September 2002 Fiji
It was six days hard on the wind with a gale in the middle. Had to heave to on the 4th day to wait for a wind shift and to avoid getting blown too far down wind of the island group. We blew out 2 jibs during the gale. (I have to have a bit of a yarn with my sail maker in Hong Kong. They were both new sails.) Half the crew of 8 was down with seasickness or a tummy bug.
The wind eventually moderated and backed to the east. We had to crank up the "Iron Topsail" and motor sail the last 70 miles. Finally made the group just before midnight on the 6th day and came to anchor off a little island called Mala a few miles south of Vava'u. Since then we spent about a week in Neiafu seeing the sights on the main island and stocking up on fresh veggies from the market. The damage from the New Year's eve cyclone was evident. There was a noticeable thinning of the palm tree population. Some of the older buildings and homes were just not there anymore, including about 20 meters of storefront along the main street.
Everyone has a cyclone story. Apparently the eye of the storm passed right over the island about midnight on New Years eve. There were 160-knot winds. Almost everyone had a damaged or missing roof. Some of the small traditional villages were completely obliterated. A yachtie named Nick I met last year stayed the season and moved in with a local woman. The roof was ripped completely off their house then they spent the rest of the cyclone standing chest deep in the fresh water tank. His yacht drug a 2-ton mooring block and a 50-kilo anchor a half mile and fetched up under a cliff just 3 meters short of the reef! However 16 other boats were not so lucky. The good part is that no one was killed. Everyone figured that because it all happened at night everyone stayed inside when the eye passed over and so were not injured by flying roof tops and other debris when the storm resumed. The other good part is that Tahiti and New Zealand sent workers and materials to rebuild the place.
We spent a week visiting several anchorages then returned to Nieafu so 4 crew could catch their airplanes. Then we picked up 6 crew and headed back out to explore new places. We are now anchored in a beautiful lagoon on the southeast corner of Pangi Moto. Looking past the white sand beach of front of us there are islands all around us. Without knowing otherwise you might think we were anchored in a small lake, the water as calm as a millpond.
It is a bit after 5 a.m. I am presently on anchor watch. I just had to move the computer from the chart table to the radio shack to receive the daily weather fax from New Zealand. That done it's back to the chart table.
The wind eventually moderated and backed to the east. We had to crank up the "Iron Topsail" and motor sail the last 70 miles. Finally made the group just before midnight on the 6th day and came to anchor off a little island called Mala a few miles south of Vava'u. Since then we spent about a week in Neiafu seeing the sights on the main island and stocking up on fresh veggies from the market. The damage from the New Year's eve cyclone was evident. There was a noticeable thinning of the palm tree population. Some of the older buildings and homes were just not there anymore, including about 20 meters of storefront along the main street.
Everyone has a cyclone story. Apparently the eye of the storm passed right over the island about midnight on New Years eve. There were 160-knot winds. Almost everyone had a damaged or missing roof. Some of the small traditional villages were completely obliterated. A yachtie named Nick I met last year stayed the season and moved in with a local woman. The roof was ripped completely off their house then they spent the rest of the cyclone standing chest deep in the fresh water tank. His yacht drug a 2-ton mooring block and a 50-kilo anchor a half mile and fetched up under a cliff just 3 meters short of the reef! However 16 other boats were not so lucky. The good part is that no one was killed. Everyone figured that because it all happened at night everyone stayed inside when the eye passed over and so were not injured by flying roof tops and other debris when the storm resumed. The other good part is that Tahiti and New Zealand sent workers and materials to rebuild the place.
We spent a week visiting several anchorages then returned to Nieafu so 4 crew could catch their airplanes. Then we picked up 6 crew and headed back out to explore new places. We are now anchored in a beautiful lagoon on the southeast corner of Pangi Moto. Looking past the white sand beach of front of us there are islands all around us. Without knowing otherwise you might think we were anchored in a small lake, the water as calm as a millpond.
It is a bit after 5 a.m. I am presently on anchor watch. I just had to move the computer from the chart table to the radio shack to receive the daily weather fax from New Zealand. That done it's back to the chart table.
