Rotuma and Fiji

12th April 2011                                  

Our arrival at Mba Roads from Rotuma also heralded the change of the seasons, it was the end of the Hurricane Season in the South West Pacific and the start of the Cruising Season for Fiji; we were still however, in that time period where the rains had not quite stopped and the Trade Wind had not started blowing.

Our first task was to get ‘Cleared in’ and when daylight arrived we sailed down to Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest city, where we anchored off the dock. Clearance went well, apart from a little delay when we went looking for the Department of Fijian Affairs who were to issue our Cruising Permit; we actually walked past the building twice without seeing ‘the board’, which was discreetly hidden!

We were given a Customs Internal Clearance to Cruise the Nandi Waters area till the 1^st July at which time we would have to return to Lautoka for another Clearance, this seemed fine by us as we were not expecting to be that long in the area. Once cleared, we went shopping and filled our bags with all the fresh vegetables that we had been dreaming about but unable to obtain in the islands to the north; we treated ourselves to Coffee and Cake whilst rejoicing in our return to ‘civilization’.

Our next step was to head down to the Marina at Denerau where we could take on water and wash down the boat, it was also a treat to have access to a washing machine and good communications; it took us several days to get ourselves unwound and sorted out! We anchored off the Marina on arrival however, within a few days the Marina laid Moorings throughout the anchorage and all the boats had to shift onto the moorings; there had been a $F15/night charge for anchoring and this remained unchanged so as far as I was concerned, this was an even better deal. Whilst I do not like having to pay, the small charge for a safe mooring and a safe place to leave the dinghy, was well worth it. We could use the Marina Toilets, showers and Laundry as well as unlimited fresh water, there were some shops and a bakery as well as the usual tourist amenities plus a free dance show twice a week!

 

Once cleaned up, rested and provisioned we were ready for our next move, and that was to Vuda Point Marina where we made use of the ‘travel-lift’ to take the boat out of the water; we had scheduled a month out of the water to attend maintenance and let the hull dry out a little.

The actual lift out went well but unfortunately there was no space for us to sit in a cradle except in the ‘work area’, which was a place I wanted to avoid as there was little breeze and much commercial activity was taking place, such as grinding of steel hulls and spray painting. We opted to pay for an extra ‘move’ and took a ‘hole’ (in which to sit our keel) out near the point, it seemed a good place and out of the way for us to be able to effect a rigging change and lay out all our wire on the ground besides the boat.

On our second night ashore, it rained….no, it poured, and blew somewhat as well. Unbeknown to us, these are the conditions that, in this locality, at this time of the year; precipitates the ‘flying cockroaches’! We were invaded by them, they were apparently drawn to our light and it was only by good fortune that we had all our mosquito nets in place, we were alerted to them when we spotted them crawling all  over the outside of the net on the cockpit hatchway. 

I released a whole tin of roach spray into their midst through the net and we barricaded ourselves inside the boat till dawn; early morning light revealed a couple of hundred dead ones in the cockpit but there were still dozens more, most of which were alive, out on deck. We dealt with them as best we could, and spent the rest of the day chasing them off, I even had to hoist the mainsail to get them out of the folds; they were everywhere all the covers had to come off everything, lockers were emptied, checked and then taped up with Duct-Tape; it was a painful process but we think our efforts paid off in the long run.

We had been warned that there were problems with insects, mosquitoes and “crawling things” but we had not been prepared for the all out assault which followed our arrival. A few nights later, when we were just starting to relax a little, Paula disturbed a rat which was chewing a hole in one of our mosquito nets in an attempt to enter the cabin, we chased him off but he was back the next night and actually walked across the net over the forward bunk where we were sleeping; I fired off some cockroach spray through the net at him and he scampered away……Not too far however as there were often the tell-tail signs of his nocturnal visits on the decks in the mornings when I went out for my dawn ‘clean up’.

We purchased an electric fan and would have died had we not, especially as we were closing up the boat with us inside it every night with little in way of ventilation. It was a tough time and having use of the swimming pool at the First Landing Resort was not really compensation for what we were living through. We had at one time thought to leave our boat here for the Hurricane Season whilst returning to Europe to visit family…that thought quickly evaporated and we doubled our efforts to get all our work completed on schedule. The biggest job on hand was the complete changing of all the standing rigging whilst leaving the mast in place, we had done this before in Annapolis so we knew it could be done however it is always a worry working on the top section whilst removing the supporting wires; a bit like sitting on a tree branch whilst sawing the bit between you and the tree! We had brought all the wire and some extra Norseman Fittings down from Majuro so we were equipped for the job, I took the opportunity to replace all the fittings at the Masthead with new and used the old ones (with new cones) to replace the wire lifelines around the boat with the old rigging wire from the ‘Lower’s’ (which were almost the right length for the job). I was impressed with the result of this as our lifelines now look much better, I never trusted the plastic coated ones and I have noted that many offshore racing authorities are now banning them.

There were numerous other jobs which got done and a few that we didn’t due to the working conditions, however a month after we hauled we were lowered back into the water, all polished up and freshly painted. It didn’t take us long to get out of there, Paula was ‘well bitten’ to say the least, she looked like a pin cushion and it took almost two weeks before the last of the bumps and red sores was gone.

Someone once told us that the very thought of Vuda Point made his skin crawl…… now we know what he meant!



We did our cleaning up on a mooring in Denerau, then with our good friends Ed and Ellen Zacko with “Entr’acte” we went out to Musket Cove and a couple of other anchorages in the Mamanucas, we had some good fun and all enjoyed our time in Musket Cove which was very welcoming and just what we all needed for relaxing after our exertions in Vuda; we got back into the ‘cruising mode’ and eventually realized that we had left all the nasty crawly things behind us.

Musket Cove  Anchorage

Musket Cove

After a couple of weeks we parted company with Ed and Ellen, they went off to Savusavu and the northeast; we got our affairs in order and then cleared out from Lautoka for Aneityum in Vanuatu. This had just recently become a Clearance Port and it seemed like a good place to start our next cruise from, we were sorry to be leaving Fiji but looking forward to a new cruising ground and some exciting things to see and do.

Dancing At Musket Cove Resort.

We departed Lautoka 10am on Wednesday 6^th July for Vanuatu.




John and Paula