slaplogs june 2009

tuesday june 2^nd 2009 (saweni bay, fiji)

We popped around the corner into Saweni Bay. It’s only a few miles South West but it feels cleaner, more secluded and sheltered than Lautoka. We liked the little city and had a good time there but are anxious to see more of this country. We’ll sleep here tonight, and complete the grueling 10 mile passage to Denarau tomorrow.

Jono and Carrie are the good looking couple pictured below. We met them in Auckland and become friends working on Kauhale Kai. Just before we left Auckland Jono tells us that his dad has a place in Fiji with a dock out front that we should really check out so yesterday I bought a phone card and punched in the number that Jono had given us. Warren answered on the second ring and we agreed to arrive tomorrow at 4PM, right after his round of golf.

wednesday june 3^rd 2009 (denarau, fiji)

The directions we received took us past the main wharf and marina, past the ‘private property residents only’ sign and into a small and completely sheltered lagoon. The house stood right where Warren said that it did and we found the private dock with no trouble. Fresh off the golf course, he was there to help us tie off. We cleaned up and met the whole gang poolside for happy hour. We weren’t the only guests that Warren and Catherine were generously entertaining this week.

monday june 8^th 2009 (denarau, fiji)

To the reader: Seth has relinquished control of the logs to yours truly (Jaime). Actually he’s out of the country so you’re stuck with me. More on his whereabouts later. Keep reading.

After Seth changed out all of the filters as per his regularly scheduled maintenance, we fired up the engine to join Warren, Cathy and Co. for a day sail over to Musket Cove on Malololailai Island. The only participant missing was…the engine.

Now if you knew Seth at all you would know that before this world tour the most mechanically challenging task that he encountered in our 5 years on land together was programming the car stereo. It’s an extremely relieving thing to know that the kid is in fact brilliant and, when properly motivated, seems to be able to get himself out of any boat-y issue with a modicum of dignity with grease covering only 75 percent of his body. So in the blazing hot Fijian sun he and Carrie managed to figure out that our starboard freshwater intake (cools the engine) which should be IN the water was now high and dry due to all of the fuel and water that we’d consumed which caused the boat to list to port. Smart fellah, I shall keep him.

Once the boys had us back on track our flotilla of kiwis were off through the Denerau Channel. Vern, Carrie and Maxine were on a friends’ boat, Coomaroo, while Warren and Cathy guided us from their power boat.

Malololailai is only 10 miles off Denerau so we arrived around lunch time. What a great place to have a leisurely, relaxing lunch; rafted up to 2 other boats bobbing in the peaceful little harbour. And wouldn’t that have been the picture perfect situation. …If the engine alarm hadn’t gone off, our oil pressure hadn’t plummeted and our engine hadn’t died. Right in the channel no less, as we drifted towards a packed mooring field and, a little more excitingly, a jagged nasty-looking boat-eating reef. This trip is all about firsts. This was the first time we chucked over the anchor with zero control in order to save ourselves from imminent disaster. Check.

The weather was perfect and our anchor spot was as well. In fact we couldn’t have picked it better if we HAD an engine. Within moments of dropping the hook and letting heart rates settle, our friends off of Kauhale Kai (KHK) ripped up in their dinghy to say hi…and get us to abandon an afternoon of sweaty engine work in favor of wakeboarding and skurfing. But since we are such responsible boat owners, we declined their first two offers of fun and games to get right to work…we immediately accepted their third. We’re only human after all.

tuesday june 9^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

There is no shortage of krazy kiwis in this cove. Last night we met more cool friends of Warren & Cathy; the crew of Waiari. These 4 guys had just arrived into Fiji that night after their New Zealand crossing. How surprised were we to learn that they had a great time, a perfect sail, and hassle-free trip in just 6 days!! I’m glad to hear that it can be done without incident but at the same time it makes me break into a sweat to think back on our 11 day trip from h-e double hockey sticks. Even though I’m totally jealous, I dig these characters. They had us all in stitches into the wee hours.

We tried to convince Vern, Carrie and Maxine not to head back to winter in New Zealand and to play with us instead. No such luck. They’ve headed back to Denerau after a very cool (and short) time in Musket.

wednesday june 10^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

How posh are we? At 10am a 50’ catamaran backed up so close to our stern that all it took for us to board her was a small step and a welcoming hand from the other boat. Waiari was there to make good on last nights plans to take us over to Namotu Island for lunch and a snorkel. Mike, Roy, Jeff and Timmy also provided the entertainment (usually at Timmy’s expense) AND entry onto the very exclusive and very private island (Roy has stellar negotiation skills) so that we could have a beer with the rich surfers and watch the break. It’s supposed to be a player surf spot as the break goes along as far as the eye can see. Looks like you could surf the same wave all the way back to Denerau.

It was strange for us to hang out with people that have (gasp) jobs and are constantly answering their cell phones. I remember my old feud with the cursed Blackberry. How ironic to see Timmy on a crackberry as we rolled back to the cove.

thursday june 11^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

We’re aware that we have no one’s sympathy, nor do we expect it but, we are played out. A few too many late nights with this kiwi crowd and we are spent. I guess that’s why I’m baffled that Seth decided to go toe to toe with the engine today. That and it’s like a billion degrees outside with not a breath of wind.

Because I’m such a gem of a girlfriend and so selfless and as I worship the ground Seth walks on, I really stepped up and helped him without so much as a tiny complaint. I went above and beyond today…

… I pulled down the sunshade so he wouldn’t get a sunburn and went back to my book.

friday june 12^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

Seth saves the day once again. After taking apart a few enginey bits and reading every piece of diesel-repair literature he could dig out of the cupboards, the mystery of the dead engine finally revealed itself.

Turns out that the oil pressure alarm was due to a faulty switch. And the stalled engine; a result of a small air leak at the fuel filter. Neither issue too troublesome unless those 2 things happen at the exact same moment. Seth, thankfully, hadn’t revealed to me that for the last few days he feared that we’d possibly seized our engine and may be looking at full-on replacement. I don’t know how he finally figured it out but I may have to kiss his feet.

Micah donned an adult-diaper-looking contraption to be hoisted to the top of the mast to replace our anchor light. This saved me from cleaning (clenching) the mast with my legs in sheer terror of falling 46’ to my death. Seems he has that fear pegged. So many feet to kiss today. Ick.

saturday june 11^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

You wouldn’t believe all of the emails that we receive from concerned readers all over the world warning us about pirates. Not even one warning was given about Fiji.

How could we have ever expected to roll up to our anchorage, an anchorage FILLED with conscientious boat owners, to discover that our boat is …undiscoverable?

The worst has happened; Slapdash has been stolen. When we find out anything further we will provide you with more details. Until then, all we can do is hope that we find her and in one piece…

sunday june 12^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

… We found her in one piece. It went something like this:

Scene: 3 idiots in a dinghy at night searching for their boat

Jaime: We should have left our anchor light on. It’s so dark tonight I can’t even make out Slappy.

Seth: No worries, I think she’s that mast just past the ketch there.

Jaime: I’m almost certain that she was between the green boat and the blue one, like right here.

Micah: Yeah she was. Did we drag?

(all heads turn sharply towards the reef to try to make out the outline of a mast)

Seth: No…we didn’t drag…

Micah: The boat’s gone.

(Jaime thinks that if Micah, or anyone else for that matter, says that her boat is “gone” she might actually cause them bodily harm.)

Panicky Slapdashers decide to quickly head over to KHK, anchored just a few hundred yards away, to get them to shine their giant spotlights over the anchorage in the hopes of locating our missing girl. I’m actually feeling nauseous, like someone has died, and I find myself not caring that the waves in the cove have picked up and are now splashing over the side of the dinghy and completely soaking me. Why would I care about anything but getting my girl back? The boys are horribly silent as they contemplate the situation. My teeth start to chatter but it’s not because I am cold. We are making painful progress over to KHK; I need to find her!

…what’s this? Is that? No. No way. Absolutely not. Oh my God! …They stole our boat. THEY STOLE OUR. Oh. My. God.

I’m still shaking and chattering and now yelling and hysterical as we climb aboard and hug our pirates and laugh like maniacs as they growl and stab us with their plastic swords. They tell us all about their heist; Mark and Chris pulled up our anchor in 60’ of water (heavy!) and they towed her over to the mother ship with their tender, and rafted Slappy safely alongside where she bobbed happily beside her big blue pal. She is so in the doghouse.

monday june 15^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

A decade birthday today; a belated one for Captain Mark. Seonagh has taken Mark off to the spa and Nina is decorating like a… Well actually Nina IS the benchmark when it comes to decorating and all things party. Seth is in charge of the BBQ and Chris and Micah are making sure we all have a steady supply of beer to keep us going. I’ve made my very first Caesar salad from scratch and Seonagh has baked the most fab chocolate birthday cake ever. It’s a raging success complete with Seth’s secret (so secret he doesn’t even know what’s in them) melt-in-your-mouth ribs, enough cake to feed an army and the grand finale; a drunken leap off the big boat (fully clothed? What?).

tuesday june 16^th 2009 (mana island, fiji)

Note to self: when trying to raft up to a 100’ steel mega-yacht, wait for it to swing awayyy from you and your tiny fibreglass catamaran. It will lose every time.

The wind had decided to pick up on us today, of course not in the right direction for a day sail. It also made rafting up a bit interesting today. KHK had been swinging around a bit at anchor when we pulled up and we got “nudged” by a very sturdy steel rub rail. The whole incident made my heart go pipitty-pat but it’s purely cosmetic and we have the collective experience of about 30 years of boats to teach us how to fiberglass over our new dent. We got right back on the horse though and are back to barnacle status on KHK’s port side.

Let’s go wakeboarding!

wednesday june 17^th 2009 (mana island, fiji)

Micah is off to school! They grow up so fast. Sigh.

He and Seonagh have signed up to get their Open Water Diving certification. It’s a 3 day course in which they’ll have to demonstrate their skillz and flex their intellectual muscles for their final exam. I’ve caught Micah sneaking peaks through the window at the movie we were watching as he “studied” his book outside. Bad Micah.

While we wait for those jokers to get legal, the rest of us took to the tender and zipped out to the famous “Supermarket” dive site at a cheek-flapping 30knots. Or well, we zipped around the supermarket. And over the supermarket. And past the supermarket. Eventually we flagged down a local dive boat who gave us the general location. It was worth the effort as it’s proved to be our most frequented spot. Chris & Nina joined us this first time. No sharks as per the brochure, but loads of life and gorgeous coral formations.

After a soak in the luxurious ‘red neck’s hot tub’ to warm up (yeah I know, it’s Fiji, I’m a big baby) we ventured to shore to wander around. A house-sized chunk of driftwood held our attention for a while, as well as Seth’s bamboo pole vaulting moves. It actually reminded me of those stunt men that get hit by the car and roll over the hood and over the roof. Except with sand ending up in places where there shouldn’t be sand.

The students were out of class by the time we caught up with them for drinks at the backpackers bar, and I’m not entirely sure but I think there may have been more leaps of faith off the second level balcony before the night was through.

thursday june 18^th 2009 (mana island, fiji)

Since the kids were going to be away at school again today, we’d planned to do a picnic lunch at Castaway Island. Mark has bowed out. Think he’s got his eye on a little cutie at the backpackers. So it’s just the 4 of us now and we’re all feeling a bit haggard after last night’s go-round. We forced ourselves into action and hopped in the tender. As soon as we motored outside the reef we were all feeling a bit more human.

So Castaway Island actually goes by a completely different name (Monuriki), but this is where the famous Wilson became, well, famous. It’s the deserted island of everyone’s dreams; icing sugar soft beaches, swaying palms, dramatic cliff faces and…goats? Yup, we spied a few scaling cliffs that Seth & I would have harnessed in for. Monuriki was the perfect locale for our picnic.

The girls did what girls do; collected sea beans and pretty shells, while the boys did what boys do; climbed up jagged cliffs barefoot and chased geckos. They witnessed an eel using the incoming waves to leap out and munch on a few unsuspecting crabs that were clinging to the rocks. And a little shark was sited right where Tom Hanks drug his plane-wrecked self onto the beach. This was a bit too wild kingdom for the female contingent so we swam over on the less famous (and shark-less) side.

We heard that the s/v Seaspray, a tourist boat, comes out here and may boot island crashers like us off as they have exclusive rights of whatever. We all have an issue with ‘exclusive’ anything and so devised a master plan to dress like cannibals and chase them off ‘our island’ with spears. So far no sign of them or anybody else for that matter, we have the whole place to ourselves.

What are cannibals wearing these days anyway?

friday june 19^th 2009 (mana island, fiji)

The Seaspray gets lucky as we decide that diving is more fun than chasing tourists with pointy sticks. Seonagh and Micah are brand new shiny divers so we’re eager to check out one of the good spots that they’ve been talking about. Dive sites here are elusive and it seems that no amount of zipping will bail us out this time, so we opt for a random wall dive just off one of the surrounding islands. Turns out to be as good as any of the published dive sites we’ve been to in Fiji.

Through our Open Water graduates we’ve met the local dive shop people and their families. They rolled up to KHK for a bbq aboard tonight. As per usual Seonagh’s cooking impressed the hell out of everyone, including the chef from the backpacker bar. Maybe she can help him out with his mud crab recipe. Chris is certain that the sauce it’s served in is actually mud.

Not long after the dive shop crew took their leave did things get a little silly. Chris and Seth were still quite into their ‘never-gets-old’ Ahnold Schwartzeneger impressions, the same ones that had been annoying the rest of us for the last 48 hours. I let Chris convince me that jumping off the very top deck of the giant yacht was a good idea. At some point in the evening I had fallen in between Slappy and KHK and was riding the giant fender like a bronc. And then finally Micah and I witnessed the sunrise. So THIS is how those bruises pop up out of nowhere.

saturday june 20^th 2009 (mana island, fiji)

To say that our crew was hungover today is the mother of all understatements. I had to send Chris in to convince Seth that getting out of bed at 1pm wasn’t an unreasonable request. Once we had him vertical, the tender shoved off for shore in search of pizza and all things greasy. …In the rain.

With full bellies and throbbing heads we stumbled back to the tender to find that the ramp down to the dock was now being used to offload the ferry passengers. Couches and movies on KHK beckoned so we slithered down a dock piling into the bow of the dinghy (with grace and style of course) with the locals looking on perplexed.

Why is it that every especially nasty hangover day brings us a gale? It wouldn’t have even been a big deal except that being tied to a HUGE ship as it turns into the waves and wind and then shift back out of it as our boat LEAPS out of the water next to it in the howling wind and driving rain is not a settling sight.

Seth, Mark and Chris checked on her and tied a few more lines to a few more cleats after I gave Seth “the look”. The look that means, I’m going to actually die of a heart attack if my girl gets smunched by big Momma ship or if our lines break and she ends up on top of Seaspray (damn you Seaspray) or the reef that’s not 200’ away. Seth made me take a few deep breaths and remind myself that the fenders between us and KHK are actually about half the width of our whole boat. And casting off in the middle of a gale with a moving mega yacht alongside was not an option if smunching was to be avoided. Needless to say it was difficult to veg in front of a movie when Slappy was catching air as I gazed out the living room window.

Eventually the wind and waves died down enough so that I could no longer see how great our new bottom paint looks and focus on Leonardo DiCaprio.

sunday june 21^th 2009 (musket cove, fiji)

Whoever said all good things must come to an end has a punch in the belly due to him/her. KHK has to head back to Denerau in order to get things ready for their Tonga passage and charter. Besides our vacation coming to a close this is also a grim reminder that these guys will not be joining us as we go further west. End of the line. No more barnacle-time. They are headed in the wrong direction; back to North America via Tonga, Samoa and Hawaii.

Instead of bashing our way back tonight, we’ll spend a night in Musket to let the wind change direction and catch up tomorrow. Their ETD for Tonga is 4 days away. My boys are going to go with them in order to squeeze some more visits in and I think also to eat more of Seonagh’s gourmet food. I’m so on to them.

monday june 22^nd 2009 (denerau, fiji)

It’s great to see Warren & Cathy again! We’ve invited them for dinner at the hotel to catch up and say a little thank you for being incredible hosts. I’ve even dug out some dress clothes and they are airing out in the cockpit right now so they smell less musty. Yes, we shine up purdy. I also notice that the last time we all got dressed up we were all wearing our same outfits. Maybe they won’t notice.

tuesday june 23^rd 2009 (denerau, fiji)

Again with the incredible-girlfriendness. Seth has again managed to pick a swelteringly hot day to tackle the fibreglass crack from our lovetap from KHK. He’s had to drag all of the boxes out of our closet, take down the rods, and peel back the carpet lining in order to paste on layers of gooey pink fibreglass cloth. What amazes me is how all 6’5” of him fits into the pointy space at the back of the closet that won’t even accommodate my purse.

So back to my role; holder of the flashlight. I know, I give and I give.

thursday june 25^th 2009 (denerau, fiji)

D-Day. They’ve been threatening to leave and they really meant it. KHK shoved off just before noon with a crazy emotional basketcase (me) trailing just behind them, waving and crying in a dinghy piled with junk, almost all the way out of the Denerau channel. Seth, from the lower deck, had to gently remind me that a ½ gallon of gas would in fact not get me all the way to Tonga. Maybe he’s right but it would be enough to keep me bobbing and sobbing here until they disappeared over the horizon.

... and just because the web connection seems uncharacteristically cooperative right now, here's a short video from our luge track experience from back in Rotorua New Zealand. You can access all of our videos on the 'videos' page under the 'aboutslap' tab.