Monday 2  June, South Pacific Ocean  17:22.5S  174 7.0E 

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone BST +11.00; UTC +12.00)

The process of “clearing in” and “clearing out”  of countries varies; sometimes it takes a matter of  a few minutes – in others several hours. In Fiji, the inward clearance took pretty much four days because the weekend intervened.  If you choose to clear in or out outside office hours, in Fiji we have to pay the staff’s overtime. This option to pay the overtime is not available in Vanuatu where, e.g., a yacht arriving too late to clear in on Friday would simply have to wait until the following Monday and the crew would have to remain on board all weekend – not ideal.   Further, once you have “cleared out” of a country, you are supposed to leave immediately.  There clearly is some “scope for interpretation” here because the process of “preparing to leave” takes time; but where there may be hours of latitude, it  would not extend to a number of days.

We knew that another weather system was approaching which would make Saturday a day worth spending in port but  once that trough had passed, Sunday looked a good prospect for departure.  Because we didn’t want to pay the Overtime fees and because we knew it would be raining on Saturday, determined to clear out of Fiji on Friday afternoon. For the first time on departure, we were boarded by customs to make sure we were not exporting any ‘endangered species’, ‘ancient artefacts’ or refugees(?) – or perhaps the customs officer just fancied looking around our boat. This process was completed by about 15.00. By that time,  our pre- departure process was then unlikely to be completed before dark and we argued that we  would not then be clear of the refs in Daylight.  So, stretching the rules somewhat, we motored to a fairly remote  anchorage to wait for the weather to pass by on Saturday while we carried out some routine maintenance.   For example, Lenie has already mentioned the process of “easing the cocks”.

A seacock is essentially a tap, opening and closing a hole through the hull and through which water (sea, fresh, grey or black) water passes in one or other direction.  There are 23 holes through the hull of Serendipity; some of these feed into separate  raw water manifold off which several internal services are piped,  each with its separate cock, so they may be in total say 40 cocks on Serendipity each of which have to be periodically “eased” (for fear of seizing up through disuse!).   

Terry and Ted, diligently located every sea cock in the boat (as shown on a handy map that I provided)  and gave each handle a waggle back and forth to make sure that it still worked.  It probably took them 2 hours, scrabbling around under the cabin sole (aka “”the floor”). As evidence of their diligence, Ted pointed out a couple of through hull fittings that do not have an associated wooden bung attached to plug the hole in case of dire emergency – and it could indeed be a dire emergency if one of these cocks were left open – and the pipework unsealed - below the waterline.  A 5cm diameter hole through the hull – that is the size of our  largest through hull holes – would, unchecked,  let in perhaps 500 litres of sea water a minute and could do serious damage in a matter of minutes. (Recall, after all, the “Day of Noah” as we fondly now remember it?).

The Dynamic Duo showed further evidence of their diligence in pointing out that the raw water inlet strainer for the main engine and generator manifold was cluttered by assorted rubbish  and flora that ought to be removed. This strainer is in a glass topped bowl – about 15 cms diameter – the glass being made  watertight by  being screwed down onto a rubber seal using  four 17mm bolts; and is itself mounted on top of one of the largest 5cm through hull sea cocks.  And so they set about cleaning the filter.

Now, it is the case that I thought about reminding them to close the seacock before they undid the strainer top but, the Dynamic Duo having just a few moments previously become intimately familiar with each cock, I concluded that they might find  my (some would say “my normal”) micromanagement irksome.

A loud howl of anguish then summoned me from the after cabin! You’re there already, I know, but by the time I arrived in the Saloon,  Ted was  lying prostrate on the floor,  pressing down with all his might  on the glass top of the strainer  (from which all four 17mm bolts had been extracted) and with a veritable geyser of seawater gushing from all sides!  I am sure  you can picture of consternation on their faces as they sensed an impending dire emergency.  I wish I had had a camera  to  hand!!!  In fact, they had remembered  to close the seacock – just picked the wrong one!   Anyway, no harm done in the end.

Meanwhile, the weather continued to develop  and yet again our weather window moved back a further 24 hours. A Sunday morning departure now destined us to light head winds and by 06.00 on Sunday it looked like Tuesday would also be very light winds. We couldn’t really stay where we were,  in Musket Cove; whatever the “scope for interpretation”, it is not likely that  ‘they’ would wear three days as an acceptable time for  “preparing to go to sea”; we risked officialdom finding us (the fines are said to be considerable) were we to stay there.

Equally, we didn’t want to sail off into a windless void either so we found ourselves in something of a dilemma.  However, a discussion among the crew ensued and we concluded that we would have to go.  It is perhaps 4 days to Vanuatu, and If we aren’t in Vanuatu before about 15.00 on Friday we would  expect to have spend the weekend at anchor waiting to  clear in on Monday.

So - we left yesterday into light headwinds …………. and then spent 12 hours sailing in the wrong direction. The iron Tops’l has been on since about 22.00 last night and  today we have the prospect of at least one and quite probably two more great days for the Arabs!  

It’s a wonderful life!

David Caukill

Yacht Serendipity