3months and 3000NM Later

Mustang Sally Cruising
Mark Lawrence & Dianne Jackson
Thu 7 Jul 2016 01:45

Hi all

 

As per the subject 3months and 3,000NM later we arrived in Fiji.

Current position at Vuda Point is 17:40.883S 177:23.165E

 

The passage proved to be a pretty quick one and we managed to complete the 758NM  voyage in just over 5 days (6kt average speed) which meant we arrived at Vuda Point Marina early enough to clear customs and the other formalities on the same day.   We only had to motor for 5 hours for the entire trip and 4 of those where inside the lagoon at Viti Levu (Fiji).  The wind generator was also named as crew member for the passage producing on average 3amps / hour – very impressive. 

 

We have received a few comments that it looked like we were heading to Tonga for the first few days however, we always planned to head East and even a little South of East for the first two days while we had South West and Southerly breezes, round Hunter Island to Port and then start heading North as the wind moved back into typical South East Trades.  While this substantially increased the distance travelled it meant that we were never headed by the wind and as Sally likes reaching were able to make good time and really didn’t pay any penalty for the longer passage.

 

Again we used Roger (Clouds) Badham for weather routing on this passage, as it can be quite tricky, and the forecast provided was freakishly accurate down to the hour…. 

 

Upon our arrival at the clearance dock we were greeted by the Vuda Point staff with the welcome song and then after the clearance formalities moved to our berth which is along the lines of Mediterranean style berth.  After much toing and froing and many lines deployed they have us trussed up like a stuffed chook so going to take a while to sort it out when we head out for our first trip into the islands.

 

                                                              Vuda Point Marina

 

 

 

 

Naturally after cleaning up a bit the first stop was the bar for a celebratory arrival beverage or two.  While relaxing in a slightly foggy and jet lagged state noticed that there was all sorts of excitement over near Sally which was then followed by a yacht, billowing smoke from the cockpit, getting towed onto one of the outer mooring areas with the fire brigade arriving soon after.  They are rather nervy about fires at the marina as we back onto an LPG facility as well as Pacific Fuels!!  The fire was soon extinguished and all seemed well again in the world however, it wasn’t until the following morning when we discovered that Sally had a very close escape.  The marina manager explained to us that the rogue and burning boat was heading straight towards our transom at full speed and was only stopped by all the ropes holding us in our berth.  It ended up so close that he boarded the yacht from our stern and apparently he didn’t need to take a very big step.    Think we need to go and purchase a lottery ticket quick.

 

We had a pretty lazy Tuesday doing a bit of tidying up on board and exploring our immediate surrounds.

 

Wednesday morning we caught the bus into the big smoke of Lautoka which is quite a sizeable town with pretty much everything you need.  We sorted out our communications and did a bit of a stock up to keep us going for the next couple of days.    In quite an ironic twist the Snooks’s family from SBSC just happen to be on a holiday in this part of the world so we very much enjoyed their company last night when they joined us for dinner.  It was great to catch up with them and find out some of the news from home.

 

We are kind of guessing that we will be spending about another week at Vuda Point before we do our first trip out into the islands.  Firstly as we are happy to stop and explore the local area for a bit but the marina is also having their 20th birthday celebrations on the 14th July so think we might just have to stay for that one.  It is also a really nice place to hang out.  The staff are great and it is heaps of fun chatting to the other cruisers.  There are a couple of other Aussie boats, plenty of Kiwi’s and Americans and a smattering of Euros here so it is a bit like a league of nations. 

 

Our first expedition will be out to The Mamanuca Islands and possibly up to the Yasawa Group which are both very much on the door step here so have plenty of places to explore.

 

                                                   Mamanuca Islands