Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Prepping Moondance

MVPSettingChain
Hooking our chain to the mooring
Yup, we have been getting ol’ Moondance prepped for the cyclone season, which has been a bit of challenge.
MVPGraveyard
Interlude in the Graveyard

At Vuda Point Marina, you have 3 choices for mooring your boat:  in the water, on the hardstands, or in the pits (aka The Graveyard).

We chose the water option – mainly so we don’t have to redo Moondance’s bottom next year.
MVPSwimmingPool
Lots of boats in the marina

So, Doug has been busy securing our boat based on the Marina’s and our boat buddies suggestions.

The Marina is a big man-made circular hole (swimming pool), with a an underwater mooring.
MVPTires
Pretty fancy fenders - not!

You remove the anchor and then the Marina guys pull your anchor chain out to the underwater mooring (no idea what it looks like).

If a cyclone is coming, all the anchor chains are pulled tight to secure the boats.
MVPDougStatue
Exploring Latouka

Then, we tied lots of fenders, plus tires (used of course) to the Moondance’s hull. 

The tires are secured by lines that run underneath our hull.  This keeps the tires from blowing up in high winds – guess this was an issue last year during Cyclone Evan.
MVPGoat
Conform?

And the last step, securing chains and line to the steel “deadmen” on the grass behind us.

Whew - a lot of work for something we hope never happens!

Plus, organizing a caretaker.  There is an approved list, so that helps, but is a little strange. 

MVPStatue
Beautiful carving
On top of all that, we have been doing some exploring, shopping, and socializing – of course.

Along with Cheryl and Karen (s/v Interlude) we taxi’d over to Namaka for the Fiji Chef’s competition. 

It was very interesting and we learned a lot.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us do any tasting – rats!

School?
Below are some pictures.  I don’t know how it tasted, but they sure did a wonderful job on the presentation.

Flying to the USA on Wednesday.  So excited!!!

PS:  We loved Namaka.  It is a small town, but has a great fruit and veggie market and 4 big stores for provisioning.  Unfortunately, the taxi rides are a bit spendy!

MVPChef2MVPFijiChefCompetition
MVPChef5MVPChef4MVPChef3

1 comment:

dvanwest said...

Where do you go from here?