Two At Sea

September 25, 2013

After a night with rain we woke up to a beautiful misty morning. It was humid but still cool, the feeling of damp and smell from the rain lingering while the lifting clouds draped over the mountains. We sat outside, had coffee, and burned a mosquito coil which is something we do these days when we sit outside. I never have much faith in these things, but lately it seemed to be effective. Plus the smell was pleasant, reminding us of burning incense or a campfire. It goes very well with this sort of atmosphere.

Below, some photos from our misty morning–Cyndi

September 24, 2013

After we anchored and enjoyed some lunch, Rich once again worked on our dying Torqeedo electric outboard engine, a long messy job in the cockpit. After he finished he suggested we take a dinghy ride around the little island next to us.

The sky had started to get cloudy by the time we got over there, but much like the Bay of Islands, the water around this island took on an ethereal glow under gray-sky light. What an enchanting spot this was!

Once again, though, we had that same fly doing the backstroke in the punch bowl as our post-surgical Torqeedo outboard was not feeling better. It died again and again, and finally we started to row. It looked like we may well be without a dinghy engine, but Rich had one more idea he wanted to try. Meanwhile, though, we’d be rowing. Thankfully we weren’t very far from the boat.

By the time we got back, big clouds were coming in and it looked a bit ominous. The water was kicking up some, too. Good thing we didn’t do this outing any later.

Below, a few gray-evening photos of the pretty blue green water around the island. (You can click to enlarge and scroll through gallery below.)–Cyndi

September 24, 2013

As we motored down towards the head of Mbavatu Harbor, the scenery became more and more impressive. The mountains were higher and steeper, covered with lush rainforest.

There was a small island up near the head of the bay, the shallow water around it a beautiful blue-green. We made an attempt to anchor nearby and found that the water went abruptly from too shallow to very deep, about 70 feet and didn’t have good holding. Getting more worried about our predicament, we brought the anchor up, moved to another spot, and tried again. This time it was much better, not perfect but satisfactory.

The silver lining to this situation was we were close to the dinghy dock and a famous stairway that leads to the top of the mountain. This was a trek we hoped to make while we were here, but (with our dying outboard) it would have been too long of a dinghy ride from the other anchorages. Thus, we really found the perfect spot. And besides, I think of the anchorages we looked at, this one was the prettiest.

(Below a few photos from where we ended up anchoring, including some photos taken during the following day’s hike up the mountain. Click to enlarge and scroll through gallery.) –Cyndi

September 24, 2013

Mbavatu Harbor is an impressively deep and mountainous bay, but in spite of its size we were soon to discover it’s not an easy place to anchor. (Below, a few photos of the entrance to the harbor; you can click to enlarge and scroll through any of the photo galleries that follow.)

Of three potential spots, we had chosen to start our visit in well-protected bay near the entrance to the harbor (generally referred to as the south or west anchorage).

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This turned out to be a beautiful bay, very green and lovely but there was a problem: some jackass had put a mooring ball smack in the middle of the bay, perfectly placed so that it was impossible to anchor in the reasonably shallow areas around it. Since it was too deep to anchor further out in the bay, we sadly had to turn and leave. (Below, a few photos of the pretty anchorage made unusable by the mooring ball.)

Next we headed to the other side of the harbor by the yacht club. Unfortunately, it seemed this club was open only when the cruising rallies made special arrangements to check in here (about every other year or so). Otherwise it’s unmanned; so we had no one to ask if we could use one of their several moorings. We thought about just picking one up, but we didn’t know if they were being maintained and kept in good condition. Could we anchor outside the moorings? No, it was too deep. (Below, a few photos of the yacht club area.)

This was getting downright unnerving. We decided to motor down to the head of the bay in hopes of finding a spot there. –Cyndi

(More to come in Part 2)

September 24, 2013

Today’s trip would take us up and over the top of Vanua Balavu to a deep harbor on the east side of the island called Mbavatu Harbor. Normally this would take 2 hours or so, but today we decided to take advantage of the sunny and still weather to head out the north pass through the reef. By doing so today we could create a track to follow if the conditions were less favorable when we actually did leave. We’d heard of people hitting the reef going in through this somewhat complex pass and wanted to do all we could to avoid the same fate.

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The trip up the west side of the island was beautiful, especially the mountainous little cove with a palm tree-lined beach I spotted. Soon after we arrived at the pass, and I headed forward to keep a bow watch as we made our way out. It turned out Rich’s waypoints were good and getting out was relatively easy.

After we headed back in though the pass and over the island we had some narrow channels to navigate so I stayed at the bow to keep an eye out for any surprises. It looked intimidating but turned out to be easy.

The ride took us along some very pretty coastline with green hills, craggy rocks, small coves, and the occasional beach. Below, a few photos of Vanua Balavu’s north coastal scenery (click to enlarge and scroll). –Cyndi