sv evi

My sister Libby & her friend Rob came to visit for 12 days.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the best of weather for them–many cloudy days & a few rainy ones too. Plus it was super windy the whole time.

With all our visitors, we try to show them some of village culture as well as some snorkeling and beach time. With Wub & Rob we visited our friends in Namalata village. We caught a walu on the way & gave part of it to Paolo, the chief.

From Namalata we sailed to Namena, the marine preserve. It was only 12 miles anchor to anchor, but it took us 5 hours! The wind was on the nose the whole way, and the seas were 2 meters, so it was bumpy. Also the engine died 4 times en route. Each time Riki bled the air out of the fuel line, and it started up again, but shortly thereafter it would die. It died as we entered the pass, and it died just after we picked up the mooring. whew! Rob got seasick en route, poor guy.

Riki, Libby & Rob did some sweet snorkeling.

A mer-man in his element.

In Namena we explored the other side of the island and found some gorgeous sandy beaches with no other people.

There were tons of red-footed blue-billed boobies in their nests. The baby boobies were so puffy and funny-looking. We could get quite close to their nests; some were just above head-level. It was awesome.

While in Namena we heard the weather forecast as such: “Strong wind warning is in effect for all Fiji waters. Southeast winds 25-30 knots, gusting to 40 knots. Rough seas.” Not exactly the kind of weather you want to go sailing in; however, Namena is not a very protected anchorage and the forecast was predicted the same for the next day. So we left.

We only had one reef in the main when we began sailing, and a gust put us on our ear. Riki quickly released the main sheet and said, “I gotta get a reef in”. I was steering, Libby was watching the navigation electronic chart, telling me which way I needed to go, and Riki was on deck putting in the reef. It seemed to take forever with the wind blowing hard and the boat hobby-horsing over the waves despite the fact we were still protected by the reef…and I must admit I thought to myself, “is this a good idea”? I asked Riki if he was sure it was a good idea, and he reassured me that he’d rather be out there sailing then in the rolly anchorage waiting it out for 2 days or more.

We shut the engine off as we went through the pass, and were on course for Savu Savu, but unfortunately we were only making 3.5 knots. Riki said, “Can you do this for 4 more hours?” I said, “uh, yeah, but it would be better if it were shorter.” We were taking wave splashes in the cockpit occasionally…Rob especially got wet as he was on the high side. Riki put the storm jib up and our speed increased to 6 knots! wahoo! The boat also felt more balanced. I started to feel seasick from playing with Tomu and not having air on my face, so I moved to the back corner of the cockpit and covered myself with the sail bag so I wouldn’t get too soaked. Tomu came to sit on my lap & we were both hiding under the sail bag for awhile. At one point a wave soaked all of us in the cockpit. After awhile Tomu just wanted to nurse for comfort…and then as we were approaching Savu Savu our engine died. Shit. Riki started it again, and it died again just as we passed the ferry dock and entered the mooring field. By this time we had both sails down, so no real alternative to engine power (though the storm jib was still hanked on & could be quickly raised). I was at the wheel with Tomu in the Ergo (by then he only wanted to be with me). Lib & Rob were ready with fenders should we lose the engine & come close to hitting another boat. Riki started it again, then stayed with his head in the engine tinkering with the bleed valves as we passed through the mooring field. We were going much faster than we usually do in a  crowded harbor, because we didn’t know how much time we had with a working engine. It was a nerve-wracking ending to a hard day’s sail with tough conditions. Curly was waiting for us at the mooring ball in his dinghy. We approached him, Riki handed him the line, I put the boat in reverse to stop us, and the engine died. Whew! We all had vodka tonics on shore to celebrate as soon as we could gather ourselves. The wind & seas were as forecasted…sustained 30 knots, gusting to 40 with 3 meter seas. They were the gnarliest conditions we’d been in all season…fitting I guess for our last sail of the year.