After a lengthy wait for the owner to finish offloading his personal gear last Saturday, we finally got on board around 5pm… just in time for sundowners! It could have been a frustrating day, but then a) we’re on Fiji time and b) what’s one more day when we’ve waited this long? Besides, not an unreasonable ask from the owner to have 36 hours to vacate his home of 6 years.
We stayed on the mooring in Denarau for the first night, extremely satisfied and content but also wondering what we would start finding the next morning. The first thing was that the mooring wasn’t booked, there weren’t any others available and no berths either. So that gave us the nudge we needed to get out of the harbour. We got off the mooring and left the boat at a commercial charter jetty while I went to Nadi to stock up on supplies and Richard refilled gas bottles and did the washing. The taxi driver became my personal shopper, carrying bags, helping find elusive products on supermarket shelves (I found golden syrup! It was with the coffee tins in the beauty aisle…???) and haggling at the market for me. $0.60AUD for a bag of tomatoes, or a bag of potatoes, or a bag of aubergines. Meat, chocolate and cheese are a different story. $9.50AUD for a block of Cadbury’s. Aaaarrrggghhh!!! I’ll have to forego the chocolate!!!!
After a sterling effort by Richard docking a cat for the first time in breezy conditions at a fuel jetty with a shore-hand who had absolutely no sense of urgency to grab a stern line before the wind blew us off the dock, we were successfully fuelled up for both the boat and the outboard. Then it was off out the channel, around the reef and time to anchor ready for wine o’clock. The first thing we noticed was how stable the boat is compared to a mono; so very comfortable. Already very happy with the turncoat decision to go to the ‘dark side’. We were less happy the next morning when we discovered that running nothing but the fridge overnight had the batteries down to 9.4V; impossible to start the motors to re-charge. So we waited a few hours for the sun to kick in on the panel, nervously checking the increasing charge on the voltmeter display with frequent regularity, willing it to go up. It only took a couple of hours for the display to be reading 12.1V and the motors turned over happily enough. We had intended to head out to Malolo Island and then Mana, but decided we would head to Vuda Marina to have the electrical systems checked out. We got the boat under sail for the first time and again were really pleased with the comfortable motion. We’ve been here five days now, getting systems working and learning about the boat. Monarch birds are now regular breakfast visitors.
So far we have figured out how to get hot water, get the bilge pumps working and chill down the freezer. The defunct washer/dryer has been offloaded in favour of cupboard space (hand washing it is then!), the alternator regulator on the port engine is now working, we’ve found a solar controller for the panel, plugs for the kitchen sink, and wine for the grog cupboard. Still no chocolate 🙁 We spent a lovely evening yesterday with cruising couple Kevin and Erika, on their way home to Mooloolaba on board their Bahia 46 from the Carribean. It was great to get some Fountaine Pajot wisdom from experienced owners. It hadn’t rained here for 6 months before we arrived, and it virtually hasn’t stopped since; we’ve found some umbrellas too! We’re waiting for it to clear up to send Richard up the mast and investigate why the anchoring and motoring lights aren’t working, then still hoping to get out and off to Malolo or Mana islands for a quick visit before leaving the boat at Denarau while we fly home. Or is that ‘fly back to Melbourne’? It already feels like home here on the boat…