Kissing the Reef
Monday, 29. June 2009, 12:00:00
Sailed over to Musket Cove, a well sheltered spot. A bar on a tiny sand island connected to both a marina and a welcoming and friendly resort is the popular hang out for the yachties.
We eventually drag ourselves away and take off for a bay around the corner. We have previously made this trip but seeing a marker up ahead we are puzzled as to which side we need to be. I check the charts, and we are lined up in the deep water channel. Pop back out and head for the foredeck for the all important eyeball navigation and immediately yell “BACK BACK”. The sea bed is not that far below. It would be a bad move to dive or even jump in from here. James slams the boat into reverse but our momentum keeps us ploughing into the sand. Fortunately we have picked the one spot in Fiji that has sand and not rock hard sharp and spiky coral. We drop the dink and I try and tow the boat back while James tries reversing. All we do is make froth. Hop off the boat and take a walk around. The port stub keel is in the sand the starboard side is still afloat and a few feet further to starboard the depth plummets to over 60 foot. On the positive side we have a chance to give the hulls a clean while walking around rather than our usual swimming until the tide lifts us off forty minutes later. It was a bit surreal with us both pushing the boat over to the deeper channel, like it was a lightweight lilo and then casually hopping back on board. (There was no wind). Aside from a good wake up call for Fiji waters and charts we lost some anti fouling paint under the stub keel. The boat is designed to rest on the stub keels so no problem there.
Fiji has to be the most challenging place to sail. The coral patches are everywhere and so hard to see. Sailing is pretty much out of the question and where we prefer to be up and off early morning here we need to wait for the sun to be high, bright and a ideally a little behind us. Out track on the charts had us going right over the centre of a tiny rocky island when in fact we were safely 100 metres away. The depth guage is not much help as you can go from over 60 foot to under 6 inches in the space of 6 foot. For those metricated readers that is from 20 meters deep to under 20 cm in the space of 2 meters. We wonder if there are any yachts that have sailed the Fiji waters and not succumbed to a brief or lingering kiss after being seduced by her reefs.
Lorna
We eventually drag ourselves away and take off for a bay around the corner. We have previously made this trip but seeing a marker up ahead we are puzzled as to which side we need to be. I check the charts, and we are lined up in the deep water channel. Pop back out and head for the foredeck for the all important eyeball navigation and immediately yell “BACK BACK”. The sea bed is not that far below. It would be a bad move to dive or even jump in from here. James slams the boat into reverse but our momentum keeps us ploughing into the sand. Fortunately we have picked the one spot in Fiji that has sand and not rock hard sharp and spiky coral. We drop the dink and I try and tow the boat back while James tries reversing. All we do is make froth. Hop off the boat and take a walk around. The port stub keel is in the sand the starboard side is still afloat and a few feet further to starboard the depth plummets to over 60 foot. On the positive side we have a chance to give the hulls a clean while walking around rather than our usual swimming until the tide lifts us off forty minutes later. It was a bit surreal with us both pushing the boat over to the deeper channel, like it was a lightweight lilo and then casually hopping back on board. (There was no wind). Aside from a good wake up call for Fiji waters and charts we lost some anti fouling paint under the stub keel. The boat is designed to rest on the stub keels so no problem there.
Fiji has to be the most challenging place to sail. The coral patches are everywhere and so hard to see. Sailing is pretty much out of the question and where we prefer to be up and off early morning here we need to wait for the sun to be high, bright and a ideally a little behind us. Out track on the charts had us going right over the centre of a tiny rocky island when in fact we were safely 100 metres away. The depth guage is not much help as you can go from over 60 foot to under 6 inches in the space of 6 foot. For those metricated readers that is from 20 meters deep to under 20 cm in the space of 2 meters. We wonder if there are any yachts that have sailed the Fiji waters and not succumbed to a brief or lingering kiss after being seduced by her reefs.
Lorna
WIDGETIZE
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