Day 66, Year 2: Nabavatu Plantation
Date: Friday, June 29, 2007
Weather: Cloudy, Windy Day with Temps Still in the mid-70’s
Location: Nabavatu Harbor, Vanua Balavu, Northern Lau Group
One year ago today I flew to Papeete, Tahiti from Moorea to have my broken leg put in a cast. I must tell you that I walked very, very carefully today, watching for every little coconut crab hole and rock. I didn’t want a repeat performance. My leg is fine now, although the ligaments in my ankle still seem a little weak. Worse than that is that I don’t seem to have the balance that I had before. I think it is just a fear of falling, not a real balance problem. When walking up the foot-wide plank from where we have to tie our dinghy to the main dock here, I want Mark in front of me and I want to hold on to his hand. Whether fear or a balance problem, it is nothing that causes a huge problem as long as I can hold on to something or someone. When I think back to last year, hobbling around on one foot, I sometimes am not sure how I really did that on a sailboat. Getting in and out of the dinghy with two good legs is hard enough. So doing that with only one good leg is now just a distant memory. Sure hope I never have to go through that again.
I learned today that we are in Nabavatu Bay, not Bavatu as written in the information we have. We are on one of two mooring balls that are very close the Royal Exploring Islses Yacht Club. There is a hint of a path that goes up the mountain from the tiny building, but that is not how we get to shore. We get in the dinghy and travel to the far end of the bay. There is a jetty there with a little floating dock beside it. We tie to the floating dock and walk that plank I mentioned above to the jetty. We then get on land an walk a short distance to the switchback steps that go straight up. We made that trek yesterday to the settlement at the Nabavatu Plantation, and we made it again this morning. We had told Fane we would meet here in the settlement at 10 AM. Once we arrived, we went with Fane to the “Sometime Store”–the home of the settlement generator and the solar charger. We brought our box of fuses hoping that we had the right fuse she needed for her solar cell phone charger. We did have just the right one, so Mark put that in and we left the cell phone to charge while we explored the plantation. The settlement is fenced in to keep the cows, pigs, and horses out. We walked through the settlement gate with Fane, three-year old Naibuka on her hip, and headed to the original plantation home. We walked past a huge sink hole and on the hill above it still stands the home that Fane’s father lived in when he was plantation manager. No one lives there now. There were horses grazing under the coconut trees as we followed the path to the plantation home. We first came to a new, small home. It looked like a small beach cottage. Fane explained that the plantation now has two owners–Tony Philps and a man named Gregg from New Zealand. This home is Gregg’s and he comes here in December, January, and February when his children are on on school holiday. the view from the porch of the house is stunning. Below is the bay where we are moored, fringed with coral and enclosed by steep mountains. Sudari and Iliesa, Fane’s brother and husband respectively, were working on the grounds, so they came to see us and brought green coconuts so we could have a coconut drink. They just popped the tops off the coconuts and we drank. It was cool and refreshing. We then walked on to Tony’s home. We were now walking along the edge of the cliff overlooking the bay. The view was spectacular. The plantation home was built long ago, but it has been kept in immaculate condition and now has a very modern deck paved with flagstone. We could look inside and see some things that have probably been the same for 100 years and others that are completely modern. The old bathtub with claw feet was sitting out in the yard and we could see a newly tiled shower stall inside. The lawn is perfectly trimmed and the frangipani trees and bougainvillea flowers frame the view of not only the bay but the islands of the Lau Group in the distance.
We walked back to the settlement and then headed in a different direction to go to the lookout. This is a place where we would be able to see the Bay of Islands where we were anchored before coming here. We walked and climbed and finally reached the lookout. There is a very formal concrete grave there with a head stone dated 1837. Fane didn’t know who the person buried there was, but I’m sure there is a bit of history associated. We could see the whole Bay of Islands and we looked for Chaotic Harmony. They were no where in sight, so we then walked back a different way to the settlement. Mark had said he would take a look at the generator to see if he could find the problem with it, but after an hour and taking the whole thing apart, there was nothing that he could find to be the problem. The generator runs, but it does not generate. Mark told Iliesa that someone with more mechanical knowledge than us is going to have to fix this one. While Mark was working on the generator, I talked with Fane, drank tea, and looked at the plantation visitor book. I had great fun finding the messages written by David and Judy from Maine when they were here on Danza a few years ago alongside the message written by Gavin and Catherine of Chaotic Harmony (then on a different boat) who were here at the same time. I wrote an entry and will take a boat card and a picture of Mark and me to put in the book when we go for Sunday dinner.
When Mark and I returned to Windbird, we ate lunch and went snorkeling. We took the dinghy across the bay to an island, tied the dingy to an overhanging pine tree branch, and dove in. The water was a little cloudy due to all the wind, but we had great fun exploring along the shore. There were a few patches of coral everywhere we went; probably more coral than we saw in the Bay of Islands. But there was not the variety of fish. The big fish here are much more skiddish than they were in the Bay of Islands. They would shoot out of sight the minute they saw us. But we did see more bannerfish than we have ever seen in one place before, and lots and lots of small colorful fish of many different varieties. I saw a tiny little bright yellow boxfish with blue dots all over it. It was very, very cute. There were lots of big clams and little Christmas tree worms. It was a good explore.
Tomorrow morning at 8 AM we are going with Iliesa, Fane’s husband, and Fane’s older brother Nako and his young daughter to the village of Mavana. Nako needs to take his daughter back to school (she was home sick this week), but he has no fuel for the company boat. We will supply the fuel and get to go along for the ride. Mavana is a large village and has a grocery store. I haven’t seen one of those for a month, so this will be a “new” experience. We talk to Ranger on the radio every morning at 7:30, and this morning we learned from them that a system south of us might be bringing lots of rain our way by Tuesday. We are trying to get more weather information, and if this is going to be the case, we might leave here on Sunday right after lunch/dinner in the settlement. It is about 110 miles to Savusavu and will take us 20-24 hours to get there. If we leave Sunday afternoon, we will arrive on Monday. Mark’s brother Steve comes on Saturday, so we will have plenty of time to check things out before he arrives. After a month out here, it is time to replenish the stocks and touch base with “civilization” for a bit. I say that with a bit of hesitation, as what we are experiencing out here is certainly not uncivilized. It is just different and I so admire the way of life of the people on these out islands. Nabavatu Plantation has no electric lights, no television, no stoves or refrigerators. But they always have a teapot on and bread, pancakes, and rolls to offer. And they always have a smile. They live in the shadow of the modern world, but the modern world has much it could learn from these people. We are certainly learning much from them.
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| 070629 Day 66 Vanua Balavu Island, Fiji–Nabavatu Plantation |
