After 6 months in Seattle, including the rainiest Dec/Jan/Feb ever, I returned to Fiji with a suitcase full of boat parts—new halyards, pump re-build kits, shackles, wind instruments, dinghy parts, watermaker filters, vhf radio mic, stern light, flags, charts, etc. Another checked bag held a few clothes, some favorite foods, and 4 cans of Fremont IPA. We filled the remaining space/weight limitations with items to give to the villages that were hard hit by Cyclone Winston—the biggest cyclone in the southern hemisphere that hit Fiji in February.
Lance and I arrived on the same flight to begin preparing Apropos for passage-making. Lance is 1 of 3 crew flying into Fiji, and will be aboard from Fiji all the way to Hawaii. We have a long list of chores: bending on sails, putting the dodger and bimini back on, reconnecting the solar panels, clearing out the cabin, re-commissioning the water maker, painting the bottom, and repairing a number of items. The biggest repair will be to replace the wind instrument atop the mast that was lost during Cyclone Winston. New wiring and a conversion device need to be added to make the new wind anemometer running on NMEA 2000 compatible with my NMEA 0183 system.
4 Days later—
Lance and I got lots done our first 2 days, working in sweltering heat and humidity. Then, just like that, the weather changed as a tropical depression moved in bringing high winds and torrential rains. We then focused our tasks to those inside the cabin and continued doing small outdoor tasks during the lulls in the wind and rain. A second–and larger–tropical depression is following and will hit in 2 days. These 2 systems will delay our departure date by a few days since we need to wait for sunny weather to paint the hull bottom and have some welding done on the wind vane. I’m also waiting on a wind vane part that was shipped from Australia to arrive.
Dave and Denise arrived early this morning, showing up in a taxi during one of the biggest downpours. They are my 2nd and 3rd crew-members and will be sailing from Fiji to Samoa. The four of us continued cleaning and preparing the cabin for passagemaking. During the biggest downpour and highest winds, we all went out on deck in 40 knot winds. The horizontal rain stung but the shower was refreshing! Check out the wind speed where we are in the panel to the right….
