Back at Vuda Marina - 26th May
Mustang Sally Cruising
Mark Lawrence & Dianne Jackson
Fri 25 May 2018 23:11
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Hmmm why are we back at Vuda Marina – good question which we will explain
later!!!
We had a wonderful week at Musket Cove which included lots of walking
around the island, many swims and we even managed to have a couple of kite
boarding adventures on the sand bar which was fantastic especially as you can go
kiting in a pair on boardies and a rashie in lovely consistent warm
breezes. Can’t wait to do some more once we get to Nananu I Thake on the
north side of Viti Levu which is renowned for strong winds
 We had a couple of visitors while at Musket Cove including a very friendly
sea snake that seemed pretty determined to take a nap on the back of the boat
and Rangi who is the cat on Coromandel who gets rowed ashore each
morning for its daily walk on the beach!
Sunset at Musket Cove
  After our 8 days at Musket Cove we went into Denarau Marina for a few days
to enjoy the hustle and bustle of tourist world. We also had the Marine
Electrician from Baobab come on board to sort out the problem with our fuel
gauge which seemed to have gone on strike...
Denarau Island is the hub on tourism in Fiji and we have been informed that
it contributes around 40% of the GDP in Fiji (WOW!!!)
We had some lovely meals and took the opportunity to visit the Nadi Market
and Aussie Butchers to get some good meat before heading off on adventures
further afield.
A bit like Vuda, there is quite a cruising community at Denarau so we
enjoyed a few sun downers on board with some cruising friends which is always
fun. There is also the super yacht end of Denarau which is always worth
checking out especially the endless procession of supplies being brought aboard
and the mad flurry of activity that occurs just before the owners are about to
arrive.
SY Tiara...
On Thursday 17th May after stocking the boat fully with everything we could
possibly think of and spending plenty of time making sure all the systems are
working correctly we departed Denarau en-route to Vatia Wharf which is around
35NM. We arrived at the anchorage latish in the afternoon but having been
there before were pretty comfortable and found a good spot to drop the anchor
and had a very calm evening on board.
We headed off early on the 18th to get the current assist (as we found we
had quite a bit of current against the previous afternoon) to help us around to
the anchorage at Nananu I Thake with the added incentive of an afternoon of
kiting if the wind gods are being friendly.
Unfortunately about 10NM from our intended destination the trusty diesel
engine died. (will let Mark explain the rest of this
adventure).........
Now hear this! Now hear this! This your captain speaking!
After a solid month of mostly working to get the boat ready including a
week of sea trials at Musket cove I felt I could finally put the tool kit away
confident in the knowledge that all jobs had been completed including a couple
that popped up unannounced.
How wrong I was!
The trip across the top of Viti Levu (the main island) is like
traveling through a coral canal. It winds back and forth close to the
island and is often only a few hundred metres wide. There we were on the
second day of carefully motoring through all this in light winds when the motor
went cough.... cough.... then nothing! Shit! Quickly while we still
have steerage we did a 180 and unfurled the head sail so that we could at least
steer even if we are only doing 2 knots. I went below to open the engine
box to have a look around. Nothing seemed untoward, maybe there was a
little more gunge in the fuel filter then before but i had seen worse. We
tried turning over the motor a couple of times but nothing. Usually when a
diesel motor wont start or run it is almost always a fuel issue so I changed the
primary fuel filter and noticed no actual water but instead some stuff that
looked like algae and had probably clogged the filter. We cranked the
motor and it started.ran for a bit then stopped again.OK lets change the
secondary filter. We did that and now the motor is cranking over slowly
but not starting.
Meanwhile alone on deck Di is very busy trimming sails, steering,
navigating and generally trying to keep us off the coral.
Right lets put the batteries in parallel to up the voltage and
hopefully that will do the trick. So turned the key and after a couple of
goes the motor wont crank at all. Check the batteries and there is plenty
of charge so basically the motor is fully dead.
As that thought sunk in we also realised that we are 50 miles back to
any form of outside assistance and its 20 miles to our previous nights anchorage
so we put up the main sail which lifted our speed to 4 knots and if the light
wind held it would be enough to get in before dark. There is no way you
move around here at night so if it came to it we would just drop anchor wherever
we ended up. Luckily we got in with 45 minutes to spare and dropped anchor
under sail - a first for us.
The next day after raising anchor under sail, another first, we headed
slowly back towards Lautoka ducking and weaving our way through the coral.
During that day as we slowly made our way along we reflected on the cruising
people who promote the idea of sailing without a motor, or for that matter a
fridge,and decided they must be mad. We were very much missing our motor and if
the fridge went off....well it doesn’t bare thinking about.
That night we sailed into our anchorage at a leisurely 1.5knots and as
the next day was Sunday we figured we would make the final 12 mile push to Vuda
on Monday when it was staffed.
We were up before dawn on Monday to try and use the light morning land
breeze but unfortunately it died to a complete glass off about half way.
Plan B Deploy the dinghy.
Little Sally was lowered and 2 spring lines attached to the mother
ship. All this was done quite quickly as at the same time a ship was
approaching Lautoka Harbour and we were dead in the water.
We fired up the 15hp outboard, lashed the tiller to the middle and
turned up the throttle friction screw and before you knew it we were doing a
heady 3.5kts. Some of you may ask why we didn't do this earlier, simple,
we would have run out of outboard fuel before we got there.
And so with little Sally lashed next to Big Sally and Di operating the
throttle and forward/reverse gears we entered the Marina and parked the boat,
phew!!!
  We made it safely back into Vuda Marina late on Monday morning with the
assistance of Adam, Joe and the Vuda team.
Before we could even complete the tying up procedures we had Martin from
Baobab Marine on the phone advising that he would have his marine electrician
and mechanic on board after lunch to work out what the problem was which turned
out to be a failed starter motor – it would seem that in the process of trying
to get the trusty diesel started we had totally cooked the starter motor so
orders were quickly placed for a new motor plus a new fuel lifting pump (just in
case) to be ordered in from Australia – you really can’t believe how good the
service levels are in this place!!
We didn’t wont to waste our time in at Vuda while waiting for spare parts
to come from Australia so we went and hired a car from Abdul for a few days so
we could explore some of the local sites.
On the Tuesday afternoon we went to the gardens of the Sleeping Giant
which was originally built by Raymond Burr (aka Perry Mason) in the 70’s and is
a beautiful garden with a large section totally dedicated to orchards.
    Wednesday we went for a drive to visit the Battery at Momi Bay.
Although Fiji was never attacked during WW2 is was definitely on the hit list
for Japan but due to the heavy losses in the Battle of Midway the Japanese never
had the opportunity to attack.
Momi Battery
We also paid a visit to the new opened Marriott Resort - Momi Bay for a
spot of lunch. If you are looking for a spot to spend a leisurely week in
the sun this could be worth checking out.
Marriott Resort – Momi
After Momi Bay we continued on to Sigatoka which is on the southern side of
the island (named the Coral Coast) and visited the well known Sigatoka Sand
Dunes which is also Fiji first declared National Park. We had first
spotted the sand dunes when sailing back along the Coral Coast on our way back
from Beqa Lagoon in 2016 so was good to be able to have the opportunity to
visit. It is amazing to see how quickly and often the vegetation changes
from grassy knolls, to dune to rain forest over the 5km walk.
Walking tracks – Sigatoka Sand Dunes
Sigatoka Sand Dunes
Thursday we still had the car so took a quick trip down to the New World in
Namaka, which is one of the best supermarkets for western type foods, and also
dropped into pick up a few fresh supplies at the Namaka Market before a road
trip up to Ba which is a big sugar cane district. There is not much else
at Ba although it is a nice town but we did find a good spot for some
lunch.
Yesterday (Friday) the new starter motor arrived, was quickly installed and
with all our fingers and toes crossed Mark turned the key and we were all elated
to hear the trusty diesel once again come to life.
We are still waiting to receive the new lifting pump but envisage that this
will be with us on Monday. There is also a nasty weather system passing
across Fiji over the weekend so pretty happy to stay put in the marina and will
hopefully be back on our way on Tuesday.
One of the funny sights you see running around Vuda most weeks is the
Mosquito exterminator (aka Rambo)
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