Much More of the Yasawa Islands
06 July 2020
Diane Brown | Mixed sunshine and clouds
5 July 2020
Blue Lagoon /
Manta Ray Bay
We mostly motor sailed up further into the Yasawa Island Group with head winds in the 20-25 knots. John wanted to be somewhere with no lights on for his birthday so we anchored in a protected bay at the tip of the Taviti Islands only to have three other boats show up on his special day. We were so far away from the village where everyone else anchored it really didn't bother us; but his groaning and complaining was hilarious. He made his infamous lime, orange liquor margaritas and we used the disco ball and firefly lights with music for entertainment.
We circled 360 around the island group back to the Manta Ray pass resort area where the other boats had vacated for two amazing days of drift snorkeling over the manta rays in the pass around full tides each day. I'm learning how to assemble the video of the massive blank/white marbled pattern manta ray that allowed us to hang over them for about five minutes and may get it posted soon. At first I was intimidated by the size of their massive open mouth and side fang looking swoops. I had to repeatedly remind myself that "they only eat krill". I suspect my head and shoulders would fit in this manta's mouth. A prerequisite remora was attached to the manta's underside and smaller fish were busy cleaning just inside the mouth cavern. The pass was full of fish balls and quite healthy. So good to be out at these open ocean reefs again.
Caught one small tuna on the way back North to Blue Lagoon by going outside the reef. We had several hits but I lost a couple before we reeled this one in on a squid lure. The new diving lure (John's birthday present to himself) on the hand line had no luck at all...
Very low tide on Sunday, overcast and windy coming into Blue Lagoon so I was posted with headsets for about an hour as we zig-zagged into the anchorage with limited depth visibility. Last November when we first visited the place was full of water taxi's, float planes, helicopter arrivals and resort guests. Absolute eerily quiet now thanks to Covid19. The only activity was later in the afternoon when the local boats came home from church services dressed in their best Bula shirts and skirts.
Monday morning we took the dinghy into the Nanuya Resort to see if the market was open as we are out of fresh vegetables and almost out of eggs. Due to the lack of guests and cruisers the market does not open until eleven now so we asked about a hike to the other end of island to see the Tea House Bakery we read about in TripAdvisor. The man running the fork lift turned out to be the owner of the resort and he offered us a ride up the long steep hill to the trail. He took us through his vegetable, bananas and solar farms along the way but we also saw generators. He unhappily reported that the batteries for the solar were not working efficiently and he had been advised to replace half at a time by his engineers but still needed to run the generators with 300 liters of diesel a month.
The trail initially was pretty overgrown with weeds (and bugs) we could not identify, going by even more cassava and pawpaw farm areas on the hillsides, but as we neared the top it was well trod. There is a home stay village as well as the Tea House Lady on the East side of the island who farm the "plantations" along the path. Since it was still low tide we walked the beach toward the home stay bure/bungalows playing with some dogs. An older man seated above the beach motioned us over when we said Bula and Yandra (good morning) and gave us the best blessing of the week.
He was born on the next island North which is now a private resort and returned to this village with his wife Elizabeth after retiring from the cruise ship line where he had worked his way up to captain. He loved the name of our boat and began to tell us how in his youth he had met a family from America and toured them around Fiji during their visit for three months when on their way to race in New Zealand. They invited him to sail to Auckland with them and he gained experience on the open ocean (including the use of a sextant) that later qualified him for his first job with the cruise ship.
Elizabeth offered us tea with biscuits and we bowed our head for the blessing which started us on the difference between current and cultural beliefs and challenges for Fiji. He told us a story his ancestors passed along a long story of how Fijians come from the 'lost tribe of Israel' as slaves in Egypt building pyramids when there was a big sickness that shriveled the people up so badly that they wanted to leave Egypt to find the place where the sun rises. They started out with three boats first to Africa/Madagascar where some family who did not want to sail further stayed and settled. The remaining families continued around Africa to New Guinea, Solomons, Vanuatu with some people leaving the group to settle along the way. When they reached the Yasawa Island they found what they were searching for; the place where the sun begins and named it Viti Levu or Land of the Sun. He reminded us they were quite correct as the international date line runs right though Taveuni and the country of Fiji. They left some sacred writings that had come with them from Egypt in the Yasawa's in caves and settled on the large island.
He seemed tired and told us we were welcome to return any time and to walk along their beach to return to our boat before the tide changed. It was for me an inspiring morning to hear him remind me several times, Remember Diane and John, there is one God for all of us.
The store was open and had only a few dozen eggs and no vegetables except potatoes and onions so we got one dozen eggs and some homemade banana bread since we are out of fruit for breakfast. John asked after seeing all the gardens if they had local fresh fruit or vegetables and the manager said oh yes, just give him a list and they would see what they had ripe by tomorrow mid-day! So tomorrow we plan to return to the story teller at low tide and then back to the market to see what we get. This means we don't have to return to Denarau this week for provisions and can explore further North in the Yasawa Islands.
Life is Good!