Fiji
Wednesday, August 22, 2012– Port Denarau, Fiji
Once again we have fallen in to the trap of having way too much fun to update the journal. It’s actually pretty embarrassing that we haven’t had any updates in nearly two months. So here is a short recap of what we have been up to and hopefully we will get the photo gallery updated in the next week or so.
After leaving the Lau Group, it took us about a week to wind our way through the reefs between the two largest islands of Fiji (Viti Levu and Vannua Levu) to get over to the west side of Fiji. Normally we would have chosen a less “reefy” route, but in this case the reefs offered us lots of protection from the huge seas being generated by the reinforced trade winds (25-30 knots). Obviously we could only travel during daylight hours, but this gave us a chance to stop at some really interesting and beautiful places along the way including Makogai, Naigani, Nananu-i-ra, and Ba. On the 26th of June we pulled into a “marina” on the westside of Fiji called Vuda Point where we worked on the boat for a few days (see it’s not all fun) and picked up our friends Dana and Peggy who flew in from Hermosa Beach, CA.
After a quick provisioning trip in Lautoka, the four of us sailed (actually motored because there was no wind) out to the Mamanucas and visited the islands of Mana, Malolo, and the famous Musket Cove. Before we knew it, a week had passed and we reluctantly headed to Port Denarau to take them back to airport. It was a great week and we were really sad to see them leave.
After Dana and Peggy left, we had planned to sail back east along the southern side of Viti Levu to a place called Beqa that is famous for shark diving and fire dancing. Unfortunately, the trades were blowing strong again, so we left the boat in Denarau, rented a car and drove 100 miles east to Pacific Harbor (near Beqa). Nothing goes to windward like a Toyota!
The main reason for trying to get to Beqa was for diving and the opportunity to see bull sharks in a “relatively” safe environment. I will have to write a separate journal entry about this experience because it is one of the most amazing things that I have ever done. During one of my dives we were surrounded by 10 huge bull sharks. In just 2 dives I was able to see 8 different species of sharks including bulls, greys, white tip, black tip, silver tip, silky, lemon and nurse sharks. Not to mention an amazing array of fish including Giant Trevally that were almost 6 feet long.
After our land excursion, we sailed back to Musket Cove to wait for Jackie’s mom and sister to arrive and as you read in Brenda’s journal entry we had a really great time. The 9 days they spent with us went by way too quickly.
Musket Cove was a hard place to leave for me because there was great surfing nearby. Famous surf spots such as Cloudbreak, Tavarua, and Namotu Lefts were only a 20 minute dingy ride away and I had some of the most amazing surf of my life here.
We met up with Bill on Solstice in Musket and all headed to Port Denarau to meet our friend John who was flying in for a visit from Washington DC. Unfortunately during a routine maintenance check on our engine, I discovered a crack in our nearly new (only 3 years old) exhaust manifold. I attempted to have it welded and it just cracked further. So we ordered a new one from the US and hopped aboard Solstice for a trip out to the Yasawas while we waited for the new manifold. It took about a week to arrive and about 3 hours for me to install it. We headed out the next day to meet up with Solstice at the island of Navadra in the lower Yasawas.
Tonight we are back in Port Denarau doing some last minute provisioning and tomorrow morning we leave Fiji and head to Vanuatu. I can’t begin to express in words how wonderful the past 3 months have been here in Fiji. It is a magical place and we are really going to miss it.
We will update you as soon as we can from Vanuatu….
Photos 33-61 have been added to the Fiji photo album in the Photo Gallery
Thursday, August 9, 2012 – Richmond, VA
(Journal entry from the webmaster)
My younger daughter, Shannon, and I returned home on August 4th after a 10 day visit with Jackie and Jake in Fiji. It was wonderful to see them and they are doing great! This lifestyle really suits them.
After over 24 hours of travel, Shannon and I arrived in Musket Cove where we were to meet Jackie and Jake. We got there a little earlier than planned so we took a golf cart ride around the resort and then went to the restaurant to wait for Jackie and Jake. It was amazing to see them walk in and there were lots of hugs going around. We all went to the “villa” where Shannon and I would be staying and spent a lot of time catching up. The villa was an over the water bungalow and had a dock right in front for the Hokule’a dinghy to pull up to. That was really convenient for the 10 days, particularly since Jake would bring Jackie in every morning so she could spend the day with Shannon and me. Jake sometimes hung around for breakfast but most mornings he headed out to go surfing and then came back in the afternoon.
We attended a pig roast our first night in Fiji, my first and hopefully my last! The poor little pig was on a spit and was adorned with an apple in its mouth. I opted for fish that night and Shannon and Jackie had chicken. I may never eat pork again…just sayin’. Our time in Fiji was spent snorkeling (I was so bad at it that I decided to sun bathe instead), taking a dinghy ride to see some of the other islands one of which was Castaway Island (over 300 islands make up Fiji), shopping, more shopping, eating, walking and enjoying being together. Shannon, Jackie and Jake surprised me by treating me to an early birthday celebration and Jake baked a birthday cake for me. It was chocolate on chocolate which is my favorite and it was absolutely delicious. A tropical system hit the island the day before we were scheduled to leave and there was lots of rain and wind. Jackie and Jake spent most of the day getting Hokule’a ready for the storm but dinghied over in the downpour to have dinner (and more cake) with Shannon and me.
The 10 days flew by and before we knew it, it was time for Shannon and me to leave. Of course, Shannon managed to get in a little more shopping before we had to catch the ferry. Goodbyes are always difficult especially when the ones you are leaving are so far away. But knowing that Jackie and Jake are experiencing their dream made it a little easier. Shannon and I had a wonderful time and are already talking about when and where we can meet up with our sailors again.
Check out the new Fiji photo album in the Photo Gallery
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012– Little Bay, Vanuabalavu, Lau Group, Fiji
Today is a really sad day for Jackie and I. It is sad for a number of reasons which I will tell you
all
about in a minute, but first a little bit about our visit to Little Bay.
Little Bay is about 3 miles east of Bavatu so it was a nice quick trip here even though we were motoring into 20-25 knots of breeze. The only concerning thing about Little Bay is that the chart shows that a reef extends completely across the entrance of the bay, meaning that there is no way to actually get into the bay. But fortunately, we have friends that had anchored there before and they told us to ignore the chart. Since being in Fiji we have gotten used to seeing reefs that were not shown on the charts, but ignoring a reef that is shown on a chart was a little different. So we did the prudent thing… and let somebody else go first. After watching SeaEsta (who has forward facing sonar) make it safely in , we followed.
The bay is appropriately named as you could probably only squeeze about 8 boats in here., Our friends on Yinka were already anchored as SeaEsta, Vixen 7 and Hokule’a entered the bay. After we got the anchor down, we were relaxing in the cockpit admiring the beauty of the bay and its nice white sand beach, when we heard someone yelling for Yinka. It ended up being a Fijian man from the adjacent village who was offering to sell us some fruits and vegetables and bread. This was unbelievable as we had been without fresh fruit, vegetables and bread (not to mention adult beverages) for over a week. Paul from Yinka went boat to boat and took all of our orders. We all were super excited and the Fijian gentleman said that we could come to his village around 5:30pm to pick everything up.
Yinka was hosting happy hour for everyone that evening so David and I volunteered to go to the village. Based on the size of the food order that we all had placed, I was imagining a large village with lots of farm land. But instead we found only several homes, one Fijian lady, and three children. They greeted us on the beach as the sun was setting and said that the man with our food would be here soon. I was playing with the kids and David was chatting with the woman, when the guy slowly rides up on a very tired looking horse and a big burlap bag slung over his shoulder. Little did we know that he had to go to another village about 5 miles away to get all of the food. Unfortunately we had ordered so much that the poor guy couldn’t carry it all and would have to go back tomorrow to get the rest. We thanked him profusely and headed back to Little Bay.
So back to the reasons why today is a sad one for Jackie and I. First of all, this afternoon we are going to be leaving Vanuabalavu and the Lau Group. This place and the incredibly short 2 weeks that we have spent here have truly been the highlight of the trip since leaving California. This is a magical place and for any of you out there that are planning on going cruising…do not miss the Lau Group! It can be a tough place to get to but it is so worth the effort. My only other advice is to plan on staying here as long as you possibly can. Unfortunately for us there is a weather system coming in on Thursday and if we don’t leave today we could be stuck here for a while. I know that doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but we have friends from Los Angeles flying into Nadi in 10 days who we are really excited to see. Nadi is about 250 miles way and even in perfect weather conditions it will take us 5 days get there.
The bigger reason it’s a sad day is because we are leaving behind a group of friends that we have been traveling with since leaving New Zealand. A big part of what has made the past 2 months so much fun has been traveling and exploring places with them. So thank again for everything SeaEsta and Vixen 7, we are really going to miss you …
Monday, June 18th, 2012– Bavatu Harbor, Vanuabalavu, Lau Group, Fiji
From the Bay of Islands, it was roughly 2 hours of weaving in and out of reefs and coral heads to get around the west end of Vanuabalavu and along the northside of the island to Bavatu Harbor. Bavatu harbor is very large and beautiful bay with a number of different coves that are surrounded by steep, lush, tropical hillsides. Once again SeaEsta, Vixen 7 and Hokulea were the only boats there, so we spread out and each of us went to different parts of the anchorage.
While the mushroom shaped islands in the Bay of Islands were visually stunning, they unfortunately offered very little in the way of access to terra firma as it was kinda hard to climb up a sharp coral mushroom. In Bavatu however there are several access points to the island, numerous hiking trails and a small village that operates a very small coconut plantation. Other than a walk along a beach or two, none of us have really walked much since we left Savusavu over 3 weeks ago. Needless to say we were all excited about going for a hike and within an hour of getting the anchors down we were climbing up a steep path to the top of the ridge that overlooked the harbor.
The next morning we hiked to the village, which involved going up an impressive wooden stairway consisting of 271 steps. There is a sign at the bottom of the stairway indicating that in 2010 some guy named Alex Locke ran to the top of the stairway in 56 seconds. It took us more like 56 minutes. When we got to the village we were greeted by Biu, the leader of the village. We spent an hour or so with Biu and his family talking about fishing, village life, and of all things politics on Vanuabalavu. Biu’s 6 month old son wasn’t quite sure what to make of all the white people in his home especially Eva (check out the photo in the Fiji photo gallery to see what I mean). Eva had a good time while we chatted with Biu as she got to sit on a horse and learn how to grate coconuts. After our visit in the village, we hiked to the top of the island where we could overlook a portion of the Bay of Islands. Our out of shape legs were pretty tired by the time we got back to the stairway and no one was looking forward to going down the 271 steps. Fortunately Ross found a path leading down the hill. It took a little longer but it was a lot less painful. Needless to say we slept very well that night.
This morning we are pulling anchor and heading further east along the northside of Vanuabalavu to a place called Little Bay. We are planning to meet up with friends on another boat there and hoping that Little Bay is big enough for the 4 boats. We will find out soon enough….
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Saturday, June 16th, 2012– Shoal Pass, Vanuabalavu, Lau Group, Fiji
The frontal system came through as predicted with the worst of it hitting us late Wednesday night. Not sure why, but it seems that bad weather always happens at night. What’s up with that? We had an amazing (and little scary) lightning show and lots of rain, but fortunately the winds were not too bad. During the day on Thursday it was beautiful and David, Rachelle and I spent part of the day on a nearby beach playing and swimming with Eva.
Yesterday was David’s 40th birthday and we hosted a party/potluck dinner on Hokule’a to celebrate. Originally we thought it would be just the six adults and Eva celebrating, but during the day a number of other boats arrived in the Bay of Islands. At the peak of the party we had 18 people on board with Eva performing a dance show for entertainment. It was a great evening.
With 8 boats here now in the Bay of Islands its getting a little crowded for us (ha ha) so today we are off to explore the northside of Vanuabalavu. The Bay of Islands has been a magical place for us, but we have to say goodbye for now and you never know maybe we will make it back here one day….
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012– Shoal Pass, Vanuabalavu, Lau Group, Fiji
It’s our fifth day here anchored in Shoal Pass and it is so beautiful we may never leave. Every day we go out in the dingy with the crews from Sea Esta and Vixen 7 and explore new areas in the Bay of Islands. Then we usually go snorkeling somewhere in the afternoon.
On Saturday we made a 6 mile trip in the dingy to the village of Dailconi to visit the Chief and present our sevusevu. You probably remember from a previous journal entry that sevusevu is where you visit the village chief to request permission to anchor, dive, hike, etc. and you present him with a gift of kava. There is a short ceremony where he blesses the kava, grants your request, and welcomes you as a member of the village. Back when I was here on the Far Niente, the ceremony was usually followed by everyone sitting around a kava bowl, drinking kava and talking story for a few hours. Unfortunately it appears that this tradition doesn’t happen in too many villages anymore. Jackie is actually happy about it because she doesn’t have to drink kava, but I am pretty disappointed as it was a great way to interact with the village and learn more about their culture. The people of Daliconi however could not have been nicer and we took a short tour of their village. There were lots of children which pleased Eva (David’s 3 year old daughter on Sea Esta) as she has only had us adults to play with for the past several weeks.
As happy as we are in the Bay of Islands, we also know that there is so much more of Vanuabalavu to explore. We have been watching the weather pretty closely looking for a window to move around to the northside of the island. More so than anywhere we have visited thus far, good visibility is crucial for moving around Vanuabalavu. Our electronic charts are so far off here (up to ¾ of a mile) that we have pulled the chart card out of the plotter so that we can’t see the charts on the display. We are only using the plotter to keep GPS tracks of where we have been in case we need to get out in a hurry. Our primary navigational tool here (besides our eyeballs and depth sounder) is a book from the mid-1980’s that has some pretty detailed hand drawn charts of Vanuabalavu. Speaking of the depth sounder, the anchorage here in Shoal Pass is for the most part 15’ to 20’ deep with a nice white sandy bottom. However there are quite a few coral heads in the anchorage that at low tide are 3’ to 8’ deep. As we swing on our anchor we have a boat length or so from the really shallow ones, but we go right over top of a few that are 7’ deep. While Jackie’s and my comfort level has gotten better with respect to anchoring in shallow water and being close to reefs, we still can’t get used to having something really hard and sharp within 6” of our keel.
Just got a call from David on the VHF and it looks like there is a frontal system that is going to hit us on late Wednesday or Thursday, so we will probably stay put until it passes. Again it’s a pretty nice place to be stuck…..
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Friday, June 8th, 2012 – Shoal Pass, Vanuabalavu, Lau Group, Fiji
We made it! Exactly 2 weeks to the day from leaving Savusavu we are finally in the Lau Group. We left Matagi around 0500 with favorable northeasterly winds but squally conditions. We were a little worried about arriving in the Lau with poor visibility, but miraculously it was sunny and beautiful when we arrived in the afternoon. We are at the island of Vanuabalavu in an area called the Bay of Islands (not to be confused with the New Zealand Bay of Islands).
Getting here has been a dream of mine for a very long time and I can’t even begin to put into words how excited I am. As soon as we had the anchor down I ran back to the cockpit, hugged Jackie and said thank you. My first attempt to get here was back in 1998 on the Far Niente trip. Back then I made an appointment with the Minister of Tourism who gave us a stack of forms and permit applications to fill out. A few days later, I made another appointment with him, where we submitted all of the completed paperwork and then were simply told “no” without him really looking at any of it. I guess sometimes good things do come to those who wait.
We are anchored in a spot called Shoal Pass with our friends on Sea Esta and Vixen 7. It is amazing to think that we are in one of the most beautiful places on earth and we are the only boats in the entire Bay of Islands. The water is the color of turquoise and there are hundreds of small mushroom shaped islands. There are so many islands and small bays that you could easily get lost. The water is alive with large schools of fish constantly jumping out of the water and a playful black tip reef shark that occasionally jumps out of the water too. This is a magical place and I am so very thankful to finally be here.
7/3/2012 - A note from Jackie and Jake
"Just a quick note to let you all know that we made it back to civilization, albeit begrudgingly. The Lau Group was a magical place and as you can see from our new home page it is pretty darned beautiful too. Now that we have internet again we will be updating the journal page and photos over the next week or so."
A note from Jackie and Jake......
There is no internet here, we are sending updates via the ham radio and will send pictures in a few weeks when we get back to civilization.
Thursday, June 7th, 2012- Matagi Island, Fiji
We left Viani Bay on Monday and went a whopping 15 milesacross the SomoSomo straights to the island of Taveuni. We had been out of Savusavu for 10 days and were in desperate need of some fresh fruits and vegetables. Taveuni is known as the Garden Isle and has the only grocery store this side of Savusavu. Not only did we find a grocery store, but also a restaurant overlooking the water where Hokule'a was anchored. For the restaurant alone, we could have stayed in Taveunifor awhile, but we knew that we needed to better position ourselves to be ready depart for the Lau Group whenever the elusive weather window arrived. So we selected the island of Matagi as our jump off point for a number of reasons. First of all, it is the closest anchorage to our first stop in the Lau Group(the island of Vanuabalavu) about 50 miles away. Secondly, Matagi is outside of the reef, so if we could carefully track our way into the anchorage with GPS then we could safely leave the anchorage before sunrise to ensure a daylight arrival in the Lau Group. Lastly, we had heard from friends of ours about how beautiful the island was and boy were they right. Matagi is a tall, thickly forested, u-shaped island where you anchor in the middle, off of a white sand beach and have protection from every direction except from the north. The only challenge here for Jackie and me is a mental one in that we need to get more comfortable being anchored in shallow water, close to reefs and coral heads. Many of the anchorages in Fiji are just that way. Currently we are anchored in 15-20' of water with one reef about 3 boat lengths behind us and another about 3 boat lengths to port. Because of that we didn't sleep that well the first night here, but we are starting to get used to it or at least learning how to sleep with one eye open.
We have been watching the weather closely and it looks like we have a window to leave tomorrow as the wind is supposed to swing around to the northeast. We will keep you posted….
Sunday, June 3rd, 2012- Viani Bay, Fiji
It must be something about Sundays. Last Sunday we tried to leave Cousteau's and were turned back by the wind and seas. Today we left Viani Bay heading for Taveuni and were greeted with over 20 knots of wind, once again coming from the direction that we needed to go. So we promptly did a u-turn and headed back to the protected waters of Viani Bay. We have had a wonderful time here having done lots of diving, snorkeling and visiting with friends. We certainly could have stayed longer, but our goal is to get to the Lau Group so we have to keep moving when weather permits. We will try again tomorrow….
Friday, June 1st, 2012- Viani Bay, Fiji
Yesterday was a day that I will certainly remember for the rest of my life. More so for the horrible event that took place than for the excitement that started the day. I will start with the good part.
We woke up in Nasasobo to partly cloudy skies which meant we had a good chance of leaving to get to Viani Bay. Four of us, Hokule'a, Sea Esta, Aurora B, and Sea Bride pulled anchor at around 0930 and headed out of the anchorage. We left behind Rebecca and Dennis on Touche as they needed to work their way back to Savusavu to pick up crew. As we all headed out Dennis announced on the VHF radio "It's so lonely here without you all".
The route we were taking to Viani Bay was inside the main reef which required navigating a windy path around numerous coral heads, smaller reefs and a small island. I assumed my position about halfway up the mast and Jackie was at the helm motoring Hokule'a at a very slow speed. Slower speeds obviously give us more time to communicate about obstructions and how to get around them. Visibility was good at first, however a squall appeared on the horizon as we approached the trickiest part of the route.Here we had to go between 2 large coral heads, then make a few sharp turns to go thru a narrow gap between the island and another coral head. We reluctantly sped up to try to get through the gap and out into a clearer (relatively speaking) area before the squall hit. Normally I would have time to say for example " Jackie, everything is clear right now and looks good. In 10 boat lengths we are going to make a 45 degree turn to port, after that you will go straight for several boat lengths and then we are going to make a sharp turn to starboard. I will tell you more when we get closer". But in this case it was more like "Get ready to turn to port, turn now, more, more, more! That's good! Now quickly turn to starboard! More, more, more.." You get the picture. My heart was pumping and once we were out in clearer water, I turned around to watch the other 3 boats make the zigzag course behind us. Wow, that was exciting.
As we approached Viani Bay, our plan was to anchor out on the inside of the reef and meet up with some other friends to go for a dive. The reef outside of Viani Bay has some of Fiji's best diving and snorkeling including spots such as Rainbow Reef, the Purple Wall and White Wall.
As we approached the reef to look for a spot to anchor, we heard the faint sounds of a woman's voice on the VHF radio calling "Mayday, Mayday Mayday". It was Rebecca on Touche and the boat was taking on water outside of the reef about 20 miles from our location. I have never in my life felt so completely helpless as we listened to the progression of events that ultimately resulted in our friends boat being destroyed on the reef. From the bilge pumps not being able to keep up, to the boat being swamped by a large wave, to Rebecca getting into the dingy with all of their valuables, to Dennis staying on the boat as it went up on to the reef, from the dingy (with Rebecca in it) being flipped over, and then not hearing anything on the radio for what seemed like an eternity. We were discussing an option of anchoring the boats in Viani Bay and several of us taking one boat back up the coast to look for them when a local dive boat called to say that they had found both Rebecca and Dennis on a beach inside of the lagoon. Needless to say none of us felt much like diving and emotionally we were all drained. How could this have happened when earlier in the day we were all happily anchored in the safety of Nasasobo Bay? It was a very somber night in Viani.
I spoke to Dennis this morning via cell phone to see how they were doing and extended an offer for a group of us to come help salvage whatever we could off of the reef. He was very appreciative but said "Jake…there is nothing left of Touche to salvage". Apparently within 3 hours of the boat going up on the reef, the surf had completely broken the boat into pieces and washed most of it away. They lost their home and most of their possessions but both are very thankful to have escaped without injury.
As for us, we are extremely happy are friends are safe. We have also been reminded that while Fiji is a very beautiful place to explore, it is also a place that is either poorly charted or not charted at all. We will be even more diligent to rely on our eyes and good visibility while sailing around these amazing islands.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012– Nasasobo, Fiji
We had hoped to leave Nasasobo around 10am today, but the sky is completely overcast. Looks like we are stuck here another day, but hey this isn’t a bad place to be stuck.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012– Nasasobo, Fiji
On Sunday morning we left the Cousteau anchorage early and headed outside of the reef to find 30 knots of wind and 9 to 12 foot seas basically coming out of the direction that we needed to go. So we did a big u-turn and headed back for another beautiful day at Cousteau filled with snorkeling and happy hour on the beach with friends. At happy hour we learned that we were the designated guinea pig today as all of our friends had been watching us to determine if conditions were OK to leave.
On Monday morning, we let friends on the boat Dana be the designated guinea pig. They headed out and promptly did a u-turn back to Cousteau. We called them on the radio and they reported 20 knots out of the southeast and 5 foot seas. Compared to yesterday morning those conditions looked great to us, so we pulled anchor along with our friends on the boats Sea Esta and Sea Bride and headed out past the reef. It ended up being a wonderful sail east to Nasasobo which is about 40 miles east of Savusavu.
Similar to the Tuamotus, navigating in and around Fiji’s coral reefs is done by eyesight only. This means I am getting lots of exercise climbing up and down the mast. The charts for this area are incomplete and in many cases wrong. So if you do not have good sunlight overhead then you don’t move. Fortunately yesterday we had good light when we arrived outside of Dakuniba Pass. As passes go it was a pretty easy pass because we had good light. The scary part was that if we had followed our GPS chart plotter it would have put us on the reef. After getting through the pass we entered the most amazing anchrage called Nasasobo. Surrounded by mangroves and lush forested mountains, Sea Esta, Sea Bride and Hokule’a had the whole place to ourselves.
This morning we took the boats out of Nasasobo, meandered around the coral heads, anchored on the lagoon side of the reef, and spent the day snorkeling. Check out this anchor spot on the Where’s Hokule’a page. We contemplated spending the night here, but the thought of potentially having to ride out bad weather that close to the reef (should we not have good light to leave) sent us scurrying back into the safety of Nasasobo. Two other sets of friends on the boats Touche and Aurora B were there when we arrived.
Our plan for tomorrow is to try and navigate inside the reef up to the next bay called Viani Bay.
Saturday, May 26, 2012– Savusavu, Fiji
We are finally on the move! Well, sort of…
We moved out to an anchorage near the entrance to Savusavu Bay so that we can get an early start on our trip east towards the Lau Group. It’s been blowing 25-30 knots out of the east for a week now and it is supposed to lighten to 20-25 knots tomorrow. So we are going to go stick our nose out into it tomorrow morning and see how bad it is. Not sure when we will have internet access again, but we will try to keep you posted via the ham radio email.
Thursday, May 24, 2012– Savusavu, Fiji
We’re still waiting on Mother Nature, so today we decided to go across the island to the town of Labasa, which is the largest town on the island of Vanua Levu. Savusavu is located on the southside of the island and Labasa is located on the northside, so we figured that it would be a good way to see a lot of the island interior. Transportation on Vanua Levu consists primarily of buses and taxi’s, so we decided that we would try both. The taxi ride there took about 2 hours. The roads were in pretty bad shape and it required the cab drivers full attention to avoid giant pot holes and washed out sections of the road. The town of Labasa has a large Fijian Indian population that developed during the sugar cane boom when laborers from India came to Fiji for work. As such the town has a real Indian flare to its shops and restaurants. Labasa also has one of the largest farmers markets on the island. The farmers market is located right next to the bus “depot” and the entire area bustles with activity. As we were walking around looking for our bus back to Savusavu, two guys were unloading a live pig out of a bus and heading to the market. Fortunately, there were no pigs on our bus. However unlike our cab driver who avoided the giant potholes on the roads, our bus drive made no attempt to miss them and we had to stop twice on the way back to change flat tires. The bus trip back took 4 hours.
Monday, May 21, 2012– Savusavu, Fiji
Wow this past week went by quick and tonight is the first night since we arrived in Savusavu that we don’t have any plans. We have attended a formal welcoming ceremony and sevusevu (more on that later), travelled to Nukutosa Beach for a traditional Fijian dinner (cooked in an earth oven called a lovolovo), visited a pearl farm, visited a copra (coconut) plantation, watched a number of traditional dance performances, raced against the local Fijian youth sailing team in 14’ Lasers, and managed to find time to have dinners with a number of different friends that we have met since leaving New Zealand. Needless to say it has been a very fun week.
Savusavu is located on the island of Vanua Levu which is Fiji’s second largest island. There are over 300 islands that make up the country and they are spread out over 75,000 square miles of ocean. Vanua Levu is a beautiful island with tall mountains covered with thick tropical rain forests. The Fijian people are incredibly friendly and most everyone speaks English. The only challenges we have had thus far have been getting re-accustomed to the tropical heat and humidity and re-learning how to manage our fresh water supply. The magic hose doesn’t exist here.
We are hoping in the next several days that we will have a weather window to leave Savusavu and head east to the Lau Group. The Lau Group is the most remote and least visited part of Fiji. It is difficult to get there because you have to sail against the tradewinds and most of the islands are poorly charted. For many years, the Fijian government has restricted the number of cruising boats allowed to visit Lau in an effort to preserve the traditional way of life practiced there. When I was here back in 1998, we applied for permission to visit Lau and were denied. Fortunately, the Fijian government has relaxed the restriction this year and we received permission today. Now all we need is some favorable weather and some kava.
Which brings me back to sevusevu. The Fijians are very proud of their culture and customs. For example, when visiting villages and outer islands you cannot wear a hat or sunglasses, you cannot carry any bags/backpacks on your shoulders, dress is extremely conservative and women should have their knees and shoulders covered. It is also important to participate in a sevusevu as soon as you arrive in an anchorage. A sevusevu is an official ceremony where you request permission from the chief of the village to anchor in his bay, to dive, to fish and to hike on his island. At this ceremony, you present the chief with a gift of kava. Kava is the root of a local plant and at the ceremony the kava is pounded, ground up and mixed with water in a large bowl. Everyone then sits around the bowl and takes turns drinking a small amount of the mixture. The ceremony typically ends with the chief granting you permission and welcoming you to his village.
So tomorrow we will head in to town to find some kava and do a bit of re-provisioning. After that it’s up to Mother Nature…
Monday, May 14, 2012– Savusavu, Fiji
Bula from Savusavu! We arrived in Savusavu Bay around 4 am this morning and hove to until daylight so that we could find our way into Namaka Creek and up to the town of Savusavu. The trip from Minerva was awesome with some of the best sailing conditions that we have experienced since leaving California. In contrast, the trip from Opua to Minerva was probably our roughest passage of all with sustained winds of 30 knots and 12-15 foot seas on the beam. But as they say about passages to and from New Zealand…if you make it safely to your destination then it’s a good passage. We’ve just cleared quarantine, customs, immigration, and bio security so we are heading into town to find something fresh to eat for lunch. There is definitely a nap in my future….
Monday, May 7, 2012 - North Minerva Reef, South Pacific Ocean
Just a quick update (because we are using our ham radio email)to let you know that we are currently anchored in North Minerva Reef. As is typical of the weather the forecast has changed since we left New Zealand. The high pressure system moved faster than originally forecast, so we are anchored here waiting for a frontal system to pass and more favorable weather to come in with the next high pressure system. Hope to be on the move again by the end of the week. But in the mean time, North Minerva reef is absolutely amazing and we are really enjoying a nice flat anchorage after a rougher than anticipated trip. Check out North Minerva on the Where's Hokule'a page. It's basically a circular reef that is only exposed at low tide, so it's literally like anchoring in the middle of the ocean. This morning we watched a gorgeous moon set and 10 minutes later watched a gorgeous sunrise. Not many places in the world that you can do that at anchor. We are just over 800 miles from New Zealand and a little off course enroute to Fiji, but it is really nice to be back in the tropics where it is warm and the water is crystal clear.