Category: Voyages

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