Port D
Made it to Port Douglas. I'm on timed internet. Have to type fast. We're up a river with a bunch of crocs probably. But it's good to be moved
Going to court.
So, here is the detailed story about our little trip to court in Australia.
Matt and I headed up to meet with the customs agent and the prosecuting attorney (solicitor) at about 9am on the morning of September 7th. I didn't really think about it, but I realized in the morning that I should wear nice clothes, since this is court. I rummaged around the boat for a bit and finally found my "never use" duffel bag that had a pair of "wrinkle free" khaki pants in it. These pants had been crammed in a ball for over a year and looked more like crumpled up news paper than business casual wear. I tried to rub a wet towel on them to take some wrinkles out (since we left the iron at home), but that didn't really work, plus it kind of made it look like I hauled off and whizzed all over myself. Then I also realized that my footwear selection left a bit to be desired. I had a pair of well worn sandals and a pair of ratty old Nikes that had last been worn hiking to a waterfall in the Marquesas. I threw on the sandals and put the Nikes in my backpack. . .just in case. Matt meanwhile was going through ALL of his t-shirts trying to find one that didn't have a stain. This proved to be an impossible task and he chose one that was dark, and that had a stain on the side that could be easily concealed by his arm.
We met Gary the customs guy (actually a very nice guy despite the whole "pressing charges" thing) at the courthouse. Matt couldn't bring his camera into the courthouse (we tried for the website's sake), and had to check it at the front desk. We had a quick meeting with the solicitor who presented the case and recommended that we opt for the "plead guilty" so that we can get it over with, instead of the "plead not-guilty" and have to go to a real trial that would take lots and lots of time. Matt and I talked it over, and decided that. . .well, we WERE guilty, and let's just get this fucking thing over with. I also asked the prosecutor if my footwear selection was acceptable, and he just said that it was up to me. The sandals looked much better than the dirty old Nikes, so I went with option A.
We were instructed to bow slightly to the Judge when we entered the courtroom and then headed up to the Defendant side of the big long table in front of the Judge's bench. After a bunch of formalities and paper signing, we began our trial. The judge had to order all the reporters out of the courtroom, because she was going to be DAMNED if this turned into a media circus(that's a lie). Anyways, we were quite surprised when right out of the gate the solicitor started talking about 'terrorists' and 'living in a post-911 world'. . really driving the point home about the need for strict customs enforcement. We were hoping that this wasn't going to end up with us in the Australian version of Gitmo. He then spoke about the 'book', and showed the judge the paragraph in the Cruising Guide(see previous posts) that said that the information was 5 years old and that everyone should get the updates and not take anything in the book seriously. I obviously did NOT pay much attention to that warning prior to our entry into Australia. He also made a VERY big deal about pointing out that all the up to date information was on the customs website and that we ourselves had a website detailing our trip, so we were Internet savvy and should have been able to find this out ourselves. All of this I agreed with. He did however kind of omit a few things when describing our entry into Australia to make it seem to the judge that we were amazingly and grossly negligent assholes. Now I know that some of you are saying, "but you guys ARE amazingly and grossly negligent assholes", and some of you are right, but these guys hadn't known us long enough to truly come to that conclusion. We even noticed that the customs guy had a bunch of evidence bags (the big ones like on C.S.I.) that had our immigration cards and our original entry forms, as if somehow the whole thing was going to come down to DNA evidence.
The solicitor had advised us previously that it would be best to not speak in our own defense, but after some of the omissions, I thought that we needed to be heard. We had copies of all the documents that were given to the judge, and they were all spread out before us just like the solicitor had his. The judge asked if I had anything so say, and I stood up and said yes. I had been jotting down notes during the whole thing and tried to address some of the things that I thought were either left out or exaggerated. Pretty much I tried to show the judge that everything was a cascade down from the original bad judgment of believing the Cruising Guide(which I fully admitted to and said was a mistake). The judge was very friendly and was also very forgiving of my ignorance of the formalities and customs of Australian court. She asked some good questions, and even stopped the solicitor a few times when he started comparing us to other cases that really weren't the same. In the end, even though the maximum could have been around $13000, the prosecution asked for a $4000 fine plus about $1500 in court costs. The judge decided that the law did need to be enforced and that we were good people, so she fined us $2500 plus $900 in court costs. We were able to pay the fine on the way out and I think Matt even got R.E.I. points on his credit card. The solicitor and the customs guy wouldn't pose for a picture outside of the 'ourtHouse'(see pictures) even though Matt asked. After that, we had lunch, changed out of the life draining khakis and had a beer or five. So now, any boats that violate the 96 hour reporting law will have the case of "Customs vs. Sohcahtoa" referenced.
Anchor Drills
Tried to anchor 10 times or more this morning. When we awoke we felt a bit too close to the boat behind us. Also Customs called us on the radio and wanted to meet us at the marina to get our cruising permit. We had a bit of time and decided to re-anchor before going in. We got in a little better spot but it's crowded and the bottom is clay. Also its still blowing pretty good, 25 knots easy. Sent Jeff in solo to meet and do paperwork, while Casey and I watched the boat for any shenanigans. When all 3 of us were back we pulled up and went looking for a better spot. Since it's crowded there really aren't any. We went up and down the group here. Tried everywhere that we though we might fit. Even if we would have got a perfect set, some of these places were still a bit tight for comfort. And we drug everywhere we went. Even tried our old spot a few times with no luck. Finally got hooked up in a decent spot about 2 hours after we started. It would be nice if the wind would lighten up.
More progress...
Got the new mast wedge/seal poured today (Spartite). The old one was leaking. Jeff dug the old seal out about a week ago but it's been so windy lately (gail warning) and the mast has been moving around too much to pour the new one. It needs a few hours to set up and a few days before we can sail on it. Also forgot a few additions to the previous list of projects: The pedestal steering gear is rebuilt. The new solar panel has arrived, been hooked up, and makes power. Just need to mount it. Looks like the BBQ is getting preempted. When the rigging people came down last week, they pointed out that one of our lower spreader connections to the mast needs work. It's a double shear connection where the hole has worked larger. They have a wharf up in Port Douglas (60 miles N) where they can weld and re-drill to alleviate the problem. The Spartite will be set up by then and so they can tension our rig correctly as well. The shrouds have probably been too tight for a long time and may be why we broke one of the lower toggles in Tonga.
back on the hook
We had to leave the Marina yesterday. A few reasons. Customs kept stopping by to "say hi" every few days. It's full. It's expensive. We need to get a cruising permit Monday and fix the mast. Then we can head out and see some more of the country. Oh and the weather is blowing 25~30 and the seas are 6 foot out there. No hurry to get out in that.
Carins Update
So we're still in Cairns and have been doing lots of work to the boat. Spending money hand over fist too. I hope most of the major items are out of the way though. Here is a short list: New dinghy boards, sails repaired. new solar panel, rebuilt injector pump again, new belts, new high pressure water-maker hose, bad fuel pumped out, tanks cleaned and refilled, wind generator dissembled, mast seal/wedge (still in work), new bow light, re-bedded a few chain plates, radar at shop (still in work), oil in bilge pumped out. A bunch more little stuff. We haven't been seeing the sights in Cairns much with all this going on. But that's ok. Would like to get to the Croc Farm though.
Who are you?
Matt and I were talking yesterday about how we really have no idea who is reading our website and that it inspires us to take more pictures and write more logs when we know that people are reading it. It is also nice to get email from friends and family back home. So, with that in mind, we would like anyone that reads our website to send which ever one of us you know an email (if you want). If you don't know one of us, just pick one. Don't worry about bothering us, or if you feel like you don't know us very well. We don't have jobs, and seem to have time to respond to emails. I personally know that I have some friends that I haven't seen in an long time that are following our site and I have lost their emails. Feel free to include any comments or suggestions for our website, since it provides a great project for us to work on when we are underway. Go wild. Our emails are jeff@svsohcahtoa.com , matt@svsohcahtoa.com , and casey@svsohcahtoa.com.
Minor Celebrities
Yesterday Matt and I went to court for our customs violations. I'll post a big update later, but i just saw that our "issue" is on a sailing blog and people are making comments about us. I guess we have finally made it. Check out the link to Live Sail Die. I also just noticed that we are on the news.com.au website under "Breaking News". Here is a link. One funny thing about the court proceedings. The prosecuting solicitor(attorney) actually used our website as evidence against us. Teaches us for keeping this fucking thing up.
So Close.
I should tell you the story of how today I was up on deck and the neighbor across the dock points behind me and says, "Hey is that your engine?" It's belching black smoke. Turning off the key changes nothing.I almost get the air filter off in record time when it peters out with a nice backfire/flame out the filter. This is not good. I check the oil. There is oil. Way too much oil. It's clean but feels thin. This is a clue. I changed the oil a couple days ago and know how much should be in there. So how do you make oil in an old Diesel engine? You don't. You just add Diesel to what is in there already. How do you add Diesel to your oil? Number one way is for the seal at the front of the injector pump (which was just at the rebuilders) to leak into the engine sump. I call the mechanics who were working on it last week and Phil comes down and agrees, with a few swear words. So now the mechanics and the rebuilders get to figure out who gets to fix it for free and we're back to no engine. I went down to the Home Depot equivalent and bought a 240V to 12V charger and a long extension cord. It only gives up 10 amps, but over a whole day that's enough. Also someone reported the "smoke" and that the not-so-nice marina warden came down to investigate. "Yes it was my boat." "Yes there is a fair amount of oil/soot on the water." I played nice and dumb and said I didn't have any oil absorb pads to clean it up. "Well then we will clean it up for you right now, and you will incur the cost." I begged to be given the pads and do the work myself. They hardly worked, but i surrounded most of it. Not much oil, mostly soot, and it seems the pads are not only water proof but oil proof too. Anyways, I was off the hook. I'll bag it all up in the morning and hopefully they will forget all about me.
All is not lost.
We are right now tied up in our first marina since Marina Vallarta in Mexico. We had to have our injectors replaced and our injection pump rebuilt. And if that sounds familiar, that's because we had it done 3 weeks ago in Fiji. We have successfully proved that salt water does NOT burn and should NOT be used as a substitute for diesel in our engine. I'm not saying it won't work for other people, but read your owner's manual before trying it. I think that we are finally learning our lesson about fuel quality. Not yet sure if we have to go to court for our customs violation. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
On land in Australia
Our passage from Vanuatu was fast and uneventful, UNTIL our engine failed to start when we were about 3 days out from Cairns, Australia. We were just trying to charge up our low batteries and nothing. We took everything apart that we could, and nothing. We took more things apart than we should, and nothing. We even broke some parts trying to fix it, but still. . .nothing. So this left us with almost no battery power, another 200 miles to go and then the great barrier reef (big fucker. . .runs the whole coast [captain ron]) to navigate through to Cairns. We were in super silent no power mode for the rest of the run in so that we were guaranteed to have GPS and VHF (radio). We got to the entrance of Grafton passage about six in the evening and were well into the reef by the time it got dark. It is a tricky bit of navigation to get through the reef. There are coral heads all over the place, and about 15 different blinking navigation lights to decipher. We were close-hauled sailing our asses off in about 20 knots of wind. We successfully made it though and were outside the channel entrance to Cairns around midnight. The Harbor Control advised us to stand off until morning when we could get the Coast Guard to tow us in, so we floated around until 7am or so and then began the cluster fuck. There was still the 20 knots of wind with a pretty good wind wave and we wrangled and jostled around with the big yellow coast guard cutter until they could heave a line over to us and we got it attached to our burly anchor cleat. The channel to Cairns goes straight up a river delta, so is about 200 feet wide and 15 feet deep with mud on both sides. And the wind comes right down the middle, so we would have had to tack about a hundred times to get up there, if we could make any progress in the current. EVEN with those considerations it is still a bit of a blow to the pride of a sailor to be towed in by the Coast Guard when it is windy. "Hey. . why don't you use those big flappy sail thingys?" We were towed to an anchorage where the friendly customs Nazis showed up with 5 people and a drug sniffing dog. We had unknowingly violated Australian customs law by not notifying customs of our arrival 96 hours in advance. So in turn we won the full "crawl up your butt with a magnifying glass" customs treatment. This included a taped interview with two customs agents regarding why i was such a negligent ship's master. Our World Cruising Guide (fuck you very much Jimmy Cornell) said that we needed to give customs 3 hours notice (which we did). So after having all of our cupboards emptied and the dog run through all of our stuff, we had to explain that YES we could afford the boat and NO I don't have any business card to PROVE that I used to work at this obviously fictitious company "Cypress MicroSystems". We are currently under Customs Control and can't leave the Harbor. . .which is easy since we can't leave the anchorage due to the fact that we still have no engine. That and we have no battery power left, so in the evening, we have romantic candlelight to see by. All in all, we could be fined about $8000 Australian dollars if they chose to prosecute us AND all of our new Fijian injectors for our diesel are right now being rebuilt for the second time in a month. Actually, I am being a bit dramatic. We are all safe and are enjoying the food and beer of Cairns. I was here as a backpacker 5 years ago, so it is really cool to be familiar with a town.
An actual continent
We arrived in Cairns, Australia yesterday afternoon. The passage was our fastest to date but not one I'd like to repeat. Our engine quit on us a couple days before arriving. After our Fiji experience we're getting pretty adept at tearing the engine apart but despite our best efforts we couldn't revive her. So, for about 3 days we conserved battery power so we'd still have a radio to contact help in Australia. We ended up getting towed into Cairns by the coast guard and then harassed by Australian customs because we didn't give 4 days notice prior to our arrival even though our world cruising guide said the requirement was only 6 hours notice. They did let us into the country though and once we got in I had the best shower I've had in months. Lots of hot water and a clean stall without bugs. It was glorious. That was followed by an amazing cheeseburger, some cold beer and a full night's sleep. Now we're recharged and searching for a diesel mechanic to get power back to the Sohcahtoa.
Zing of the day
During my watch last night a booby landed on the boom right above the dodger (we're running with a poled out jib so the main is down). He stayed there during my entire watch so, when Jeff came up for his watch I asked if he could look at the wind-ex because I thought something was wrong with it. Jeff pokes his head up over the dodger and looks to the top of the mast for a good ten seconds before realizing there's a big-ass bird less than a foot from his face. At this point Jeff yells, "Oh shit!" and ducks back under the dodger and I say, "Ha ha, gotcha with the booby trap!". Sure, Jeff could have had an eye pecked out but when the opportunity for a prank/pun combo like that presents itself you have to be willing to throw caution to the wind. Especially when someone else's safety is at risk.
It's all relative
For the first few days of this passage I was living in a sleep deprived, anxious, scared, half zombie state that wasn't quite the picture of idyllic, peaceful sailing. The fact that we were consistently going faster than we had ever gone, and were periodically taking lots of water into the cockpit didn't help a whole bunch. Over the last 90 hours, we have averaged 7.1kts per hour. That means we have been clicking off 170 nautical mile (which are longer than normal miles) days. We have had some periods of 8.5 knots, which is really screaming for our sailboat. But, lets put that all into perspective. At 8.5 knots, we would handily LOSE a race with a pudgy 10 year old on his bicycle. At 8.5 knots, my old commute to work that took 15 minutes would take about 2.5 hours. If you ever were going 8.5 knots on the freeway, you would be ready to murder the guy whose piece of shit car had overheated in the fast lane. At night with a 5 foot wave ontop of a couple foot swell on the beam and not just the toerail, but some of the stantions buried, 8.5 knots feels to me like the stars should be shooting by as if we were the Enterprise doing warp speed. Anyways, we are making record time and we are more than half way across the Coral Sea. I think we have about 620nm to go in the 1400nm passage.
Smokin
We're about 3 days out of Vanuatu and having one of our fastest passages to date. With the help of the South Sub-Tropical Current we've averaged 7.2 knots so far. This is amazing when compared to the 5.5 knot average from our previous passages. The wind and waves have been on the beam which has made the ride a bit uncomfortable. I'm too excited about knocking out 170 mile days to complain too much about the sea state yet. The moon is nearly full tonight and hardly a cloud in the sky during my watch. This provided perfect conditions for making moon shadow puppets to sing along with music in the cockpit. I had a pretty decent rabbit doing Sleater-Kinney and a damn good dog singing Radiohead. Jeff thinks this may be an indicator of insanity. It certainly doesn't point toward maturity.
Back on the road
Back at it out enroute from Vanuatu to Australia. We've got reservations at a dock in Cairns, which will be our first since Mexico. We're making good time on a beam reach going 6.5 knots and up. Hopefully this will continue all the way. We usually budget for 100 mile days and seem to actually average 130. So this passage might end up being faster then normal. Then again I may have jinxed us by expressing these thoughts. Boats are funny that way. It'll be good to get to a continent and all the comforts that come with it. Back to stores where everything is available, though the prices will probably be higher. Vanuatu was a good stop but I think Fiji was a better place. Hard to tell with only 2 days there though. There we're a lot of cruisers and their boat that look like they have gotten stuck in Vanuatu. Maybe the other islands would have been different but it did kind of taint the atmosphere.
I'm alive
Ear is back in one piece and healing nicely. I think we all learned something important from this. Today's Sailing Quote: "Being on a boat is like being in jail, with the possibility of being drowned."
a bit more wind please
The wind has been easing up all day long and now we are making between 3.5 and 4 knots. We should be getting to Port Vila, Vanuatu by around 5 tomorrow evening. I am not sure if it is Thursday or Friday tomorrow, but hopefully we get there in time to clear customs. Today we caught a really nice Dorado that practically swam up to the boat and jumped in. Most likely it was due to the shark that was chasing it. Casey just made a new mp3 CD for the stereo, which is a big event out here. Even with 120 songs on a CD, you get to know them pretty well after listening to it straight for 3 days.
The scariest day yet
I'll start this out by saying that we are all okay and are making good time on our way to Vanuatu and then Australia. On the 28th we left Suva, Fiji bound for Vanuatu. It was really blowing and the seas were quite rough. About 12 hours out we were approaching a way point that marked where we could turn further West and head downwind. My watch was ending and Matt's was starting. I laid down and tried to get some rest, although the seas were pretty rough. About a half hour later I felt the main sail come across to the other side of the boat (called an accidental jibe). After a little bit I noticed that nothing was happening, which is weird because usually the guy on watch is frantically trying to get the main back over to the correct side. I popped my head up and I saw Matt laying with his head and chest out of the cockpit. I asked him if he was okay and got no response. I grabbed his leg and shook and still nothing. That is when I pulled his head back and saw his eyes closed and that he wasn't breathing. Oh FUCK! I yelled to Casey to get up and then hauled Matt backwards so that he was sitting on my lap. I didn't know if he had choked on something and needed to check his airway. Remember that the wind is gusting to 25 to 30 knots, the seas are 10-12 feet and we are floundering beam to getting the shit rocked out of us. I felt for a pulse, YES, that is good, he isn't dead. Then came some really weird attempted breathing sounds and then some huge gasps/snoring sounds. I had Casey grab a flashlight to assess what was going on and that is when we saw that Matt's right ear was more or less smashed in half. We quickly realized that he got hit by the boom and was knocked unconscious. Despite all of our efforts, Matt wasn't responsive(although he was breathing again) and we started wrestling him down the companionway and onto the port sea-berth. During the maneuvering, Matt started waking up and was somewhat helpful in getting himself situated, but had that glassy 1000 mile stare that meant that he wasn't really there yet. Fortunately he wasn't bleeding bad. Casey jumped on the helm and tried to steer us a course back to Suva and it's hospital, but with the wind and waves, it would have been a miserable day and a half. That left us on a dead run about 60 miles to the West coast of Fiji and the harbor of Nadi. We fired up the engine, kept the double-reefed main sail up (prevented this time) and started driving like hell. We have a top of the line first aid kit (suitcase really) and it had everything needed to get Matt quickly put together while we got things in order. A few big 6x6 bandages over the ear with a wrap around the head and Matt was no longer bleeding on my brand new pillow. I started checking his pulse and checking his respiration and seeing if his pupils would respond to a flashlight. Everything was looking okay. About this time Matt started getting up to look in the mirror in the bathroom and say, "My ear hurts." I would explain what happened and he seemed surprisingly okay with it. . .until he was in the bathroom 5 minutes later looking confused and saying "My ear hurts" and I would repeat the story. After about 2 hours(and 5 tellings), Matt came around and started remembering the story. We took this opportunity to clean his ear (which was cut from the outside almost down to the ear hole) with all kinds of stuff from the kit and try to put it back together with some Steri-Strips. With only a minimal amount of hair in the wound, I bandaged it back up and he went and laid back down. . .and for you nurses out there, we were waking him up every 30 minutes to make sure he was responsive. This happened at 5:30am and we didn't make it to the harbor until 5pm. We were able to get a cab to a hospital where a surgeon stitched his ear all up and then had him get about 10 head x- rays. Around 9pm Matt was cleared to go and we were back at the Marina having steaks and Gin and Tonics by 10pm, and 36 hours later we were headed out and back on our way to Vanuatu. All in all, this scared the shit out of me and has shaken some of my resolution. It is one thing to say "Yes, it is dangerous", and an entirely different thing to be directly faced with serious injury and possibly death. A few reflections on the whole thing. . .(1)We always rig a preventer, which keeps the main from doing this. Matt doesn't remember anything, but I am positive that he would have put one on. Lesson learned, put the preventer on before the course change. (2)It is really hard to move an unconscious person around a boat. Anyone planning an offshore passage should practice with their heaviest person. I don't know what Matt and Casey would have done with me (maybe just pitched me overboard). (3) At first we considered calling a May-Day, but realized that it would endanger all three of us in the seas we were in. If Matt's condition would have worsened, we would have done it for sure, but I'm glad that Casey and I considered the risks of doing so. For now, we continue on and should make it to Vanuatu in a few days. It has been nice and peaceful for the last two days (thank god) and we are making good time.
Movies for you.
I just finished the first round on the movie page (under the media menu item). I used the DivX Webplayer, so when you go to the page you should be prompted to install the plugin. Try it out and let me know what you think.
Dancing days are here again.
Mr. Matt gets credit for spearheading the successful repair of our injection pump. The engine is up and purring like a bucket full of kittens. Apparently it is working better than it has in quite sometime. This is good news, now we can get ready to head west to Vanuatu.
the injection pump blues
As it turns out, injection pumps don't like to have salt water in them. In fact, they seize up and become really complicated hunks of worthless metal. We got some water in our secondary fuel tank and when we switched over to it, we apparently sucked up a bunch. The engine started behaving pretty erratically and would die at idle, behaving like it was starved for fuel. We replaced all the fuel lines, replaced the filters and cleaned out the fuel/water separator. We primed the system (to remove air) god knows how many times and even put a squeeze bulb for a dingy motor on the fuel tank to pressurize the system, but the engine kept dying at idle. Which makes little things like anchoring in Fiji interesting, especially when you are maneuvering between other sailboats and big fishing vessels. The troubleshooting books all pointed to the injection pump and a friendly Fijian mechanic(Nelson) affirmed this when he took off the fuel intake, put his finger in it and said. ."heeey man, cheeeck out dis shit in 'ere. . .dis ting is totally fucked."(it isn't a Jamaican, but a thick New Zealand/Fijian that is tough to understand). A very accurate description of the status of the pump. So the pump went to a repair guy who confirmed the "shit in here/totally fucked" diagnosis. Luckily they had all the required parts, including a new solenoid, new injectors, and various bolts and washers. It is currently back on the boat being installed by Nelson and his helper. They seem to spend most of their time taking cigarette breaks and drinking our soda, but we think that labor is cheap. Hopefully it will get fixed today.
To the dry side and back
On Saturday we crewed for Tom and Katie on the Mariner IV from Suva to Nadi. We'd met them in Tonga. Two of the many nice people we met there. When they arrived in Suva I dinghied over to help with a broken laptop and was lamenting our broken boat situation when they offered us a ride to the other side of the island. Mariner IV is a very new Bennatau 57 with all the bells and whistles. With the chart plotter and autopilot it was like playing a video game than sailing. All the winches are electric too. I felt like a kid in his first car with power windows. This was my first overnight passage and Tom couldn't have done more to make me feel comfortable taking a watch on a boat that's worth several Sohcahtoas. I'd like to thank Tom and Katie for the great food, hospitality and experience. I hope they don't think of us as the three Johahs after a fuel line clogged and a water line broke during our 16 hours aboard.We were in Nadi just long enough to do a little shopping and grab some lunch. That was enough for me. The town is set up more for tourists and backpackers and prices seemed almost twice what they were in Suva. We had to be back today for or diesel parts so after lunch we found a mini-bus that would give us the 3 hour ride back for $15. It was an interesting trip back. We got to see the leeward side of the island which looks remarkably like Eastern Washington with rolling yellow grass hills and pine trees. Our driver suspected that we were scouts for Formula One and put together an impressive portfolio of high- speed, blind-corner, and uphill passing for us. This unfortunately drew his attention away from the stereo which continually played a 5- song CD of Fijians accompanied by a synthesizer circa 1983. The van itself had a broken shock that made the tire I was sitting over rub the wheel well with every bump or left turn, filling the van with the smell of burning rubber. Despite all odds we made it safely back to the yacht club where we gave local fisherman a bottle of our horrible Mexican rum for a ride back to the Sohcahtoa.
and now. . .an RSS feed
If you know what and RSS feed is, you might think that it is nifty. If you don't know what it is, you should just return to your business and pretend this never happened.
More pictures
I just put up 226 more pictures that cover Tahiti, Moorea, Bora-Bora, Rarotonga, Tonga, and the last few days of Fiji. I haven't yet put up all the descriptions, so feel free to make up your own.
Welcome to Fiji
We arrived in Suva Harbor yesterday morning after a 4-day passage from Tonga. The passage was relatively uneventful. Winds were variable but we did catch a tuna and a nice sized dorado. After arriving in the harbor yesterday, we scouting out a good location to drop the hook when our engine died so, we rolled the jib out, set the anchor and spent the rest of the day working on the engine. Our current hypothesis is that we have an air leak somewhere between the tank and the injectors. We've replaced nearly every hose and filter, polished our fuel with the baja filter, and cleaned nearly every fitting to no avail. We'll check into the country today and then hopefully track down someone with more knowledge of marine diesels than us. That's not asking a lot. We haven't checked in yet so we haven't set foot on the island. Hopefully the island is nice because the harbor is crap. I haven't seen this much garbage in the water since Mexico. The harbor also seems very exposed but that probably wouldn't concern me as much if our engine was running well. With any luck we'll find what we need to get the Sohcahtoa back in shape here in Suva and then be able to explore some of the other islands. Before I go, I'd like to say hi to and thank all the people we met and hung out with in Tonga. We had an amazing time there and it was mostly due to the fantastic company we had.
double eye jaw toggle
We broke one. If you don't know what I'm talking about look online at West Marine under rigging. It's the part that connects the chainplate with the turnbuckle on the lower end of the shroud. I guess we only broke half of it, so it was still taking load but not a good thing all the same. I don't think they are supposed to break. We saw it with a big crack through one half while in Tonga. We were going to sail to Fiji with it, but with some great help from Jack on Idle Time, we now have a homebuilt stand-in for the trip to Fiji where we will try and have one flown in from NZ. remember kids, carry spares. Spares for everything. Even the stuff that you think won't ever break. We'll probably end up replacing all of our toggles (8) in Aus. Now if we can just find the air leak in our fuel system...
Tonga is a hell of a drug.
We are about a day and a half from Fiji and i thought it would be a good time to catch up on our fun in Tonga. We have lots of drink link pictures to post and i think we are just about caught up with everyone. So, let's see. . .what about Tonga? Well, we met a bunch of really great people and ran into a bunch of old friends. The bar "Tonga Bob's" was by far the coolest place in Neiafu (the capital of the Vava'u Islands of Tonga). It is perhaps the only Mexican restaurant in the whole of the South Pacific. It is owned by Joe and Jessica from California are they make a great atmosphere with amazing food. They have taught their employees how to hand roll tortillas and they go through something like 400 a day. We sold 14 liters of Tequila to Joe for a profit on our side and a hell of a deal on Joe's side. It is really hard for him to get tequila in Tonga, so he is always happy to buy it from cruisers. We also traded him a carton of Marlboro cigarettes for 3 cases of soda and a case of beer. . .what would have cost us about $60 at the store. We bought the cartons in Mexico for trading for $20 a carton, so again, everyone was happy with the trade. We had two outstanding dives with "Dolphin Pacific Dive Center" run by Al and Zoe from England. They were super friendly and a bunch of fun. The dives themselves had the most colorful coral we have seen so far and also had big caves to swim into and some to swim through. The weather was crap when we were out, but it was still good. After about 4 months of looking, we finally found the movie "Predator". We also hooked up with Neal and Meagan (formerly from Minnesota) that ran the "Movies at Paradise" at the Paradise Hotel. They have a full on movie theater in this hotel and let us come in and watch Arnold kick the dogshit out of the big ugly alien. . .it was awesome. We had fun with our friends George and Tom on Shambala, as well as BW, Demerrit and Clair from Bingo. We drank Kava twice, which is a sedative made of some plant root. It is served from a big wood bowl and you sit in a circle with a bunch of dudes and drink about 20 cups. It kind of detaches your head from your feet and it makes you sleep for about a half a day. It is what all the locals drink every Sunday after church. All in all, the weather was kind of crappy while we were there and we saw the sun for about 5 days. We spent two nights anchored at one of the coolest places that we have been so far, called Nuku Island. This island was about 200 meters by 50 meters and one end was a beautiful white sand beach that Tom and BW were kite- boarding off. On our last night before Shambala took off south, we had a big beach fire. We tried a few times to find lobster, but to no avail. The locals will not give up their special lobster spots, so it is kind of hit and miss for tourists. If anyone wants to go, there is a large Moorings yacht charter base there where you can rent a furnished boat for a week or two. After the beating that we took getting from Rarotonga to Tonga, flying in for two weeks and then dropping the boat off for someone else to deal with looks like a pretty good deal to me.
Goodbye Tonga
Just leaving Tonga right now. We had a few things break/not work that forced us to hang out another day and fix them. A piece of the rigging had a big crack in it. Also our engine had air getting into the fuel lines so it would only run for a minute or so before dying. Not a good thing when trying to drive around between little rocky islands. But all normal cruising adventures. Off to Fiji now.
Mariner's Cave
Wake up to a knock on the hull and it's coffee from Ecuador with Tom and George from Shambala. A few hours of bs and lunch and we're invited for an afternoon sail. Sail to find Mariners Cave on Shambala with Tom, George, Nick, John and Nicky. The directions to this natural jewel were passed on to us from the local dive guides like folklore practically. "600 meters past the end of the such and such island and look for the scratched rock above the 4 caves." Just to the left was supposed to be our target, Mariners Cave. The sun was perfect in the afternoon, lighting the entire rock face and the underwater features in the clear water. We could make out a dark area where the rumored cave should be, but was it going to be it? Tom jumps in with fins and snorkel gear to check it out. After a bit of waiting for him to swim over to the dark hole he dove and didn't return for a fair amount of time. Far longer than we thought his breath could take him. Either he had found the cave, was dead, or had been eaten by a shark (Nicky). He returned to our sight and gave a thumbs up. This was the spot! While Nick maneuvered the boat around the shear rock face we donned our snorkel gear and jumped off the stern. A short swim later we were faced with the same hole that Tom had scouted. I was there late and so Tom, Casey, John and Jeff had already gone in. Just George and I still outside. They must be alive inside, right? But now I've got to do it, it'd be nice to be sure. So now, how deep and how far? Alright, dive straight down and see what I can see. Ok, I see rock about a meter down and fins further on past in kicking. The entire tunnel is 15 feet wide and more than that deep. Obviously doable and done, but not by me yet, and the distances underwater can be deceving. Also we were told to take advantage of the surge so as to use it and not to fight it. The key to this was to watch the plants growing around the entrance to the tunnel and get the timing in sync with the inflow of water. So a bunch of heavy breaths with a keen eye on the plants and when I think I've figured out when the time was right I go for it. Head down, got to get the fins underwater so they can do some good. Ears popping and mask getting pressed hard against my face. It's been done, so I have to make it, is what's going through my head. Kick, kick, kick, other fins are getting closer. Looking up I can see the surface ahead is rising and no longer rock but the shimmering transition to my saving air. Go a little farther to make sure not to crack my head on a low hanging rock and I come up into a cavern full of important air and friends surely looking far too scared than I should. It's mostly round, and like a dome about 35 feet in diameter but the weirdest part is yet to come. It's airtight. Or as airtight as it needs to be. Every time the surge goes in and out of the submerged tunnel that let us all in, my ears feel the change. And it's very noticeable, I need to keep clearing my ears by pinching my nose and blowing. But still not as noticeable as my mask fogging up right afterward though. So I remove it, but there is no change, it's still foggy. What the hell? Then it's gone. Strange, back to a clear view. Join in with a round of "This is fucking great" with everyone else and my vision clouds up again. It's the pressure change as the swell exits the cavern, making the tiniest short-lived cloud for just our pleasure. Incredible. Every time the surge goes out, the visibility goes to less that 15 feet and almost instantly. Nothing like it ever in my life. Amazing. Then it's gone again just as fast. Possibly the most amazing natural wonder I've ever witnessed in my life. I never would have imagined this would be the result of my first underwater cave swim. I don't imagine I will ever forget it even if I try.
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