can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

American Spirit II - Day 184; Stormy Monday Night, School/Village Tour & Dinner on II Audeacious; Tuesday, July 8, 2014



Up at 7:30 AM. Windy, gusting 30+; 2-3 foot waves in the anchorage. Reef 100 yards behind us. Hope anchor holds.

During the night before sunrise Vivo, Sweet Pearl, NDS Darwin and Kathea came in. Other than Sweet Pearl, the rest had left Fiji a day later than the rest of us. Saturday instead of Friday. Vivo left Saturday because Mike's wife, Dawn, had a flight out of Nadi Saturday evening. NDS Darwin didn't leave Friday because Nuno told me its unlucky to leave port on a Friday. A lot of sailors hold this superstition. At any rate, Vivo had wind gusts of 55 knots; NDS Darwin had gusts of 60 knots; and Kathea had one gust of 80 nots. In the process Kathea lost their jib. Gone. Blown away. At least that's the rumor I heard. I hope its not true. Mike on Vivo said for a number of hours he was sailing under bare poles (no sails up) and doing 6 knots. The Rally weather forecaster had predicted higher winds Monday night. Again, the fleet left a day early for Tanna because the last day of the crossing didn't look good due to the low pressure system heading our way.

Coffee followed by breakfast of scrambled eggs; chilled fruit cocktail and bread. Angela gave me an idea on how to see if eggs you want to eat are still OK to eat. Just put the egg in a cup of water. If it sinks, its OK to eat. If it floats on the surface, not good to eat. If if floats between the bottom and the top, be careful. Probably OK to eat, just do so sooner rather than later. Thank you Angela.

Cleared in with Custom's and Immigration at 10:00 or 10:30 AM in the Port Resolution Yacht Club located on a cliff top overlooking Resolution Bay. Charlie from Celebrate drove us in on his center console motor boat. He doesn't have a dingy like we do. With a 58 foot boat you can have bigger toys. While up there Charlie showed me a couple of spots on his back. An obvious staph infection. Is any boat NOT getting these sort of infections? During this clearance process the wind changed 180 degrees in the anchorage, and a couple of boats almost collided in the process. Two had to move to a different anchorage location as a result. Nexus apparently had a close call. Once back at the boat around 12:15 PM a Custom's officer came out and after checking some more paperwork and filling out another form or two, we were done with check in. Once that is done we lowered the yellow quarantine flag being flown on our port shroud. All ships have to fly this flag when entering a country for the first time. Even cruise ships.

Lunch on board at 12:55 PM consisted of a can of baked beans and spaghetti; plus bread.

At 1:35 PM after inflating our dingy and putting on the electric motor, we dingied in to shore for the school/village tour. The tour started at 2:00 PM, and we walked thru areas with thatched huts; a school that was in session; a soccer field being used; a white sand beach with tons of pumice rock (rock that floats and is from the nearby volcano)littering the sand; and then we stopped at a coffee house for coffee, tea, bananas and cookies. Lauren from Nexus joined Joel, Angela, Chet and myself.

At 4:20 PM we delivered Lauren back to Nexus via our dingy. Chet and Angela then showered while I took a nap and Joel played solitaire on his phone.

At 6:00 PM we went to II Audeacious for dinner. The Ramsey's from Folie a Deux joined us: Tim, Tracey, Brian and Lucy. Dinner was salad, spaghetti and mahi mahi. Marianne supplied the spaghetti and Tracey the mahi mahi. Plus chips and salsa, nuts, and fudge for dessert. And don't forget the champagne. Thank you Tommy and Marianne. We returned to our boat at 9:40 PM. Still cloudy and windy. We were supposed to visit the volcano on Tanna at sunset today, but that was canceled due to the weather.

Lights out at 10:00 PM.

Brian Fox




Previous | Next