Cousins

Now Hamilton - Let me tell you the real story of our adventure........
Ok Josh - I've also so much to tell about farming Cows and Horses

Home - At Last

Golla is behing the mountain of luggage!

ETA

Yup it's true!

The Simminators are due back in Cape Town on Friday 23rd October.

The details which I have are:
Singapore Airlines
SQ 478 ETA 10h20 AM - International.


This is subject to confirmation.

HOPE HARBOR MARINA

South Stradbroke Island

Trickey Navigation

I programmed in your co-ords, but they were a bit different from the position of the North East Channel as shown on my c -map (about half a mile north). Your initial points would according to my C-map plotter have taken me over a 1m sandbank just north of the NE channel, I uhmed and aahd.... but decided to go with my c-map instead as it had quite a lot of detail which usually means that its accurate. In the end I still went over a shallow 2 meter sand bank not shown on my plotter. The water was flowing out of the bay very fast, we were only doing 3 knots with both engines, this strong current is what dumps the sand just outside the channel and I think the sandbar shifts around a lot. Moreton Bay is big, it took us the whole day to get to Rivergate, we arrived after dark, buggered.
Last night we had a good kip, but we are not used to the cold, I ended up sleeping in a t-shirt plus a full track suit.
Today we spend the whole day driving from Brisbane River down to Hope Island, through a myriad of shallow channels, between Stradbrooke Island and the mainland. Its like the Florida swamps, just shallow channels, brown water and small shrubby islands in all directions. Once again nerve wracking stuff, but my c-map is accurate, we just drove with our eyes glued to the plotter, following a phantom channel, some dodgy channel markers, sometimes we only had 2 feet of water under the keel.
We could not make it to Hope Island Marina, when we came past Cabbage Tree Point (I wont blame you if you've never heard of this place) it was 5pm, and we decided to call it a day and dropped the anchor for the night. This is the land of mullet hairstyles, swamp breath, yellow teeth, V8 Holden yutes and the tinnie on the trailer.
Our anchor co-ords are 27deg45.3S, 153deg31.3E, there are a bunch of other mostly derelict boats at anchor/moorings just north of us, we are near the entrance to a big marina complex called Horizon Shores.
Hope Island Marina is at roughly 27deg52S, 153deg20.9E http://www.blogger.com/www.hopeharbour.com.au
As soon as the sun comes up tomorrow we will drive the remaining 12 miles or so to our slip at Hope Island. We are going to stay at Rosa town house not far from Hope Island, we are booked in for tomorrow night already. So we will move off shimmi tomorrow. Snif, snif. Or Hooray!? Not sure, lots of mixed emotions at the moment as you can well imagine.

SLAP CHIPS & HAMBURGERS

When we left for Hope Island Marina yesterday it was with no food as Quarantine had cleaned us out. Golla and I decided that the Quarantine gentleman must have an amazing fridge, freezer and pantry filled with all kinds of exotic goodies. I mean he even took the frozen cheese and butter. So we all snacked on crackers, some more Shimmi baked bread, baked beans + cans of tuna during yesterdays 10 hour drive to Hope Island Marina. When we realised that we were not going to make it before sunset we "pulled over" and anchored at Cabbage Tree village. Hysterical. The first of the 2 shops said she could only serve us hot chips but that the shop 500m down the road had EVERYTHING. 500m no way.....give us $3 of chips...and so the 4 of us feasted over a massive pile of french fries served on a massive sheet of paper. THEN we trekked down the road to shop no 2 which had french fries AND hamburgers....3 hamburgers please....AND 2 carrots, 2 apples, 4 bananas and 2 avos....and strawberries. We cleaned them out. Gosh was so excited by the strawberries that he would not release the little box until we were back on Shimmi and then promptly stuffed them leaves and all down his throat.
I have never been to Australia so Cabbage Tree Town was all rather exciting!

CUPPA?

After facing some rather challenging times rather unsuccessfully we have finally found a cure. Just call out, "Anybody for tea?" When the sea gets rough and Shimmi is smashing around and we're all looking at each other thinking how are we going to get through the next 5 minutes let alone the next 5 days it's always a huge relief when G calls out, "Anybody for tea?" The kids are in on it too. 10 minutes later we're all sitting down dunking oatmeal cookies into hot tea. The amount of tea consumed on Shimmi is directly related to how rough the ride was.
It's not 4.45am. Indie has decided that the new Aussie Time is not for him...so I'm going to put on a pot of tea!
As soon as G wakes up we will drive the last 12 miles to Hopefully Hope Island Marina.
Chonny

Done!

We are tied to the dock up the Brisbane River. No more open ocean. FINALLY.

Last night was a rough ride. The waves ripped the one inside corner of the trampoline off the hull (broke the ropes which lash it onto the hull), thank god I did not walk there at night, it would have been a death hole. Just a nice man sized gaping hole where you would expect the tramp to be, exactly where you step off the foredeck to walk to the front! I re-lashed it with a fresh rope, its good as new, but OH MY GOD. A man trap in every sense of the word. Straight to Davey Jone's Locker.

Coming around Moreton Island was another hairy experience. The channel we used to come in turned out to be virtually silted closed, I think we are the first boat through there in many years, it was crazy, all eyes glued to the sounder, watching the bottom come up.

But enough of that. Here we are are!

We have been checked in, customs, immigration and quaranteen have come and gone. The Q guy took almost all the food on the boat and all the garbage. The fridge and pantry has been cleaned out. And we got this cleaning service for only 390 Oz dollars, what a bargain.

Off to bed. Our bodies wont know what to do with all the sleep?

Thanks so much everyone for following our little adventure, for all the encouragement, support and information, especially you, Trevor!

Thanks, thanks, thanks.

Can this be the last blog entry?

Big hugs

G

40 Miles to go and counting

It's 4am. We are 40 miles from Brisbane. Just making sure no container ship runs us over on this last bit. I mean after 16000 miles / half way around the world, who wants to slip on a bloody banana skin. So I'm like a super hawk bouncing around watching the horizon with not a ship in sight. Oh boy...tears are a'flowing chonny

60 MILES TO GO!

Day 6
3am local
60 miles from Brisbane
Yes, you read right, we only have 60 miles to go. Since my previous email 12 hrs ago we have done more than a 100 miles, setting a new 12 hr record for shimmi (110 miles). We will now definitely make it to Rivergate Marina early this afternoon with time to spare. Pheeew. But it has been a nerve wracking ride, white knuckles all the way, with shimmi broad reaching at close to 10 knots with a reefed main and jib. It was ROUGH. We considered turning with the weather a few times and just heading for Bundaberg, but that would add days to our trip, so we stuck it out. Now the wind is dropping and the sea state is improving, thank Huey. But even with no wind we will easy make it, and our last 24hrs will still be 200 miles plus, and that is straight line milage, our actual miles through the water will be heaps more. Technically speaking we are still on day 5 of our crossing until 12 noon. That means we are going to do Noumea to Brisbane (800 miles) in exactly 5 days, not bad if you consider that we did it going through a low. And sailing does not happen in a straight line either.
We are quite relieved that we don't have to anchor somewhere tonight. All 4 of us have come down with sore throats and snot noses.
But so what, we are almost on terra firma.
Good on ya me mateys
G

Nearly there!

It's now 7pm...both kiddies passed out. doing about 9knots and should arrive in Brisbane tomorrow late morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just cannot express what a challenge it has been. The Mount Everest of mental challenges. Golla and I are really proud of ourselves to have done Fiji to Aus with no crew (17oo miles). We have somehow all managed to be smiling at the end of each day. We will arrive in Aussie the ferals that we truly have become. First on the list is go buy clothes for all 4 of us!
Love chonny

Approach to the Marina

DAY 5 - UPDATE

Day 5 Update:
1330 Pm
position: 25deg31S, 156deg05E
175 miles to Brisbane
Its the final countdown...
We have punched through the low pressure, had to motor through some light winds, and now the wind has just swung through 180 degrees, a fresh breeze of around 18 knots from the SE. This means we are now into the next high pressure and we should stay in it until we reach Brisbane. The grib file shows SE winds exceeding 20 knots, so we started with 2 reefs in the main, just to play it safe. But after a while we shook out one of the reefs, we are now hurtling along once again at around 8.5 knots with a single reefed main sail and full jib. This is really good news for us, as it means that we may make it into port before sunset tomorrow. Wouldn't it be great to finish our shimmi cruise with a 200 mile day?
The downside is that the ocean is downright rough, we are all feeling wobbly, you can imagine what the ocean looks like when the wind goes from 25 knots NW to 20 knots SE within a few hours. Its a mess, and slicing diagonally through it at 8-9 knots is not really that much fun. Great for Wednesday racing around Cape Town harbour (when you know you'll be back in the bar within a few hours), but not so lekker for a prolonged family cruise. Its a constant adrenaline rush, with shimmi flying from one wave crest to the next, sometimes diving into the holes with spray and seawater washing right over the roof. After a while you just feel tired and drained, our bodies ache from the constant bracing. But we are NOT complaining, we happily take the speed with the discomfort.
Otherwise we all pretty much look like zombies, with sense of humour to match.

Marina with real beds that stay still and 9 hr sleeps

285 Miles to Go

FINAL DESTINATION - RIVERGATE MARINA - BRISBANE

GO SHIMMI GO!

Day 5
0330 am local
pos: 25deg03S, 157deg09E
238 miles to Brisbane
After motoring most of the day yesterday, we ended up having a sleigh ride for most of the night. A northerly came up, a perfect wind angle for shimmi, soon she was exceeding 10 knots and we had to reef. It was a joy to watch shimmi absolutely fly across the water at constant 10-11 knots, even with a reefed main and jib. I would have loved to have left her like that, to just GO, a wake like a speedboat behind us. But its not safe. I have no crew and this is a family cruise, not the Cape to Rio (which we would have won). So not long after that we reefed again, sailing for most of the night with a double reefed main and jib, doing 9 knots average in around 25 knots of gusty wind. Luckily not much sea came with the wind and it was fairly comfortable. Now the wind is dying and moving onto our nose. I shook out the reefs and we are motorsailing again, doing around 6 knots with 238 miles to go. Quite weird to think that neither Chantal nor I have slept for more than 2 and a half hours at a time for 5 days! And we still have smiles on our faces. Sort of anyway. Chantal made a delicious bright orange pumpkin soup and baked a loaf of bread. Josh and Indie are hanging in there, they have been absolute stars.
We were going to try and make it to Brisbane before nightfall tomorrow night, but that's not going to happen unless we average 8 knots all the way. Brisbane is a tricky harbour to drive into, I will need at least 3 daylight hours just to get into the harbour and find the quaranteen dock which is at Rivergate marina, halfway up a bloody river. So we have another 2 days and 2 nights ahead of us, we should be tied up to the dock by 9am on Tuesday, touch wood. Who knows whats gonna happen on our last 200 miles. Obviously we have to watch out for more big ships.
Do Kangaroos swim? Will they bite our tyres? Is it Sunday today?
G

Day 4

3am
3 October
pos 23deg56S, 159deg57E
390 miles to go
We are making slow progress in a moderate sea. No real wind. Just slowly motoring with one engine at a time against a 1.5 knot head current, doing around 4 knots average. Our grib files show that there should be westerly head winds soon, in which case we will basically come to a standstill. But the sea is not rough, just a bit rolly polly. Late yesterday afternoon I managed to fix and re-install a broken batcar which entailed removing the entire mainsail from its track. But we got the job done, servicing all the batcars in the process. A Batcar looks like a miniature version of a Eurail locomotive, they help the sail slide up and down the track on the mast.
Chantal defrosted some Mahi and we had a great fish and stir fried rice dinner. Josh and Indie are doing fine, although they are in much need of a run-around. Josh fully realizes that we are coming to the end of our trip, and he has a thousand questions about Sandbaai. He of course wants to know if we are going back to our old house and whether the people who are in there now are going to move out???? I have also assured him that they do sell Spiderman suits in South Africa.
Our 3 on 3 off system has kicked in, our bodies are now programmed to sleep in 2 and a half hour increments. At the end of this trip we will have a whole new kind of jetlag. Just call it fuckentiredlag.
Anyway, we have 390 miles of blue water and one low pressure system between us and Australia. At this speed we have at least another 3 days ahead. Does anyone have an email for Clive Calder in Oz?

Check These Links!

http://www.bigoceans.com/2009/09/30/tsunami-in-western-samoa/


http://sailblogs.com/member/thewanderer/

I'm sure that Golla & Chantal, having been regular donars to Surf Aid would like you to consider this.......
http://surf.transworld.net/news/padang-earthquake-relief-appeal/

After the last Tsunami Surf Aid was one of the first to respond to the Mentawai Islands which many of the Relief Agencies simply could not consider! This was headed by Matt George and (Cant' remember his name)...Billabong and Surf Magazine Ceo's who arrived with their credit cards and went into action. When I met them in Padang they told me of their uphill battle with the Government to set up proceedures for evacuation of the low-lying areas. Their biggest fear would be a grid lock of people trying to clamber to high ground - they tried to get people to understand that this must be done on foot and to leave their vehicles and RUN! Having been there and experienced their concerns also the concern of a "Academic" doing research on the very real threat of the next plate shift.......I would hate to know the full story of the devastating effect of the Earthquake/Tsunami on Padang.

Trevor

Sumatra - Padang - Where Chantal/Golla lived!

Eyewitness: Sumatra earthquake
Two British people describe the shock and devastation caused by the powerful earthquake which struck the city of Padang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Philip Proctor moved to Padang from Scarborough with his wife and daughter at the beginning of September. His intention was to teach English there. He says that experiencing the earthquake might make him change his plans.
We live about four or five miles from the centre of Padang. Our house was built around 1975. Older houses like this are much stronger and the amount of structural damage where we are is minimal. It's the newer buildings in town that have had the biggest damage.
I was in bed when the earthquake started. I just ran out of the house like everyone did. It didn't last long, about 30 seconds of very intense shaking. I could see the buildings moving and cracks developing in the road. The experience was too intense to really think about. What is more terrifying is waiting for the aftershock.
My wife was with me but my daughter was about three streets away with her aunt. As soon as the tremor stopped I ran to find her. I didn't think about it and just ran in my bare feet.
Many people left immediately for villages on higher ground because they were worried about a possible tsunami. About half of those who were left, including my family, spent the night in a mosque.
The house is ok, although we have no water or electricity. The electricity went off immediately and I don't expect it'll be back on for some time. In the past it's taken a week or so to come back on. We also have no water now. We've been collecting rain water and bathing in the river.
We've also managed to get hold of a petrol generator so we have some power. The rain has stopped now, but it has rained almost continuously all night. We managed to get 24 cartons of drinking water from our local street seller.
Some of the local shops and markets opened this morning. People were queuing up and we have enough food for a week - noodles and things like that. If we can't get more after a week I think we'll think about moving to another city, but I don't know where.
Dorian Bell manages the office of a surfing charter company in Padang. He says he is still in a state of shock.
I've just landed in Medan. I was desperate to leave Padang because most of the hotels were destroyed and there was no place to stay.
I spend two weeks every month in Padang, where I manage the office of a surfing charter company.
I was in the office when the earthquake happened. The building shook violently and I ran outside as fast as I could. It lasted about 20 to 30 seconds and it was very frightening. I went to the parking area and I saw the cars shaking violently.
The building itself did not fall down, apart from parts of the front walls, so we were very lucky to be able to get outside. All of the people working there managed to leave.
We gathered in the parking area and waited a bit to recover from the shock. Then I realised that everything I own is in that building - my passport, files, money, computer. I had to go back in.
The building was a mess - everything had fallen off the shelves, computers, desks, everything lying scattered on the floor. There was no electricity, no water, the building wasn't functioning anymore.
'Nothing standing'
I grabbed my personal belongings and left in a hurry. I went home - I rent a flat in one of the residential areas. Many houses on our street had collapsed. Three-storey buildings were razed to the ground. Whole chunks of the streets were completely flat; nothing was standing.
In the whole of Padang, 30% of the houses were completely destroyed and of those still standing 80% are damaged and may have to be demolished later on.
Our building was still standing, though it was tilted over to one side. There was no electricity and I found a complete mess inside. I grabbed some clothes and other essentials and went back to the car.
I wanted to spend the night in a hotel, but most hotels were destroyed. The biggest one was still standing, but it was closed. That was lucky, because that same hotel collapsed during the aftershock today.
I got in the car, drove to the office, parked there and spend the night in the car. There were five of us there sleeping in our cars. All over Padang people were doing the same. Everybody was driving up and down, everybody was out, people didn't want to go inside buildings.
My staff tell me that this is the biggest earthquake in Padang to ever take place. People were very scared. You have to experience it to know what it feels like.
One of my colleagues lost his house, but everybody I know is unhurt. I told my staff to go and take care of their families.
I don't know when I'll be able to go back; I need to get over the shock first. In any case, I'll be very cautious about going back.

Note from TW
Surf Aid is in action! They have an article which I’n not able to download!

The Horrid Groundhog

Day 3
2 Oct
11am
position: 23deg28.3S, 160deg47.6E
speed 3-4 knots
distance to go: 423 nautical miles
By midnight last night the wind finally went right onto our bum and dropped to about 5 knots. We dropped the sails under a full moon, having had a very good 36hr run of close to 300 miles. Since then we have been motoring, one engine at a time, doing 4 knots over ground against a 1 knot current. Yuk. The sea is moderate, but we are going very slowly, basically half the speed that we were doing before. At this pace we have at least another four 100 mile days ahead of us. But I think its going to get worse, tomorrow and the next day we expect westerly winds which is right on our nose, and will slow us down even more. Lets hope its not accompanied by a rough ocean, that will really be fun! We tried the spinnaker this morning, but there is not enough wind to keep it full.
Our 3 on 3 off watch system is working OK, Chantal and I are not too tired and we are able to cope with the kids during the day. Josh and Indie are doing fine, they are in the rhythm of the crossing. Thank god for portable dvd players.
Those earthquakes in Padang and Samoa really struck close to home. We were in Apia, western Samoa not too long ago. Trevor, maybe you can post that eyewitness account from Pago-Pago on the blog? Also the one from Padang, I wonder if our old house there is still standing? And what about Christina's hotel by the river? At least that is a very solid building, it was an old Dutch bank in a previous life. We hope everyone there is ok.
Cheers
G

15 stories of tanker only 4 boat lengths away!

Day 2
1900 local
pos: 23deg20S, 162deg10E
531 nautical miles to go
We've been hauling ass, eventually turning our first 24hrs into a 200 mile run, despite about an hour of light winds and a short half hour spell of motoring. We've been averaging a steady 8.5 knots. On the downside it has been pretty uncomfortable. You cant expect to charge across a rough ocean at close to 10 knots and expect a smooth ride. We have all been stuck to the shimmi couch, its not really possible for the boys to move around. You just got to stay on your back on or on your butt.
Otherwise we are all doing fine, the wind is clocking around to our bum now and we are loosing speed and starting to wallow. If it goes dead downwind I am going to drop sails and motor until morning, and then try a downwind run with my mortal enemy, the one and only Dr Evil von Spinnaker. So it could be a long night, watching the windex, trying to avoid a forced gybe and whatever else may happen.
This morning we were on a collision course with a massive ship going north, it eventually crossed our bow within 4 shimmi boat lengths. We waved at the crew on the ship up on their side deck, about 15 stories above us! Thank god it happened during the day. But we saw the ship coming a long way off, chatted to them on the vhf and informed them of out intention of going behind them. But it still turned out so close! And we are 2 vessels in the middle of absolutely nowhere!
Wish us luck on our second night with our little family in the middle of a lot of water!
Cheers
G

A report from one of the yachts - just for your interest

This just in from SV Gallivanter in Pago Pago:This morning (six hrs ago) we were shaken awake by an earthquake which seemed to have no end! We were aboard Gallivanter and tied side-to a big concrete dock in the heart of Pago Pago, American Samoa. And after living up & down the California coast, I knew this was no minor tremor. After the rude awakening, Cath & I walked across the dock and chatted with a few of our fellow sailors, one of whom said that he's just done a Google search on "recent earthquakes" and said that it measured-in at 8.1 and the epicenter was only 120 miles distant. We returned to Gallivanter and I turned on our laptop and searched the same website. Sure enough there it was... "8.1 earthquake - American Samoa - 20 minutes ago". I clicked on the "Show Map" option and noticed the epicenter was located south west of Pago Pago... which is located on the southern side of the island. Just as I was considering the ramifications of that little fact... all hell started breaking loose! Our boat was on the move! My first reaction was to start the engine and dash up on deck to see what was going on. I witnessed the water around us was rapidly dropping! Rapidly! In a blink of an eye, we were on the bottom and the boat was falling away from the dock! Three of our big dock lines popped and we fell right over into the mud - the entire basin we had been floating in only moments ago had completely drained! People were screaming! Next - the water came flooding back in at an even more alarming rate and the next thing I knew we were floating directly above the dock! Over the concrete slab and drifting toward a young lady we knew (from another boat) who was desperately hugging a power pole and up to her chin in swirling water! I told Cath to cut the two remaining dock lines with our serrated bread knife and to be quick about it! Right as I put the boat into gear, we were somehow washed back off the dock and into the basin as I advance to full throttle and we accelerated through a floating debris field of floating docks, fuel drums, sinking boats, a shipping container and a barnicle encrusted wreck all of which were spinning in the torrent of rapidly dropping sea level. It was absolute mayhem! As we steered out toward the deep water in the center of the harbor I looked over my shouder and saw what appeared to be a waterfall pouring off the dock and shore beyond. Not one of the dozen vessels remained at the dock. All were underway in a matter of seconds... with or without crews aboard. We motored around in the middle of the harbor watching the waves of floods & ebbs while wondering about after-shocks and our fellow cruising sailors. As we passed one of our neighbors she shouted to us that her husband had been washed off the dock as they were trying to get away. She was alone and seriously concerned. Other boats broke free from their moorings and anchors in the initial seismic waves and many were driven ashore, or driven under by loose tuna boats. After about three hours, we felt it was finally safe enough to return to the dock. All we had were lengths of old line and we were short a couple fenders. We were the first to go in and we started un-tangling lines and helping others get back along side the concrete dock. All of the store-fronts along the water are destroyed, roving mobs of kids can be seen looting, the fence around the dock is gone, every boat on stands in a nearby boatyard were washed away. Big fishing boats are now in parking lots across the street. Absolute destruction is seen everywhere along the shore. Phones and power are down but we got back online right away and I immediately went back to the recent earthquakes website to see if things have been calming down in the center of the earth. A number of aftershocks as strong as 6.0 have been recorded over the past few hours - but thankfully no more wave action has been noticed. We've been making Skype calls to our families and letting others use the computer as well to phone home. Online news reports say that the earthquake lasted three minutes and the highest flood rose 25 ft above normal! There are 20 confirmed deaths... including our neighbor who was swept off the dock. Most fatalities occured in and around the harbor where we live. Boats are battered and nerves are fried. One friend wound-up on his boat nearly 1000 feet away from the water after breaking from his anchor and sailing right down Main St. taking power & telephone wires down with his mast! Some people lost everything... including their lives. We came through remarkably well with only minor dammage sustained to our toe rail when the dock lines parted and to our fender basket which was the only point of contact with that drifting wreck. I never felt any jarring loads while we were hurtling around above & below the concrete dock, so I believe our hull, keel & rudder suffered no dammage from the wildest boat ride I've ever been on.

WHEW!

We are fine. Have not see any Tsunami effect at all here. It must have hit on Tuesday when we were still in the marina. Now we are 150 miles out at sea where the Tsunami can't harm us, so no worries from this side.

Day 2

1 October
4am local
650 miles to go
position: 22deg43.8S, 164deg11.2E
Dunno if you know, but this is the last voyage of us shimminators on shimmi! So have a drink on us and enjoy the last 5 days of shimmi blog. I hope its NOT going to be anything exciting. Just give us 5 days of good winds and boring sailing.
We did over 1oo miles yesterday in 12 hrs, a new record for us. We went right past a mono hull called "Splinter's Apprentice" as if they were standing still. They left 2 hours before us, when I saw them up ahead I asked them to take some pics of us under sail (we don't have any). We did the same of them as we went past. Hopefully we can swap pics in Bundaberg. I would like to see what shimmi looks like doing 9-10 knots under a full sail on a rough ocean, spray flying over the foredeck and our twin wakes leaving a trail of foam behind us. The lady with the camera had to hold on tight to her boat as we went past, so I am not sure that shimmi will be in the frame. I got some great shots of them though, even one where their bow is buried.
But now the wind is starting to die and I have just started an engine, gonna have a go at motor sailing and burn some of the diesel in our 'over full' fuel tanks. The sea is a bit better and both boys have passed out in their bunks. Chantal cooked a great spaghetti with tomato-brinjal sauce, I don't know how she did it in this rough ocean. We are on the 3 on 3 off watch system and this time we have a full moon to accompany us at night. It makes a huge difference if its not so bloody dark outside. That plus the fact that its not raining, we are stoked. But its not going to last forever.
According to our weather charts we are going to run into the next cold front by October 3rd, which may have headwind's of up to 30 knots. Uuuuugh. But they wont last very long, within 24hrs the winds should clock around to south and then southeast again for our final approach to either Brisbane or (Bundaberg which is 100 miles north). Bundaberg may just be a little easier to sail to, so we may do our check in formalities there and then do a 2 day coastal hop down to Brisbane which is where shimmi will be sold. We already have a keen buyer lined up (sale subject to inspection/sea trial/survey), with signed contract in hand, and a few more waiting in the wings, so it should not take too long to find her a new owner.
G'donya
G

On the road again....

Day One
30 Sept 2009
12pm local
Destination: Queensland, Australia, either Bundaberg or Brisbane.
Distance: 780 nautical miles
ETA: Around 5-7 days
We spent 2 days in Noumea doing a much needed food shop, 3 outings to the Macdonalds playgym and 1 outing to the Merrigoround, with Indie for the first time as Josh's co-pilot. The immigration officials looked at my lack of visa and gave me 2 days in New Caledonia, after which they graciously told me to F off. The joys of the South African passport. Chantal and the boys, being on Dutch passports, did not even get a stamp or a second glance. But hey, 2 days was enough, we had already black flagged it for a week! So this morning we decided after much consultation that we are going to go for it, and sail for Brisbane. It seems as if a low pressure comes off Oz every 4 days, we are going to run into one, no matter what. At least 2 other yachts also left for Oz, one yesterday and one today.
So after a fuel up we left the harbour at about 10 am with a stiff SE trade blowing, this wind is generated by a high pressure to the south, exact same kind of weather as in South Africa. Its now 2 hrs later, we are out of the lagoon and back in open ocean. The sea is rough, the wind is around 16-18 knots SE and shimmi is flying along at 9 knots under full sail. We cant complain about rough seas when we do these kind of speeds. But shimmi is bucking all over the place, Indie has just vomited and Josh will probably follow suit. Its looking pretty grim on shimmi right now, we all have "first day of the crossing" blues. The wind is just not strong enough of us to bother with a reef, but it makes for nervous sailing.
That's all for now
G

TSUNAMI

A REPORT FROM A YACHT IN APIA!
( I watch the chat lines of yachts in the area for info for Shimmi - (Trevor)

I am currently in Apia, Samoa at the marina. The earthquake hit this morning around 7am. It lasted for quite some time, the pontoons, etc rumbled and it took awhile to figure out what was happening. About 20minutes later the tsunami sirens started, and the town was evacuated to high ground. The marina began to surge, and two yachts left to avoid potential damage. Myself and an Irish singlehander waited around a little longer to see how the situation progressed. Apia harbour surged out to sea, fish jumped onto the docks, some boats hit ground and masts tilted. We were then told by police we would be arrested for not obeying orders, and went to Aggie Grey's hotel. We waited on the third floor for things to settle, and then was given breakfast... Things have calmed now, but internet has been down all morning, and I've just been able to get online. I do not have much other news as to what has happened elsewhere, I am researching now...That's all from here... Nick, Western Samoa.--- In mailto:pacificpuddlejump%40yahoogroups.com, "sv_followyoufollowme" wrote:>> > Local SSB nets have reported substantial damage in Pago Pago and Western Samoa... Boats at anchor in Pago Pago hitting bottom, cars swept from low lying areas into the water, low lying village in Western Samoa inunduated with possible loss of life.> > Below find current Tsunami warning..> > allan and rina> SV Follow You Follow Me> Tonga


TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 003PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWSISSUED AT 2022Z 29 SEP 2009THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFICOCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.... A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT ...A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FORAMERICAN SAMOA / SAMOA / NIUE / WALLIS-FUTUNA / TOKELAU /COOK ISLANDS / TONGA / TUVALU / KIRIBATI / KERMADEC IS / FIJI /HOWLAND-BAKER / JARVIS IS. / NEW ZEALAND / FR. POLYNESIA /PALMYRA IS. / VANUATU / NAURU / MARSHALL IS. / SOLOMON IS. /JOHNSTON IS. / NEW CALEDONIA / KOSRAE / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /POHNPEI / WAKE IS.A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FORPITCAIRN / MIDWAY IS. / CHUUK / AUSTRALIA / MARCUS IS. /N. MARIANAS / GUAM / INDONESIA / ANTARCTICA / YAPFOR ALL OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS BULLETIN... IT IS FORINFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME.THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLYNATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKEDECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA ANDANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

DUMBEA PASS

Chantal said this evening, that every day on shimmi is like an epic voyage, with a start, a middle, a climax, a fuckup, a turn for the better, and then finally, a happy ending, not necessarily in that order, hopefully with gin and tonic in hand by the time the shithouse goes up in flames. Today was one of those days.
We left our Kuare Island anchorage at dawn, we could see the white water on the outer reef, the swell had hit in full force. I thought I was going to be slotted within half hour, as Kuare reef pass was only 10 minutes away. Unfortunately it turned out to be a sloppy close out. And for the next 6 bloody hours we cruised in and out of a myriad of reef passes, slowly working our way north. Found a few waves that were just outrageous. Perfect lefhand death pit barrels, with 8-10 footers warping onto the reef. None of the waves that I saw on google earth's satellite images turned out to be good, whilst all the reef passes which I previously decided were not worthwhile, were the best, it just shows you. If any of you are going to cruise through here, email me for the exact co-ords of the waves. But alas, I could not stop to surf the best wave of the lot, a full on Teahupoo replica, which I named "The Mutant". Apart from the wave, which was totally clean, the rest of the pass was messed up, with nowhere to anchor. I drove away, a little bit relieved that I did not have to face that beast. And so it went, pass after pass, nowhere to anchor, with strong currents throwing up 6 ft standing waves in most of the passes. 6 hrs and 40 miles later we rounded Dumbea Pass, my last option for the day. By now the wind was well up, things were looking like snot. The kids already had enough of this pointless driving after 2 hours, never mind 6, but dad was hell bent on getting a wave.
Dumbea was 8ft and heaving. The wave comes out of deep water onto a reef which rises straight up from 80m to 2m in depth, even more pronounced than Teahupoo's bayometry. I managed to get Shimmi anchored in the coral right next to the wave, in the pass, with the strong tradewind keeping her away from the wave zone. I was not going to pass up on this wave. My coral anchor gear is a small Danforth anchor on a short chain and rope. Shimmi held fast, and I paddled out, with Chantal holding the fort. Not easy, with two boys who have been stuck on board the whole day already. But dad got his barrels, in the face of a mutiny, despite the strong wind. Dumbea is a long, class wave, it comes second only to Teahupoo, but then most waves do. I surfed it ace out, for 2 hrs. Where was everyone else? Who cares. The French keep their cards close to their chest, and this wave is no exception, I had no idea it would be this good.
We kukked to get the anchor out again, it eventually came unstuck with one bent flue. We cruised over to our night anchorage (only a half hour way!) which turned out to be a nature reserve island with mooring balls, so no need to anchor. Sweet! We all went to the beach for sundowners and a much needed run around, a happy little family at last. Have I mentioned that the New Caledonian islands are covered in sea snakes? Everywhere you walk, there are black banded sea snakes, up the beach, above the high tide line. They move very slowly, and even though they are very poisonous, they pose no threat.
It has now been 2 weeks since we left Fiji and our food stocks are running low... No snacks left to nibble on, no fruit, no gin, no more beer. On Monday we will go to Noumea and clear into (and out of) New Cal. We plan to leave for Oz on Wednesday, unless there are more of these crazy low pressures.
Au revoir
G

SURF SPOT 25TH SEPT

Surf's UP!

...And finally a surf!
We have been advised by NZ weather guru Bob McDavitt not too depart for Brisbane before 30 September, as the lows brewing Down Under over the next few days are to be avoided. In Brisbane right now they not only have strong winds, it is also coming from inland bringing so much dust that the visibility is very reduced. The cars need headlights even in the middle of the day. It is very uncomfortable to be out, the dust affects the breathing apparently. So we are happily hanging back here in New Caledonia.
Today we cruised from Isles des Pines around the southern tip of New Cal, which is a massive offshore fringing reef system surrounding a huge lagoon. We ended up having a fun surf in small waves on a perfect lefthand reef pass, we just stumbled upon it. Almost kept driving as it wasn't on my list of possibilities. On the other side of the pass is a massive old steel wreck from an old tanker or cargo ship, it should be visible on google earth. The wave is at 22deg55.942S, 166deg53.871E. It was small and low tide, a bit like the lefthander that Kahlil and Chantal surfed in Northern Fiji. But a perfect peeler, off shore on the trades, very exposed to the south swells. Should go off with just a hint of swell. We are now anchored near the wave, on a sandbank behind the reef. Bit exposed, but what the hell.
This outer reef system south of the main island in New Caledonia has been an eye opener, a myriad of reef passes, all offshore on the trades, all exposed to south swell. All too far from the island to get any local surfers at all. And get this: Some great anchorages behind a scattering of small uninhabited islands dotted along the inside of the lagoon, so no need to hack all the way back to the main island for a safe anchorage. Plus, the main island has a moderating effect on the wind, the trades rarely get strong. Makes for a great recipe for surf, don't you think? So much better than Fiji in this dept. I would like to spend a long time here.
Book your tickets my mateys, New Cal is the spot!
Will keep you updated,
G

We are waiting in the most stunning stunning anchorage at isle de Pines once again eating baguette and watching our kids laughing! Sometimes it does feel like it was all worth it!

Wheather or Not!

Simple weather forecast by Bob MacDavitt.
Bob charges 10NZ$ per 5 minutes.....takes him 40++ minutes to do a full forecast for a specific project.....he's very good! I get the weekly forecast every Sunday from him and onsend this to Shimmi.
I asked him as a favour to give his opinion for Shimmi..........

Weather is indeed Not the best for sailing New Caledonia to Brisbane over next week with those two troughs ... AT this stage it looks OK to depart around wed 30 Sep.

KUTO BAY

KUTO BAY - HOLED UP

Isles des Pines
Last night we anchored in a crazy spot, we had to wind our way through a minefield of big bommies, inside the most pristine lagoon, with a family of whales as company. Eventually we dropped the pick in front of the most beautiful beach, check out our anchor co-ordinates on google earth: 22deg39.455S, 167deg26.239E We took the kids to the beach, had a good run-a-round on the whitest and finest sand, then came back to shimmi for well deserved gin and tonics.
After a good nights sleep we raised anchor this morning, backtracked our way out of our achorage, waved goodbye to the whales and decided without further ado to set sail for Brisbane. Until we downloaded the grib file: It shows a potent low pressure forming in a few days just south of Brisbane. Not good for us, so we are now headed for another anchorage on Isles des Pines' south coast, the picturesque Kuto Bay. Its at these co-ords: 22deg39.455S, 167deg26.239E Its taken us most of the day to cruise around the southern Isles des Pines as there are so many outlying reefs. We caught a HUGE barracuda (let it go) and then a nice big Rainbow Runner which I scaled and will cook whole on the barbie later this evening. After the Rainbowrunner we caught another big fish wish eventually sawed through the 300 pound monofilament handline. That was the end of the most successful lure ever on shimmi: A white and pink skirt with a concave plastic head. Multiple yellow fin, Mahi and Spanish.
I am not sure now when exactly we will set sail for Brisbane. We will just have to keep downloading grib files until we get a good enough weather window. In the meantime we are going to gunkhole our way around New Caledonia, flying the black flag. Being under a black flag is when you sail around a countries' waters illegally, without having checked in. Tomorrow we will head for a possible surf spot which is 50 miles away, at 22deg47.765S, 166deg44.143E, and a possible anchorage nearby at 22deg46.584S, 166deg47.496E Maybe Trevor can stick a google earth pic on the blog will all these spots marked. Its well worth checking out.
Its 3pm and I have to do the final approach to Kuto Bay. Plenty reefs to keep me on my toes.
Cheers
Gol

DAY 6 Decisions...decisions????

0430 am (21:30UTC)
60 miles to Isles des Pines
position: 21deg42.4S, 168deg15E
course 225 degrees
Its our 6th day since leaving Wilkes Pass, The Voelklip of the tropics. Always a wave, side onshore on the south east, always nos, once every two years it really cooks.
We have been motoring with the jib up the whole night in a moderate sea. Right now there seems to be enough wind to warrant hoisting the main sail, but that can wait until daybreak when Chantal wakes up. I can hoist it myself, but its a lot of moving around deck in the dark of night, and I don't fancy a lonely swim right now. We have 60 miles to go and we have a good 12 hours of daylight ahead to do these miles and get the pick down in a good anchorage before sunset. That means we need to do a constant 6 knots plus which is doable once the main is up. Lets hope for the best.
Guess what last night's dinner was? Yep, fried rice with seared tuna. Ahead of us lies New Caledonia, an Overseas French Territory. Noumea, its capital, is apparently quite sophisticated. What that usually means is "expensive baguette". Yours truly does not have a French visa, so we are not sure what's going to happen on that score. But Chantal has a whole torrent of excuses which she will unleash on the unsuspecting immigration official: unforeseen emergency stop for sick kids, engine failure, fuel up, broken radar, "Is this New Caledonia??!....OH No, I thought this was Vanuatu!" You know how bad Chantal is with directions. 'Course up' versus 'North up' on the GPS has remained a big challenge for her, hahaha.
We are still battling it out with our 3 on 3 off watch system, at least we are learning how to fall asleep quick quick during those 3 hours off.
Can someone please send me a swell report for New Caledonia? Its exposed to the swell which comes up between Oz and NZ.
0800am update:
A nice light breeze and a mellow ocean. We are trundling along under full sail, doing 6-7 knots, our arrival before sunset is assured! Caught a massive bull Mahi-Mahi (Dorado, Dolphin Fish), had to gaff him to get him on board. Chantal had to hold him with the handline whilst I go down to gaff, it almost pulled her over the back of the transom! Took a pic of Chantal with the fish, not sure who is the biggest. We are trying to decide whether to go through the whole rig-marole of checking into New Caledonia (with all its related time wasting expenses), or just keep going for Brisbane (850 nautical miles away/6 days sailing). We are going to anchor tonight at Isles des Pines, download a weather report, then decide. Problem is that we only have 5 apples left, 20 vrot bananas, 3 zucchini, 1 small block of cheese, 1 so-so pineapple.... on the upside we have enough potatoes, and a whopping 8 big carrots. Our freezer is full of fish and we have plenty of rice. Enough flour to bake bread. A pack of stale biscuits. My fuel situation is OK. Our water tank is three quarters. What to do? Suggestions?
Cheers
G

ON OUR WAY TO ISLE OF PINES

We left Aneityum Island, Vanuatu, this morning at 6am. We have 190 miles to go to the Isles des Pines, the southernmost island of New Caledonia. Its an awkward distance, as it is almost too far to do with only overnight sail, but too close for two overnight's. Try figure that one out. Anyway, we are going to try our best to make it to our next anchorage before dark tomorrow night. As we left this morning we had a nice breeze and a rolly sea. Chantal's freshly brewed pot of coffee promptly fell over. Too make up for that I caught a nice 20 pound yellow fin just as we sailed into blue water. By noon the wind was messing us around, weakening and going onto our bum, couple this with a messy ocean, and you have an uncomfortable ride. The main sheet was snatching and jerking so badly that we eventually decided to drop the main and up with my mortal enemy, MR SPINNAKER. But first we sorted out the sock jamming problem, this we did by repeatedly hoisting and snuffing it, after each snuff we would find a new problem, lots of twists and turns, eventually its all sorted and the spinnaker sock snuffs smoothly. (Is that poetry?). But the wind was also not enough for the spinnaker so we stowed it away. Half hour later we tried the main again, but once again, more trouble than its worth. Is this starting to bore you? I hope so, as i am trying to illustrate the tedium that sailing is most of the time. Not to mention that its hard work man, hard work. Ahahahaha. Now we are motoring with only the headsail. Caught a nice Bonito which I threw back to swim another day. Josh and I strapped rapalas to the back of both black (baddy) and red Spidey (goodie), this transformed them into Barnacle Boy and Mermaid Man. The sea is calming down, probably cause there is almost no wind blowing over it. Our speed is down to 5 knots under one engine, at this rate we will arrive at the Isle of Pines tomorrow after dark. Not good. But between now and then, who knows what will happen. Hopefully a giant whale will swallow us and spit us out next to the Sydney Opera house. Or Quay 4 for that matter.

Do Not Disturb ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Howzit all
As it turned out there were no lights, no village lights, no leading lights, nada. We slowly came in through a wide pass, eyes glued to the sounder and straining to make out any kind of shape in the gloom around us. We crept into the lee of a head land, and when the sounder said 10 meters, Chantal said "thats good enough". Now the pick is down and we are all going to pass out big time. Only tiny problem is that its 5am, and Indie wakes up in an hour! Oh well, you make your bed, you lie in it!
Later the same day:
I serviced the starboard engine, changed all filters and bled the fuel line, its running fine again. Chantal did a load of laundry and aired out the boat. I took the kids to the beach for a run around. The wind is blowing hard, around 20 - 25 knots out of the southeast and a stormy sea is smashing into the outer reef. We are stoked to be in a good anchorage and out of the weather. New Caledonia is 200 miles away. If we wish to do this as a one night sail, then we have to leave at the crack of dawn in order to arrive before sunset the next day. So now we just wait for things to calm down a bit, and the glorious prospect of ONE WHOLE NIGHT'S SLEEP. The grib files show that the wind will ease, and we may leave in the morning. So our unplanned blitz tour of Vanuatu may be over before it even started.
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
G

Made it!

We are now anchored waiting for the sea to calm down. Looks like it will be much lighter tomorrow and then we'll sail for New Caledonia. Nature is doing its best to make sure we don't forget the challenging times!

chantal's 38 B'day!

Day 4
2am
Approaching Aneityum Island
Nothing like approaching a new anchorage in the dead of night during a new moon, just to rub salt into our wounds! Add to this the fact that our starboard engine has conked out (hopefully dirt or air in the fuel line) and a no radar, and your's truly has his work cut out for him. On the plus side of the equation are possibly two lead lights up on the hill, lets hope there is no power failures on Aneityum tonight and that my chart is correct. My possible anchorage is at 20deg14.327S by 169deg46.760E I am slightly less tired we are learning during our 3 hours off time.
We did good time, sailing at close to 9 knots the whole day with a reefed main and jib, just running the gennie occasionally to keep the batteries charged. The sea was very rough, our course was due west, so the SSE wind driven chop still pretty much nailed us on the side. It reminded me of doing a Padang-Playgrounds crossing during a potent north or south wind, which makes that channel a mess.
Now the wind is dropping and shimmi is wallowing like a drunk pig. I can see the southern cross, hanging low in the southern sky. The dark silhouette of Aneityum Island dominates the darkness to starboard. I can just make out surf crashing on the outer reef.
Wish me luck
G

Day 3
THE HORROR THE HORROR (Joseph Conrad)
Position: 20deg15.8S, 169deg55E, approaching Vanuatu
　
By yesterday afternoon a nice SE was up again and we broad reached the whole night under full sail, flying along at 9 knots in a moderate sea. But by sunrise it all changed. The wind rapidly strengthened to 25 knots and we had to scramble to get a reef in. Within half hour the moderate sea was utterly crap, with big 8 foot chops sideswiping shimmi, throwing pots off the stove and sending all the kids and adults to the floor. Coupled to this challenge was the fact that Chantal and I were by now beyond tired. The 3 on 3 off watch routine had turned us into zombies. But we had a full day ahead, with two wide eyed boys craving attention. Josh promptly vomited. Another hour went by, the sea just got worse, it felt like a giant dog had shimmi in its mouth, just shaking us side to side, up and down. I started changing course, allowing shimmi to run more with the weather, this eased our ride, but we were no longer headed for New Cal. Instead we are now headed for Aneityum Island, the southern most of the Vanuatu's. There is a safe anchorage in the south where we hope to find shelter.
And all this shit went down during Chantal's 38th birthday. A few tears were shed, I tell you. During Chantal's lunch time snooze I managed to bake a cake from scratch, and it came out perfectly. It was a variation of my mom Renee's cinnamon cake, I adapted it from a banana bread recipe. Light and fluffy, baked all the way through (just imagine how the wet cake was surfing around inside the oven), sprinkled liberally with cinnamon sugar. The two boys were stars today, basically we turned the saloon floor into a big Krismis bed, it felt a bit like being in a tent camping in the rain, except for the lack of solid ground of course.
Cheers
G

DAY 2 - 200 miles!

1600 (1500 UTC)
Position 19deg26.5S, 174deg09.94E
418 miles to New Cal
1252 miles to Brisbane
course 230 degrees
Almost 200 miles on the first day, way to go!!! By mid afternoon yesterday we had a stiff SE breeze, around 16-18 knots, we watched as Viti Levu quickly disappeared over the horizon behind us. We had shimmi under full sail the whole night, almost reefing a few times, but deciding in the end to just let her fly. Probably the first time on shimmi that we spoke about reefing and then NOT doing it. You sailors out there will know what I mean. It made for quite a nervous night, with shimmi flying along at 8-9 knots across a rough ocean on a broad reach. It also started raining by late evening and it has not stopped for almost 24 hours. Its uncomfortable, cold and wet. It was too rough to sleep in the forward cabin so we made temporary beds in the saloon. A giant oil tanker on an opposite course passed within half mile of us, scary as we are under sail and cant really maneuvre.
On the up side, we caught 2 big Mahi-Mahi, from my chin to the deck, these I pulled in hand over hand whilst shimmi hurtles forward under full sail. There are a few tricks to it: First of all leave the fish for a while to chill it out a bit, then, once you decide to pull it in, get its head up out the water and pull it hand over hand all the way to the boat in bodysurf mode, in one go, without allowing its head to go under again. If you let the line slip and the Mahi manages to go under, there is a helluva jerk, enough to yank you right off the back of the boat. This is to be avoided.
Chantal and I have been doing 3 on 3 off since leaving Fiji, basically it means that for 3 hours you handle the kids and do watch, simple. Our radar is on the blink and our wind instrument is on the blink. By noon today the wind started dying and we have been motor sailing on and off for most of the afternoon. A bit of cabin fever is setting in, but not too bad, its just hard right now because everything is WET. Please, no more rain. On the plus side, as the wind dropped, the sea became much smoother. We caught a small yellow fin just in time for lunch, it was yummy with pickled ginger and wasabi. Anyway, its my 3 "off" hours right now, I got to use them or lose them!
Tomorrow is Chonny's birthday, she will 38! I don't have a present for her, dont ask why not. But we have some cake mix and I will make her the best Gin and tonic for miles!
Cheers
G

DAY 1 -Wide Blue Ocean

Day One
12 noon
Position: Musket Cove, heading towards Wilkes Passage and open ocean Distance to New Caledonia 620 miles Distance to Brisbane 1450 miles Course 230 degrees
Well here we go. Just the Shimmi family and lots of wide blue ocean. Despite their being almost no wind, I hoisted the main and we are motor sailing out of Fijian waters. We have 1450 miles ahead of us to Brisbane. Fwwwwaaaaack, its a lot further than we thought. We will definitely stop in New Caledonia, despite the fact that I don't have a French visa. I will send Chantal in to deal with that one. Anyway, we are all well, fairly well rested and mentally prepared for the days and nights ahead.
Whilst at the Vuda Point Marina, we took Josh and Indie to the Lautoka Traveling Fair. I have never in my life seen such a motley collection of fairground rides. It was like something out of a Mad Max movie. The one merry go round featured a pod of fighter jets which could only have been fabricated by a deranged welder on acid. Pieces of jaggered metal stuck out at all angles, a rope with a 6 inch nail functions as a safety belt, Josh's jet had "OSAMA BIN LADEN" on the one side "THE TERRORIST" on the other, and when he reached the top of his trajectory I read on the bottom: "I KILL YOU". And ladies and gentleman, you may ask, what was the date of our little excursion? September 11, you got to laugh. There were no less than four very homemade ferris wheels, the highest of which comes within centimeters of tipping out its human contents every time it rotates through top dead center. All of these "appliances" were ingeniously powered by individual single cylinder Chinese diesel engines, linked by elaborate fanbelts to motorcar differentials and the like. I totally related to this lot, one of the rides in fact looked exactly like my old Indies Explorer anchor winch. Josh had an absolute blast, right down to the final "Just one more ride" tantrum. Indie stayed in the safety of his pram, making a light work of an orange sucker, whilst Chantal, with a huge smile on her face, got hold of a candy floss vendor. Remember the old Goodwood Show? Those were days.
Anyway, the wind is coming up, the sea is getting lumpy and I have a big Mahi-Mahi surfing on one of my handlines.
Till tomorrow
G

Off to se the Wizard of Oz!

Howzit everybody, this is our final BULA (hello) and VINAKA (thank you) from Fiji. Tommorrow morning we set sail for Brisbane, 1200 nautical miles away. Thats FAR. We may stop halfway in New Caledonia, this will depend on our morale, fuel, water, need for surf and the weather. We are a bit nervous as this will be our first long crossing without crew, just the 4 Shimminators!!!! Chantal has come up with a 3 on 3 off watch system and I think we will make it work. This time of the year we are unlikely to get hit by really bad weather, but it would be nice to have some good winds on our final leg to Australia. We are going to try and enjoy it as much as we can, as I mentioned before, we are finishing our journey in Oz. So I am not going to babble more now, but I will try send a daily update as our cruise progresses. Pray for good winds and a flat ocean. No more squash zones PLEASE!! Trevor can you please send us Bob Mcdavitts latest weather thingy.
Totsiens
G

SHIMMI ZERO

Well, my dearest blog readers, we are getting to the end of our Fiji adventure. We have had 3 sets of visitors and with each we have had a unique shimmi experience. The are roughly 4 kinds of shimmi experiences:
1. Shimmi "Zero": this is when you are tied up in the marina most of the time with short hops mostly inside the lagoon and very safe "bullet proof" anchorages. Lots of beaching, surfing and resort swimming pools.
2. Shimmi "Light": few days in the marina, few rolly anchorages, bit of open ocean sailing. One or two surfs at known spots, a sevu-sevu ceremony and a few boat jobs.
3. Shimmi "Medium": Some dodgy anchorages, maybe one or two overnight crossings, bit of rough weather, some throwing up, multiple sevu-sevu's in remote locations, full on surf exploration, you are lucky if you get a wave. At least one big repair job. Most of our life aboard shimmi has been SHIMMI MEDIUM.
4. Shimmi "Hero" - Full Strength Shimmi: Open ocean crossings lasting weeks, storms, too scared too get seasick, no surfing for months, counting diapers and carrots. Avoid Shimmi Full Strength at all cost. If you can't, bring a spare pair of underpants.
Off course prior to arrival each visitor has a picture in their heads off what they think their shimmi experience will be, and its often not easy to match the expectation to the experience. Liz came over thinking its was going to be like "Turkish Island hopping in the med". What she got was Shimmi Medium. But she just went with the flow and in the end she was stoked to have had a "real" slice of our shimmi lives. Deon and Rosa had Shimmi Light. I think Rosa came prepared for Shimmi Full Strength, but lucky for her that never happened. They had a great trip, Rosa embraced the shimmi galley and churned out a series of meals which have since achieved legend status. Incidentely, the spinnaker raised its ugly head again during our last sail back to the marina. We were sailing dead downwind with the marina entrance dead ahead, when I tried to snuff the motherfucker. We were doing about 7 knots in 16 knots of wind. This time the sock simply would not slide more than a meter down. It was jammed tight and the spinnaker stayed full, pulling shimmi straight towards the harbour wall. After some screaming and shouting by yours truly (the spinnaker brings out the worst in me) we managed to turn shimmi around. I let all lines on the spinnaker fly, including the halyard, and finally the bastard of a sail was back on deck. Its amazing how quickly a mellow afternoon sail can go to shit. But I digress. I was talking about "the shimmi experience". After Deon and Rosa we had Rory and Vicky and their 2 sons Jamie (7), and Roan (5). Shimmi instantly became a cross between a creche, a playschool and a short order restaurant. The experience was definitely Shimmi Zero, but with 2 families on board there were times that it was as hectic as Shimmi Full Strength, with the '4 boy meal times' creating a true test of motherhood. However, for 5 days we were simply tied up at the Musket Cove Marina, acting exactly as if we were resort guests. Hung out at the pool most days, a few snorkel trips, canoe paddles, barbecues and rugby on tv. Rory and I had 3 days of great glassy surf at Wilkes Pass which is about 3 miles from Musket Cove. Wilkes is a difficult wave, its very sectiony with a strong rip which keeps you paddling non-stop. No real barrels and lots of mindless gunning down the line. After a while at the resort we decided to head north, up to the Yasawa Islands for a bit of Shimmi Light. Off course you never know when Shimmi Light may become Shimmi Medium. I suspected that the southerlies would start blowing again, and they have.
Here's Chantal's take on it:
The day before leaving Musket Cove we had some high action. A 70 year old friend of ours, Danny Miller, (whom we first met in the Galapagos) on a beautiful 60ft ketch "Jubilant", missed a channel marker on his way out, and drove straight into the reef. (Deon and Rosa: He is the older guy who joined us for dinner at Vuda Point). Golla, Rory and Russ spent the whole morning, during a falling tide, wedging wooden supports for the boat and hammering them in between the reef and the hull all in a great hurry before the tide got too low. This was to stop the boat from getting holed on the bommies when it healed over. But they got that done and watched as the tide dropped out with Jubilant well supported. There is only one thing worse than running aground: that's running aground at Musket Cove within plain sight of 30 other yachts and 2 big resorts! On the plus side it meant that help was at hand. Danny just sat dumbfounded on his healed over boat, watching Golla and co get on with the job at hand. The boat was lying on its port side...looked terrible. At 3 pm the tide was high enough again and my darling super husband got that boat OFF the reef, pushing it with our dingy like a little tug boat. And you know what? Danny Miller left the next day without even saying "thank you". As Deon would say: "Shabby".
After a week in Musket we decided that the surf was going to get smaller and blown out by the SE wind so we agreed to do a little tour of the southern Yasawas which has no surf. On our itinerary was the island where the Tom Hanks movie "Castaway" was filmed as well as another island which was the location for the movie "Blue Lagoon" with Brooke Shields. I think Vicky was stoked because no surf would mean more time on different beaches for the kiddies. Vicky's expectation for her holiday was definitely Shimmi Zero... this is a common holiday fantasy wherein Shimmi functions as a self catering hotel room within snorkel distance of a pristine beach. As Liz would say: "In your dreams, honey, in your dreams!" Jacques too will confirm that this is strictly a fantasy and that shimmi is just another place where real life happens. If you join us, be prepared to go from Zero to Hero (Full Strength) at a short notice, hahaha. What happened in the end was that the wind was more out of the South rather than ESE so all the anchorages were blown out and we struggled for 2 days to find a suitable anchorage, at least with all the driving, Rory managed to hook a few nice fish, the pics will come soon ....in the end the Trow family swam to the beach and checked into the Octopus Resort on Waya Island (google it) for their last 2 nights. The resort speed boat came and picked their luggage up on the Shimmi. We could not stay in the Octopus anchorage as it was blown out, and have now found some sort of shelter behind a sand spit with 4 other boats 8 miles south. We are all waiting now for favourable winds so that we can sail back to Musket Cove or Nandi/Lautoka (vuda marina.) Basically we are now stuck in no man's land. Being stuck in an anchorage is getting towards Shimmi Medium. BUT spirits are high as it is quite a novelty to just be the 4 of us. Lots of Shimmi school, bread baking, reading, little drives to the beach, sundowners with my man etc etc.
Back to Golla:
Fiji is a crazy area to cruise around because there are hundreds of uncharted reefs. You have to wear polaroids and you can only cruise in a "new" area if you have the sun from behind so you can eyeball the reefs. Danny made the classic error of leaving a tricky anchorage early in the morning with no sun. I still cant believe that we spent almost a whole day helping the guy and he just upped and left. Maybe the embarrassment fried his brain.
Overall the surf in Fiji has been a disappointment. Most of the reef passes along the coral coast of Viti Levu are flawed and get blown out by the prevailing trades. Frigates is an average wave most of the time, only getting good with a very specific swell size, direction and rare 'no wind' conditions. All the waves around Tavarua area are out of bounds except for Wilkes Pass which is a strictly B-grade wave, onshore during the trades which blow most days. By the way, Taverua gets blown out a lot, in my opinion the surf resorts like Taverua and Nomotu are bit of a joke. And an expensive joke at that. We found a great wave in Lau Island called "Vinaka". It has real class, but its hard to get to, very remote, with big gaps between islands. Up in the Taveuni area we discovered a wave we called Googles, but this area has a small swell window and faces into the prevailing winds. Another problem is that most of the waves are situated on the outskirts of outlying barrier reefs. This means that there is no landmass nearby to create offshore conditions and there are no overnight anchorages nearby. Any wind ends up being a bad wind, especially during high tide when an offshore will blow the lagoon chop into the wave face. All of my best sessions in Fiji were during those rare glassy moments, but these were few and far between. I am sorry, but the verdict is out: The surf in Fiji sucks. Those of you who think it has great waves should travel more, hahaha. The reef pass hit rate in French Polynesia area is much higher, for some reason the reef passes in Fiji are not nearly as good. What I have noticed is that many of the Fijian reef passes and outer reefs have quite box shaped narrow shelves which drop off vertically, not gradually as in Tahiti. In Tahiti the reef passes are also much closer to the land, so they don't get blown out. But I dont really want to compare Fiji to Tahiti. We are enjoying the friendly Fijians immensely, the vibe here is just fantastic. And on that note I will say bye for now. Our next mission is to get shimmi to Australia (Brisbane), where we will sell her. We are looking for crew to help us sail to Oz with probably a stop in New Caledonia (which has a wealth of surf near Noumea). If you know of anyone who is looking for some real adventure (SHIMMI MEDIUM!!!) please let us know. We plan to leave Fiji around mid September and we should be in Brisbane early October. Anyone keen?
Cheers
G

Musket Cove

PIX FOR THE SURFERS

http://picasaweb.google.com/wilcopix/ShimmiFijiSurf?authkey=Gv1sRgCKel1-fEt4jz-wE

PIX TAKEN AROUND FIJI - AUG 2009

http://picasaweb.google.com/wilcopix/ShimmiFiji?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6e7eHl_cXnqQE

New Crew Arrives!

Deon + Rosa arrived safely with huge smiles and hugs all round. They checked into the hotel at about 7pm on Monday night and we all dived into the biltong + rusks washed down with room service beer. Indie happily played with his new Tractor...so while Indie was happy ons het somer nog 'n round of beers ge order. Kids got to bed on the Shimmi at 10pm. D + R moved onto the boat in the morning and it has been wonderful. What a treat to have Rosa...ons speel lekker saam in die kombuis. They are loving their pre honeymoon cabin with queen size bunk. We have done the big stock up, fuel up and water up and are ready to leave for our first island adventure.
Baie baie liefde
Chantal
ps: Can you tell I am not Afrikaans (speaking)!

Liz + Jacques have just returned from their trip on Shimmi....here is a link to Liz's pics taken with her "Mik 'n Druk" Jacques taken with his larney camera will follow!

http://picasaweb.google.com/wilcopix/FIJI09

Yunaca Island

We've been anchored at Yanuca island in front of Shannon's since Liz and Jacques left. We are now down to one carrot! Yesterday we drove to the surf. Some fun offshore waves. There was a small panga speedboat tied to the mooring buoy. The Fijian aboard told us we could tie the Shimmi to the buoy and then he would tie off on us. We were like are you sure it's strong enough, don't want to break the bloody thing. Turned out he built the mooring. He joined us for morning coffee and peanut butter sandwiches whilst Golla and his guest surfed. His family owns Yanuca island and they have a tiny surf camp just around the corner from Shannon. What a darling darling place. www.frigatesreef.com We caught a big mahe mahe on the way back from the surf and added that to the dinner. Dinner consisted of lobster, snapper, lamb chops, stirf fry and a baby lettuce leaf salad all served on banana leaves. We ate with a doctor couple from Aus + Norway and their diplomat friend working for the High Commission in Suva. We did not represent South Africa very well....the Malherbe family had not seen fresh food like this for days. Josh and Indie had their cheeks permanently stuffed with bananas, apples and oranges. And whilst the other guests delicately broke their lamb chops apart with knife and fork, G + I were sucking the meat off the bone.
7am next morning: G just been picked up by Joseph in his panga. They are driving out to Frigates. If no surf both have their spearguns. Later today Joseph is heading to Suva and has offered to bring us back some fresh food. So stoked.

Frigates Pass

After a stormy crossing from Matuku, we arrived at Benga Island, situated on the eastern side of the Benga Atoll, which is about 15 miles wide. The wind was still howling from the east, so we eventually found a sheltered anchorage in Vaga Bay to rest up. Jacques, Indie, Josh and I went to a nearby beach which featured a row of pigpens, under the trees, just above the high tide line. Jacques discovered a big sow giving birth, soon Indie and Josh were checking things out, Josh called the newly born piglet "a fairy pig". Indie just said "Wow" about a 1oo times. The next morning we crossed the atoll to go check out Frigates Pass. The wave is not actually on the pass, but on the south western tip of the atoll, about 2 miles south of the pass. On the way over we caught a huge Spanish Mackerel, inside the atoll! We checked out the wave but it was blown out, so we headed across to the main island, Viti Levu. This southern coast of Viti Levu is called "The Coral Coast", and its a beautiful combination of fringing reefs, reef passes, lagoons and deep green mountains behind. We scouted out two of these reef passes, as this coast has a few great waves. But still the wind was blowing, so we ended up motoring shimmi though a tiny pass and into a lovely lagoon. The bay is called Somo-somo, and it has a lovely protected beach on its eastern shore, everyone got off shimmi and had a few beers whilst baking in the sun. A new sw swell was arriving the next day, and the wind was supposed to ease up, so that night we turned in early, hoping for a shot at Frigates Pass.
Next morning:
We could see the surf about 5 miles away, rows of white water moving down the reef in the distance. It was on! More than double overhead on the sets. It was high tide when we arrived and the waves were thick, with big shoulders, with some heavy barrels on the inside reef. At lot of water was moving around, and a strong current was flowing up the point, making it easy to get too deep. A bit like surfing Outer Kom or big Thunders. About 6 other surfers from a nearby surf camp were out. It took a while for us to figure out how and where to anchor shimmi, as the reef drops off steeply and its impossible to anchor next to the wave. But one of the surf camp guides swam over and showed us where to anchor, further inside, about half a mile from the wave. Finally we got the dingy in the water and Jacques dropped me off next to the lineup. Needless to say, I took off too deep on my first two waves, solid 8 footers, twice I got smeared and pushed about half a mile in over the reef, almost getting flushed out near our anchorage, then a long paddle back to the lineup, luckily with a current from behind. But eventually I found my rhythm, getting a good shack and putting my 6'6 pintail through its paces. Meanwhile on board shimmi Liz had gone for a dive and Chantal was biting the bullet with Indie and Josh, doing play dough, lego, painting, crayons, baking a loaf of bread, cooking a pot of stew for Indie's meals and baking a tray of choc chip muffins. Supermom.
After a quick bite I headed back for my second session. Its during this second session, on the low tide, that things turned on. I am not going to bore you with mundane descriptions of surf, but it was one of the all time sessions so far on shimmi. 6ft cylinders peeling down the reef. Take off, assume pigdog position and watch the view from inside. I felt like George Greenough in Crystal Voyager, just having one perfect slow motion barrel after another. All of us were screaming and hooting, what a special session. Frigates is a class wave, easily up there with the best of the Mentawais.
By the next day the southerly was up again, and Frigates was wild and woolly. Chantal and Jacques paddled out, without properly checking exactly how big it was. Here is Chantal's description:
"I paddled out the morning after G's epic barrel session at Frigates. Basically we only realised once I had paddled out that the waves where way too big for me! I still tried to paddle into a few but found myself flying head first over the wave followed by about 5 waves crashing on my head, followed by being swept about half a mile over the shallow barrier reef, followed by confused stares from the other guy surfers (including Dave "Rasta" Rastovich), "What's that chick doing all the way down there??" My mom and Josh saved me with a huge mug of tea loaded with sugar...which I drank after I managed to get all of the sea water out of my lungs and after a good sob."
Then we headed back to Viti Levu again, anchoring near a newly built eco resort called "Matanivusi". The owners of the resort, Brian and his wife Donna, treated us to cold beers and Josh and Indie took over their pool. We bid farewell to Liz and Jacques would commenced their epic 3 day journey back to South Africa. Jacques took some awesome pics, so keep your eyes peeled, the blog will be bursting with great pics soon!
Now we are anchored next to Yanuca Island which has a small rustic surf resort, a lovely beach and great snorkelling. And its the closest night anchorage to Frigates Pass. Soon we have to head in to Suva to pick up my dad Deon and his fiance Rosa. They will be on shimmi for 3 weeks, babysitting, washing dishes and mixing our cocktails!
Cheers!
G

Liz's Version

What a trip we had last night !!! Sailed 100 miles from the Laus to Frigits Pass - never imagined myself doing a major crossing like this.
Genuinely challenging stuff - read Gollas blog. The 2 little boys cuddled up together giving each other comfort and support - so,so sweet.
This has been an amazing experience but didn't realise what I was actually in for. - I imagined something like the Greek or Turkey Islands.
Haven't seen a shop or market so far - but we spotted a surf resort and will be going out for dinner hopefully tomorrow late afternoon.
Just a few tips for your trip.
I brought Pronutro (original) and he just loves it but has already consumed the lot.
The weather is not that warm and a tracksuit top would be a good idea.
Then don't even think of bringing any kind of food - in Auckland , I was standing in the background watching this beagle dog with thin long lead moving between the luggage when before I knew it she , the handler ordered me to put my biggish handbag on the floor for the dog to stick his nose in it.
Jacques declared his 1 packet of biltong , vacuum packed from Woolworths - they wouldn't even let him eat it in front of them.
Looking forward to our next few days.
Love from Liz

ANGRY FLOGGING SPINNAKER

Matuku to Frigates Pass, 110 miles
Position is just north of Kadavu Island
This morning Josh, Jacques and myself hiked up one of the hills behind our anchorage, we were accompanied by two locals from the village who bushwacked the path and picked thirst quenching coconuts. The view from the top was breathtaking, on the one side you see shimmi anchored inside the remains of the volcano caldera, on the other side is a coral filled turquoise lagoon, fringed by white water and a deep blue ocean.
But now we are once again in the middle of the big blue. And its rough and nasty once again. We left Matuku on a virtually dead downwind spinnaker run. Fun and exciting to start with, but by 8pm the wind was exceeding 20 knots. By 9pm the spinnaker was virtually being over powered in 25 - 30 knots of wind. Its a fucked up situation. The wind is too strong now to snuff the spinnaker, but of course we try, both engines are full tilt to lower the apparent wind, but the sock wont move more than a meter down the sail. We aim shimmi more into the wind, hoping to snuff it as the wind spills... but the damn thing just back fills, flogging like only an angry spinnaker can flog. I expect it to blow in half any second. Then suddenly the spinnaker folds on itself and I manage to yank the snuffer down. This is done with me lying on my back on the trampoline, head torch on my head, pitch dark in a heaving ocean, screaming orders to Jacques on the wheel and Chantal on the spinnaker sheet. Thank Faaark. Its back in the bag. For a few seconds Chantal, Jacques and I just stare at the spinnaker sock, hanging limply from the top of the mast, showing no sign of the dangerous beast it contains. My hands are raw and I am half soaked. I apologize to Jacques and Chantal for swearing and shouting. Sometimes I just hate this job.
So, now we are motoring, despite the fact that we have 25 knots of wind straight up the bum. There are a few reasons for this: 1. We are crap sailors; 2. We cannot "head up" to make it more of a reach as Astrolabe Reef is too close off our starboard bow; 3. We are only 5o miles from our destination; 4. Its is dark; 5. I am tired; 6. We have lots of diesel.
Elsewhere on shimmi... Liz watched a cartoon on the dvd player, Josh made a scuba tank out of an empty juice bottle, Indie is not feeling well, Chantal got some food into our tummies, Jacques pulled in Mahi-mahi with the hand line whilst shimmi was hurtling forward at 9 knots. It came off 20m from the back of the boat. That Mahi probably feels just like us after our spinnaker experience: Happy to be alive but sore all over.
Tomorrow morning we should be at Beqa Island, near Frigates Pass, which is one of Fiji's well known waves. We are working hard for the money.
Bula,
G

Vinaka!

The last few days were quite hectic aboard shimmi, mainly due to really crap weather, which culminated yesterday with gale force winds, causing our anchor to drag multiple times despite a muddy bottom with supposed good holding. Powerful 40 knot gusts would hammer into shimmi, so eventually we decided to change anchors. I have a oversized Danforth anchor which has never been used, so I thought "now is the time". Once the big anchor was on the end of the chain we did not drag again! Of course as soon as we changed anchors the wind started moderating. Prior to these strong winds, (which according to weather guru Bob McDavit is another of those dreaded squash zones), we had a great day on a beautiful white beach. 6 local ladies emerged from the water, having spent the previous 3 hours catching reef fish with their gill net. Indie was mesmerized by a giant green box fish, similar to the one which almost killed Bart Simpson. Liz of course was collecting shells like crazy, we had to draw the line when she wanted to fly home with a giant clam. This was later followed by an awesome surf at a cranking mini version of Teahupoo. Yours truly had about 30 pigdog barrels. Perfect head high to overhead waves were going seriously square over the reef, as round as drain pipes. Jacques took a bunch of pics, so we have the proof, unfortunately we wont be posting any pics on the blogs for a while, there is no internet here, we are too close to the edge of the world. By the way, Jacques showed one of the locals, Jesse, how to operate his R20000 Canon and take surf pics. Jesse ended up banging off more than 500 pics on the motor drive, including more than one complete barrel sequence! If you splice all the pics together you almost have a video of our surf, hahaha.
We have been hanging out with the villagers next to our anchorage, swapping kiddie toys and fishing gear for fruit. Strangely enough they have solar panels and a satelite dish, and they invited us to watch Saturday's trinations rugby game on TV! But later today we will wave goodbye to Matuku and set sail for the legendary Frigates Pass, a 100 miles of rough seas and strong tail winds lie ahead of us, luckily it should all be from behind. We will probably start the sail with a double reefed main. Anyway, we have had shimmi out in similar conditions when we sailed through that hectic squash zone to Western Samoa, so we are not so green anymore, I know how to set shimmi's sails for these conditions, and luckily its only a 100 miles, we are going to try time it so that we arrive at daybreak.
Bula!
G

Kava

Kava is consumed in various ways throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, Vanuatu, Melanesia and some parts of Micronesia and Australia. Traditionally it is prepared by either chewing, grinding or pounding the roots of the kava plant. Grinding is done by hand against a cone-shaped block of dead coral; the hand forms a mortar and the coral a pestle. The ground root/bark is combined with only a little water, as the fresh root releases moisture during grinding. Pounding is done in a large stone with a small log. The product is then added to cold water and consumed as quickly as possible.
The extract is an emulsion of kavalactone droplets in starch. The taste is slightly pungent, while the distinctive aroma depends on whether it was prepared from dry or fresh plant, and on the variety. The colour is grey to tan to opaque greenish.
Kava prepared as described above is much more potent than processed kava. Chewing produces the strongest effect because it produces the finest particles. Fresh, undried kava produces a stronger beverage than dry kava. The strength also depends on the species and techniques of cultivation. Many find mixing powdered kava with hot water makes the drink stronger. However the active ingredients of kava, such as Kavalactone, are ruined at 140 degrees F. Most tea steeps at 180 degrees F for at least a couple minutes which will reduce the potency of the kava.
In Vanuatu, a strong kava drink is normally followed by a hot meal or tea. The meal traditionally follows some time after the drink so that the psychoactives are absorbed into the bloodstream quicker. Traditionally no flavoring is added.
Fijians commonly share a drink called "grog", due to its relaxing and groggy effects on the drinker, made by pounding sun-dried kava root into a fine powder, straining and mixing it with cold water. Traditionally, grog is drunk from the shorn half-shell of a coconut, called a "bilo". Despite tasting very much like dirty water, grog is very popular in Fiji, especially among young men, and often brings people together for storytelling and socializing. Drinking grog for a few hours brings a numbing and relaxing effect to the drinker, grog also numbs the tongue and so it is now a norm that these grog sessions have a "chaser" or sweet or spicy snack to follow a bilo.[4]
Ed's Note:-
Yoiks! and this is where My wife - Liz is!!!!!!

A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness and behavior. These drugs may be used recreationally to purposefully alter one's consciousness, as entheogens for ritual or spiritual purposes, as a tool for studying or augmenting the mind, or therapeutically as medication.
Because psychoactive substances bring about subjective changes in consciousness and mood that the user may find pleasant (e.g. euphoria) or advantageous (e.g. increased alertness), many psychoactive substances are abused, that is, used excessively, despite risks or negative consequences. With sustained use of some substances, physical dependence may develop, making the cycle of abuse even more difficult to interrupt. Drug rehabilitation can involve a combination of psychotherapy, support groups and even other psychoactive substances to break the cycle of dependency.
In part because of this potential for abuse and dependency, the ethics of drug use are the subject of a continuing philosophical debate. Many governments worldwide have placed restrictions on drug production and sales in an attempt to decrease drug abus

Matuku

Welcome to Matuku
We arrived outside Matuku at 1am, some stars were out but a virtually new moon made it very dark. Way to dark to attempt driving in through the pass, so I dropped the sails and decided to drift until daybreak. Jacques was the watchman, we were drifting south at half a knot, so after a few hours he drove us back to our original spot near the pass. Daybreak revealed a beautiful island. Dense green vegetation draped over towering green peaks, their tops disappearing in the clouds. We drove shimmi around the South Western side of the island, checking out a heaving left hander called "Vinaka". But the swell was just a bit too small, the tide just too low, so we gave it a miss. Carried on driving around the south side of the island when suddenly it was MAYHEM. Two yellow fin tore into the lures. One leader snapped, we landed the second one, only a small one. After that I thought bugger the rods, handlines only, so we trolled 4 handlines. Immediately we were on again, three lines. These were big fish. Eventually two big yellow fin lay on deck, the other leader snapped. Once again we put the lines out, a few minutes later a massive Wahoo took the lure. I gaffed it, but needed help to get it up onto the boat, it must have weighed 60 pounds. Within 10 minutes we had caught 3 yellow fin, one Wahoo, and lost 2 lures. We were now ready to enter the pass, find a sheltered anchorage and present the local chief with an offering of Kava root. This is the Sevu-sevu ceremony that you have to do every time you go to a new anchorage. Only this time we could also give them a batch of fish, more tasty than Kava root! But as we entered the pass, a massive rain storm hit us, and we were unable to anchor due to bad viz. But we did end up eventually in a deep bay, in front of the village of Karamaci.
Here's Jacques's version of our Sevu-sevu in Karamaci:
We delivered our fish bounty as a gift to the friendly villagers of Karamaci ,the club footed recipient a victim of no polio vaccinations. We were invited back do do Sevu -sevu after lunch and joined an extended family in a humble home. Much chanting and clapping later over the kava root we were granted permission by the chief to fish on their reefs, surf their waves,drink fresh water from the village well and enjoy the common areas of the village. Basically we are allowed to rest up in harmony with the villagers. The ceremony was followed by Sunday afternoon church service in Fijian.....Golla with his new found religious fervor opened the service by introducing us as the rugby world champions....The hymns alone made this worth traveling for, such strong angelic male and female voices harmonizing would do a cathedral justice. Returning to "our" home moored in the bay the entire village came out to wave us farewell. I'm just not used to genuinely happy people.....resorts cant do this even if they tried.
J
That's all from us on Matuku. We are sitting in the middle of a filthy cold front with dark clouds, constant rain and generally cold and miserable weather. A bit of cabin fever is setting in. We are thinking of eating Jacques.
Cheers
G