February and March were devoted to land travel in New Zealand, although I stopped in Fiji in both directions to check on the boat.  I “purchased” a small motorhome with a guaranteed buy-back and drove around New Zealand for six weeks.  I didn’t see everything in New Zealand but I saw almost everything!  It is a beautiful country, and quite small (about the size of California, but on two islands).  My travels included the northernmost point of the North Island, Cape Reinga, and the southernmost point on the South Island, Bluff, a “flightseeing” tour over Mount Cook and the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, beautiful beaches, volcanoes near Lake Taupo, and lots of sheep!  The cities were also interesting, especially Wellington, the capitol, and Auckland, the principal city.  Over 25 % of the country’s population lives in Auckland and its suburbs.

In May I returned to Fiji for a planned two-month cruise.  This became a five-month cruise, as three Fijians and I cruised most of the island groups:  the Mamanucas, the Yasawas, the north coast of Viti Levu, the south and east coasts of Vanua Levu (including a bit of time in Savusavu), and other islands including Taveuni, Qamea, Koro and Kadavu.  The latter is the southwestern-most island in the group and is not often visited by yachts; we were the only yacht in the anchorages most of the time.

After returning to Suva and then to Vuda Point we prepared for departure to Vanuatu.  Ray from California joined the boat for several weeks and one of the Fijian crew, Petero, continued on.  We enrolled in the Musket Cove-Port Vila Yacht Regatta, a group of about 35 boats.  As we were one of the smallest boats, I expected to finish last…and we did.  The most exciting part of this four-day trip occurred when the chain broke on the main steering gear.  I quickly rigged the emergency tiller and we began to learn how to use it.  I then concluded that the inside steering wheel was independent of the chain/cable system which had broken, so we were able to steer from the pilothouse for the remaining 16 hours of the trip. 

We spent a month in Port Vila, partly because of the time it took to order and install the new steering system and also install a new below-decks autopilot.  A most exciting trip was flying over an active volcano on a nearby island and stopping at another island for lunch and a swim/snorkel with the dugongs (a type of manatee).  Lunch was good, but the dugongs didn’t materialize.

The next leg of the trip was from Vanuatu to New Caledonia.  Weather patterns had been strange in the Pacific in both 1998 and 1999, and the wind seldom blew from the expected southeasterly direction.  Generally, the winds were from the east or north of east.  Until this leg, when our heading was almost due south.  Then the winds shifted to the southeast so that we had to sail into the wind for three days!  Our arrival in Noumea was a little challenging; we had been experiencing some problems with dirty fuel and were unable to use the engine for the last few hours of the trip.  Fortunately, we were able to sail into the anchorage and anchor successfully.  The harbormaster brought us to the dock the next morning, where we met several old cruising friends and some new ones.  Petero changed the fuel filters the next day and we were back in business.

Noumea was the nicest city in the South Pacific. It was clean and modern, with great facilities for yachts.  The marina was located a block from the open market, which was the nicest I’d seen:  concrete floors, tiled counters, stylish enclosures and “flushed” every day.  The variety of fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and baked goods was incredible…and edible!  We were quite tempted to spend the upcoming cyclone season in New Caledonia rather than Australia, but finally decided to push on.

The last passage of 1999 took seven days and included two of the most beautiful days I’ve spent on the ocean.  The sea was so calm that it looked like a lake, and the sunrises and sunsets (always the most beautiful times on the ocean) were unusually spectacular.  Of course, we paid for the beauty the next day, when both winds and seas built up as a front moved through.  We arrived at the head of Moreton Bay around midnight and fought the outgoing tide for the next six hours as we headed for Scarborough, our port of entry into Australia. 

Scarborough is adjacent to Redcliffe, and both are suburbs of Brisbane.  Our intention was to spend the cyclone season in one of the other marinas but, like several of our friends, we found the almost-new marina in Scarborough to be so nice that we elected to stay there.  (As did the others, we drove to other marinas such as Mooloolaba, Manley, Southport and the Brisbane River, but these visits merely reinforced our decision to stay in Scarborough).  It was further reinforced when we had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner attended by at least 30 cruisers.

Petero returned to Fiji at the beginning of December; I purchased a pop-top van that was equipped for camping and began my land travels in Australia.  Joined by Myron, who had been crewing on different yachts over the prior two seasons, I drove to Townsville to see friends.  We went up via inland roads and returned along the coast, stopping at every marina to check them out for next year’s trip and to see which of our friends were staying in each.  We did see several familiar boats, but usually the owners were traveling, as were we.  This was a nice two-week trip, which got us back to Scarborough shortly before Christmas.  Christmas Dinner was another great potluck, but it did seem strange to have Christmas dinner using the “barbie” on the beach!

Dean arrived in Sydney the day after Christmas and we spent four days sightseeing in Sydney.  We returned to Scarborough and celebrated New Year’s Eve in the cockpit of Knot Yet watching fireworks on the marina breakwater.

Top of Page