Leaving Tonga and Sailing to Fiji

Back to town the next day to hang out, score a kilo of ground up Kava root (which is a mild narcotic needed to present to island chiefs in Fiji – and you then have a ceremony a “Sevysevu”, at each island you visit,  and then drink Kava juice as part of the Sevusevu and then you are typically allowed entry to their island for exploring, beaching, snorkeling, etc..), and clear out to Fiji.  We sailed for the first half hour and then it started to rain and visibility dropped to about 5 boat lengths.  We motored through the soup for about an hour.  There was plenty of traffic so the crew was on full alert.  We cleared the final pass between islands and headed out to sea, the clouds parted, wind picked up and we set sail for the Lau Group, 3 days distant.  A couple of amazing sunsets later

we arrived early morning shooting the main reef (I hate sailing in around reefs – they are everywhere – even behind Eilo)

and then dodging coral heads all the way to Lomaloma.   

Most of Fiji was trashed 2 years ago by Cyclone (hurricane) Winston which packed 320 mile per hour winds – that would make Sandy (remember Sandy?) seem like a Sunday afternoon breeze.  The Lau group islanders are very traditional Fijian -  family and community oriented with a Chief heading each village.  Sorry ladies we did not run into nor hear of any female chiefs.  It seems everyone in each community helps with everything.  They lead very simple lives. We were struck by how friendly everyone and I mean everyone is.   Tonga raised the bar for the most friendly place on earth since Nevis… but then we sailed to Fiji.  Fiji has seriously raised the bar to the most friendly place on earth.  We met a few cruisers here, one couple who have been cruising (living on their sailboat) since 1976  and they have sailed the world several times.  We asked them where their favorite place was on the planet earth.  Their answer was very simple.  It’s Fiji. And it’s not because of the fabulous places to visit or the great anchorages  excellent fishing, fabulous diving etc… it’s the friendliness of ALL the Fijian people.  We’ll never forget it.  We headed up the coast of Vanua Balavu to a little bay called Mbavatu with very high cliff walls – by far the most protected anchorage we have ever been in.  Ken as seen in that bay suffering a EXIT STRATEGY sundowner hangover.

Hung out for the night and all 6 boats we were sailing with were invited over to Chuck and Annie’s large cat “Exit Strategy” for sundowners which turned into a massive session.   Here are 2 willing participants during that session.

For those who do not know a “sundowner” is a sailing tradition… after a hard day sailing you reward yourself with A (that would be one) cocktail of your choice (depending on libations in the ships stores) usually consumed at sunset.  As sundowners are seen by this year’s WARC as a great thing the tradition has expanded to many many cocktails stretching way past sunset.  The next morning we hiked to a high cliff overlooking the Bay of Islands.  Here is a large guy we spotted hanging out as we hiked the trail:

Eilo is stading next to the 300 foot high vertical cliff edge lookout – note the hint of fear on her face… and that’s not because I asked her to take just one more step backwards.

This Bay of Islands is a unique grouping of several hundred islands and lots of attendant reefs all ready to give your boat a bite and there are lots of wrecks attesting to that issue.

Most of the islands are like mushrooms in that the sea has eroded the bottom 6  feet so their base is far smaller than the island.  We raised Anchor the next day and headed to the other side of the island to  Daliconi village for a traditional Sevusevu ceremony (a Kava fest):

and a Fijian feast (roast suckling pig cooked in a pit, huge lobsters, raw seafood salad in coconut milk, stuffed crab, baked wahoo, fried fish, taro and breadfruit and various local salads – all excellent) (OK…note from  Eilo…I do not like Taro or Breadfruit) and traditional dancing. 

The local village erected a big shelter just for this ARC event.  The ARC participants brought a good collection of all kinds of school supplies (as their school was destroyed by Winston and is in the process of being rebuilt) and the village was very grateful.  The following day after visiting the school and village 

we sailed to the Bay of Islands and anchored there for a few relaxing days.  I heard a loud splash one afternoon and turned around to see a few crazies.  They had anchored their catamaran near a 60 foot high cliff and had run a zip line from the cat to the tree at the left on top of the cliff and were zip lining – note the guy half way down the cliff zipping along on the left side of the photo. 

Of course they had their full safety gear on  - NOT.  We took the dinghy out for a ride around this strange sea scape…

A day later we took off with “ATLA” and “SANDVITA”, the 2 Swedish boats in the fleet and headed a days sail away to one of the larger islands Qamea.  We anchored in a quiet bay on the NW corner and hunkered down for a nice rest.  Still drying out  from the last round of parties we did not have the energy to drop the dinghy in an go ashore but there seemed to be nothing going on, on shore anyway.  The next morning, as there was not a lot to hold our attention, we set sail early for the next larger island to the west known as Taveuni and sailed down the ocean side of her.  We must have seen at least 30 large water falls some of which fell directly into the sea.  Just around the bottom of Taveuni on the west side is the Paradise Resort which has a few mooring balls so we picked one up and stayed there for a wonderful and relaxing 3 days.  Within hours we knew most of the staff and they knew us by name – again friendliness was pouring out of their Fijian staff.  Here is a piece of Paradise.

We spread the good word about Paradise to other ARC Heads and by our second day there were 14 fleet boats there – so no more rest and lots of drinking and general consumption.  Paradise threw a Fijian feast for us with more traditional and not so traditional Fijian dancing and closed down shop with a Kava ceremony for all which was a giggle.  There was a lot to see on Taveuni so Paradise organized a bus (with air conditioning – aka no windows) for us and sent us off for a day with some of their staff.  En route we passed many small villages.  Here’s one during cloths washing day – the village girls having some river fun. 

The rivers are crystal clear.  Ken drank out of one and pronounced the water sweet – almost as good as Lebanon Township water.  Fiji is blessed with lots of clean water – anyone ever buy the brand of drinking water called “Fiji” (guess where it comes from?).  Highlights of the trip included a hike up to 3 water falls.  Here is Eilo at #1:

Ken at #2:

Ken  behind #3:

Ken and Sonny (who is an excellent guitar player and singer - and climber who entertained us each night at the resort) climbing up #3 heading for the rock in the upper right:

And Sony flying off #3 rock (and of course Ken followed – much to Eilo’s chagrin):

Then we hiked back down to the bus.  The 2 mile path we hiked up to the falls was maintained by 3 villages and was like walking trough a garden the whole way – amazing.

Back on the bus

We headed to another highlight, another water feature.  This time a natural water slide.  It looked fairly dangerous but Sonny showed us how to ride it.  Here is Peter from “ATLA” heading into the final S turn of the safer part of the slide.  Again – check out all his safety gear (NOT):

Here’s what it looked like when Ken tried it out,… as Peter had survived his ride!  

It was a fabulous slide and not as dangerous as it looks because the water is deep and runs fast – you really don’t hit bottom.  Even if you did hit your head on the rocks and died at least you would go out in a blaze of excitement.  We didn’t see many graves at the bottom.

We departed Paradise before our livers gave out and sailed  over to the second largest Fijian island and picked up a mooring at the Copra Shed Marina in a little port town Savu Savu.  It was good to be back in civilization allowing us to do some provisioning  and enjoy and few good meals  and some port side bars on shore.  2 days later we headed out with the Scottish boat “TULLA MHOR” early to an old Leper Colony on Makogai island about 80 miles to the south.  We arrived, anchored and Ken and Dugal from TULLA MHOR dinghyied into shore and met the chief who was the head of the only family who lived on that island.  Imagine having a 1000 acre tropical  island all to your self.  He made his living seeding and raising clams and was rebuilding his operation which was wiped out by Winston along with what was left of the buildings of the former Leper colony.  We went to raise anchor early the next morning in the rain and the windlass died with the anchor just out of the water so Ken pulled the last little bit of chain up by hand and we then decided to sail overnight to the Vuda Marina on the west side of the “Big Island”.  We were going to head there anyway (for antifouling bottom painting and some other repairs) in a few days but without a functioning anchor system we said farewell to TULLA MHOR and headed off early to the Vuda Marina – an overnight sail to a place where we would not need the anchor.  The wind picked up to 25 to 30 knots and the rain did not let up for the first 7 hours  Then the wind died and we motored for the Bequ pass, which is a short cut to the west side of Vitu Levu – “The Big Island”.  You are warned not to go through that pass at night due to numerous coral reefs and coral heads – some not shown on our charts but going through the pass was the only way we could get tot the Vuda marina in daylight the next day so we decided to take the risk.  Eilo plotted out course carefully through the pass and I checked it out on the chart plotter and it seemed good and doable.  We sailed by Suva (the Capital) just as the sun set and were in the mouth of the pass, still motoring, by 10:00 PM.  We slowed down and started checking any way points we could reference on our chart plotter which were few as it was a moonless night, and all seemed well.  We sucked in hard for the next 3 hours and came out of the west side of the pass physically undamaged but emotionally drained.  About half an hour out of the pass and the wind picked up to 18 to 20 knots and we set the genoa and turned off the engine.  We had a great sail for the next 100 miles to Vuda.  The entrance to the Vuda marina is carved out of coral and was short but scary to navigate.  The marina is a small circular hole about 200 meters in diameter and about 2.2 meters deep at low tide.  All the boats pull into the wall as there are no pontoons or docks and then you get someone on shore to run a scaffold plank to your boat so you can get to ashore… walking the plank each time you head ashore.  There is a great restaurant and Bar at Vuda and once again we found everyone to be seriously friendly.  Well – What better way to murder a Sunday afternoon, in Vuda Marina on the big island in Fiji, then to head down to the bar/restaurant and listen to a live band playing great light rock and reggae.  The band

was surprising better than outstanding and stand in musicians were encouraged and they were only exceptional – a 5 hour session -  even Tom Bleck would have enjoyed standing in (they were that good).

We’ll be heading to Musket Cove to meet up with the other fleet boats on July 5^th and with luck, if our windlass is fixed, will depart Fiji with the WARC fleet for Vanuatu on July 8^th .