Friday, July 26, 2013

Back at Vuda Point Marina

After being home in Canada for a family wedding, we were glad to return to Sea Turtle at Vuda Point Marina (Fiji).

Jordan kept busy adapting the dinghy wheels for our new dinghy that we bought in New Zealand. He also replaced the canvas windvane on our Saye's Rig with a more effective rigid wooden paneled one. He even applied a vinyl stick-on Canadian flag to it. Next, he did some refinishing of the cockpit teak cap rail and painted the interior of the cockpit. I kept busy inside.

Staying at Vuda has a few idiosyncrasies. Especially at full moon when the tide changes are so dramatic. Some mornings and/or evenings, I couldn't even get off the boat for a few hours! When the tide was really low, I couldn't reach up to the stationary pier; and when the tide was really high, I couldn't drop down to the pier.

Too far for me to drop

Also at Vuda, you have REALLY close neighbours. On windy days when boats are being pushed together, the only thing separating boats are their fenders. On calm days, there is a little more space between boats but usually only about 30 cm (12 inches). But we have enjoyed our stay here and would come again.

Several boats here are resting in the ground to be secure in the event of a direct cyclone hit as they had last season. A hole is dug and lined with tires for protection and the boat is lowered down into the hole. Some older boats appear sadly to have been resting for a very long time, as though floating in dirt.

Dirt moored

We've been checking the news online hoping for some positive news about our lost friends on the historic SV NiƱa. They left Opua New Zealand heading for Australia (just before we left NZ heading for Fiji) and are seriously overdue, and by officials, are presumed lost. They have long since called off the search. We're hoping to one day read about discovering the 7 missing persons in their life raft, floating along...stranger things have happened and our prayers go out.

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