BLUE WATER RALLY - FIJI - VUDA POINT MARINA

Anahi
Tue 15 Jul 2008 03:31

17.40S 177.23E  Friday 11th July saw us gently motoring away from Musket Cove towards Vuda Point Marina – with Peter from Moonshadow on board who was coming to check the place out for himself with a view to leaving his yacht here when he returns to the UK.  Once again we had a bit of misinformation about the weather, forecast to be ‘rough to very rough’, we were gritting our teeth for a short tough passage………but……..the sun shone, the seas were calm and we had a little wind to help us on our way!

 

 

Arrival at Vuda Point Marina….. well flagged channel through the reef

 

I had an image in my mind that Vuda Point would be very industrial and that the ‘yard’ where we were being pulled out would be similar to the concrete, smelly, enclosed experience we had had in Spain when we did our last antifouling exercise.  Remember, we lived on the boat and worked on her for three weeks in the 40 degree heat?  The Marina entrance here – a pass through the reef - has obviously been dynamited to make a straight, deep channel, well flagged on each side and, once through, you enter a protected, circular basin  choc a block with yachts mainly from New Zealand and Australia, stern or bow to the edge.  The surrounding area has been beautifully landscaped and is squeaky clean with bird filled trees, grassy banks, flower beds and families of mongooses (or is it mongeese? – I know my uncle Michael will correct me!)

 

The super efficient travel lift, fuel dock, chandlers, mini supermarket, snack shack with free wifi and restaurant on wooden stilts all overlook the goings on.  The ‘yard’ is in fact every spare square of space not covered by water – so once hoisted out all yachts are literally blocked up around the round ‘basin’ area amidst the laid up boats which have their keels lowered into deep pits to protect them from hurricanes.

 

 

Vuda Point Marina ‘basin’ with a waiting yacht on the yellow buoy and Heidenskip already out on the hard

 

Within minutes of coming onto the ‘hard’ (a diver goes under every vessel to make sure the strops are in the correct place before being lifted) each boat is pressure washed, blocked up and a team of up to ten men begin sanding, then antifouling, masking up and painting the stripes before polishing top sides……..when I think back to the struggle we had last time (albeit we were removing years and years of antifouling plus effecting a total re-spray), the horrid conditions in which we were doing it, and the time it took, I have to laugh…….. the basic procedure here takes a day!

 

 

 

Anahi on the fuel dock while waiting for the travel lift….

 

There is a resort bang next to the Marina where most of the BWR Rally participants are booked in but as we are in such superb, and pretty conditions already we decided to stay on board once again.  There are showers and loos dotted around nearby, we have holding tanks for emergencies, and it saves the stress of wondering what to pack. This is the most efficient yard Paul has ever seen – team spirit at its best with happy teams of Fijian men singing and joking as they work.  

 

Thirteen thousand miles, and time to reflect on all the good times……the incredible generosity, the camaraderie, the help and the friendships…….. the tricky times……bad weather, illness, accidents and good byes……….and the gossip, bound to do the rounds in the close village like proximity in which we live………the dirty diesel left ‘generously’ to the islanders, the canapé plates at cocktail parties quickly scooped empty to provide a free dinner, the continuous acceptance of invitations to other yacht’s on board ‘drinks and snacks or dinner parties’ with no return hospitality, the accusations of queue jumping into resorts, marinas and travel lifts, the moaners and the groaners, drunken revelry, tempers lost and bad language…..all the traits of human nature are here under the BWR magnifying glass……

 

Our half way ‘job list’ is daunting but the support here in Vuda Point is fantastic with sail makers (our main has already been collected and will be returned in two days), refrigeration experts (coming today) and marine engineers all on hand to help. We have replaced all our sacrificial anodes (zinc blocks attached to the boat and designed to corrode as they form the weakest metal in the chain - so electrolysis attacks them instead of other vital parts of the boat such as the propeller and shaft).

 

 

 

Sacrificial anode, doing its job as it is nearly fully corroded  

 

We had a massive clear up and clear out, giving the boys working on the boat bags and bags of domestic things including clothes, bedding and tinned food that we haven’t used in a year……we figure if we haven’t used it yet we probably never will……  we have cleaned and cleared out the back lockers, hosed and scrubbed the decks and sterilised both bathrooms and fridges, greased the prop and altered its pitch as we’re sure this is the reason for the engine being underpowered and hence the overheating problem we had when we revved up to maximum to get through the passes.  All the external sea cocks were blocked with barnacles, which has caused problems with water intake to the generator and expelling loo waste at sea. We have greased the jib furling gear and anchor windlass, refitted the repaired stainless steel exhaust pipe, threaded through a new mainsail furling line as the other was chaffed, lugged all our washing to the laundrette and today we will re-align the anchor chain which is twisted, effect the generator and main engine oil and filter changes and replace the filter in the ‘seagull drinking water purifying filter’ which has been one of the must haves of the whole trip…….

 

 

Barnacles growing inside the sea cocks and blocking the system

 

 

Barnacles blocking the water intake for the generator

 

Then, right at the end of the day, tired and weary, we were putting our cabin back together when we ponged a pong and realised we had forgotten to empty the holding tank (under our bed) before being lifted out and it had overflowed………yuck!  Full up, it had bulged and swollen in the heat and leaked badly through the breather pipe.  So imagine the scene – pitch dark, me outside the boat with a large bucket under the outlet whilst Paul pressed the machinater/expel button – except he had positioned me under the wrong hole….. I suspect it would be like standing under a urinating elephant!  And then numerous fill ups and trundles around to the loos to offload 40 gallons of waste before the BIG clean up inside, not to mention me………..

 

Bennett has decided to leave Anahi and join Happy Wanderer and I am sure they will make a great team…….Our son Vic and his girlfriend Clara join us in Darwin, Australia and may sail back to the Mediterranean with us…….. a few thousand miles before that - so I had better learn to sail…………..