ell the weather changed dramatically, rain and howling winds from the NE. We dragged the anchor in Naqarra in the middle of the night and got up an reset it. We were on a lee shore, but the issue is, stay and sit it out or try and navigate around the west side of the island when there's no visibility? We stayed.
Afte two days the weather calmed down a bit, at leqst we could see, so we moved around to Nambawalu bay on the west side of Ono Island. Met the headman, helped him with his outboard. The transom of his boat is rotten and the outboard held on with one bolt. We drilled another hole and he had another bolt so that sort of fixed it. He said there's another boat, the new school boat and the holes drilled in the transom don't line up with the motor, could I drill that one too?..OK, so we went in did svsusevu with the chief, nice man, and then a tour of the village, really much nicer then most, and drilled holes in the boat.
The following day was pleasant and we sailed north to Beqa (pron. Mbengga)...great sail, reaching over 8 knots all the way and anchored in the inlet called Malamu Bay. There's a small resort here, Lalita, we went ashore met the new owner, a rather laconic aussie who's renovating the place after years of neglect, had a pleasant lunch and returned to the boat. Then it started raining and blowing, from the NE again ! It rained and blew for two days solid, we dragged the anchor again, reset it in 10m of water with 60m of chain out and sat it out - miserable. The problem is that the anchorages are all rock and coral, no mud, so when the wind changes and the boat swings around the anchor becomes dislodged.
By Sunday it had all calmed down, another yacht came in ..Dutch about 35ft, seemed to be solo. On Monday morning with no wind or swell at all (Fiji met still forecasting NE 25-30 and heavy swell) we motored off to Pacific Harbour and took a marina space just off the Pearl resort. There's quite a good supermarket just down the road, so today's plan is to go shopping.
Tomorrow, we'll head off up the Coral Coast, perhaps Somosomo Bay, Likuri Harbour and then on to Musket Cove.
Cheers from Pacific Harbour
Alan and Gunilla
-----
At 4/06/2018 20:20 (utc) our position was 18°15.33'S 178°04.03'E our speed was 0.1 knots and course 146T
Afte two days the weather calmed down a bit, at leqst we could see, so we moved around to Nambawalu bay on the west side of Ono Island. Met the headman, helped him with his outboard. The transom of his boat is rotten and the outboard held on with one bolt. We drilled another hole and he had another bolt so that sort of fixed it. He said there's another boat, the new school boat and the holes drilled in the transom don't line up with the motor, could I drill that one too?..OK, so we went in did svsusevu with the chief, nice man, and then a tour of the village, really much nicer then most, and drilled holes in the boat.
The following day was pleasant and we sailed north to Beqa (pron. Mbengga)...great sail, reaching over 8 knots all the way and anchored in the inlet called Malamu Bay. There's a small resort here, Lalita, we went ashore met the new owner, a rather laconic aussie who's renovating the place after years of neglect, had a pleasant lunch and returned to the boat. Then it started raining and blowing, from the NE again ! It rained and blew for two days solid, we dragged the anchor again, reset it in 10m of water with 60m of chain out and sat it out - miserable. The problem is that the anchorages are all rock and coral, no mud, so when the wind changes and the boat swings around the anchor becomes dislodged.
By Sunday it had all calmed down, another yacht came in ..Dutch about 35ft, seemed to be solo. On Monday morning with no wind or swell at all (Fiji met still forecasting NE 25-30 and heavy swell) we motored off to Pacific Harbour and took a marina space just off the Pearl resort. There's quite a good supermarket just down the road, so today's plan is to go shopping.
Tomorrow, we'll head off up the Coral Coast, perhaps Somosomo Bay, Likuri Harbour and then on to Musket Cove.
Cheers from Pacific Harbour
Alan and Gunilla
-----
At 4/06/2018 20:20 (utc) our position was 18°15.33'S 178°04.03'E our speed was 0.1 knots and course 146T