Hi All,
We are here safe and sound anchored outside the village of Daliconi on the island Vanua Balavu, in the northern Lau Group. We arrived around 1:00pm after a 9 hour, 60nm passage from Qamea. We arrived right on time so we would have excellent light to see all the corals except it was very cloudy….but even then we could see the reefs somewhat!!!
We indeed got up at 3:00am and left around 4:00am. It was very cloudy so consequently very dark. We had to slowly work our way out of the anchorage as we were surrounded by coral so we slowly retraced our old track for a few miles. Once we got through that we had to work our way through the Tasman Straight narrows…..but we had Curly’s waypoints which were accurate so no worries. Once we got outside the Qamea reef we turned to Vanua Balavu on a course of 105M or ~120T.
This was a small weather window for us to make this passage. It was not ideal but just good enough. The winds started in the 10-15 kt range from the east and then died to <5kts then built to 10-15NNE as we approached Vanua Balavu. There was a small trough/LO north of Fiji that was working it’s way south and thus the backing winds……good for us as the normal tradewinds are 15-20kts ESE….big headwinds and seas for us. The seas are normally in the 5-8′ 8 sec ESE but with the LO the seas calmed to 2-5′ East as did the winds. We did go through several small squalls and one had significant winds in the 20-25kt range but none of the squalls lasted very long. The winds and seas will pick up by midnight tonight and might make for an uncomfortable anchorage as we are exposed to South winds. We will move over to what is called the Bay of Islands tomorrow and find a nice quite anchorage to do some major chillin!!
As we were anchoring the Tourism Manager called on the VHF to welcome us and arrange a time for us to come ashore and do the sevusevu with the chief. We arranged for a time about an hour later (just time for a cold passage beer and to drop the dinghy). We went ashore dressed in our sulu’s and for me a collared shirt…..we met the chief and they performed the ceremony…..about 5 min…..and then told us they accepted our yoqona gift and we were allowed to visit the islands. We then sat and talked for another 10-15 min…..we learned last year they had 140 cruisers/boats and have had 20 so far this year. They enjoy the cruisers and want us all to come and enjoy the islands. We did make a donation or F$60 ($30pp) which they said goes towards the children’s education in Suva (after 8th grade the kids go to a major city for high school). There are 16 villages in Vanua Balavu, a total of 2000 people and 130 in Daliconi. After our visit they gave us a tour of the village where we met a few more people and some very shy children!!
Boat Stuff: We did pick up the new watermaker booster pumps in Taveuni yesterday and I will install in the next day or so. Also, we still have a pesky oil leak on the port stabilizers….yes, the ones that were rebuilt ….so will need to be creative on how to fix that one in the next few days….and the list goes on…..but for now, we both need some major chillin time…..read, nap, snorkel/dive, read, nap…..you get the picture:))))
Hope all is well!!
John
PS: And, oh yes, there is internet/cell service here…..sweet!!!
