BLUE WATER RALLY - FIJI - VUDA POINT MARINA
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 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 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. 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 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………….. |