Fiji in the rain
17 August 2006 | Nanuya-Sewa, Yasawa Islands
Jo
The wind gods finally took pity on us as soon as Poppy had departed, and gave us our first downwind sailing for almost two months for our trip from Tonga to Fiji. With the wind in the SE, we had a lively romp for a three day passage, which saw us 10 miles out of Suva, Fiji's capital. As we began to read our books we realised that we were going to be assaulted by officialdom the moment we arrived, and would not be allowed to set foot on land until doctor's, agricultural quarantine, customs and emigration were done. Strong winds were forecast, and because it is another 100 miles around the coast until you get to the best cruising areas, we decided that we should push on to Lautoka, one of the other official ports of entry, rather than face getting stuck in Suva, so on we went for another 24 hours. Poor Hammy who had been suffering from 'mal de mer', and was just looking forward to dry land stoically grinned and voted to continue! It turned out to be a great decision, we arrived just in time to go ashore and fill in reams of forms, but the Lautokan officials were charming and friendly, and wanted to get home, so we completed in an hour what the book had said might take three, and only had our Cruising Permit still to organise. We found the slowest and cheapest internet since we've been away, and found only one restaurant ashore that was open after 6 p.m.! That night the wind got up and up, finally reaching about 40 knots, and making it completely impossible to get ashore the next day until in mid afternoon cabin fever struck some of us, and we decided to make a break for it. Leaving Giles to guard the boat the rest of us braved the dinghy, I decided to take dry things carefully wrapped up to change into when we arrived, and felt rather smug when the others in leaking waterproofs arrived liked drowned rats, while I was nice and dry! We managed to complete our formalities, and then with great excitement discovered a really good supermarket. Not as good as the Carrefour in Tahitii, but by Pacific standards wonderful. With great excitement we pounced on Tonic water, olive oil, yoghurt and porridge oats (for making muesli), and cheddar cheese imported from New Zealand. The market looked highly promising for the next day, as indeed it turned out to be. We could buy everything we wanted in the market, and all so cheaply. The craft market was a disappointment however, and seemed very much for the tourist trade, selling similar things to Tonga, but at far higher prices, and polished into tackiness. We regretted as before not buying more while we liked things and they were cheap, but perhaps its just as well as we won't be able to take anything into Australia, and our luggage bearers have there own agenda! We were as ever pleased to move on from Lautoka, albeit in very unappealing grey and windy weather. We were on a quest for charts and info to enable us to sail to the Yasawa Islands. We only had a very small scale chart, and we know only too well that relying on Max-Sea our electronic charts is unwise. It normally gives most of the detail, but is often badly out on position. Fiji and her many islands are strewn with coral reefs, and navigation is very much an eyeballing business. Reefs can only be seen when the sun is shining, and the wind is not whipping the sea up into a mass of white horses. As we had no sun and lots of wind conditions were far from ideal for reef hopping. Never mind, we dropped the anchor in Saweni Bay a few miles south of Lautoka, and Giles and I went ashore to try and find transport to a marina! After hitching a ride in a lorry, which already had 3 in the cab, we hailed a taxi who drove us miles to the airport, but still no marina and no charts. It was an interesting trip. Fiji is heavily cultivated, and for the first time we saw serious amounts of sugar cane plantations. The population is at least 50% Indian, but the Melanesians seem to do more of the agriculture, while the Indians as ever make brilliant and efficient business men and shop keepers. Anyway, Giles and I paid of our taxi, who charged us almost nothing, and caught a bus back to our turn off, where once again we managed to hitch a ride in a lorry to take us back to our bay. We realised we had been rather stupid, and there was a marina just around the headland, so next morning we made an early start and found Vuda Point Marina. This was truly exciting, firstly, friends Guy and Nadine from Diva were there, which was a great reunion. We hadn't been into a marina since Tahiti, and lo and behold we found the best chandlery since Tahiti too. So now armed with hand drawn charts, and a pilot book we felt set for the Yasawa, all we needed was the weather, which looked much brighter and more enticing. As it was already midday, we opted to go no further than the tiny islands of Tao and Levuka, part of the Mamanuca chain, some 10 miles off. We dropped the anchor off Levuka, by which time the wind was building fast, and it was too windy to attempt a dinghy ride ashore through the coral. That night the wind blew harder and harder, and I at least spent a restless night making sure that the wind hadn't changed to the east, or the anchor dragged, both of which would have put us either perilously close to, or on the reef. In fact, we had well and truly hooked a 'bommie' or coral head, and when next day we came to weigh anchor, we had a difficult job getting it up, and thanked God for the windlass! We had a very windy sail back to Vuda Point, and a tense moment when entering the marina channel at low tide with the wind up our backside, and a cross-set on the breaking waves, which threatened to dump us on the coral through which the narrow channel has been cut. We had a good evening drowning our frustration with the weather with Guy and Nadine, and then making the most of being able to eat ashore at the Yacht Club very reasonably. The next day was at last sunny, and the forecast gave us a weather window, to get to the Yasawas. We decided to take the risk of going, although by now we were becoming very aware that Ned was leaving for L.A. in only four days time, and we were meant to go back to customs to take him off the crew list before he left. However, after Flora had navigated us through the reefs of Waya, the southern most of the Yasawa chain, we found ourselves in a lovely bay, where there was one very low key resort. Polly the delightfully friendly Glaswegian manageress, offered us the use of her telephone the next day, which solved our problem, as Jay the customs man remembered me, and agreed to let Ned depart early on condition that we went to see him with Flora and Hammy, in order to officially remove them from the crew list, when they leave next week. She also reassured us that the 'Yasawa Flyer' a large yellow catamaran daily connected the islands with a bus to the airport. The weather has been fine and sunny for the last few days, and we have enjoyed exploring islands, some excellent snorkelling, and in general the weather one could have hoped for in Fiji. We had been warned that when going ashore on remote islands, the correct form is to go and pay a visit to the chief, and present him with some Cava root, which he will then chew or whatever, to make the Cava drink, which in our experience tastes of mud, and makes the lips tingle, but apparently if enough is consumed makes you high! Our disappointment has been that we have either landed on remote corners of islands where there aren't any villages, or in 'resorts', where tourism has superseded culture. But many of our walks ashore has seen Giles carefully carrying a bundle of Cava! I hope before we leave that we will find a chief! Four days weather window seems to be the most we are going to get. Luckily we arrived on the island of Nanuya-Sewa yesterday in order to make sure Ned could get on the ferry today. We luckily resisted the temptation to go on north for eight miles to see some more underwater caves, and contented ourselves with a snorkelling trip organised by the dive company here. Had we gone on we would have had immense difficulty getting back to the Blue Lagoon for Ned to catch the ferry today, as the night brought heavy rain and more strong winds. He will have had a very rough six hour ferry trip to get back to mainland Fiji. The panic of getting him out to the ferry by dinghy in very choppy conditions left no time for tears, but we will miss his lovely sense of humour, his sail trimming expertise and all the fun of having him!