94. "Bula Fiji!"
12 October 2013
There are over three hundred Fijian islands, and scattered amongst them are vast areas of reef which have a reputation for being poorly charted. The Lau chain lies in a long arc to the east of the group, which we approached at dawn on the third day out from Tonga. Unfortunately yachts are not allowed to call at them without having first cleared into Fiji at one of the main ports. We weaved our way through the Lakeba Passage between invisible atolls, steering well clear of some isolated rocks and shoals, and set a course across the Koro Sea. We had had quite a bit of rain and drizzle the previous day, but today was perfect, with sunshine, a fresh breeze and flat water. An hour before midnight we crossed the 180° meridian and entered the eastern hemisphere. Our chart-plotter struggled to give us a sensible course to the next waypoint for a while - it wanted us to turn round and go back round the world the other way! We closed the south coast of Vanua Levu - the second largest island - at dawn the following day. By 1000 we were secured to a mooring in a picturesque creek off the town of Savu Savu. The Customs and Health officials came out to clear us, but we later had to walk to the customs office and hospital to pay our fees. We were immediately struck by the friendliness of Fijians. Almost everyone we saw greeted us with "Bula" (hello) along with a big smile.
Our moorings were provided by the Copra Shed Marina, which includes a few tourist shops, a chandlery and a decent bar and restaurant in its small complex. The creek is sheltered by an island, and some moorings are supposed to be safe to use during the cyclone season. Fishermen would often anchor their boats near us to relax after delivering their morning catch to market. We also saw a few fragile punts made from bamboo poles out for a day's fishing, sometimes with a complete family including baby aboard. Savu Savu is a pretty and busy little town with a single main street lined with colourful shops, mostly run by Indians. At one end of town, hot springs send up plumes of steam from various locations including the beach, where at low tide people cook shellfish in containers dug into the sand. Further out of town, a ferry dock provides a link with some of the other islands. As the sun glinted off the hull of a ferry, we were amused to be able to discern the painted-out name "Caledonian McBrayne". (The delivery trip from the west coast of Scotland to Fiji must have been a novelty!)
A group of us caught an early bus for a day's outing to Labasa, on the north coast of Vanua Levu. As we headed inland, we passed through villages of wooden houses with corrugated iron roofs and chimneys. Children in uniform waited at wooden shelters for their school bus to arrive. The road continued up into a range of hills covered with plantation trees. We broke our journey at the Waisali Rain Forest Reserve, where we had a pleasant walk with some lovely views, but the small scale of the park was a bit disappointing. We took the next bus and continued over the central ridge onto the drier northern slopes. The predominant crop here is sugar cane, and a network of narrow-gauge railways, built to transport cane, converges on "Sugar City", as Labassa is nick-named. At the edge of town, long lines of tractors and trailers queued up at the refinery to unload their cane. The processed sugar is exported from the nearby port. We alighted at the bus station in the town centre and pushed our way through crowds of chattering, colourfully dressed people - we could have been in New Delhi! As the largest conurbation on the island, there are shops selling everything from hardware and fabrics to electronics, and also a huge market with wonderful displays of fruit, root vegetables and spices. Some of our party were keen to get a curry for lunch, and we plumped for the Café Delight which seemed to be popular, but didn't quite live up to its name.
Fijians take their cava ceremony - or "sevusevu" - very seriously. Specialist purveyors in the markets sell yaqona root in bundles or powdered form. It seems to be sold in large quantities, so there must be something going for it! When visiting villages in rural areas or on the smaller islands one is expected to make a gift of the roots as an offering of friendship to the chief, who - all being well - will invite you to a sevusevu. If he doesn't, it might be prudent to make a run for it! We therefore stocked up with a few bundles of the roots before leaving Savu Savu, after a week's enjoyable stay. It is a 50 mile hop to the small island of Makogai, with a couple of reefs to dodge along the way, and during the passage we completed our semi-circumnavigation - at least in terms of longitude. At 1130 local time our position was 17 degrees, 16 minutes south: 179 degrees, 3 minutes east, i.e. exactly 180 degrees east or west of our home port. According to our GPS set, the West Pole Beacon off Chichester Harbour was 8,796 nautical miles away due north. However, after careful consideration, we concluded that the direct polar route was not an option, so we'll be continuing homewards in a generally westerly direction. We expect another 22,000 miles of sea to pass under our keel before the end of our voyage.
We anchored off the village of Dalice in as pretty a tropical setting as you can imagine. Shortly after, a motor boat crowded with school children stopped beside us. A man introduced himself as the headmaster and went on to invite us to a performance by the children that evening. It was to be a dress rehearsal for the show they were taking to the mainland for an Independence Day competition. We went ashore early to meet the chief and present our yaqona roots and were rewarded by a sevusevu with some of the elders. We and twenty or so crew members from the other six yachts then sat on a flight of stone steps (that mysteriously lead nowhere) to watch a charming performance by the youngsters. The girls were all in colourful frocks whilst the boys tried to look fierce in grass skirts and head-dresses, carrying spears and shields. Music was provided by some of the men playing guitars and drums, whilst the women joined in with the singing. There were a couple of speeches and lots more Cava drunk during the evening, and the party ended with everyone taking part in a conga!
Next morning the head man, looking a bit worse for wear, gave us a guided tour of the village. The island was once a leper colony, and it was very moving to see the remains of some of the demolished buildings, including a church and graveyard, an open-air cinema and dormitories - which explained the flight of stone steps we had sat on the previous night. The Makogai Mariculture Centre - a research station for the Fisheries Department - was then established. There were many concrete tanks for breeding turtles and giant clams, but the station had been wound down and only a few were still in use. The head man of the village is the manager and chief scientist. The aim was apparently to breed clams and plant them on reefs throughout the Fijian islands. A few must have escaped whilst being transferred to boats as there were some huge specimens living under the jetty! Later we snorkelled over a "bommie" where there was some of the best examples of fish and coral we'd seen yet. We snorkelled again the following morning, but in the afternoon the wind got up and it blew at over 30 knots during the night. On our final morning we walked up a track behind the village with views looking down over the neat green-roofed huts to the bay. We continued to the top of the hill where there is an old look out platform built for observing whales - but we saw none that day.