On Sunday, we pulled up anchor at 7:00 a.m. to sail to Denarau. We arrived in the anchorage at 2:00 p.m. and relaxed on the boat that evening. It was a still night. The next day, we spent the morning preparing for Aldabra to be hauled out at 2:00 p.m. We emptied the lazarette so the guys could get in and drop the rudder as soon as the boat was hauled out but still in the slings. (Once the boat is on the hard stands, it isn’t high enough to drop the rudder.)
As we were pulling up the anchor to go in, the gear shift lever came off in my hand. I had to put a pair of vice grips on the small stub of a lever to shift gears. With that little snafu, we were a bit late to the haulout. I messaged Chase, our contact at Baobab, about the situation, hoping he would have assistance as we got to the dock. As we approached the dock, we came in a little too fast and I wasn’t able to put the boat in reverse. A couple of guys on lines could have easily halted our forward progress, but Chase was buy himself, handling both bow and stern lines. We bumped the dock with the bow, which was unfortunate, but they were able to buff out the scrape while the boat was in the yard.
After the guys at the Denarau Marina hauled us out, they pressure washed the boat bottom and then dropped the rudder. Then they moved us onto a hard stand and helped us get set up with a ladder to get on and off the boat. We then checked in with the marina, got gate keys, took showers and found ourselves a restaurant for dinner.
Believing that the rudder was in good hands, Pat and I set about the next morning looking for bolts to fix the shifting lever. We were successful in that endeavor. We then tackled what should have been an easy project. The solar panels on top of the dodger had moved to one side, which could only have happened when we were pulled sideways off the reef at Mana Island. Moving the panels back in place was a challenge that required a lot of patience. We had to unscrew hard-to-get-to screws and then replace them after we moved the brackets they were securing. It took far longer than we expected. I then scraped the barnacles off the bottom of the boat that weren’t removed by the power washing. We then walked a mile or so to the Fresh Choice store to buy groceries and a nice ex-pat woman gave us a ride back to the marina. We had good Indian food at Indigo that night after our showers.
Aldabra in the boatyard, second from left
On Wednesday, we finished the solar panel project and then worked on fixing a leak at the mast. Jeff and I had thought we had fixed it the last time we were in Denarau. But we still had a leak in really heavy rain. It rained most of the day so we worked during lulls. After during more boat projects on Thursday, we walked to the other side of the Island on Friday. Pat took pictures of various flowers so he could paint them later. We had dinner that night at an Italian restaurant with Ted and Jenny from Southern Star. Then I walked Pat to a taxi so he could go to Nadi airport to catch a flight back to California. After Pat left, I went over to Cardo’s to join some of the people on the Pacific Rally for drinks.
Dinner with Ted and Jenny
On Saturday morning I got up at 5:00 a.m. to do laundry at the marina. There are only three washing machines and two dryers so it’s often impossible to find them empty. Later, I made up the beds in each cabin and defrosted the refrigerator. I worked on tidying up the boat on Sunday.
On Monday, my friend Steve arrived in the morning. The plan was for him to arrive as the boat work was completed and to then help me take the boat back to Savusavu for cyclone season. We had breakfast with the crews from Southern Star and Opal Lady. Then we installed a couple of parts that Steve had brought from California, a block for the furling line and a filter housing for the watermaker. Then we went across to the other side of Denarau Island to check into our “Airbnb,” which turned out to be an apartment in a hotel that these people had booked for their children who left early. I was a bit confused by the arrangement but it seemed to work out. Even though it was a bus or taxi ride back to the boatyard each day, at least we had an air-conditioned place to stay at night. It was really hot in the yard.
That same day, a week after we had hauled out, I learned that absolutely no work had been done on the rudder. The guys at Baobab, who had been contracted to do the work, had not coordinated with the fiberglass guy, who was needed for the first step, which was to cut the rudder open. I was floored. This meant that there was now no clear schedule for getting the work done. The fiberglass guy could not move us ahead of his other projects. And it meant that the work would not be done before Steve had to fly back to California. I had him fly to Fiji for a sailing trip he would not be able to take.
On Tuesday, Steve and I walked from the hotel apartment to the boatyard to work on a few projects. Then we walked to the Hilton hotel, which had access to a walkable beach. The next day, we blew up the kayaks and paddled around the mangroves near on one side of the harbor before a rainstorm began. It was decided that Steve should go out to the Paradise Cove Resort for a few days to salvage his vacation.
On Wednesday, we rented a car and drove down the coast to Natadola Beach. There was a quiet resort there where we had lunch.
Looking at Natadola Beach from the resort
On Thursday, I did boat projects while Steve did laundry in preparation for his Island visit. Then on Friday, we checked out of the hotel apartment. Steve caught a ride to the ferry and I went back to the boat.
The rudder being built
For the next few days, I stayed on the boat and worked on it while monitoring the progress with the rudder. On Monday, October 28, I learned that the rudder would not be ready until the following weekend. I let Steve know and he decided to book a flight back to California earlier than planned. He returned to Denarau on Tuesday evening. We had dinner and then he took a taxi to the airport.
After Steve left, I booked an Airbnb in an apartment complex right near the boatyard. I moved in there for nearly a week, working on the boat during the day, having dinner with cruising friends at night and then sleeping in the air-conditioned apartment.
On Monday, November 4, I moved out of the apartment and put my gear back on the boat. The guys came to put Aldabra in the slings of the Travellift so they could put the rudder back in. But something had been measured wrong and the rudder didn’t fit. They removed it and took it back to the shop. I wasn’t sure what it would take to modify the rudder, but they completed it in a few hours and the boat was in the water and in a berth by the end of the day.
On Tuesday, Navin from Baobab came to test the autopilot, which had not been working properly even before the rudder was damaged. We did a sea trial and he discovered an installation problem. Navin’s team worked on it for the rest of the day, installing all new autopilot components and building a new mount for the installation of the sensor. They continued work on Wednesday and were ready for a sea trial by the end of the day but it was too windy. The sea trial was conducted on Thursday morning so they could do the calibraton of the autopilot. Once that was done, Aldabra was ready to leave to return to Savusavu.
Because Steve had to return to California, I had made arrangements for a woman to join me on the way to Savusavu. Patti arrived on Thursday morning in time for the sea trial. After we returned to the marina to drop Navin and his colleague off, I checked out of the marina, paid by bill at Baobab and bought some final provisions.
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