Falanga The Mushroom Islands



Yup The little islands look like mushrooms....kind of...sort of....maybe.

Anchor down just inside the pass in Fulanga, in the southern Lau, the eastern most islands of Fiji after an almost perfect weather window for heading in the wrong direction of the normal trade winds.  With the sun shining, off we went with Erie Spirit to snorkel the pass we just drove through. Lots of little fish with an occasional big one and a turtle swimming like something was chasing it and yup pointy edges that we happy made it through.   After that a glass of champagne and a relaxing dinner, then a good night’s sleep! 

More Mushrooms

Next day we moved to the village anchorage were we went in to do our Sevu Sevu, with Erie Spirit and another boat that had just arrived from Savu Savu, Local Talent, with Dean and Sabina on board.  Once at the village we put on our Sulus (long skirt or wrap) and asked around for Joe and Tara, who were Mystic Moons hosts last year.  We had pictures and a letter for them from Mystic Moon.  After a friendly hello, we exchanged some stories about John and Kathy.  Then Joe took us to see the chief, grabbing a sulu off a line on the way.  The chief is in his 80s and doesn’t speak English, so his son, Simon, is there to interpret.  We pass on our Waka and $50 and are welcomed to the village.  We are then get assigned a host family, it got a little confusing as they thought that Erie Spirit and us were on the same boat, there was no way 2 girls would be on their own boat so they must be crew of Erie Spirit.  So we had tea with Tie’s family Erie Spirit’s host , and then he realized that yup 2 girls can be on their own boat, so then we were assigned our own host family, Bis and Joanna as each boat has a host family.

Bis and Joanna are a young couple, both have degrees from the university of the South Pacific.  Joanna is from the village and Biz is a city slicker from Suva, they married a couple of years ago and are enjoying village life.  Sunday sees us at church, yes, again!!  The service was all in Fijian, so all we can say is the singing was lovely!!  They were probably 30 or 40 cruisers there, a greater number than the villagers!!  After church we went to our host’s house for lunch.  We were served fish, two different ways, both awesome and coconut water, so Karen was happy. To soak up the sauces we had coconut bread cooked in an earth over, lovely!! Interesting that we were given cutlery, our hosts used their fingers, then passed around a bowl of water after to wash our hands.  No dinner that night, way too full!! Do they normally eat that much….WOW!!!

Joanna took us clamming!  Awesome, she was very successful, Cheryl was also productive, I found a few as did Mark, Susan found 1.    Since you have to float in the water and find the little cracks in the sand where the clams are breathing let’s just say after 2 hours in the water we were FROZEN TURDS!  So we dropped Joanna off at the shore and went back to our boats to warm up.  We cooked a bucketful of clams and made clam fritters,   we then took them over to Erie Spirit for the feast of our bounty.  Cheryl picked up Bis, Joanna and Tie and we had clams as fritters, clams boiled and dipped in garlic butter and a sea weed salad a la Interlude(we call the sea weed sea grapes, not sure what it is really called.  Poor man’s caviar?).  Lovely.

Next low tide we went crabbing, at least Mark, Susan and Karen did, with Cheryl staying on the boat as the once a month delivery barge anchored right in front of Local Talent and us a little too close for us. Karen, Mark, Susan and Tie took the dinghy two bays over to where Tie has his farm.  We went up and down and onto Mangrove flats.  Tie caught a mangrove crab right away, a BIG one!  Tie caught it with his bare hands, crawling in the cave with half of his body into a ‘cave’ to pull it out.  We then spent the next hour or two wandering around the mangroves, where there were rocks behind for the crabs to hide in.  I had a Bahamian spear with me, while I saw several crabs, none large enough to kill, so they got to live another day, to grow.  Then as we were walking around we saw an amazing sight it was the migration of thousands of small crabs with large red claws, quite a sight to see.

Tie with dinner

On the way back Tie pick some Cassava, the root of a tree somewhat a cross between a hard yam and a hard potato.  Tie showed Susan and I how to make a basket to carry our Cassava and Papaya back to the dinghy.

We picked up Cheryl and went to Erie Spirit.  The crab was cooked, Tie peeled the Cassava, then Susan and I cut it up.  Mark cooked it as pan fries, making it very tasty.  We had made a salad, so once again we had some nutrition.  Another feast yummy

We had Joanna and Bis over for lunch.  Phad Thai was served, with fish.  After a second helping for our hosts, the Phad Thai disappeared.

We moved over to the sand spit anchorage to see what was there.  We walked the beach with Susan at low tide and saw some amazing turquoise pools and white sand beaches; we walked from one end of the beach to the other, just another lovely day in paradise.

Mark on Erie Spirit has to be back in the States for work, so they moved on.  Our playmates were gone! What a great time catching up with them but we know we will see them again real soon.

One day in the village in between rain and wind the village had an inter village competition:  volleyball, singing and dancing.  We watched some great volleyball being played by the villagers both men and women…boy they are good, then it was our turn to play a bit it was truly an embarrassment.

Being good cruisers we listen for weather everyday on the SSB when we don’t have Wifi so as we had been listening on Gulf Harbour Radio, an SSB net run but a retired meteorologist, who gives an awesome weather summary.  (on 8752 at 0715 our time)  So we found out Moondance was on her way.  And then we heard Moondance on the VHF, saying they are at the pass waiting for the tide to come in so we waited and waited and waited.  They made it in but they got lost and went to the wrong anchorage!  So we had a laugh about that, (yup they even said they wondered how they made it to Fij). So with plans for them to move over the next day to where we were as the forecasted was for the winds to pick up and we had hunkered down by the village as it was the most protected anchorage in Falanga.  And boy did we get wind and rain.  Moondance finally made it over, two days later along with all of the other boats in the other anchorages.  We took them into the village for their Sevu Sevu and show them around and as we passed Joe someone grabbed him a Sulu off the clothes line and he took Moondance off to see the chief.

One day in the village we made poor Tie teach Cheryl how to make a basket.  You see the Fijians make these baskets out of palm fronds.  They use them to carry everything.  Last year we had one made by Sepo at Paradise and put fruit in it.  It seems to us that the fruit lasted longer in the baskets.  While, Cheryl was successful and Tie still has fingers, but it was close, the question really is would Cheryl finish the basket before Tie ran out of patience.  So now we have two baskets holding our fruit, one made by Cheryl and one made by Karen.  Tie was a great teacher….Cheryl was an okay student but need more instruction for sure. 

Right over left or is it left over right??????

So with new playmates we had dinner on Moondance and played 42, a domino game.  We had Doug and Carla over for dinner and played more games! They are such good company it was sad when we had to move on!

Next stop:  Vanua Balavu, in the northern Lau

The Dreaded Pizza

What can change your course or plans.  The weather.. new information…a piece of pizza?  What?  Cheryl made pizza, not unusual on Interlude but then she bit down and broke a tooth.  Oops, so off to Suva we go.

Instead of heading the next to the southern Lau, to island called Falanga, we are off to a dentist 50 miles away in the capital city of Suva. We chose to go to Lami just a short bus ride outside Suva, where Tony, the owner of Vuda Point and Copra Shed Marinas has some mooring balls.  Karen called him and he said sure go ahead and use the mooring balls if one is free and gives Karen the caretaker, Sonny’s, number to see if one is available.  Yup we are in luck. We called Sunny when we were close, as it is Saturday, he had left for the day, but gives us some details and we are fine.  Cheryl had written to Ian on Summer Spirit and he contacted some people in Suva to get a name of a good dentist.  Cheryl has an appointment for Monday at eleven so all is good.

Sunday we go for a walk, after finding out the place to leave the dinghy which is behind the police boat!!  No problems the gentlemen are lovely.  We walk into Lami, a nice suburb of Suva.  As it was a Sunday we could hear the singing from all the churches in the area and we even lucked into a make shift local market, on the street.

Like all cruisers we had some parts come in but we didn’t get it in time when left Vuda so we heard a friend of a friend was going to Vuda and heading to Suva so arrangement where made.   As it turned our delivery person is the one who gave Ian the name of the dentist a good friend of both Colleen and Ian on Summer Spirit and who is currently looking dog sitting Koli, previously introduced as Wiggle Butt.  So we met up Nirmala lived in Lami, or so we thought and so she did until two weeks ago!!  Anyway we meet up with Nirmala and her daughter Angel, and instead of just passing on the goods, we gabbed for a couple of hours and made plans for the weekend if we were still in Lami.

Monday we headed into Suva, a short taxi ride.  We locate the building with the dentist and get there an hour early.  No issues, the dentist had a cancelation and Cheryl was done, before she was scheduled to go in.  There she stood at the reception with her tooth in hand, or rather the rest of the tooth in hand and a prescription.  We fill the prescription and head back to the boat. Now with another hole in her head…hummm

We had met a couple diving in Kadavu, Gail and Don.  We phoned to say that we were in Suva, certainly sooner than they expected to hear from us.  Anyway, we arranged to have dinner at their place on Friday.  Gail has done a lot of travelling and figured that one of the things we would want to do was laundry.  So in the end, we had lovely company, a lovely dinner and clean laundry!!  Heaven.

It looked like we had another weather window to head to the Falanga so we provisioned on the Friday and then it window slammed shut.  Okay we are in Suva, there must be things to do!!  Lets call Gail and Don.  Oh, Victoria Wines is doing a wine tasting, awesome.  And Gail and Don have been before, all we need to do is see if Cheryl is up for it after all it is only a day after she had her tooth pulled.  The night was great fun and good wine to taste, yup even for toothless.

We are in Suva, so of course we must go to Cost u Less, but really once or twice is enough.  We went to Cost u Less before the dentist.  Then 2 days later we saw a movie, Futureland, actually quite good and of course since Cost u Less is by the movie theater visit number 2.  Then we went to Sunday Jazz at Bad Dogs restaurant beside Cost u Less  with Gail and you guessed it we went in to Cost u less.  Okay 3 times is enough we need to get out of Suva.

Then Karen got the bright idea she wanted to see rice paddies and after searching the internet found a study about rice growing in Fiji.  Gail is selling a friend’s car, but not before she takes us in search of rice.  While we had a lovely day, we didn’t see and rice paddys.  Talked to several people at several government agricultural sites around the east end of the island.  Talked to a man who had been growing rice, but the government never fulfilled its side of the deal, and the land has been let go fallow, so no rice paddies but a lovely drive anyway.

Saturday we had dinner with Nirmala and Angel.  We went early so that we could be part of the cooking process.  Karen was very happy, got to help, got to make roti, had great company, great food and were sent away with leftovers for a very hardy lunch the following day.   

So I am to roll this thing and make it round not the shape of Texas ...hum I need some more work on this.

Moondance arrived in on Tuesday, yes there was a free mooring.  They had a very rough passage, parked just inside the reef at 3 30 in the morning, coming into our anchorage the next day.  After some food and a nap Carla and Doug joined us for a walk into Lami and then we took a taxi to the Royal Suva Yacht Club.  Karen was staring at a lady, finally said “where do we know you from”.  The answer, Erie Spirit, it was Mark and Susan who we had spent some time with in Panama!

While it seemed like we really did have a weather window, so we left on Wednesday afternoon for Fulanga along with Erie Spirit.  The seas were lively for the first few hours, then we sailed and motor sailed for 18 hours and then took the sail down and motored the rest of the way, a swell from the south west, no wind.  Took the pass into Falanga just after high tide, in the slack time, experienced no current.  Just the way a passage should be!!

 

Finally Falanga Southern Lau

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyclone Season in Fiji

Interlude's home for Cyclone season.  The one with the brown tarp on the right is Interlude

In the pit

We had decided to get the deck repainted by a different company this cyclone season, so from the end of Jan to the end of Feb we lived in the marina’s Cabin and Cottage and then on a friend’s boat Summer Spirit,  oh the gypsy life.  Karen went to Canada the middle of Feb to Mid-March while Cheryl stayed around the marina supervising the paint job and doing odd jobs off the boat.  Since cooking on our boat was not an option we ate at the restaurant a lot.  Good food, but for tooooo long. Cheryl had the menu memorized as she had eaten there every day while Karen was in Canada. Karen finally convinced Cheryl that we could go on Interlude and get things off that could be worked on off the boat to do off the boat projects.  So Karen sanded and varnished our floorboards.  Cheryl did the last coat when Karen was in Canada, took several last coats as people had to see if the varnish was dry by touching the boards, or a bird dropping or 2, or dust.

Karen hard at work sewing

Since we didn’t go on Interlude but we wanted to be around to supervise the work, we ended up spent a good deal of time helping our friends, Ian and Colleen on Summer Spirit. It is a big steel power boat.   We helped paint, which includes sanding, fixed things and even hung pictures so that they didn’t move underway.  And in the end Cheryl spent two very hectic days finishing the swim platform on Summer Spirit, literally the day before Colleen’s family arrived!  Working on Summer Spirit was good for us, gave us something to do, a place to be and deepen our friendship.  We played cards many evenings and had many lovely dinners, particularly Sunday roasts!  We would have gone insane if not for Colleen and Ian, oh and their cute little Koli, which we nicknamed Wiggle Butt Humps a lot Wells!

Wow, Canada was cold.  Arrived on a crystal clear morning, -23 degrees C, with wind chill of -32!  No problem, my brother Bruce picked me up at the airport with a Tim Hortons coffee and my ski jacket, life is good.  I spent most of the time with my brother, the primary purpose of my trip, with time to see many friends and family.  Thank you all for making time to see me, it means so much. As usual I came back with full bags and just like magic the stuff just seems to disappear in every nook and cranny on the boat “not so much”.   Basically you have to rip the boat apart to stuff things away but it does disappear eventually.

Another highlight of the cyclone season was the morning coffee clutch, we would solved the problems of the world each morning and over then drinks each evening solve more world problems.  There was Swimmer Jim, Ed on Time Out, Luis on Sorcha, Tom on Tanga, then Nick on Borealas (boat being renamed). The Save the World Gang.

Eventually in Mid-March people starting to come back to their boat and off course like Karen brought bags full of boat stuff, so we arranged a swap meet for the marina.  This time we sold more than we bought.  As always if becomes quit a social affair.  It is amazing how much stuff we stow, somewhere deep in the bilges of our boats.

We put Trouble, our dinghy together, found a leak and then treated it with a sealant, like that for a car tire.  Then painted it with a product, Tuff Coat, Cheryl found on line.  Trouble looks new and is holding air!!  It would be nice to get 2 more seasons out of her, even though she is about 14 years old!

For Easter the marina held a Dinghy race, since Troubles was not quite ready for her premier, Karen joined up with Dustin on a hard bottom dingy and Cheryl joined up with Elizabeth on Proximity on Allie’s rubber dingy….There were 4 dinghies in the race; 3 hard rowing dinghies and one soft rubber one.  If you have ever rowed your rubber dinghy you know what it is like.  But all was good, Karen and Dustin came in first and Cheryl and Elizabeth 3^rd.  After celebratory speech from Dustin, the prized rum was passed around to all the competitors.  A fun day for sure.  And yup Cheryl and Elizabeth did win something, the best dressed, after all it was Easter so of course you need a bunny and an egg.

Cheryl Aka Bunny and Elizabeth Aka Mutant Egg

Exciting stuff: The Job list for this season.

Varnish and paint everything downstairs.

Install new water pump and water tank.

Wash old water tank. Ok, then had to change the main water line as it was too small and clogging from the forward tank.

Clean water maker lines.

Paint Transom, after replacing the two aft port lights. 

Install new lights downstairs.

Put boat back together.

Install new head sail.

Life raft re certified.  This was way cool we actually got to see the raft inflated and hope that that is the only time we see like that but it was great to get a look see.  It is probably the one item on the boat you buy but don’t know what it looks like.

 Engine work, the oil change and coolant change and transmission fluid change and fuel element change, and rust work and cleaned the pulleys and did the gapping.

We sanded and painted the bottom, 3 full coats!

Actually it was 4 page excel spread sheet of jobs and yup it all got done and now the new list starts! 

                                                                Interlude looks good.   

All new stuff ready to go in the water

                              And then into the water!  No issues. Yippy

As we step into fall, the start of the sailing season, the best part is not the work, but all your friends coming back!  Proximity, Buffalo Nickel, Don, Bella Vita…  Though this was sad too as several of the boats are moving on and we are spending another season in Fiji, but we know that someday our paths will cross.  So bye for now.

After a day at the dock at Vuda and few more goodbyes mostly to the staff who have become great friends.  We moved all of 8 miles to Port Denarau marina as there docks are easier to get on and off the boat, did some last minute work and provisioning, and some play time.   A group of us from Vuda got together to go Zip lining, the owner of the zipline told us that most people over the age of 50 only go around once while by then we had gone around 3 times he said the record for the place is 4 times so not to be out done by the young wiper snappers we went for a 4^th some went for 6.  Plus we hiked to a waterfall, yup who said we are old.  It was a great day.  


Look no hands...yup that is Cheryl

Okay now we are ready to leave the dock.  But a Chilean wine tasting is in 2 days…..okay we have to go! We met up with Buffalo Nickle, Stan and Val and Summer Spirit Ian and Colleen for a lovey evening of tasting the grapes of Chile, yup someones has to do it.  Yummy

Then it is really time to leave the docks after a quick breakfast with Carla and Doug on Moondance who we will see out cruising with us later, our first stop anchorage of the season was Momi Bay.  While it would have been a short trip to Robinson Crusoe, the thermals in the afternoon make it a nasty last 15 miles, so we spent a lovely night in Momi Bay and carried on the next day.  As we were leaving Momi Bay, Karen no sooner had the fishing lines in and she caught a Walu!  36 inches. Karen was doing the happy dance and doing her WALU cheer. !  Awesome.

In Robinson Crusoe we booked for theSaturday night dinner and show, while after we got our Lurikuri marina membership, $1 Fijian for life and you get 10% off drinks!  The dinner was roast pork and beef with local trimmings, lovely.  The show was amazing, fire dancing, fire walking and Polynesian dancing!

Next day Dustin (Karen’s Dinghy race partner) came into the anchorage, with plans on joining us in Kadavu but the timing was not right for him and his guest so off we motor sailed to Kadavu, home of the astrolabe reef, the forth longest barrier reef.  We stopped the first night in Vunisea Station, the largest village in Kadavu.  Funky getting in, only 1 of the 4 marks on the chart was present.  And yes, it is surrounded by reef!  We then moved onto Naqara Bay on Ono.  As we passed the Ono pass, yes Karen had the lines in, we caught a yellow fin tuna!!  Our first yellow fin.  SUSHI SUSHI…After putting down our anchor we went into the village, to do the Sevu Sevu, had a tour and told them about the fish and that we would like to give them some.  They suggested that we take what we wanted and leave them the rest.  So Karen cut out a good chunk and left them with 15-20 pounds of fish.  We flagged down a local boat to take it in as it was low tide, with big smiles and thank yous from the guys on the boat, we knew our fish was going to be appreciated in the village.

Now it time to blow some bubbles, Mai Dive picked us up at the boat and took us to Alacrity Rocks just 3 divers, sweet.  It was very nice to be in the water again and it was a very gentle dive with lots of little fishes to play with and very little current.   But we do have to say that it has gotten cold already.  Yup we are wimps, so much for being Canadians.  We moved anchorages, to Kavala on Kadavu as we are forecast to get some bigger winds and it is more protected.  We had fun raising the anchor as we were of course wrapped around a couple of bommies or rocks, welcome to Fiji! The anchor was raised without Karen having to go in the water, BONUS.   We are tucked in very nicely in Kavala Bay surround by mangroves!  We did two more dives with Mai dive, both sides of the Naigoro Pass, very nice and once again very little current but no big fish so we meandered along both sides of the pass wall check out all the corals and little things that live in the little holes and cracks on the walls.  We had a lunch at the resort, should have taken a picture, it was so beautifully presented.  Fish on a bed of potatoes on a bed of water crest with a tomato and topping on top, lovely.

Look closely it a little crab waving at you

Today we tried to do our Sevu Sevu here.  We went to the village but the cruising guides have it wrong, it is not a Methodist island, rather Seven Day Adventist so today is the Sabbath and we have to go back tomorrow!  It was lovely though; all the children were out, helped with the dinghy, and showed us to the chief’s house.

And that is it for now as we wait for a weather window to go the southern Lau.

Quack Quack Continues sort of !!!

A quick check on boat projects, sign a contract to have the deck repainted and booked a trip to an eco-lodge near Suva.

Hopped into a taxi to SUNNY Lautoka, then the express bus to Suva where we arrived in a torrential rain storm…..what is it with our vacation plans and the rain?????  After a quick run, sprint....splash ... sprint...splash to the store across from the Suva bus depot to buying fruit and cheese, we took a taxi to our home for 4 nights; Colo-i-Suva resort, an eco-lodge not far from the capital Suva.  Let’s just say we arrived at reception like two drowned rat !!  When the bus guy was getting out our backpacks he was standing in 6 or 8 inches of water you get the picture.

The first thing the resort does it gives us umbrellas!  Hummmm what are they trying to tell us ???Then we go to our room and check our bags out to see how wet they got.  Finally the rain tapered off  and you could see the view, our balcony overlooked a lily pond!  Lovely and peaceful.

 

 

Next morning with the sun out we took off for the rainforest walk, which started some 300 meters from the lodge.  It took us about 2 hours; we walked past something like 10 waterfalls, beautiful!  After our walk we did our laps in the pool and we had the afternoon off to sit on the balcony and read.  Perfect planning as the skies opened up for the afternoon, not like the day before, but made reading the activity of choice. After a lovey meal at the resort we went back to our balcony to watch our night time entertainment, the bats flying over the pond.  

Off we went to Suva, after coffee and fruit salad on the balcony watching the birds and water lilies, yup the water lilies need watching as they do change as the sun comes up…about as fast as paint drying.  We went to the movies and saw American Sniper, then tried for lunch.  The place we were looking for was called Guava, we even had the address from the internet, when we got there we found that it had been closed for some time!  So much for checking things out on the internet.  So we went to Bad Dog Cafe, a restaurant we had tried to go to with Bruce, but it was always closed.  While this time it was open, had our favorite Malbec and a lovely risotto with duck confit!  We caught the local bus back to the resort for laps in the pool and to watch our bats.

Next day we did a walk again in the rainforest, but backwards, so that we ended with the waterfalls to cool off.  This time we were at the lower pools and they had a Tarzan swing, which we partook of.  A local family was there, they had left home at 7am to spend the day at the pools and picnic.  The boys offered us the rope and said “you go first” we are not sure if they were being gentlemanly or they just want to see if we would swing on the rope, so Karen took the challenge.  Yup the water was let’s say refreshing but you can’t back out when you are swinging from a rope, right!!!.  It was a lot of fun.  We guess we provide enough entertainment for the family they even offered us food.  Should we change our names to Jane 1 and Jane 2?????

IT IS GOING TO BE COOOOOOLD

Where is  Tarzan when you need him ????

 

Back at the lodge we had noodle soup and then went to play pool.  To which I must say, we stunk!!  But it was fun.  Dinner was a taste of Fiji, they do it every night, 5 different dishes each night, a great idea.  Val and Brian the owners bought us a bowl of Papaya soup, which was also lovely!

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Vuda Marina.  A taxi, a bus and a taxi.  When we arrive they give us the keys to the cabin, the room we have reserved, open the door to find someone else’s clothes there!  Oops, they check the booking and it was us who were supposed to be there alright.  Anyway we were given the upgrade of the Cottage for the night for the same price, life is good.

As for the paint job on the boat the contractor didn’t get as far along as we hoped or they hoped but work has started.  The forecast for the week looks good for the paint job, so we will see how it goes!

We plan to hang around the marina while Interlude is being painted so we have volunteered our painting and sanding skills to our friends on Summer Spirit as we can't do anything on our boat except supervise and we are bored....okay Cheryl is bored.

 

Life as a Duck !!!!

Off to Vanuatu.  This started as an inexpensive way to stay 6 more months in Fiji, it became a week vacation with plans to dive and visit a very active volcano.   When you enter Fiji you get a Visa for a 4 month stay.  For $96Fj, you can get a 2 month extension.  Then the 6 month extension costs almost $800 Fj pp and entails a good deal of paperwork.  So we opted for the $644 return airfare.

We left Bruce at the Tanoa International and we went off to Vanuatu for a vacation from our retirement.  We arrive to grey skies, a sign!  Hmmmmm.  We were very pleasantly surprised when we saw Breadfruit apartments, they matched the pictures, perfect!  So after unpacking we walked down the street to Bon Marche Supermarket.  French cheese, duck breasts, baguettes, and local beef…haven!  With a glass of wine, beside our pool, we toasted our vacation. 

Saturday was a walk around town, Port Vila.  We booked diving and an around the island tour.  At the local market we scored RASPBERRIES!!  Yummmy, Yummmy, Yummmmmy!  Back to our apartment for an afternoon swim and a glass of wine.  Life is good.

A quick check of the weather, and oops, what do we see?  Potential for a Tropical Cyclone, and we are just north of its track!  Hmmmm. 

Next day, around the island.  Not our best tour, besides the weather was not our friend.  The island is lush, yes, that means it rains a lot!  A good deal of coast plane, perfect for beef production and we can attest to that.

Early to bed as we are getting picked up at 7:30 for a dive.  We did a wreck dive, Konanda Wreck, sort of cool.  Then a nice shallow dive, twin bombies, with good fish and some corals.  The water temperature was awesome, no need for hoods or gloves, a nice treat.  It started to rain between dives and was getting heavy by the time we got back.  And that was the start.

Wine anyone




Mirror Mirror  on the wall okay in the sea

Hey Little buddy which way do we go??? A little puffer fish

It got heavier, then only a downpour, then heavier and then heavier and then lets describe standing behind a waterfall and looking out!  Get the picture?

Tuesday we check the weather, we are supposed to be flying to Tanna, then a four wheel drive and a hike to the volcano.  Cheryl called and they said the trip was on.  Meanwhile we are looking out the window and we can’t see a break in the waterfall.  We get a call back about ½ hour later cancelling the trip.  So in a break in the rain we go to the dive shop.  No they are not diving because of rain and the winds are forecast to increase.

This way Karen I have the camera :)

So what do we do?  We play cards, watch TV, read books, watch TV, play cards,  read, watch TV, we are so caught up on TV!  When the rain stopped we went for a walk,  that was on Thursday, got back to the lake, which use to be our road, just as it started raining again!  And then we watched TV, played cards and read!

We did have two lovely meals of duck, local beef twice and ate out on our last night.  Have you ever had wild pigeon?  All we can say is:  where is the beef!

A star is born

If you were a duck, it was a great week.  We have to go back.

Oh, by the way, flying back to Fiji the captain comes on to say that there is a lightning storm and we may have to circle for a while before we land!  Instead we landed and then couldn’t get off the plane as the airport had a no movement order because of the storm!  This time, no TV, thank goodness!

 

 

 

                                                                 Quack, Quack!

Bruce's visit to Fiji, in short

Being held captive and forced to write a blog about my adventures with Karen and Cheryl over Christmas and New Years in Fiji.

Three nights in Saweni Beach Apartments to get over major jet lag. Also to be our Christmas home (cottage with four bedrooms). A little site-seeing around Lautoka, Nadi and then on to Rakiraki on the north coast of Fiji, staying in a Tanoa Hotel. Here we were advised about a road trip hopefully along the ocean front. We bottomed out a few times (even when thinking light thoughts) and hit road construction. While the culvert was being installed we were entertained with coconuts, the construction guys chasing eels and local construction techniques.

Karen does this car have a turbo boost option?

Turned the car in and took the express bus to Suva. Karen and Cheryl were not impressed with George of the Jungle that was played on the bus, twice; G-Force was a hit later. Abandoned to guard the bags (don’t move), while Karen and Cheryl bought some fresh fruit and veg at the local market, which was just beside the bus terminal. We eventually made it to the Five Prince’s and a nice separate cabin. Three good nights with bats visible at night, actually kind of cool.

Sunset at 5 Prices in Suva

Next day the Museum and attempting to find a new place for the 3 nights after 5 Prince’s. As it turns out the last weekend before Xmas is a very busy time in Suva and many Fijians come to the capital to shop. Our next hotel turned out to be another Tanoa. Karen wanted to see the lights of Suva come on, from a roof-top bar, not a bad idea.  But the roof top bar turned out to be a dive, three people being arrested on the stairs up, not really a safe feeling. Saw the last Hobbit movie in 3D. Disappointed with Royal Suva Yacht Club, it was really a dive! We did a walking tour of Suva and walked around the Milo trail, which runs 4.5 kilometers along the waterfront of Suva. Near the end of the walk we stopped to have our picture taken with the ceremonial guard at the prime minister's house. Then we hopped on the bus back to our Christmas House on Saweni Bay.

The house was lovely, the staff had made flower arrangements and put Frangipani around so it both looked and smelled lovely. Bill and Natalia (Island Bound) cooked beef curry on our first night there. After Carla and Doug (Moondance) arrived we decorated! Our tree was a rake suitably decorated with lights and baubles. Cheryl had the Charlie Brown Ikea tree, Carla had Christmas gels, that stick to glass and the fridge and we had the snow globe cards from prior years, so the house was very festive. Cheryl’s tortiere was baked on a bbq Christmas Eve. The Grinch was performed by Cheryl, to a very appreciative and knowledgeable audience. Santa arrived! (believe it or not).


What a haul

The turkey was cooked on the barbeque, wrapped in foil containers. You see barbeque is really a grill in this country, so we had to improvise. The staff on site joined us for Xmas dinner, it was a lovely meal. The next day, in the afternoon Wiggle Butt (a dog) arrived with Colleen and Ian (Summer Spirit). That night Moondance cooked.  All in all it was a good time, too much excellent food and great company, who can ask for anything more!

A new car and off to Sigatoka and another chalet owned by the same company that owned the Christmas house (Fiji4Less). We were welcomed by a cow and calf. We are not kidding.  A Real  BBQ this time, a north American style barbeque. Next day it was the  Sigatoka Sand dune National Park it was an amazing place. The sand dunes are up to 60 meters high, go right to the water, kind of forlorn with driftwood sand and wind, and onto a mahogany forest, all in short 4 kilometer walk.

Sand dunes

The next day a good one way drive out and back along the Sigatoka River. Picked up a local and dropped him off in the next town. Some paved roads (in the towns) then back to gravel. We turned around just before the end (because the bus passed us twice). Another day we went to the Eco Park just down the road from the hotel (really well done). However Charlie (the parrot star of Swiss Family Robinson) didn’t say hello. Yet another day we toured a century old Hill fort of a Tongan chief, on the other side of the river from Sigatoka town: just shows how controlling the height is important in battle field scenarios.

Almost missed the next hotel because the name was different. Only Karen noticing the glass wedding chapel allowed us to find the place. Not what we were expecting and noisy at night, thankfully we stayed only two nights because Cheryl and Karen needed their rest. Drove to Pacific Harbour to see about the white water rafting trip (my Christmas present), okay to see about a dry (not) trip.


Bruce front left, Cheryl red shirt, Karen behind guy in blue shirt

 

 

One of the many waterfalls in the river

It was a spectacular trip but my thighs are still sore from the walk to the start of the rafting. On the advice of the rafting people we moved on from Coral Cove to the hotel, The Lagoon Resort, where they filmed Anaconda 2. It saved us from having to get up at 4 a.m.!!! It was a great trip, the gorge was narrow at the start, and there was barely room for the rafts. Waterfalls everywhere, beautiful site after beautiful site. A great day! On our way back to Nadi we went to the Wainadoi spice gardens. We had an amazing tour, first time we had seen vanilla growing.

We spent the last three nights at Tanoa International in Nadi a really nice hotel. We went to Port Denarau, to the rum tasting and to have dinner with Moondance, so they could say good bye to Bruce. Dinner at Vuda so Summer Spirit could say good bye to Bruce, not to mention having the salt and pepper calamari and Tomahawk steak again! The girls will be leaving on Friday morning for Vanuatu by plane for a week and I will wait in the lobby (rather than the airport) until my shuttle to take me to the airport to fly home to Canada.

I need to point out that while there are weather reports in the papers they do not give temperatures!!!

Best Wishes to all for 2015!!

Will's Island Hopping...little diving, little snorkeling and sailing

It has been 3 ½ years since the last time I was on Interlude in Roatan. Since then Karen and Cheryl have sailed the thousands of miles across the Pacific to Fiji. Some people talk about sailing the Caribbean or the South Pacific, but very few people actually do it. Just having a chance to go for 2 weeks is a great opportunity so I couldn’t miss it. On the 11 hour flight from Los Angeles I thought how long it would take to do this trip by boat, the flight took long enough.

After arriving in Nadi I had another flight to Taveuni and a short drive to Paradise Resort on the south end of the island where Interlude was moored. Karen and Cheryl were there playing volleyball with the other yachties.

Interlude at Paradise

The next day I did a dive at “fish factory” at the rainbow reef. This was a very scenic reef with large coral growths and a lot of fish.

We went to Savusavu the next day. The ocean swells looked large to me, but Karen and Cheryl didn’t think they were that bad, they had seen worse. They caught a large Mahi Mahi on the way, so we had fish for the next few meals.  

In Savusavu we moored in a calm port and met with people on a boat called Monkey Fist that night. The next day we walked around the small town. I arranged to do a shark dive for the next day. I did see some sharks, but they were hard to get close to, the sharks stayed away from divers.

Look closely maybe you can see his teeth!!

We then went to the north end of the Yasawa Islands. We did a 120 mile, 24 hour passage.  This was timed to go through the reefs during daylight and open water in the dark. We each did 3 hour shifts to watch out for things. This auto pilot did the steering. I thought the waves at night were large, but Cheryl and Karen thought the water was calm, again they had seen worse. A large group of dolphins swam with the boat for a while just before dark.

 

 

 

We stopped at the north end on the Yasawa Islands where we went ashore to do the Kava presentation to the chief of the village. There were no roads in this village, only footpaths from one house to another.  The anchorage got rough by the end of the day so we moved to another site the next day.

North Yasawa beach

Yup Will had to wear a Sulu aka a skirt to do the Kava presentation

We then went to “Blue Lagoon” anchorage, near a large resort. This was very scenic and protected as well. The water was very calm and you wouldn’t know that you were on a boat. We did some snorkeling and saw several pipe fish and other reef fish.

The next day we anchored in Waya where everyone from the other yachts came to Interlude for a few drinks and food. It was a good party and the other boats commented on it on the radio the next day. The second day we did some snorkeling on the reef and then went ashore later in the afternoon.

 

For the last day of the trip we went to Denarau on the main island of Fiji, about 30 miles away. This was a resort area with a new marina and several high end hotels, not the “real Fiji”. We had dinner at a nice restaurant on the edge of the water.  This marina has some large mega yachts that must be 150 feet long or more.

3 sailors enjoying some local grog

From Denarau it is a taxi ride to the Nada airport, we went to the Nadi town and to a rum store for a tasting before I needed to leave to the airport. 

We sailed a total of 236 miles while I was there.  I keep telling Karen and Cheryl to keep notes and write a book when they come back to Canada, but they would have a lot of material and it could be a long time yet before this trip is over.