An unfortunate series of events

Bill

I'm still in Fiji, the story follows:::::::::

well let me tell you what happened the other day, Monday morn to be exact. At around 0800 I was entering the channel to Lautoka and as I rounded the corner there was an oil tanker offloading oil at the main dock. It had two long cables out to the mooring bouys and it almost completely blocked the channel, except for a little bit on the edge. I was a bit confused, at first I thought I was on the wrong side of the channel marker and so I altered course a bit. But then I realized that there was room for me to pass, but I was now too far off the channel and the depth alarm went off. A second later, I was hard on the reef.

The tide was falling, so after a few minutes of reverse, then tugging with my 6 HP zodiac, then tugging with a village 40 HP boat, no luck, she was listing to port and the tide was going out. I gave the village guy $20 and got prepared to stay there until the tide re-floated her in the afternoon. Another village guy came out, he saw that I was preparing a cushion for Prism on the reef, when she laid down on her bilge, I didn't want any coral poking holes so I had a small tyre and lots of sinking ropes. He said he had bigger tyres, I asked for 2 and he brought them. I gave him $20 too. Those tyres saved my boat.

The tide went down, the seas were calm and so Prism just gently laid on the tyres. Later on the wind came up with a bit of a chop and so I put the main anchor out into the channel and then tied the spinnaker halyard to it. Then I pulled it in tight and the anchor pulled the mast down. This pulled the hull down onto the tyres even though the waves were lifting the hull up and down. As the hull was lifted up and down the tyres got jiggled a little bit and so by holding the mast over with the anchor, I was able to keep the hull planted on the tyres. Soon the tide was too high and the hull was lifting up and down on the tyres, so I released the anchor from the mast and the hull popped up a few inches and she was floating. I left the anchor rigged to the mast, though, because when it came time to float, if the tide wasn't quite as high as the tide I went on at, then I could lean the mast over on the anchor and reduce the draft of the boat.

Good idea, but bad timing. Shortly after that a ferry departed Lautoka and apparently it couldn't turn into the wind and get out of the harbour, so it dropped its anchor in the channel. Sure enough it drifted back on its anchor and sure enough it got turned around and sure enough it snagged my anchor on the way out. I had to cut the spinnaker halyard, and it screamed away. Then the anchor line came tight and it dragged Prism around on her keel. Then the anchor line started to make some cracking noises from inside Prism where it was attached, and so I cut that line too.

All the ground tackle was lost and it didn't come up onto the ferry. It was pretty straight forward after that, Prism got off on the high tide and I went to the anchorage and anchored in exhaustion. Next morning we dove for the anchor, no luck. Now I'm going to see the master of the ferry and see if he will re-imburse me anything for my lost anchor. Wish me luck.

Certainly no luck there, no sirree. And he didn't know where it dragged to, it never came up with his anchor. No he couldn't help with the cost of the divers. No no, don't know nothing, I pretty well expected that.

So we had another dive this afternoon, no luck, and one last dive is scheduled tomorrow at 8 AM. If nothing happens, well, another lesson learned at the cost of only money, nobody was hurt, nobody was injured. That's not too bad, just one anchor and rode lost in the crossing of the Pacific. I'll go to Australia and find an anchor and chain replacement, even better than the one I lost, and carry on.

This delay and the delay getting an anchor in Australia is going to make me way behind my schedule to get around the top of Australia and into Phuket. I can see myself spending the Austral summer in Australia and New Zealand. Perhaps I'm just tired right now and want to go somewhere I can cruise in comfort, like the Austral summer.



Yesterday first thing, I went to get my divers, but they had dove at night so they didn't want to dive again until 1 PM. So I dragged the pointy thing, or grapple, around searching for my anchor, I must have snagged about 22,000 plastic bags of mud, but no anchor. Then we dove at 1, two divers no luck.

I changed the fee schedule for my divers, now they will get $300 if they find it, but the $50 dives are over. One of my divers had a leaky second reg, he wasn't down very long. The other diver didn't find anything. So tomorrow they are going to dive for free, unless they find something. I might hang around until they give up the diving, dragging my grapple, hoping to catch that anchor.

After the diving, Tom invited me back to his house for Cava. so I accepted and had a great time talking to all the guys, no girls allowed at the cava. Talked to his grandpa, his friends, his brother, all went well. Apparently I am not the first yacht to strand on that reef. That's why I didn't get home till late. Tom's wife, Lucie, made me a very nice fish dinner to go, and I just finished that.

So it has been kind of neat, getting to know the people in the village of Bio, instead of sailing to Australia, as planned this week.

Anyways Bill, more will follow, I don't know when I'll get out of here.

Jim

Editor's note: the incident occurred at the SE corner of Bio Island, approximately 17d 36m 28s S by 177d 26m 08s E , pictured below:

Departing Fiji for Australia (or not)

Bill,

I'm a couple of days behind the departure date, I was stuck on a reef and had to wait for high tide, no damage except on very bottom of keel, and lost one anchor. Very tired today, after lots of work and gave up this afternoon on anchor search, so tomorrow is checkout.

I am leaving Fiji tomorrow, via Navula Pass and setting a course for Australia. I had planned to go to Mackay via Capricorn Channel, but the winds are not favourable for that course. So I probably will go to Cairns, via the north end of New Caledonia. I expect to be 21 days enroute. One soul on board.

Prism is in great shape, 100 gallons of water on board, 110 gallons of diesel, lots of food, two watermakers, EPIRB, flares, liferaft and VHF radio.

I have sent an Advance Notice of Arrival to the Australians and I have a valid Australian visa.

I might still be in New Zealand for Christmas, the delay in Fiji and the possible delay in getting a new anchor in Australia, might make it too late for hurricane season. Well, a damn good shopping at a cheap marine outlet in Australia is in order anyways, and who knows, maybe I'll find crew that wants to speed to Phuket.

Jimsh of Fiji.

More from Fiji

Bill,

I was out sailing around the islands here in Fiji, they are just spectacular. The waters are very treacherous though, the coral comes from way deep, straight up to a couple of feet below the surface. You can't see it when the sun is shining towards you, so you simply can't go towards the sun. The weather has been very mild though, but I could see that sailing around here is a very patient exercise, never leave yourself too far away from the anchorage in the afternoon, night sailing is firmly forbidden.

I had a great time in Musket cove, it's a real nice resort bay with 3 or 4 resorts around it. You can use the pool and get great burgers beside the pool. There is a neat little bar tucked into the palms near the dock, it has about 6 barbeque pits around the outside and free firewood. So everyone brings their own meat and salad, the bar provides dishes and tongs, and you buy the beer from the bar for $4 each. Some of the cheap Aussies bring their own booze in a plastic bag and that's about a cheap a night at the bar as you can get anywhere.

I met a New Zealand girl there, and she signed on as crew for 5 nights. We sailed north from Musket Cove to Wayasewa Island, took three nights up and 2 back. It was a a great adventure and lots of snorkelling, sailing, Kava parties ashore with the natives, and two nights part-taying with other yachties. I put her on the plane to New Zealand this afternoon, now I'm getting caught up on emails, shopping, getting fuel, getting water, getting ready to sign out of Fiji and set sail for MacKay Australia Monday or Tuesday. That should be a 18 day sail, so maybe I'll be there around the first week of Sept.

The winds have been very fickle for the past two days, here's hoping the trades build back in Monday for me. I doubt that I get any crew, nobody wants to go home just yet. However in Australia, there is every indication that I will get crew to help me go up the Great Barrier Reef to Cairns and then across the top to Darwin. I should have no trouble finding crew to get me to Phuket after that, and that should be the last few days of October.

Great idea to check out Rob and Carol's property up country, I would like to get there some day myself. When you are there, ask Carol to email me, I lost her address again, and that address at the college doesn't work.

No other news to report, Prism is doing well after the four days on the hard at Vuda Point Marina, cost a few bucks but she looks good underneath. Actually Prism is doing very well, she hasn't caused any real problems lately from anything. I'm looking forward to a great sail to Australia, I got all the paper charts all the way. I traded a cheap bottle of rum to an Aussie, and got three nice paper charts in return.

OK, send me some news of Mom, I don't get any news of Mom from anyone, not one of my siblings sends me a single sentence saying how our Mom is, do none of you care about dear old Mom, do none of you have a single scrap of information? Did you go to her birthday?

Your brother, jim

Fiji

Still working hard on Prism whilst it's out of the water on the hard, the bottom is almost finished, the prop shaft is back in, lots of good work got done, but long hard days of work,,,,and I'm not as accustomed to that as I used to be.