Communications re-established

Apologies for the radio silence, but once we left Mana island and headed north, we have not had access to the internet. After a week of spending many hours at sea in frustratingly light winds (aftermath of the Cyclone Thomas), we finally got back to Nadi in time for our flight back to Melbourne on Friday evening. The trade winds did not blow at all until our final day.

Anxious days were spent at our most northerly point, Monuriki, as we were marooned due to lack of wind. We were eventually forced to set sail at sunrise each day, where we could catch a few knots of wind before the sea would turn to glass by 0930 hrs.
This meant taking our chances of a night at sea, should we be caught inbetween destinations if the wind were not to return that day.

However, the time spent stuck on islands waiting for the slightest breath of wind allowed us to explore and snorkel. Matt caught a Walu fish (looks a bit like a tuna) which we shared with a family in a village, after the chief had given them instructions to look after us for the night. We also spent our time exploring the reefs, and on one occasion searching with the waterproof video camera for a shark (much larger than the reef sharks we had seen) that Matt had previously spotted whilst snorkeling in the early hours.

We got used to the constant onslaught of crabs trying to get into our sleeping arrangements, until we modified the mosquito net into a 'crab net'. However, despite it's clear improvements in keeping them out, it also stopped them getting out once they had got in!

The final night was spent on Bounty Island, where we spent the evening and folowing morning doing a pre-arranged photoshoot with Meg, a commercial photographer from New Zealand. We then enjoyed for the first time a consistant 8 to 14 knot tradewind that blew us back to Nadi Bay and our flights.

Watch this spot for a few shots of the trip once I've got them downloaded.......

To Tom Hanks Island

Progress has been slow the past 4 days. Very light winds left behind from cyclone Thomas has left us floating around at sea for hours and even puling ut the backup paddles on one occasion.

We have made our way to Mana Island and after arriving finally got some decent breeze and sailed around for 2 hours just for fun and to remember what it's like to plane.

So today we are trying to get to Monoriki Island (Tom Hanks Island) via another island to broker a deal with the chief which will no doubt involve passing a few fiji $.

We've had rain on the last 3 nights so hoping for a dry evening for a change.

On a wing and a prayer

Successfully checking in all the gear (with no, or limited, hit to the wallet) is one very stressful leg of the journey for the adventure traveler.

One can pray for divine intervention, one can hope, one can take matters in to his own hands. If you've got some hot tips for our return trip please let us know. At $8 per kg it's expensive, but better than $50kg which was quoted!

(Pic: mat and Adrian at Melbourne airport ready for check in).

One mandatory item for the kit?

In the event there's no 'join me for a meal' offer from a local inhabitant, I'd have thought 100kilos of excess luggage aught to be more than enough to be self sufficient....and some.

But you tell us. If you were to carry just one item in your kit to be sure you got fed and were well rested for the next day of windsurf touring, what would you take?

(pic: mat & adrian ready for airport drop off)

mtj

Stranded with Pommie 'Fat'packers

Cyclone Thomas , a category 3 to 4 (out of 5) cyclone is about to hit us. In the calm winds we have this morning, Matt and I, in frustration, were keen to make a dash for it to get to Mololo, the first major island from Nadi, before the cyclone hits us. However, should we find ourselves becalmed ahead of the storm, we could could be caught and then find ourselves in serious trouble, especially if we have a mast failure. We have therefore elected to postpone our launch until Tuesday morning, when according to the computer generated cyclone prediction models that we are following, the storm will be moving south and away from us. Nadi is currently under curfew, where all businesses are being shut down to weather the storm. So its another night enjoying the charms of noisy drunken pommie backpackers.

Below you can see our passage plan as we head north from Mololo island. The second image below shows the deserted island of Monoriki (made famous in Tom Hanks movie 'Castaway'). We aim to spend our second night on it, where Matt promises me he will catch us fresh fish, and cook it. Poms are banned from going anywhere near the galley!

100kg of Excess Baggage!

Last night at Melbourne Airport Matt and I stood quietly in the rather long queue full of package holiday tourists, carefully discussing which check-in attendant would look most favourably at our ridiculously large packages - two 4.5m boardbags and rig packs, stacked up adjacent to the check-in desks. Previous experiences with too much gear had shown it imperative to avoid the caucasian battleaxe, and go for the smiling gay guy, and with Matt's well kempt hair, tan and designer stubble, we thought him best qualified to make the first approach. If the 146 kg total wasn't alarm to our wallets enough, the heaviest board with bag weighed 44kg, 12kg over the maximum allowable, with no possibility of its weight reduction. Utilising all of our combined wit and charm, Air Pacific pulled some strings and took it for us via another terminal. After two swift pints to replace lost fluids, an uneventful flight followed to Nadi. Upon arival we comandeered a whole resort mini bus by kicking out the other tourists and paid for their taxi, as our kit took up the whole vehicle. Now we are weighing up our launch date options to avoid Cyclone Thomas, a level 4  Cyclone about to hit us on Sunday evening!!!!!!! See below............

First Day Passage Plan

Our first objective is to make Malolo Island on Sunday before the tropical cyclone hits us on Monday. There is a small uninhabited island 1.5km north of Malolo that we will head for, which is a 40km sail from our start point beside Nadi Airport. If the cyclone is going to hit the islands hard, we shall shelter on the Lee side of Malolo itself. Should Matt and I be storming along in fine fettle, we shall just keep going north to the next group of islands that begin approx 6kms north of Malolo. We trained for this in Port Philip Bay six weeks ago, when we got hit by 30knot knot winds, gusting 35 within a 12km stretch of open water we were crossing. My arms then elongated to the length of Matt's!

However, it's far too early to breakout our four piece kayak paddles in the event of a rig failure due to mast breakage in the middle of a tropical cyclone while crossing open water, so if the storm hits us Sunday, we will have no alternative but to sip G & T’s in Nadi until it passes!