We booked fuel for the boat for 2o’clock on Wednesday. The tanker filled 2 boats before us, as arranged, and then drove away, saying not enough fuel in his tank. After pleading and phone calls the truck came back at 4.30! Unbelievably he returned at 4.30! Mind you, to make up for this efficiency, there was only a large nozzle available. That was OK for the boat tank, but didn’t fit the dozen jerrycans we have. Out with the funnel and hand filling them all bar one. That is because I asked for 300 litres and needed 320 in the end. The diesel was only Tongan $1.70 a litre so au$300 for 300 litres approx.
We left our overnight mooring at the Tongan Beach Resort at about 8am having had a lovely dinner there the previous night. Motoring again in company with Morgaine, a French couple on a Beneteau 39. We stayed in touch in touch for a day or so. They were going to Suva, whilst we were going to Port Denerau on the west coast.
After a days sailing we ran into good southerly winds, instead of the forecast northerlies. These were cold and brought lumpy and confused seas. As a result we ended up engining with the sails and then the wind kept backing and fading, so motoring for the rest of the trip. The gauge is in the red as a result, but we still have all the jerrycans full.
Arrival in Port Denerau was at noon and onto a mooring close to the restaurants etc. Customs, immigration, Bio Security and health all arrived within 30 minutes, unbelievable. All cleared and had to run them ashore in the dinghy. Not one of them appeared to have been on a small dinghy before and were very clumsy.
On visiting the marina office I booked a service for the long suffering outboard, an electronics guy to check the VHF and a lift and power wash for the boat. Not too dirty but I can also check the anodes and give the hull a scrubbing to reactivity the CopperCoat bottom.
All is well on board and we’re happy with the mooring too.
No comments:
Post a Comment