LTY UPDATE: Day#19 –Friday, June 10, 2011 - Majuro to Fiji
Day#19 –Friday, June 10, 2011 LTY time: 17:00 (UTC +12) = 05:00 UTC
Location: anchored on NE end of Rotuma Island, Fiji
Position: 12 29.233 S, 177 07.211 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 0 anchored
COG: (Course Over Ground)
Wind: 3-10 knots E True
Seas/Swell: flat inside harbour
Air temp: 93.0F 32.2 C
Sea temp: 85.5 F 29.7 C
Humidity: 57%
Barometer: 1014mm
Distance to Rotuma, Fiji: zero, we’re here!
Distance last 24 hours: 168nm DAY #19: REVELLING in ROTUMA!
We made it! Anchored safe, calm and in pure bliss here in the very tiny bay that has a small dock for the supply ships that call here every few months and just enough room for us to drop our trusty Rocna anchor in 15 feet of crystal clear turquoise water and have it instantly dig up to the hilt in white coral sand that looks like it was manicured to perfection with watery rakes. Our sail south continued to be ideal and VERY fast as we maintained speeds up in the high 6 knots all night long in 15 to 20 knots of wind and rolling seas. Timing could not have been better for our arrival as we were about 10nm NNE of this spot as the sun came up this morning and was just clearing through the clouds and getting high enough to light up the tricky waters in front of us as we made our entrance into the rocky and coral studded entrance. Fortunately I also had my track from leaving this same spot last year and I used this to carefully guide Learnativity along its known safe path with Linda up at the bow watching out just for good measure and her great enjoyment. There are two small islands of rock just off to the north of this bay and our route arced around their verdant jungle covered surfaces making for a spectacular entrance. Once safely through the narrow entrance to this little bay, we crept forward and over to the far east side near the small concrete dock and one lone building that serves to store some of the supplies when they arrive and Linda expertly dropped the hook and the wind pushed us back to the west, setting the anchor quickly and deeply into the perfect white sand below. We played out about 75 feet of anchor chain before snubbing it up which put our aft end just about 10 feet short of the start of a coral bump below and pretty much the exact same spot Ruby and I anchored in when we were here last October as our last stop in Fiji and on our way up to the Marshall Islands. It was just as gorgeous as I remembered. No artist could paint a more perfect picture of a tropical paradise with the white sand crescent beach two hundred meters off our bow which then transmogrify themselves into short black vertical faces of volcanic rock which have been carved out into an unending series of small coves with a small private beach inside each one fronting a lush tangle of palms, trees and tropical birds. More on that later. More good timing as a small cargo ship that had left Funafuti the day before us had just pulled in a few hours earlier and all the customs, immigration, health and bio security officials were just finishing their work with them and their tender dropped them off onboard Learnativity and we looked after all the procedures for checking into Fiji. They all instantly remembered meeting Ruby last year and were delighted to see us again, asking one more time if they could take her home with them?! There is a LOT of paperwork for Fiji, with even more carbon paper, but thanks to having a copier/printer/scanner onboard to speed the process a bit we soon had filled out what seems like hundreds of forms for us, the boat, Ruby and we were officially welcomed into Fiji. The officials could not have been nicer and Ruby and I took them ashore in our dinghy and returned to Learnativity to officially congratulate ourselves at being back in Fiji and to take down our Quarantine (yellow) flag and proudly put the Fiji flag back up again. After all that hard work Linda and I were ready for a swim and couldn’t resist that crystal clear turquoise water, a very different set of blues and greens from up north in the Marshalls, and so we donned our masks, fins and snorkels and were off to explore this paradise underwater. We first dove on the anchor and Linda’s anchor set was text book perfect so we went aft of the boat to check out that dark spot of coral behind us and found it to be plenty deep enough for us to float over even if we were, very unlikely, to drag backwards over it. They had erected a new concrete piling on this spot to replace the one that had been pulled down by a big ship in a storm a few years ago and we checked that out a bit but mostly the great variety of new fish that were everywhere and very different from the ones we’d been accustomed to in the Marshalls and Funafuti. I still had one ace up my sleeve to welcome Linda to my beloved Fiji and so I had her follow me over towards the large coral formations on the other side of Learnativity off the short black rock cliffs. The coral didn’t disappoint with the typical Fijian abundance of fish and coral but what I was really doing was heading for a small opening in one of the black rocks that forms an arched entryway into a perfect white sand beach. Linda kept following me and soon we were being swept by the current through the arch and into this small truly perfect and personal sized white beach with towering palms and growth behind it. Just like in a movie the waves washed us up onto the sandy beach and rolled us around as we struggled to remove our aquatic accoutrements and return to being land based bipeds and we walked up the short bit of sandy beach and flopped down to just try to be one with this scene of truly spectacular scenery. It is hard to describe adequately and we’ll try to go back with our camera to take some shots to help show you this special spot. For now, try to imagine this small little beach about 10 meters/30 feet wide in total, behind a black rock face with this arched opening in it through which the crystal clear waters are crashing through and jungle birds are calling from their invisible perches deep within the lush green tropical jungle hanging over top of us, their fronds waving in the slight breeze and partially blocking the sapphire blue sky above. Well, I guess you just had to be there and we were! We soaked that up for an hour or so and then swam back to Learnativity going over top of the large coral garden once again before boarding the swim steps onboard for a good fresh water shower to get cleaned up and wash out all the sand. All fresh, invigorated and hungry I fried up a tasty brunch of eggs, rice, hash browns which we promptly devoured up in the cockpit trying to take in this new natural world we’ve just entered. With the passage and this great welcome behind us, it was nap time for the rest of the afternoon, along with some good books we are both reading; Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” for Linda and Rudy Rucker’s trilogy “The Ware Tetralogy”. And now it is approaching six o’clock and Mr. Sun is making is daily dive for the watery horizon off to the West and so I’m going to finish this up for today, set up the chairs on the aft deck, awaken a sleepy Admiral Linda and go get us some wine to help us toast the end to yet another great day and our arrival in the very northernmost part of Fiji. More over the coming days and then we’ll head off further south to the main islands of Fiji sometime next week. Thanks again for joining us on this great adventure. Good night to you all. Admiral Linda, Captain Wayne & Commodore Ruby (aka the Wonderdog)
Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity
Exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.
Day#19 –Friday, June 10, 2011 LTY time: 17:00 (UTC +12) = 05:00 UTC
Location: anchored on NE end of Rotuma Island, Fiji
Position: 12 29.233 S, 177 07.211 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: (Speed Over Ground) 0 anchored
COG: (Course Over Ground)
Wind: 3-10 knots E True
Seas/Swell: flat inside harbour
Air temp: 93.0F 32.2 C
Sea temp: 85.5 F 29.7 C
Humidity: 57%
Barometer: 1014mm
Distance to Rotuma, Fiji: zero, we’re here!
Distance last 24 hours: 168nm DAY #19: REVELLING in ROTUMA!
We made it! Anchored safe, calm and in pure bliss here in the very tiny bay that has a small dock for the supply ships that call here every few months and just enough room for us to drop our trusty Rocna anchor in 15 feet of crystal clear turquoise water and have it instantly dig up to the hilt in white coral sand that looks like it was manicured to perfection with watery rakes. Our sail south continued to be ideal and VERY fast as we maintained speeds up in the high 6 knots all night long in 15 to 20 knots of wind and rolling seas. Timing could not have been better for our arrival as we were about 10nm NNE of this spot as the sun came up this morning and was just clearing through the clouds and getting high enough to light up the tricky waters in front of us as we made our entrance into the rocky and coral studded entrance. Fortunately I also had my track from leaving this same spot last year and I used this to carefully guide Learnativity along its known safe path with Linda up at the bow watching out just for good measure and her great enjoyment. There are two small islands of rock just off to the north of this bay and our route arced around their verdant jungle covered surfaces making for a spectacular entrance. Once safely through the narrow entrance to this little bay, we crept forward and over to the far east side near the small concrete dock and one lone building that serves to store some of the supplies when they arrive and Linda expertly dropped the hook and the wind pushed us back to the west, setting the anchor quickly and deeply into the perfect white sand below. We played out about 75 feet of anchor chain before snubbing it up which put our aft end just about 10 feet short of the start of a coral bump below and pretty much the exact same spot Ruby and I anchored in when we were here last October as our last stop in Fiji and on our way up to the Marshall Islands. It was just as gorgeous as I remembered. No artist could paint a more perfect picture of a tropical paradise with the white sand crescent beach two hundred meters off our bow which then transmogrify themselves into short black vertical faces of volcanic rock which have been carved out into an unending series of small coves with a small private beach inside each one fronting a lush tangle of palms, trees and tropical birds. More on that later. More good timing as a small cargo ship that had left Funafuti the day before us had just pulled in a few hours earlier and all the customs, immigration, health and bio security officials were just finishing their work with them and their tender dropped them off onboard Learnativity and we looked after all the procedures for checking into Fiji. They all instantly remembered meeting Ruby last year and were delighted to see us again, asking one more time if they could take her home with them?! There is a LOT of paperwork for Fiji, with even more carbon paper, but thanks to having a copier/printer/scanner onboard to speed the process a bit we soon had filled out what seems like hundreds of forms for us, the boat, Ruby and we were officially welcomed into Fiji. The officials could not have been nicer and Ruby and I took them ashore in our dinghy and returned to Learnativity to officially congratulate ourselves at being back in Fiji and to take down our Quarantine (yellow) flag and proudly put the Fiji flag back up again. After all that hard work Linda and I were ready for a swim and couldn’t resist that crystal clear turquoise water, a very different set of blues and greens from up north in the Marshalls, and so we donned our masks, fins and snorkels and were off to explore this paradise underwater. We first dove on the anchor and Linda’s anchor set was text book perfect so we went aft of the boat to check out that dark spot of coral behind us and found it to be plenty deep enough for us to float over even if we were, very unlikely, to drag backwards over it. They had erected a new concrete piling on this spot to replace the one that had been pulled down by a big ship in a storm a few years ago and we checked that out a bit but mostly the great variety of new fish that were everywhere and very different from the ones we’d been accustomed to in the Marshalls and Funafuti. I still had one ace up my sleeve to welcome Linda to my beloved Fiji and so I had her follow me over towards the large coral formations on the other side of Learnativity off the short black rock cliffs. The coral didn’t disappoint with the typical Fijian abundance of fish and coral but what I was really doing was heading for a small opening in one of the black rocks that forms an arched entryway into a perfect white sand beach. Linda kept following me and soon we were being swept by the current through the arch and into this small truly perfect and personal sized white beach with towering palms and growth behind it. Just like in a movie the waves washed us up onto the sandy beach and rolled us around as we struggled to remove our aquatic accoutrements and return to being land based bipeds and we walked up the short bit of sandy beach and flopped down to just try to be one with this scene of truly spectacular scenery. It is hard to describe adequately and we’ll try to go back with our camera to take some shots to help show you this special spot. For now, try to imagine this small little beach about 10 meters/30 feet wide in total, behind a black rock face with this arched opening in it through which the crystal clear waters are crashing through and jungle birds are calling from their invisible perches deep within the lush green tropical jungle hanging over top of us, their fronds waving in the slight breeze and partially blocking the sapphire blue sky above. Well, I guess you just had to be there and we were! We soaked that up for an hour or so and then swam back to Learnativity going over top of the large coral garden once again before boarding the swim steps onboard for a good fresh water shower to get cleaned up and wash out all the sand. All fresh, invigorated and hungry I fried up a tasty brunch of eggs, rice, hash browns which we promptly devoured up in the cockpit trying to take in this new natural world we’ve just entered. With the passage and this great welcome behind us, it was nap time for the rest of the afternoon, along with some good books we are both reading; Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” for Linda and Rudy Rucker’s trilogy “The Ware Tetralogy”. And now it is approaching six o’clock and Mr. Sun is making is daily dive for the watery horizon off to the West and so I’m going to finish this up for today, set up the chairs on the aft deck, awaken a sleepy Admiral Linda and go get us some wine to help us toast the end to yet another great day and our arrival in the very northernmost part of Fiji. More over the coming days and then we’ll head off further south to the main islands of Fiji sometime next week. Thanks again for joining us on this great adventure. Good night to you all. Admiral Linda, Captain Wayne & Commodore Ruby (aka the Wonderdog)
Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity
Exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.
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