The week started with the finish to our visit to the anchorage outside at the Navuka Stars resort. As Bob shared last week, I was pretty nervous to go back to this anchorage due to all the navigation around reefs but visiting the resort definitely made it worth it! The staff was so incredibly welcoming – they knew us both by name after one visit. The food was quite good so we visited two days in a row! Because it is a tricky anchorage we also had it all to ourselves. But as with all good things, it came to an end as the wind picked up and alas it had no protection from the winds so it was time to move on.
We weighed anchor on Tuesday morning to head to one of our favorite anchorages and had a pretty bumpy start until we were able to go through the pass and gained some protection from the reef and the island. We were sailing and had a bit of a surprise as we rounded the island. I saw a fishing boat in the water ahead to port but we were well clear of it. There was someone in the boat and I thought maybe he was fishing as he just appeared to be sitting there and was anchored. We waved on our way by and he waved back. We were sailing at around 5 knots so not super fast but also moving along steadily. About 5 minutes later, I noticed a few buoys in the water to port and pointed them out to Bob but again we were clear of them. The next thing I know I see a head and snorkel in the water less than 75 feet from the bow of the boat!! Thank you Jesus, that we did not hit him. His head was down and seemed totally unaware. He did not have a dive flag up and we were not in an area close to shore so it was pretty surprising. And disconcerting.
We arrived at Vuatu Bay in the afternoon and found more boats than usual there. This anchorage is in front of a formerly deserted resort that is being renovated to reopen. It has some great snorkeling, a beautiful hike, and we have visited here with both Katharine and my sister Michelle during their trips to Fiji. In the past it has not been very busy but this year it seems to have increased in popularity. It took us a bit to find an anchor spot but we finally got settled and then noticed the rolling. Ugh, it wasn’t as bad as Blue Lagoon but it was definitely rolling more than previous trips. We were beginning our prep for New Zealand so Bob wanted to get in the water to get some pictures of the hull to send to the officials in New Zealand to review. The rolling made it challenging work for Bob and the water definitely wasn’t as clear. While he worked on that, I did the review of our ditch kit and checked all of our supplies – I definitely had the easier job!
We stayed at Vuatu for two nights but then decided it was time to head back to Port Denarau to begin serious preparation for our New Zealand passage in case a weather window popped up. We motor sailed back to Denerau on Thursday. Of course, it was directly into the wind but at least the sea state wasn’t too bad. We arrived and got anchored but of course the wind was howling so we decided to stay onboard and not try to go to shore. I made one of my famous lists that Bob loves SO much of the things we needed to do for final preparations for New Zealand. The first order of business, however, was to work on dealing with the diesel bugs in our fuel tanks and troubleshooting if we had a clog somewhere in the lines. This was a very messy job! First we had to disassemble the fuel filters and check all the hoses leading to and from the filters to the engines and tanks. We checked the fuel vent as well. Once everything was reassembled then we had to empty the remaining fuel in our main tank to jerry cans so Bob could clean the tank and inspect it. And where is the main tank you might ask? Well of course, it is in the main salon living area. In good news, our main tank has really good access, in bad news I hate dealing with the mess where we spend a huge part of our time onboard! But we got it emptied with minimal catastrophes and boy was it necessary. Bob had a super messy job of scrubbing the bottom of the tank which is quite deep and hard to reach the bottom. Unfortunately while doing that, he did discover some pitting in the bottom of the tank so we will definitely need to address that when we get to New Zealand. But for now, he applied some JB weld to that area and once it was set we refilled the tank and gave it a shock treatment with biocide. Hopefully, that will get us successfully to New Zealand without issues.
We continued to work through the list and got the oil changed, did engine and rig checks, and ordered passage meals from our favorite Indian restaurant, Indigo, in Port Denarau. They will make and freeze the meals for cruisers to take away which is great. We did have a little miscommunication when Bob went to shore to place the order and he ordered DOUBLE the amount intended! I think we will not run out of food and thank goodness we LOVE Indian! We are closely watching a window that would have us leaving this Monday. Clearly we are not alone in looking at this potential window because when Bob went to set up a clearance appointment with customs, 29 of the 30 slots were already full for Monday! We got the last slot of the day – phew. It is very likely that we will need to cancel it as the forecast has been changing daily but at least we have an appointment on the books in case it works out. If we are able to leave on Monday, this would be about 3-4 weeks earlier than we left last year so we will see. We need to be in Auckland by mid November as my sister Michelle is coming for a visit but that still gives us time if this window doesn’t work out. It will definitely be a game time decision so check out our Predict Wind page to see if we left! https://www.predictwind.com/tracking/SV-Meraviglia
