Splash

Caramor - sailing around the world
Franco Ferrero / Kath Mcnulty
Sun 21 Jul 2019 09:00
As usual after a long passage it takes several days to recover. My current problem is that no matter what time I go to bed I wake up after six hours!



The end of our crossing, dawn over Vanua Levu, Fiji

Day one was dealing with officialdom and tidying up. Washing salt encrusted fittings, putting sails and ropes way.


Our Code Zero

Day 2 Kath spent the day trying to trace the cause of a strange electrical fault, and I spent most of the day clearing up a diesel leak from a jerry can into the main locker. I had made a rule that all fuel cans had to live in a locker we have that drains into the cockpit. Given the forecast for very light winds I decided to put a couple extra in the main locker. Never again!

Day 3 and Kath traced the fault to a corroded terminal on a circuit breaker. We also found that the switch we had replaced at sea was also faulty, but were able to buy a good quality NZ made one at the local chandlery. Meanwhile I did all those time consuming wee jobs that need doing like refuelling, rowing ashore to buy switches and so on.



The moorings at Savu Savu

Why 'Splash' you are asking yourselves. Well, when we first arrived I said to Kath: "Lovely place but I'm not swimming in the river. You could catch something nasty in that!" So on day 2 I was unable to clear a blocked cockpit drain from the inside and had to get in the water to try and clear it from the outside. That's ok ... needs must. On day 3 however I completely lost the plot. Distracted by something else going wrong I wrapped Arnie's (our dinghy's) painter around a guard rail and dashed off to deal with it. Next thing I know Arnie is making a dash for freedom and rather than lose him I dived in after him.

Later in the day I was bringing the aforementioned switch to Kath when she pointed out that Arnie was floating off down river. I had simply stepped off him onto Caramor and forgotten to tie him up! There was almost no wind and he was drifting slowly so I dived in after him. I was catching him up when unfortunately the wind picked up and the dinghy was winning. By this time we were about 400m downstream of Caramor and floating past the marina office.

Luckily Kath had realised that Arnie was winning and had radioed the marina. Sitti, the bosun/launch operator/handyman and general good fellow came out in his boat and towed me and Arnie back to Caramor and a highly amused Kath. Of course I bought him a beer. Amazingly none of the other yachties seems to have been around to witness my embarrassing moment ... and you aren't going to tell anyone are you?