Day-to-day life aboard our yacht.
Vanua Levu, Fiji, 2011
Date: 23 February 2011
Location: Nasosobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Today was a day for good-byes. First we went to the village of Dakuniba and
found Chief George gone out. Someone told us he'd gone into the bush and someone
else told us he'd borrowed Margaret's kayak and gone fishing on the reef. We
walked through the village and found it quiet but did see Sia and Mac and meet
Maria and were able to say goodbye and thank you. Mac followed us to the landing
as he'd yet to see our nesting dinghy up close and was curious. We dinghied off
and could see the bright red kayak with the chief aboard paddling towards the
reef but realized he was moving so fast we would never catch him. Around the
point we stopped in at the settlement in Nasasobu and sat awhile with Bertha
talking of the tragedies of the day - the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ and the
death of the American yachties at the ruthless hands of the Somali pirates - and
also expressed our thanks for their warmth and kindness and hospitality.
Charlie, Enid's son but Ella's adopted son who lives with George and Bertha, the
handsome young man who met us when we first landed here 10 days ago, offered to
pilot us inside the reef down to Viani Bay. Thrilled by this offer, we quickly
accepted and made an appointment for 10 am tomorrow, Thursday. From George and
Bertha's we wandered up the hill to see Enid and got the chance to meet gracious
Ella who is recovering from a stroke but is almost as lively as she appears in
the photos she shared from her cruiser-visitor book going back fifteen years. We
signed the book and took a tour of her lovely immaculate home built of rock
solid "vesi" wood and looked at photos of amazing wooden working sailing vessels
built by her late husband Arthur to deliver passengers and copra in an era of
prosperity for copra plantations. Still, the estate has 400 cattle ranging free
in the mountains, and although the homes appear modest and we are SURE the men
work very hard, life seems comfortable. Too, they have a gorgeous view of the
bay, the reef and the surrounded mountains, as breezes tickle the curtains.
*********
Date: 22 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
We woke this morning to find a large 10 liter bucket in our dinghy filled
overflowing with lemons and passion fruit. We later found out this was a gift
from David, Margaret's husband, but probably in thanks from the settlement for
the antibiotics and disinfecting scrub we donated yesterday to try to help Enid
cure a persistent infection. What a nice surprise...Philip is already preparing
tonic bottles full of full strength juice, which we dilute and then add a bit of
fructose to make a lovely lemonade. Some of the lemons are a soft reddish orange
inside and this makes our lemonade a beautiful color. From our vantage point,
today looked like a sunny day, so after returning the bucket to our lemon
patrons, we dinghied around the point looking for a snorkeling spot. We didn't
find a good one, yet, and when we noticed it was looking rather stormy to our
north and west we went ashore on a small beach to explore a pearl farming
staging area. Back in the dinghy we were suddenly engulfed in a blinding
tropical rain with strong winds and made for a protected shore nearby to drip
and let the squall recede. Back on Carina and warm and dry, we watched a half
dozen more squalls go by as we listened to the gurgling of water flowing down
into our water tanks. By 4 pm the skies had cleared and things began to dry out,
though the lack of sun and only intermittent wind has left us a bit shy on
power, though our water tanks are bulging. Such are the compromises of the
cruising life.
*********
Date:21 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Yesterday's deluge filled the dinghy with water and this morning we took
advantage and washed sheets and towels and hung them out on lines strung in the
rigging. This chore took about an hour. This done, we headed for the village
intent on hiking the "highway" which we understood traveled high into the hills
and offered views. It was Monday but the village was bustling and everyone was
dressed in their best as the monthly visit from the priest was today and mass
was said mid-morning. Directed to the road by Sia and her husband Mika, we
crossed the stream and started up the terminus of the "Hibiscus Highway". Here,
it's merely a grassy double track that looks as if vehicle traffic is rare. A
mountain bike seems like the better vehicle on this road. We know there is no
"school bus" as the children walk 5 km to school in Viani Bay, leaving on
Mondays and returning Fridays. The climb was gradual, though significant, and
the views were fabulous of both Nasasobu and Dakuniba bays and the barrier reef
beyond, plus the village nestled into the valley. Upon returning after hiking
maybe three miles round trip, Paulini's husband bid us across the village
communal lawn to "come here" and we diverged with the path and up to their door
and were presented by a beaming Paulini with a basket woven of palm fronds
containing two plump pawpaws. We shared five of the last of our lollies with the
children and went back to the waterfront to find Bacio, our dinghy, about 100
yards from water. After dragging her through gooey muck chasing the receding
tide we visited shore at Nasasobu for haircuts. Here we met Bertha and George
(Enid's other son) and donated a tube of antibiotic cream and antibiotic scrub
to Enid to treat an infected barbed wire cut on her ankle. It was a long day and
we're pleasantly tired and got a bit too much sun. Such is our relaxed but busy
life as we wait for cyclone ATU to finally pass safely south and west. When it
does, in a day or two, we will move on...
*********
Date: 20 Feb 2011
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Yesterday, late in the afternoon, we were visited by David, Margaret's husband,
who stopped to give gifts of coconuts and bananas (of which he probably had 200
lbs. in total!). Sans outboard, he propelled his "tinny" by perching on the
extreme end of the bow and paddled with a home made oar. David, with a clipped
accent possible indicating an Indo-Fijian heritage, is a lean, muscular and
extremely fit man attired in shorts which were splitting at the seams, a
tattered tee-shirt, and, on his head, a wrapped kerchief with an Afrikaner camo
hat perched on top.
We woke today to news by email that the tropical depression to our west had
become cyclone Atu. The bright side of this news is that Atu is projected to
travel (by all agency's predictions) SSE and to not threaten us here in eastern
Fiji. Atu's steady track south and away from the tropics will also pull much of
the energy out of the south Pacific and give us another bout of settled weather
to continue our cruise away from Savusavu. This being Sunday, we worked on a few
chores including staying ahead of our mildew, engine maintenance, outboard motor
maintenance, bread baking and later staying dry during the cool tropical deluge.
We also printed some photos we'd taken in the village yesterday which we will
bring over tomorrow. Taking digital photos is appreciated, especially if prints
are shared; just another simple thing that brings such pleasure to these
wonderful people.
*********
Date: 19 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
We decided to visit the village of Dakuniba this afternoon to take some photos
for the website. Ashore Margaret was still working on her pandanus fronds while
being visited by Mac, an affable smiling curious man of about 55 years. After a
short chat, we left them to take photos and were soon accosted by a young Ella,
an intelligent girl of about 11 years who seemed protective of her shy younger
siblings, a girl and a tiny boy. After a gift of lollies and a couple of photos,
they were on their way, but shadowed us as we took pictures in the village.
Returning to the beach, we met Paulina who was now visiting Margaret. She was
the grandmother and guardian of the children we'd just befriended. We soon
learned that Paulina made tapa and was offering it for sale. When she left to
get the tapa, Margaret mentioned to us that Paulina supported her ailing husband
and her grandchildren on making and selling tapa from mangrove bark. After
Paulina returned with a long sweet smelling tapa in a deep shade of reddish
brown and while Philip was examining it, Margaret explained that mangrove tapa
was rare (we knew this) and was considered the tapa for chiefs and other
dignitaries. Soon they shyly asked for $20 FJD and we knew couldn't refuse (nor
did we want to) and returned to the boat for cash. Philip returned to the
village alone to find Paulina and her eldest grandchild fishing for tiny fish
with a net along the muddy shore. When he handed her the cash and then a bag of
rice, tinned corned beef, tea and tinned peaches, her face lit up. She took
Philip's hand in hers and smiling brightly said repeatedly "vinaka vakalevu,
vinaka vakalevu" (thank you very much). It feels so good to do so little and get
such grand rewards.
*********
Date: 18 February 2011 (19 Feb local time)
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Yesterday was a leisurely day of chores, reading and relaxing as we watched it
rain, never getting off Carina. A tropical depression near Vanuatu has many
troughs extending from it and yesterday two of these troughs were nearby,
producing a rare day of continuous rain. This morning we'll move the boat into
shallower water a bit further up the bay and put out more scope. Our second
anchor is at the ready on the bow. Tropical depression 11F is expected to be a
cyclone by this time tomorrow but to pass about 400 miles to our SW. On this
projected track we should get lots of rain (and lots of lovely soft water in our
water tanks) and strong northerly winds. Our bay is situated perfectly for this
type of weather so we'll hunker down and watch our weather sources carefully.
So, as the Kiwis all say: "no worries, mate".
One feature of Nasasobu bay is the flying fox colony on the point to our west.
We will try to get a picture of the roosting site; each tree seems to have
hundreds of bats hanging during the day...lined up like clothes hanging out to
dry. These bats are relatively small but with large wings and an finger-like
protuberances projecting from the middle of each wing. At dusk they fill the sky
in the bay and even swoop down and seem to take sips of water. We've never had
them come so close to us at anchor and we just sit quietly and enjoy the show.
*********
Date: 17 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu
Another adventure today. We met Margaret onshore at her home on the hill
overlooking the bay and she showed us a pandanus mat she is weaving. A lovely
mat she had already completed will likely sell for $60 FJD to others in Fiji who
do not know the skill. The weaving alone had taken her a week, though she admits
she works between her other chores. Margaret then brought out her lovely old
treadle Pfaff sewing machine and asked if we could take a look at it as it was
giving her troubles. We oiled it and gave her some pointers but also noticed the
cap that controls the tension by compressing the tension plates is missing. This
is likely to be one of her problems. Margaret then gave us permission to burn
our trash on the beach and to do laundry using their abundant running spring
water. The former produced some fireworks - literally - as Philip was a BAD BOY.
If you remember yesterday we were dealing with a ditch bag with contents
destroyed by a leaking water bottle. In that bag were flares which were water
soaked and therefore of dubious value as signalling devices and set aside for
later disposal. Philip inadvertently put the bag of flares into the consolidated
garbage. Luckily Leslie noticed a flare just as she was tossing this bag onto
the conflagration. She ran and reached a safe distance (all the while muttering
expletives that should never be uttered by a lady) about the time the first
flare exploded. You may or may not know that Fiji is still under military
governance since the last coup and firearms owned by the citizens were
confiscated; not the brightest place on earth to be exploding 25 mm flares that
sound amazingly like gunshots. The good news is that no one got hurt and both of
us still have ten fingers. [A disclaimer: it wasn't all that bad and was
actually kinda excitin'! - PJD]
Just another relaxing day in paradise...
*********
Date: 16 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Correction: The woman named Ella of Nasasobu is Ella Smith.
*********
Date: 16 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Typical day cruising; chores...dishes, cleaning, answering mail, then an
unforeseen challenge...today we discovered water bottles in one of our "ditch"
bags had leaked all over flares, electronics, papers, etc. Yuck; we'd recently
gone through this bag but apparently missed this problem. Seems the bottles have
developed cracked corners from old age but were new when we left, so that's
probably a testament to our long cruise. Everything is now drying out and we're
trying to salvage what we can.
At low tide we surveyed the bay with a hand held depth sounder but were without
our hand held GPS that lost its LCD screen. We had to go back to bearings to
peaks and other land marks, so it was good practice.
After a rain shower or two, we climbed the steep hill behind the three houses at
Nasasobu for a view back toward the bay just in time for a squall that looked
like it might produce a thunderbolt or two, causing us to retreat. On the way
down we met Enid Pickering who is caring for her elderly sister, Ella White, and
puttering around the neat garden. Seems Ella and Arthur (now deceased) own the
estate surrounding the bay, and adopted Charlie, David and George from Fawn
Harbor, adults now who all also live here. Charlie and George are brothers and
David (husband of Margaret who we met in Dakinuba) is the nephew of Ella and
Enid.
Enid encouraged us to explore the creeks to the north of the bay, which were
difficult to visualize from afar as their entrances were mere divots in the
mangrove boundary. The tide was high so we had enough water to cross the muddy
entrances and once inside both creeks we found they were lovely winding calm
waterways about 15' wide that wound this way and that and intermingled with the
surrounding mangrove forests. Unknown avian inhabitants called out our presence
but we saw few amongst the orchid dotted (and spider webbed) bathing trees. A
pollen (red and unidentified) floated slowly with us as we pushed inside with
the last of the rising tide. We half expected a howler monkey to begin his roar
or a crocodile to slither off the bank...but then remembered this was Fiji.
*********
Date: 15 February 2011
Location: Dakuniba, Vanua Levu, Fiji
This morning dawned bright though dark swatches of clouds dotted the horizon
over the island to the north and about 1000 the sky darkened and the sound of
tropical rain in the forest crept in with the rise in wind.
After our washing down, we dinghied over to Dakinuba and met on the beach
Farasiko, who walked us through the immaculately clean village of tiny homes set
around a large central grassy field where a large dark blue, and humble, wooden,
Catholic church dominated the scene. A "lali" (we need to check this) or a
hollowed out log drum sits beside the church and is the "bell" which calls the
parishioners to prayer. We crossed a stream and began to climb through plantings
of cassava and bananas and soon heard the stream cascading through the thick wet
vegetation. Almost immediately we came to a waterfall or a series of waterfalls
as the stream wandered around house sized boulders and crashed down into hollows
carved out of the rock over millennia. Hand to hand we climbed and crossed the
stream and followed our guide on a faint path to the site of "vatuvola" or
written stones. No one knows how old they are, or what they mean, but Leslie has
a theory...more on this later.
Back in the village, we were invited to sit and rest under the ancient banyan
trees at the landing and were soon joined by other villagers including Peter,
the "turago ni koro" (or talking chief). In typical village style we sat for a
couple of hours, we helped to strip pandanus leaves of thorns in preparation for
weaving, took lots of photos and answered dozens of questions. The highlight of
our visit (or so it seemed) was when we brought out lollies...the kids eyes got
huge and their tongues told of their want for the sweets and even the adults
were scrambling. Such a simple thing to us but a thrill to these isolated
islanders.
*********
Date: 14 February 2011
Location: Nasasobu Bay, Vanua Levu, Fiji
We had an exciting day; just outside of Fawn Harbor Philip hooked a huge wahoo
on his new (fancy) Rapala diving lure. (I kid you not) it was a hair under 5'
and we struggled to get it over the lifelines.
It was just too huge to deal with so the fish rode on the sidedeck the last
eight miles until we were anchored. We launched the dink and put our guest
aboard and he was longer than the aft half of the dinghy! We brought our catch
to shore and were greeted by Charlie who helped us clean and steak it. What we
didn't give to him for Nasasobu (not an official village but part of an
"estate") or save for ourselves for supper tonight and tomorrow, we brought
along to sevusevu for the Chief. The chief, George, did the usual prayer over
the kava but during our interview he kept lifting up the bags of fish and
smiling. It was probably a total of 35 lbs. and that wasn't all of it.
We're anchored in a reported hurricane hole (we'll sound the bay a bit further
in while we're here) and there are petroglyphs nearby and lots of hiking to
overlooks, so we'll be staying a few days, maybe a week.
Tomorrow we have a "boy" meeting us to guide us to the carvings and then we're
planning on meeting Margaret and David Pickering (related to the Fawn Harbor
Pickerings it seems) in Nasasobu to get oriented. Charlie promises lemons
delivered in the morning. Margaret even suggested someone may be able to
accompany us on the "inside" route over the Viani Bay when the time
comes...seems we bought some goodwill with our wahoo (yahoo!). When Philip asked
Margaret how the boy would get back to the village if he were to guide Carina,
she just looked a little surprised, smiled and said he would, of course, walk
back and maybe do some wild boar hunting on the way.
We are supposed to be the only boat that's stopped this year...seems hard to
believe for such a great spot.
*********
12 Feb 2011 1805 UTC - Underway Again!
Weather gurus predict this'll be a relatively cyclone free period in the South
Pacific, so we jumped at the opportunity to go out and explore. We left Savusavu
town on Friday - yes, every sailor knows you're not supposed to set sail on
Friday but we figured we weren't actually leaving Savusavu Bay - bound for
Cousteau anchorage at Lesiaceva Point - and King Neptune would cut us some
slack. The advantage of going just these three miles was to enjoy some serene
silence and the chance to get our departure list checked off with fewer
distractions from our friends. The resort is nearly empty at this time of year
and we were the only boat in the anchorage.
On Sunday morning (today) at 0705 am local we poked our head out around the
lighthouse and headed east into noserly winds (5-7 knots) heading towards Fawn
Harbor. Carina seemed like a filly out for an early spring run, she bounced
along smartly under auxiliary power as the sun rose steadily upward, warming the
air and generating puffy rain clouds over Taveuni, our ultimate destination
(about 40 miles distant) and Vanua Levu (to our north).
Just as we turned to head at the gap in the reef for Fawn Harbor, the storm
clouds over Vanua Levu darkened and moved south and drenched us in rain. It's
hard to imagine how warm tropical rain and a few knots of breeze can feel so
COLD. We actually celebrated our arrival (without bumping into anything)
grateful for the warmth of a cup of tea.
From the village, Bagasau (bang-a-sow), we can hear the drums calling the
faithful to church.