To New Zealand that is.  Yup, it’s about that time.  The seasons are changing and the weather between here and NZ is changing from a winter (down here) of constant storms spawning from Australia across north of NZ.   Now as we move into the southern hemisphere’s Spring, there is a high pressure zone filling in that is pushing the storms south of New Zealand, leaving better weather between here and there.  We would go right now but there’s a low just north of us that’s floating around between Fiji and Vanuatu. These lows in the warm climate of the tropics have a way of picking up steam and turning into tropical storms.  It’s what we call “no bueno”.

So, we wait and work and enjoy all the other cruisers who are doing the same thing.

In the meantime, it’s boat work time to get everything ready for the 1000 plus mile passage.

I spent the better part of the day down in "the hole" (better known as the lazarette) on the left..

Project number one was under the cockpit in the lazarette.  The steering has been making some funny noises.  I spent over three hours down there and not sure I fixed the noise.  But the time was very well spent as many of the bolts holding the steering gear together were loose.  We’ve had some very tough, long ocean miles and I haven’t gone over them since leaving the US.  Time definitely well spent.  The lesson:  boats talk to you.  Some of the creaks are just happy noises, but some say “fix me”.  Always assume the latter until you’ve checked.

Yesterday Ann got the sewing machine out and sewed some more reinforcing patches on the stays’l that got so beat up in the passage north earlier this year.  The stays’l is our “go to” sail (along with a second or third reef in the main) in winds over 30 knots, so we want to make sure it won’t blow apart when we need it most.

And today while trapped down below because of my mess in the cockpit she made a new batch of ginger beer and a double batch of hummus. Stocking up for the jump!

We’re probably leaving this nice spot at Musket Cove in the next day or so to go over to Saweni Bay just south of Lautoka.  It’s going to get windy later this week-probably at least in the high twenties, maybe more and I would rather be in the better shelter of the bay and on our anchor than here on a mooring.  You never know what condition the mooring is under the water and it’s over 50 feet deep here, so we can’t dive it to see.

Anyway, that also puts us very close to Lautoka where we check out of the country.  So when a weather window comes available we can jump on it.

And to end our day we will join our friends at the BBQ and celebrate our six month anniversary! (Newlyweds get to count monthly for the first year!)

Not much to talk about today.

It was windy. White caps in the anchorage with the threat of rain all day. We pretty much just hung around due to weather.

Ann did boat projects, I took the dinghy in to get some food (we’re pretty much out of fresh stuff) and we read books.

I made Bok Choy and eggplant over rice. We’re getting pretty good at the vegetarian dishes since most of the meat out here looks pretty marginal. We’ll do some fishing on the next leg and see if we can add some protein to our meal plan.

The wind should subside in a day or so and then we’re likely to head out to another island about 20 miles north of here for a while before starting to prepare for the trip back to NZ.

Today…It’s been two years that we have been gone.

Seems amazing and per the cliche it seems like forever and yet it also seems like only yesterday.

Just for the heck of it, or for the two years of it, we decided we would do a retrospective of “Bob and Ann” over the last two years.

So, with full apologies that this post is simply “about us”, here are Bob and Ann over the last two years:

The Baja HaHa. Here we are on the hill above Bahia Santa Maria.

Ahhh. Dock Three, La Paz. A magical place where we made many lasting friendships (and had not a few Charismas at sunset).

Fast forward to April, 2012 and The Crossing. Here we are leaving Mexico, heading to the Marquesas (23 days later).

Daniel's Bay, Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas. Tattoos now commemorate the voyage.

Into the Society Islands (Moorea, Tahitii). How much better can life get? (A lot we found-as you go west, it just gets better).

By the time we got to Bora Bora we found out it's all about the friends you meet along the way. We have been blessed to have sooo many great friends that we've met and shared adventures with.

Aitutaki (in the Cook Islands). A little island where we ran aground going in and out, but had a great time while we were there.

Rarotonga (once you've been here you can call it "Raro"), in the Cook Islands. We perfected our Med Mooring here (well, as much as you can call it "perfected")

Nuie. The biggest little island kingdom. One island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that was its own kingdom.

Tonga. Wonderful people, beautiful islands.

Drinking a toast after 'surviving' the passage (and storm) from Tonga to New Zealand.

We eloped in New Zealand. What a wonderful wedding with great friends in a fantastic location. Just magical.

At first, after a tough passage up to Fiji we thought this was going to be a tough year. Were we ever wrong. Here enjoying some sunshine in Vianni Bay (Summer 2013).

This whole season has been about amazing adventures such as here in Nagelelevu (which I can only spell with my eyes closed).

If you've been following this blog, you'll know we were "adopted" at Nairai (shown here in September, 2013).

...and this morning in Musket Cove on Malolo Island, exactly two years after leaving Berkeley, California, USA

So, have we changed from two years at sea in the South Pacific.  I can say that “inside” we’ve changed a lot.  The people we’ve met-cruisers and locals alike-have made a huge impression on us.  Seeing how simply yet happily people live “out here” has made us very optimistic. Seeing how little people can live with and yet be exceedingly satisfied gives us happiness for today and hope for the future.

The oddest thing happened today.  Ann and I were on our stand-up paddleboards coming back from a little sandy atoll about 3/4 mile away from Charisma, when all of a sudden both of us at the same time fell off our boards.  It felt like someone just grabbed my board and pulled it back.  We were separated by a good 30 meters, so it couldn’t have been a wave.  That would have taken at least 10 seconds to get from me to Ann so we wouldn’t have fallen at exactly the same time.  Also, neither of us has fallen in the six months we have had the boards.  I was suspicious of an earthquake and when we got back to Charisma I checked online.  Yup, 4.2 in Fiji right at the time we fell.

Sitting out by the atoll just before the quake.

Waterquake.  That’s a new one for us.

Pretty lazy days here.  Today we had a couple hours of paddleboarding including landing on a small sand “island” that only shows up at low tide.  I of course claimed it for Charisma!  We named it “Almost Island”.  It shows up twice per day.

Paddleboarding over the reef.

Claiming "Almost Island" for the good yacht Charisma.

Visiting our neighbors Bob and Linda on Bright Angel.

Not exactly a tough day.  It’s going to rain later today, so other tough chores include maybe taking a nap or reading a book, then tonight a bbq on shore.  One of the nice perks of staying here is they fire up a couple bbq’s each night and you just bring in whatever you want to cook or buy something at the little store and throw it on the grill.  Tonight we’re going to do grilled polenta with eggplant and maybe some melted cheese.  Most of the other boats anchored near us come in as well, so it’s a nice party.  Even though we enjoyed the solitude of the “other” side of Fiji (i.e. the east side) more, this is a nice way of winding down the season.

We have about two or three more weeks to cruise around this (west) side and then we need to start watching for a “weather window” to head back.  After two “boisterous” trips to New Zealand and back, we’re hoping for a nice, gentle voyage this time.  But it’s about 1,000 miles and at least 9 days, so hard to predict the weather over that whole period.  You watch, leave and cross fingers.  Ah, but that’s for another day.  For now-onto my nap!

Ann and I have been sick with colds we caught in Suva.  But the good news is they are finally starting to get better, so today we went for a hike around Malolo Lailai Island (where Musket Cove is) with our good friends Chris and Rani from Ladybug who just pulled in yesterday.

Great to see Chris and Rani again!

The island is called Malolo Leilei.

It was a lovely day, nothing but blue sky.  We ended up walking around the whole island as well as up to the two (small) peaks.  Took about three hours and I don’t think any of us stopped talking the whole way.  We haven’t seen each other for a couple months and had a lot of catching up to do.

Tidepooling on the windward side.

Tonight, we’ll meet up with a bunch of other friends as well at the nightly BBQ.  The Musket Cove Marina lights up their BBQs and everyone brings something to throw on.  Good times.

We’re looking to stay here through the weekend to let our colds get better, wait out some weather that’s coming this way and most importantly meet up with Bright Angel who should be in soon.

So, some boat projects, more walks and some sitting on the beach.  Easy days.

Wow, talk about your culture shock.

We’ve gone from being on islands for the last four months where we “might” see another boat or two, to here, where we’re tucked into moorings with about 30 other boats!

Musket Cove. We haven't seen this kind of developed area all season.

The good news is we’re catching up with some old friends (Eagles’s Wings, Light Speed, and based on a radio chat this morning, Bright Angel, Kahia, Ladybug and maybe GatoGo who we haven’t seen since June).

This really is a fun place. Lots to do and this evening, we went in to the beach with the dinghy for a BBQ. Fun! And the staff here couldn’t be nicer or more accommodating. More on that in future posts.

The sail down here was in 20 plus knots and 2 meter seas. As we passed through the reef into this area known as the Manamucas, we metaphysically also passed from the “untamed” side of Fiji (on the eastern side) to the
Resort side where we are now. We’re seeing motorboats, airplanes, helicopters…not in huge abundance like on a weekend in SF Bay, but compared to the previous months of isolation, it’s, well, different.

It’s also almost October. Wow, how the time has flown by! Seems like only yesterday I was swearing at the bad luck to have gotten contaminated fuel in the storm coming north from NZ. Besides being the month (October) for that good German Brew, it’s also time to begin planning our voyage back out of the tropics to New Zealand. Cyclone season starts here in December and to keep our insurance company happy (as well as for our personal safety) we have to go south of 30 degrees south, which for our purposes is Enzed.

So-we have about two more weeks or so of exploring here and then we’ll need to resupply and start watching for a weather window that gives us favorable winds and seas for the 1000 mile voyage back to Kiwi Land. After the last two very rough, tough ones, we’re hoping to get a break this time (knock on wood!)

As we say here in Fiji-“Stay Tuned”. 😉

P.S. to my good friend JHam: love the idea about storming the beach with our newly developed explosive devices. Two problems keep us from doing that at this point. One, these devices now further evolved and perfected, taste too good to lob over the wall in support of an invasion and Two, the folks who work here are just waaay to darn nice! Call us sissies, but we’re going to “Make Charismas, not war!”

Yep, that was the end of our day. We had some wonderful music going in the cabin after dinner (I think it was Etta James) and a candle. What else do we need? We even managed a couple swing moves in Charisma’s very limited interior!

A nice end to a very pleasant day.

Earlier in the day, we went in to Likuri Island, AKA Robinson Crusoe Resort, and explored a little. Little being the operative word since we walked the perimeter of the island at low tide in about 25 minutes!

Likuri Island in the background.

We stayed for the lovo baked lunch (fish, ham, chicken, kokoda, rice and pasta) and were pleasantly surprised by the hula dancing entertainment. Back to Charisma in the afternoon for a nap (we both still are recuperating from colds caught in Suva) and then the best part of the day (well, best part other than dancing with my Sweetie!), a Charisma while watching yet another wondrous sunset.

Mañana we head for Musket Cove (weather permitting). For now, it’s a peaceful night and time for some star gazing.

James Brown use to be billed as “The Hardest Working Man In Show Business”, and he did break a sweat, but the folks here at the Robinsone Crusoe Resort did that and then some tonight.

We had another 40 mile plus day today. Another 7 hours at the helm because we stayed so close to the coastal reefs I didn’t want to use the wind vane. It’s accurate on long distances-amazingly so-but in the short run, it can wander. Anyway, we left Vananui at 0800. Put up the main sail inside and sailed out the reef in about 15 knots. It was a gorgeous “blue water” kind of day, but the wind kept building. Around 1100 I put in the first reef and sometime after lunch, it was getting too hard to hold our course so I put in the second reef. We were still doing 7 knots by this time with the second reef. As we closed with the southern most tip of the island, I didn’t want to gybe, so we furled the jib and went DDW (direct down wind) and even a bit by the lee and were still hitting sevens with 6-8 foot waves about 1/2 mile off the barrier reef. Pretty exciting sailing! I even had Ann put the companionway boards in as I was concerned one of the waves might break down into the hatch.

Finally we got around the point and were able to ease up a bit toward Likuri Island. But, there’s not a lot of protection and at the entrance to the pass we still had some sizable waves making taking the sail down a bit of a chore. All managed though and through the pass in the reef, although we had a few anxious moments trying to determine the correct course to take. It was fairly cloudy and we couldn’t see the inner reef until we were almost upon it.

Finally inside, dropped the hook in 20 feet over sand. Thanks for that; it grabbed hard and is set well while we’re sitting in mid twenty knot wind a couple hundred yards in the lee of the island. Windy, but at least flat water.

So, the show…it turned out to be great. Lovo cooked dinner (delicious) and an hour long Fijian dancing show for only $25 Fijian (about $12 US). There were about 6 woman and 8 men and they really worked up a sweat. It ended with an amazing fire dance where each performer had a turn twirling batons with the ends lit and several also did “fire-breathing”. Spectacular! They even had a guy stationed at the side of the “stage” (really it was just in the sand in front of the tables) with a fire extinguisher!

...just in case...

Hula and fire. Don't try this at home.

A nice show...

These guys really worked it.

We have now seen the hardest working Fijians in show business. It was a great show.

We’ll go ashore tomorrow to see what else there is to see, then in a day or so head to Musket Cove, a very famous gathering spot on the western side of Fiji (you’ll have to Google it, I’m too tired to write more for now).

It was 0630, I was just settling in with my morning cup of coffee when-blabooom! YIKES, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!

Ginger beer in a screw top wine bottle. We put it upside down in the sink. When it blew, the bottle hit the ceiling and came back down in the other sink. Tasty ginger beer everywhere within 12 foot radius.

I guess, those screw tops aren’t made to take much pressure. 😉

This was the bottle we added more yeast to last night as a test, since they were not carbonating as much as we hoped. Hmmm. Test successful, sort of.

We have now gone from a batch that tastes good but is a little flat to a batch that may be possible to use as a defense against maurading cannibals, if we can perfect the fuse mechanism. I think we’re making progress.