Pics of Waya Island school visit - Fiji

Eat your hearts out - Maggie Drum on the left and White Swan on the right in Yalobi Bay - Waya Island in the Yasawas in Fiji
Dianna from White Swan with some of the kids.


This is the little daughter of the school teacher for Class 8 that we visited. Di gave her the ukelele they had on the WS and never used. Boy oh boy was she ever a happy girl!




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That's me, Bob from WS and the lovely Cindy.

Below - Cindy and Di at the admin office porch at the school.

Some of the school buildings. Kids come from all the neighboring islands by small open boats. Some stay for a week at a time and some go home each night. The parents from each village take turns cooking and cleaning at the school for a week at a time. How would that work in the US?

a traditional bure (hut) in the village of Yalobi.

This is the "shell market". The women come out from their homes and offer shells, tapas (home-made bark cloth), bead work, carvings, etc. at very reasonable prices. There was no one there when we arrived to do our sevusevu ceremony with the village elder (the chief had died the week before and the new one was not selected yet).

A view of the village from the boat.

Trying to leave the school - we all had wet eyes!

Di cutting up with some of the kids in the classroom.

We had to address the class and tell them to do well in school. They sang for us afterword. Words can't describe the beauty of the singing and the heart-wrenching emotions. The kids were polite but very enthusiastic.

Some of Class 8 plus others!

Provisioning in Port Denarau for Vanuatu

We moved Musket Cove over to Port Denarau two days ago. The passage was short and easy although the last two miles were in waters under 20ft deep and murky, so a little unsettling. The port is just inside a massive breakwater up a river. The anchorage is only 8ft deep at low water with a big sandbar that dries and covers with each tidal change. The area is on the big island of Viti Levu and south of Lautoka where we will check out for the passage to Vanuatu.

So we are reprovisioning here as we are a bus or taxi ride away from major grocery stores, the butcher, etc. We had to go to the ATM machine twice over the last two days and I have to go again tomorrow to be able to pay for our meat order which we left at the butcher two days ago to have packaged and deep frozen. It is better to have them freeze it since our little unit would take a couple of days to do it and this saves us valuable energy. We also refilled the diesel tanks (over $4.00 a gallon US - yikes!) and got a 20lb propane tank filled. I also refilled our gasoline tanks for our outboard. It was a good decision for us to get the four-stroke outboard motor in our view. It is much heavier and harder to get on and off the boat to the dink but uses much less gas and is quieter and does not smoke and stink like a 2-stroke motor which uses premixed gas/oil. I have to get some beer and cokes today and more potato chips. We got two cases of wine at a wine wholesaler for a good price (about $6.50 US per bottle). So this little reprovisioning will cost us nearly a $1,000US but we will be set for at least a couple of months on most things and longer for others.

Denarau is a reclaimed mango swamp of an island but it now has huge fancy resorts ringing the waterfront, a big golf course and more than a few mansions all over. They just opened a little mall with tourist shops, restaurants, a pizza place (good!), grocery store, bakery, etc. Very upscale as they cater to the well-to-do tourists from the resorts and the big yachts that come in to the port. It is also the main transfer port for tourists to get on to the fast boats going out to the resorts in the outlying islands.

We will only be here a couple of days more and are already looking at weather reports on the radio and on internet to try and pick a decent weather window for the short hop of 474nm to the volcanic island of Tanna in south Vanuatu. Tanna has a very active volcano that you can go see with guides right to the rim. Lawyers would prevent this type of high risk activity in the USA since it is very possible to get overrun by lava or hit by exploding boulders. They haven't lost any tourists in at least a couple of months though so we feel safe.

I will try and post some pics of our visit to the school on Waya Island in the next post.

Tears and Hugs in Yolabi

This morning was a magical morning. We went back to the village with White Swan to go to the tiny, tiny little store to get some butter and peanuts, and to revisit the school and say goodbye. WS and we had given the school some supplies, more Sudoku games and a few other odds and ends like new reading glasses we brought just to pass out to older people if they needed them. Dianna on WS had given away a ukelele that she never used to one of the little girls (pics will be put up when we get to internet). Maggie, the school teacher, wanted us to come by and say goodbye before we left.

We got there at breaktime (10:30) and were immediately surrounded, five deep, on all sides by laughing, giggling and hugging kids. We got hug after hug after hug. Hand shake after hand shake. I told my name to dozens and dozens of kids who came up one at a time, looked me right in the eyes and asked me and then told me "how do you do?". They were wonderful, and we were touched and almost overwhelmed. It is very difficult to describe. The warmth was simply amazing and we floated around in literally a sea of loving little people. The boys are big huggers - no shame in that at all for them. It is not like in the US where touching is such a no-no now. The girls were a little more timid hugging us men but later it was all the same.

Maggie had thought that we would be coming back in the afternoon to say goodbye. We told her we had to leave in the morning to make our next destination and she was clearly saddened by this. She had intended to have a "yachtie tea" for us - the old British colony still has tea and cookies every afternoon. We said we couldn't so she asked if we would mind to come in to her classroom and give a little pep talk to her class about the importance of school and doing well on exams. They have big exams coming up in three weeks and she wanted them to all do as well as they could. We agreed although felt a little self-conscious. Well, far more kids came in to her classroom than belonged there. There were kids from all classes there sitting on the floor or in chairs. We were lined up in the front on chairs of honor.

The kids sat with their big dark eyes completely alert and smiling at us. I started first and encouraged them to study and pay attention and then they would have the opportunity someday to do anything they wanted to do, even have a yacht and sail the seas. Each one of us had a turn and they clapped each time. Then....the teacher told them something in Fijian we did not understand and they started singing to us! Loudly, with enthusiasm! Great voices, singing this tune in Fijian, with several choruses. Some boys in the back sitting in chairs were thumping their heels on the wooden floor providing a beat of sorts but it was because they were moved to do it not because it was necessary. It was so lovely and so moving, words can't describe! They looked at us intensely while they sang. Not every kid did sing but all paid attention. We felt like we were the most honored people on Earth and not even sure what we did to deserve it.

The teacher told us later that yachties never come to visit the school. They come in to the village, do sevusevu because they have to, then walk around a bit and then leave. We took an interest in the kids and they in us and it was very special. So special. We will never forget it. After, they walked us the long way down to the beach and to White Swan's dink and helped us push off, some of them getting very wet in the surf. Maggie went with us and I talked to her along the way. Turns out they have new computers but no help in learning how to use them and I could have if I had known. That would have been fun but will have to be another time. In the mean time our hearts are warm and full and overwhelmed. What beautiful people!

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Fixing Things in Paradise - Really

The morning of our little anchor drama that night, we had a problem with our outboard. We have a Tohatsu four-stroke 9.8HP motor, which we bought new before we left the US. It has been great - starts easy, uses little gas, does not smoke like a two-stroke and has been very reliable. It is heavier than the same power two-stroke but I don't have to mix oil with the gas either.

It started acting up in Lautoka after I had put in gas from one of the other tanks we carry. It was miss and be hard to start, then it would run but only at high RPM's. We went out with WS on a dinghy exploration at Navadra to an outlying island and it quit and refused to run even though it would sorta start. They towed us back (oh the shame).

Rather than go in with the group to do sevusevu with the local village representative I stayed back to try to fix it. I suspected a fuel problem so started checking out the fuel lines and changed the one from the tank to the motor. Still no joy. I checked the filter in the motor - OK. Worked on it for several hours - still no joy. Bagged it for dinner and then we had to reanchor. It was no fun to try and work on a dinghy in the water with high winds and swells. The dinghy would buck like a wild horse, with me hanging on and trying not to drop tools and parts in to the deep water. No fun.

The next morning we decided to get out of Dodge and go to someplace more protected. We pulled the non-working motor up on to the rail and then the dink. Not easy in high winds but we are used to that. We had a terrible trip from our wild anchorage to a wilder sea to the next island which had a protected bay. Getting there in the face of high winds directly on the nose with big seas took some doing but finally we made it, although some times we were down to less than 1 knot with max revs on the engine. It was a short trip though and well worth it as the large magnificent bay we entered was as pretty and dramatic as any we had seen in the Marquesas last year. The 1000ft lava peaks jutted up to the sky in several directions surrounded by ripples and folds of grass covered mounds. Truly the work of the god of volcanos in eons past.

There is more to the story in Yolabi Bay in the next installment, but in the mean time we had to rely on White Swan to take us in for our second sevusevu ceremony since arriving in Fiji. This was a very relaxed affair with one village elder and some older women who were working and lounging under a tin roof area with a concrete floor covered by hand-woven mats. The village chief had died last week of illness and old age and a new chief had not been selected yet. The village was tidy in a way but not as tidy as the one we visited on Gau Island. This was more traditional though with many thatched roof bures (huts/houses) but as in any place in Fiji you are roundly greeted by bula and bula bula (hello) and sincere warm smiles and direct eye contact. The Fijians are simply the friendliest and warmest group of people that we have ever encountered, including the dear ol' USA.

When we got back to the boats for lunch I had to start working on the stubborn outboard motor. We put the dink in the water with the motor hoping it would work but no..... I took the carburetor off three times in one day and finally found a blockage in the really tiny low speed jet that was hard to get out. I had to use a jeweler's loupe to see the block and then use a rusty safety pin to unplug it. Not your best tool for the job but it worked. Lo and Behold! it started right away and ran as good as ever. I have rarely been that happy about a successful repair. The dink is your car, your taxi, your ride. Without the dink you can't get off the boat and go anywhere. You can't bum rides from your friends all the time. I immediately drove over to White Swan in the rapidly fading light to show off and they whooped and hollered as loud as I did.

Staying behind in the afternoon to fix the motor, I did what I had to do. WS and Cindy went back to the village and to the local school to visit and play a Sudoku game made with extra large numbers and paper so it could be played on the ground with a group of kids. They came back elated and laughing from the experience with these warm-hearted, laughing kids of all ages. The school is actually a boarding school and takes kids from neighboring villages and islands. They go home on weekends and sleep in dorms and eat in the cafeteria at the school during the week. They wear uniforms like all kids here do. The girls have such short hair it is often hard to tell them apart from the boys. They have Grades 1 and up here but not the older kids of high school age. I think they all go up to age 15 but not totally sure about that. More in the next installment. Meanwhile we have a functioning dink again and both slept really well that night.

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Fixing Things in Paradise, and Getting a Scare

Events have been a mixture of joy, excitement, anger and terror the last few days. We have been to two most excellent (in some ways) anchorages, Navadra Island, which is the top of the Mamanuca island group, and Waya Island, which is the bottom of the Yasawa group. Navadra was first and it was knock your socks off beautiful with the island of Vanua Levu next door helping to form a seemingly snug and secure anchorage. However, it was exposed on the north and west and a nasty little swell was rolling in to make life miserable on board. So White Swan put out a stern anchor so as to keep the boat's bow in to the swells. The boat still bucks but it does not roll so much, which is much easier to deal with. We hate doing stern anchors but reluctantly put ours out with help from Bob on WS.

The big problem with a stern anchor out is that the boat cannot drift with the wind, and a boat's natural tendency at anchor is to point in to the wind, which is usually best. The profile of the boat to the wind is its smallest so presents the least force on the anchor trying to pull you loose, which we would all agree is a very BAD thing. But, the rolling was manageable like that. Of course, the wind picked up with a trough of bad weather moving in, and, of course, it started to really blow just as the sun went down, and, it blew from the east - right on to our beam (side). I did not like this but we seemed to be holding OK but the wind itself was now making the boat roll. So we were bucking from the swells on our bow and rolling from the strong winds on our beam. Great!

At 11:30pm, things just did not seem right. Just a feeling but I was nervous. I got up and looked around and it was totally black with all the clouds and still very windy with gusts to 25kt. The boat had also turned somewhat, so much that I thought at first that White Swan next to us had moved their boat but that didn't seem right either. I could hear the breakers on the reef and the shore but did not have enough depth perception to know how far we were. It did not look right though. Still, I was not sure so looked around some more, went down below, then came back up and finally turned on the depth sounder. Yikes! We had only 20ft of water under us, and we anchored in 65ft originally, meaning that we had drifted towards shore and a steeply rising bottom. We were almost on the rocks! My knees got weak and my mouth got dry!. Almost a panic! It looked like our stern anchor had held and our primary anchor on the bow had drug on the bottom and was no longer secure. The wind pushing on our beam was too much for the anchor, especially since we had set it backing up to the shore, not away from the new direction of the wind.

I took a few seconds to put together a plan to get us out of there and reset the anchor. The stern anchor was a big complication as we could not go anywhere with it connected to the stern. It either had to come up (no way in the wind and dark) or let loose. I went back and tied a floating fender to the line but did not cast it off as it was the only thing holding us at the moment. I started the engine to get it warmed up and let the noise wake Cindy. I was worried about Cindy since she had taken a half of a drowsy pill two hours before and would be sound asleep. She woke up though and we talked while I guzzled water to slake my thirst. I have to admit I was pretty freaked out but hoping for the best. Anchoring in low wind and in daylight is sometimes difficult, especially in 60-70ft of water. It takes a lot of chain out to set the anchor and the wind and waves are moving the boat at the same time. To top it off, it was pitch black and the anchor lights of White Swan and Ranger out in front of us were not visible. The three other boats nearby were visible from their lights, but were very close.

Cindy went forward to start raising the anchor and take off the snubber line which is like a big shock absorber. I put it in gear to help take the load off the windlass and loosened the stern rode at the same time just enough to give us some slack but not enough to drift over too much. It was almost impossible to talk to each other with the wind so Cindy and I had to keep meeting half way to discuss next steps. It was still very freaky! We managed to get the anchor up (great job Cindy!) and I let the last of the stern anchor line go by throwing it well away from the stern so as to not tangle in our propeller. We now could go find a spot to reanchor in the midst of boats we could not see. Radar was of no use so close and our chartplotter would not show us where the reefs were at in the middle further out. Cindy would shine our handheld flashlights on the boats in front of us when we got close and I would back away. We tried anchoring three times and each time we ended up too close to White Swan after we let out enough chain for security. The last time I said, Oh Well, and we were anchored just 20yds from their bow. If we drug anchor again we would hit them first. We rolled some in the swell now but did not care a bit.

Cindy was superb and overall we did what we had to do when we had to do it. Ironically, we had just bragged to White Swan earlier that we had never drug our anchor before, except that we did drag a stern anchor once in Mexico. Now more than ever we do not like stern anchors! None of the other boats woke up while we were taking up and putting out chain, which is a very noisy business, nor did they see our flashlights bouncing off their boats and everyone had their VHF radios off (except WS but they did not hear us calling!). So we were on our own. That was the terror of the night.

Fixing Things in Paradise is the next installment since I went on too long with this.

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One Day and Night in Lautoka - More Than Enough

We got to Lautoka and were expecting to stay over a couple of nights. It is a fairly large town with good shopping and places to get mechanical parts. Our windlass, which we use to raise our anchor chain (rode) and anchor, has a piece that keeps the chain from doubling on the capstan wheel. The chain started jamming and when I looked at it closely, found the metric bolts holding the plate to keep the chain right had stripped out of the aluminum casing of the windlass. Over the years, with the salt water coming off the chain and from the seas breaking over the bow, the aluminum had corroded from contact with the steel of the bolts and literally dissolved in to aluminum salt, which is soft.

So, I went looking for a helicoil insert to repair it with. Helicoils are often used to repair buggered-up threads on engine blocks for studs and sparkplugs. No luck on that. The town is nice enough though and it has a cineplex 4 movie theater so we were going to stay over another night and see the latest Harry Potter movie. Well, Lautoka's economy is based around the port with lots of container ships loading and unloading, but even bigger, is the sugar mill which processes all the sugar cane from the area. It is a big mill and famous for dirtying up boats in the harboar from the soot from the dirty stacks that belch dark, thick clouds of burnt off cane into the air. We woke up the first morning and found the boat COVERED with small pieces of greasy soot!! It was a mess. We decided to leave that day so went scurrying in to town to get some provisions, a haircut for me, internet and the helicoil. We got everything except the helicoil and potato chips which we will regret. I will just drill out the windlass holes and put in bigger bolts to repair it, but the potato chips will be sorely missed by yours truly.

Hooray! we did meet up with our old friends on White Swan (Bob and Dianna). We all decided to go four miles to a little bay south of Lautoka. Saweni Bay is small and pretty and much quieter. We spent the night here, had a little party on MD with White Swan and Scot Free II, and will head out today to the Mamanuca Islands to get away from it all even farther. It is a short trip over to Navadra Island which the Swanners tell us is remote, quiet and beautiful with great snorkeling. We'll go from there north up to the Yasawa Islands then back south to Musket Cove before heading back to Lautoka to check out of the country to go to Vanuatu in early August.

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Left Yadua Island for Viti Levu

We left Yadua Island this morning at first light using the track feature on our GPS and chartplotter to miss the reefs at the entrance to the bay. We were glad not to be getting up at 4:30am to get ready to go out in dinghies and look for the missing crew from the yacht "Miami" who had gone out yesterday afternoon in their dink and did not come back by dark (really, really dark). So Jerry on Scot Free II was organizing a search and rescue to go find them, hopefully on a beach with a conked out motor, out of fuel, etc. We all decided that going out in the dark over reefs with our own dinks was not a safe nor prudent thing to do. Ironically, they had been warning others to be sure and take a portable VHF radio in each dink when you go out just in case something happened. The winds have been blowing steady away from the island on to Vanuatu which would be a 400nm drift in open ocean. We all were thinking of that and charging up our own portable radios so they would be ready in the morning at 5:30. Georg and Uta finally showed up at 9pm and were surprised we were all concerned and looking for them. We all took turns calling them on the radio, looking for light signals, shining searchlights around the little bay, etc. Dave on La Vie really chewed them out when they got back and they apologized.

In any case, we were all happy for the happy ending, and glad we did not have to get up to go search. We got up any way at 5:30 to get ready to go, which we did at 7am. The sail today to the north coast of Viti Levy, the biggest island in Fiji, was another fantastic sail. The wind started slow but got up to perfect conditions, again with relatively flat seas. We are either getting to be better sailors all the time, or Maggie Drum is doing better. We led the pack of four boats the whole way and we had expected to be passed by two of them. I think they were distracted by fishing though.

Yesterday on Yadua we went for a long hike though in the morning, up the three mile trail that crosses the island over the hills to the one village on the other side. We did not plan to go to the village so I only wore my flipflop sandals, which was a bad idea, as the trail was steep and sharp, lousy lava rock for most of the way. We did get to the highest point on the island though and got some great pictures of the boats at anchor down below. I will post some later. On the way back we bushwhacked over to another little bay next to ours and went beachcombing and shelling. We found two excellent Nautilus shells which are described as "helmut-shaped". I will take a picture and post as well. Gorgeous shells though and fairly rare among cruisers. The walk wore us out and when we finally got back to our beach, the tide had gone way, way out and our dink was firmly beached and coral rock went out for about 100 yards. We dragged the heavy boat and motor to the little water but it took us about an hour to get it across the rocks until the tide finally came in some and we got it where it would float and we could motor. It was a late lunch.

The night before that we all went to shore at sunset and had a little party with a bonfire, drinks and appetizers. It was a great time, good weather and good conversations. Georg and Uta on Miami are from Switzerland and Germany so had lots of good stories to tell and lies to pass around to everyone about their cruising. Fun times.

Tomorrow we go on to the port of Lautoka where we have to do a formal checkin, again. We meet up with our friends on White Swan and then head out to the Mamanucas and Yasawas after reprovisioning in the stores there.

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Yadua Island

This morning the sun is still not quite up. The anchorage is quiet with just six boats gently bobbing in the very tiny swell and a murmur of a breeze coming from shore. Yesterday it was blowing 20kt from shore and every boat was yawing this way and that on their anchor rodes making it noisy up in the cockpit and down below from the howl of the wind over the trees, rocks and each boat's rigging. La Vie's wind generator was going like crazy with an angry buzz like a riled up hornet's nest. And, it was a fabulous day for a sail.

Yesterday was one of the best sails we have ever had in Maggie Drum. We put up the main right at anchor and put the engine in neutral after we got the anchor up and turned in the right direction to go through a fairly wide and well-marked passage through the barrier reef. Then it was on to the relatively open water of Bligh Water, a small inter-island sea, almost an inland sea, between the large island of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. It was named after the notorious Captain Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. He sailed and rowed his little boat with the small group of loyal officers and sailors through these waters after he was put adrift off the HMS Bounty much farther east. He made an amazing passage across the Pacific. He wanted to stop in Fiji for water and hunting but the fierce Fijians came out after them in their canoes and wakas and he kept on going as fast as he could push his little boat and got out of there. Later, he made it to a safe haven and eventually most all the mutineers were found and hung. Bligh died back in England I think. And now we are where he was.

We had 15-20kts of wind the whole way just forward on the stern off the beam. We didn't turn to starboard to our intermediate waypoint to keep the wind off of stern just enough to make the sail faster and more comfortable. We rolled some in the waves but not like we would if the wind had been directly on our stern. Maggie was going from 5.5 to 7.5kts which is very fast for us. The water swishes past the hull and gives you that electric feeling that all is right in the universe. It wasn't a perfect day as it was totally overcast, but since we were protected from the south by the bulk of Viti Levu we had nil true ocean swell and just the swell that could develop from the far shore about 30 miles away to where we were. There were low water reefs close to the north of us but we knew they were there and gave them good clearance. It was great!

We got to the south of Yadua and had to turn north so as to make the entrance to the western anchorage at Cucuovu Bay. The passage in to the bay is very narrow with reefs with and a very narrow passage, and one that has a serious dog-leg to the right as you come in. The cloudy conditions didn't help as we could only see the one reef on the south. Jerry on Scot Free II in the anchorage called out on the radio and gave us some help coming in and then we put the hook down in front of boats that from a distance looked like they were right on the beach. Now we are "right on the beach". The wind blew so hard last night we could not fire up the grill outside but had to panfry our steaks on the stove inside. The steak plus fried potatoes and onions and a really good 10 year old bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon topped off a very fine day.

Today is Sunday so we won't attempt the 3 mile walk to the other side of the island where the village is. It is supposed to be much like the old days on this remote island. They are somewhat poor here as the rocky island is not good for growing things so they fish for most of their food. There are also supposed to be many "bures" which are the traditional thatched huts/houses that have been replaced by timber and cinder block in most villages. It is a two hour hike each way so we will wait until Monday so as not to go there on a Sunday which is a strict church day. We will make on sevusevu tomorrow then. Today will be snorkeling and exploring on this side of the island.

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On the Way Again

We left Savusavu for points easier to pronounce yesterday. Yesterday's passage was about 45nm under very cloudy skies for the most part, which is something you want to avoid in Fiji normally as you need the sun (in the right position in the sky too) to help navigate through reefs. We had purchased a chartlet kit with detailed waypoints which gave us a helping hand and then we got some sun breaks in the first long reef "canyon". The current was boiling through there and reminded us of sailing in Washington. Our boat speed over ground (true speed) got up to almost 8kt with the engine just idling. It was pretty hairy at first as the reefs were on both sides, but it was well marked with red and green cones on either side and fairly deep, so no prob.

It had been raining hard all night the night before so we were ready to cancel the trip until the next day, but the forecast was for it to clear and the last rain stopped at 7am. We left at 8:30 and got in to the anchorage at 4:30pm. Unfortunately the sun was right in our eyes as we motored north through the last two smaller reefs and some of the markers were missing which always makes the skipper really happy. Our friends on Ranger had just gone through though and told us which way to go around the markers that were there so all was well.

It is 5am in the dark right now. I seem to always wake up around now, every day, which is way to early, but we go to bed at 8:30 or 9pm every night so no wonder. These are typical cruiser hours for all you landlubbers. No TV, not enough juice to watch movies all night, and you get sleepy reading. I guess we could try to train ourselves to stay up but there really is no point - SNL and Letterman are a thing of the past, along with TV news, sitcoms and old Rambo movies.

Just a short day away is the magical isle of Yandua, just west of Vanua Levu. Some of our friends have been there and recommend it highly, so we will go check it out. Flash! - Cindy just woke up and asked me if it was raining in through the hatch, and I said "of course not, it is not supposed to rain today". Well, it is raining and that will change our plans may be as we have more reefs to go through, especially at Yandua. I plotted a course yesterday using partially the waypoints we got for the GPS and partially our chartplotter with its electronic charts. I had to add one waypoint to avoid some reefs for a passage not marked with the purchased waypoints. But what makes me nervous is that going in to the Yandua anchorage, the waypoints take you directly over some of the deadly green reefs. The charts out here are notoriously unreliable so that is to be expected but when everything does not match then you need something like good sunlight to take the edge off and keep your stomach from getting ulcers. Oh well, another day in Paradise! But just to keep you on your toes, we heard another boat was lost over by Vanuatu this week but no details as of yet.

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Hanging out in Savusavu

We are starting to really get the names mixed up out here: Suva, Savusavu, Somosomo, Nairai, Nausori, Nambuka, etc. Some of them sound the same and our palangi tongues get tied up. It doesn't help that many of the words are pronounced differently then they look to English-speaking eyes. Suva is "sooba" but Savusavu is pronounced like it looks. Then the Kiwis and Ozzies take a normal English word and pronounce it in a way that us Americanos can't understand. Oh well, we get by.

This weekend in Savusavu was very sleepy. It is a one street town basically but it is also the major port for the large island so there is a lot going on and the small (compared to Suva) bus terminal is always somewhat busy, even on a Sunday. (This is Monday here) Saturday there was a Methodist revival meeting in town all day. There were a couple of hundred locals in their Sunday-go-to-church clothes which meant dresses for the women and most all the men wore the skirts they call a sula here with white shirts and some with ties. One big older fella had a black tie with a day-glo painting of Jesus on it. They are very religious here and very serious about it all. I got handed several pamphlets walking along that told me how to save myself and friends. Nice people though.

The town starts closing up (except for the revival) at about 1:00 on Saturday though. I went to do internet at 3pm and I was way too late to do that. A grocery store was still open but it closed at 4:00. After that it was just the cars, buses and taxis racing through town kicking up dust clouds. The ferry landing is at the end of town by the entrance to our little bay here so there is always traffic from that if one of the ferries are in.

S/V Oz with Steve and Cindy came in from Suva yesterday, along with a monster catamaran from Belgium. It must be over 120ft long and rigged as a schooner, which is unusual. They sort of poked their nose in our narrow and tight little anchorage and decided not to risk it and anchored just outside the entrance. They are flying the yellow "Q" or Quarantine flag. You are supposed to fly this flag when you first get to a new country to tell the officials that you have not officially checked in yet and are supposed to stay on the boat until Customs, Immigration, Health, etc. go on board and check you in. The health guys are to make sure you are not bringing any dire diseases here, such as small pox, tuberculosis, yellow fever, etc. They could not check in yesterday but their huge dinghy came in any way and bought 20 Corona beers from the little bar ($140) and took them back to the boat. They probably have a large crew and guest list for this oversized cruiser. I would guess they came from Tonga after going through Polynesia, the Cooks and Panama. Not very friendly but many of the Europeans aren't, and especially any crew or passengers from the larger boats. They are too good to talk to small boat trash. I wish I were making this up but it is just the way it is out here. Very rare for any one on the really big sailboats or powerboats to mingle with the riffraff on boats much smaller than them.

We were invited to go snorkeling outside in the big bay but it involved going on two other sailboats and having our dinghy dragged behind with the motor on which is hard on the dinghy and painter lines so I was not to keen on going. We said may be then begged off after our outboard decided to stop pumping cooling water so I had to take the morning and lift it up on the stern and take the lower end off to check the water pump, which was fine. It is pumping water now but not as vigorously as it should so I will have to watch it. Something is plugged up it in.

Today we will check internet in town, help some friends with loading software on their PC's and might walk out to the point we passed on the way in. Michael Cousteau (Jacgues Cousteau's son) has a fancy resort out there. Tomorrow we plan to go on a bus ride to the bigger town of Lambasa. The town is just a dusty, hot sugar cane center but the ride is supposed to be fun and interesting and you get to see the interior of the island for real cheap. We will be leaving later this week to go to the west side of Viti Levu south of us. We have to figure out a route that will take us safely though the numerous (and I mean numerous) reefs and little islands. Fiji is actually a very intimidating place to sail.

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Yotreps Link now fixed

I made the change to the link on the left side of the top of the blog so that it takes you directly to the page on Yotreps that shows where we are and have been. You can use the position buttons and zoom buttons to move around and see more or less detail.

Thanks to Chuck on Jacaranda for the link help.

Visit to the Village on Gau (Ngau)

This was a few days ago but we now are at an internet cafe in Savusavu so will try to upload some pictures and the story of our visit to the small village on Gau, one day away from the big city of Suva. On previous blogs I mentioned the trip there and other details so this will just be about our trek and the village. It was very interesting but a long hot and muddy hike on a very small trail through the stifling jungle. The trail is small and obviously not well used. It must have been a road at some point but not for a while and is now just a single track .

This is us along the trail. Burrs were a major problem and covered our shoulders, arms and legs. The women had to wear long skirts and cover their shoulders, and us men had to wear long pants and cover our shoulders. No hats or bags on shoulders allowed. Violations are against the village culture and they may not allow you to stay if you are a violator!

First, we had to find someone in the village (a man only) to lead us to the Chief. Before that we are not allowed to really do anything else. Some women saw us from a house a few hundred feet away and said Bula (hello) but would not come over. She did call for a guy to come over, which he did. He welcomed us, asked a few polite questions, and slowly walked us farther in to the village. We were greeted by an older man who welcomed us on to the covered porch of a house there and asked us to sit on the hand-woven mats on the floor. We had brought our bundles of kava (yaqona in Fijian) to present to the Chief. A group of these Elders convened and sat across from the four of us: me, Cindy, Paul and Marie from Ranger. We thought the guy in the middle was the Chief but it was not obvious and we found out later he was just one of the Elders of the village. The Chief is head of day to day things, but the Elders are like the Town Council. The Chief was gone to another island for a meeting but was coming back that night.

We presented our kava to them, which the man in the middle accepted. We had some polite chit chat before and they asked us where we are from - we said America - they said "mighty America" and I answered "yes, may be too mighty" and they laughed. They then formally accepted the kava and the middle Elder went in to a sing song style speech in Fijian during which we could hear the word America but did not understand anything else. They bless you, bless your home and country, then welcome you to their village, land and waters and allow you to visit and stay. They asked us if we wanted to then make up some kava (at 10a.m.) but Paul said (a bit too quickly) that it was too early for us and we would decline. I am not sure if that was very polite, but they were polite about it. They offered to have someone guide us around the village and found a woman standing there and volunteered her.

Here are some of the houses, some nicer than others. Laundry is drying off the sides. Some younger men are preparing for the big feast (lovo) tonight when the Chief gets back (not in this picture). They were cutting up roots to put in the lovo pit in the ground where hot rocks would be added with pig meat and other veggies to steam. We were not invited but it would have been hard to go to any way and then get back to the boats in the dark.

This is our guide but all I caught of her name is it started with a V... She was actually coming back to her home village after 10 years on the big island next door of Vanua Levu. It is only 40 miles away but she had not been able to return for all that time. She is now working for the census bureau and is preparing to manage a census of Gau and neighboring islands. She was very nice and spent about 2 hours with us gringos (palangis in Fijian).

Here is the old stone church (Weslayan sp? Methodist), age unknown but certainl early last century. There is a big lawn around it. The village was very tidy and the grass was clipped and neat with coral concrete sidewalks around the houses.

Two cute little girls watched us go by and giggled and whispered to each other.

This point is near the village. We actually had to walk by the saddle to the main part of the island on the left to get to the village. Our boats are on the other side of this point. The tallest tree on the point (broad and reddish color - double click to enlarge) marks the burial ground for island chiefs. It is tabu for any one to visit there except men to bury the chiefs. The current chief is over 80 and may join his ancestors there in the coming years. A new chief will be selected then and may or may not be the current chief's son, who we met at the chief's house.

Onward to Savusavu

Well, we did not stay long on Koro Island, and actually never made it to shore. We motorsailed from Gau (also spelled Ngau on some charts) with Ranger in light winds which finally increased from the south (on our tail). When we got to the first bay on the northern end where we thought we could anchor, two other sailboats were there, anchored in front of a nice looking resort with thatched roof "bures" etc. Picking our way around the barrier reef took a while. Although it was straightforward as the reef was in a big comma shape, you still have to go very slow, look for waves breaking on the outer edges of the reef, monitor the depth sounders and look real hard. Cindy goes on the bow to get a better look ahead while I motor very slowly through the area. Once we got in there, neither Ranger nor us could find a suitable enough spot that was shallow enough and close in enough. It was also very exposed to the south where the wind was blowing from at a brisk pace. So we went back out which is much easier with a GPS trail to look at. GPS's can marked a detailed track or trail on the screen so it is easy to backtrack exactly how you came in, which we knew was safe.

We had to go around Nolo Point then and it's very large system of barrier reefs. They extended a long ways out and around and by that time the sun was going down and making it difficult to see the changes in water color. Fortunately our chartplotter was still pretty accurate but we followed Ranger in any way. They had a very disconcerting habit of making sudden and dramatic course changes right in front of us. Not sure what was going on but it happened several times there and other places.

We got in OK then Ranger reported not finding a suitable spot to anchor where they went so we took the lead and found one a few hundred yards away close in to shore as we dared in about 40' for water. The wind was blowing hard over the point in front of us which makes you want to set the anchor very well, and it set hard right away. We set the GPS anchor watch alarm though just in case we drug anchor overnight. But it still looked like an open roadstead and the village where we would have do sevusevu with the chief was at least a mile walk through the jungle and even with a trail it would have been a real hike. So in the morning we decided to go ahead and leave for Savusavu which was just another 25nm north. We tried to sail but now the winds were too light so we motored again (yuck!!!!!).

Savusavu is a real town, small but with stores, a marina, cafes, etc. And, several of our friends from other places were there - Winbird, Camdeboo, Rise and Shine, and, a big surprise, Vigoda who we last saw in French Polynesia. We met them our first few days in the Marquesas over a year ago. They were illegally in Polynesia as they did not have passports with them and could not officially check in until they got them. So they went to smaller anchorages and dodged the French Customs boat which went around and checked for papers all the time. They had sent their passports to India for job visa applications from Equador in South America and would not pick them up until Tahiti at the far end of Polynesia, which they did. They then went to Vava'U in Tonga and left the boat after we had left there and went to India to work, and we are just now catching up with them.

There is an internet cafe here so I will try to post some pictures and describe our first village visit next. I will also correct the Yotreps link on our blog to make it easier to find us on the chart.

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Yotreps Position Reporting

We are still posting our latitude and longitude at the Yotreps site almost daily now. I was not very good about updating it last year and will try to do better this year. When we are in the same port for weeks at a time I don't change it, and I think that Yotreps kinda sorta drops you, or puts you in limbo, if you don't keep it up to date. In any case, the link to get to the site is on our first page of the blog (at the top) on the right hand side since I don't remember the website address in detail. It does have www.pangolin..... in it.

I think we can be looked up by Cindy's ham radio call sign "KE7BQN", or by Maggie Drum. I will double check next time we get internet access (if I remember - I seem to have Cruiseheimer's disease more and more these days).

Cheers - Cindy & Joe - waiting for the storm to break tonight.

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Maggie Drum at Gau Island, Fiji

Dateline: 2 July 2007, Gau Island - just east of Viti Levu

We are sitting pretty at anchor in a gorgeous bay on/at Gau Island. This is supposed to be the real traditional Fiji, which will be nice after the modern (relatively) hustle-bustle of Suva. The passage was miserable though to get here. We had to motor the whole way (45 miles) in to the wind (15-20kt apparent) with big swells and some chop. Ranger and we were hobby-horsing like crazy the whole way. The bow would go up out of the air, then crash down in to the sea with a big spray coming over the boat. Sometimes the bow would come down right in to the next wave and the whole boat would shutter and bang. It is very hard on the boat and very hard on your nerves. It also puts lots of hours on the motor and uses very expensive fuel (over $5/gal). We probably used about 30 gallons of fuel to get here. We had the mainsail up but all it did was flutter and snap.

But, we are here. We had to go through another, smaller, barrier reef though, and this time without any marks to guide you. You had to creep up on where you thought the reef started and look to see if you could see any changes in color to indicate shallows. And of course, the sun went behind the stormy clouds, so you could not see the water color (it all looked black). Kind of nerve wracking. We must have found the passage though as we are anchored safe and sound on a rocky coral bottom with some sand. Coral is not good to anchor in as the anchor may not set well, or, it sets too well and you can't get it up. Of course it was windy and gusty all night and when you are anchored in coral the chain drags and makes rumbling noises in the boat and when the wind gusts the chain goes tight and makes a banging in the boat. And you all thought this was just fun and games out here?

It is pretty though - a deserted bay with a small patch of beach and palm trees and jungle starting right after that in to the steep and rugged green hills. There is a village around the corner. We need to go there today, dressed in long pants and dresses to meet with the chief. (I am not making this up!). We have to make sevusevu with the chief to ask his permission to anchor and visit the island. No permission - no stay. You have to take a gift with you as part of the very traditional ceremony. You are invited in to the chief's house, take off your shoes, sit in a circle and present your gift. The gift is "kava". Kava is available in the states now and is a member of the pepper plant family. It grows in bushes on many islands out here. The kava twigs and roots you present (a bundle of about 2/3 of a pound) are ground up, water added and then all of it strained though a cloth or traditionally though coconut fiber into a bowl. The muddy looking result is drank in a traditional fashion using coconut hulls (or human skulls in the old days) with one cup passed around to each person in turn. It produces a mild narcotic effect - the lips go numb first and every one gets very mellow. No fights when every one is stoned on kava.

We have not tried it yet and probably will not be asked to at the chief's house. He will take the kava and offer us the protection of the village and his permission for us to visit. He takes the kava twigs and roots and does them later in the day after work. Some times you are offered to stay and enjoy but it is not a given. The kava is supposed to take like old dishwater, and it looks the same. Not pleasant. I suppose we will try it some time but not sure when. So, I am up watching the sun come up (the anchor and wind got me up at 12, 3 and 5) and will try to send this off before the net starts at 7am.

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S/V Elysium Lost

Well, in our last episode we mentioned that the EPIRB of the trimaran Elysium had gone off and the USCG was checking with the family to see if it was a legit deal or not. Sometimes they are set off by accident which can cause all kinds of problems and expense for searches, etc. that are not needed. In this case it was the real deal but none of us knew that at the time. NB: Maggie Drum has an EPIRB on board right next to the boarding ladder ready to grab if something goes wrong.

The cruisers out here try to take care of each other, and, everyone likes to hear of problems and talk about them, etc. Just like normal people back in the real world. Well, we did not know if this was a mistake or what and much of the radio chatter was about that and whether any one knew anything more. I should back up a second though and fill you in on how we knew them.

When we came in to Suva two weeks ago they were the first new boat we met. The crew was at the Royal Suva Yacht Club for sundowners and we were introduced to them by Steve on S/V Oz who we knew from NZ. Louis was the skipper/owner, Roberta a past friend of his, Patrick a friend of Roberta's and Dorothy who knew somebody before too. Louis takes new crew on a various places and they go diving and cruising and drinking. Louis is a dedicated cruiser from the Caribbean. He flew a Puerto Rican flag instead of a US flag on his US boat, has long hair, enjoys his beers and diving and is very laid back. The crew were lively and entertaining and knew some people we knew from other places and boats (small world out here).

They had been on the hard at the small boat yard here for several days and I found out later it was to fix a bent prop shaft which was causing a lot of vibration while motoring underway. It was fixed by a local from another town, but when they put it in the water for a sea trial, the boat still vibrated bad. I also heard later that a hole was punched in to the side of the plywood boat when they hauled it. I also heard that it may or may not have been rotten wood, which would be bad juju. It was patched before they got launched.

There was a lot of discussion in the anchorage as to whether they should get it all fixed 100% before leaving (which was my opinion) but Louis was in a hurry to go and did not think it was "a big deal". I then lost touch with them and did not know if they had made a final fix or not. It may have been bad or misaligned motor mounts, a still bent prop shaft or a bearing, but who knows now. They took off two days before we did, bound for Vanuatu.

When we heard about the EPIRB on the net, we also heard from Paul on Ranger that a Mayday had been reported the day before on the net, which we did not hear. The pieces were starting to come together. The family had called the net controller for the Pacific Seafarers' Net, which is a amateur ham radio net out to the US that helps with just this sort of thing. Turns out, the USCG denied knowing anything about the EPIRB, as did the Honolulu station that is supposed to coordinate for out of country searches in the Pacific. So no one knew for sure if it was still real.

We found out yesterday by radio from Steve on Oz, that the boat had been lost near Vanuatu, and that all hands were safe and sound on the little island of Fatuna which is near the island of Tanna where Elysium was going. We will try to find out from the skipper or crew what really happened. It was reported that when they did the Mayday, they said the prop shaft had come loose from the motor/transmission coupling and was trying to back out of the boat, which would leave a hole about 1 inch in the back of the boat below waterline - also bad juju. We heard they were keeping it together with pipe wrenches.

So now the backseat drivers of the world (like me) will be out in full force telling everyone that they knew these guys, and how unwise it was to have gone out with known problems, etc. etc. The truth may be entirely different and may never be known. It will be interesting to hear though and is a cautionary tale for the rest of us who should never get too complacent. Our motor died on the way over to Gau (next story) but that was just a plugged fuel line and we got it fixed in about 15 minutes.

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Leaving Suva for Gau Island

Dateline: Suva, Fiji 29 June 2007
Cindy and I decided to go ahead and leave today to start the multi-day journey up to Savusavu on Vanua Levu Island. We were going to travel with Paul and Marie on Ranger, who we met on the 2004 Baja HaHa from San Diego to Mexico. Our first leg was not far, but Cindy and I were way more anxious about it than we should have been since it meant going through a very narrow and twisting passage inside the Suva Harbor reefs. These barrier reefs protect the south side of the coast for about 10 miles and are mostly submerged at high tide and exposed in places at low tide. We were going at low tide but that still meant we could hit bottom in any of the shallows. The passage is well marked from what we had heard but we followed Ranger any way.

As it turns out, Ranger almost missed a turn and almost hit the bottom first. They made a sudden correction in front of us to port and got back in to the channel. In spots it was less than 25 feet deep with the reefs close by on either side. We slowed down to just barely going a few places though and Marie was on the bow on Ranger and Cindy on the bow of Maggie Drum to look ahead for the low spots.

The reefs are very deceptive as they are up to a half-mile wide and not visible until you are right on them. You seem to be quite a ways from land and therefore "safe" and then whammo, you hit the reef. There were several hulks of ships and smaller boats that were on the outside reef rusting away in the tropical sun, high and dry on the reef edge. These were silent testimony to what not paying attention could mean. Our new Furuno chartplotter was spot-on for this passage though and it gives you a better feeling of security.

In any case, we only had to go 7 miles to the little island of Nukulau which guards the only other passage through the barrier reef system to the open ocean. We were going to stay overnight there and get a good start at dawn for the next leg to Gau Island. This was a Saturday so there were a few Fijians out on the reefs, which really dried to sand "islands" at spots at low tide. They were happily walking along the reefs where it would be chest deep in a few hours. We even saw one fellow way away from the shore in chest deep water throwing a fishing line. Must not be sharks inside there.

We anchored off Nukulau, which is a picture post card isle with palm trees swaying over the small sandy beach and rough dock. There were a few thatched huts and a regular house there with a few people lazing around that had come by boat from the main island. The whole island is no more than a small city block square and no one lives there now, not even the caretaker who used to be there.

We did not leave the next day as the forecast was for boisterous winds that would be on our nose to Gau. We sat out the day and relaxed. Unfortunately for Cindy and I we took a dose of a new anti-seasickness pill before we decided to call off the passage so these knocked us for a loop all day. Cindy napped most of it and I just fussed about.

We got a nasty shock on the local radio net in the morning though. The net is called the "Fiji Rag of the Air" and is run by a gringo cruiser who has more or less settled down in Fiji. He is friends with our friend, Bruce, in Anacortes, who met him years ago when he cruised out here. Anyway, the shock was that we heard the EPIRB (Emergency Portable I? Radio Beacon) of the 44 foot trimaran Elysium was set off and the US Coast Guard contacted the family who were listed as the contact people. You only are supposed to set these off if you are in dire straits, i.e. a Mayday situation that is life or major property threatening. I will go in to more on the next blog. How's that for suspense?

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