We have had a wonderful time here in Fiji, the Fijians are very friendly, warm and helpful people and we have visited interesting places and villages, and had the privilege to gain insights into different communities. We left Namata Bay, Qamea at 0600 on Monday 20 th June and had a glorious sail down to Vanua Balava where we anchored in the Bay of Islands, named due to the extraordinary limestone rock formations protruding from the sea.
Mushroom shaped rocks and tall thin rocks plus jagged edged crown shaped rocks with reddish iron stains interlaced and hanging in splotches like modern art sculptures. There were several inlets and hidden lagoons that were intriguing to explore in our dinghy and we managed to find the “bat tree”. Literally hundreds of large fruit bats roosting in the trees were quite a sight and also made a lot of noise! While we were anchored at the Bay of Islands we met up with several boats from the “Bula Rendezvous”, a group of sailing vessels, taking part in a loosely organised rally, led by John and Lyn, from NZ, who manage the Coastal & Ocean Cruising Club. They acted as agents for us and other vessels, getting the appropriate papers for entry to Fiji and they organised a sailing rally from NZ to Fiji. This is their 17th year cruising here so they are very knowledgeable and experienced.
The morning after we arrived in the Bay of Islands we took our dinghy four miles along the coast to visit the village of Dalcioni and perform sevusevu with the chief. It is polite to ask permission to visit the village and Bay of Islands, the chief Josette, was friendly and explained about the beautiful wooden killing clubs hanging around his walls, which were used before the Christian Missionaries arrived In 1835. We then walked around the village and discovered that the houses damaged in Tropical Cyclone Winston (2017) are not repaired because their soul has left them, so new houses are built.
The following day the chief and a couple of villagers brought their long boat over to the bay and took a party of us around the inlets and explained where they would hide from incoming war parties or ambush them from the hidden lagoons! They also took us to explore underwater caves and magnificent cathedral like caverns, with convoluted shaped pillars and arches reminiscent of the cathedral Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Several pleasant evenings were spent on different boats enjoying sundowners and chit chat, before we set off on our own to explore the south of the island and to get supplies at the town of Lomaloma. This island group to the far east of Fiji are called the Lau group, they have not been open to tourism or cruising yachts until recently, so they are fairly remote and untouched. The supply ship had not delivered this month so supplies of imported vegetables, potatoes, onions and carrots were scarce, as well as other goods like shampoo and cheese.
We did manage to get fuel for our outboard, premixed for a 2 stroke engine, aptly called “zoom”, but it took some time to fill the Jerry cans due to the intriguing and archaic pumping system. We also discovered that alcohol is not consumed in the villages and not sold due to the teachings of the Methodist missionaries. Although, luckily, once again, we located the under the counter supply because we had completely run out of beer. We could only get a pre mixed rum and cola drink, which was not our usual tipple, but fairly pleasant for sundowners. After walking through Lomolomo and seeing the secondary school, and the health clinic we moved onto another village called Susui. Here we were were greeted by several excited and friendly children willing to show us where their chief lived, so we could perform sevusevu.
This chief did not speak English and he blessed the kava in Fijian before saying yes! That meant we could explore the village and chat to locals and take photographs. We met Jacob, the Mayor of Susui, who organised to take us to their hidden lagoon for an oyster bbq and tour. Saturday was their day for preparing the church for the Sunday service and the shared feast after the service, because the locals are not allowed to cook or work on Sundays. Laura got taught how to make the wonderful mats they weave from a type of palm leaf.
We were only the 18th sailing boat to visit Susui village ever, which has 83 residents, a primary school, and no road so it is quite isolated. Women go to the hospital in Lomaloma by boat, to give birth or if there is any concern they go to Suva the capital town situated on the island of Viti Levu. They travel by the cargo ship which takes 2 days, so they travel and stay there from about 7 months gestation. I learnt a lot of this information form Jonathon and Donna, who were living on a catamaran, anchored beside us, who are working for a charity called SeaMercy.Fiji. They take anything from health care materials to guttering to these remote islands. At the moment there is a problem with getting clean water, even in the LomaLoma hospital, which was a bit of a surprise and reminded us how isolated these villages really are.
Jonathon also told us that the last person to be eaten on the island was a Methodist minister who touched the chief’s head! That was in about 1867, after the measles epidemic which devastated their population by over 80%, the skulls and skeletons are all in a sacred cave half an hour from the village, but we did not visit, although another crew did! Back to our oyster BBQ, which was a basic campfire made from wood and coconut husks, onto which the oysters were placed, where they steamed in their shells.
The oysters were sourced from the rocky edges of the lagoon by the local men wearing snorkels and masks and carrying hammers! Once cooked they were hammered open and mixed with chilli and lime, which made them tolerable for me and Laura, who don’t usually eat Shellfish, but we did enjoy the Cassava. Cassava is a starchy root vegetable and they cooked it on the fire like a long baked potato and it was quite good. The locals grow their own food, cassava, taro, which is a green leaf and root vegetable, breadfruit, mango, papaya, squash and sometimes maize.
TC Winston devastated a lot of Fiji and some rural communities are still trying trying to get guttering for water and a new roof on their church. After a week it was time to leave the Vanua Balava and head west again to the main island of Viti Levu where we anchored outside a resort called VoliVoli, 170 miles away. It was a windy passage with a very uncomfortable aggravated sea state which was exhausting. After 26 hours we were relieved to anchor at the VoliVoli but it took several attempts to get the anchor set, so we were ready for beer and cocktails at the beach bar, followed by a delicious meal at their delightful restaurant, accompanied by a bottle of Oxford Landing Chardonnay, which all seemed extremely civilised! The following day we arranged for a taxi to take us into the local town of RakiRaki, and after only a week in remote Vanua Balava for a week, but we were exclaiming at the existence of tarmac roads and sugarcane harvesting, tractors and even speed cameras, which all seemed so mainstream! In town we bought fresh provisions from the market and groceries from the supermarket as well as mooching in and out of several material and clothes shops. These are big bunches of the kava root.
Our driver showed us where to go and waited for us, and when we returned to the hotel we were allowed to use the buggy to transport the shopping down to the shore and our dinghy. A most excellent and trouble free shopping experience.
Even better, after we had stowed it all on board we returned for lunch at the hotel and then lounged by the pool for a couple of hours! How the other half live!
Early the next day we headed further west to explore the Yasawa islands. This time we had a very pleasant day sail, we made good speeds and the sea was very gentle to us. Our first anchorage was by the very impressive limestone cliffs and lagoon of Sawa i Lau. As it was 1600 when we dropped anchor, we decided not to inflate the dinghy and go to the village until the morning. Serious chilling with beers and rum punch and just enjoying the scenery was the priority that night.
I know it sounds like all we do is eat and drink but in between there is also a lot of hard work and stress, keeping the boat afloat and mending stuff as well as the planning, navigation and sailing. We got up at 0600am before we sailed to the Yasawa Islands, but before we could leave at 0700 as planned, we needed to transfer fuel from our 20 litre jerry cans to the main tank. Whilst we sail when we can, the engine is required at times for close manoeuvring and also charging the batteries. This took 15 minutes of siphoning and then the pre start engine checks revealed that the air filter had dropped off! Richard fabricated a replacement with a sock and a spring and some foam, like Zebedee from the Magic roundabout! He really is amazing at fixing stuff, while I helpfully made the toast and coffee!
The Fijians are all very friendly, polite and helpful, regardless of whether they are working in a hotel or walking up the road in a remote village, where we got given two papayas one day. They don’t appear fierce, and they are often laughing and joking and vey jolly, quite at odds with the cannibalism stories!
The islands themselves are varied and very different from the soaring pinnacles of Tahiti or the bleached flat atolls of the Tuomotus. Fijian islands are softer, vegetation seems more varied and it certainly seemed like winter because the days were cool and it was often cloudy, grey or rainy in the east, although the western Yasawa group were hotter and there was less rain. Here we visited what seemed like quite a poor village called Tamasua to perform sevusevu and get permission to visit the limestone caves, a lot of the houses were boarded up and there were flies and litter and no colourful flowering bushes planted which we had seen elsewhere, but the people were still very friendly and welcoming and wanted to chat. This lady is making coconut milk from grated coconuts.
The limestone caves were awesome again, even more so as we had to swim under a narrow tunnel into the mountain side.
In the afternoon we explored a limestone lagoon and then socialised with another yacht that had arrived.
Our final week in Fiji was spent snorkelling with manta rays
and diving with sharks, white and black tipped reef sharks like below and an incredible and slightly scary dive with Bull sharks. This was the only time we have been diving with body guards holding poles to redirect these large, curious, sharks, sorry no pictures, because I was hiding my hands!
In between all these amazing experiences we have been organising entry and immigration to Vanuatu, which just opened its borders on 1st July 2022 after 2 years. We are in Vuda marina doing rigging checks and replacing some of our ropes and our batteries! We will provision for our trip ahead, we hope to set off to Vanuatu next week which will take about 3 days. Then we head to Cairns, Australia which will take about 10 days. Follow our tracker and see where we get to https://my.yb.tl/CelticCruising
Wonderful blog. Thank you xx lots of love Anne x
It was interesting to read about the water supply problem on the island. While any Limestone strata has to deal with scarcity as a technical issue, its also a political and economic problem across the whole of Melanesia. I did a piece of work there some years ago for the 'Global Water Security Report' https://www.raeng.org.uk/gws When you get to Vanuatu you'll find that the most unusual land ownership and farming practices, such as export beef cattle, have bought up the scarce resources. Villagers are therefore left with sub-optimal solutions such as collection of rainfall from roofs with guttering.