June 24, 2015 Navdra to Waya

June 24, 2015  Navadra to Waya

Up early and ready to take off.   Radios on.  Clear sky but brisk, cool wind blowing.  Just as we are about to pull up our anchors we see a large cruise ship rounding the point, obviously intending to enter the bay and anchor right where we are.  Quickly I get on the radio to find out his intentions.  They are indeed planning to drop anchor for the day right where we are.  They will gladly stand by for a bit while we get the heck out of their way.  There bit turns out to be a bit shorter than the time it takes to get all 250 feet of chain hauled in and they are bearing down on us as we finally get underway.

Meanwhile the other two have gotten their anchors up more quickly and are already well out of the bay.  We are just getting settled when Alan realizes that the engine is running hot.  We take it out of gear, radio the others and Alan goes below to see what the problem is.  When he opens the door to the engine room, smoke billows out.   Uh Oh!   Engine shut down, we drift along with only the little jib up while he tries to see what the problem is.  Eventually he diagnoses a problem with the water cooling system, somewhere.  It is too hot to do anything about it right now.  We will have to sail to the next anchorage on Waya about 10 miles away and sort it out there.

It is a lovely sail but I am exhausted by the time we arrive.  You will remember that all of our sail handling is done manually.  Someone has to go up to the bow, remove the sail covers or bags, run the lines, attach the halyard and pull the sail up hand over hand.  In this case, it is going to be me on the sails, since I would rather do that than steer through these reefs.  We had just the little jib (staysail) up when the engine overheated. We had expected to just use it as a stabilized with the engine on.  it does not give enough power by itself and is difficult to steer. with it   So the first job is to put the mizzen up.  This  lets Alan actually steer the boat with some degree of confidence .  Next the main jib needs to go up so we can get some more speed.  The other two boats are well ahead of us. Getting the bag off, the lines run and the sail hoisted takes some doing in the tossing seas but finally it is done and I can sit down to relax.  Before too long, however,  Alan decides that the staysail needs to come down.  Theoretically both sails together should give more power but it never seems to work that way, and we do not have a double set of winches so the lines for the little one are tied onto cleats.   We are coming up to a turn and it needs to come down before we make that turn so back up to the bow I go, holding on tight.   Got that down, lines coiled and all stuffed back into it’s bag and we sail smartly on into the anchorage at Waya.  Time to drop the main jib.  Much bigger, harder to handle but eventually it is also stowed.

We had planned to anchor off of the main village in Yalobi Bay, where we had stayed once before but the other two boats, who were well ahead of us, has scoped it out and decided that the anchorage on Wayasewa, a smaller adjoining island, was less rolly.  Since we need to be with the other two until we get the engine problem sorted, we had no choice but to follow.  As we move into the bay the wind drops and finally the mizzen comes down too.  Walter comes out in his dingy from Jean Marie to give us a tow until we are close enough in to anchor. As Walter is towing us with his little inflatable, a boat comes out from the village to help.  Between the two of them we are finally settled and the anchor dropped.  Once again, we are looking at 50 feet of water.  Once the anchor is down it is not coming up until the engine is fixed because of the amount of battery power that the windlass uses.  Although it has been a short sail, we are both exhausted.  Time for lunch and nap.  We will deal with the engine tomorrow. 

That afternoon Craig and Carol from Wind Cutter came by in their dingy on their way ashore to do sevusevu with the chief so we decided to tag along.  School had just gotten out and there were  dozen kids on the shore, along with teachers.  When they verified that we had brought kava root, we were led to the house of the chief.  The cave was handed off and he said a short prayer of blessing and welcomed us to the village.  Once again, we were free to explore.  Joe, the chief, was a delightful man of about 60 with 5 kids, 25 grandkids and 20+ greats.  So pretty much the whole village was related to him somehow.  I wanted to stay and visit with him but the others were eager to see the village and the school.  So off we went, with a promise to come back tomorrow.  Unfortunately the next day was spent working on the engine and we left at dawn the day after so I never got a chance to visit.  Hopefully we can stay longer on the way back.  When he met us he said that when he was a child he had never seen a white man.  That would have been in the 1940s and 50s.   TransPacific air plane flights did not start until the 1960s and Fiji was not high on the list of must visit destinations.  I would love to hear his stories. 

The school was large and lovely and, as always, in need of donations.  They have a large sports field with a sign saying that they have one of the best Rugby teams in Fiji.  There is also an active boy scout program.  I was escorted for a while by a young man who was the head boy/proctor, an eagle scout and the grandson of the chief.  Destined to be chief himself one day, I expect.  He is looking forward to the Boy Scout Jamboree to be held this summer in Suva hosting scouts from all around the Pacific and Australia and New Zealand.


Next morning we tackled the engine.  Luckily it turned out to be only (!) a broken fan belt and wonder of wonders, we not only had a spare, we had three.  So it should be a quick and easy job.  Except nothing is quick and easy on a boat.  First you have find the right tools.  Then you need a flash light because the bolt you need to turn is underneath.  Of course all the bolts are stuck because the fan belt has not been replaced for 10? years so then you need the canon penetrating oil.  Finally got the old one off but would the new one go back on?  Of course not.  Finally had to take the alternator off and then could not get that back on with the fan belt around it.  Eventually, hours later, working together, we finally got it all put back and fired up the engine.  It works!  This was definitely a breakthrough day in working together. 

That evening we had fish that Walter had caught and learned that he had cracked a rib and was in great pain.  Jackie is keeping him well doped up but the wind is still blowing hard and the boats are all rocking and rolling, making it hard to sleep.  After studying the weather and the charts we decide to leave here tomorrow and move to the top of the island where we think we will have more protection.  The goal now is to get to Blue Lagoon, which everyone says is a completely protected, always calm anchorage.