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American Spirit II - Day 160; Tonga Customs Issue Resolved and a Rough Ride to Port Denarau; Saturday, June 14, 2014



Up at 6:20 AM. Breakfast me only. Eggs and bread. At 7:20 AM Joel drove me in the dingy to the yacht club, where I went to get a cab to go to the Customs office in downtown Suva. Getting a cab was difficult because every taxi cab that passed by out front was occupied already. I finally got one. Traffic was really heavy, like rush hour on a weekday, because today was market day and everyone was going downtown to buy fruits and vegetables. The market was right adjacent to where I was going, which didn't help in my getting there any faster.

I got to the Customs office before 8:00 AM, and no one was there. 9:00 AM,no one there. 9:30 AM,no one there. Finally, a lower level employee arrived and let me into the office around 10:00 AM. No matter. I had already talked to Lisa from the Tropicana Cafe in Tonga, and she was already in the Tonga customs office trying to push my paperwork thru. Finally, the customs official in Tonga let her sign my name to my boat's clearance paperwork. She then emailed it from her restaurant to the Fiji customs office. However, they couldn't print it in the office because none of their printers were working. But they had the clearance paper I needed on the screen, and that was good enough. By 11:00 AM I had my paperwork approved by Fiji customs and was heading back to the yacht club.

We drove by the Presidential Mansion up on a hill, and it looked as magnificent as our White House. Very impressive.

Once back at the boat Joel and I 'fueled' the boat. Meaning, we put the fuel from 8 jerry cans into the main tank on the boat. Took about 45 minutes to do this. We then had lunch at 1:10 PM, freeze dried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes. After deflating the dingy and putting it below, we got ready to depart Suva. Before doing so, I loaned Marianne from II Audeacious my collection of Have Gun Will Travel DVD's.

At 2:10 PM we got off the mooring ball and departed Suva. It was raining at the time, and visibility was poor. As we motored out of the port we had to keep changing course to avoid the derelict boats that were sunk all over the place. I guess no one in Suva is in a hurry to deal with these boats. Ships, actually. We had about 100 nautical miles to go, and figured it'd take about 18 hours; giving us an arrival time of 8:00 AM Sunday morning. The wind was 17 to 20 knots and the waves started out at 6 feet on the beam or just forward of the port beam.

The first part of the trip was the toughest, for two reasons. The weather was awful,with the boat rocking and rolling 30 degrees each way. And we had to go thru two passages that were narrow but that would save us 3 hours on our trip. Whenever we enter and leave a port, both of us are in the cockpit. Same thing when going thru a difficult pass or passage as they call them in Fiji. The first passage was called Mbengga Passage; and the second much more narrower one was called Beqa Passage. The latter passage was only a mile wide, meaning we had only a half mile on each side of us. With reefs along both sides of us, a minor mistake in navigation could be catastrophic. Conditions were so uncomfortable that I asked Joel how may non-sailors would be seasick in these conditions. His immediate response was 100%. He didn't even think about it. To make matters even worse, a non-sailor would be scared sh__less in these conditions. Fill in the blank. Even Joel and I weren't having a good time. You needed your harness on because you didn't want to get thrown out of the boat (by the rocking and rolling) and not be attached to it (the boat). But, as time wore on during the passage, you get used to crummy conditions. Within 3 or 4 hours, we were both OK with the lousy conditions. Once we got in the lee of a large island (and reef) to our left, the waves died down. But a few hours later they came back with a vengeance. During my 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM watch, the wind speed was a steady 19-23 knots, with 10 foot, steep seas. The waves were directly behind us, and every few minutes a wall of water standing 10 feet straight up would descend on the boat. I'd look back and see the wave standing over the transom, ready to fall in; and then it just grabbed the boat, we surfed, and the wave passed us by. With a full moon I could see these waves in great detail. Sometimes darker is better, because its harder to be afraid of what you can't see. And it was cold. We both had on full foul weather gear: pants, jacket, two shirts, and I even had on my rubber boots. First or second time in 5 months I've put the boots on. I guess it IS winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

At 9:00 PM a freighter named Liloa, a 374 foot ship, was on a collision course with us. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) was alarming and the image of the ship on my chart plotter was flashing red. Time to move. I changed course 10 degrees to starboard and the ship passed us abeam 1/2 mile away. That's close at night in the rain and limited visibility we had. Any closer than 1/2 mile and things can get really hairy, even on a clear day in bright sunshine.

There was a full moon, which made seeing the sea state easy. However, a negative is that the tides and currents run faster during a full moon or new moon.

At 12:13 AM the wind was still in the low 20's. To put that in perspective, at home in Florida when a weather person on TV says that the marine forecast is a 'Small Craft Advisory,' that means that the wind is 20 knots or higher. Most boats don't go out in conditions like that, if they have a choice. Trade wind sailing is 'Small Craft Advisory' sailing about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. However, since we're usually sailing downwind, that helps.

322 Days until home.

Brian Fox


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