Day 82, Year 2: Passage Across Bligh Waters to North Coast of Viti Levu

Day 82, Year 2: Passage Across Bligh Waters to North Coast of Viti Levu
Date: Sunday, July 15, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny Morning; Mostly Overcast Afternoon
Latitude: 17 degrees 25.29 minutes
Longitude: 177 degrees 44.857 minutes
Location: Bay Just South of Vatia Wharf, Viti Levu

It was up early this morning and out of Cukuvou Harbor. The captain decided that it looked like a good day for our passage back to viti Levu, so off we went. Steve was in the chain locker, Mark was on the deck bring up the anchor, and I was at the helm. Just before Mark went forward to bring up the anchor, he asked me if I wanted my camera. I always do, so I answered in the affirmative. He went down to the main salon to get it but came back and said he couldn’t find it. I said that was fine
and that I would just use his new one. We continued with bringing up the anchor, and as soon as it was up, I decided to do down below and get my camera. I couldn’t find it, either. This is all happening while we are trying to get out of the reef safely, and things got a little tense. Where could the camera be? We started brainstorming. Steve had worn my backpack with the camera inside to the village yesterday. All of us thought we had seen the backpack in the cockpit after we returned, but
this morning that backpack was nowhere to be found. We couldn’t imagine how someone could have stolen it from the cockpit with so many boats around, and then Steve wondered if he had left it on the beach when he was taking off his shoes to get into the dinghy. We called friends back in the anchorage, and Joe and Cindy on Maggie Drum said they would go to shore to look after they finished breakfast. By this time, I am totally catatonic. It was not only my camera that was missing, but all of my
memory cards and batteries. I have a back-up camera, but stupidly have only a small memory chip in that one. After what seemed an eternity, Joe called on the radio and said that they found the backpack on the beach. I know Steve felt terrible about leaving it there, but when you are not used to traveling with a backpack, it is very easy to leave one. We have trained ourselves to always have the pack on our backs, but it took weeks of training to get ourselves at the point of awareness. I was
just so very, very relieved to know that it was found. It will be a week or so before anyone catches up with us to return it to us, and in the meantime, we will have to rely on Mark’s new camera and my back-up with the 250MB memory card. I won’t be doing any videos, but I can still be taking pictures. A special thanks to all our friends back in Cukuvou Harbor for searching for and finding the backpack.

As we motored out of the reef, we saw Safina coming our way. We thought they were coming to Cukuvou Harbor, but then they just kept going. We got into radio contact with them and found that they were headed in our direction. Jean-Pierre said that he was going to Manava Passage. That was a great deal further west than we had planned to go, and after looking at the charts, Mark decided to go on as planned. Later in the morning, I had a chance to review the charts, and I talked with Mark wondering
why we weren’t going to go in the same pass as Jean-Pierre. It was miles closer to our destination, and I found some information in cruising guide saying that it is an easy pass to the inside of Viti Levu. After some thought and discussion, Mark decided to head that way. The winds were blowing 20-25, sometimes up to 30 knots from the East, and our turn to the more westerly harbor put the wind more behind us. That actually made for a more pleasant ride. It was a very nice passage the entire day
and at about 3:30 PM we started our trek into the reef surrounding Viti Levu. Reef passages are always tense, but I must say this one was easier than most. The Mavana Pass is wide and there are marks all along the port side. We passed the cutest little sandy island with a couple of palm trees and some short of shelter. It looked like the perfect South Pacific get-a-way. This was on the Sali Sali reef. Once inside the passage, we made a turn to starboard and found our way on the inside passage
to the bay just south of the Vatia Wharf. Safina was already there, so it was an easy find.

We have spent our evening wondering what percentage of American women wear lipstick and what percentage have tattoes. Why this has been the topic of conversation is beyond all of us, but the amount of disaggrement on these topics is amazing. Tomorrow we will arrive in Lautoka, a city with internet, and we might just have to spend some time online figuring out the answers to our questions. By Wednesday, we should be well on our way north to the Yasawas–land of long white beaches and great snorkeling.
We are looking forward to our trek through these beautiful islands.

Got an email from our daughter Heather last night and she reported that grand baby Sam is now starting to pull himself up into a standing position. She ended her email with “That’s the news from Cape Cod, where all the women are brilliant, all
the men are athletic, and the babies are just to-die-for!” Just had to share that.

070715 Day 82 Viti Levu, Fiji–Yadua to Vatia on North Coast of Viti Levu

Day 81, Year 2: Visit to Denimanu Village

Day 81, Year 2: Visit to Denimanu Village
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2007
Weather: Partly Sunny Day
Location: Cukuvou Harbor, Yadua Island, West of Vanua Levu

Although we got an early start this morning, our trek to Denimanu village took almost all day. We knew it was a three-mile walk, but what we didn’t know that much of that walk was on volcanic rock. So it was a challenging trip, but well worth it.

We picked up Kathy on La Vie at about 8:45 AM and took the dinghy to shore. A man named Joe from the village was there starting a fire in the pit we had used last night for our beach gathering. Joe had his spear with him and was going fishing. He was hoping to smoke some of the fish that he caught. He pointed us in the direction of the path to the village and off we went. He said the walk should take about an hour. More than two hours later, we arrived in the village. We had trudged uphill
from the anchorage on a path that had eroded and looked more like a rock lined drainage ditch. We reached the first plateau and had a spectacular view of Cukuvou Harbor. We continued on and from a higher plateau, we could see all of Talai Bay and Yadua Taba island across the channel. On we went along a very narrow little path with very high grass. We came to another lookout point where we could see Vakasa Bay on the north side of the island. After what seemed a very long time, we came to another
volcanic rock plateau, and finally we could look down into Navi Laca Bay. This was our destination, but it was more than a bit further to the village. We had to walk all the way around the bay and then descend. I was certainly glad when I saw the roofs of village homes.

Denimanu was the most traditional village we have visited to date. Most of the homes were in the traditional thatched roof bure style with either thatched or woven bamboo sides. However, the school and teacher’s homes, as well as the community building, church, and village chief family homes were all a more modern construction. A young teenager met us near the school and welcomed us to the village. His name was Nick and he asked if we could take pictures of him and some of his friends. We did
and when we let them see the pictures, he asked if we could give him copies. I said I would send some when we reach a post office and he then took us down to the village. He introduced us to a woman named Sala. We didn’t know at the time that she is his mother, but she then took over as our guide. The village chief and his brother were visiting the main island of Vanua Levu today, so Sala was trying to figure out who could do sevusevu for us. While she was working on that, we wandered down near
the water to look at the boats sitting in the dry harbor at low tide and the couple of boats on land. We saw a little boy of six hammering away at something that looked like a ladder with a fishing float at one end. We then saw some kids pushing one of these devices as a cart with the fishing float as it’s wheel–very creative. One woman was doing laundry, another was scraping coconut. As we walked down the village sidewalk, we thought about how strange it is to see traditional thatched bures
with a modern sidewalk running past. I think it is fair to say that the only modern thing in this village was the sidewalk. We really enjoyed talking with the people, and eventually we ended up at a house where two men were playing a game they called vidividi (vindivindi). Sala had chosen them to do the sevusevu, but we were interrupting their game. They did a very short ceremony and gave us permission to visit in the village and take any photographs that we would like. Mark and Steve then got
into the vidividi game and tried to learn how to play. The game board was about a yard square with eight checker pieces of each color in the center. There was also a larger white piece, probably from a backgammon board. The object was to flip the white piece with your fingers and have it knock the checker pieces into the side pockets of the board. It was very much like playing pool–just on a smaller scale with your fingers being the pool stick. We walked back through the village and then Sala
asked us to come into her kitchen to have tea. Tea here always includes food, and today we had boiled casava root and dumplings boiled in coconut milk. I was a bit taken aback when I was asked to say a prayer of thanks, but after stumbling slightly, I recovered and said grace. Charlie, Sala’s husband came in for lunch while we were there, as well as Sala’s youngest son that we had met upon entering the village. As always, we really enjoyed the most gracious Fijian hospitality and getting glimpses
of the way of life here. It was a great introduction to village life for Steve. The sevusevu was a bit “different” since the chief was not there, but overall, I think we had one of the very best village experiences to date.

The walk home was not quite as grueling as the walk to the village, but we were all absolutely worn out by the time we got back to our boats. There were six boats in the harbor when we returned, and we assumed the two extra boats were Maggie Drum and Ranger. And indeed they were. We swung by to say hello to Maggie Drum. We also dropped Kathy off on La Vie’s dinghy. Dave of La Vie was visiting with Maggie Drum. We returned to Windbird to have lunch and Dave came over to have Mark try a new computer
to computer experiment with him. They were successful in creating a connection from La Vie’s computer to Windbird’s computer through the single-side band radios to instantly share the route one boat has followed. This will allow another boat to come along safely behind.

We spent the rest of the afternoon taking the dinghy around the point to Talai Bay. The wind has picked up and the seas were a little rough for our excursion. We all got soaking wet but we made it into the bay and got the dinghy to shore in rough conditions. We had read that Nautilus shells wash up on the beach there and we did find one nautillus shell. It is a little rough around the edges, but I was absolutely thrilled that Mark found it for me. Steve and I picked up different seed pods that
had washed ashore, and just before sunset, we headed back to Windbird.

After showers, we went over to visit with Ranger. Marie’s friend, Sharon, from California was aboard. We enjoyed meeting her and talking about how both boats will be spending the next couple of weeks. We are actually thinking that we might leave here tomorrow, but it is going to be hard to pull away without snorkeling on the beautiful coral here just one more time. I guess the weather in the AM will be the determiner.

070714 Day 81 Yadua Island, Fiji–Walk to Denamanu Village

Day 80, Year 2: Snorkeling and Fishing on Friday the 13th

Day 80, Year 2: Snorkeling and Fishing on Friday the 13th
Date: Friday, July 13, 2007
Weather: Cloudy Morning, Sunny Afternoon
Location: Cukuvou Harbor, Yadua Island, West of Vanua Levu

We couldn’t think of a better way to spend Friday the 13th, so we just snorkeled and fished the day away. Even though it was cloudy this morning, we decided to snorkel the inside of the reef. We knew visibility would be better if the sun were shining, but we were anxious to see what’s here. We took the dinghy out to a shallow area where we could tie it to a rock and then off we went exploring the coral. The entire shoreline seems to be a shallow shelf that drops off to about 30 feet. This drop
off is a wall of coral with a huge variety of both coral and small to medium-sized reef fish. There are also lots of huge coral heads next to the wall. There are tunnels and crevices and all sorts of places for neat fish to hide. Once again, it made us all feel like we were in some sort of wonderland. I found three different anemone fish families today–delicate pink anemone fish, big orange-fin anemone fish with their beautiful turquoise vertical bars, and the dusky or tomato anemone fish.
I am always so excited to find these little guys. I could literally watch them all day long. The snorkeling in Fiji just gets better and better.

When we returned from snorkeling, we ate lunch and then Mark and Steve decided to go out trolling for dinner in the dinghy. They fashioned a “fishing pole” from a long-handled paint roller to which they attached our reel. They chose a green squid lure with yellow feathers and headed out beyond the reef. Evidently they got just around the corner and caught their fish. It was a Spanish mackerel or walu. It took us a bit to determine the type of fish, and I am very glad I took pictures of Fiji
Fish Food chart at Matava Resort in Kadavu. It was the pictures of that chart that helped us with the identification. Mark and Steve were quite proud of their fish, and since they are the only ones that caught a fish in this bay today, I’d say they had a right to be proud. I guess walu like green squid with yellow feathers!

About the time that Mark and Steve arrived back with the fish, Scot Free II was entering the harbor. I talked with them on the radio and a little later we ran over in the dinghy to say hello. Unfortunately, I think they both caught our colds, but otherwise they are doing great. They caught a three-foot long fish on the way in, but it looked like a barracuda to us. A lot of people don’t eat barracuda since they eat so many smaller fish that feed on the reef. Yet, most of the locals eat it. We
have decided to give large barracuda a pass. After visiting with Scot Free II, we returned to Windbird and Mark and Steve cleaned the fish. We put him in the refrigerator and then went snorkeling for the second time today. This time we went outside the reef to the point. It was almost high tide when we got there, so the coral was much further below us. The views were still fantastic, but I think I’d like to return there when the tide is lower.

We all made a decision not to have the potluck on the beach, but we did all meet there after dinner to sit around the fire and chat. George and Uta on Miami really know how to do beach parties. They had their beach chairs and a kerosene lantern. They had also gathered fire wood and had a great fire going by the time we arrived. It was a fantastic little place to gather and we will be a little smarter tomorrow night and bring our one chair and a bucket to sit on!

We are going to walk to the village tomorrow morning to present sevusevu. Kathy on La Vie is going with us. As soon as we return, we will head out in the dinghy to find the beach here that is supposed to have lots of nautilus shells, and of course, we will find yet another great place to snorkel.

070713 Day 80 Yadua Island, Fiji–The Fisherman Catch a Walu
070713 Day 80b Yadua Island, Fiji–Yadua Underwater

Day 79, Year 2: Arrival in Cukuvou (Thukuvou) Harbor, Yadua (Yandua) Island

Day 79, Year 2: Arrival in Cukuvou (Thukuvou) Harbor, Yadua (Yandua) Island
Date: Thursday, July 12, 2007
Weather: Totally Overcast, Rainy Morning; Clearing in the Afternoon
Location: Cukuvou Harbor, Yadua Island, West of Vanua Levu

A day that started out as totally overcast and rainy ended up to be sunny and beautiful. We had very reliable waypoints from Nadi Bay to here, so we left this morning even though visibility was minimal. Scot Free II followed us out of the anchorage this morning and we took turns leading the way until noon. At that point, Scot Free II turned into Bua Bay to call it a day, and we continued on to Yadua. We had radio contact with Dave on La Vie in Cukuvou Harbor, and he assured us that if we got
that far and the weather was still horrible, he and George on Miami would come out and sit on the reefs on either side of the entrance to guide us in. Thanks to the weather gods, the skies cleared in the early afternoon and we were able to guide ourselves into this anchorage.

Dave and Kathy on La Vie are here in Cukuvou Harbor. Uta and George of Miami are also here. So it was like a homecoming. We had them all over to Windbird for happy hour and exchanged thoughts on passages from here to the Yasawa Group of islands. George is thinking of going straight across Bligh Waters to the Yasawas, which is a tricky passage that ends late in the day with coral patches all around to be negotiated before getting to a safe anchorage. Dave and Kathy are planning to sail down
to the north coast of Viti Levu and then on around inside the fringing reef. This is a much longer passage to the Yasawas, but by far the safer route. Though we would like to get to the Yasawas in a hurry, we are more inclined to go the way La Vie is going. From what we heard from both La Vie and Miami this evening, we will want to spend at least two full days here. They say the snorkeling is fantastic and the four-hour walk into and back from the village is also well worth it. Tomorrow is Friday
the 13th, so we think we will just stay close to the boat and snorkel. We don’t even want to make the overland passage to the village, but we will do that on Saturday to present our sevusevu.

My hopes of getting on the island of Yadua Tabu to see the crested iguanas that live there have been dashed. Evidently a cruiser from Europe went to the island a couple of years ago and tried to smuggle six of the beautiful crested iguanas on a plane bound for Germany. The iguanas were discovered and the attempt stopped, but the incident caused the government here to stop any and all visits to the island. Evidently there is a way to gain special permission to visit the island through an office
in Suva, but we are here and not there–so seeing the iguanas is probably not going to happen. I’m going to make a SAT phone call to the office, but I doubt seriously that the call will help us gain access. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

We are in a beautiful anchorage with a yellow sand beach and tomorrow night we are planning to have a cruiser dinner on the beach. We will snorkel all day and make a few excursions out in the dinghy to catch fish for dinner. Sounds like a great day, and I, for one, can’t wait to explore the underwater here.

070712 Day 79 Yadua Island, Fiji–Arrival in Yadua

Day 78, Year 2: Halfway to Yadua Island

Day 78, Year 2: Halfway to Yadua Island
Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Weather: No Wind but Beautiful Day
Location: In Route to Yadua Island, West Side of Vanua Levu

We lucked out today. The forecast was for rain, but it was actually a beautiful day–except there was no wind. So we motored our way across the southern coast of Vanua Levu. We had to go through the Naisonisoni Passage to get through the reef, but it was really well marked–better than the charts indicated. We arrived here in Nadi Bay around 4 PM. Mark, Steve, and I all have colds, and by the time we arrived we were all ready to have a low-key evening. We saw a couple of young men poling their
bilibili’s (bamboo canoes) to Scot Free II, and then later they came to Windbird. I think they would have been happier had we been going into the village to present sevusevu, but we explained that we were just spending the night and leaving early in the AM. Besides, since we have bad cold we told them it would be best if we did not come in too close of contact. We talked with the young ment for a while and gave them each a Coke. They then poled their way back to the mainland.

We spent a quiet evening on Windbird and plan to leave early in the morning for the island of Yadua. We’re turning in early tonight in hopes that we can get rid of these colds.

070711 Day 78 Vanua Levu, Fiji–Savusavu to Wainunu Bay

Day 77, Year 2: Getting Ready to Leave Savusavu

Day 77, Year 2: Getting Ready to Leave Savusavu
Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Weather: Weather Changing
Location: Savusavu, Vanua Levu

Today was a day of reconnecting with old friends and getting ready to leave Savusavu. The weather is changing, and not in a positive way, but even though it is supposed to rain with winds blowing in from the west or northwest, we think we can do the passage we have planned around the south side of the island safely. The plan is to leave here by 8 AM, go through the Naisonisoni Pass, and arrive in Wainunu Bay just after noon. We will then decide whether to push on or to stop and wait for better
weather. We have spot-on waypoints for the Naisonisoni Passage, so we feel safe going through it even in bad weather. We will be using Max Sea with C-Maps charts along with locally purchased waypoints for this area. Right now Mark is briefing Steve on the other computer, so all of us will be familiar with the territory.

Tom and Bette Lee of Quantum Leap came over to visit early this morning. It was great to see them again. They will be arriving in the Nadi area around the time we arrive there to take Steve to the airport for his return trip home, so hopefully we will see them again then. After Tom and Bette left, Mark, Steve, and I went into town. Our first stop was the internet cafe to try once again to connect with our daughter Heather. We wanted desperately to see that grand baby of ours. We connected via
Skype webcam on Saturday, but the connection was horrible. Today it was much, much better, and we got to see Sam at his best. He is so curious. You can tell that he hears voices coming from the computer and he stares like he is trying to figure out why a computer can talk. He loves the computer and plays with the keyboard and the touch pad. Sam also loves books. He knows how to turn the pages and sometimes jabbers as if reading. And he loves to laugh. Jed came home while we were talking,
and Sam’s attention went to his daddy. Jed knows just how to make him laugh and it is very cute. Obviously, I’m a proud gramma that is absolutely in love with Sam. If I didn’t have my Skype fixes about once a month, I don’t think I could stay out here. With the Skype webcam connection, I can watch Sam grow and change, and that makes being far away an okay thing for now.

I spent the rest of my morning shopping for provisions while Mark and Steve went back to Windbird and made trips in and out of the fuel dock to fill our fuel tanks. On one of their runs to the fuel dock, they picked me up and took me back out to the boat. I worked to find a place to put all the food away and finished the laundry I had started early in the morning while Mark and Steve went to visit Quantum Leap. Mark wanted Steve to see the boat. Mark and Steve then made water runs to fill our
water tanks, and before we knew it, it was Happy Hour. Tom on Quantum Leap was going to a seminar late this afternoon, so we said we would pick up Bette Lee and bring her to Happy Hour at the Yacht Club. When we arrived, Tom and the whole group that had attended the seminar were already there. We reconnected with Penny and Greg of Long Tall Sally and Robin and Rick on Endangered Species. And then we all walked to the Sea Vu Restaurant for a special cruisers’ barbecue night. It was all good and
it was really great to see old friends again.

So tomorrow morning it is up early and hit the road. We are hoping to see Marie and Paul on Ranger before we depart. We didn’t see them at all today. They have a guest arriving tomorrow, and then in a couple of days they will be heading in our direction, so if we don’t see them tomorrow morning, we hope to see them again in a few days. Savusavu has been a great stopping place, but as always, we are ready to move on and share more of Fiji with Steve.

Today was my sister Patsy’s birthday, so happy long life to Patsy!

070710 Day 77 Vanua Levu, Fiji–Reconnecting with Good Friends