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Posted By:
Nickens, Dan
Date Posted:
Sep 9, 2016
Description:
When I first came to Fiji with SuRi in 2010 I remember one of the deck crew saying, ""Well, here we go again. Another f#$@%ing tropical island with white sand and crystal water."" His voice was dripping with disdain. I wondered how anyone could ever get so jaded.
No disdain from me, but the news that SuRi would be again in Fiji got a bit of a blasé response. Fine. Where ever. Whatever.
Then this time around it was still better than fine. It was fantastic. Not new, but fantastic just the same.
Date Taken:
August 30, 2016
Place Taken:
North of Ono, Fiji
Owner:
Nickens, Dan
File Name:
- Photo HTML
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Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=74hgbBBKQm">
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Category:
Yacht_Tending_Fiji
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Read what others had to say:
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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SuRi does tend to find some pretty parking spots. They may be similar, but pretty is pretty anywhere.
North of Ono, Fiji
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SuRi Setting
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Soft sand and swaying palms is an easy sight to get used to. You have to look harder, however, to find approaches to the beach that won't scrape your hull!
North of Ono, Fiji
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Palm Coast
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Not all the shores are draped in white sand. Some of them are hard and dramatic, not soft and romantic.
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Hard Beach
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Most of the islands are fringed with sharp coral rock. If you look carefully, however, you can find pathways to nirvana. (One example given in the English to Kannada meaning of "nirvana" is this: "the popular fantasy that life as a beachcomber in the South Pacific would be never-ending nirvana". (at www.english-kannada.com))
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Coral Coast
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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If the beaches are protected by coral fringes, the islands themselves have even greater barriers to the ocean's waves.
North of Ono, Fiji
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Miles of Coral
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Some days are just downright ornery with gale winds and blowing rain. It would be best just to park in a quiet lagoon. But seaplanes are not for floating. They are for flying, even if nirvana is a bit rough around the edges.
Wakaya, Fiji
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Wet''n Windy
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Most days the SeaRey flies through the daylight, coming back on board only after dark. When the weather is less than perfect, however, and the guests retire early, a sunset ending happens.
Naigani, Fiji
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Late Landing
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Not all the reefs are undeveloped. Not far from Nadi, Denarau and the surfing areas at Malolo Passage, there is a stilted structure where tourists can find pizza and booze while soaking in crystalline water.
Ro Ro Reef, Fiji
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Cloud 9 Booze and Pizza
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Carr, Frank - Sep 09,2016
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Water so clear you can see the shadow of the boat above! Not familiar with that; almost unnerving.
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Don Maxwell - Sep 08,2016
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Wow, invisible water--like sky. A few clouds down there might be nice when landing on it.
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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You want to stay near world class surfing? Here you go. Best book early, though. Rooms are limited and it's always busy at Namotui.
Namotui, Fiji
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Surf City
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Surfing competition is so well organized here that there is a permanent judging stand.
Navula Reef, Malolo Passage
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Surf Station
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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It's a rare day when big waves don't wrap around the reef. Better be good at it to surf here, however, because the shallow reef can inflict nasty cuts. The first time I was here one of the crew got slashed on coral and the wound became badly infected. Local treatment was to no avail. He was flown out to New Zealand where the doctors managed to fend off the tropical surf bugs.
Navula Reef, Malolo Passage
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Surfs Up
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Multiple passages and two small island reefs combine to offer a smorgasbord of surfing possibilities.
Navula Reef, Malolo and Wilkes Passages, Fiji
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Surfing Smorgasbord
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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No worries about over-crowding with surfers. The reefs stretch for miles and miles.
Ro Ro Reef, Fiji
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Reefing
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Remember the movie "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks? This is where it was filmed. Just to confirm that Mono Riki was in fact the setting I pulled the movie out of SuRi's library. Apparently Tom didn't find Nirvana beachcombing, however. After four years of beach living, he set sail in a rickety raft for any other future.
Mono Riki, Fiji
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Cast Away
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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In the movie the audience is led to believe Tom is stranded on a desolate island 500 miles away from other land. Not so. Mono Riki has neighbors on two sides, within swimming distance. It is true, however, that no one lives on the island. It is no longer known as "Mono Riki". Everyone calls it Cast Away island now.
Mono Riki, Tavua and Mana, Fiji
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Not Alone
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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It would be nice to say it all ended easily leaving the beautiful afterglow of a warm tropical evening. That was not to be.
Malolo, Fiji
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Colorful Ending?
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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The ending for this Fiji trip came in big wind and waves. On a day that started so well, the change came suddenly with a shift in wind direction. SuRi was parked behind the hills of a small island. It was protected from ocean swell by a large reef and from wind waves by the hills. The wind can only be thwarted for so long. It is a shifty beast.
The winds during the morning were stiff from the south, but slackened nicely for a day of constantly nice flights. It was late afternoon and the activities were starting to wind down as the guests prepared for departure. I had time for a couple of flights with some of the new crew.
The first clue to an impending challenge was rapid reorientation of the yacht. It happened with a bang. The wind hit SuRi's big sides with enough force to yank its anchor chains with a big clatter.
"Not to worry," I told the ship's assistant engineer. "We can sort it out on the water."
Right.
Sorting it out meant letting the SeaRey find the wind by weather vaning. Only the SeaRey couldn't seem to make up its mind. Well, if the wind was confused, I decided to just go with what I had been doing. That had worked out just fine before.
This time was different. The little SeaRey struggled to get out of the water. The wind was pushing down from behind with enough force to make me abort. The wind didn't stop when I pulled the power. It continued from a new direction, burying the starboard wing in the water. The float attachment snapped as it was designed to do.
It was a frantic struggle to get the wing back on the right side of the waves. It was stuck, until suddenly it wasn't. The wind had changed again.
What to do? Time was short. If I stopped to deal with the free swinging float the engineer wouldn't get his ride. Without asking him whether he wanted to go in a broken plane, I quickly applied full throttle. With the wind now temporarily in our face we were now up and off in no time.
I circled back to check the water we had just left. It was a mess with cat paws frantically swatting in all directions. The mess on the water was confirmed by the lumps in the air.
There was time to worry about getting back down later. I flew on hoping to let the engineer see the nicer side of seaplanes.
Coming back some twenty minutes later the wind had strengthened, but settled on how it wanted to bypass the hills. It was mostly constant from a predictable direction, so landing back at the yacht was not too traumatic.
The engineer appreciated that a bit of duct tape could set the float back in place in a serviceable way. After consulting with the captain, however, it was decided that we would wait to bring the SeaRey back aboard until he had relocated closer to the international airport. With the wind strong from the southeast, blowing over the big island out to sea, that seemed to favor better water.
While SuRi plodded towards a new anchorage I flew over the grass strip at Malolo Lailai. On firm ground I replaced the duct tape with a new float attachment and met a passenger. Reardon, who owns one of the local resorts, had purchased a SeaRey kit without ever having seen one or flown one. I was determined to set that straight.
We had a lovely flight, confirming his good seaplane selection. Then it was time to find SuRi.
SuRi isn't hard to find. She was sitting in troubled waters a few miles from the airport. Though the wind was offshore, the yacht was far enough from shore that the waves were impressively massive.
Well, no worries, right? I was all alone. The airplane was light. Landing would be short.
It was, splashing mightily but to no ill effect.
No ill effect, that is, until we went to lift the SeaRey on board. With the seaplane attached to the crane I watched with horror as wave after wave crashed into the back, slamming the rudder violently back and forth several times. Examination on the deck confirmed my fears: the rudder was ripped. It had a six inch gash in one side from the abuse.
At least the guests were gone. There was no reason to do a repair because the airplane was being shipped back to the factory anyway. It did it's one year of service, and now there was time to lick its wounds in an abundance of time to recover.
Taba Ko Nadi, Fiji
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Rough Ending
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Don Maxwell - Sep 09,2016
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What?! Were you out of duct tape?
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 09,2016
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Never! That wouldn't be safe.
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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Off loading the SeaRey was done with wings folded so it would fit on a barge. With SuRi in port, and the airplane damaged, there would be no last flights. The SeaRey was lifted from SuRi to a barge, moved to port where it was lifted up by crane and loaded into a container set for Florida.
Denarau Marina, Viti Levu, Fiji
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Shipping Out
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 09,2016
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What's a pilot to do when his plane is gone? Grab a rental car and head out to explore the big island
by road.
There is a road that circles Viti Levu. Since it's not all nicely surfaced, a four wheel drive "ute"
seemed just the equipment to have.
Ground level reveals a different reality from the lovely sites viewed from above and offshore. While
Fiji is not a desperate third world country, it is not entirely a rich industrialized nation. There are
plenty of small settlements with basic shelters and impoverished native neighborhoods. Even in the
worst places, however, the people smiled and waved as I drove through.
The other reality is that Cyclone Winston decimated much of northern Fiji earlier this year. Trees
have been blown bare or blown down. Whole hillsides are barren. Many roofs are still covered in
tarp.
Even the reefs are wrecked. The corals are broken and distressed. The fish are still around, but the
colors are muted.
Winston was the strongest cyclone ever known to hit Fiji. Just before it struck Viti Levu it reached
Category 5 with peak winds of 145 mph. More than forty people died and 126 were injured. The
government estimates 40,000 homes damaged or destroyed and 40% of the population was
significantly affected.
Australia and New Zealand were first to respond. France did too. International aid has continued to
come and life is largely recovering.
What was interesting to me were the numerous blue tents proudly advertising the People's Republic
of China. It is apparent that China knows the value of propaganda. Hopefully people understand who
were first there and helped most substantively. If you need shelter, however, the P.R. of China
advertisement over your blue tent home is constantly in your face.
North Central Coast of Viti Levu, Fiji
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Shore Truth
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 09,2016
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Flying in Fiji is simple if you know a few rules. They mostly follow New Zealand's lead (the Kiwi's set
up their system). Unfortunately they have no updated charts and some unpublished conventions.
For example, to fly VFR you must file a flight plan. Fortunately I only had to file one for each day (it's
not for search and rescue purposes; it's for airspace billing).
The local pilots are big on using the radio. The first to ime here a SeaRey flight was made by another
pilot without announcements. A floatplane departing one of the resorts was startled to see it
overhead and complained to the CAA. Nothing came of it, but VFR apparently means watch out by
listening to the radio.
(This time two Fijian CAA types came out to inspect the SeaRey before issuing a flight permit. One
was the captain of the floatplane who filed the complaint. He now works for the government. It took
some reassuring there was a different SeaRey pilot and that radio calls would be made!)
In areas outside of controlled airspace I always asked to confirm an appropriate frequency. On more
than one occasion I was given different frequencies from what the helicopter pilot was told and what
the local pilots used. It's still seems to me that the best policy is just to look out where you are
going.
Well, if it was easy, where would all the adventure be?
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Fiji VNC
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Nickens, Dan - Sep 08,2016
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SuRi's 2016 Fiji Cruising mapped out. The SeaRey went a lot further than SuRi.
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Course Made True
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Carr, Frank - Sep 09,2016
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Thanks Dan, great photos and story. I've been to Fiji, en-route home from NZ, but didn't see it from your SeaRey nor SuRi
perspectives. Can't believe how clear that water is!
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