Suva, Fiji

Now that we’re here, our first tasks were to go in search of batteries and to remove the windlass.  As we’d not seen any smoke coming out of the anchor chain locker itself, we were living in hopes that it was something else and voilà, there appears to be no damage to either the windlass or the solenoid; it was the heavy duty cabling leading from the batteries that had chafed through and caught on fire. How we didn’t go up in flames is an absolute miracle!  Inside the panelling along the port side of the forepeak, the wood is burnt black and the cabling a melted mess. Just there is a shelf with paperbacks and several packages of kava (very dried roots) so we can thank our lucky stars that we still have a boat.  Paul has already bought the replacement cabling and will check everything connected to it as the wires to the nav lights were also burnt out.

The burnt  panel

There is, believe it or not, a huge battery factory here in Suva, just up the road from where we’ve anchored.  The Marketing Manager arranged to collect us to see what they have to offer and he and another chap actually came aboard to see our current set up.  We’ve never seen two more terrified faces as they boarded our dinghy to get to Calypso in mirror-like conditions. Both Indian fellows and their faces were white, not to mention the knuckles on their hands as they clung for dear life to the rungs of the dinghy.  But, extremely helpful and they ended up lending us a couple of batteries until things were sorted out. We even got a tour of the factory which fascinated Paul but me, well Yippee!

Cooee have gone!  One minute there was no weather window for them so we were making plans for at least another week of activities and the next, gone.  Suddenly things changed and if they went right then, they had the best opportunity for quite a while. So, we rushed into town for them to clear out, pick up a few veggies, had them over for a farewell dinner and, sad to say, they sailed off into the night.  We’re going to miss them terribly and can’t say enough thanks for their company, the fish, the welding, the help & advice, all those fabulous meals and sojourns together.  Cheers, we’ll see you in Cape Town.

Now that we’re back in Suva, we couldn’t wait to see how Peter of Troutbridge had managed over the past year.  If you recall, poor Peter put Trouters on the reef as he was heading into Suva just over a year ago. After many days of heavy work, he was able to get her hauled to the Royal Suva Yacht Club and place her on the hard to access the damage. Not a pretty sight; the keels had been ripped off and a good proportion of the boat had spent several days under water when she flipped. 

Over a year later, she is still not quite ready to set off but she now seems seaworthy albeit a bit Spartan.  Apart from the hulls being holed and all the internal water damage, all electrics, electronics, fridge, stove, furnishings have been lost.  He’s done an amazing job on a very limited budget but she’s afloat and, hopefully, we’ll be seeing him along the route to Australia.  Whenever we get down over things going wrong, all we have to do is think of a few others, Peter included. 

If ever you wanted to read a story of endurance, check out his blogsite at http://blog.mailasail.com/troutbridge to follow how it all happened and how he managed to save her. Quite a tale.

The major job of converting our companionway into a battery compartment is almost complete and, at this stage, we have three out of the five new ones installed which means that we can actually turn on some lights at night, hooray!