Day 55, Year 2: Arrival at Moala
Date: Monday, June 18, 2007, 1930 Fiji Time
Weather: Party Sunny Day; 10-12 knots ESE
Latitude: 18 degrees 33 minutes
Longitude: 179 degrees 56 minutes
Location: Naroi, Moala Island, Lau Group, Fiji
How many birthdays can one Queen have? June 4 was the Queen’s birthday in New Zealand. June 11 was the Queen’s birthday in Australia. And today was the Queen’s birthday in Fiji. So we arrived in the village of Naroi (roll the ‘r’) on the island of Moala on a holiday, but that wasn’t a problem here. In larger ports, arriving on a holiday is expensive as you have to pay overtime to the officials. Here we just had to check-in with the chief of the village, and it was fine to do that on a holiday.
Now I’ll backtrack to talk about the passage and then talk about the village of Naroi.
Trying to head east is not an easy task with trade winds coming from that direction. As our weather reports had indicated, the winds were at first from the southeast and under 10 knots, but as last evening progressed, the winds came more from the east. Sometimes we had 7 knots and sometimes 14. We tried to motor sail with the full main and headsail, but around midnight, I had to furl the headsail. So, for the rest of the passage, we motored with only the mainsail up. Of course, we could have
tacked back and forth and sailed without the motor, but that would have meant delaying arrival until after dark today and that is just not possible in these reef-laden waters. We had a knot of current against us most of the night, but the winds stayed light so we made good progress. We were shooting for an arrival time of 1:00 in the afternoon and we maintained that by increasing and decreasing the RPM’s. First light this morning was at 5:30 AM. It was very strange to have light directly in front
of Windbird as we don’t normally travel north and east. When the world is totally dark and you start to see spots of light that appear to be in the water right in front of you, you start to think a submarine with lots of lights must be surfacing. But as the light gets brighter, you realize that it is just the light of the sun on the horizon. By 6 AM I spotted land. Our ETA was not until 1 PM, but it looked like we were almost there. By 6:30 AM, the sun finally rose and at the same time, the
wind switched to come more from the east and directly on our nose. That eased about an hour after sunrise, and the rest of the trip in was non-eventful. And that’s a good thing.
We use MaxSea as our electronic charting with C-Map charts. And they are definitely off for these islands. According to the C-Map charts, we are currently anchored well on land. Out here it is all about being on watch constantly. When you see turquoise water, you turn the other way. But between paper charts, electronic charts that are off (but that train yourself to adjust based on just how far off they are), and having someone on the foredeck constantly watching, you make it in. It is certainly
not a science, but it works. I’m at the helm during all of this and Mark is on the foredeck watching and giving me directions. It is nerve-wracking for both of us, so once we anchored, we just had to kick back and relax for a bit. We delayed getting the dinghy in the water and going to shore for about an hour while we decompressed. But then we were back at it.
Low tide was approaching as we headed to shore. We made a decision to go around the reef that is between us and shore by going to the west and turning back in to the island. We found a spot to land the dinghy with a fairly short walk across the mudflats to land. We tied the dinghy to a rock that was conveniently placed on the mudflats and trudged on. We were being watched by anyone on the shore. We were definitely on display. When we walked up a concrete ramp to the beaten path on shore there
were some young men. We greeted them with a big smile saying “Bula” and they returned with the same. One young man came forth and introduced himself. His name was Enele. He was very well-spoken and said he would take us to the turangi or chief. He told us that the last yachties to visit here came in 2005 and were California. He explained that there were two boats in 2005. We know our friends from Galatea were here last year, but I think they came in the pass on the eastern end of the island
and must not have visited this village. As we walked along the path, he explained what we were seeing in the village. There was a village green where all of the primary-aged children were playing since it was a holiday and there was no school. He showed us the community center building, built much in the Tongan style with a rounded roof, and he explained that there is a definite Tongan influence here. He explained that he is half Tongan and as I am writing this, I am realizing that most people
I met today were much more Polynesian in looks than Micronesian. I’ll have to watch tomorrow to see if that observation is really valid. We had brought our dinghy to shore on the exact opposite end of the village from the chief’s home, so we had to walk through the entire village to reach our destination. The chief and his wife were sitting under a roofed area with mats on the ground. This was next to their very nice two-story concrete block home. We were welcomed to enter the meeting area by
the chief. We presented our yaqona or kava as our sevusevu and then got out our Lau Group permit and associated papers to present to him. The chief’s name is Ravula Draunidalo and his wife’s name is Litia. There was another woman sitting with them who explained that she is a secondary teacher presently living with Ravula and Litia. Her name was Rosa and she is a Nutritian and Home Economics teacher at the high school. The chief indicated something to Litia, his wife, and she quickly went into
the house and came out with a plate of lemons (really oranges, but called lemons) and a knife and invited us to partake.
As I was peeling an orange, the chief started the sevusevu ceremony. It was carried out in much the same way as the others we have attended. The chief says certain words and then claps and says, “Vinaka.” This means thank you. Then there are more words and everyone sitting claps and says the same. This continues a couple of times, and then you somehow know you are welcomed and the ceremony is over. We talked about the island and were asked where else we would be stopping in the Lau Group. We
are absolutely terrible with Fijian pronunciation, but with Enele’s help, we were able to explain that we will go from here to Tuvuca (pronounced Tubutha with the emphasis on the “tha”) and then on to Vanua Balava (Vanwah Balabah). If I leave here being able to pronounce my own name, I’ll be a lucky person.
Litia and Rose came back to Windbird with us. They wanted to visit our home and we had a nice visit. I tried to offer tea, but they declined, but they did accept an offer to come back for dinner tomorrow. Mark and I asked to visit the primary school in the morning and then at 4:30 PM we will pick up Litia, Rose, and hopefully the chief and his young son, to come to Windbird for dinner. Since sundown is around 5:30 we will have to eat fast and get them back to shore before 6 PM. After that, there
is no light and no way to know how to avoid hitting a reef with the dinghy. I’ll report more tomorrow night about that adventure.
I just went up into the cockpit to see if there were any lights in the village, and compared to other places we have been, it is lit up like a Christmas tree. Almost every home here has a solar panel given as a gift from the French government and they obviously use the power to light their homes at night. I’ve been looking for an island without television, but I haven’t found one yet. This one certainly does have TV. The secondary school has two computers, but I doubt that the primary school has
such a luxury. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
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| 070618 Day 55 Moala Island, Fiji–Naroi Village |
