Down!

Look!  A waterline above the water!

PREP and SPLASH  DOWN

After three weeks in Fiji, Worrall Wind is out of the trench,

WW in the "Graveyard"

off the hard, and back in the water...and her water line is now above the water.   With all of our cruising gear, we were low in the water and the barnacles were feasting and attaching themselves to the gel coat.

Barnacle Picnic - Before

Eat your hearts out barnacles, not our gel coat! - After

Our bottom job with high grade international paint, raised water line, new boot and coving stripes, and hull polish cost about $3500 USD.  It would have been 2 to 3 times that amount at home.  So we were pleased.   Even our weathered teak railings look better with a bleach and water scrub down.

Teak Rails - Before and After

The refrigerator is working, and we are chilling down the champagne.


Scuba Dive R's
While we were working on the boat along with Yacht Help, we took time for some fun which is the primary reason for this adventure.  Russ and I took a three day open water dive course with Subsurface Diving and got scuba certified.  Each morning we would leave with the dive boat (small skiff) from our Marina resort out to Beachcomber Island.  It was about a 40 minute ride.

Beachcomber is a beautiful white beached island in crystal clear blue-green waters within the barrier reefs surrounding Fiji.  The resort is primarily for young people.  A dorm room with inclusive meals runs about $30 USD a night!   There is an 80 bed women and 80 bed men dormitory, plus private rooms and bures (little houses).  The population while we were there was primarily young people on spring break from New Zealand and Australia.  Russ and I were probably the oldest people on the island by thirty years!  Yikes.

The first morning of our open water course, was spent in the classroom reading, watching videos, and taking knowledge acquisition quizzes.  The afternoon was spent in the confined fresh water diving pool learning skills....clearing masks, operating our buoyancy vests, sinking, ascending, etc.

On the second morning, we ventured away from Beachcomber to a dive site called Plantation Pinnacles. The first dive was just for fun.  The air temperature was about 88 degrees F.  The water temperature was 90 degrees F.  Beautiful!  Sure beats learning to dive in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Our instructor guided us around a beautiful coral head. 

Kini, our Fijian Dive Instructor

We descended by a line down to the top of the coral head, about 15 feet under the water.  Once our ears were equalized, we descended furthur to explore the coral and thick schools of tropical fish.  It was magical - rays, turtles, reef sharks, soft and hard corals. I've cheated a bit here and have added some photos I took at the Fijian Aquarium since I don't have an underwater camera yet.  Nevertheless, we saw all of this and more!

Our second dive of the morning was in shallower water with a sandy bottom where we had to demonstrate in a saltwater environment the skills we learned in the fresh water pool.


Dark Squall!
By the time we completed our second dive and came to the surface, the beautiful blue sky of the morning was turning quite dark as an approaching low was blowing in.  We spent the afternoon in the classroom reviewing, taking quizzes, and our final examination.  Just as we were finishing our exam, our instructor came into the room and asked if we might hurry up a bit as the storm was closing in and they wanted to get the dive boat back to the mainland.  We had been oblivious to  outside conditions.

We went outside.  The sky was black, the wind was 30-40 knots, there were 3 foot frothing wind waves. It was pouring rain and visibility was less than a mile.   The skiffs were bucking on the breakers like crazed broncos.  I took one look at the situation and told Russ and the boat guys there was no way in hell I was getting on their boat in these conditions.  We all waited for about 1/2 an hour and the conditions to calm down....It did...a bit.  Winds were now about 20-30 knots, the waves were only 2 feet high, visibility was worse than before because it was getting dark and it was still pouring.

We were given yellow slickers and the boat captain was yelling for us to come aboard. Looked like a death wish to me.  I was reassured by our dive instructor that it was safe and these guys did it all the time.   I asked myself if I would take Worrall Wind ( 10 times bigger than the skiff) and remembered the liability releases we had to sign saying that we would hold everyone blameless in the event of sinking, dismemberment or death, and decided, no, I still wasn't getting on that bucking boat.  We indicated that the dive boat should leave without us and we would book a room at the resort for the night.

The rain continued pour and the winds kept on howling for a couple more hours into the twilight.  We booked a nice little jungle room.  There was room in the dorm, but since we didn't have any pj's with us we declined this option.  The resort staff asked if we had any luggage as we stood in our dripping swim suits and with soggy towels.  Yes please....our tiny little beach bag which fortunately, I had packed a dry set of clothes was all we had.  We went to our room, took warm showers, got into dry clothes, and headed down to the bar.


Where were you when you heard the news about Osama Bin Laden's demise?
Russ found a dry place to read his book  As I had no book - having left my kindle on the boat, I went to watch the big screen TV in the open air, sand-floor dining pavillion.  While the storm raged on the outside, the small crowd was mesmerized by the news and announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Not a wet eye in the place. Most of the spring break guests had left, and the arrival ferry was delayed due to the inclement weather.

We had a terrific evening meal with our dive partners, Andrew and Lauren from Australia, who had been staying at the resort.  The following morning, the storm had passed.  The sky was clear and amazingly so was the water.  We did our last two dives demonstrating various skills to our instructor and were signed off as having completed and passed the course. 

Andrew, Lauren, Kini, Roz, and Russ

After a relaxing afternoon on the beach and playing a round of miniature golf in the cool jungle, we returned to Vuda Point Marina victorious.

The 2 Sail R's are now 2 Suba Dive R's

 Reconnaissance to the Yasawas
Our sailing friends Ken and Lori on Trim had visitors from the states, Lori's daughter JD and husband Andrew.  On one of the days of their visit, we  took the ferry out to the Yasawa group of islands to do a reconnaissance. The first of the Yasawa Islands is about 18 nautical miles from Vuda Pt.   Russ and I took our GPS and laptop computer to develop a way point wake trail of the ferry through the various reefs for our future planning. 

Lori and daughter Jesssica, JD

We had a nice day, even though the ferry broke down and the air conditioning in the Captain's Lounge wasn't functioning.  Fiji Sauna time!  Looks like there will be some nice places to visit now that we have marked a safe pathway through the reefs.

Blue Lagoon where the movie Blue Lagoon was filmed.

 Fortunately, we were back in Denarau Harbor when the boat broke down completely.  After an hour's delay we were towed to the dock.  We are looking forward to  returning in our own boats to some of the anchorages we scouted out now that we have a good wake trail.

It's so nice to be back in the water where it is clean.  We have some outside work to finish off, dinghy to lower in the water, wind skirt and sunshades to snap on, some more cleaning outside, some sewing projects, etc. Being in the boat yard for two weeks was pretty dirty, dusty, and muddy, so the inside needs a good wipe down and vacuum as well. 

Once we have established that our freezer and refrigerator are both working well, we'll start to provision for our shakedown out to the Yasawa and Mamanuca Islands just off the main island.  We will return to Vuda Point Marina, restock for our longer trip to Vanuatu, make any apparent fixes and repairs, check out of Fiji, and leave some time the first half of June for Vanuatu.

We were rocked to sleep last night in peaceful seas.

All is well on Worrall Wind and with the 2 Sail R's

Goodbye NZ - Hello Fiji

The 2 Sail R's are back in Fiji.  We arrived yesterday to blue skies, warm, and humid weather. We loved New Zealand and were sorry to say good-bye, but it's nice to be back "home". We left our cute little camper van NZed in good hands. We sure had fun touring NZ with NZed.

Worrall Wind is happy to have her doors and ports open to fresh air.  The dreaded  mold on the interior that we feared is very limited.  That white water vinegar wash down before we left really worked on keeping the mold at bay. The boat was dry with no leaks.  The man we hired to watch our boat washed the exterior and polished the chrome so it looks good.  And so far....no roaches or other little crawlies...Yeah! 

We are staying at the neighboring resort, First Landing, for a few days while we do some work on the boat, but should be back on board by Wednesday.  We don't expect to splash down for a couple of weeks though as we need to have the bottom refinished, and the boat yard is closing for four days,  Friday-Monday for Easter holidays.

In the meantime, we are enjoying our air conditioned room.  It's up early tomorrow morning before the sun and the heat to work on the boat.  By 10:30 a.m. it's just too hot and drippy to do much more than breath.  Guess we'll have to sit by the pool in the shade, read, and play cards.  Darn!

All is well on Worrall Wind and the with the 2 Sail R's

NZ North Again - Wellington to Coromandel Town

Russ inside Cathedral Cave

The 2 Sail R's  have been on the North Island for almost three weeks.  We are currently in the Coromandel area and have enjoyed a mix of rain and sun.

We arrived in Wellington mid-March.  While there we once again visited friends Jessie and Simon.  For four days we took care of some business, i.e. retrieving our passports from immigration (visa extension took a long time to process), had a pre-sale inspection of the campervan, and visited the radio control station for Wellington Harbor.

Our new NZ friend Helen whom we met on the South Island (Pounawea Motor Camp - South of Dunedin in the Catilans) invited us to visit the Wellington radio conrol station where her daughter is one of the radio controllers.  The narrows into Wellington are shallow in some places with rock hazards.  Controlling traffic in and out of the bay prevents many would-be disasters.  It was an interesting and informative visit.

Helen and daughter, radio controller Jo

Office with a great view and a lot of responsibility

 Helen is also the next proud owner of "NZed", our little camper van.  She will be flying up to Auckland to pick up NZed as we are ready to depart for Fiji.  We have grown fond of NZed and know Helen will take good care of him and have fun doing so as well.

After our business and visiting were complete in Wellington, we headed north towards the Coromandel through Palmerston North, Hastings, Napier, Wairoa, Tauranga, Waihi Beach, Waihi, and then to Coromandel town.  We enjoyed the Art Deco Architecture of Napier,

making new humanist friends in Tauranga,  soaking in thermal pools in Awakateri,

playing in the pools at Hot Water beach,

Fun for all ages

and hiking to Cathedral Cove

We have less than two weeks left in New Zealand and are enjoying our remaining time here before we head back to Fiji and resume our adventure on Worrall Wind.  If you are receiving this  blog via email, be sure to go to worrallwind.blogspot.com to see the captioned slide show.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's from Worrall Wind.

NZ South - From WanakaTo Picton, Back Where We Started

After 2 months in the South Island of New Zealand, we are spending our last night in the port town of Picton where we started off on January 18, 2011.  The time has flown by.  Signs of fall are in the air here.  Apples and hops are being harvested and the undersides of New Zealand's symbolic fern is turning silver.  We've enjoyed the beauty here and the people.  It was appropriate to end our last few days here with a trip to Farewell Spit and Cape Farewell. 

Our trip here was the day of the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.  What a terrible catastrophe for the people in that region.   Because of the geography of Farewell Spit and the protected bays of  Nelson and Abel Tasman, folks here were not too concerned about the Tsunami warnings for NZ in this area.  Nevertheless, we did not sleep well on our beach side camp that night.

From Lake Wanaka we worked our way north up the west coast enjoying beautiful headlands, glaciers, river valleys, blowholes, pancake rocks, suspension bridges, gold mines, coal mines, black swans, and waterfalls.  One of the highlights of our last week here was a kayaking on the Queen Charlotte Sound.  We leave tomorrow on the ferry to the North Island and our last month in New Zealand.  Enjoy the captioned slideshow above or full screen on our Picasa Web Album.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's.