Across the Koro Sea

We arrived back in Savusavu yesterday after an enjoyable afternoon sailing up from Makogi Island.

Scudding along at 7 or 8 knots with a double reefed main and genoa.

Our Plan in the morning had been to stop at Koro Island but once we were out and sailing we realized that the usual southeast winds were more from the east the trip to Koro Island looked to have some closehauled sailing. Closehauled is something we have so far avoided on our journey and so we decided to maintain the 'clean sheet' yesterday as well.

The Koro Sea is about the middle of Fiji Islands (if there is such a thing). It is different from much of our other cruising because the water is 2000 feet deep. This makes it less important watching the depth instruments.

We had a lovely time at Makogi Island.  After we arrived there we went ashore to present our Sevusevu. Makogi is mariculture centre operated by the Fiji department of Fisheries. The island's caretaker toured us through their facilities showing us the giant clam's that they grow to seed the reefs of Fiji. The giant clams are actually 'giant' and it is pretty cool to see how they are grown and cultured.

Enjoying a beautiful day in the Pacific.

But the most interesting aspect of Makogi is the leporsorium which operated from 1911 to 1962. It is a strange and interesting thing to walk through this facility which was essentially a town complete with cinema and jail in the middle of the pacific. We had a great conversion with the caretaker about the residual spirits of this 100 year old medical facility. 

Sights of Ovalau

Levuka was the Capital of Fiji from 1874 to 1882. Not too much
has happened here still then.

This morning we awake in front of Levuka. This is a community on Ovalau island which boasts that it was once the Capital of Fiji. A search of the finer details shows that while this is true it was only for an 8 year period between 1874 and 1882. Levuka is now a Unesco World Heritage site recognizing its industrial heritage and unique South Pacific Architecture.

The sign says 'Welcome to Lekuva -- 1874"
It really is like entering Levuka in 1874.

I think our impressions of Levuka may be coloured as we will recall our stay here as an 'anchor testing site.' The boisterous trade winds which are a feature this time of year have been in force for the last week or two and Levuka in not an ideal anchorage in these circumstances. We have had not a stitch of problem but we have gone to sleep each night with the depth alarm on the instruments carefully set, the anchor alarm on the computer set to a fine radius and the anchor alarm on iNavx on the iPad running as well. No drama.

Visiting on the walk to work at the the Tuna processing plant.
Shift starts at 15:00 and and at 00:30. 

Keepin up with the paperwork.

My next home...

Today we plan to move on from here to visit Makoga Island on our way to Savusavu. There has been much discussion aboard Sophrosyne these past few days planning our itinerary for the next 6 weeks or so. We are planning to visit some of the more remote Fijian Islands including the much touted Lau Group.

Changing Seasons

Well, we are almost ready to head off again on the next leg of our wee journey. We have been at Vuda Point for almost a week now getting a few things sorted. Vuda Point is a bit like our 'home away from home' now -- the spot we come back to when visitors come and go. We are getting to like it here because we know most of the staff and cruisers and everyone always has time for a smile.

We can start to see how the season's are changing as new boats are arriving and others are finishing their offseason retrofits and getting into the water. The season's are changing too. Maureen woke up this morning and reached for her 'Icebreaker' to cut the chill of the cold Fijian morning air. (Don't worry, it's not that cold). Maureen's weather app says it was 23 degrees (feels like 30). But even I have to admit that is down quite a bit from February where Maureen was reporting (with a smile) it's 29 degrees (feels like 40). Don't get me started on the 'feels like' category. The only thing I know is that our next boat should have an air-conditioned lazarette which is where I have spent must of the last week.

Sophrosyne has a 'walk in lazarette' where we store most of our serious cruising gear, like 5 of the 7 anchors not currently is use. This week all of that was on the deck as we worked through most of an accumulated list of repairs/updates.

We now have a fully functioning AIS transponder with a built-in multiplexer so that boats around us are overlain onto our charts. Significantly with the new setup we can broadcast our position so that they can see us too -- AIS stands for Automatic Identification System. This setup also includes a new DGPS so that we no longer rely on the the iPad for navigation. At the same time we added an autopilot control instrument, re-installed the wind generator and re-wired the SSB antenna tuner -- all set to go!

We have been waiting the last day or two for a VHF splitter cable and once that's in we can head out. Maureen has taken the bus into town this morning in the hope that our cable has arrived which is why I have a few minutes to sit at the computer and write.

Time with Patty and Bev

Some might be wondering aloud if they have missed a blog post or two because we haven't shared much about our grand visit with Patrick and Bev? I had a very nice surprise this morning when I looked at the photo cache that Bev left for us and I think that the best way to share that chapter is through her photos. Thanks Bev!

Patrick and Bev sailing back down from Navandra Island. We
have had a lovely 2 weeks visiting and enjoying their company.

Day One -- Patrick is looking online for a 'funtivity' to fill the 11:00 - 12:00
slot that remains vacant. Watching these guys plan we realized just
how much we have adapted to 'Fiji-time'

Day Three -- now fully certified scuba divers the question is 'what next?'

Let's think about that for a minute...

Sunset in the Pacific

Nice visits and stories to tell

Now we are on pace

Thanks for the great visit guys!
It was fun.

Today's Lesson -- Outboards Don't Float

It could happen to anyone... Well we have entered that group of folks who have dropped their outboards into the salt chuck.

They tell me they were able to use some of  the diesel from our
lame fuel tank to flush out the sunken outboard. As Chuggy says,
"everything works out"

And Patty tells me it ran for a good 20 seconds after it hit the water.

Today's departure was delayed somewhat by a wee mishap as the sun was going down last evening. Pat and Bev were returning from their sunset cruise when our outboard mysteriously popped off the back of the dinghy.

With Maureen reading from Wikipedia we were able to get the outboard back onto the mothership and gave it a good freshwater wash and some WD40 into the cylinders. Since that is about the limit of our mechanical ability, and with the distinct possibility of doing more damage than good, and since it was supposed to be happy hour at the Boatshed, we e-mailed our good and reliable friends at Baobab who were down here at 8:00 to take the outboard up to their shop and complete a service (glad now that I had not done the servicing proactively...).

I am happy to report that the engine is running again now and all that is let to do is track down another cowling for a Merc 9.9.

We a re now just waiting for our 'untie' from the central cyclone mooring and we will be on our way to Musket Cove. The weather is fine and we are all looking forward to a couple of fun days in the Mamanca Islands.