Rabi Island, Katherine Bay
22 June 2015 | Katherine Bay, Rabi
C. Farias
Bula. We had a few windy days, gusty winds blowing from 18 to 35ktts, day and night. We were in a nice anchorage off Taveuni Island but the comfort and nicety was gone with with the wind. After 2 very unconfortable days, the wind abated a little and we decided to sail to Rabi Island. It was a short passage, about 2 hours, not too rough, to Katherine Bay, a peaceful and protected bay where we hankered down to wait for better weather. There is very small village on the bay and we went ashore hoping to meet the villagers. We forgot to take our slippers and couldn't walk thru the mangrove to the area where we could see a few houses. A few children and teenagers came by the shore as we were leaving. They were very shy, one of the teenagers not so much, and in very good English she answered a few of our questions. She also said to us that the next morning, Sunday, there was going to have service at the Church. The village has a very large church, Methodist, sitting up on the hill and it looks very regal. Specially compared with the simplicity of the few houses we could see on shore.
Rabi Island people are not Fijians. They are from Banaba in the Kiribati Republic. They were relocated here after their Island was destroyed by phosphate mining. They decided a few years ago to become part of Fiji.
Monday morning we saw a canoe with an outboard engine drive by loaded with children in thier way to school. That was the school bus. The school is located in the other side of the bay and aparently there are no roads. Life is really simple here. I wish we could have stayed longer and visited the school, but due to weather, we had to move to Qamea. That will be another post. My Aloha to all.