It has been forever since we wrote and we have done and seen so much since then!

Are we getting “island out” or becoming too demanding expecting something overwhelming at each anchorage? The southern side of Rabi was nothing more than a village/town. It would be a very boring place to live; no caves, waterfalls, hot springs, streams to explore, nothing. But the dinghy landing was next to the elementary school. It was the last day of school then a two week break. Since the kids were having a picnic next to the sea wall, we had plenty of little hands moving the painter on shore as Patrick threw out a stern anchor. I won't bore you with the details but the kids were very friendly and polite. The little girls held both my hands as we walked the dirt road to an overlook of the bay. All the kids kept Patrick turning and running in circles playing the game of tag, everyone laughing loudly. Contrast this to the pests on the Tonga island of Niuataputapu. Spoiled by cruisers handing out fists of candy, the brats are endlessly bothersome marching up with upturned palms demanding “lolly!” In Rabi we cold not resist giving these kids some treats they would normally not have; life is no frills in these islands. We snuck from Brick House a couple packages of cookies and in a plane plastic bag gave them to the teacher to distribute for their special last day of school.

Old friends dropped anchor near us in Rabi; “Mr John” who we had met in New Zealand and then met up with at Minerva Reef on our sail north from New Zealand. We had a fish dinner aboard Brick House, and the next morning we set sail south, and they sailed north. It was a brief and nice rendezvous! Paula was getting ready to celebrate her first official circumnavigation when they arrived in Suva, Fiji she has been sailing for 20 years, and John even longer. They are a great couple.

Fawn Harbor was to be our next stop. It is where Bebi Electronics has their “assembly plant” manufacturing 12 volt light emitting diode lights. Plus there was a hot spring for us to find.

Fawn Harbor has a generations old family called the “Pickerings” . Their land is adjacent to Bagasau, the local village. The Pickerings may share some heritage with the villagers but their life style is heavily shaded with its British ancestry. The Pickerings were a couple of men who came from England and settled there, marrying some Fijian ladies over a century ago. Now there are 100 Pickerings living on the large estate which has been partitioned and handed down.

To get to shore, knowing the tide was critical. We had to go over the shallow reef and into the mangrove while the outboard could clear the bottom. As the tide went out we had to plan to be ashore till the tide again rose. Tying the dinghy to a mangrove branch, we then walked up the hill following a path which went right beside the home of Lima. Lima is a 70 year old lady who loves to invite cruisers in for tea and snacks. We had tea with her almost every day for 2 hours at a time, talking all about Fijian culture, and yachty culture, and sharing a few laughs, killing time.

Past her house there is a road. Take a right turn and on the other side of the bridge turn left onto the trail. The trail at times crosses over the stream and back again but eventually it leads to the hot spring. This is a million dollar spring if it were in our back yard in Middletown. Everyone who has lived near Fawn Harbor has visited this spring as it has been flowing hot for hundreds of years. It is a small pond that has been terraced through history into 3 pools. Although water flows out of the mountain side into the upper pool, a pipe made of thick bamboo helps divert water to drop into the side of the pool. The water is not boiling but one must ease into this otherwise hotter than any hot tub water. The fall of heat from the bamboo is an incredibly hot shoulder massage. That flow also fills our empty water bottles. The flavor of the water is clear and pure even better than reverse osmosis water. In the pool, water topples over rocks and is also channeled with another bamboo pipe to each of the 2 lower pools which are degrees more tolerable. The water is moderated also by the main mountain stream. That stream comes from another direction and source. It is a refreshing chiller and cools our bottles of water before placing them in the back pack for the hike out of the jungle. As a final accolade, where else can a cruiser have so much fresh hot water to wash their clothes. Every day we would hike through the jungle to this spot. We spent hours there trimming back overgrowth, rearranging or adding to the rock dams, clearing better the path. One day we cut a huge bamboo stalk and set the 30 footer across some boulders so our clean cloths could dry a bit before our hike out. We enjoyed exploring adjacent property, partly because it was such a nice spot, and partly because we had to time our visits to coincide with tides so that we could get our dinghy back out of the inlet. One afternoon on our way back up the dirt road, the tires of a white car full of officials and an official insignia on the front door, crackled to a stop next to us. I thought they were going to ask for directions but a large lady got out and asked if we have had our immunizations for Typhoid Fever. She seemed quite anxious to give us a shot as she handed us brochures on Typhoid fever. There was an outbreak of it this year in Fiji and they were trying to stop its spread. The brochure indicated it is more a problem of poor hygiene and pollutants in water and on food. To my relief she knew well the hot spring and assured us that that is the finest water. Adding chlorine to any other water in Fiji is a good idea.

When we would arrive back at the house, completely famished from the hike and lazing around, Lima would invite us to tea, serve donuts, scones and other delicious goodies with HUGE cups of tea. We would talk for hours every day about nothing and everything. Life is easy in Fawn Harbor.

One morning we took a bus with Lima to Savusavu so that all of us could pick up some supplies, and enjoyed interacting with the locals on the crowded bus. It was lovely how when someone would sit next to someone that they didn't know, how they would greet each other kindly nonetheless. People are genuinely nice to each other in this country. And they are nice to tourists without that feeling of having a dollar symbol in their thoughts. We loaded up on vegetables and Oreo cookies for out trip onwards. It was nice to be in Savusavu again for a few hours to see cruisers we had missed the first time there, and just to have a little taste of civilization, and oh yes internet. In each direction, the bus stops at various stands in case you want to buy vegetables, sweets, coffee or breakfast/lunch during the trip.

One morning we walked in the opposite direction of the hot spring to the village of Bagasau. There we gave sevusevu with the village chief and later learned that the whole village are Seventh Day Adventists, and hence don't drink kava. While giving sevusevu we noticed they had a large television which they can watch two hours each night when the village generator is running. The next day we delivered to the chief a DVD about the life of Hawksbill turtles in the Atlantic ocean and how unlikely the chances are for a hatchling to live the 21 years for it to make it back to the nesting beach. We talked a little bit about turtles and what we all thought about eating them. They were very against it, and even told us a story that was in the news recently. Despite total restrictions on taking turtles there was an avid turtle fisherman. The fisherman's wife just had a baby and the baby had grotesque turtle features! The man vowed to give up turtle hunting so his future children will not be so afflicted. Anywhere a village has the capacity to show a DVD we do our little bit by giving them a copy.

In this same village, we sat on a wooden floor and watched the LED lights be assembled for Bebi Electronics. One person makes one complete light assembly. They sit crosslegged, soldering gun in one hand and that to be soldered in the other. There is nothing high tech about this operation which means the assemblers are artists with very good eyesight. All the parts come from Japan. Here, every LED and diode and resistor and whatever the little things are, are perfectly soldered in incredibly tight spaces to become anchor lights or interior lighting. Each step of assembly is checked with a meter before moving on. It is piece work which encourages accuracy. After watching the process for a couple hours, Patrick promised one day to send them a fly fishing fly tying stand complete with a large magnifying glass.

We met so many nice people in Fawn Harbor. It felt at the end of the 10 days that we practically lived there recognizing almost everyone by the end of the week, having conversations along the way on our walks each day even the bus driver invited us to have dinner with his family, but unfortunately because of logistics couldn't happen. When we walked down the streets, families called to us to come have lunch or tea with them. That is very much a historical Fiji and Polynesian custom which is interesting to see still exists in the out islands. We really had a nice visit here, and I think it's because the tide trapped us on land for about 8 hours every day we had to socialize, and hang out with people every day we couldn't sit on the boat and isolate which is so easy to do with boat projects and such. It took some energy, but it was well worth it!

Next we sailed off to Namena, but ended up tucking into the Casteau resort so we could grab a cab into Savusavu. We needed more gasoline, another dinner at an Indian restaurant and a fast internet connection. The next day we set sail.

Namena was a bust. It is an island in nowhere which makes it attractive but without a tall barrier reef anchoring is terrible. On the most leeward side of the island is a mooring which we did pick up. Anchoring in the 80 foot deep water was not an option. Soon we heard words on the VHF meant for us. The French accent said Namena is a private island and they “do not encourage anyone to come ashore”. It was fine that we were on the mooring as it was used by the live-aboard dive boat which would not be there for several days. In the morning, after a rolly night, we set sail.

We beat to windward, motorsailing at the end to get to Mokagai, about 20 miles to the south. Carina in the meantime had heard us on the VHF and they were sailing there too, from Koro in the east. They got there first, and to our surprise 5 other boats were in the bay when we arrived. Mokagai is a mountainous island inside a barrier reef and with a horse-shoed shaped anchorage. From the water, what a beautiful place.