SavuSavu and Pictures of Minerva
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sat 26 May 2012 11:23
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It's been almost 2 weeks since we arrived and the time has
just flown by. The Rally as such ended on Tuesday with a farewell dinner and
boats have started leaving to go there own way. Unfortunately the weather is not
playing ball. Fiji is in the SE tradewind belt, but it is also affected by the
highs and lows that come off Australia and dominate the weather of New
Zealand. For the last week one of these big high pressure systems has
been sitting well to the south west of Fiji and reinforcing the SE
tradewinds to be 20-25kts, gusting a lot more. Having been blowing for
days, there's a big sea to go with it. Not so bad if you want to head south
west to the main Fiji island and Islands to the west of it, but most
yachts come here to visit the more remote anchorages and traditional
villages of the eastern islands of Fiji, so we all want to go east, at
least for a bit. Not so good when the wind and seas are from the
SE! A couple of boats have made it round the corner and headed 40 miles or
so up the coast. Quite a few have made it 4 miles to anchor off the
John-Michel Cousteau Resort (a dive resort operated by the Son of Jacques
Cousteau) which is still sheltered from the winds and most are still on the
moorings at Savusavu, including ourselves. However, we had planned to leave on
Friday for the Cousteau resort for the good snorkelling there - it would be good
to just be able to jump off the back of the boat again, but a bizarre accident
caused us to delay. Walking out of the marina (there's only 7 berths, but
lots of moorings) a waist-high shop sign got blown over in the strong wind
just as I was within range and it took several lumps out of my right shin. It's
very easy to get infections in this climate and especially if going in the
water, so there's no swimming for me until it's healed. We also
thought we ought to give it a few days to check that it was healing before
leaving here.
With all the wind, there's also been a lot of tropical
downpours. It's warm rain, so not that much of a problem if you get wet, but
it's difficult to get things dry. All the gear that we had on deck for
the passage up, including storm sails, ropes etc has had to be washed to get rid
of the salt, but it can't be stowed below until dry. Since arriving
we've found out that the locals call Savusavu, Soggysoggy! Rain, it would
appear, is not uncommon, even in the dry season, which it now is. The
hills/mountains around are covered in lush tropical vegetation - it's all
so green and now we know why! The islands to the west, the more traditional
tourist areas, are suppose to be a lot drier. We hope they are
right.
Some pictures of Savusavu will be in the next blog
update, but first a few of North Minerva Reef.
 Aurora B, the black boat top right, anchored
in North Minerva Reef, as seen on our chart plotter. The
red anchor is a waypoint we added as when you zoom
out the chart shows no reef at all and it would
not be difficult to sail right into it. The red
anchor that we added is always shown regardless of
zoom
and reminds us that it's there. We're anchored in
about 55ft of water (we use feet for depths, not
metres).
 Another boat anchored near by, with the reef
uncovered behind it. At this state of tide, the reef gives
very good protection from the ocean waves and
swell. At high tide the reef covers. It still gives
good
protection, but there's quite a bit more
swell that comes in.
 Looking to the east - there's no land mass beyond
the reef until you get to South America - only about
6,000 miles away!
 Leaving the reef, approaching the pass. The tide's
up and the wind and seas are down, so the
water is a lot flatter. You can just see the
white water to the left and right and of the pass with
another
yacht going through ahead of
us.
 The pass close up as we go out - breaking seas to
the right (and to the left, but not in view) with the
pass
on the left.
 Having left Minerva the sun shone, the wind
was good and it was great sailing.
 Having waited for 4 days in Minerva, we made good
speed towards Fiji and Savusavu.
 At the end of the day the puffy white
fair-weather clouds start to turn pink and then black as the sun goes
down. At this time of day it's very easy
to see all kinds of shapes in the clouds, but it's strange how
many
times they seem
to show a witch on a broomstick
and there's nearly always a dragon or two there too.
 My black sailing shoes - covered in salt
from the trip to Minerva. Much of the boat was the same
colour!
Since arriving back in the tropics it's back to
bare feet again, so once cleaned off they will be stowed
below until we head for cooler climes once
again.
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