July 10
The sail to Fiji went smoothly. We made our entry at Savu Savu and filled out what seemed like a lot of forms. The Indian Fijians have a zest of officialdom that I think is a hangover from the English colonial days.
Because we spent a week longer in Tonga than the rest of the fleet we were about a week being their progress.
We purchased some Kava root to give to the chief of any villages we would visit and set off on our way.
We visited an island that was once a leper colony. At the same site of the leper colony there used to be a Giant Clam regeneration farm and a Turtle farm. Both were severely damaged by a recent hurricane. To see the devastation was depressing and saddening. Where houses used to be now only exists a concrete slab on which it stood. On the way into the site we caught a very large fish which we gave to the Sea Rescue organization to take to the chief of the village around a couple of bays. It was too late in the afternoon for us to get there and back safely before dark.
We visited the grave yard of the leper colony and read some of the headstones on the grave. One of them looked very fresh. It was placed a couple of years ago by a Swedish family honoring their great Uncle that had died there back in the 1800s.
While in Savu Savu we were lucky enough to meet in the bar a good friend of Curly. Curly is old sailor that has been in the Fiji area for 20 or 30 years. Because we had moored on Curlys mooring buoy and paid him his due fees the night before we left he felt ok about sharing with us a electronic copy of Curlys way points around the inner reefs of Fiji. These were very value pieces of local knowledge and expertise.
The charts of the reefs around Fiji are not all that great so having these gave us more confidence about navigating through the numerous reefs. It would be a very brave and fool hardy skipper to navigate these waters except in good sunlight which allows you to see the edges of the reefs because they do not match the charts. Some are not even marked on the charts.
We made our way to Port Denerau where we picked up Alans wife Coral. The next day we set off to explore the Yasawa Group of islands where are meant to be a highlight of Fiji. We were a week behind the others so have to move quickly. Each day would get up at about 6:00am and get under way before 7:00am provided I had a track created by our entry the previous day into the bay where we were anchored. This made it safe to navigate the reefs before the sun was high enough to allow us to see the reefs clearly.
We usually sailed about 30-35 miles each day and would reach our destination bay about 1-2pm when the sun was still high. That left the rest of the afternoon to visit the chief of the village to pay our respects and explore the area.
One of the most interesting greeting ceremonies was one with an 89 year old female chief. Her granddaughter said that she was one of only two female chiefs in Fiji.
The houses in this village are very basic like most village houses in Fiji but this village had solar panels, battery and inverter installed in each house. This gave them light and enough power for low energy 240Volt devices such a mobile phone chargers.
At the top of the Yasawa Group we visited the Caves area. The cave was the lava vent of an extinct volcano. Inside the vent was sea water which we floated on using a small raft. Looking up you could see the lava vent continuing about 200 feet above the water. It was very impressive and well worth the visit.
Nearly every country we visited has a Blue Lagoon. Fiji is no exception. Returning back from the top of the Yasawa group we stopped at Fijis Blue Lagoon for a couple of nights. It was nice to spend a whole day at one place without having to get up early and get going.
On the last night before we reached Musket Cove, which is where the rally yachts were going to rendezvous, we were looking for a place to anchor. There were reefs all along the sandy beach which prevented having a nice spot to anchor. Everywhere away from the reefs was 50 or 60 feet deep. I do not like to anchor in water this deep because if the anchor gets jammed under a rock or coral it is too deep to dive to free it. The light was good so we could clearly see the edges of the reefs. We motored very very slowly as I had my eyes glued to the depth sounder screen. Suddenly the depth jumped from 50-60 feet up to 20 feet. A perfect depth to anchor. We moved forward to what looked like a sandy spot and dropped anchor. After we had tested the holding strength of the anchor I looked at the chart screen and could see why it was shallow. I was sitting directly over a small reef. Even though it was marked as a reef on the chart it was still 20 feet deep and we only need 4 feet 3 inches. The rise of tide is only about 5 feet so we were safe. We dived on the anchor to check for any coral heads but there were none. All was well and we had we good secure place to anchor away from the other reefs by being parked on our own little reef.
Getting into Musket Cove it was great to catch up with the other yachts and share experiences. Musket Cove is a very nice location. I had my first experience of what is referred to as Med (Short for Mediterranean) mooring. This is where you drop your anchor about three boat lengths out from the dock and reverse towards the dock. Your anchor keeps you off the dock and lines from the stern of the yacht hold you close to the dock. Normally this requires the use of a Gang Plank to get between the yacht and the dock. I had looked at getting a proper gang plank but these can cost several thousand dollars. I found something that would do the trick a few days before we left Virginia. In a pet shop I bought for $120 a ramp to assist large dogs in getting into a car. It worked very well as a gang plank.
My sister Alison and her husband Brain joined us at Musket Cove as we said goodbye to Allan, Coral and Jon.
We are now on our way to Tanna Vanuatu. Getting closer to Australian where I plan to pause then pick up the next world ARC to complete the round the world circumnavigation when we get back to St Lucia in the Caribbean. Zoom will then go back to her home in Florida.
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