svbeachhouse

Category: 2011 New Zealand – Fiji – Vanuatu – New Caledonia to Australia Voyage

  • Pacific Harbor (Suva…shhh!)…..

    Dear F&F, August 27th – 28th

    We set \”sail\” for Pacific Harbor, but as it was a 90 mile journey, we weren\’t sure we\’d make it by dark, so left staying over one night in Suva Harbor, Fiji\’s Capital a possibility. It was a pretty bumpy and long ride. When we were finally able to turn and run before the wind at Nasilia Point, we realized the stop at Suva would be our best option for the night.

    Fiji is \”technically\” under Military/Marshal Law and as such, the government here wants to know everything that foreigners are doing while \”in country\”. As such, we were supposed to clear into and out of Suva if we stopped there. As we\’d planned on only staying one night, we felt that asking for forgiveness instead of permission would be the best use of our time instead of a half a day to clear in and back out of a place we\’d be for less than 15 hours! Imagine being in Los Angeles and told that you had to \”check out\”. Then upon arrival in Santa Barbara or San Diego, you had to \”check in\”. The Fijian\’s blame the British for their bureaucratic background, but I suspect keeping a paycheck in more hands is the actual reason behind the bureaucracy\’s continuation.

    The anchorage at Suva was a bit industrial, the holding very good, the wind blew, the rain came. We saw Sam and Shaz from s/v \”Yanti Parzi\” and did some quick catching up. Shaz would be leaving soon for \”OZ\”. Something about having to get back to \”life\”. Sam was trying to get some crew using \”findacrew.net\” which is how I\’d found Sandrine.

    We took the dinghy for the short ride to the Royal Suva Yacht Club where we had a few drinks, mediocre food and hoot watching old Ed Sullivan shows and a Queen concert on their big screen.

    The next morning, we made the quick trip (20 miles) to Pacific Harbor in preparation for our shark dive the next day with Peter and Diana. It would be Peter\’s birthday and Anja made him a cheesecake. YUM! We ended up sailing most of the way but to our surprise upon arrival, we discovered that Pacific Harbor was anything but….a harbor!

    Pacific Harbor as it turns out is a river, about 60 feet wide and 7 feet deep at the entrance! This was a major surprise. No facilities and the dive shop said, \”no worries\” you can anchor off our dock. Problem is, they didn\’t take into account that there was a bridge which made getting our 78 feet of mast (off the water) more than an impossibility to get there. We were going to literally tie off in the mangroves on the side of the river as it was blowing a gale out in the bay and there was no close anchoring option.

    In the nick of time, \”Charlie\”, a local live aboard diver operator, saw our plight and invited us to tie up to his dock for the two nights we\’d be there. This was a gift, as Charlie had the only dock there that could handle \”Beach House\”. The river had a current which switched with the tide and we would have to have anchored bow and stern or tied off to trees to prevent swinging.

    That night we had dinner with Peter and Diana at a lovely restaurant a short walk from the hotel that they were staying in. They took a taxi from Port Denerau (about a two hour drive) which would be our next and soon to be last stop on the island of Viti Levu.

    Tomorrow…..Sharks!

    Scott with Anja

  • Whale Ho!…..

    Dear F&F, August 22nd – 26th

    Makongai (Makongneye) Island

    The weather was predicted to get nasty while we were at Namena Island. The mooring/anchorage area on Namena was not particularly well protected so we decided to head the 20 miles to Makongai Island. With a reefed main, it was a pretty bumpy ride in the short beam sea. We arrived at the island and anchored next to s/v \”Casteele\” a family of four out of Canada.

    We went ashore on our second day and did \”sevusevu\” with Ketselle, the local village chief. He and two young researchers explained that they go up a hill (heart attack hill) and sit shifts counting the humpbacks which are now returning to Fijian waters after they were mostly wiped out in the 18th – 20th Centuries by whaling operations.

    They said they had counted 60 last year and had seen some as recently as the previous week when the weather was more settled. The whales are there in the rough weather of course, they just can\’t see them amongst the white caps. Ketselle gave us a tour of the village and the former Leper Colony facilities (see photo gallery).

    We also received a tour of the Giant Clam nursery. This was very similar to the one Cindy and I had visited last year in Aitutaki. The memories were certainly mixed.

    The next day, Ketselle took me out with the dinghy to show me the local dive sites inside the reef. There were a series of at least six widely spaced pinnacles which I locked in the GPS waypoints on so I could find them the next day. It was pretty rough, even inside the lagoon, but small Makondronga Island would give us and the dinghy enough shelter to make the dives. We\’d been told the liveaboard dive boats, \”Nai\’a\” and \”Island Dancer\” both came here once/week so we expected some nice diving.

    The next day, a 120 foot charter sailing vessel came inside and was taking two divers out coincidentally as we were leaving \”Beach House\”. We noticed a large breach.

    This turned out to be a Mom and Baby Humpback inside the lagoon. Anja\’s \”sixth sense\” was at it again! She predicted the snake to appear when we were at Cobia Island and she \”had a feeling\” about seeing a whale this entire trip. At first we got close and Mom wasn\’t ready to settle down, but when the other dinghy left, she did and Anja got her first swim with a humpback whale! About a one minute snorkel, but if you never had this experience, it\’s quite amazing. Imagine a \”bus\” swimming right up to you underwater with flukes! The mothers can weigh up to 40,000 lbs. (about 18 metric tons).

    We then did the first pinnacle dive. It was nice, but not as nice as the Chimney at Namena. That afternoon we did a second pinnacle and realized that our time in Fiji was getting short. I\’d already stayed a month longer than I\’d planned.

    The next day we would sail to Pacific Harbor and meet Peter and Diana of s/v \”Quickstar\” to do one of the premier shark feed dives in the world near Beqa (Benga) Lagoon, south west of Suva. Here we might get to see an elusive Tiger Shark, Bull Sharks, Silver Tips and more. Any of these would be a first for not only Anja, but me as too.

    KIT, Scott with Anja and a couple of humpback whales!….

  • Namena Diving Reserve…..

    Dear F&F, August 18th – August 21st

    Namena Island and Dive Reserve

    Namena Island is 20 miles southwest of Savusavu and en-route to Suva, Fiji\’s Capital City. The Moody\’s who own Namena, collect an annual $25.00 Fijian per person to use the islands dive sites and two moorings. This fee is given to the few islanders who used to live here from what we understand. When we arrived at Namena, another boat was on the mooring that we could use (the second one was too close to the reef for our length), so we anchored. At first, we just relaxed and caught up from our whirlwind tour of North Fiji and chilled out. The anchoring conditions were not ideal and we were getting into less than 7 feet of water occasionally. As such, we were happy to pick up the mooring on our second full day at Namena.

    The next day we went ashore where we met Nigel. Nigel is primary dive guide and confirmed that the Moody\’s do not allow outside visitors to go with their dive operation. Apparently, The Moody\’s owned a resort in the San Blas Islands of Panama and were burned out by drug smugglers and hence have a bit of bias about outsiders. We did not meet Mr. Moody, but Nigel told us the story and apparently he will only take his own guests from his resort. Most days their dive boat isn\’t close to full, but it\’s just another of those stories from the South Pacific.

    Nigel was very helpful and said if necessary we could follow the dive boat to any of the sites. As we had very good GPS coordinates provided by Collin of \”Koro Sun Divers\” in Savusavu, we went it alone. The current can be quite strong at \”North Save-A-Tack Pass\”, home to the dive site, \”Grand Central Station\”.

    We hit the site just before slack high tide and found it to be a winner – as advertised. It even had a bit of a \”train station\” feel to it, but that\’s not why it\’s called Grand Central Station. A large sand flat about 65-90 feet deep goes right to the square edge of the reef. There, the drop off is straight down to around 300+ feet. The edge of this cliff was amazing. Gray Reef sharks, schools of barracuda with 400+ animals, large jack schools, cleaner station pinnacles and more. We saw small schools of yellow fin tuna too.

    It was pretty rough out there, but the dive was well worth it.

    That afternoon, we did the other main entrance to the reef, \”South Save-A-Tack Pass\”. Here we dove \”The Chiminey\’s\”. This was a classic \”Cindy Dive\” and of course I could think of little else while swimming around the five pinnacles all within sight of each other. There we swim through\’s, schools of 10,000+ bright orange Anthias, Square Spot Anthias, Lion Fish, Clowns and many species of anemones. Schools of Unicorn Fish (yes they have horns like unicorns!), COLOR, COLOR, COLOR and….it was easy diving.

    Anja and I were even able to \”school\” inside the barracuda school here and watch endlessly while large Jacks came in to have their gills cleaned by the small cleaner wrasse. These wrasse are the sea going equivalent of a dental hygienist.

    We were able to hit the tides right again the next day and did both dives a second time. Both sites, just as good the second time. On our second day, Sally and Dave from s/v \”Sidewinder\” out of Laguna Beach, California did the dive out of their dinghy as well. They had a guide from the Cousteau resort with them and it was even rougher. We all had an adventure and a good time doing Grand Central Station again.

    Tomorrow we head off to our next island, \”Makongai\” (Makongneye), home to one of the South Pacific\’s former Leper Colonies and now a Marine Research Station…. KIT, Scott with Anja

  • Viani Bay, Savusavu and Farewell Sandrine……

    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!

  • Rabi Island…..

    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

  • Tavenui to Yancua/Cobia Islands…..

    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

  • Bay of Islands – Mbvatu Harbor & \”Back to Matangi\”……

    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

  • Bay of Islands – Mbvatu Harbor & \”Back to Matangi\”……

    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

  • 2011-08 \”The White Wall\” – Rainbow Reef – Viani Bay, Fiji

  • 2011-08 \”The White Wall\” – Rainbow Reef – Viani Bay, Fiji