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A kind of a hike

by KC2RIY, on June 24th, 2011 (Fiji)

While the rain poured down outside, I spent the first few hours of the day ordering boat parts using the internet over the local vodafone connection. We’ve been getting used to using the very slow GPRS rate and here it’s worse. It takes a long time to do anything.

Once this was all done we went ashore to meet up with Samu and hopefully be pointed in the direction of a walk. We mentioned we were keen on seeing a view so he first insisted on taking us up to the local peak. This involved a lot of climbing through vegetation and getting to a point where we were high but no view. He pointed out that when last year’s hurricane came through the view was all clear. The land repairs itself quickly so we headed off to a clearer peak. After a few slips and slides we were back down on the road and soon a truck passed by and gave us a ride part of the way. Then it was back to battling through long scratchy grass to a point where we overlooked the bay and the village. It was a good workout in the humid air that followed the morning rainstorm.

We walked back to the village and past the primary school. Back at Samu’s home his wife had cooked us lunch – a fish curry. As is their custom they let us eat our dinner without any sign of showing any desire to eat theirs. We discussed what the school needed and toner for their copier/printer is in short, difficult and expensive supply. We suggested we go and take a look at the printer and look up prices on the internet.

On the way back to the boat we stopped off at Eroni’s who had a non-working TV. I had offered to take a look at it so sitting in a beach side hut with the cool wind off the sea helping to counter the humidity I took the TV apart. It was full of cobwebs and at least one cockroach. The only (and very slim) hope I could offer was to clean the TV using the vacuum on the boat, check all the connections and once the shoreside generator came on at 6pm I could test for dry joints.

We took the TV back to the boat wrapped in an old sou’wester. There I opened it up again, chased out the last cockroach (into the sea) then vacuumed and cleaned it out. We sorted out a few spare DVDs that we have as this is one of the villagers’ few entertainments.

Around 5:30 we both went back ashore and spent time with Aaron while we waited for the power to come on. When it did we took the TV apart one final time and plugged it in. It showed some signs of life but my guess is that the high power circuit that drives the tube was defunct as I could hear no high pitched whistle.

Before departing a neighbour invited me over to look at his TV/DVD combination which had had no sound for 6 months. There was a cabling issue but fixing this did not restore the sound. He also had another DVD player which was dead. While looking at that the sound came on the TV – perhaps a loose connection. Declaring the second DVD player totally dead I went back to look at the TV. To get the back off and check for loose connections turned out to require a tool noone had ashore and we might have on the boat. There is hope for this one. If I can find the right tool I can go back this evening and see if there is a loose connection or dry joint that will restore the sound.

With the kind hospitality of the village and the challenge of a few problems it looks like we’re staying for a few days. The villagers have offered a farewell feast when we go with food and dancing. We’re looking forward to that. Sadly, the villagers have a funeral to go to too in a nearby village. A couple of weeks ago three of the locals (not from this village) took off in a small boat to a nearby island to collect a can of propane for the ice making plant. It was supposed to have been on a ship that had just traveled from Taveuni to that island but the people responsible for putting it on the ship had been late and missed the boat. The three guys took it upon themselves to go all the way to Taveuni to collect the propane. On the way back they were hit by bad weather. Only the boat was found. Sad.

Category: Fiji | Here is my comment

Daliconi

by KC2RIY, on June 23rd, 2011 (Fiji)

In the morning we motored around to the west side of Vanua Balavu and anchored off the small village of Daliconi. We motored almost all the way. For a while we did have the head sail up to assist but this obscured our view of the reefs ahead so we soon furled it again much preferring to see where we were going.

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We ate lunch then rested through the hottest part of the day eventually going ashore with our bunch of cava roots around 2:30pm. A lady met us on the beach and took us through the village to the chiefs hut. About 5 of the village elders joined us including the chief to perform sevusevu. In this case an assistant performed the ceremony. (Here they have a local visitor ambassador called Samu who usually greets visitors. He was away so his assistant performed the ceremony). Again, a long speech in Fijian and much clapping which later we learned we could join in. We’ll try next time. We then sat around chatting about where we’d been on our journeys and a little about the island.

We were next invited to have tea with one of the younger looking elders called Isireli at his house. He turned out to be 77 and put his good looks and health down to a cup of squeezed lemon every day before breakfast. We spent a while with him learning more about each other. We learned, among other things, he was with the British Navy for a while and witnessed three of our atomic bomb tests based out of Christmas Island back in the late 50s. We drank a couple of mugs of tea and were given a bunch of ripe plantains.

We were taken back to the beach by Samu’s wife where we were given some bananas. By now the kids were out of school and surrounding us and the dinghy. So out came the back of toffees and they all got once each. They seemed delighted.

Back on the boat we had a very pleasant evening. Outside of high tide the area is very calm but with a slight breeze. The stars were again out in all their glory. The sunset was spectacular.

We hope to go for a walk today although right now it’s pouring down so it may be a bit muddy, we’ll see. We also hope to meet Samu. Some good news is that we now have tracking info on our charger and so far it’s reached Hong Kong. We’ll probably rendezvous with it early July in Savusavu.

Category: Fiji | Here is my comment

Back to the lookout

by steve, on June 22nd, 2011 (Fiji)
In the cool morning air I set about sorting out our bilge pumps. The problem one was in the starboard hull but that side is much harder to work in. So I first took the good pump out of the port hull and put it in the starboard. I then put the two remaining pumps in the port hull connected so that the good switch on one pump triggered the pump on the second and backup pump.
As we wanted to see the view from the lookout with the sun behind us we set off while it was still early leaving the cleanup from the pump work till later. This time we took the kayak to the boat landing on the south side of the bay we are in. There were two ways up to the plantation, the short way via 271 stairs and the long way via a grass track. We took the stairs which snaked their way up the side of the cliffs through the dense trees.

Back at the plantation we found our way back to the path to the lookout and were treated to a new version of what we’d seen the day before. This Bay of Islands does indeed look like the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.

Heading back we took the longer route back to where we’d beached the kayak and then paddled back to the boat where we remained for the rest of the day. After wrapping up the pump work and putting everything away it was the usual relaxing and reading in this very tranquil bay.

The only downside was an attack of small flies at sunset as we ate dinner. We pulled out the repellant candles, etc. and soon had them sent off.

This morning we plan to move around to the Bay of Islands and hang around there for a few days. There is a village to the south side which we’ll probably go to first and then go exploring some of the anchorages over the next few days.

Category: Fiji | Here is my comment

Bavatu Harbour

by KC2RIY, on June 21st, 2011 (Fiji)

As planned we started the day with a trip in the kayak. We ended up paddling all the way around Qilaqila Island to the west of our last stop. The swell was coming in from the North East and we timed it perfectly so that high tide was when we were paddling into the swell coming over the distant reef. We got a good work out. We made one stop for a rest on a tiny beach set into a dark tree filled gap in the rocks.

We rested the remainder of the morning before going for a snorkel just before midday. It wasn’t that good. Although we saw some reasonably sized fish, the coral was sparse and the stinging jelly fish larvae were not. So we cut this one short and headed back to the boat for lunch.

After lunch we up anchored and headed round the corner to Bavatu Harbour. We had received a formal invitation to this island from the plantation owners and we wanted to meet/greet them. The harbour itself is calm and delightful. There are some interesting sandstone cliffs near us giving us clues to the geology of the place. Enormous fruit bats circle our corner of the bay and the deep whooping sounds of barking pigeons echo around us.

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The plantation owners house (when they’re there) is set into the NW corner of the bay. Right now there is a splendid ketch stern moored to their jetty. A few of their relatives from Tasmania are over here to visit briefly. We met them when we went ashore to find the owners and/or their representative, Biu. They let us know one owner, David, was up in the plantation in the saddle of the hill which could be reached by climbing the nearby path.

So up we went and it certainly was a climb and a half. In the afternoon heat we were dripping with sweat by the time we reached the top. The plantation itself was a fenced off area that had been more or less cleared of undergrowth and left with palm trees which were the crop. In the field were horses and a small pony. At the far end was a dry stone wall enclosed area with a few small buildings. It really felt like we’d stepped back in time.

After asking one local where David was we crossed the field and entered the smaller enclosed area. There we met David and Biu and signed their guest book. We chatted for a while. They invited back to their home in the bay in the evening and had one of their workers show us the way to the path that took us to a lookout on the west side of the island. We walked this further trail and after another steep climb reached the lookout over the area they call the ‘Bay of Islands’. The view was awesome but being mid afternoon the sun was low down and created a lot of reflection. We decided we must go back one morning. There is an easier trail up to the plantation. We can take that.

Back at the boat we were desperately thirsty as we hadn’t planned on climbing anywhere. We gulped down some refrigerated soda water and then a slow beer. We sat back in the cockpit taking in the surroundings as the bats came out in force.

At 5:30 we headed over to the house and met David and his relatives. We took some wine and beer as gifts and shared some with them. David spent some time with me sharing information about some of the other islands in the Lau group. We have plenty of options. We were invited to dinner on the boat which was a delicious salad and spaghetti bolognaise. When we were tired we headed back to the boat across the bay. With a clear sky and no light pollution the night sky was as clear as it could be.

Category: Fiji | Here is my comment

Qilaqila

by KC2RIY, on June 20th, 2011 (Fiji)

Feeling a little tired from the previously interrupted nights sleep we upped anchor in semi-darkness and were on our way out of our anchorage by about 6am. Departure had been slowed by mud on the chain which had to be washed off to prevent it getting all into the windlass and chain locker.

We headed south and this time had a 1.5 knot current in our favour. We our own GPS tracks to reference leaving the anchorage and the tracks of another boat that had headed south once before. Using these in conjunction with constant eyes on the surf and the depth gauge got us out into deep water safely where we turned to port and headed for the Lau Group.

At this point the winds were still very light and we were motoring. By the time we cleared the east end of the pair of islands, Qamea (Nggamea) and Lauthala, the wind picked up to about 10-11 knots from the NNE. The seas were fairly flat. On a scale of possible weather conditions this was up there. A couple of extra knots of wind would have been better but this made for an easy day. Not able to sail quite fast enough we gave the boat an extra knot from the batteries, switching over to the generator to top them up from time to time. Because of the module failure charging took longer than normal but it worked out.

Along the way we passed close to the island of Naitamba and the Malima Islet and there surrounding reefs. We kept a distance of at least 1nm as space for maneuvering should we need it. By 3:30 we were making our way into the Qilaqila (Nggilanggila) Passage at the NW end of the island group surrounding Vanua Balavu. The passage was wide and had very visible range markers to guide us so we motor sailed in dropping the sails in the slighter calmer water inside of the reefs.

The light was good but now fading so we decided to take an anchorage sandwiched between the islands of Qiliqila and Vanua Balavu. The anchorage was stunning and we had it to ourselves. The rocks around us are quite different to those of the Fijian islands we’ve seen so far. We’ve heard that there may be Niue-like cave formations somewhere here so we’re quite excited.

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After making sure the anchor was safe and tidying the boat we shared a beer then took a short skinny-dip together to cool down. It’s been a long time since we last did this. We cooled down in one way and warmed up in another.

Dinner was barbecued ribs (our last batch from NZ) followed by a movie. We had an early night and both slept very, very well.

It’s sunrise (stunning of course) and we’re contemplating our day. We’ve decided to go exploring in the kayak followed by some snorkeling late morning when the sun is higher. We’ll move the boat around the corner early afternoon with the sun behind us and formally check-in.

Category: Fiji | Here is my comment
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