Category: 2011 August Blog

Dear F&F, August 13th to 17th…

We went directly from Kathryn\’s Bay on Rabi to The White Wall at Viani Bay. Anja and I felt we hadn\’t had enough diving lately and wanted to go to a known winner. It was so calm I felt comfortable anchoring near the site and we took the dinghy and tied up to the buoy at the White Wall. The buoy was about 10 feet deep, but we had it locked in on the GPS in the dinghy so we just tied off to it.

It was spectacular! THE BEST we\’d seen it. We were enthused. Jack was with another catamaran and waved hello. We stayed the night and Jack went with us the next day. Another two dives on the White Wall would be our last. The first dive, I took the still camera (see photo gallery) and the current was RIPPING!

Yesterday we\’d done \”four laps\” of the site. Today, only one and slowly as we were getting pushed pretty hard underwater. Between dives, a bit of moisture had condensed inside the camera\’s dome on the housing. The second dives photos suffered because of it. The current was thankfully much less.

We stayed the night and the next day sailed all the way to Savusavu. It was the first time we\’d brought out the spinnaker this season; it was over a year since I\’d last flown it.

We arrived to find Joan and Chuck from s/v \”Tender Spirit\” and Alene of s/v \”Migration\” in harbor. Bruce was called away back to Los Angeles for a family emergency.

We shopped, re-fueled and got ready to move on to our next dive adventure at Namena Diving Reserve 20 miles to our southwest en-route back to Western Fiji.

Sandrine had decided she needed to move on and took the Ferry back to Suva the night of the 17th. We wish her well and know she will enjoy the rest of her stay in Fiji before returning home to Hawaii in the Fall.

More adventures to be sure… Scott and Anja….Farewell Sandrine!

Dear F&F, August 11th to 13th…

We left Will and Yancua Island and decided to head to Rabi (Rambi) Island, a short 20 miles away. No wind, so we motored and went through the reef at Yanuca where we almost stopped for an adventure dive, but didn\’t. It was getting late and we weren\’t sure about the charts as we approached rarely visited Rabi. No, there are no Rabbi\’s at Rabi Island!

The trip was interesting through the Florida Passages and past Cape Texas! A little Yankee influence from the WW2 era we suspect? As we went by Cape Texas, we found the charts to be completely inaccurate. Where there was said to be 60 plus feet of water (18meters), there was maybe 5 feet of water! We had to take up valuable day light and find a way through the reef system. There was exactly one place we could get through, it was 100 feet wide. It took an hour and a half detour and made me glad we had not stopped for that dive!

We got the WW2 feeling and had read a great deal of history about the people of Rabi Island. In the early part of the 20th century, they were bamboozled out of their islands riches….GUANO! That\’s right, fertilizer quality phosphate from centuries of bird deposits. Their island was called Banaba (aka: Ocean Island), located just off the equator in southern Micronesia, part of the Gilbert Islands.

During the war, the Japanese enslaved them into forced labor camps. After the war, they were decimated and the British Govt. bought Rabi (Rambi) island from the Lever Brothers company and with the permission (and money and arm twisting) the Fijians allowed the move.

The Banaban people speak Gilbertese. Here it\’s \”maori\” instead of \”bula\”. They have a common religion and most of the locals speak Fijian, less English.

We anchored in Albert Cove (Albert was the guy who bamboozled the Banaban\’s so we\’re not sure how he got a cove named after him?). But, it could be that it was just a common British name? There is also Elizbeth Cove and Kathryn\’s Bay. Maybe British Royalty was the inspiration?

We\’d heard there was a good dive site here, which we didn\’t do, but the gals had a lovely snorkel. The people were very nice and they too drink Kava so they\’ve adopted the \”sevusevu\” ceremony from the Fijians.

From our night and day at Albert\’s, we went past the main town of Nuku which had a huge Church and headed into Kathryn\’s Bay.

The charts were way off here too. According to our chart, we were anchored about 200 feet \”on land\”! We decided against going ashore here where we heard disco music on Friday night and where there was another GIGANTIC Church. We were anxious to get moving to the West as we were starting to feel the cruising season ending with Vanuatu and New Caledonia yet to go and only two and half months to cover all that territory.

We enjoyed our Banaban experience, were glad we came and sorry we didn\’t have more time.

We upped anchor and sailed for \”The White Wall\” at Viani Bay!… Scott with Anja and Sandrine

Dear F&F, August 5th to August 10th

We upped anchor from Navivivi Village at Qmena and went back to Wayevu on Taveuni for food and fuel. On a whim while talking to Bruce and Alene of s/v \”Migration\” on the VHF radio, we decided to go to Yanuca Island 20 mile to our north. We set sail and a glorious FAST ride it was. We were doing 10-11 knots with two reefs and the staysail.

We arrived and were not comfortable with anchoring off the village so we went around to the back of the island where the most well kept school building I\’ve seen in the South Pacific was located. It just blew and we eventually moved to Cobia (Thombia) Island. This is an extinct volcano crater which had a very nice hike, internal lagoon in the crater and good diving just to it\’s north on \”Budd Reef\”.

We picked up the mooring we were told was okay to use and it holds a boat normally that\’s 5 times our weight, so I felt comfortable with it. That afternoon we went with the dinghy to explore and found a spot where we thought we could \”scramble\” up to the top. This was much more than a hike!

Anja led the way and we finally go to the ridge top which had an obvious trail. Goats were abundant, the views spectacular.

Anja, who had lived in South Africa and has some very wild snake stories remarked, \”This feels like snake country!\” Snakes are very rare on the islands of the South Pacific but do exist. Thankfully, none poisonous. Two minutes later, Anja found a 3 foot long (1 meter) Pacific Boa Constrictor. (We ID\’ed it on the internet).

We took lots of photos (see photo gallery). Rain, wind, rain wind. We tried to see if we could anchor three miles back at the village. No luck. The next day, I dinghied into the village reef and picked up Will. Will is the son of the local Chief and he took us out to Budd Reef for two dives. Very nice. We picked up several sea cucumbers for Will as he makes a fortune from them. One, which we threw back, spewed a white spaghetti like substance all over me and Anja just laughed at me. Will said it wasn\’t a keeper type, so back it went.

That afternoon we moved to the main village and had a lovely evening\’s sleep in calm water. The next morning we did \”sevusevu\” with Will in his Father\’s stead as \”Dad\” was out fishing.   We asked Will what \”Yanuca\” (Yanutha) meant.  He said, \”Bad People\”.  We asked him why and he didn\’t know?  We think it might have been from when the locals all were waring and eating each other.  He just smiled a Chesshire Cat smile!….

Rather than stay on, we decided to head toward rarely visited Rabi Island (Rambi). No, there are no Rabbi\’s on Rabi Island..:-)))

The people of Rabi aren\’t even Fijian!… Stay tuned…. Scott with Anja and Sandrine

Dear F&F, July 28th – August 4th….

We upped anchor around 9 am for the 8 mile trip to Mbvatu Harbor just around the point to take the hike up to the top for the overview of the Bay of Islands.

We had previously entered our lovely anchoring spot over a shallow reef at high tide. Well, yours truly didn\’t check the tide and when we attempted to leave by the same route we \”kissed\” the reef with the starboard dagger board. I was look out and it was my mistake. Anja was following directions at the helm. I came back to the helm and she lifted the daggerboard and we quickly drifted off. Disaster averted! Very small scrape on the bottom of the board, \”no harm, no foul\” as they say in basketball.

We motored around to Mbvatu Harbor and picked up the mooring that was there. Just one. A very protected harbor, but difficult to anchor in as it\’s just deep right up to the sides. We went ashore for the hike over to the Bay of Islands and quickly found a lovely set of very nice wood stairs to get us to the top of the plateau. (See photo gallery).

From there we wandered around a bit until we found a local who was so nice, he actually took us to the over look which was quite a bit out of his way. The views were spectacular, (see photo gallery). We spent an uneventful night at Mbvatu and decided the next day to take advantage of the lovely sailing conditions and head back toward Matangi Island. Despite the fact we could have gone to the southern Lau. It was losing appeal as the diving might be seriously compromised by the recency of Cyclone Thomas and the anchorages and charts didn\’t seem that appealing.

We had a lovely sail for most of the day and arrived back at Matangi Island resort as it was getting dark. The winds had just quit and the anchoring spot we had before put us very close to two boats from the resort on moorings. We had to re-anchor twice during the night, once we got right next to one of the boats. The last time we anchored, was okay, but then the wind started to come up strong from the North. Our anchor was stuck good the next morning and Anja and I dove it out. Our primary lift bag tore, but we had plenty of small ones for the assist. As we wanted to stay on try the dive at Shark City, we moved to Qmena Island 4 miles to the West. Here we met s/v \”Equinimity\” with Roger and Sally aboard. We were in a lovely protected area, but then it started to RAIN!….

The gals went snorkeling in the weather breaks and we also met Rick Van Veen, a conservation biologist. He was erradicating unwanted \”American Iguanas\” from the island. His normal job is protecting iguana\’s in Jamaica. He does this project for the Fijian Govt. and may come back next year. We met him the day before he was to leave Navivivi Village. He\’d become a bit of a local celebrity to the villagers and when we went to do our Sevusevu ceremony the next day, they had \”Chief Rick\” perform it. (See photo gallery). The villagers were lovely, we wished Rick a good trip (he has relatives in Chicago and was headed there!).

We gave up on \”Shark City\” and decided we would head to Wayevu back on Taveuni for fuel and shopping tomorrow… Stay tuned.

Scott with Anja and Sandrine

Dear F&F, July 28th – August 4th….

We upped anchor around 9 am for the 8 mile trip to Mbvatu Harbor just around the point to take the hike up to the top for the overview of the Bay of Islands.

We had previously entered our lovely anchoring spot over a shallow reef at high tide. Well, yours truly didn\’t check the tide and when we attempted to leave by the same route we \”kissed\” the reef with the starboard dagger board. I was look out and it was my mistake. Anja was following directions at the helm. I came back to the helm and she lifted the daggerboard and we quickly drifted off. Disaster averted! Very small scrape on the bottom of the board, \”no harm, no foul\” as they say in basketball.

We motored around to Mbvatu Harbor and picked up the mooring that was there. Just one. A very protected harbor, but difficult to anchor in as it\’s just deep right up to the sides. We went ashore for the hike over to the Bay of Islands and quickly found a lovely set of very nice wood stairs to get us to the top of the plateau. (See photo gallery).

From there we wandered around a bit until we found a local who was so nice, he actually took us to the over look which was quite a bit out of his way. The views were spectacular, (see photo gallery). We spent an uneventful night at Mbvatu and decided the next day to take advantage of the lovely sailing conditions and head back toward Matangi Island. Despite the fact we could have gone to the southern Lau. It was losing appeal as the diving might be seriously compromised by the recency of Cyclone Thomas and the anchorages and charts didn\’t seem that appealing.

We had a lovely sail for most of the day and arrived back at Matangi Island resort as it was getting dark. The winds had just quit and the anchoring spot we had before put us very close to two boats from the resort on moorings. We had to re-anchor twice during the night, once we got right next to one of the boats. The last time we anchored, was okay, but then the wind started to come up strong from the North. Our anchor was stuck good the next morning and Anja and I dove it out. Our primary lift bag tore, but we had plenty of small ones for the assist. As we wanted to stay on try the dive at Shark City, we moved to Qmena Island 4 miles to the West. Here we met s/v \”Equinimity\” with Roger and Sally aboard. We were in a lovely protected area, but then it started to RAIN!….

The gals went snorkeling in the weather breaks and we also met Rick Van Veen, a conservation biologist. He was erradicating unwanted \”American Iguanas\” from the island. His normal job is protecting iguana\’s in Jamaica. He does this project for the Fijian Govt. and may come back next year. We met him the day before he was to leave Navivivi Village. He\’d become a bit of a local celebrity to the villagers and when we went to do our Sevusevu ceremony the next day, they had \”Chief Rick\” perform it. (See photo gallery). The villagers were lovely, we wished Rick a good trip (he has relatives in Chicago and was headed there!).

We gave up on \”Shark City\” and decided we would head to Wayevu back on Taveuni for fuel and shopping tomorrow… Stay tuned.

Scott with Anja and Sandrine

Dear F&F, July 28th – 30th

We moved the boat back to the \”Bay of Islands\” where we had briefly traveled through on the way to Dalconi Village. It is a limestone group of small islets that is very similar (on a smaller scale) to the \”Rock Islands\” of Palau. I have vivid memories of the Rock Islands where on our honeymoon, Cindy and I swam in Jelly Fish lake. Unbeknownst to us at the time, there were also salt water crocodiles in Jelly Fish lake!

The limestone islands are heavily eroded from the constant action of waves, current and tide. They look like large rock mushrooms. Navigation amongst them is very tricky.

We found two ideal anchorages and tucked in for the expected heavy southeaster to arrive over the next few days. We had made arrangements with Sam & Shaz of s/v \”Yanti Parazi\”. ASIDE: The boat name sounds Italian doesn\’t it? Trust me it\’s not! I got the story from Sam – you\’ll have to ask me, I\’m not going to write it here.

Sam & Shaz (Shaz is a Kiwi/OZ nickname for Sharon) arrived with \”Ba\” the local fisheries researcher as well as \”Samo\” and our driver. They were going to take us diving on the north side of the outer reef area near the pass entrance.

Ba had to do some fish counts of a particular type of grouper so for the first site, we went to his research area. It was deep, but interesting. Anja found a lovely nudibranch (sea snail) with electric yellow and black about 2 1/2\” long (7 cm). The second dive was just Anja, Shaz and me. Shaz was doing very well, it was only her 8th open water dive.

This time we had two curious white tip reef sharks whom Anja sort of played with the entire dive. They\’d come close, she\’d sort of chase after them and this little game of tag went on and on. The site was Trigger Rock (Thank you Angela for identifying it for me!).

\”Trigger Rock\” so named as to the plethora of trigger fish was in somewhat better shape than the first reef. Cyclone Thomas two years ago apparently beat the Lau Group up pretty good and the reefs looked it. So we saw the \”clown triggers\”, the white tip reef sharks and lots of other usual suspects. The vis was a bit stirred up by Fijian standards, but quite good relative to anyone else\’s!

After a lovely day\’s diving, we were treated to trips to the \”Underwater Cave\” and \”Garre Ni Bosa\” (The Cave of the Gods).

The limestone in the Bay of Islands is soft and over the centuries lovely chambers have been created in the stone. The \”Garre Ni Bosa\” (Cave of the Gods) was the most interesting. A very short swim of about 3 feet (1 meter) got us into a 60 foot high (20 meter) by 80 foot long (26 meter) chamber. It had high cathedral like ceilings with stalactites. The light in the afternoon was perfect and it gave the feeling that the \”Gods\” (if not crazy) we\’re having an artistic day when this natural beauty was created. The \”underwater cave\” required a short 10 foot swim (3 meter) to enter. The water was very calm and still. The chamber was perhaps 10 feet (3 meters) high and 15 feet (5 meters) by 50 feet (15 meters). The water was about 20 feet (6.5 meters) deep. The water color was a beautiful light blue from the afternoon light coming in through the entrance. There was a bit of positive pressure to the ears as the tide was rising against the sealed chamber.

There were apparently other caves including the \”lovers\” cave and the \”signature\” cave. The signature cave was right next to the boat, so we did that on our own. The signature cave is so called as it\’s easy to get into and over the eons of time people have carved their names and initials into the rock walls. We didn\’t. The lovers cave was a bit more challenging, but aren\’t all loves?… Very sharp rocks. It would definitely require mats to partake of it\’s legendary name.

After a day of peace to ourselves, s/v \”Kira\” and s/v \”Mandalla\” anchored in the cove next to us. Sandrine had her second \”experience dive\” with me. Anja and Sandrine did some major kayaking around the cove. We\’ll move to Mbvatu Bay soon and hike up to the overlook of this bay. The bay is only a half mile away as the crow flies but perhaps 7 miles by boat as we must negotiate/navigate around the bays and islands. The photos should be stunning. KIT, Scott with Anja and Sandrine

Dear F&F, July 25th-27th, 2011 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dalconi Village Anchorage (Pronounced Dalthoni)

We arrived with s/v \”Kira\” at Dalconi Villages large anchorage. S/V \”Kira\” with Detlaff and Beata aboard have been coming to this island for three years. We also came upon Sam & Shaz on s/v Yani Paratzi out of Florida by way of New York. Shaz is a nickname for Sharon in Kiwi and OZ. Who knew? Apparently, one should be careful about saying the name of Sam\’s boat very fast in Hebrew as it means something nasty. I\’ll never tell!…:-)

We went ashore and were greeted by \”Samo\” and his lovely wife whose name I can\’t pronounce. We were taken to the home of the Assistant Village Chief. Here, we sat on the floor with \”Aroni\” and his Father by the same name. We presented our Yangona (Kava) and were officially accepted into the village. We now could ask for anything and of course they too could ask for anything. The ceremony was…\”ceremonial\”. A bunch of words in Fijian, a bunch of clapping and then we sort of interviewed each other. Lovely all in all. We went to Samo\’s friends house where the official visitors book was kept and \”Serelli\” gave us a detailed explanation of the Fijian politics surrounding the permit process to the Lau.

So here\’s the long version. Apparently, a \”chief\” who is related to the Tongan Royal Family, was taking all the cash for the permits and pocketing it. He ran off Tonga once he was discovered. Here he is being protected by the Royal Family. The Fijians want him back for stealing the money. The Tongan/Fijian guy is of course now denouncing the Fijian Military Government as a bunch of thugs. If he were to return to Fiji, we\’ve been told they\’d shoot him on sight. The Fijians and the Tongans are having a bunch of \”issues\” between the two nations but have no fear, the Kiwi\’s and the Aussie\’s won\’t let any of this get out of hand. So this is more than just a bunch of \”jungle political stuff\”. The locals in the Lau of course were not seeing any of the \”economic redevelopment money\” and were upset. They told the Prime Minister of Fiji they wanted to raise the fees about 1000%. The PM told them no way, the tourists (almost all from yachts) won\’t come at all and that will defeat your purpose. AND, the PM is right. They only get 10-20 boats per year here. The permit process has apparently been abandoned even though they issued us one. No fees were charged, but our permit said the local villages could impose a fee which would be negotiable. Apparently, Dalconi is the only village that has ever directly charged a fee. It was about 75 USD for the entire season. We paid it. Another boat refused to pay it. He left. So, the village wants tourism, but will have to walk a bit of a tight rope to benefit from it. They would like the permit process to be abandoned in favor of a local fee. They also want a Customs office on Vanua Balavu and make it a port of entry which makes incredible sense if you see the sailing logistics of Fiji. It would bring at least 100-150 boats here a year if that were to happen.

So, stay tuned. Who knows what the outcome will be. In the meanwhile, it\’s a beautiful island with lovely people. We hope to do some diving with the local \”Fisheries Man\” named \”Ba\” tomorrow or the next day. We will move the boat to the \”Bay of Islands\” which we saw when we arrived. It is simply stunning to see. KIT, Scott with Sandrine and Anja