Will we ever leave Fiji?
This trip, I wasn’t welcoming the crew on board, they welcomed me! Many delays started right as the guests stepped on board, the first one being the absence of someone called Captain. Luckily, there was someone called Chief Mate aka Adrian who had as much idea about stuff on Te Kaihōpara as the new crew did. Leftover from last trip was Jim, who helped Adrian settle in. At some point last week, four kiwis and four Australians gathered at Vuda Marina. My fellow countrymen (from NZ) we have Suzanne, Jaq, Jim and David. From our cousins across the ditch we have Nathan, Jen, Dora, and Matt. There’s a big range in experience from owning boats, to being a sailing instructor, to having sailed once or twice to never at all! I can’t tell you much about the first few days after everyone arrived as I wasn’t there. Original skipper Iain was unable to do this trip at the last minute. I was called up to fly up to Fiji again and bring the boat home, after everyone had been on board for 2 days! It was another 36hrs before I arrived at Vuda Marina armed with a repaired engine salt water pump to fit before departure. The crew knew this was coming and had a plan in place to fit it - lead by Adrian with the help of Nathan, Jim, Jaq and Matt. It took three sweaty days to fit the pump and tension the belts correctly, such as tight space with limited room and light, without a professional! Superbly, it was done in time. There was a third delay as when I arrived on board to look for the departure paperwork, lo and behold, it was not there. After trying to clear out on Sunday and the customs agent saying they thought we had the paperwork but we thought they had the paperwork, the marina staff tracked down the missing documents and guess who had them? The customs offices. ANYWAY, it meant the boys had less pressure to get the pump working properly.
Finally on Tuesday, we had a captain, a working engine and paperwork to let us leave Fiji, 5 days after our crew initially arrived. We took our chance and were out of the marina by 10am. The marina staff gathered and sang us the farewell song ‘Isa Lei’, presented Te Kaihōpara with a garland and dropped our mooring lines for us. Into the waters of Nadi, we did a Man Overboard Drill and got our sails up. Motor sailing towards the gap in the reef, there was so much excitement from everyone on board that this trip was underway after so many days of waiting and delays. Out of the reef at 13:00, we put up the genoa and were welcomed by a SE swell which made the afternoon and bit lumpy and on a lean. Everyone very quickly understood what I meant about clipping on and using the handrails and we settled in for our first night at sea.
We are aiming for Minerva Reef, which is directly upwind and up waves. Might be a slow trip!
-Hannah - Captain - Te Kaihōpara
