The Rhythm of Village Life, Lau Style

Posted on July 14, 2015 by selcitron

Fulaga, Lau Group, Fiji

By: Kerry

It’s easy to lose track of time in Fulaga: we thought we’d stay for a couple of weeks, but before we knew it, five had slipped by. And we’d slipped into the daily and weekly rhythm of village life.

Monday mornings is the women’s weaving get-together, where – over much giggling and gossip – pandanus leaves are painstakingly prepared and woven into mats, dance fans, baskets and other items, and anyone can stand up and have their grievances heard, discussed and resolved.

I’d wondered about the petty politics and jealousies that usually fester in a small community. In the whole time we were in Fulaga, I never heard anyone speak ill about anyone else. One way of keeping the peace seemed to be the early and open airing of problems, where the whole village discusses the issue. Generally, it seemed, the air was cleared and the gripe session ended with everyone rolling around laughing and teasing one another. At least, that’s what we saw, though we weren’t privy to discussions of more weighty issues.

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Mushroom Shots

Posted on July 12, 2015 by selcitron

Fulaga, Lau Group, Fiji

By: Kerry

I’m not sure how many hundreds of sculpted islets there are scattered across the lagoon, or how many different photos it would be possible to take of them, but here’s a few…

~~~ ><(((°> ><(((°> ><(((°> ~~~

Fulaga

Posted on July 8, 2015 by selcitron

Fulaga, Lau Group, Fiji

By: Kerry

We arrived in Fulaga on Sunday, but that being church day, we were invited to postpone our sevusevu until Monday morning. Maunie and Exit Strategy (both friends of ours) were the only boats in the anchorage when we arrived, but throughout the day, six other boats, who’d also taken advantage of the weather window, arrived.

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Heading South

Posted on July 5, 2015 by selcitron

Vanua Balavu, Lau Group, Fiji

By: Kerry

Our anchor position in the Bay of Islands. Yellow is land. White is water. According to the chart plotter, we are parked pretty close to the lookout on the top of the hill…

More than elsewhere, sailing in Fiji is about alignment: wind direction, wind strength, current, tide, sun angle – they all need to be in your favour to negotiate the inter-island passages, the countless reefs and bommies and narrow passes.

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Maravu and Lomaloma

Posted on July 3, 2015 by selcitron

Little Bay, Vanua Balavu, Lau, Fiji

By: Kerry

To stay in Little Bay, the Cruising Guide said we needed to do sevusevu at Maravu village, a little further along the coast. We dinghied around the corner to a lovely beach fronting a copra plantation, and walked 30 minutes through scrubby bush along the coast, through plantations of bananas and cassava to Maravu.

The village is the home of former Fijian Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, who was ousted by Commodore Bainimarama in the 2006 coup (and was subsequently convicted of corruption).

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EOFY

Posted on June 29, 2015 by selcitron

Bay of Islands, Vanua Balavu, Fiji

Accessing the internet is a perennial challenge for us – it’s infuriating how reliant we are on it, never more so than when we’re trying to do banking and sort finances. Our time in Vanua Balavu coincided with the end of the Australian Financial Year and we had a bunch of tax and superannuation stuff we needed to sort.

There was no signal in the Bay of Islands, so we had to dinghy around the corner, a couple of miles into 20 knot headwinds, clamber around a rocky headland and up a tree, insert the dongle…

After several frustrated attempts, we ended up phoning my sister, Sandra in Australia, who came to the rescue – again! Best. Sister. Ever.

~~~ ><(((°> ><(((°> ><(((°> ~~~

The Lau, at Last.

Posted on June 25, 2015 by selcitron

Little Bay, Vanua Balavu, Lau Group, Fiji

By: Kerry

Twenty-three years ago, I sailed into the Lau Group on another boat, when this remote Fiji island group was officially ‘off-limits’ to cruisers. We were the first foreign yachties to visit in years (we had special permission) and my favourite memory is of having a bunch of the local kids on board for a ‘cool’ drink.

Most of them had never seen a white face before and none of them had experienced anything colder than ‘tropical’. I watched one little guy sneak the ice out of his glass and hide it in his hot little hand to keep for later… Continue reading →

Beyond Here Thar Be No Dragons

Posted on June 23, 2015 by selcitron

Vanua Balavu, Lau Group, Fiji

By: Kerry

In the middle of the night on the shortest day of the year we entered into the western hemisphere and finally, literally, sailed off the edge of the chart.

It was as black as the inside of a cow and almost as wet.

We’d been waiting for a break in the prevailing southeast trade winds to make a dash east to the Lau Group of islands, the farthest east of the islands of Fiji.

Finally, we had a window – really only a louvre – and we sailed out of Savusavu at sunset, with the wind backing to a northerly and then dying altogether.

Around midnight, in pouring rain, we crossed 180 degrees longitude – the ‘actual’ dateline (though the practical dateline does a dog-leg here to embrace Tonga and Fiji in the same day-zone as Australia/NZ).

Our Navionics electronic chart stopped right there: to plot a further course, we had to scroll right around the world and pick up on the other side of the invisible 180 degree line.

Reassuringly, despite our sailing off the edge of the chart, there was no sign of dragons…

We motored almost all of the 108 nautical miles to Vanua Balavu, in the north of the Lau Group, as there wasn’t enough wind to sail. At dawn, we converged on the pass, along with four other boats that had sailed from various points, and by late morning we’d dropped anchor off the village of Daliconi.

~~~ ><(((°> ><(((°> ><(((°> ~~~

Bula from Savusavu, Fiji!

Posted on June 20, 2015 by selcitron

Savusavu, Fiji

By: Kerry (posted a bit later…)

Yep, we’re still here… Thought we’d have gone by now but a few things have kept us. Mostly me: I flew back to Sydney for the joint 50th birthday party for my sister, Sandra and brother-in-law, Dave. And a rip snorter it was! A really brief catch up with friends, and the usual boring stuff of dealing with tax bla bla.

Meanwhile, Damian stayed on the boat, trying to sort out a new set of house batteries (which decided to die the minute we arrived here) and generally manning the ship.

I flew back to Savusavu the day before my birthday. And on my birthday, Damian arranged for us to do a tour of the JS Hunter Pearl Farm here – “the rarest pearls in the world”. Officially ‘black’ pearls, but they come in all sorts of lustrous colours – the rarest being gold. I chose a gorgeous pendant with a pearl the colour of the sea – a deep bluish green. Love it. Totally spoiled.

And then we had friends over for a BBQ on board in the evening. Perfect.

~~~ ><(((°> ><(((°> ><(((°> ~~~

Safe n Sound in Savusavu

Posted on May 16, 2015 by selcitron

Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji

By: Kerry

Sailing into the dawn

At last! An ‘easy’ passage from New Zealand! We left Auckland as planned on Friday 8th – the rain stopped chucking it down about an hour before we cast off – and headed north. Starting from Auckland rather than Marsden Cove added 60-odd miles to the trip, making it a 1260 nautical mile voyage, following the rhumb line – which we just about did.

We saw no more than 20 knots of breeze the whole way, and barely a white cap or any kind of swell. A lot of the time we were motoring as there wasn’t enough wind (MUCH the preferred option to too much!) but we did have some lovely sailing here and there (including finally flying our spinnaker for the first time ever), and some really charmed conditions.

One day, it was so calm we stopped the boat and Verdo and I jumped in for a swim, mid-ocean – felt fabulous! Only one fish en route – but we might have done better if we’d had the lines out more often…

The first ‘easy’ passage we’ve had

Got the kite up for a minute – never seen it up before!

Verdo describing… sails? fish?

Big fat tuna

Mr Happy arriving in Savusavu

Friendly Fijian officials

One night was particularly stunning – not a breath of wind and a zillion stars reflected in the inky surface of the sea. As the boat cut through the water it sent out ripples of phosphorescence and we left a glowing wake behind us. Every now and then some mysterious sea creature would flee from us, trailing a rapid silver zig zag. Then a red half moon rose like a chalice out of the sea, casting red slivers of reflection across the water all the way to the boat: the proverbial stairway to heaven!

A very special night.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Lemon crossing without an ‘incident’! On Sunday morning (two days out) we were motoring with no sails up and I noticed a chafe mark on the main halyard. To cut a long story short, Verdo went up the mast and confirmed that the halyard had chafed most of the way through, where it runs across the new mast track stopper block installed by Bart the mast builder after our trip back from Fiji last year, when we sheered it off the mast.

Those of you familiar with the mast saga will understand our despair… Just as we thought we were finally finished, we are back to the same situation we were in when we arrived here last year.

Only this time, we can’t use the mainsail at all….

On the upside, we were doing 10 and 11 knots with just our gennaker up on the way here – so who needs a mainsail anyway?

We arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning, having slowed the boat down the night before so as to arrive in daylight. It’s nice to be back.

~~~ ><(((°> ><(((°> ><(((°> ~~~