Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity: July 2011

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July 2011

July 17, 2011

LTY UPDATE: July 10th to 13th, 2011 – Pacific Harbour and Yanuca Island

Location: anchored inside Pacific Harbour lagoon
Position: 18 15.620 S, 178 04.201 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Air temp: 84.3 F 29.1 C
Sea temp: 83.7F 28.7 C
Humidity: 69%
Barometer: 1020mm

FAMILY FUN in FIJI

It only took about 90 minutes in good wind on Sunday morning to make the trip north from our lovely little anchorage at Yanuca island to Pacific Harbour and by just after noon we were able to be ashore and meet up for lunch with Bruce, Lyla and Stuart. The Pearl resort was just perfect, being not too fancy but having everything you needed in a resort such as breakfast buffet, restaurants and café, WiFi, a swimming pool and sandy beach. All with comfy chairs and lounges and we spend lots of time over the next five days just enjoying time together, catching up, seeing the local sights and taking some trips on Learnativity to get in some good snorkelling.

My brother and his family live in Ladner just outside of Vancouver and the town where I first started teaching but in January they moved to Melbourne Australia so Bruce can help to set up and open an office for his company, Westport Engineering, there. So it made it much easier for them to fly into Fiji and see some of this great country and give us a chance to get some all too rare time together to just hang out and catch up. Which is exactly what we did and it was a super visit.

They are not into boating much but said they wanted to give it a go and so on Monday morning we took them all out to Learnativity and had perfect conditions to sail south out of Pacific Harbour and across the pass into Beqa Lagoon. Lyla in particular did fantastic as she was the most in doubt about how well she would do with the motion on the boat, but turned out she did great, no meds required and had a great time the whole way there and back. Linda and I had found some very good corals and fish when we snorkelled the north west corner of Yanuca Island so we headed back there with the whole gang and let Bruce & Stuart try their hands at anchoring and sailing. Then it was off in the dinghy with all of us and out to do some snorkelling which they all enjoyed immensely and we were back onboard just in time to set sail back to their resort and watch the extremely colourful sunset as we did. Having a known track for getting through the reefs and back to the anchorage we knew was save made this night time arrival quite safe and easy and we were ashore by 7:30 and walked up to the local village for a delicious meal together.

We were in Pacific Harbour for five days all together and had a fabulous visit with lots of time to just sit by the pool, explore the river in the dinghy and walk around the local area. So rare it seems that families or anyone gets such stretches of uninterrupted time to just “be” and be together. We all enjoyed it to the max and after a final great night ashore with Bruce, Lyla and Stuart we bid them adieu and were ready to sail on first thing Thursday morning.

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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LTY UPDATE: July 8th – 9th, 2011 – Suva to Yanuca Island

LTY time: 16:45 (UTC +12) = 04:45 UTC
Location: anchored just off the SW corner of Yanuca Island in Beqa Lagoon
Position: 18 22.812 S, 177 59.081 E (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Air temp: 91.1 F 32.8 C
Sea temp: 84.6F 29.2 C
Humidity: 65%
Barometer: 1019mm

ON to PACIFIC HARBOUR, but a stop in BEQA LAGOON FIRST!

We had the anchor up and were making our way out of Suva Harbour by 09:30 on Sunday and were heading over to Pacific Harbour about 25nm to the west on the south coast of the biggest Fijian island of Viti Levu. We’d enjoyed our stay in Suva, other than the first one with Linda’s extremely painful tooth extraction day, but were also anxious to be out of this large busy port and city and get back to clear topical waters, small islands and being the only boat in the bay. So we headed out a bit early so we could check out some of the snorkelling spots and other places to visit with my brother inside the Beqa Lagoon which is less than a two hour sail south from Pacific Harbour. Weather was perfect for our day sail over to Beqa and by 1pm we were inside the lagoon and sailing down the west coast of beautiful Beqa or “Mbengga” island as it is pronounced. This is the largest island by far inside the lagoon, but still rather small and being so spoiled we decided to give it a pass as we say several dive boats going into the little bay on the SW corner and really wanted to find a spot where we’d be the only boat. I know, I know, spoiled indeed, but hey, we get to do that here very easily!!

We first set our sights on a very tiny bit of tall rock just off the SW coast of Beqa called Ugaga Island but were stunned to see with the binoculars that it had a lot (well about 20) homes and other buildings going up its northern and very beautiful slope, so we looked around again and found Yanuca island off to the West about 5nm, less than an hour for us to sail to and looked like it would have a lovely protected little bay on the far west side. Our intuitions proved correct and by 14:30 we had the anchor down in this gorgeous little bay and could relax with an hour’s snorkelling before it was time for our “sundowner” duty on deck to watch the sun go down. Hey, somebody has to do all this!!

This all proved to be a great contrast and rest for us after the busy and somewhat stressful time in Suva with the dentist and all, and after a great day of more snorkelling on Saturday we were ready to sail over to Pacific Harbour on Sunday morning in time to meet my brother Bruce, his wife Lyla and their son Stuart at the Pearl resort there.

Admiral Linda, Captain Wayne & Commodore Ruby (aka the Wonderdog)
Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity
Exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.

Posted via email from Learnativity

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LTY UPDATE: Saturday, July 3rd to 7th, 2011 – Levuka to Suva, Fiji

OFF to FIND the DENTIST!
I’ll synthesize the past few days into one posting here to catch you up on the happy ending to the dental debacle and nightmare for Linda and our subsequent good time exploring Suva, the largest city and port in Fiji and the current capital (used to be Levuka).

Fortunately the antibiotics and pain killers we had on board worked continued to work their magic on Linda she was feeling much more comfortable as we sailed out of Levuka after a short but fun overnight stay there. Our sail around the SE end of the biggest Fijian island of Viti Levu and on to Suva followed the nice pattern of the last few sails where the wind was much better both speed and direction wise than forecast and made for a very vast sail. I had the anchor up and was sailing out of the pass at Levuka by 05:15 Sunday morning and Linda was up soon afterward, feeling much better and able to enjoy an amazing sunrise as we motor sailed south at almost 8 knots due to favourable currents and a bit of help from the wind that was still too close to go by sail alone.

The weather continued to be sunny and beautiful for the whole trip to Suva with some clouds and lots of wind but all very enjoyable. Just after we had rounded the SE corner of Viti Levu we witnessed an amazing sight of quite large though it appeared young tuna each about 18-30 inches/45-75cm, jumping in great arches out of the water. There must have been a school of at least 50-100 of them as best we could tell and our best guess is that there was a shark or other predator underneath and they were literally fleeing for their lives and jumping out of the water to help stay one flip of their fins ahead of being lunch! Maybe there are other reasons, but that seemed to make sense to us and was just a magical sight for us to watch as it went on for about 10 minutes as we sailed by them. We saw this once more a few days later, though less tuna involved this time and we certainly see lots of sharks down here when we are snorkelling so seems to make sense.

We made our way into the large Suva harbour (see Google Earth or Bing to see for yourself) and found a spot to anchor just off the Royal Suva Yacht Club on the top NE corner and near a large long pipeline that was stretched out over the mud flats we were anchored in to move the fuel on/off the large ships that call into this capital port and city. It was a typical large commercial city and port and the largest port and city I have anchored near in many years.

We went ashore to the RSYC to start to inquire about dentists and in relatively short order between the people in the office and bar and a few other cruisers who have been in Suva for more than a year, we had four dentists to choose from. It was Sunday so we couldn’t check in and retired back to Learnativity for a quiet night for Linda to rest up before the dentist on Monday.

By 8am Monday we were ashore in pouring rain and were able to find a taxi that took me to the Customs office to check in and then take Linda across town to the dentist she had chosen. It took me over an hour and three more tries to find the right Customs & Immigration office but I soon had us all officially checked into Suva as Fiji requires inter country check-ins whenever you put in at one of the four Ports of Entry. I then caught a bus into the main downtown bus terminal that also has the largest fresh fruit and veggie market in all of Fiji, which was hard to fathom during my short walk through it to find the connecting bus to take me out to the other side of town where the dentist was.

I was concerned about getting Linda in in to see a dentist on such short notice but it was just before 9am by the time I found Linda sitting in an internet Café beside the very modern dentist’s office in a type of shopping mall where she was waiting for her9am appointment with the dentist at 9am so this all worked out very well. However about 15 minutes later Linda was back to see me in the Internet Café where I was waiting and she was in tears and a terrible state of anxiety. The dentist had determined that the tooth needed to be extracted and in spite of giving her what should have been quite a bit more local pain killing injections, Linda was feeling horrid pain as the dentist tried to pull the very firmly seated tooth out. So I joined her back at the dentist and we had quite the experience. The dentist was a short relatively short Indian lady with a very good disposition and manner and a devout Hindu. So she insisted that we all put our arms around each other, pray for success and go for it! Which we did! She gave Linda yet more injections in her gums and perhaps this or perhaps the extra time for the previous injections to take effect or perhaps the praying and hugging, did the trick and the recalcitrant tooth was soon out, all roots intact and sitting in a small stainless dish on the dentists table. Linda was both delighted to have it out and over with and yet also in a bit of shock as the dentist put some local antibiotics and pain killing herbs into the opening where the tooth was. I got the instructions from the dentist on what to do for the next few days, she gave us some antibiotics and pain killers and some gauze to put in the opening for the next few hours and we were out the door before 10am!

Thinking it best to give Linda a bit of a rest we went to have sit in a small Indian café and get her something to drink before heading back to the boat. Unfortunately Linda started to experience more and more pain as we sat there and by the time we had hailed a taxi to take us right back to Learnativity she was in agony and getting worse by the minute. We made it back to the boat fine, but Linda was anything but and she was literally beside herself going through what she said made natural childbirth seem like a walk in the park! Unfortunately there wasn’t much we could do as she had already maxed out and then some on pain killers and antibiotics and so she just had to work her way through it and try variations of lying, sitting, walking around and jumping in the air. It was horrific but fortunately by about 6pm it had subsided and by 9pm she was able to lie down and get to sleep and she thankfully slept through the night.

The weather that day had continued to be ugly being grey overcast, lots of rain and high winds gusting across the harbour. Just to help take her mind off the pain, about 5pm we were sitting in the salon on LTY when there was a sudden big BANG! and we lurched to the side and watched as another sailboat, also steel and also about as large as us (50’) and heavy as us dragged its way down our side! This boat had been anchored several hundred meters in front of us and we’d commented on how it didn’t look to be too well looked after and we weren’t sure if there was anyone aboard. Apparently their anchor had not held well enough in the mud and didn’t seem to have much rode (chain) paid out and so the stronger winds had dragged their CQR plough type anchor through the mud. By the time I got up on deck to check this out, it had continued to drag their anchor across ours and picked up our anchor chain and I watched as their anchor became visible sliding up and up our anchor chain till it reached the surface and stuck there! So into the dingy (still only having air in one tube) I jumped to get this mess sorted out.

Fortunately our anchor was holding fast (gotta love that monster 75kg Rocna!) and the other boat’s anchor was hanging off my anchor chain just a few feet below the surface. But it still weighed 50 lbs. and was being pulled very tight so it was all I could do to finally get a rope around the lower end of their anchor, hold onto our chain and lift their anchor up and off our chain to release it. After a few tries I was able to get it to flip over and off our chain and pull their anchor into the dingy. But there was another sailboat, a small fiberglass one at that, and the steel sailboat was now drifting quickly towards it so I had to move quickly to get the anchor back into the water and just hope that it stuck this time and that the runaway boat would stop before it hit the fiberglass boat. Fortunately that’s just what happened and the anchor grabbed on well into the mud just under Learnativity and the boat was sitting with its bow sprit about 5 feet behind our stern and setting about 10 feet off to the starboard side of the little fiberglass boat!

In the ensuing hours afterwards I was able to move Learnativity to another spot and give these other two boats some space. I called the Port Control and the RSYC to let them know about all this and see if they could find the owners of the other two boats. They did find the owner of the fiberglass boat at the yacht club and he quickly came out to his boat and put out some fenders to protect his sides as apparently his engine wasn’t working. Later in the night the owner of the runaway steel boat came back onboard and moved his boat. We talked on the radio and also over the next few days and he was a great fellow sailor, from Ireland, and was most appreciative for the help. All what any other sailor would do in these situations as we really do need to stick together and “pay it forward” as you never know when it is going to be your turn! At the very least this had taken Linda’s mind off her pain a little bit and as the evening wore on, the pain lessened and she was able to finally get some respite from the pain and some much needed sleep.

Next day was MUCH better; how could it not be? But we took it easy and just stayed on board for the day to let Linda rest and recuperate. Her tooth and jaw were still obviously quite sore but the pain had at least toned down to a dull ache and such a welcomed relieve from the day before. Over the next few days Linda and the weather improved and were very sunny so we took advantage of the opportunity to explore the big city of Suva and nearby sights and towns. Getting around was easy by bus for about 30 cents a person or taxi for about $1.50 and we used both though we prefer the bus for better views and chances to mix with the local folks. We took a walking tour that was laid out in the Lonely Planet guide for Suva, found a great restaurant, the “Bad Dog Café” for lunch and were also able to look after finding a notary public for some documents both of us needed signing and sent off to Canada and the US, so it was a full and productive day.

Linda was also hard on the hunt for some good books to help us identify fish and birds and plants and had read that there was a good bookstore at the university so we took the bus out there late in the afternoon, which ended up being right beside the commercial center where the dentist was AND where there was a Costco like store called “Cost U Less”. Linda found some great books at the university bookstore and we marvelled at the amazing grounds and plants of this large campus and then make our way over to Cost U Less to buy provisions for the next few weeks as we were about to leave to meet up with my brother and family further west along the coast from Suva and then head on to more adventures for us. We took the taxi back to Learnativity with its trunk filled with groceries and hard to find items. Whew! That was a lot to get done in one day and was a great one.

Next day we took our time a bit more to explore the local area, search out a chandlery (boat supply store) that was rumoured to be in the nearby town and otherwise enjoy this area. So we took busses and taxis and walked both east and west form the RSYC, enjoyed eating at some of the small local street vendors, found some of the boat parts we needed and just took in all that Suva had to offer. So while this is not our typical place to be, near a large city and port, we had a great time while we were there and most importantly finally had Linda’s tooth out after many years of trouble it has caused her.

And with that we were all set to sail off west in the morning to Pacific Harbour which is about 20nm to the west of Suva and where the “Pearl of the South Pacific” resort is located where my brother Bruce, his wife Lyla and their youngest son (15) Stuart, were going to be for a week starting on Friday July 9th. More on that in the next instalment.

Admiral Linda, Captain Wayne & Commodore Ruby (aka the Wonderdog)
Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity
Exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.

Posted via email from Learnativity

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