Miller Time

0800 position 16-49S 178-17E. At anchor in Cukuvou Bay, Yadua Island

Something big hit my lure just before we got to the Nasonisoni Passage yesterday morning, but the hook didn't set. I told the boys not to worry, we were guaranteed, money back guaranteed, to catch a fish as we neared our destination for the day, Yadua Island. A year ago we caught a spanish mackerel there two minutes after putting a fishing line out.

Much of the tidal flow in and out of Vanua Levu's southern lagoon moves through the Nasonisoni Passage. When we arrived at the entrance to the passage yesterday we encountered a two knot adverse current that we had to fight to get through. No problem, we were motor sailing at eight knots. The natural mile long passage was so straight and perfect it looked like it was man made. It was almost exactly 200 yards wide along its entire length and its depth was close to 200 feet. Once through we were in the calm waters between the reef and Vanua Levu.

We are sprinting from the Laus in the east to the Yasawas in the west because the south coast of Vanua Levu doesn't offer much to look at. There are no beaches, the shore is dominated by mangroves and mud flats, and the hills are unremarkable. We paralleled the coast inside the lagoon for twenty five miles and then exited through a pass in the reef off of the town of Nabouwalu where a couple of large ferries were loading passengers and vehicles for Viti Levu, Fiji's main island to the south. Once outside the lagoon, Yadua lay another twenty miles further on off of Vanua Levu's west coast.

As we closed Yadua we hooked up as promised. Unfortunately it was a small kawakawa, probably the worst tasting tuna species, so we let it go.

Cukuvou Bay on Yadua Island is a favorite anchorage for me. The uninhabited half mile diameter crater shaped bay is open only to the west where there is a fifty yard wide channel through the reef. There is a quarter mile long beach along the bay's eastern shore and a narrow reef between the beach and anchorage. A year ago while anchored here we jumped overboard to find two remora glued to the bottom of the boat. Lori and I then snorkeled in to the reef where we came face to face with a black tip shark. Later that afternoon we watched as a tugboat tried in vain to tow an overturned barge into the lagoon. The barge ended up on the reef (it's gone now). There was a lot going on, and it was beautiful.

Communication between the bow and stern of Van Diemen while raising and lowering the anchor has been a problem since the beginning of the voyage. Voices can't be heard at that distance over the sound of the engine . When we have enough crew aboard we've been resorting to posting people in between to relay communications. We've talked about purchasing some kind of walkie-talkie headsets so I can communicate with Rob at the helm, but haven't gotten around to it. It occurred to me about a week ago that we have a couple of hand held VHF radios aboard. Rob and I can talk using those on an obscure channel nobody else is using. We tried the hand helds, and they've been great. No more "What?!" yelled back and forth. Yesterday after I radioed Rob from the bow that the anchor was set and secure here in Cukuvou Bay he responded with "And now, it's Miller time."

Rob was my mentor when I was polishing my sailboat racing skills forty years ago, and I picked up a lot from him. "And now, it's Miller time," a phrase from a beer commercial in the '80s, is one of my favorites and I still use it all the time when the work is done and it's time to open a cold one. I'm glad Rob could pick up a little from me as well.

Eric suggested playing cards yesterday afternoon while we were enjoying our beer, and for the first time in four months a deck of cards came out aboard Van Diemen. First it was "war", which got old quick, then we found a cribbage board. Eric claimed that he hadn't played cribbage in many years. Right. He is currently ahead of me two games to zero.

We found one other boat at anchor here in Cukuvou Bay when we arrived, a beautiful fifty foot long 1903 steel Polish built gaff rigged ketch. It was like we had sailed back in time. There was a Danish family aboard and they dinghied over late in the day to give us a five pound jack crevally. They had just caught two of the fish trolling in the lagoon and only needed one for their dinner. We were already getting some lamb ready to grill so we'll eat the fish tonight.

The crew finished off another great day with a rerun of "Captain Ron", a cinema classic that Eric hadn't seen before, in Van Diemen's saloon theater.

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