Learning
Passage from Fiji to New Zealand
Scream spent eleven days sailing from Savusavu in Fiji to Opua in New Zealand. We spent several weeks before we departed looking for favourable weather for the passage. We wanted to leave when the weather systems were weak, with little difference between the central pressures of the local highs and lows. We departed with a […]
Food
We live on a boat and find our food where we can, which has made eating very important for us. From our perspective, the carelessness with which ordinary people in Western society eat is astonishing. Eating Locally I can speak with some authority on the ways different cultures interact with food. We've spent years living […]
Lautoka Area Anchorages
The simple truth is that there aren't any good anchorages near Lautoka or Nadi. Which is unfortunate as the airport at Nadi and customs at Lautoka give this area a huge draw to cruisers. We've anchored in a lot of places in the Lautoka area, and here is what we can say. Lautoka ( 17˚36.1 […]
Diving
People often ask us if we're SCUBA divers and we always say we're happy snorkelling. It's true that we both enjoy floating on the surface, watching the fish and coral going by below us. And we both do a little freediving, Steven particularly. We've been lots of places that offered SCUBA courses, but it always […]
Fiji Waypoints
We've compiled this set of waypoints (.zip) from various sources on our trip around Fiji. We started in Savu Savu, travelled counter clockwise three quarters of the way around Vanua Levu, across the north and west sides of Viti Levu, and into the Yasawas. We do not have waypoints for the rest of Fiji, so […]
Cruising with a rowing dinghy
Almost all cruising boats have dinghies with gasoline outboards. Maybe one boat in twenty rows their dinghy. We've been living aboard full time, mostly at anchor and mostly in the tropics for going on four years. So we have a few thoughts to share. If you're going to row your dinghy, you'll need a dinghy […]
Catching rain
We've been catching rain to fill our water tanks on Scream for two years now. We've actually caught rain about a dozen times, and we've tried about another dozen times when it didn't rain enough. Rain water accounts for about half of our annual water, and most of our water while cruising. We take on […]
Searching for Vegetables - Visiting Visoqo
Things were getting desperate. It had been a few weeks since we'd seen a vegetable market and even then it had been poorly stocked. We were down to an onion, a potato, some dried out chillies and a couple of sad tomatoes. We needed vegetables. Armed with a set of GPS waypoints and a 20-year […]
Clearing into Fiji
Scream arrived in Savusavu, Fiji on Saturday 28 May, 2011. We took a mooring from the Kopra Shed marina, who assisted us with clearing in. We were boarded by officials from Health, Customs, and Biosecurity (which appears to be a buzzword for quarantine). They we're all friendly and courteous. Even with the weekend arrival the […]