Fiji « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Welangilala

by KC2RIY, on July 8th, 2011 (Fiji)

We left our anchorage in the Bay of Islands shortly after first light. We swung by Da Capo and threw them some lemons before motoring north through the bay and then out to Qilaqila pass. We hoisted the main in the lee of the island and put out the fishing line as we traversed the pass.

Upon clearing the reef we turned towards Welangilala and put out the head sail. At this point, feeling hungry, I put on some toast. No sooner had I put the bread on the heating tray did something hit the fishing line. I rushed out but whatever it was got off the hook before I got there. Vowing to check the lure when I finished breakfast I went back to my toast. However, before I’d finished toasting the bread we had a second hit on the line and this time I was able to bring in a perfectly sized 4ft mahi. Helen looked after my breakfast while I brought the fish in, clipped it to a line then bled it.

After finally eating my toast I went back to cleaning and filleting the fish. We had enough meat for 4 big meals.

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful. We had to jibe to avoid Williamson Reef and went wing on wing for a while to give us a better sailing angle onto the pass into Welangilala. We sailed on into the cut and right up to the island where we dropped the sails and anchored. With the wind from the south east we could not find clear sand that was in the shelter of the island so we had to settle for a rolly anchorage.

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We rested a while and around 3pm we went ashore to explore the island. There is some work going on here as a small resort, we understand, is being built. We first visited the old light house which is essentially a rusty iron tube standing on it’s end, held up by steel wires with a treacherous looking rusty spiral staircase running up inside. We then followed a track through the center of the island which was surrounded by countless papayas. We came upon some workman’s huts and could hear some activity in the distance so we turned around and returned to the beach. We then walked around the circumference of the island. Of much interest were the nesting booby’s. The chicks looked bigger than the parents and the parents were flying around squawking their annoyance sounding like dinosaurs.

When we returned to the dinghy we were caught up by the two maintenance men on the island. We had a brief chat. They offered us papaya which we thanked them for but declined as we had enough aboard.

Back aboard the boat Helen cooked up an excellent chilied mahi dinner which I couldn’t eat enough of. We watched a movie before retiring.

We’ve decided not to stay here any longer so we’ll be heading off west today. Taveuni is 45nm to our west. We may make it that far. The wind seems to have shifted towards the east a little more overnight so that may require us putting in a few more miles.

Leaving Daliconi

by KC2RIY, on July 7th, 2011 (De Capo, Fiji, Saggitarius)

Before leaving the village we made one final trip ashore to say our goodbyes and to drop of the photos we’d made. Then it was the pleasant but short trip back to the Bay of Islands where we anchored near Sagittarius and De Capo. On arrival we visited both boats sharing our surplus bananas, papayas and bok choy from the abundant gift from the village.

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In the afternoon Bob and Lynette from Sagittarius took the older kids from Da Capo out to see the nearby caves and we joined Adrian in his dinghy. We knew there were some around but didn’t know where they were. The first could only be approached at mid tide. There was a ‘porch’ where the two dinghies could be parked where we disembarked and walked into the cave. Using torch light we could see loads of echo locating swallows and a few bats flying around the roof of the cave. The second cave had to be swum into. It wasn’t so big but was pretty cool to briefly explore.

We ended up on Da Capo for the evening and somehow drank more than we intended – how does that happen? We had a good evening getting wrapped up in some heated economic discussion. Given our state of minds I’m not sure if anyone learned anything useful.

We are definitely leaving here shortly. Our goal is Welangilala 27nm to our north where we’ll stay for a couple of nights.

A Very Special Evening

by steve, on July 6th, 2011 (Fiji)

We both went ashore just before 10 to say our hellos and for me to get stuck into some more of the TVs and DVD players that were piling up. I had a fewer successes than not but it all made a difference. I had to keep on stressing the need to keep their gear away from dirt and to keep it all covered when not in use as dust, dirt, droppings, cobwebs, spiders and whatnot were mostly the problem. In one TV we found an old bees nest.

The day flew by. Helen had stayed aboard Dignity after lunch while I carried on through the afternoon. When evening came we washed and put on our better clothes and went ashore for the party. Biu presented us a mat she’d made and personalized weaving in the name of the village and Dignity. The mat had a pair of small fans sewn into the upper corners. This was very special.

Before continuing the evening we had to sort out some confusion as Adrian, Lucy and the kids from De Capo hadn’t turned up having not been invited by anyone from the village. Everyone thought someone else had let them know. So I headed back to their boat with Samu to make sure they knew. Explaining that it was Fiji time, it was ok to wait for them to arrive before the evening continued.

Once they arrived we were given three performances by the village children. We’ve seen far better presented and rehearsed performances elsewhere but nothing has ever come close to the personal touch as this was for us and not some tourist performance. We thanked the kids by giving them lollipops, a rare treat for them.

Then we were invited to eat. They’d prepared chicken curry, some excellent land crabs with yams and other veges. It was all very delicious. As is the custom, we ate before they did.

The cava bowl had already been on the go but for the rest of the evening Samu and others played guitars and ukulele while singing Fijian love songs. The cava and singing kept flowing even after the extended time on the generator ran out and we were down to torch light. The evening ended with all the adults present singing us a farewell song. It was all very moving. I gave a little speech to thank them all for their kind hospitality and to let them all know that what they gave us in terms of their open doors and welcome was something that simply doesn’t exist in our country.

We finished the evening back at Isireli’s home with a cup of tea.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7WHZfZ4-Ww[/youtube]

This morning I woke feeling more of the effects of the grog (cava) than I did last night. We’ve prepared some photos of the children dancing with the very limited supplies of photo paper we have aboard and will take it ashore shortly. Eroni and Biu have popped by leaving us lots of fruit and vegetables. They enjoyed seeing the pictures we printed. We gave them one of the collages Helen made of them all.

The winds are light and we’ve had a slow, grog induced start to the day so we’ll probably go no further than the Bay of Islands again today and leave the area tomorrow.

We came out this way in search of something different, something off the tourist trail. We found it. I hope we’ve made a little difference to the villagers of Daliconi. They’ve certainly made a difference to us and we will treasure these memories.

Off to the metropolis

by KC2RIY, on July 5th, 2011 (Fiji)

At 8am I went ashore to pick up Aaroni who was going to travel with us to the seething island metropolis of Lomolomo. Once I had him aboard the dinghy we returned to Dignity to pick up Helen and then off to the next village around the coast. The wind was blowing from behind us so the trip was dry but it did not bode well for our return.

We walked through the village to the truck stop where we sat upon cinder blocks to await the transport. While we waited, other villagers from Daliconi arrived having walked the distance. We felt lazy and wondered if we should have walked rather than take the dinghy.

Soon the truck arrived. If the buses previously traveled upon were considered basic, this was more so. Our transport was essentially a large flatbed truck with a tarpaulin cover with a couple of slots to see through. The back was quickly filled with villagers and us and off we went to Lomolomo.

Lomolomo comprised two stores, a school, a hospital, a post office and a bakery which had been closed for a month due to a problem with their generator. The place was bustling (we supposed) due to the fact that the monthly supply ship had arrived the previous day. Folks were collecting sacks of flour, sugar and rice for their villages and the shops were full (to the extent this word could be applied) with stuff.

We took a short walk through the village to look around before returning to the shops to pick up some staples and some biscuits for today’s party/feast. We snagged some fresh bread that had appeared from somewhere and ate some there and then.

We eventually took the same truck back to the village where our dinghy was having spent an hour and a half in Lomolomo. More than enough to see the highlights. Our return trip back in the dinghy gave us all a thorough drenching confirming our thoughts that we should have walked to the truck stop.

I’d been in two minds about the weather. The forecast called for overnight westerlies. Eroni had suggested the waves could pick up to 3ft which wouldn’t be fun in an anchorage. Our plan was to move the boat behind some nearby mangroves. However, when I spoke to some other villagers I learned that the expected waves were far lighter and a move I deemed was unnecessary. While we’d been away in Lomolomo another yacht had arrived, Da Capo, crewed by ex-Brits (now Kiwis) and their 3.5 children (one in the oven). We’d briefly met them before in the Bay of Islands and it was nice to meet them again and see their 3 small children playing with the locals.

Back on the boat I chased UPS in Fiji to find out what has happened with our charger. It turned out they needed my approval to change the delivery address to the customs office in Savusavu so having given that it should now be on it’s way and should be there when we get there next week.

In the afternoon I went back ashore to start work fixing a few more things. The DVD player that I’d fixed previously had failed again that evening and sadly I could not figure out why. I had thought that an intermittent problem would have been traceable and fixable but I was not successful. Another DVD player that had the front smashed in was fixable and that I managed to sort out. A third was beyond repair with what looked like salt water corrosion to the main circuit board.

I was able to do all this work as someone had brought a portable generator into the village. Working during daylight is so much better. There were a couple of TVs left by the time it was getting dark. I’ll do these this morning.

I took Samu and his wife Lakour back to Dignity as they’d missed out on the previous invitation last weekend. It was nice spending time with them and hearing them open up a little about goings on in the village. We gave them a few of the things we have aboard for the folks out here as well as the two fish I’d caught while we were in the bay.

Helen and I finished the day with hot dogs and soup in keeping with July 4th celebrations back in the USA.

Today, as mentioned before, we’ll go ashore so I can take a look at the TVs and whatever else is place our way. This evening is the party/feast. We understand the villagers, including the school kids, have been practising their dancing and that Samu was planning to go out last night at midnight to collect sand crabs for us. We’re very much looking forward to this.

Back to Daliconi

by steve, on July 4th, 2011 (Fiji)

Around 10am we raised the anchor and headed back down to the village of Daliconi.

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Along the way we picked up the vodafone tower and were able to connect to the internet for the first time in a week. The world started flooding back in and it wasn’t all too bad. Better still, the bandwidth was better than it was previously so once we were anchored I was able to sort a few things out. Among other things, I booked our flights from South Africa to the Uk and ordered the toner for the school here. I checked up on the four Euler problems I’d worked on while in the Bay and found my answers to be correct.

In the middle of the afternoon we went ashore to say hello and find out about the ride to Lomolomo we’d heard goes on Mondays. We got the details from Aaron about the truck before heading up to Samu’s to say hello and drop off a few more DVDs. We learned from them both that the village is planning a party for us on Tuesday so we’re definitely hanging around for that.

We then went on a walk to stretch our legs. The only exercise we’ve had for the last week has been snorkeling and kayaking so it was good to be out and about.

We declined the offer of church as we don’t normally go and it was all in Fijian. Apart from the singing we’d have struggled to stay awake. So after our walk we retired to the boat for the evening.

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Welangilala

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A Very Special Evening

Off to the metropolis

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