Category: 2011 Sept Blog

Dear F&F, September 27th – 29th, 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

We arrived at Luganville\’s \”Segond Channel\” just about 8 pm local time. It was completely dark and all the navigation lights on the charts either were not working or had changed their light patterns! Welcome to navigating in the \”back of beyond\”!

We came in through this very famous body of water in nice calm conditions. It was here that Admiral McCain (Grandfather of U.S. Senator John McCain) flew over this island and declared it would become the forward base in the Pacific to halt the Japanese advance in early 1942. This channel once had over 100 Allied ships anchored including Air Craft Carriers and Battleships. Over a half a million Allied personnel came through here during the war years. It is home to two famous ship wrecks; both lost to \”friendly fire\”.

\”SS President Coolidge\” struck two mines while entering the channel and has become a diving/tourist Mecca for this remote island nation in the Southwest Pacific.

The Coolidge is in between 65 feet (20 meters) and 200 feet (60 meters) of water and offers potentially days of diving to completely explore her.

See: https://svbeachhouse.com/photos/09-10-2011-vanuatu-underwater-topside-tanna-island-volcano/

The \”USS Tucker\” was also unaware that mines had recently been laid (24 hours before her loss, two weeks before the loss of \”Coolidge\”), violently exploded and sank at the opposite end of the channel. Two men were lost on Coolidge and six men on Tucker. Due to the loss of equipment being shipped on Coolidge, it caused a several month delay in resupply and rotation of U.S. Marines at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands; about 700 miles north of here.

Anja and I did the first dive as a \”check out dive\”. Despite our experience and advanced certifications, the dive operator is very prudent on a first dive on Coolidge. Divers have been lost on this wreck! Our second dive would also be our last as we do need to move on to Port Villa 150 miles to our south starting tomorrow. We passed on the other famous dive here, \”Million Dollar Point\”. This site and point were so named as departing US troops shoved millions of dollars of mostly heavy equipment into the ocean before departing at the end of WW2.

On our second dive on Coolidge, we entered the ship\’s forward cargo holds #1 & #2. Here we saw small tanks, air craft fuel tanks, heavy equipment, gun shells and lots of military equipment.

These dives are all decompression dives and guides are required. A decompression dive is an advanced dive where to remove excess nitrogen build up from our bodies, we have to wait at set depths for a period of time to \”out gas\”. This prevents us from getting \”the bends\”. I had a required 10 minute stop on both dives, more than sufficient air and no worries. My dive computer is extremely conservative. Some of the divers had NO required stop times on their more liberal dive computers. We were quite tired after our sail here and I wanted the next day off. Anja used the time to do some land touring which I\’ll hear about later tonight.

We had a lovely gathering of M/V \”Oso Blanco\”, M/V \”Mystery Ship\”, S/V – can\’t remember, will add later! and S/V \”Beach House\” crews. We all had drinks and puu puu\’s aboard \”Mystery Ship\” and dinner at the local Aore Island Resort.

Today I\’m getting \”Beach House\” ready for our last 150 miles to Port Villa where we will start out tomorrow via Malakula Island and perhaps Havana Harbor on Efate Island before arrival at Port Villa. Port Villa is the capitol of Vanuatu. A mini surprise will then be revealed!….

Stay tuned, Scott with touring Anja!

Dear F&F, September 27th – 29th, 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

We arrived at Luganville\’s \”Segond Channel\” just about 8 pm local time. It was completely dark and all the navigation lights on the charts either were not working or had changed their light patterns! Welcome to navigating in the \”back of beyond\”!

We came in through this very famous body of water in nice calm conditions. It was here that Admiral McCain (Grandfather of U.S. Senator John McCain) flew over this island and declared it would become the forward base in the Pacific to halt the Japanese advance in early 1942. This channel once had over 100 Allied ships anchored including Air Craft Carriers and Battleships. Over a half a million Allied personnel came through here during the war years. It is home to two famous ship wrecks; both lost to \”friendly fire\”.

\”SS President Coolidge\” struck two mines while entering the channel and has become a diving/tourist Mecca for this remote island nation in the Southwest Pacific.

The Coolidge is in between 65 feet (20 meters) and 200 feet (60 meters) of water and offers potentially days of diving to completely explore her.

See: https://svbeachhouse.com/photos/09-10-2011-vanuatu-underwater-topside-tanna-island-volcano/

The \”USS Tucker\” was also unaware that mines had recently been laid (24 hours before her loss, two weeks before the loss of \”Coolidge\”), violently exploded and sank at the opposite end of the channel. Two men were lost on Coolidge and six men on Tucker. Due to the loss of equipment being shipped on Coolidge, it caused a several month delay in resupply and rotation of U.S. Marines at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands; about 700 miles north of here.

Anja and I did the first dive as a \”check out dive\”. Despite our experience and advanced certifications, the dive operator is very prudent on a first dive on Coolidge. Divers have been lost on this wreck! Our second dive would also be our last as we do need to move on to Port Villa 150 miles to our south starting tomorrow. We passed on the other famous dive here, \”Million Dollar Point\”. This site and point were so named as departing US troops shoved millions of dollars of mostly heavy equipment into the ocean before departing at the end of WW2.

On our second dive on Coolidge, we entered the ship\’s forward cargo holds #1 & #2. Here we saw small tanks, air craft fuel tanks, heavy equipment, gun shells and lots of military equipment.

These dives are all decompression dives and guides are required. A decompression dive is an advanced dive where to remove excess nitrogen build up from our bodies, we have to wait at set depths for a period of time to \”out gas\”. This prevents us from getting \”the bends\”. I had a required 10 minute stop on both dives, more than sufficient air and no worries. My dive computer is extremely conservative. Some of the divers had NO required stop times on their more liberal dive computers. We were quite tired after our sail here and I wanted the next day off. Anja used the time to do some land touring which I\’ll hear about later tonight.

We had a lovely gathering of M/V \”Oso Blanco\”, M/V \”Mystery Ship\”, S/V – can\’t remember, will add later! and S/V \”Beach House\” crews. We all had drinks and puu puu\’s aboard \”Mystery Ship\” and dinner at the local Aore Island Resort.

Today I\’m getting \”Beach House\” ready for our last 150 miles to Port Villa where we will start out tomorrow via Malakula Island and perhaps Havana Harbor on Efate Island before arrival at Port Villa. Port Villa is the capitol of Vanuatu. A mini surprise will then be revealed!….

Stay tuned, Scott with touring Anja!

Dear F&F, September 26th, 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Today marks 4 years since \”Beach House\” left Marina del Rey, California. Needless to say, much has happened.

Two days ago, we were having a brilliant spinnaker run which lasted 16 hours. At 4 a.m., the wind started to pipe up to 25 knots so prudence dictated dropping the spinnaker. For those of you who don\’t know, a spinnaker is the brightly colored sail that is used to go down wind…..fast!

We were making excellent time, averaging around 9 knots and occasionally getting into the low teens. When we went to lower the spinnaker, it wrapped up like a package on the staysail. We were able to sort this out pretty quickly but I had my hands full (literally) with the sail. Anja took the control line (called a sheet) and tied it to the lifeline as I instructed her to do. The only problem is, I didn\’t tell her to pull it up tight first. It looped under the starboard (right) hull and wrapped itself in the propeller seizing and stopping the engine. This cannot be fixed without going under the boat to clear it out. I often have the engines on at a very slow speed to aid in giving us quick maneuvering ability while making a big sail change. Next time, I\’ll not have the engines \”in gear\”.

After we got the spinnaker down, the wind calmed and we could have flown it another full day (which I wish we had!). Yesterday was slow because we were under powered using only the genoa instead of the spinnaker. It\’s 1/3rd the size and we were a bit under canvassed.

This morning at 5 a.m., I realized we were going to be lucky to get to Luganville today before dark. We motored on one engine and headed to \”Home Bay\” on the southwest corner of Pentecost Island.

Good thing I used my head on this one. I\’d thought of trying to free the stuck spinnaker sheet out on the \”high seas\”, good thing I didn\’t! I would have been pummeled under the boat bouncing around in the 6 foot (2 meter) swell.

Home Bay was flat as a pancake. It took 3 minutes to get 90% of the tangle out. I started with snorkel gear. Clearly, it wasn\’t going to be easy for the last 6 inches (15 cm), (is it ever? LOL).

So on went the scuba gear (to the rescue yet again!). I took a 6 mm allen key and removed the bottom screw on the propeller zinc and used a marlin spike to lever out the stuck piece between the front of the propeller hub and the zinc anode. I pulled it out, put the zinc screw back in and away we went. A local pulled up in a handmade canoe, wish I\’d gotten a photo. Anja may have snapped one. He wanted to help! Another local boat went by and waved. Anja was her usual terrific self and handed me the appropriate tools and kept the boat from drifting around.

All in all just another \”sea story\” with a happy ending. My favorite kind!

Pentecost Island is where the original bungee jumpers (vine jumpers) come from. Did you know about these crazies? They jump off a 100 foot (35 meter) tower with a vine around their legs….head first! The idea is to touch the mud at the bottom of the tower with their heads! It\’s a coming of age manhood ritual of some sort. I\’ll stick with the lunnie things I already do, like jump in the ocean to remove tangled lines from propellers!…ha.

KIT, Scott

54 miles to go, ETA local time around 9pm.

Dear F&F,

September 25th, 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Day 2 run: 180 nm Position: 16 deg 29.5 min South 170 deg 48.2 min East

Speed: Ave = 7 knots Wind: 21 knots, ESE Swell: 6.5 feet (2 meters) Air: 81 deg F/ 27.2 deg C Baro: 1015 steady

Yesterday was so nice out here, we set the spinnaker at noon, the wind was about 18 knots. We carried it with one reef in the main till 4 a.m. and it started to blow 25 knots. First we got a wrap (around the furled up staysail) while taking it down, that cleared easily and then we discovered we\’d gotten the spinnaker sheet wrapped around the starboard propeller. Ah, the cruising life! Currently, we\’ve a full main and genoa poled out to port, running before the wind right on course. We should see Ambryn Island to port and Pentecost Island to starboard at day break tomorrow. Once we get inside the islands, we\’ll drop sail and motor on the port engine into the lee of Pentecost and I\’ll get to go for a swim to free up the line from the propeller. It\’s happened before, but not on a passage. No worries, it\’s all just part of the game.

This has been an extremely pleasant sail with very moderate seas and nice normal trade wind conditions from the ESE. The prediction is for more of the same. The new spinnaker pole has been yet again a blessing, keeping us headed right down the waves and on course. This makes the passage very comfortable and our efficiency at keeping a course with good speed has dramatically increased.

We\’ll be pressing a bit, but hope to make Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island before dark tomorrow (Our Monday).

KIT, Scott with off watch, sleeping Anja

Dear F&F, September 24th 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

End of Day one: 175 nm 312 mile to Pentecost Island Passage, 380 miles to Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island – Vanuatu 16 deg 41 min S 174 deg 21 min E

A lovely first days sail, we put the spinnaker up mid day today, winds are SSE at 12-18 knots. 5 foot (1.5 meter) seas from the SSE. Air is 79 deg F (26.1 C) As we are headed almost due west, we\’re getting a nice push.

Calm, comfortable and really nice so far. As usual, on these longer passages, Anja and I don\’t see much of each other. She is currently napping \”off watch\” and I\’m minding \”The House\”, listening to music and watching this incredibly gorgeous day progress.

I\’ll check in with the Pacific Seafarer\’s Net (via amateur radio) at 0330 GMT. This is a \”safety at sea\” net which monitors voluntarily any boats who wish to participate. I\’ve done so ever since we left California.

Of note, a minor fridge issue which I know I\’ll be able to resolve in one of our next ports.

I just caught the \”ship\’s log\” up to date and it should be posted on the home page at: www.svbeachhouse.com

Feel free to drop a note anytime! Scott with sleeping Anja!

Dear F&F, September 21st – 23rd, 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

We went up to check and see if the nice dive sites off the end of Yasawairara were dive able, but the weather was just too strong. So instead, we set sail for the 12 miles back to Nanuya-Sewa. We had a brilliant ride in fantastic wind and calm seas.

Once we were anchored, Joe and Anja went on a dive to \”The Cabbage Patch\” which has large lettuce leaf shaped hard corals; even green in color.

I went into \”get the boat ready to sail off\” mode. Topped the fuel from our jerry cans, put stuff away, checked the weather, etc.

The next day, we were able to go with a local dive boat and did what would be our final dive in Fiji; \”Tom\’s Thumb\”. A lovely site which we did with a couple from Australia staying at a local resort. Nice lion fish, hard and soft corals, lots of large anemone\’s and I found a tiny Imperial Shrimp living in an anemone. A mantis shrimp was scene by our Aussie friends, but I didn\’t get to see it, darn! These look like a brightly crazy quilted and colored \”mini lobster\”. Be careful though, they can cut your finger off if you try to handle them!

Joe left with hugs and kisses on the Ferry and Anja and I went into super ready mode. Anja made some easy prepared ready to heat meals for the expected 4 day trip to Luganville on Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu. We would begin the 600 mile trip in the morning.

Upped anchor at 0800 local time and we\’re off!….. Watch for blogs posted remotely from our trip and of course I update our position while en-route.

KIT, Scott and Anja en-route to Vanuatu! Farewell Fiji, you\’ve been great.

Dear F&F, September 18th – 20th, 2011

We headed up the coast to Yasawa Island\’s Narara Beach. The anchorage was perfect. The water a calm cobalt blue to turquoise in color. We dove \”Paradise Point\” and the reef off Vawa Island. Paradise Point is also a surf spot, but was calm today and offered a great dive in both hard and soft corals.

New friend Gayle Van Leer even emailed me a Google Earth map shot of exactly where we were anchored and the dive spots. Thank you Gayle!

The beach here was gorgeous too and Joe said \”you ain\’t seen nothin\’ yet\”! The next day we traveled the 8 miles up to the most northerly of the main Yasawa group; Yasawairara Island. Yasawa in Fijian means, \”The Islands Over there\”. Yasawairara basically means, \”The end of the islands over there\”.

So we again had a beautiful anchorage and went ashore to do \”sevusevu\”. After which we got a lesson from Joe in all things coconut (photos not yet posted).

We had a lovely walk on \”8 month beach\” and saw a beautiful group of young kids coming from school. (photos soon!)

8 month beach is so called because of the sands. They are so fine (I kept some!), that the locals say if you get it in your hair (not my problem!…ha), it takes 8 months to get it all out. This was indeed the finest sand I\’ve ever felt. Silk comes to mind!

From here, we upped anchor and headed to Champaign Beach….. It was here the beach scenes from the movie \”Contact\” with Jody Foster were filmed. A stunning 1/2 mile of sand, one private home back in the trees and the anchorage all to ourselves. We did the view hike and walked the beach. It was quite melancholic for me as I\’m sure you can understand. This entire area was a \”Cindy experience\”. I needed some alone time, hiked up to the top of the hill and took some photos. (Posting soon!) The sands here were nearly as magical as those at 8 month beach. The experience of the water, the anchorage, the isolation and the beauty were priceless….

Tomorrow, we\’d be off back to Nanuya-Sewa for a last attempt at some dives and farewell to Joe before heading on to Vanuatu.

See Photo Gallery: 09-Western Fiji & Yasawa Group

Scott with Anja and Joe

Dear F&F, September 16th – 17th, 2011

Joe arrived on the noon Ferry from Denarau and we immediately upped anchor and headed to Nanuya-Sewa Island. This is a lovely spot (photos not yet posted) and we anchored next to Claudia and Joerg of s/v \”Dreamtime\”.

Joe, Anja and I immediately went for a dive at \”Tavarua Break\” which is also a nice right hand surf spot. The dive was nice and we were invited ashore by some locals who were putting on a \”lovo\” or earth oven feast. We all got together, had some wicked Kava and a great time.

The wind was blowing the next day, so we decided to head to Sawa-I-Lau island and en route stop and do a dive on the open ocean pinnacle, \”The Maze\”. The Maze is a series of underwater swim through\’s and caverns. The soft and hard corals were really in good shape. The most notable thing to us is that there are rarely \”big fish\” and this site was no exception. Fiji, like many of the Pacific Island nations is over fishing to the point of an ecological collapse. At least the humpbacks are coming back!

From The Maze, it was a short motor into the anchorage at Sawa-I-Lau. We again saw Mega Yacht \”TV\” here with lots of guests. The big attraction is the limestone caverns and underwater pools. Anja, Joe and I did part of the hike till it got to the point I thought I was entering Carlsbad Caverns. The knee high MUCK was the remembrance of the day!

After this, Joe and Anja swam in the pools, I chilled out. It was here in 1983 that my first wife Gaye and I traveled through these islands on a \”Blue Lagoon Cruise\”. We had done the swim way back then too.

Anja and Joe went to do \”sevusevu\” at the local village which gave us permission to anchor and dive off the local islands. (Photos not yet posted).

The next day we would head further up the coast in search of protected dive sites; the wind was still howling.

Stay tuned, Scott with Anja and Joe!

Dear F&F, September 13th – 15th, 2011

We motored up to Lautoka after a last marketing and fuel up. This is where Kate and I first anchored upon arrival. The check out with the boss was uneventful. They seem to be trying to smooth the paper work as well.

Instead of just leaving, the Northern Yasawa\’s were tempting and on our way. So we headed back to Manta Ray Bay Island and hoped to meet up with Joe Tui as a private dive guide. Joe is the guy with the blue \”camo\” wet suit petting \”Tiger Girl\” in our photo gallery.

We had a nice smooth uneventful trip and anchored in the pass. This is also the place where the geneker sail was torn to shreds and lost. The next morning I took Anja out to the Manta Ray site and she had about a 45 minute snorkeling experience with two mantas. She was jazzed. As I had done this many times with Cindy, I just did the spotting from the dinghy so she could geta nice experience. There was quite a bit of current in the pass, so someone really had to stay with the dinghy and be able to chase the other person drifting away. It\’s effortless for the Manta\’s of course; sleek and graceful. As they are plankton filter feeders, Anja got to see them with their large hula hoop size mouths open while filter feeding.

The tourist boats arrived and this was our cue to go home as once the overly excited jump in, the Manta\’s don\’t hang around very long or at least go deep.

We were supposed to meet Joe today, but he literally \”missed the boat\” (Ferry from Denarau) and we had to wait another night here to get him the next day.

The next morning, Anja got the same private experience with the Manta\’s again and even got to pet one! What a thrill…believe me. These Manta\’s are small compared to the ones Cindy and I experienced in Mexico, but this is a life experience. If you ever get the chance, don\’t miss it.

Scott and Anja

Dear F&F, September 13th – 15th, 2011

We motored up to Lautoka after a last marketing and fuel up. This is where Kate and I first anchored upon arrival. The check out with the boss was uneventful. They seem to be trying to smooth the paper work as well.

Instead of just leaving, the Northern Yasawa\’s were tempting and on our way. So we headed back to Manta Ray Bay Island and hoped to meet up with Joe Tui as a private dive guide. Joe is the guy with the blue \”camo\” wet suit petting \”Tiger Girl\” in our photo gallery.

We had a nice smooth uneventful trip and anchored in the pass. This is also the place where the geneker sail was torn to shreds and lost. The next morning I took Anja out to the Manta Ray site and she had about a 45 minute snorkeling experience with two mantas. She was jazzed. As I had done this many times with Cindy, I just did the spotting from the dinghy so she could geta nice experience. There was quite a bit of current in the pass, so someone really had to stay with the dinghy and be able to chase the other person drifting away. It\’s effortless for the Manta\’s of course; sleek and graceful. As they are plankton filter feeders, Anja got to see them with their large hula hoop size mouths open while filter feeding.

The tourist boats arrived and this was our cue to go home as once the overly excited jump in, the Manta\’s don\’t hang around very long or at least go deep.

We were supposed to meet Joe today, but he literally \”missed the boat\” (Ferry from Denarau) and we had to wait another night here to get him the next day.

The next morning, Anja got the same private experience with the Manta\’s again and even got to pet one! What a thrill…believe me. These Manta\’s are small compared to the ones Cindy and I experienced in Mexico, but this is a life experience. If you ever get the chance, don\’t miss it.

Scott and Anja