Mega Yachts and Surfing Spots

Bula bula!

Today the sky is bright blue and the humid heat is nearly oppressive. Fortunately there is a cool breeze blowing form the northwest that makes sitting in the shade quite pleasant. Ron's guest arrived this morning and we (the crew of Slow Dance) greeted her with our white "Slow Dance" polo shirts on. Quite cute, really. We are still working on a few last minute issues before we head out to the islands, which should be in a few days. I can't wait to get out there.

Actually, I did get out! As you know we have become good friends with the crew of Noble House, particularly with the first mate, Rob, who also surfs. Two nights ago we were talking about surfing Tavarua and he was telling me about all the breaks and local information. I told him it is a dream of mine to surf the reefs out there, and he said, "Ok, lets go tomorrow. We'll take the Sportfisher."

SCORE! I could hardly sleep I was so excited. I was hoping that it wouldn't be a problem if I snuck away for a day - it was Sunday after all - but Diane (the guest) was coming today so I didn't know if I could swing it. Sean is totally easy going and had no problem with me going on a surf mission. Ron and Victoria both agreed that I could go, but first BJ and I unloaded 8 cases of wine and beer onto the boat. Gotta stock up.

Before we headed out to Tavarua, Rob gave me a tour of Noble House. It is something like a 53 meter mega yacht, complete with Sportfisher tender, cruising tender, jet skis, a gym, movie theater, a baby grand piano and so on. It didn't really feel like a boat, and walking around I could see the insane amount of work it requires to keep this boat in the pristine condition it is.

We were hoping to head out to Tavarua or Namotu to get some surf, but Rob had stowed his surfboards under the jet skis and they were impossible to access. The wakeboard was inaccessible as well so we decided on a booze cruise - loaded up the Sportfisher with drinks and headed out.

Fiji consists of two major islands surrounded by fringe reef and hundreds of little islands (motus). Cloudbreak, the most famous wave in Fiji, is on a reef just off Tavarua island. The island is about 10 miles out of Port Denarau (where we are in the marina), and it took us about a half hour cruising at 20 knots to make it out there.

It was pretty exciting coming up on a wave that I have seen in so many surf flicks and mags. Unfortunately the waves were not good, the swell was funky and small, but it was super cool to be out there and I could easily see the potential of the waves. Actually, it is kind of good that the waves were crap because I would have flipped out if I couldn't surf it because I didn't have my board.

We put a few lines in the water and trolled through the passes for a bit, Rob pointing out all the waves and take off spots, the judges tower at Cloudbreak and telling crazy stories about the pro surfers and their shenanigans. I expected the water to be crystal clear and blue, but it was not. Apparently the water in Fiji is not super clear because the land is so fertile and it rains so much, the run-off makes the water murky.

What the water lacks in clarity it makes up for with warmth. In fact it is too warm. After cruising through the reefs we headed to Musket cove, where we tied up to the dock and hit the bar. After a few cocktails I went for a swim and a snorkel (my first!) which was awesome, in spite of the fact that the water wasn't clear, the reef was dead and the fish were few and far between. No worries, we will get to more pristine places soon enough.

We headed back to Port Denarau in the early evening. Rob told me all sorts of stories about exotic places - including the Lau group of Eastern Fiji, where we are going to go. He is going to come over and chart out all the places we should hit -- particularly the places with good surf. You can see why I like him.

When I got back to the boat it was nicely cleaned and tidied up, so I did a quick vacuum and promptly fell asleep before I was awakened to go up to the bar for drinks and dinner. I know, its a rough life.

There have been a few new developments, however. It appears that we are no longer going to sail to Australia. Another of the Noble House crew talked Ron out of it by telling him how prohibitively expensive it is. So I think the plan has changed back to just cruising Fiji and then coming back to the marina here. But who the hell knows. I'm just going with the flow. And the flow is good.

BULA! (again)

BULA from Fiji! It is steamy hot here but I am enjoying a cold Fiji Bitter as watch the rain pouring down, so it is bearable. I have been in Fiji four days now, and things have been… interesting… to say the least.

First of all, I was blown away at how easy it was to get from Auckland, New Zealand to Nandi, Fiji. No weather reports, no provisioning, no seasickness, no days upon days of tedium on the open ocean. Man, it was awesome. Granted, Dad and I did leave for the airport at 3:00 AM, but I hopped on that flight I sat back, relaxed, and arrived at my destination three hours later.

As I walked off the plane I was greeted with a blast of hot, humid air. It put a huge smile on my face. Ah yes, tropics, I have missed you. I have not missed dealing with airport customs officials though, who were not happy with the fact that I was importing ten pounds of coffee into their country. They tried to charge me $400 (Fijian) but I managed to charm my way out of it by offering to serve the officials coffee on the boat some time. I gave them my email address but have not heard from them yet.

Sean picked me up from the airport and gave me a debriefing on the Slow Dance situation. Ron's (the owner) girlfriend is flying into Nandi on Wednesday, and we have to have the boat ready to go on charter by then. The plan is to head to the outer islands after she arrives, but the boat is having some serious maintenance done to it and it is going to be a race to see if we can finish everything in time.

Which leads me to what I have been doing for the past few days: cleaning, organizing, dusting, washing… and drinking. A normal day starts sometime around 8:0 AM when we get up, drink coffee, and talk about what we are working on for the day. By 9 everybody is at work. My first task was organizing the engine room which, for the past few months, has been thrashed. The actual job was not so bad, but it is hot outside and the engine room is even hotter - a stuffy 95 degrees or so. The only god thing about working in the engine room is that it makes everywhere else seem cooler.

Everybody drips sweat all day. I drink three or four liters of water per day and hardly pee at all. Gross, I know. Fortunately Slow Dance has air-conditioning that is turned on at night, so sleeping is possible. Otherwise, during the day you have to sit totally still with a fan pointed on you not to sweat.

But nobody is sitting still for too long around here. Sean, BJ, Victoria and I are busting our asses so we can get out of here on time. Victoria and I are cleaning the shit out of the boat, BJ is finishing sanding blisters out of the deck, and Sean is running around fixing things like he always does.

By the end of the day everybody is extremely thirsty and heads up to the bars at the head of the marina for a beer. Sean and BJ have made good friends with the crew of the mega yacht Noble House tied up next to us, so we share beers with them most nights. It is funny to see the differences between paid crew and cruisers - paid crew work hard every day and play hard every night, while cruisers are much more relaxed. The other night a bunch of us were drinking at Cardo's and our tab came to over $2,000. Glad I was not paying.

I would love to tell you that I have surfed Tavarua, gone for a dive, or even gotten in the water for a swim, but I have not - YET. This week is all about working and preparing the boat so we can get the hell out of here. I understand that, although I am going a little crazy not being able to get in the water. Breathe.

I was very excited because the guys on Noble House surf and offered to take me out to Tavarua with them (Google "Cloudbreak") on the mega yacht's Sportfisher tender. Unfortunately it does not look like the surf or the weather are going to be very good this weekend. I am not too bummed though, I will get plenty of time in the water. We are going to be here for a while.

Speaking for being here for a while, it looks like I might be on Slow Dance a little while longer than I anticipated. Sean said "a month", but a month in Fiji and then a delivery to Australia takes a little time more than that. And you can't forget Vanuatu. Just gotta go with the flow.

One more thing before I go - I will try to update here as much as possible, but tropical internet is slow and difficult. As for pictures… well… maybe someday.

BULA!

Change of Plan pt. II and a Happy New Year!

Happy 2012! Starting the new year off right with a surf sesh at Sandy Bay.

A few days ago I went shopping in preparation of leaving for Fiji. It is the duty of those flying in from "civilized" countries to bring goodies for the crew who have been in the tropics, so I called Sean on Slow Dance to see what everybody wanted/needed from New Zealand. "Nothing - just you," he said, "And 10 pounds of coffee." Hmmm... better buy the bigger suitcase. Funny side note - I have traveled 10,000 miles without a suitcase, and only now do I need one.

"Oh, and one more thing," Sean said before we hung up, "We are thinking about heading over to the Gold Coast next week, so we will be going to Vanuatu and New Caledonia too, not just staying in Fiji."

Huh? You mean, like, with me? I bought a round trip ticket in and out of Fiji, but I guess that is easy enough to fix. And I have been wanting to go to Vanuatu, but I thought I would wait until after cyclone season ends. However I am lowly crew and do not have a say where we go, so... I am down.

In reality I am pretty excited about this change of plan - to do a passage on Slow Dance will certainly be an experience. While it is cyclone season, we will have very good weather forecasting as well as take all precautions necessary. Besides, Sean told me if we do encounter a cyclone, we girls and the owner get to go stay in a hotel while Sean and BJ hold down the fort. Doesn't sound all bad. I have always wanted to go to Australia, too.

To be completely honest I was a little intimidated when Sean told me this. When I told Dad about the change of plans he cracked a big smile and said, "Wow! Lucky! Think I could go too?" He has always supported me in my adventures and it was great to have his encouragement with this as well. Mom was not quite so pleased.

Dad and I have been spending a lot of time together. Last night we had a fun dinner party to bring in the new year with Mark from Merkava and Jared and Christine from Architeuthis. Dad made a delicious dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. Then we went up to our favorite Irish pub to celebrate at midnight. The bar was packed and there was a live band, good beer and lots of holiday cheer.

Jared and Christine spent the night on Rutea and we got up in the morning, nursed our hangovers with coffee and pancakes, and then headed out to surf at Sandy Bay. The gods must smile on Kiwi holidays because the waves were super fun and the sun even came out for a bit. I surfed until I thought my arms were going to fall off and made sure I got plenty of waves, as who knows where or when the next time I will surf. Plus, surfing is the best way to start a new year.

2011 was an epic year, and I think that 2012 will be even more so. My new year's resolution for this year is to go big. Or go bigger. I want to take advantage of all opportunities, to not hold back because of fear or uncertainty, to seize the day and relish the night.

Regardless of your resolutions or intentions for the coming year, I wish you health, wealth, happiness and success with whatever it is you do.

Next time - from the tropics!

A Kiwi Christmas and Other Short Stories

Rutea at dock in Whangarei on Christmas

Happy Christmas, my friends! I hope yours was filled with the people you love and the activities you enjoy most in life. Although it was a little sad to be so far away from friends and family this Christmas, Dad and I made the best of it.

On Christmas eve we threw a dinner party for a bunch of yachtie friends on Rutea. The eight of us spent the afternoon drinking very alcoholic eggnog (homemade - you can't find eggnog here), eating delicious food, and enjoying each others' company. After all, these friends are the closest people to family we have around here. Dad made an amazing dinner of prime rib with wasabi sauce, creamed spinach and chocolate chip bread pudding with cinnamon-rum sauce for dessert. Our friends brought lots of good eats as well.

I must have consumed 5,000 or so calories on Christmas eve considering all the food and booze I enjoyed, so on Christmas morning I headed out to get a nice long surf session at Sandy Bay. It was the first sunny day in weeks, and Mark and I spent three hours in the water catching waist to chest high waves. It was a great way to spend Christmas morning - my favorite, in fact - although I did get very sunburned. I even put on two different types of sunscreen, but the sun is INTENSE here.

In the afternoon Mark and I headed back to Whangarei and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking eggnog and champagne with Dad, and eating all the bomb left-overs from the night before. All in all I would say it was a very successful Christmas, albeit different.

Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, is a big holiday here and there was a lifeguard patrol out at Ocean Beach so I decided to head out and spend the night out there. Although it was pretty windy and cloudy, the waves were decent and lots of people were hanging out, so it was a good time.

The most fun part of the day was when one of the lifeguards, Lindsay, took me out in the IRB (dinghy) to play - er, I mean "train" - in the surf. The lifeguards use the IRB to do rescues and have to be comfortable taking the boat out in all conditions, so even if the waves are huge the guys will take it out to practice.

The waves were only about head high for us, but I am incredibly sore today from launching off waves and slamming down the back of them, punching through walls of water and hanging on for dear life. It was pretty thrilling to be in the IRB out in the surf, especially since yachties usually avoid surf with their dinghies like the plague. Good experience for me if I ever need to land our dinghy in breaking waves.

The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventful, although two of the lifeguards rescued a guy who had fallen on the rocks and broken two vertebrae (they used the IRB to pick him up). To show his gratitude for their help, he brought us a case of beer to the surf club as we were shutting down for the afternoon. We spent the rest of the evening drinking beer and cooking a communal dinner of pot roast, gravy and vegetables.

At around 11:00 PM, when the beer was gone and the whiskey was being passed around, Evan (patrol leader) decided we would do more "training" and go swim around the rocks on the south end of the beach. Now I am not opposed to going in the ocean at night - I love a good night surf as much as the next person (or probably more), but I usually try to avoid going near the rocks and usually try to go out when there is at least a bit of a moon.

Last night was pitch black, and there is not exactly any civilization to give off lights. Nevertheless we all ran down to the beach - the braver guards in their speedos or bikinis, and the rest of us in our wetsuits because it was freaking freezing. We started swimming through the pitch black water only to see our strokes illuminated by phosphorescence in the water. Coooool. The only way to know a wave was coming was to listen for it, as it was nearly impossible to see. Quite an adrenaline rush.

We swam over to the horseshoe, a channel through the rocks that the waves wash through. We swam around that for a while, climbed on the rocks, and managed to make it back safely to the surf club where we resumed drinking beers to warm up. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, as was patrol today. I even left early because the weather was so cold and nasty out at the beach.

BUT, this cold business is about to change very quickly. In less than a week I am headed to Fiji, where right now the average temperature during the day is 95 degrees, with some horribly high humidity. To be completely honest I am a bit intimidated. There is a reason why people sail to far out of the way places (like New Zealand) for the tropical summer, and I guess I am about to find out why first hand. Wish me luck!

Change of Plan

Life is a funny thing. Earlier this week I hit a low. I was so depressed that I cried. My sadness was the combination of many things - the fact that I am very far away from most of my family and friends this holiday season; the fact that it has been cold and raining pretty much non-stop for 3 weeks; the fact that the surf has been shit; the fact that it is harder to make close friends in a more urban setting; the fact that the U.S and world politics are horrible and soul crushing; the fact that my job search is not going well... the list goes on and on.

And then, yesterday morning I woke up to a call from Sean - captain of Slow Dance - inviting me to come spend a month with them in Fiji as crew. It was a very nice way to wake up. Surprisingly, I did not accept right away. I told Sean I needed to think about it for an hour and then would call him back.

I got out of bed and told Dad that I had just been invited to go work in Fiji on Slow Dance for a month, but I don't know if I should go... And he said, "Why wouldn't you go?!" My response was: granted, I am not really happy here. I mean, I like it here, but it is not what I expected. But I feel like if I leave without figuring out why I am not super stoked on New Zealand, I will feel defeated. You know? I don't want to feel like I am running away because I don't like it here. I want to face my problems and work through them so that I can look back on my time here as positive. Plus, I want to finish my lifeguarding award and surf Shippies again.

And Dad said, This is true. But an offer like this, to be paid crew on a luxury yacht in Fiji does not come around very often. You have no commitments here and can come back to lifeguarding and surfing, besides you will only be gone a month.

This is true as well. A minute later I called Sean back and told him I was booking my ticket. It did not take much convincing, but having Dad's support is awesome. Besides, now I can scope out all the good places for when we head up to Fiji in April (or thereabouts).

I don't want to give you the impression that I hate it here - I do not. I have made friends and picked out my favorite surf spots, know that there is so much more of New Zealand to be explored and plan to do so. But given my current circumstances - that I need a job and this is bears somewhat of a resemblance to one - it would be silly not for me to accept. I love the tropics and I really, really enjoy spending time with Sean and the whole Slow Dance experience. I am ecstatic to go back, even if only for a month.

I probably won't get to surf. I might not even get to go for a dive. After all, I will be "working". I will also, however, swim in that warm clear water I have been dreaming of since I left it.

Normal Life

My sweet as Strida bike.

I have been bad about updating my blog because I generally try to wait until something exciting has happened before I write, and life has been a bit too... normal... around here for my taste. This whole "living in one spot" thing has kind of thrown me off, but I am getting used to the Kiwi way of life -- although I will admit I have checked on flights to Fiji once or twice.

The most exciting thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that my uncle Paul sent Mom, Dad and me super sweet "Strida" folding bikes. These are not normal bikes. They are rad. They fold up small and are super light weight, but also well made and fun to ride. Mine is neon green and have gotten some looks as I ride down the street, but hopefully this will help cars to see me as well. New Zealand is not exactly super bike friendly, and I cannot wait to ride my new bike around an atoll.

Along with the bikes, a totally unexpected package arrived addressed to Dad. When we opened it we found three boogie boards and one "Flowrider" surf/skate board, all designed for a standing wave like the one at the Wave House in Mission beach. We were totally perplexed. Nobody would send any of us boogie boards - for one none of us are spongers and two, nobody likes us enough to send us a package like that (except Paul).

After asking around and not getting any answers, Dad was sick of having the boards on the deck and told me he was going to give them to the marina office. I told him to wait, that I would email the company the boards came from and see if they knew what was up with them. So I emailed the people - threatening them that if they did not tell me where the boards came from I was going to take them on the sand dunes and ruin them.

I got a prompt reply back that, yes, it was a mistake for the boards to be sent to S/V Rutea (still not sure how they got to us), and please please send them along to the right people in Japan. The email also said something to the effect of, if you are ever in San Diego and need anything, contact us.

Well, funny thing: I am going to be in San Diego in July! I sent a reply telling them this and hinted that I would very much like a few free sessions at the Wave House and they said no problem. After all, the value of all the boards is somewhere near $1000, so I am doing them a pretty big favor. You will find me shredding a huge barrel in San Diego next summer.

That is about the extent of the excitement around here recently. Mom is in San Diego right now so Dad and I are holding down the fort. It seems like all the wives of our cruiser friends are going home for the holidays, so it looks like I will be spending Christmas with a bunch of old guys. It could be worse, but I will definitely be missing my family.

The waves have been coming and going. Waves here on the East coast are all windswell waves until the cyclones start kicking out some groundswell, so it seems like whenever there are waves it is also windy. Can't be too picky around here. It has also been cold and rainy. Summer my ass. Today my friend Tom and I surfed what looked like the shittiest, small, onshore slop, but it was actually a great time. But get this - I chose to go surf those crappy small waves in the rain over going to the pub with Dad and Mark for a hot lamb dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, complimented by a cold, FREE pint of delicious beer. Now that is dedication.