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The Strange Chronicles

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Fiji – Mamanuca Islands

We’re currently enjoying life at the famous Musket Cove Yacht Club.  Basically, cruisers hang out next to a nice resort.  I suppose we’re all part of the tropical scenery for the resort guests so management doesn’t mind having us around.  Besides we pay a modest mooring fee and buy beer at the bar.  This is my first “yacht club” membership.  Lifetime membership costs $1 Fiji (50 cents US) but to qualify you have to have sailed at least 1000 miles from a foreign port.  No burgee or T-shirt to buy but they do carve your name, year, and yacht name in the beams at the fancy restaurant.  Look for ours when you come through.  From here we’ll head to Vanuatu or New Caledonia before heading back down to New Zealand for the next cyclone season.

I finally gave up on my old Windbugger and replaced it with a new KISS generator built in Trinidad.  More power, brushless motor, fiberglass case and all new parts.  What a treat to have something new on the boat.

Our combined power generation is the wind generator, five solar panels (18 amps with the sun directly overhead), a shaft driven alternator (10-15 amps) while sailing, and a 190 Amp alternator for the house batteries.  In the trade wind belt, with days of continuous 15-20 knot winds and bright sun through scattered cumulus clouds, a typical output from the KISS wind generator is 8-10 amps and, during mid-day hours, solar provides 12-15 amps.  Our Grunert refrigeration and Spectra water maker are both 12 volts and we can sometimes rest at anchor for days without running the engine for charging. 

Of course, there are plenty of days with no wind and solid overcast skies when we run the engine for one and 1/2 hours.  The four liters of diesel consumed gives us a cold ice box, solidly frozen meat in the freezer, and 24 gallons or so of very fresh water.

Our water heater works by circulating engine cooling water.  I’ve seen systems with electric elements and know boats that shunt extra power from wind and solar into making hot water.  After a couple of days without running the engine we resort to a more basic solar heater – green, 2-liter soft drink bottles laid on the back deck.  They get plenty hot after a couple of hours.  The only problem is getting around to taking your cockpit shower right after your sundown gin & tonic.  If we wait too long and the heat quickly leaves the bottled water.

The Spectra water maker continues to work well.  It truly produces 16 gallons/hour drawing only 16 amps.  I definitely prefer the flexibility of a 12-volt (or 110-volt with generator) over mounting the high-pressure pump to your main engine.  The flow rate of the pump, and subsequent system pressure, depend on the RPM of your engine.  With a belt-driven system, you have to decide if the water maker is going to run at idle or motoring speeds and size the drive pulley accordingly.  With a 12-volt (or 110-volt) system you can run the system whenever you have sufficient power.

We have been relaxing in Fiji and enjoying some of the local entertainment.  shipped home a kava bowl and some carvings.  There’s also a few bundles of kava in the forward head and a bag of ground stuff somewhere on the boat.

Carl Strange Avatar
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.

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Fiji – A New Cruise

30 July We finally arrived in Fiji chcking in in Suva the capital of Fiji.

According to the Lonley Planet…

Fiji was once known as the ‘Cannibal Isles’ and its people were believed to be fierce and hostile; a recent history of coups has done nothing to dispel this notion in the minds of some travellers. Despite this, Fiji is beautiful, it has a pleasant tropical climate, the diving and snorkelling are superb and it has excellent facilities for tourists, whether they are on a tight budget or indulging in the luxuries of a plush resort.

Fiji has a unique history in the Pacific and today it is an interesting blend of Melanesian, Polynesian, Micronesian, Indian, Chinese and European influences. For nearly 50 years, until the military coup of 1987, the indigenous people of Fiji represented an ethnic minority in their own land. Fiji was the trade centre for the South Pacific during the 19th century, and the British claimed it as a colony in 1874. During the century or so that Fiji remained under British colonial rule, tens of thousands of indentured Indian labourers were imported to work on sugar plantations. Indigenous Fijians, however, managed to hold onto their traditional rites and practices – mekes (narrative dances), bure (house) construction, kava ceremonies, tapa-cloth making and pottery( Courtesy www.lonelyplanet.com)

Suva, Fiji Fiji’s capital, is on the south-eastern coast of the big island of Viti Levu. While Nadi, in the west of this island, is the tourism centre of the country, Suva is interesting as the country’s political and administrative centre as well as the major port. Suva and its urban surrounds are home to half of Fiji’s urban population, and it is one of the South Pacific’s largest and most sophisticated cities, housing the University of the South Pacific, the fascinating Fiji Museum and many interesting colonial-era buildings. It’s a multicultural city with many mosques, temples, churches and cultural centres. The Roman Catholic Cathedral (1902) is one of the city’s most prominent landmarks.

The waterfront area is very interesting, and the Suva Municipal Market is a must-see for visitors for its exotic fruits and vegetables, kava, fish and seafood, and spices. It has an exciting multicultural flavour, with vendors selling brightly coloured Indian sweets and savouries, and fruit drinks from glass tanks. (Courtesy www.lonelyplanet.com)

We relaxed and explored some of Suva including the National Museum. But our days in Suva have been marked with almost constant rain so we have decided to move on to Bega just 20 miles away.

Fijian Fire Dancer

14 August We spent a few days anchored in a well protected bay along the south coast of Viti Levu, one of the big islands in Fiji.  The locals strive to keep their traditions alive and we enjoyed several meals and evening times with them.  After learning a bit of the Fijian history in at the museum in Suva it was nice to find a group honoring their past.  When they were traditionally dressed and painted it was easy to imagine the young men as warriors.  However they were universally friendly and we weren’t overly worried about being a main course for dinner.

Carl Strange Avatar
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.

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Boat Repairs in New Zealand

1 January: Editor’ Notes: Carl and the family are spending their remaining time repairing and upgrading their boat for the next cruising season. Carl has removed the mast, had all of the corrosion removed, welded the holes shut (the yard would not let him play with their tools) and repainted it, and reattached all of the hardware. They have replaced much of the standing rigging and did another bottom job. There is a long list of repairs but Karen is anxious to start cruising again so some of them will have to wait until after the cruising season. In the meantime, school continues for Rebecca with Carl now in charge of Math and Science and Karen still in charge of everything else. When they are not in school or working on the boat, Becca has joined a junior bowling league which lets Carl cruise the internet for a few hours…

9 February At the library typing as quickly as I can! Internet is still only available at the library so you’ll hear from us fairly infrequently – especially as we move into the boat yard.

25 February Our radio email doesn’t work at all in the marina and we’ve been enjoying the big city life too much to look for a decent internet connection. I’m currently emailing from a terminal in the back of a local bowling alley. Things are going well and I can’t believe we’ll be leaving the country in a couple of months. On the other hand, I miss swimming, spearfishing, fresh coconuts and seeing blue! Karen and Rebecca are getting impatient and I’m running out of time on my account so I’ll go. I check back with you soon.

9 March     Regarding Boyle – I just finished an interesting book called Something like “The Terrible Hours”.  It was about one of the first successful rescues of crew from a sunken sub.  The sub was in just over 200 feet of water of the NE coast.  Mumsen (sp?) had just started the Navy’s research on mixed gases.  The rescue dives were done on air with some seriously narc’ed divers.  By the time they started salvaging the sub they had switched to mixed gas managing to solve several problems in the process.  It’s a fairly recent paperback and well worth the read.

29 April Just a quick note to let you know our mast is back up and we’re in the email business again.  There’s still a long list of projects left to do before we leave here in a few short weeks.  Thankfully most of them are one and two-day affairs and don’t require making a complete mess of the boat.

4 June Okay, I’m starting to get the message.  My mother is also bugging me about sending her “journal” updates. 

Seems she has a few friends who started reading your website.  Who am I to disappoint my fans who seem to number in the 3’s or 4’s?  I’ll try to get back in the diary habit again.

Oceanic Ventures 100 eh?  Sounds like an opportunity to be one of the first to achieve an internationally recognized goal.   One of the problems of diving solo in this part of the world is finding a place to leave the dinghy.  The walls outside the lagoon are fairly steep.  The dinghy anchor rode is 100 feet long but the sea has to be fairly settled to anchor the dinghy outside the reef.  Not to mention the excitement of bashing my way through the strong current of a lagoon entrance if there are waves.  An easy dive day has low seas with the time of slack tide during a period of good overhead sun for light.  It also needs to follow a day of successful fishing so we have leftovers and I’m not hunting.  Still, it’s hard to complain when I can dive at the spur of the moment — no vacation schedule, airline trips, lost luggage, etc.

We’re ready to leave during the next weather window.  All we need is for a cold front to pass through to give us winds from the SW and an easy trip to Tonga.  The weather information available from the Ham email net lets us look at an animated weather map over a six-day forecast period.  With a bit of patience, we can have a nice downwind trip all of the way.  It’s interesting to hear reports from boats who were determined to leave on a set schedule.  Just as the weather files show, they are invariably motoring in light airs or fighting their way upwind.  So we fiddle with boat projects, visit book stores, and cook lamb roasts and stews to warm our tummies on these chilly Autumn nights.

Carl Strange Avatar
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.

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Racing Through the Cook Islands Reflections on French Polynesia (#11)

20 October

Carl Landed a Nice Mahi-Mahi

I don’t even want to talk about how far behind the “chronicles” are. We have had some wonderfully interesting experiences since I last wrote. Honestly, I’ve been too busy to write, do boat work, or much else but play and sleep.

We just spent two weeks in the tiny, isolated Swarrow (Suvarov) lagoon in the central Cook Islands. Our time was spent learning from the remarkable 72-year-old caretaker of this park. We hunted coconut crabs, had potluck dinners with 30 lobsters, made fishing lures from black pearl oyster shells and coconut husks, went out fishing for 30 minutes, and came back with a 60-pound yellowfin tuna (tons and tons of sushi that night), and generally exhausted ourselves. Mornings started early and we never got back to the boat before 10 PM.

We finally had to leave to get some rest. We are three days into the six or so required to get to southern Tonga (17*42S / 169 59W). We blow through Tonga on our way to NZ since we’re planning to spend next year cruising in that area.
As we leave the Marquesas, here are a few family photographs…

Carl Strange Avatar
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.

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"Bang" Repairs in the Tuamotus (#9)

30 June

Rebecca with her catch – a Mahi Mahi

Okay, okay, okay! I just checked the running “From the Log of…” and it has been a while since our last update. Just for your information, we arrived safely in Fatu Hiva and stayed for a few days. The morning winds, that blasted down the mountains, drove us away quicker than we would have liked. Since then we’ve checked in at Atuana, Hiva Oa, and spent a few nights anchored at isolated spots on Hiva Oa and Tahuata. We’re traveling in loose company with a British couple on S/V Hannakin.

The general plan in to be drift diving in the pass of Tuamotu island in a few days.

The locals have been very friendly in the small, outlying villages. The one larger town we visited wasn’t so gracious. Everyone has fruit growing in their front yards and we’ve had no trouble trading for limes, bananas, coconuts, and Pamplemousse. French baguettes are available, hot and fresh, at $.40 per loaf. Sadly, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, onions, and other vegetables are harder to come by. The locals have a few farms up in the valleys but we haven’t stayed in one place long enough to work out a trade.

The man on S/V Hannakin was PADI certified in ’92 and hasn’t been diving since. He asked for a class so we’ll work our way through a quick refresher course and head for blue water.

I have managed my first dive in the South Pacific. A short visit to a pretty reef at 40 feet then an hour of scrubbing the bottom. Our brand new Jotun paint isn’t working well at all. Our paint is black. S/V Hannakin has been in the same conditions with Red Jotun and looks great. Our theory is so much pigment is added to make the paint black that the copper/tin additives end up very diluted.

We’re still moving frequently to get to the isolation of the Tuamotus in fairly short order. Still, I’ll make time to sit down and write another installment of “From the Log…”.

19 July

S/V Hannakin in a marina

I’m well aware that you haven’t received any updates lately but I have a much better excuse than “the dog ate it”.
Sailing south from Marquesas to Tuamotus we encountered a squall with 30-35 knots of wind. The seas and winds had been building slowly and we were a little slow on reducing sail. We had the headsail about halfway rolled up when we discovered a crack in the only swage fitting on the boat. I’m getting a little ahead of the story – we didn’t actually see the crack until a few days after the squall.

I was hauling away on the furling line and Karen was handling the sheets when there was a loud “Bang” forward. It took several seconds to realize the headsail was completely missing. The top head stay fitting had exploded and the partially rolled up headsail, roller furling system, and several yards of lines had gone over the side. We managed to drop the mainsail before wind pressure took the masts over the side as well. It took a couple of hours of hard work in squally weather to get the failed rigging back on deck and strapped down. Six miles of motoring into the squall took us to a protected bay in Oa Pou where we met our friends on S/V Hannakin.

We spent a couple of days licking our wounds and figuring out how to make temporary repairs. There was no chance of support from the local village since some of the women still knew how to make rope by weaving shredded coconut husks. After several days of exhausting repairs, we enjoyed sea trials on our new rig. Friday we’re stocking up with whatever fresh produce we can find in the local village and Saturday we’re heading towards the Tuamotus. More permanent repairs will be made in Tahiti and we’ll be replacing a lot of bent rigging in New Zealand. But at least we’re a sailboat again.
After the three or four-day sail to Tuamotus, we’ll rest for a day or two. Then I’ll sit down and catch up on our stories from the Marquesas.

All’s well onboard – sorta.

Carl Strange Avatar
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.