June 2006 Suva to Port Vila
We had planned a one-week stay in Suva. Anchored off the Royal Suva Yacht Club the new crew had a chance to practice their rowing skills. Our flat-bottomed, keel-less, “Tinny” was built to run an outboard engine. Instead we had bought four used 4-metre long fiberglass sweeps from a rowing club in Pago Pago. It required practice and coordination to make the boat track in a straight line and strength to make headway in a fresh breeze.
We used traditional boat commands such as, “toss oars”, “out oars” and “give-way together”. At first there is much flailing and crashing of oars. At times someone’s oar might be too deep to recover in time. The novice rower being swept off their seat into the bottom of the dingy. The term for this is “catching crabs”.
After a few days practice, coordination sets in, oar blades feathered into the wind, the almost forgotten art of rowing is demonstrated to the people on shore and riding in other dingys. We are usually the only rowboat in the anchorage.
Our damaged steering gear was sent ashore the second day in port. The one-week repair job took over two weeks. It took nearly that amount of time to find, buy and stow 4 months of food for our planned Project MARC expeditions.
Two weeks and a day after we arrived in Suva we tied up to Prince’s Wharf to take on 2-tons of fuel and depart for the 570-mile passage to Port Vila.
Joining the crew in Suva was Sarah and Sean returned from New Zealand, Gabriel and Yong from Canada and Jonny from the States.
After some careful navigation through Mbengga Passage at night we left Vite Levu astern in the mist by the next morning. Weather fronts from New Zealand were feeding cool, fresh breezes into the tropical trade winds. Running before a 3 to 4 meter sea and moderate to fresh winds we made the passage to Port Vila in one week to the hour.
After meetings with Dr. Henk and a pizza feed on shore we loaded several tons of construction materials and medical supplies. Our main saloon became the cargo hold. Our galley will become an operating room. Our transformation to floating clinic had begun.
We used traditional boat commands such as, “toss oars”, “out oars” and “give-way together”. At first there is much flailing and crashing of oars. At times someone’s oar might be too deep to recover in time. The novice rower being swept off their seat into the bottom of the dingy. The term for this is “catching crabs”.
After a few days practice, coordination sets in, oar blades feathered into the wind, the almost forgotten art of rowing is demonstrated to the people on shore and riding in other dingys. We are usually the only rowboat in the anchorage.
Our damaged steering gear was sent ashore the second day in port. The one-week repair job took over two weeks. It took nearly that amount of time to find, buy and stow 4 months of food for our planned Project MARC expeditions.
Two weeks and a day after we arrived in Suva we tied up to Prince’s Wharf to take on 2-tons of fuel and depart for the 570-mile passage to Port Vila.
Joining the crew in Suva was Sarah and Sean returned from New Zealand, Gabriel and Yong from Canada and Jonny from the States.
After some careful navigation through Mbengga Passage at night we left Vite Levu astern in the mist by the next morning. Weather fronts from New Zealand were feeding cool, fresh breezes into the tropical trade winds. Running before a 3 to 4 meter sea and moderate to fresh winds we made the passage to Port Vila in one week to the hour.
After meetings with Dr. Henk and a pizza feed on shore we loaded several tons of construction materials and medical supplies. Our main saloon became the cargo hold. Our galley will become an operating room. Our transformation to floating clinic had begun.