3:30am Thursday July 3: Sleepy time 🙂 ))
Another very peaceful night passage…..sweet!!! We are on passage to Fulanga in the Southern Lau Group. We left Susui in the Vanua Balavu group at 3:30 pm yesterday afternoon and it has been a very calm and peaceful passage so far. About noon time yesterday a big squall hit the Susui area with winds up to 20 knots…..ugh…..just what you don’t want is to leave in a squall as you have to dodge a few reefs before you can exit out the Tongan pass. But, around 3:00 the rain abated and the skies started to clear…..a good sign. We made the pass around 4:30 pm in pretty decent light, having avoided all the reefs in between.
Susui: Wow….what a Fijian experience. Jacob, the village spokesperson, the Touraga ni koro, made us feel very welcome…..a kind, friendly, and soft spoken man….very typical Fijian. We stayed on the boat the fist day as it was a Sunday, but went in early the next day for the sevusevu. The ceremony was the quickest yet as the Chief does not speak any English so it basically was us handing over the yaqona and the Chief smiling and nodding his head that we were welcome….very different than our previous ceremonies!!! Jacob gave us a tour of the village and the school where we made a F$50 donation to go to various school projects, like buying computers and completing a woodwork shop.
Stan and Val on Buffalo Nickel had gotten to Susui a day before us and had arranged several activities which we were graciously included. We first had a panga tour of the inner lagoon followed by an oyster lunch….yes, that is right….oysters. It seems a while ago a Chief from Taveuni had brought some oysters and seeded their inner lagoon. They are the only village in Vanua Balavu to have oysters and they only harvest for special occasions…..for cruisers and other villages. There was 6 of us plus 4 men from the village…..they roasted the oysters on an open wood fire for 5-10 minutes and then opened and placed in a lime and hot pepper sauce…..they had also baked some cassava in the fire previously…..yummers…..the oysters were cooked with a light smoky flavor and dipping in the sauce was a culinary delight. Kathy, Val and Jeff all tasted the oysters and liked them in spite of not being big oyster fans. The rest were left for Stan, Julie and me to chow down!!!!!
The village seemed to be one of the poorer villages we have visited. There are 23 families in the village but we saw several abandoned houses….these were people who had moved to Suva to be with their children attending high school or who had left to find work. Each couple paid F$100 for the lagoon and oyster tour and the next day the village went and bought diesel for their generator!!
That night the village held a Meke in honor of Julie and Jeff departing the next day. This consisted of the children and woman performing various cultural dances and then we all sat around and drank kava. There was a guitar and ukelele band that played and sang various Fijian songs…..most of the men in the village joined so there was about 20+ people singing and drinking kava…. I started drinking “high tides”…..a full bowl, but eventually Kathy made me switch to “low tide”, partially filled bowl to ensure I could drive the dinghy back. Kava does not make you drunk or even feel high, you just get into a very relaxed and lethargic mode that is quite peaceful……you know, like the Johnnie Walk 🙂 ))))
The next day we took a panga to Lomolomo, the major town/village of Vanua Balavu. It was another very peaceful and charming village with some influence from the people of Tonga. We dropped Julie and Jeff off at their guesthouse…..a small hostel with 3 bures…..we then walked to 2 small markets…..bought a few things….eggs, garlic and soy sauce (yes, on this trip we have almost run out of nori rolls and soy sauce…..major ingredients for sushi 🙂 )))….and bought some gas for the dinghy.
Friday July 4th 7:00am:
I did not finish the blog the other night and will do so today and hopefully get it sent later today when we send emails. The passage could not have been better….winds calmed to <5 kts and the seas were glassy with just a slight swell…..just perfect trawler-like conditions!!! It was 122 nm, ~17.25 hrs, avg 7 kts!!! About 3 hours from the pass we made contact with our good friends, Andy and Sue on s/v Spruce. They had taken the same weather window but were coming from Astrolabe Reef in the Kandavu area, about 185 nm due west…..they were about an hour behind us!!
We arrived around 8:45 am…..the light was just ok…..the Admiral would have preferred around 10:00am for better light…..Buffalo Nickel had arrived a few hours earlier and had stood off for a bit but around 8:00 they went through the pass with no issues and said they had decent light. So we had a discussion and decided to go for it, and wouldn’t you know a cloud came over us just as we committed into the pass so our light did indeed suck. Before we entered we had made contact with another boat, sv Rayfiki, that was anchored just inside the pass…..they had on their AIS….they were going diving/snorkeling and we were concerned about people in the water….they were very helpful guiding us in….in turned out there were 3 boats anchored…..one of which was Pacific Highway!!!! The pass is fairly narrow and I got a little too close to the starboard side…..I looked over and saw a very shallow reef…..looked at the depth gauge…..4′ under the keel…..gulp….hard to port and quickly back into the deeper water…yikes…..there is a big rock right in the middle of the pass….maybe 40′ high and you are to hug the rock to port as the channel narrows…..after you pass the rock then you turn slightly to starboard…..hopefully you have gone far enough!!!! I indeed hugged the rock….maybe 5 feet off…..which seemed way too close but since the light sucked we could not see anything on the starboard side…..the 3 boats were maybe 50 yards away and as we cleared the rock they shouted for us to turn slightly to starboard and thus avoiding the 3 boats…..whoa….but we made it no harm no foul…..we have sinced learned that “hugging the rock as close as you can” means in technical terms stay off ~10-15’……much better!!!!!
After we made the pass we crossed the atoll about 2 nm to the anchorage by the village. The village is on the other side of the hill and about a 20 min walk. We then proceed to anchor and WTH…..the windlass will not let the chain down…..we hear the solenoid click but no power to the windlass…..good news is the windlass is working on the “up” side, so we can get the chain up…..so, Kathy just let the clutch all the way out and we let the chain freewheel down…..not ideal but I slowly backed Mystic and we let the chain out slowly…..so, another boat project coming up….arghhhhhhh!!!!
We then proceeded to have our celebratory bloody mary…..affectionately known as a BM….too early for beer…..and awaited Spruce coming into the anchorage…..we proceeded to drop the dinghy and the dinghy winch slipped…..yikes…..dropped the dinghy maybe a foot or so….caused quite a shaking of the mast/boom…..arghhhhhhh…..we are going to be inside the Fulanga atoll for 3-4 weeks and we will be able to tow the dinghy so we have some time to problem solve…..we are thinking now the brake on the winch is slipping…..we do have a spare winch…..so just another boat repair in an exotic place!!!…..which then called for a second BM 🙂 ))))
Spruce, Buffalo Nickel and us went into the village for the sevusevu around noon….wow, just another exceptional Fijian cultural experience. We took the trail to the village and were met by 2 men….Soko and Soki…..they proceeded to escort us to the village and were a wealth of information…..and, for whatever reason we were attacked by mosquitoes…..we soon bugged up but not before Kathy and I had several bites…..ugh!!!!
The sevusevu was very traditional……probably our most formal…..it was all in Fijian so couldn’t understand anything….but a lot of clapping and nodding of heads and soon our yaqona was taken and we were accepted into the village!!! After a lot of picture taking with the Chief, who is 86 years old, we were taken to the wood carving display…..Fulanga is well known for very skilled woodcarvers and their carvings can be found throughout Fiji. We had bought some Kava bowls in Savusavu which we think were carved by Fulangan’s living in Suva. We found several carvings we liked…..but alas, we had not brought much money….only the F$50 donation we gave at the sevusevu…..but they graciously put aside what we liked and we will go back and make the purchase later.
We then proceeded to tour the village…..homes, church, school, medical clinic et al….there are only 3 villages in all of Fulanga…..this one had about 90 people and was the largest. They do grow quite a lot of fruits and some veges and they eat mainly fish/rice and a pig for special occasions. After our tour several ladies had setup a spot for us to have tea and a bit to eat…..cassava, breadfruit, and a fish/pumpkin dish. At this time Martin and Angela from Katie M had joined us (we had met them in the Great Barrier Islands in New Zealand with Bella Vita…..we had coffee on their boat one morning and he gave us a tutorial on cruising Fiji….we are using a lot of their recommendations!!!)
The village is unique in that they assign to you a host family…..ours is Tara and Joe….they used to live and work in Suva but about six years ago they retired and moved back to Fulanga to help raise their 2 grandsons. We had a delightful discussion and made arrangements for us to attend the Sunday church service and lunch in their home afterwards!! We talked a lot about kids…..she has a 19 year old granddaughter who just married a young man from a neighboring village…..Tara thought the young man was just ok, she could have done better, and she was way too young……when she learned we had a 6 month granddaughter she wanted to know all about Sadie and then our kids……wow, in a very, very different culture, parents and grandparents still have all the same concerns and desires for their kids…..I guess not so amazing when you think about it, but at the time it felt somewhat out of context to share feelings so alike!!!!
Saturday, 7/5 7:00am:
Hmmmm….I’m not doing so well at completing this blog….
The previous night we had Spruce over for opening ceremonies as well as Buffalo Nickel and Katie M…..it was a very good opening ceremony as witnessed by the bottle count the next day…..but we all were a bit sleepy from the overnight passage. Katie M helped explained how to scuba dive the passage and told us conditions the next day should be ideal, so we all made plans to go diving the next morning.
The dive was a really good one…..the reef and coral are very healthy and we saw tons of fish and lots of coral…..even saw some big whitetip sharks and a turtle. We had taken two dinghies and did a drift dive outside the pass along the wall. Val and Stan had decided not to dive so they stayed on top and watched our bubbles. They had thought to snorkel after and we would watch their dinghy, but in the end, they decided not to do that either…..all in all an excellent dive and we can’t wait for conditions to be such that we can do it again.
Later in the afternoon Spruce and us went back to the village for another visit and to purchase our wood carvings. There is something magical about this village, culture and the people. Everyone now knew who we were and so many people came out of their houses to meet us. We once again sat and talked with Tara…..we gave her some sugar, tea and cookies and a soccer ball for her grandsons….she gave us a big bowl of oranges…..it seems the orange crop this year is exceptional and indeed they are very juicy and sweet!! From there we joined Andy and Sue at Tai’s place and had some tea and a very good conversation with 8-10 of the villagers. Tai is 56, used to work at a resort in Musket Cove in western Fiji, sort of acts as the cruiser liason……he and I had an age guessing game….he guessed my correct age of 60…..oweeeee…I failed miserably at his age…..they all liked my fish hook tattoo and we had quite a good discussion about fishing…..I hope to join them sometime for a fishing trip Fiji style!!!!
After a few hours we finally made it to the wood carving shop. We made several purchases and watched one of the wood carvers making a mask….Andy & Sue liked it so much they asked the carver to make a special mask which he will do over the next few days!!!
From there we went to the school where Sue made arrangements to teach an art class next week. Sue is a retired school teacher and quite an accomplished artist. We were with her in Niue when she had her first exhibition and we are proudly displaying one of her prints in our salon.
OK…..that brings the blog up to date…..we hope to do some hiking today and then tomorrow the church service and lunch!!!
Hope all is well!!!
John
Mystic Moon
Fulanga in southern Lau, Fiji
PS: Indeed no internet here but we understand if you take your cell phone up to the top of the ridge(maybe 100′ high) you can get a weak signal from Lakemba…..50 nm away…..which we did on the hike today but alas no signal 🙁 ((((!!!!
