Fiji « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Hike to Na Sau

by KC2RIY, on July 22nd, 2011 (Dreamtime, Fiji)

Helen and I set off early morning for our hike along the trail to the village, Na Sau, on the south side of the island. The trail started at the SW end of Dalice, climbed up a steep hill then joined an old road that was made joining various parts of the old leper colony. From then on the path was easy going as the gradient was set for vehicles. The path had narrowed to a single track walking trail while the rest of the road was overgrown. Half way along the trail we saw some more abandoned buildings of a same age as those we’d been shown when we first arrived here. On one occasion we had a picture perfect view west over the reef and of Vitu Levu in the distance. We hope the pictures come out ok.

Eventually we reached the village of Na Sau and were greeted by Veronica who lived in the house at the trail end. Only 7 families live in this village but it has the school for the island. The children from Dalice come here on Monday’s and return on Friday. Veronica took us to the school where we met the two teachers. The children were just finishing their break and were settling down. Remarkably so as, unlike western kids who’d be larking around until the teacher came in, these students had sat down and got on with their work. We wished we’d bought something for the school as they could do with anything of help, stationary, etc.

We left the school and headed back. Veronica offered us some lemon juice which was very refreshing. The trail back seemed quicker even though we stopped to pick up some lemons. In the end it was just over an hour each way.

Heading back to the boat we shared some of the lemons with the other cruisers before stopping for lunch. After lunch Claudia stopped by from Dreamtime with her hard drives. That meant my afternoon was set sharing movies, etc. During one of the longer copies, Helen and I took our used tanks and dove the nearby coral head. We didn’t spend long as all the good stuff was at the top where we’d already snorkeled.

When I’d finished copying I took all the hard drives, theirs and ours, over to Dreamtime so they could reverse the transaction. We will pick them up this morning before we leave. Endless has already left and reported that the winds are light so we won’t be going far.

Pig

by KC2RIY, on July 21st, 2011 (Dreamtime, Endless, Fiji)

In the morning Petr and Alex from Endless and we headed to Dreamtime with all our dive gear. Dreamtime dragged the three dinghies round to the other side of Makodroga Island to our north. There they anchored and we all headed off to a bommie (coral head) to dive. Being close to high tide the seas were quite choppy. There were currents around the bommie which made the dive a bit tricky at times but all in all, with very clear water the dive was pretty good. The corals were vibrant and the fish abundant Helen felt a bit queasy towards the end so we headed back ahead of the others.

Back on Dreamtime we warmed up while we waited for the others to return. Petr, having a more powerful outboard, headed straight back to the anchorage. Raising Dreamtime’s anchor turned out to be a problem as it had become tangled in coral/rock. I ended up free diving down the descending chain to take a look. I almost got it untangled before I ran out of breath. I didn’t enjoy the 40ft ascent to the surface but I was motivated. I put on my dive gear to finish the job off, forgetting to put the weights back on which made my descent a bit harder than it should. Once I’d freed the chain from the coral I used the chain to slow my ascent.

Back at the anchorage we relaxed the afternoon before going ashore at 5pm for the cooked pig. The few villagers remaining (some had left for Suva/the other side of the island) had cooked the pig along with taro root, taro leaves, plantains and casava in a ground oven covering everything over with leaved. The pig had been dismembered and the various parts intricately wrapped in woven leaves.

The food was delicious. The pig must have led a good life as it was pretty fatty but that was all at the surface and could be removed. We’d taken a lot of beer ashore to share with the villagers which pleased them no end. We also took some toys and balloons for the four small children there. The balloons never lasted long so I was kept busy inflating others. The children also had a lot of fun chasing my laser pointer around the place.

Our general plan is to wait here for a day or two for a front that is approaching. The front bring northerlies, then westerlies, either of which will be good for a sail down to Gau which will close the distance between here and Suva. The front itself will likely bring rain so we’ll leave once the worst is past. That’s the idea anyway.

More Repairs

by KC2RIY, on July 20th, 2011 (Dreamtime, Endless, Fiji, Jarana)

I went ashore in the morning to take a look at the two DVD players that weren’t working.

First I took a look at Camili’s which was described as being in black and white only. Upon plugging it in this indeed was the case. On further inspection the disk tray wouldn’t open either so that was an additional problem. Opening it up and examining the tray revealed a problem with the mechanism which was readily fixed. I figured the black and white issue was something to do with setup for which I needed the remote control. Camili gave it to me but it didn’t work. I opened up the battery case and it was full of crud so I cleaned it out and replaced the batteries. Now the control was working but not all the keys.

The setup key worked but try as I might, using just the down and left arrow keys (the others didn’t work) I couldn’t find a setting that would control the colour. As I was trying this I was getting more and more irritated by tiny ants that were vacating the control. I looked like a few had made their home in there. I decided to try and make the rest of the control work so I squirted in some contact cleaner. This was the cue for the entire ants nest, which had settled inside the control, to vacate, eggs and all. This was a new one.

Once the ants were clear the control still didn’t work. I opened it up and tested the internal connections. There were some dry joints between some of the circuit board layers which needed fixing. This was a pain in the arse job to do with my limited tools as I had to run a new wire from one side of the board to the other and the only thing I could solder to was scraped off circuit board connections. I managed it and got the control working. One of the keys on the control was labeled P/S which toggled between PAL and SECAM. That did the trick.

I was less successful with the other DVD player. I span up ok and recognised the presence of disks so most of the circuitry was working. However, the disks couldn’t be properly read and it would give up. My best guess was a wobbly drive motor as it did make a rattle and the disks weren’t spinning smoothly and this I could not fix.

After returning to the boat and a bite to eat Helen and I went snorkeling. We first went to a tall coral head which was very interesting and festooned with fish. Two of the giant clams from the farm were nestled on the top. I managed to take a picture with one and with Helen in it to give a sense of size.

We also snorkeled a reef near the beach. Here there were many more giant clams although not so fully grown. There were also a number of old beds, presumably from the former leper colony.

While we were snorkeling Endless arrived and offered us beers when we popped by to say hello. We showered off and returned to Endless giving them the lowdown for the area over a couple of cans of NZ beer.

We separated for the afternoon. In the evening us, the Jarana’s and Endlesses all met up on Dreamtime for a pot luck dinner. There we learned that Petr from Endless had bought a pig that is now going to be cooked this afternoon by the villagers. That should be fun. Today we’re also going to pile onto Dreamtime to go around the corner for a dive or two. I’d better start getting things ready.

Makogai

by KC2RIY, on July 19th, 2011 (Dreamtime, Fiji, Jarana)

Without any coordination (bar, probably, the need to arrive at Makogai around midday) both Dreamtime and ourselves left Namena within minutes of each other. This led to an exciting convergence at the pass. We yielded to Dreamtime as we already had our fishing line out behind us and they were familiar with the pass. After the pass we diverged as we’d arrived at different conclusions as to which pass to enter the surrounding reef at Makogai. We’d opted for the NE passage while they preferred the longer route to the west passage.

The wind picked up and soon we were making 8-9 knots through the water. The swell also picked up so we changed our minds and altered course to round the atoll and enter the west passage. Later, influenced by the lee of Koro some miles distant, we changed our minds yet again and altered course for the NE passage. By the time we reached their we were out of the lee of Koro and back into the strong winds and swell but we were close enough that we felt it worth closing the gap and checking it out.

As it turned out the lip of the atoll protected us enough from the swell that it was straightforward dropping the sails and nosing into the pass. Had we been familiar with the pass, in hindsight, we could have easily sailed straight. The waters were clear and despite the overcast sky the reefs and the pass between them were quite visible.

We carried on motoring round to the bay in front of the village of Dalice where Jarana and another boat, Sentinel who we don’t yet know, were anchored.

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Once Dreamtime arrived and were safely anchored we coordinated our shore trip to do our sevusevu. In the end we agreed to go ashore at 3pm and we would pick them up. While we whiled away the time, Bill and Cathy from Jarana shared some local info which was helpful.

At 3pm we picked up George and Claudia from Dreamtime and picked our way ashore through the reef. Ashore we were met by Camili (need to check spelling) who was the village head man. We performed sevusevu offering our cava on the grass near the boat shed where they were repairing a panga that had recently struck a reef. He then took us on a tour of the area. The village is more or less a research/breeding station for giant clams on the former location of a large leper colony. The clams are being bred as the Fijians have more or less eaten the local population into extinction and the government is trying to reestablish them.

We were shown pens containing young clams and then taken to see the parents which are kept to provide the offspring. The parents were the largest clams Helen and I have ever seen.

He then took us off into the undergrowth to see what was left over from the leper colony. It turned out the colony used to house over 5,000 patients and staff so the facilities, poking out of the undergrowth, were quite extensive. There was a church, a hospital, living quarters, a jail and even a cinema. A small town.

We talked about a number of things including our trip to the Lau. Camili was delighted to learn I’d fixed DVD players and TVs there and said there were a couple of faulty units in the village. I have a job to do.

Camili took us back to the beach and invited us back for cava in the evening. Returning to our boats we stopped by Jarana to see if they were interested. Bill was in for it. After dinner we collected everyone and the five of us went back ashore. Almost everyone from the village, which was not a lot, was in Camili’s large home (part of the research station) watching TV and drinking cava. We joined them, chatting and quaffing for a couple of hours before returning to the boats.

Namena

by KC2RIY, on July 18th, 2011 (Dreamtime, Fiji)

We had a very brisk sail over to Namena including some wildlife encounters.

We had a brief glimpse of what looked like small pilot whales but they had gone by the time I grabbed the camera. We also had a booby spend some time diving and failing (fortunately for the booby) to catch one of our lures. I wondered if the activity would attract any fish.

Within seconds of the booby giving up the line took off. We’d prepared for this. Helen went to the helm to bring in the head sail and I dashed to the reel. It was playing out fast and was heading towards the end of the line. All I could do was put on more friction in the hope of slowing whatever it was down. The 80lb line snapped nearby with a loud twang. This time we got a good sight of what took the lure and line as this fish was angry. Several times, we saw what looked like a speed boat arcing through the water sending up sheets of water. At one point we saw the huge marlin leap out of the water. It was the size of a dolphin. Sorry Colin – that was the big lure gone. I don’t think I’d have ever got that beast close to the boat.

Later we had two simultaneous hits on the fishing line and hand line. Both resulted in excitement but no fish caught. The pink squiddie from town survived the encounter but the other lure lost it’s skirt and hook.

That was it for the excitement. We were able to sail right up to the island of Namena where we dropped sails and anchored in 90ft not too far from Dreamtime who had the one and only mooring buoy. For yachties (as we’re called around here) the attraction of the island is diving the reefs. The down side is a small payment each for the privilege and the anchorage is rolly. We both needed rest from the last couple of days. For me I was aching from a fall down the stairs on Friday when I slipped on wet feet. My elbow, ribs and shoulder were all feeling tender after impacting the steps so I was not feeling zealous. We decided to wait out the afternoon and decided whether to pay and stay or head on to Makogai and take our time their.

The Dreamtimes popped over on their way to diving one of the passes. They’ve been here a week as they are keen divers. They are moving on to Makogai today (Monday) as, we decided, are we. There’s a village there and walks to be had on the island, none of which are here. The snorkeling and diving is also supposed to be pretty good there too so we won’t miss much.

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