Maite Pointe

The view off of Scott and Kelly Schulman's Maite Pointe Resort.

Sunsets

Carson and Mike enjoying cliff jumping. The water was the perfect temp after the hour long hike.

Mahi Mahi

Lots of Mahi Mahi. Lonnie caught this 20lb Mahi Mahi, outside of Mbua Bay.

Jack Fischer

Jack Fischer at the helm of Sundance. Jack hitched a ride with us to Savu Savu. Jack took the helm for 6 hours. All we had to do was feed him.

Pictures

Lonnie at the helm (Carson's father). Another tough day. Sundance can be challenging to steer, after a few helpful hints Lonnie was keeping on course.

Shark Dive

We found a new sport (shark diving) what a great sport. We all survived the shark dives and we encountered lots of sharks. The first dive was staged in 90 feet of water. We all gathered on the bottom and watched a guide chum the water for the sharks. So many fish gathered to eat the free hand outs the guide was giving. With in several minutes several Silver, and Black Tip Sharks appeared. We spent 18 minutes at 90ft and then ascended to 45 ft for another feeding. after 10 minutes we ascended to 10 ft and watched the guide feed little white tip sharks. Such a frenzie. The second dive we were suppose to see the Bull and Tiger sharks. The weather was stormy and the visability was poor. We only saw a couple of reef sharks and never saw the big sharks. We were told that this time of year the Bulls are out mating. The dives were fun and maybe next time we will get to see the big sharks.

Lautoka

We finally made it to Lautoka October 25th. We checked in and headed to Vuda Point Marina. The showers are hot and the beer is cold. The last couple of days we have been watching a cyclone that has developed to the west of us. We decided that putting Sundance into this Marina would be a safe place if this cyclone wandered our way. Todays weather report gave us a good news and we will only get some rain and winds from this storm. The cyclone is breaking apart and should not hit Fiji as is was perdicted earlier this week. The skies are cloudy and the wind is light and the air is very muggy and lots of bugs. The locals tell me that with these conditions to expect rain in the future. Who needs a weatherman. We will stay for 3 to 4 days and provision and send my dad back to the states on Saturday. Tomorrow we are going on a shark dive. We have been told by several cruisers that this dive is spectacular. We will watch in open water a guide feed several types of sharks. Black tip, white tip, bull,and with any luck a resident tiger will come to feed. The bull sharks can be as big as 13ft and the tiger is around 15ft. I will try to video this dive. Wish us luck. The internet is very slow in Fiji and with any luck I will post some pictures early next week. Thanks for all of the emails and for all of the support.

October 23rd

Waiting patiently for the weather can be very trying on the nerves. Yesterday morning we listened to the weather and I talked to our friend Curley and we got the green light. The winds were to drop 5kts and that was enough for our crossing. We left around 7am with two other boats and had a nice sail, a few waves made it over the dodger and into the cockpit. The sun was shining and the wind was about 25kts. The wind waves were about 5ft. We were able to to fish and about half way we hooked a 15 pound Mahi Mahi. The Mahi Mahi gave my dad a good fight. We dropped the hook around 3pm . Last night we hosted a potluck with the other two boats and celebrated the crossing. We had fresh Mahi Mahi ,salad,rice,and a peach cobbler. We supplied the fish and the rice. By 10 pm ever one was beat and returned to their boats.


Today we will work our way to Lautoka. We are on the North East Coast of Viti Levu. We will track a inter reef route which will keep us out of the swell and wind waves. We will cover about 25 miles today. Position S17 18.889 E 178 13.680

October 20th

Hello to all ,
We are still in Mbua Bay and waiting for the wind to drop. The forecast today as for the last three days is winds 20-25kts with gusts to 30, seas very rough. Earlier today I radioed our friend Curley who we met in Tonga, he lives in Fiji (Savu Savu).
Curley has lived and boated Fiji waters for the past 35 years and has incredible knowledge when it come to Fiji Marine weather. I mentioned to him today that we were going to batten the hatches and give it a go to Viti Levu. We were real curious what his response would be. His response was NO NO NO! Our guts were telling us no and it was good to hear the same thing from someone who is very experienced in these waters. We will stay put until the winds die down. We will also confirm with Curley when a good time to cross the pass. We have been told that this pass gets as nasty as the Oahu to Molokai pass. We have plenty of books and Xbox games to keep us busy. Mike and I have been playing John Madden football. Mike has been the victor in the last 3 games. When it come to the cribbage tourney we have had for the last 6 months. I'm ahead by three games. My dad has been helping a lot around the boat and has been enjoying some of the books on board. The plan for the next week is to sail to Lautoka and park the boat for three days. We will head over to shark cove by rental car and do the dive with the sharks. We have heard this dive is incredible.

October 17th

We left Savu Savu and we are heading to the island of Veti Levu. This will take us about 3 days . We are on a slow track, only covering 20-30 miles a day. We had a great stay in Savu Savu. Every place we go we meet so many great people and it is tough to say good bye. The sun is finally shinning. We have seen rain for the last week and being on a boat in the rain gets damp and moldy. Yesterday we had a great sail to Wainunu Bay. position S16 54.826 E178 58.782. The winds have picked up a little today and we will head to Coconut Bay today. Position S16 59.630, E 178 40.970. We got skunked on the fishing yesterday so maybe today we will have better luck today. In a few days we will be in Lautoka and I will be able to post some pictures. I have received reports that Google Earth does work with the position reports.

October 16th

First blog Viani Bay has some local residence that have been in this bay for 5 generations. Cruisers that we meet in Tonga ,(Peter and Sandy) suggested a stop in Viani Bay. We were told about the Fischer family. The Fischer's own the land that surrounds this beautiful bay and have farmed the land for many years. We wanted to dive the reef outside of Viani bay but didn't know the entry points and the one person who did was Jack Fischer. We went ashore to find Mr Fischer. My dad and I asked some locals and within a few minutes we found Jack's house. We arranged for Jack to take us diving that afternoon. Jack jumped aboard Sundance and we headed out to Garden Reef. We anchored Sundance jumped into our dinghy and Jack dropped us over this amazing reef. The coral were so colorful. Lots of reef fish. When we surfaced Jack was within a arms reach in the dinghy to pick us up. We climbed aboard Sundance and headed back to Viani Bay. The next day we arranged for a morning dive and then we were going to head to Savu Savu. Jack asked us if he could hitch a ride to Savu Savu. We agreed and met Jack the next morning. The morning dive was the Great White Wall. This time Jack dropped us off with Sundance and stayed on board and motored around until we surfaced. The water was more rough that is why we didn't anchor. This dive was amazing. We entered the water in about 30 ft. The entrance to the Great White Wall was through a cave,the exit of the cave was in 60ft of water facing a wall that extents from 30ft of water to 150ft. The visibility was perfect. We could see the bottom. The wall is about 300 yds long with so many corals and lots of fish. We dove to 120ft for a few minutes and then ascended to 50 ft for the rest of the dive. We saw a couple of reef sharks lurking in the distance. The dive was incredible. We surfaced and Jack was there with Sundance. We boarded put our gear away and headed to Savu Savu. Jack took the helm all the way to Savu Savu. The winds were 25kts and the seas were 8-10ft. The wind was downwind and made for a fast and occasionally wet run to Savu Savu. Jack steered the boat all we had to do was feed him lunch. Mike and I enjoyed the break. We even made it to happy hour.

Fiji

Since the last post we have been very busy, My dad coming to meet us,. the weather and the diving. We arrived in Tavauni last week and had a great time with Scott and Kelly Schulman. Kelly's brother and Sister in law were also visiting. We had such a great time, The resort, Matei Pointe has such a great view of the ocean, the staff were so helpful and warm. The showers were hot and the food was the best. Scotts drinks were a little strong but who is complaining, free too. The sail to Scott's place was a nice. We left Savu Savu around 1:00 am and we arrived around 10:00am the next day. We had a great sail and caught 5 Mahi Mahi on the way. We had a gift to present to Scott. We dropped anchor and it took us about an hour to locate Scott. I will say it was such a warm feeling when our dinghy landed and Scott was standing on the beach with a big smile. I left Chico 6 months ago and to meet a great friend on a beach in Fiji was a great welcoming.

The next day my dad arrived and we had to celebrate again for his arrival. On the last night Scott had a Lovo for all of the guests and we had such great food and Kava. We stayed one more day and planned our return to Savu Savu. The weather was changing and we headed for Viani Bay the day after Scott and his family left. The sail to Viani Bay was short and techinal. We had to navigate around a few reefs and the skies were cloudy. The reefs are hard to see if you have cloudy skies. We made it in and spent atwo very nice nights in Viani Bay.

October 6th

Good day to all we are safe and sound in Savu Savu. We arrived last evening. With calm winds and calm seas. The last five months we have crossed two lines of importance. Several months ago we crossed the equator and yesterday we crossed the international date line. One way of knowing is on the positions that I give at tne end of the blog we went from west to east. We have one more big crossing for the season, New Zealand. We will start planning in a month and will cross around the second week of November. We encountered several pumice fields when we were closer to Savu Savu. A couple of times we shut the motor down and coasted through the fields of pumice. No damage to report.

We fished yesterday like everyday we are out at sea and we encountered a awesome sight. We were about 25 mile out from Savu Savu and I was at the helm. I was looking out on the Starboard side (right side ) of the boat when I saw a Mahi Mahi jump out of the water straight up into the air.This fish was about 75 yards ahead of us. I have fished for this type of fish for several years and have never seen one do this kind of act. I steered the boat towards the area and saw a fifty five gallon plastic drum cut in half floating in the water. Mahi Mahi like to swim below floating object Small fish collect around floating objects and the Mahi Mahi feed off of the small fish. I called Mike up and told him what I saw and said to get ready near the fishing rod. Within a seconds after we past the drum the spool of the fishing reel was zinging as the fish was running with our lure. Mike grabbed the fishing rod and as soon as he pulled the rod out of the holder the fish was gone. Mike started to reel in the line when out of the coner of my right eye I saw something jump. I turned my attention and within seconds I saw two Mahi Mahi in formation hurdling through the water at a 90 degree angle for our lure. These fish were racing to grab the lure. I have never seen fish this size hurdle through the water for a lure with so much speed. I said Mike to stop reeling and wait, you are going to catch one of these fish. Within seconds Mike had a fish on and after several minutes a 20 lb Mahi Mahi was landed. This was one of two awesome sights we encountered yesterday.

We were rounding the corner for the entrance of Savu Savu Bay when I spotted a pod of dolphins. Mike was at the helm and I was inflating our tender on the fore deck. I worked my way up to the bow sprit and was watching the dolphins. They were about 50 yards ahead and moving slow on the surface. Dolphins are very playful and love to swim up to the bows of moving boats and ride the wave that is created from the bow of the boat. We have several times encounter this and lots of times the dolphins will roll so they can see you. ( I felt these dolphins came to great us and welcome us to Fiji). On the bow spirit I leaned down an I could almost touch them, at this moment we had three dolphins swimming on the bow I could hear them talking to each other. Every few seconds this one particular dolphin kept rolling to his side and looking at me( he was the biggest and I assumed he was a male). I being like a little boy was waving and say hi to him and thanking him for such a great arrival. This dolphin rolled one more time and took one more look and then sprinted away.I looked in the direction of were he went and then all of a sudden no more than three feet away from me he came airborne straight up higher than me standing on the boats bow sprit and perfectly tucked his head and made a perfect dive into the water. I felt like I was at Sea World and was holding a fish for him to fly up into the air and take and perfectly land head first with no splash back into the water. We were both amazed what we saw. Mike and I have seen a lot of wild dolphins and have never seen one perform this kind of act in the open sea. From what we have seen so far I think we are going to love Fiji.

October 4th

Land is in sight. This morning we spotted Fiji as planned. We are about 40 miles out and will be in Savu Savu this afternoon. We motored all night and around 3am we finally got some wind out of the north. We were able to pick up the pace from 5kts to 7 kts. The pumice sightings were few and far in between, good thing. The skies are cloud lywith a threat of rain later today.

The seas are calm and have been calm for the last 24 hours. We are half temped to throw a line and surfboard out and carving some turns behind Sundance. Today we will check into customs and get supplies and get ready to head out in the morning. I have a good friend from Chico, Scott Schulman who with his lovely wife Kelly, own a resort on one of the outer island. (Taveuni) We will meet up with him and drink his booze and eat his food. We haven't eaten a warm meal or had a ice cold drink in the last four days. Watch out Scott!

We will pick up new crew on the 9th. My dad Lonnie is going to join us for three weeks. We have many dives planned and lots of sailing to the southwestern part of Fiji. One of the dive is a awesome shark dive. We dive with a guide and watch him feed 10ft bull sharks and many reef sharks in the open (No cages). If we are lucky, once in a while they get to feed the resident 13 ft female tiger shark. Cross your fingers. The surfing is world class when we reach southwestern Fiji. Position S 17 08.21 E 179 44.68.

October 3rd

Day two and it seems like we have been to sea a week. The winds at first were great and around 4am this morning we lost all of our winds. This is not normally a concern but we planned to make the Lakemba Pass in the Lau group of islands 124 mile south east of Fiji around 8 this morning and instead we are entering the pass at 2pm. This pass can be tricky during the day and shouldn't be attempted at night, many shallow reefs and not many landmarks. Lakeumba Pass is 24 miles long and we should clear by 6pm tonight. The winds were fore casted to be 15kts and at the present time we have 5 kts of wind. Not enough wind to push Sundance through the pass before dark. When we clear the pass we will enter the Koro Sea and have a direct run for Savu Savu, Fiji. We should make port by tomorrow afternoon. We have seen some pumice floating around but not enough for concern.

I have received some emails about plotting our positions. Don't quote me on this but I think you can see our position on a map at Google Earth. Put in the lat and long and the program will show Sundances position. I haven't tried so I don't know if this works. The current conditions, partly cloudy skies, Temp 82, Seas 3 ft, and you all know light winds. Sundance position Lat S17 47.7 Long W178 21.3. Mike's tip of the day; Never buy toilet paper from a Chinese market in Tonga. You can only guess where Mike is hurting today.

October 1st...On our way

Good Morning everyone,

Mike and I are on the way again. We are heading top Savu Savu, Fiji. This morning after fighting rain and winds in the wrong direction we are doing well. We have had to motor all night and the winds this morning have changed for the better as fore casted. The rain has stopped and looks to be a partly sunny day. When we motor we have to hand steer. We rotate our shifts every three hours. The first day is tough, after the first day your body gets use to the pattern. We have had reports of a big pumice field floating in the area so we have to keep the look out for this too. The pumice is from a Volcano that sits off of the Vava'u group. Some boats two weeks ago received some damage to their bottom paint. The field can be three feet deep. We have been advised if we encounter the pumice to stop moving and don't run our motor or anything that draws in salt water to the boat. We are the first boat to make this passage in the last two weeks. We will report any encounters to Ragitti Air. Ragitti Air is a ham radio watch for all cruising boat that travel through the South Pacific. We check in everyday and get weather and give our position and any other pertinent information. This is a great network for the cruising community. I will give a update tomorrow morning.

Position S 18 21.1 W175 21.2

Departing Vava'u

The day has come for us to leave Vava'u. The weather says it all, it is gray and rainy. We are going to miss our friends and the island group of Vava'u. This last weekend we were able to spend with some good friends and say goodbye. We have made alot of friends that will be in New Zealand. We will get to meet up and tell sailing stories and how we braved the seas again.

We will have rain for the next two days and good winds the crossing will take us three to four days. I will post daily position reports and weather conditions.