Venturous in Vuda

Early one Monday morning our handy heroes (from previous two blogs) attached a rope to REAO for hopefully the last time and towed us to a lovely little marina slightly north of Denarau called Vuda marina. When we were getting close we radioed in and a small boat came out to grab our rope to tow us through the channel and into the marina itself.

This was our first time getting REAO hauled out of the water and needless to say we were both feeling slightly nervous though of course Craig pretended he wasn’t. It turned out we had absolutely nothing to worry about as the Vuda team were absolutely amazing and the whole process was seamless. Before long REAO was sitting proudly on struts and within an hour our diesel mechanics were onboard and taking the engine out.

Background: We knew the engine needed a rebuild, we had for a couple of seconds considered buying a new engine however there were none available in Fiji and to get one shipped in was out of our budget. The diesel guys we were using said they could fully rebuild our engine and we would only need to get parts shipped in. A stockist was found in Australia and they sent us through a quote of all the parts needed to do a full rebuild however noted that if we wanted all the parts some would need to be sent from England. The quote was more than we were expecting and we were left with two options:
1: order all the parts, wait in musket cove until they arrived in Fiji then go in, haul out and get engine repaired meaning we would only be in the marina a short time.
2: go into the marina early, get engine pulled out and find out exactly what parts we needed which would hopefully lessen the initial price of the parts being sent across.

We went with option 2 which made sense to us even though unfortunately it turned out that when the engine was pulled out and inspected we were told we would need all the parts.

This again lead us to a point of where we had to weigh the costs of two options:
1: pay the rates to stay on the hard stand (out of the water) and wait for all the parts to arrive from overseas which could take up to 3-4 weeks.
2: pay to be dropped back in the water and go outside of the marina (being towed), stay on anchor for free until parts arrive, then get towed back in and hauled out again.

This time we went with option 1 as we decided that since we were out of the water we may as well make the most of it by antifouling the hull and doing lots of other tidy up work on REAO. There was a monthly rate available which also made it a good option.

During the following month Craig did various fixing jobs on REAO while just after the first week being there I was once again hit by a bug and had to spend the next 7 days in bed, I was so thankful we had invested in an air con unit before leaving Australia as with the daily on board temperature being 35deg plus every day I would not have been a happy camper! The rest of the time was spent reading, playing computer games, chatting with other boaties (working on their own boats) and waiting patiently for our parts to arrive.

Finally the day before us having been there for a month our parts arrived and we were very excited. There was absolutely no problems with customs as we had ensured that the supplier had written clearly on the package that it was for a yacht in transit and also wrote our customs number on it as well which meant we did not have to pay any tax on the goods – phew. Our mechanic arrived within the hour and picked up the parts to take back to his yard to start putting the engine back together.

A couple of hours later we recieved a phone call from him to give us the bad news that they had gone through the order and unfortunately a couple of important pieces had mistakenly been missed off the initial order, this was upsetting to us as it meant we had to wait once again for those missing parts to be shipped from overseas. Luckily he had gotten hold of the supplier before he had rung us and told them what we needed shipped asap.

So with at least another couple of weeks up our sleeve to wait for the parts we did a few more jobs on the boat which included ordering some oversized stickers from a local sign writer and Craig spending a couple of days putting them up on REAO. I also went through our budget very carefully and came to the conclusion that we would need to head back to Australia for work at the end of the year. While we would have enough to stay out on the water until March next year we don’t want to be sailing between countries during cyclone season (Nov-May).

We kept a close eye on the tracking of our new parts and they finally got to us late on a Friday after having been shipped from France and traveling through; Berlin, London, Los Angeles and onto Fiji. Once again the mechanics were quickly over to us to pick up the parts. We then got the much awaited message on the following Tuesday that in 2 days time they would be out to put the engine back in REAO. With that great news we went to the office to book in a time (hopefully on Friday) where we could be hoisted back into the water. Unfortunately since we were now into May which is the official start of cruising season the lift was fully booked and the earliest we could be dropped back in would be the following Wednesday. Oh well, nothing we could do about that except book our spot. Luckily for us (and as it turns out a wise decision) we had decided when we heard about the missing parts to book and pay for another month, the reasoning being if there were any hold ups then paying the daily rate could end up being more expensive especially as the price goes up after May 1st.
The only options at Vuda is to pay a daily rate or a monthly one which works out to be pay for 20 nights and get 10 free, phew………a good decision made by us.

The mechanics turned up nice and early on the Thursday morning and the engine was quickly craned back into place. As well as rebuilding it they had given it a new paint job so it definitely looked brand spanking new. There was a small hiccup putting all the wire connections back together and it ended up taking a couple of days to ensure all connections were correct (so it turned out to be good news that we couldn’t drop in the water until the following Wednesday).

The Tuesday night (before splashing) we had a few new friends on REAO to celebrate our last night being landlubbers, a brilliant evening of games, rum, laughing and some yummy snacks. When we had booked the hoist we had been told we were going to be the second boat lifted on that day so imagine our suprise when first thing in the morning the yard lads call out “are you ready”. They had decided to do us first. Wowsers that got me and my small hangover up and out of bed really fast to do a quick clean up of last nights party and just to ensure nothing would fall over in the lift. Before I could even have a coffee, REAO was lifted and back in the water. We had previously decided to spend the first day in a water berth so we could do some in water checks of the engine. There was only one small problem Craig found which was the alternator was wired up incorrectly. With our guy unwell, Craig tried to find an electrician to come have a look to no avail. He then got some advice off an older boatie, did some reading up on the internet before finally fixing it himself, finally we were good to go.

Thursday morning saw us heading off to pay the mechanics bill, do a couple of last final checks (okay and buy one more box of rum) and then we were untied and motoring out and away from Vuda. After being there for 54 days we were once again boaties cruising around. With a little bit of a breeze blowing we put the sails up and motor-sailed to Musket Cove. The engine sounded amazing and ran really well. Our plan is to stay in Musket for a couple of days catching up with some friends and then once we have a good wind we will go explore the Yawsawas. With our decision to head back to Australia by the end of the year it also means instead of heading any further East we have decided to pay the extension fee and stay in Fiji for at least another six months. We are excited to finally be able to cruise and explore this beautiful country full of gorgeous islands.

Costs involved in our engine rebuild:

Incidentals 1650 (rollers, welding, primer etc)
Antifoul 658
Parts 12000
Haul out 385
Hardstand 2460
Labour 5250
Winch brushes 135
Freight 700
Rust Gel 42
Extra hoist lift 210
Sticker 770
24260 aud