Animal care on Pacific Islands
Donation protected
First of all we would like to thank you for taking the time to look at our page, it is very much appreciated.
We dont want to bore you with long stories so we will give you a short summary of who we are, what we do and would like to keep doing for which we need your help.
Who we are:
Jeff Allen, British, a veterinarian graduated from Edinburgh, (75 years)
José Allen, Dutch, ex-restauranteur, airhostess and Jeff's wife and assistant for the last 28 years, (60 years)
Currently in the South Pacific on our 42 ft Norman Cross sailing Trimaran, working with Animals Fiji, looking after animals on the numerous islands.(www.animalsfiji.org)
(Facebook – fiji west charity trust fund)
What happened:
After having lived and worked in Fiji for the last three years and helping Animals Fiji setting up a clinic in Vanua Levu where there was no veterinary service at all before, we decided to take a short break and sailed to Vanuatu, where Jeff worked about 37 years ago, active with the government setting up their beef industry.
We had a fantastic time and by the end of September it was time to return to Fiji, back to more work at the clinic.
On our way home, about 70 miles off Fiji, we unfortunately got dismasted, a disaster that all cruisers hope will never happen to them.
As far as we know, the rigging was in good condition and was checked before we left on our trip, a normal safety procedure.
Sunday morning , very early and still dark, Jeff was asleep and José on watch when she heard something break and could see the mast starting to fall over.
A very scary experience, especially as we had to try and cut everything loose to get the mast over overboard, the only safe option in the conditions.
We managed it all with no injuries and a few hours later once it was light we could investigate the rest of the damage, which was quite extensive.
We were very lucky to be that close to land, ofcourse we lost all communications once the mast came down, so at least knew we would be able to slowly motor to the nearest port in Fiji.
We could only get to one of the more remote bays in the northern part of the Yasawa group and managed to anchor there early morning.
A motor yacht called Infinity was also in the bay and they came over to see if they could be of assistance.
They offered us their satphone to contact friends to let them know what had happened and fuel, so we would have enough to get back to our home port Savusavu.
As fate would have it, there was some bad weather forecasted which we nor the other boat knew about and it turned into a very nasty blow that did much more damage to our boat.
50 kts of wind and seas up to 20 feet are not what you need in an open anchorage, but the boat looked after us once again.
The next morning we left together with Infinity in the direction of Savusavu, pumping every half hour because the storm had done damage to the bow of our boat and we were slowly taking on water.
Two days later we finally arrived in Savusavu and after clearing in with the authorities went back to our own mooring at the Savusavu marina, where all our friends were very relieved to see us back in one piece.
Since then we have been looking at how to be able to afford another mast and go back to what we do, looking after animals in the more remote islands and indirectly also the people, as we have been asked to assist the SeaMercy (www.seamercy.org) with animal husbandry in some of the islands that are only accessible by boat for which we do need a mast and sails again.
What we hope for:
Enough people who are concerned with animal welfare to donate a little to make it possible for us to buy a second hand mast.
And don't be embarrassed to just give us one dollar if you love animals. It just takes 10000 people like you to help us on our way to help animals in the outer islands.
We will keep you up to date with our progress and again, thank you for your time.
We dont want to bore you with long stories so we will give you a short summary of who we are, what we do and would like to keep doing for which we need your help.
Who we are:
Jeff Allen, British, a veterinarian graduated from Edinburgh, (75 years)
José Allen, Dutch, ex-restauranteur, airhostess and Jeff's wife and assistant for the last 28 years, (60 years)
Currently in the South Pacific on our 42 ft Norman Cross sailing Trimaran, working with Animals Fiji, looking after animals on the numerous islands.(www.animalsfiji.org)
(Facebook – fiji west charity trust fund)
What happened:
After having lived and worked in Fiji for the last three years and helping Animals Fiji setting up a clinic in Vanua Levu where there was no veterinary service at all before, we decided to take a short break and sailed to Vanuatu, where Jeff worked about 37 years ago, active with the government setting up their beef industry.
We had a fantastic time and by the end of September it was time to return to Fiji, back to more work at the clinic.
On our way home, about 70 miles off Fiji, we unfortunately got dismasted, a disaster that all cruisers hope will never happen to them.
As far as we know, the rigging was in good condition and was checked before we left on our trip, a normal safety procedure.
Sunday morning , very early and still dark, Jeff was asleep and José on watch when she heard something break and could see the mast starting to fall over.
A very scary experience, especially as we had to try and cut everything loose to get the mast over overboard, the only safe option in the conditions.
We managed it all with no injuries and a few hours later once it was light we could investigate the rest of the damage, which was quite extensive.
We were very lucky to be that close to land, ofcourse we lost all communications once the mast came down, so at least knew we would be able to slowly motor to the nearest port in Fiji.
We could only get to one of the more remote bays in the northern part of the Yasawa group and managed to anchor there early morning.
A motor yacht called Infinity was also in the bay and they came over to see if they could be of assistance.
They offered us their satphone to contact friends to let them know what had happened and fuel, so we would have enough to get back to our home port Savusavu.
As fate would have it, there was some bad weather forecasted which we nor the other boat knew about and it turned into a very nasty blow that did much more damage to our boat.
50 kts of wind and seas up to 20 feet are not what you need in an open anchorage, but the boat looked after us once again.
The next morning we left together with Infinity in the direction of Savusavu, pumping every half hour because the storm had done damage to the bow of our boat and we were slowly taking on water.
Two days later we finally arrived in Savusavu and after clearing in with the authorities went back to our own mooring at the Savusavu marina, where all our friends were very relieved to see us back in one piece.
Since then we have been looking at how to be able to afford another mast and go back to what we do, looking after animals in the more remote islands and indirectly also the people, as we have been asked to assist the SeaMercy (www.seamercy.org) with animal husbandry in some of the islands that are only accessible by boat for which we do need a mast and sails again.
What we hope for:
Enough people who are concerned with animal welfare to donate a little to make it possible for us to buy a second hand mast.
And don't be embarrassed to just give us one dollar if you love animals. It just takes 10000 people like you to help us on our way to help animals in the outer islands.
We will keep you up to date with our progress and again, thank you for your time.
Organizer
Stravaig's Travels
Organizer
