Vuda Point Marina 17 July

Entering Vuda Point Through Reef

Looking out of Marina

Looking in to Vuda Point Marina

On Monday we reluctantly up anchored from Sawini Bay and motored the few miles around the corner to Vuda Point. This is a land-locked marina and a great place to safely leave the boat. Tony was leaving for his usual monthly trip to NZ and Mary, who needed to stay in Fiji, wanted to be in a safe anchorage. Vuda is unlike any marina to be found in NZ. Basically it is like a giant, circular, swimming pool dug out of the ground and concreted. Then the external reef has been blasted and the whole area flooded. So it is tidal. The boats are placed bow in to the wall and tied with mooring ropes, which need to be adjusted so that they are loose enough for any state of the tide. Then ropes are attached to mooring buoys at the stern. The boats are only separated by fenders and so the inhabitants of the boats have to be friendly to each other because they are so close. There is a wooden platform at the end of the concrete wall. This is not floating and so it can be quite difficult getting on and off the boat, depending on the state of the tide. However, it is very sheltered from the prevailing winds and no waves. It is also a convenient place for getting to and from the airport and for shopping in Lautoka, a F$30 roundtrip.

Moorings. Windspirit in Foreground

The problem here is that there are flying cockroaches which need to be kept out of the boat. The other is that there are some cheeky little birds which live in the sugar plantations and fly right in to the boats to steal fruit. So insect screens need to be kept in place. We are pleased that we bought sun filter sides for our bimini and that keeps a lot of the pests out. But we have to close up the boat when we are not inside.

Tony spent the day working on the boat and removing the offending steering pump so that he could take it back to NZ. Mary did loads of washing and washed down the boat. It is great to have a unlimited water supply.

Just before Tony left to catch his flight, he went to get his trousers out of his wardrobe and found to his dismay that everything in there was covered in mildew. What a bummer!. So after he left, Mary spent the day washing all the wet weather gear, which must have had some salt on them and held the moisture, and also washed out the wardrobe with bleach. The dampness is a real problem.

There is a resort next to the marina, First Landing and for F$5 per day, casuals can use the swimming pool. This will be well utilized over the next few days by the 1^st Mate. Also lots of reading shall be done.

Makongai to Lautoka

Makongai

Our overnight trip to Makongai was not pleasant. The wind varied in strength from 20-25 knots, and direction, from on the nose to up our stern. It was impossible to sail and though we tried, we ended up motoring most of the way. It was a very dark night, with no moon, punctuated by lightning in all directions and quite a bit of rain. We were very pleased to finally get in to the glorious bay at Makongai. But before having a well-earned rest, we had to visit the leader of the village and make our Sevusevu (offering of Yangona/kava). This offer was accepted and fortunately we were not asked to partake of the kava, which has a slightly muddy taste and leaves a numb feeling on the tongue and lips. Tony was asked if he could fix a light in the house. That was not too difficult for Tony.

This island is government owned and was, until 1969, a leper colony, when it was closed down and then became a government research facility. We took a tour of the old ruins but there is not much left except the jail and graveyard. However it was interesting. There are only four families in the village but there were a very large number of children. So the fertility rate must be high. The villagers all seemed pretty healthy. We wished we had taken our camera ashore because we saw a man pulling a baby along the ground in what would appear to be a trolley. However, it was a rectangular plastic container cut in half with no wheels pulled by a string, much like a sled. The baby looked perfectly happy. We have not seen one pram or pushchair since arriving in Fiji. We also saw a giant clam nursery and a tank with five baby turtles in it. Once the clams and turtles get to a decent size they are released to the ocean. Very little money has been available for any of this work since the Fiji coup and so the facilities are very neglected.

We had a great time snorkelling in the bay. It is amazing the size of some of the clams. Apparently the Japanese are very partial to the muscle, which sometimes weighs about five kilograms. Not far from the shore we saw several old hospital iron beds under water. Guess that is one way of dispensing of unwanted items!

We had planned on leaving that day and travelling to Levuka but with a wind warning out and rough seas, we decided to stay put. Levuka is the original capital of Fiji and is said to be like Fiji was fifty years ago.

The next day, Monday 7 July, the weather was worse with predicted winds of SE, 25-30 knots average, with gusts to 40 knots, which was forecast to get a bit worse and last at least a week. Given the deterioration of the weather we had to regretfully forsake our visit to Levuka and plan a rough but largely downwind sail over the top of Ovalau (the island where Levuka is situated) and head westward. We contacted the catamaran, Emmanuel, which had left a couple of hours earlier and they informed us that the forecast was correct but that they were coping OK. After an “exciting” trip we reached the island of Naigani where we were able to get shelter from the worst of the wind and also the seas were calmer inside the reef. The skipper was finally enjoying the vacation but the first mate was struggling. We had decided to have a swim but the sea was still rough and did not look inviting. So we had an anchor dram and a rest. We set the anchor watch and did not get much sleep that night.

The next morning, Wednesday we set off early into much the same conditions as the previous day in the company of Clint and Adair on Emmanuel (47ft catamaran), but the time in unsheltered waters was less and after about two hours we sailed in to the moderately sheltered reef area which surrounds the main island of Veti Levu. The trip across the top of Veti Levu is a little over 100 miles. We did this over three days as it is necessary to travel between 9:30 am and 3:30pm in order to be able to see the reefs, finally arriving at Lautoka on Friday 11 July, in time to clear customs. We were very appreciative of the many GPS positions which gave clear runs for us through the reefs on our trip which we supplemented with visual navigation as the clearance from some of the reefs is not much! The charts are not accurate and these positions helped us tremendously. Apologies to all those traditional sailors.

Millionaire Territory North of Lautoka

Lautoka, with a population of 43,274 is the second largest city in Fiji and is not a very pleasant place to anchor, but regulations must be followed. The sugar mill, which has been operating there since 1903 belches smoke and soot continually and makes a terrible mess on the boats. We were pleased to leave there as soon as we could and headed five miles SE to the beautiful, sheltered Sawini Bay where we dropped anchor. We slept so well after our long and stressful passage.

Lautoka

Rabi Island and Stay

The Usual Form of Transport Rabi Style

Friday 4 July 2008

On Wednesday 2 July we decided it was time to move on and set sail for Rabi, an island to the north of Vanua Levu. The British Government bought this island after WW.II, for the Banabans who came from Ocean Island in Kiribati. Their island had been desecrated from the phosphate boom. The population is now about 4500 people living in four villages. Their language is Banaban and not Fijian although the island is administered by Fiji. We anchored in beautiful Katherine Bay on the south coast and within minutes an outrigger canoe arrived and the local invited us to his house to drink kava. We had an interesting afternoon with them. Fortunately there was a young lady there who spoke reasonably good English because our Banaban consists of two words, hello and thank you. Those two words are not enough to have a good conversation. However, people did have a little English too.

Cooking The Rabi Way

The Bus and Road

The next day we needed to visit the town of Nuku where we needed to check in with the local police. This turned out to be an all day affair. First, we had to motor out dinghy over to the shore and bring it up on the bank to make it safe for the day. Then we had to get a ride on a long boat to the other shore of the bay. This was necessary because the road to the village had been washed out and can’t be repaired until earth moving equipment can be brought to the island from the mainland on a barge. Nothing happens quickly here. The power line to the village has been down for over six months now. After the

boat ride there was a short walk up to the road where we boarded a flatbed truck, which had been converted to a bus. This truck carried as many people as it needed. At times there were over 40 people, without counting babies on the ‘bus’. The road was unbelievably bad with ruts and mud and fords. The trip took 1½ hours to travel about 5-6 miles. We finally arrived at Nuku, saw the police and filled out the required form. Then we had 1½ hours to kill. There is certainly not much to do and so we went for a walk, looking at the houses, gardens and hospital before finally catching the very full truck back to our boat. By the time we arrived back we were sore, dirty and very tired.

Today, 4 July we will have a quiet morning and then do all the preparations for our trip back to the south coast of Vanua Levu and an overnight voyage to the island of Makongai where we plan to stay a couple of days before heading for Levuka, the old capital of Fiji. We have been told that there is some very good snorkelling at Makongai and also a lot of turtles. We are also looking forward to visiting Levuka where we need to check in with Customs. We don’t want to arrive there on a Sunday or we would need to pay Customs overtime rates.

Cats, Coconuts and Machete in Kitchen