Well it's been a long time and I'm not sure whether to start at the end or the beginning, but this is Fiji and we're not at the end yet so maybe I'll start somewhere near the middle.... Since we left Suva we stopped at beautiful Beqa, lush and mangrovey and although the water was murky and not that inviting there was some incredible snorkelling right below us, I loved it and wanted to stay for weeks, scared myself silly by kayaking through the mangroves and only getting so far before convincing myself that snakes, crocodiles and other dark, myserious and dangerous beings were out to get me......
We arrived at Iyanutha with heaps of beautiful stripey fish virtually eating out of your hand, one of our crew was convinced he saw tables under water with coral growing in jam jars, but I think maybe he got a little too much sun that day......His mate also thought he was a fish and proceeded to swim all the way round the island just to prove his point so we decided it would be best to move on...and just in case you girls have been wondering what you've been missing on this largely masculine boat, here's a little taster...
Our 2 French crew who had come all the way with us from New Zealand decided they'd finally had enough, our vegetarian ways had eventually taken it's toll and they headed off for lands afar where meat was a more regular occurance. So it's farwell to Edouard, a real life smoke machine and a fine sailor, and to Stephanie, who bravely weathered terrible seasickness in the name of adventure.
After a few very very hot and sand bitey days at Vuda Marina, and after all my whinging about there being no mountains at sea we collared another crew member and set sail for Waya. Some of you may know, and if you don't know then some of you may understand that after this long at sea level I'd have eaten my leg to get up a mountain (although it would have seriously hampered my climbing ability) so I was incredibly excited and itching to get going. However, upon arrival in Waya, having denied it for a day or two, I had to admit that I was sick, and not just boy flu sick but weak, dizzy, hard to stand up, miserable, lay in bed sick, and much to my utter dismay I had to abandon all hope of gaining even a milimetre of height. If only I'd known it was just the beginning of our woe, I'd have saved my tears for a more appropriate time...like 6 hours into the future.....
We set sail south for Musket Cove, just a couple of days stopover we thought, then off to Vanuatu, little did we know that Musket Cove was to become our home for many weeks....
As the sun dropped the worst happened, a cry of 'REEF' from the bow and then a crunching sound below. We were grounded. I'll keep this story short as there's no need for it to be long. Despite highly skilled anchor jiggery pokery from the captain and crew as the tide started dropping we had to admit we were high and dry for the night. The surrounding waters reached waist height and Lilly settled over onto her side at a very uncomfortable angle that no sailor ever wants to see. But our story is a happy one, there was no wind and no waves and as the tide rose again in the morning the captain was back out with the anchors and new inspiration and eventually we were afloat in deep water again. Unfortunately in the process we had lost our engine (not like accidentally dropped it down the back of the sofa, like horrible noises not working kind of lost) so limped in to Musket Cove in full sail, an impressive sight we were told aferwards, til they saw the new white hairs we'd sprouted in the night.
So the next few days were spent with various yachties coming aboard, standing around listening to the engine, scratching their heads and all coming to pretty much the same conclusion....'It doesn't sound good' I won't bore you with the technical details but if I tell you that the engine is now in pieces on shore then I think you will realise the severity of our problem....unfortunately the engine was about as happy to come out as we were about taking it out and it took a whole heap of ropes and quite alot of sweaty men to encourage it onto dry land
So we accepted we were going to be here for some time and it was farwell to our crew. To Pete, the greatest swimmer we've ever seen who I hope leaves with a beginners understanding of 'multi tasking' though I'm not promising anything, and to Chris, who not only made a solemn vow never to eat in KFC again but also made an awesome canvas bucket and managed to pull in a cowsuit, or was it a dress? It got so confusing..... And also to Marty, who wasn't nearly as mental as his email suggested.
And here we are, in Musket madness, a bit like a cross between 'The Prisoner' and Butlins. Jet ski, banana boat, crab racing hell. Although they do have a very nice bar and lots of boats come here so we've made some friends. The nicest Fijian mechanic in the world has adopted us, so despite my dismay when Kieran, armed with a rather large manual and a bucket of optimism, announced he was going to re-condition the engine himself, I feel we're in good hands. But this is Fiji, and nothing happens fast. 1 week has become 4 and the engine is still in bits....
Well 4 weeks became 8 and I am happy to be able to tell you that our engine is now fully re-conditioned, tested and raring to go. Not only that but we have at last left Musket Madness which had begun to take on a surreal and not very comfortable feeling of 'home'. Shortly after my last diary entry, the inevitable happened, Musket Cove had a Regatta, clearly me and Kieran spurned such a silly event and deined not to get involved at all.
The week after all the frivolity another inevitable happened, having sent some engine parts to the mainland (20 miles away) to have some work done we were simply waiting for them to be returned so that Kieran could begin trying to remember how it all went back together again, a 1 day delivery turned into 10 days of sitting around feeling unbelievably frustrated and no longer particularly amused by 'Fiji Time'
It must be noted at this point that Kieran has done an amzing job, just goes to show that huge amounts of optimism, determination and, lets face it, quite alot of gemini stubborness, totally pays off, and we now have a very loud active engine that starts first go and seems to do all the things you'd expect an engine to do.
Throughout this period we adopted a french guy named Gilles who very stupidly told us not only that he wanted to come to Vanuatu with us, but also that he was practically minded, grew up on a farm and knew something about engines.......it won't surprise you to know that just hours after we met him he was getting oily with Kieran up in the workshop (which sounds a bit dodgier than I meant)
And of course good things happened when we were there too, I watched an incredible blue irridescent beetle crawl out of it's shell and turn into a wonderful orange beetle
Our friends daughter Claire learned to jump from dizzying heights
And 2 HUGE bat fish came to live under our boat
We also met some really really lovely people who we are very sad to leave
But it was at last time to leave, and of course time to party, we had a mega send off on Lilly which involved a far too varied amount of alcohol and although everyone got soaked coming over in the rain it seemed necessary to chuck everyone in the water as part of various complicated dance routines which unfortunately culminated in us not leaving the next day after all as we were all too hungover.
But now we are at last sat in Lautoka, ready to check out, a German couple have joined us at the last minute and we are currently trying to decide if it's better to go and get really really wet on the passage, or wait here for another week for better sailing weather...
I'm hoping that we go, our unintended brief stop over in Fiji became something of a surreal drama, wish us fair winds and a bout of good luck for the next few weeks
Watch this space
But eventually we arrived home and sat on solid land for lashings of pirate rum
It's been an incredible advenutre and the future now beckons, who knows where we'll go next. What I do know is that we make a wonderful threesome, me, Kieran and the lovely Lilly, and I hope the winds will continue to be kind to us as we move forwards into the next adventure. Thanks for staying with me, I've had a ball
But eventually we arrived home and sat on solid land for lashings of pirate rum
...some last aquamarine waters...
...some last white sands...
As the sun set and the wind had still not swung round we knew it was just time to go, so it's farewll to the turtles and the warm clear waters and off we go into open waters....
But it really is time to go, New Zealand is calling and this adventure has to come to a close sometime. We have great crew to get us back down south, so we had our last monthly wash
Obviously we are also being very responsible and keeping an eye out for huge tankers that can wipe you out in a millisecond without so much as a ripple in their sinks. You can tell how responsible we are by the Kierans 'ready for anything' stance and the fact that I decided to grow a few more heads for better night vision
It can even be quite romantic. Here is Gilles sharing a special moment with his special friend (admittedly his special friend is a coconut but you try telling him)
So the new plan is to leave Vanuatu this week for New Cal before heading back to New Zealand, however the engine has turned into a stroppy teanager and only very occasionally does what we want it to do, so if it works this week then we'll go, if not we'll make a new plan, stay with us....
Despite being wet the passage was calm, windy, rough and sunny, and a bit more wet. It was amazing to be sailing again after so long at anchor despite the constant wetness and sea sickness and getting caught in a stom, and did I mention the rain?
