Sheer Tenacity

Musket Cove

Situated on Malolo Lai Lai, to the south of the Mamanuca islands, this major tourist mecca for travelers to Fiji, started out as a major meeting place for cruisers. Today the financial impact of cruising yachts is negligible, but it still serves as a great place where cruisers can get together to socialize.

The facilities are all aimed, (and priced) for fly in tourists, and include everything from kite boarding and windsurfing, through diving to sky diving! Seaplanes, helicopters and high speed catamarans bring in shed loads of lily white holiday makers, and return them in shades from scarlet to golden brown!

Fiji’s international Nadi airport is only about 7 miles from Denarau, which, in turn, is only about 10/11miles from Musket Cove. It is only about 20 miles from Lautoka, and 15 from Vuda Point Marina, so is very conveniently located. It is only a 2-3 hour sail into Saweni Bay, and if one is lucky enough, one can catch a decent fish en route!

There are two other resorts on Malolo Lai Lai, Plantation, and another adults only resort, a time share resort, which is part of Musket Cove, plus a number of private luxury homes. Every foreign registered yacht can sign in for life time membership to be able to use the facilities.($5 for the skipper, and $10 for each crew member.) Dick’s Restaurant, the Dollar Bar with barbeques, cafes, watersport services, ablution blocks, laundry and garbage disposal make all make it quite attractive when one craves a bit of luxury!

There is a steady stream of cruising yachts passing through, some of which are a bit more “flash”, and slightly bigger than ourselves!

As is the case everywhere in Fiji waters, one has to be aware of reefs , but to my mind, another less talked about danger, is the speeding power boats, dive boats, taxi boats, who feel zip about speeding in and amongst anchored yachts.

There is also a busy powered pirate ship “Whale Tale”,(with token sail), which does daily trips, bristling with punters, between Denarau, and Bounty Island/Treasure Island. The skipper has no clue about “Rules of the Road” and

right of way at sea. Yesterday, while we were having a great sail back, doing 7.0 -7.5 knots, on a starboard tack, the idiot skipper felt he could pass clear in front of us safely, and give his punters a little bit of excitement to boot! He was wrong, and we had to harden up 30degrees at the last moment to pass behind hind, before reverting to our course. And clearly, we are not the only boat with whom he has played “chicken”, as we have heard a couple of yachts demanding over the VHF, that he makes his intentions clear! He is now referred to as the Whale Tale Wanker on Sheer Tenacity!

Perhaps he is a relocated South African Taxi driver?

Time out in Saweni Bay.

Saweni lies about 5 miles to the west of Lautoka, and provides a calm, clear, and protected anchorage in all winds barring the Northerlies. Here we were able to swim, and clean the prop and hull, using our little dive compressor, and stay well away from the sooty fall out from chimneys of the sugar cane mill in Lautoka.

Weekend at Saweni Beach

MV Kanaloa

The palm tree’d beach once boasted a fully functional hotel, in years gone by! The restaurants and bar which was frequented by yachties are now closed, and the hotel just rents out apartments, on a self catering basis, and even that seems to be only very occasionally! The beach attracts a few local families, and parties over the weekends, some of which went through the night!

Fortunately, the Autopilot problem turned out to be relatively easy to fix. Somehow, the hydraulic fluid in the system had become clogged with thick green gunge. I was able to bleed and flush it all out, firstly passing the fluid through some paper coffee filters, until I could find and buy some mineral based ATF fluid from a motor spares company in Lautoka. I then replaced all the fluid again with the new ATF, and we seem as they say, “good to go!”

Saweni Reefs......take care!

There are two distinct anchoring areas, with the reef protruding like an hour glass in the middle of the bay. These reefs are wrong on the Navionics charts, and poorly shown on most other electronic charts, apart from the Google earth overlays. The inner area can accommodate 5-10 yachts in 3-5mts, but the holding is apparently not uniformly good there. We prefer to anchor outside the hour glass reefs, in about 6-7 m, where the holding appears better in thick mud and sand, although we once dragged when we dropped our anchor on some rubbish!

Didn't see the reef!

In the brief time we have been there, we have seen two boats hitting the reef by cutting the corners of the approach. A big power cat was badly holed, and sank in the shallows, trying to make it to the beach. A twin engine taxi boat lost both its props 2 days later. The cat was temporarily patched and refloated at spring low the next day, and towed around to Vuda Point for haul out. We were also told that a 3^rd boat had hit the reef a couple of days after we left!

The reefs pose no threats to sensible yachties however, and the bay offers a pleasant anchorage, plus easy access to Lautoka for shopping and provisioning.

Sadly, litter is a problem here, as in so many other beautiful islands

This is what we do......there isn't a single refuse bin on the beach!

A $1.50 bus ride, at 8.30am, or 10.30am, takes you to the bus terminus in the centre of town, and a $15.00 taxi fare gets you back if your shop gets too much for the bus trip back! The 10.30 bus takes a longer and more rustic route into town, for the same fare! A cheap and fun way to see a little bit more of Fiji!

Waiting for the bus,alongside the track of the sugar cane train

Fly by pics through the bus window........

Passing the sugar cane train......

While there, we also met, and got to know Heidi and Wolfgang (M/V Kanaloa), who have done 5 circumnavigations ! Two in sailing yachts, and the last 3 in their 47ft Nordhaven motor yacht, “Kanaloa”. For the last 3 circumnavigations, their 3^rd crew member was their little Norfolk Terrier, “Zulu”, who joined ship in RSA! In the morning and evenings, we would see him perched up on the bow of the dinghy, as they took him to the beach for his walk. Sadly , his 13 year old heart was failing, and he passed away while we were there . He was buried at sea a few miles offshore, leaving his owners heartbroken, but full of happy memories.

Wolgang and the local cowherd de-ticking the ears of a gentle stray dog

On our most recent visit, 11 yachts forced their way into the inner anchorage, 4 of which were smallish yachts each with 8 people on board. It must have been a Rastafarian get together, given the long dreadlocks, hairstyles, yodeling and hollering, together with their clothing……or total lack thereof!

Maybe the cause of the yodelling? Poisonous watersnake swam by our boat

We came back to restock, escape the nonstop wind at Musket Cove, and wait for the wind to give us a decent time in the Yasawa’s. It is looking good for the next 10 days, starting from Thursday /Friday. Great!!

SavuSavu to Saweni

Departure point.....Cousteau Resort on Vanua Levu

Our departure plans from Savusavu were heavily influenced by the brief weather window (1 ½- 2 days), during which the “Strong wind advisory with rough seas for all Fiji”, was taking a break!

The burst holding tank situation also put us under pressure to find a safe, and somewhat “isolated “ anchorage, in which I could begin to tackle the malodorous problem!

Our plan was to do the 50 mile leg, around the Namena Barrier reef, to Makongai, overnight there, and then cross the Makongai Channel early the next morning before the wind piped up. We were warned that this little 12 mile channel acts as a katabatic funnel, which can escalate a 25 knot breeze into a wild gale!

Anchored off the village on Makongai

Leaving Makongai at crack of dawn

We had also wanted to stop over at the Naigani Island for a couple of days, but local sailing guru, Curly, said the natives were not too friendly! With cannibalism being one of their earlier culinary delights, and the wind predicted to pick up again, we gave it a miss too, and made for Nana i thake, midway along the north coast.

The route via Naigani takes one inside the reef which protects the north of Viti Levu, but the original paper charts, and the electronic Navionic charts (which we use on our chartplotter) are not all that accurate! Our first step was to plot all Curly’s waypoint’s for the route, and see how they looked on the chart plotter, and Open CPN, a computer based navigation and chart system. Apart from going over a few reefs here and there, it did not look too bad! There were also supposed to be channel markers in place, but we knew that 50% had been lost over time.

A channel marker in its death throes!

The final check was to overlay the route on the Google earth maps, which show the reefs more clearly.

Our route through the reefs on the north coast of Viti Levu

Along the way, we caught two mystery fish, the likes of which we had never seen before!

Torpedo Scad.....made a reasonable curry, but will be returned in future

Wolf Herring......very bony.....made fishcakes, but never again!

As it turned out, we had a good sail to Makongai, and crossed the channel motoring in dead calm! It was a really weird experience motoring through a narrow gap in the surrounding reef, having no visual reference apart from waypoints and depth. The last couple of miles into Nana I thake were incredibly winding and the opening into the huge anchorage was hidden until the very last turn.

We anchored a couple of hundred metres away from a big cruise stink pot, which alternated its deck lights between pink and gold each night!

Little did they or their guests know what we were about to empty into the water! Well, at last I could set about the horrible task of draining and removing the burst tank. It was a VERY NASTY job, which required taking the cupboards apart, disconnecting all the pipes, numerous swims, deep breathing exercises, showers, vast quantities of detergent and bleach, plus some psychiatric and language counseling from Mary!

The split in the holding tank!

At last the job was done, and I was able to re plumb the heads using my spare pipe and connections. Two days later, Sheer Tenacity was back to her sweet smelling self, with a fully operational loo, and the Porta Potty back in stowage!

Fortunately, we were well protected from the winds which blew strongly over the island, and by the time the jobs were done, the wind eased up, and we could carry on to Vatia Wharf, ( just a convenient night stop)and Lautoka, (the official clearance port/town… rather scruffy, smoky, and not very appealing as an anchorage!),