Fijibound

We're retracing last years steps so have got a bit lazy about writing the blog. This has to be the most extrordinary experience this year. The mantas really put on a ballet for us. Gentle giants indeed and so polite! They come at you but then duck down or sideways almost saying, 'Excuse me' There is a wonderful feeling of connection - they see and seem to acknowledge you but just get on with feeding on plankton. How they get to that size on plankton is a mystery! They are HUGE! (check google for stats!) Hope the movie works. It's a bit long but I have no editing tools on the boat computer. Looks like the movie did not work. photo not so good.

After six days of relaxing at Makogai we have finally sailed away and now anchored at this beautiful bay. There is no-one here but us (and a rooster on the beach)We had a great time snorkelling the bommies in Makogai (fan corals,turtles giant clams etc) and hope to explore here if the sun comes out. We are making our way towards the dry west as we've had lots of rain lately! We've really only got a month left before we cyclone-proof Seabride again and put her in her hole. Tomorrow we do the inside reef passage to Nananuira which is famous for kite-surfing! Ian might try for a pensioner's discount on lessons! Young at heart eh!

Kiwi ingenuity prevailed and we now have battens made from PVC plumbing pipes! We heated the ends and flattened them to fit in the batten pockets.Splendid! We left savusavu on Monday and sailed first to Namena which is a Reserve area so even snorkelling around the boat is a treat not to mention the many scuba dives which are worldclass. We managed to secure the buoy so had a peaceful night. We then sailed here-fab sail, no reefs(in the sail) and full sails up with a flat sea. This is unusual for Fiji! Makogai is a great anchorage and is also an interesting place. It was the leper colony for the pacific and once had 5,000 lepers here. There is a large overgrown cemetery 1500 people lie here and all the buildings and infrastructure have been levelled or overgrown except for the very large generator which they are still using. The last lepers left in 1960. The Dept Fisheries have a research station here and they breed turtles and giant clams to repopulate the reefs in Fiji. It's not terribly efficient but the people here are friendly and helpful and very relaxed! We have really calm weather so we'll snorkel with turtles and clams and generaaly relax ourselves. We are hoping for a weather window to head South to Gau but it seems unlikely so next stop will be kitesurfing at nananuira!

We finally got our clearance to leave Futuna and set off in 20knot winds with 2 metre swells. A tad uncomfortable but tolerable. Unfortunately the windvane selfsteerer started to work loose so we hove to. The mainsheet started juddering and whoops 3 battens slipped out! We reefed down to the last reef and continued on. We then decided to head off the wind a bit and aim for the Albert Cove side of Rabi. This eased the ride a bit and we had 30 hours of good sailing apart from the mainsail shudder. By the time we hit Somosomo strait the wind had died and later the rain came so it was a slow trip to Savusavu only brightened by catching a yummy fish..at last. We are now moored up on the finger dock in savusavu enjoying the R&R and trying to solve our batten problems amongst others ie failure of the autopilot!

Well we couldn't clear until today as we arrived during the Festival of the Assumption of Mary.They are very Catholic here. They even knocked off the first Pacific Catholic missionary to be later sanctified. It's a curious place well funded by the French. We ignored the prices in the Supermarche and have come away with a haul of French goodies including 12 bottles of wine! The locals drive around in 4WD and have TV etc. It's a far cry from the areas we've been to in Fiji. The island is so well funded that they don't encourage tourism! One small 'otel and that's it. Key positions eg gendarme and customs are staffed by French who come here on contract. The locals are not interested in Independence- why would you? You'd have to work hard to keep the place running. We came across some locals butchering a pig on the side of the road so Haraeth and Seabride scored some fresh pork in exchange for kava. Did a balancing act in a rocky cabin cooking it later yummy with palisami and auburgines, having marinaded it in Soya and honey. We eat well and now the level will go up a notch with our goody haul!

We are currently sitting in a super rolly anchorage here after a 2 day sail from Savusavu. We had everything on passage. Daytime and nightime sailing with a flat sea and wind on the beam. Seabride was singing and so was I! We also had no wind and sudden heavy rain so we sat on the companionway steps and popped out every now and then to check. Overall it was a good passage for us newbies. Now for some french goodies!