Fiji Week 10

Sunday July 11, blueberry pancakes for breakfast. It was the last of dehydrated blueberries.

Flew the drone this morning at high tide.

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Dan went snorkeling at the northern pass with boats s/v Indego2 and s/v Enola. The water is cold here, too cold for me.

Later we borrowed s/v Enola’s kayaks. We also saw Kate and Graham out in their Inflatable 2 person kayak.

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Monday July 12, in the morning at high tide, Dan and I dinghyed back to the village through the maze of islands to purchase gasoline from them for us and two other boats. At lower tides the waterway is dry.

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Mid day along with s/v Barracuda, s/v Venture Lady and s/v Enola, we moved to the other anchorage here. They wanted to snorkel on the reef here.

There is a fabulous small picturesque pristine sandy beach here, partially hidden by an island, like one you’d see pictured in a magazine. The sand was fine, soft and velvety. The downside, thousands of mosquitoes!

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Sundowners on Barracuda with Kate and Graham, Alison and Andy, and Nina and Scott, followed by a cards.

Tuesday July 13, anchor up by 8:15am heading north to Namuka along with s/v Indego 2, arrived around 2 pm. Sundowners on Indigo 2.

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Wednesday July 14, *Sourdough Note* started a Belle loaf, to bake this evening or tomorrow.

Our plan for the day was to walk to the village to do Sevusevu with the Chief. A yellow long boat visited us this morning with Semiti and his son Leuda who is 11 years old. He said we were not allowed to go to the village. We paid a $50 (Fijian dollars) anchor fee, gave him empty glass bottles with caps as well as some kava. He gave us 3 coconuts, said he will bring us fish later.

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Together with Liz and Chris, we took our dinghies around the small island to a shallow area to snorkel.

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After lunch we flew the drone from the beach.

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Sundowners with Liz and Chris on our boat.

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Thursday July 15, our dinghy has wheels that when lowered assist in pulling it onto a beach. Yesterday, while Dan was trying to put more air in tire, the nozzle broke off. Luckily we have a spare inner tube on board.

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Meanwhile I was working on the coconuts we received yesterday. The outer shell had already been removed when given to us. We removed all the water storing it in a 2liter bottle, then into the refrigerator. Dan had cut them in half with a machete. Using a sea shell, I scraped the gelatinous white coconut out of the shell. These were very “green” fruits.

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The coconut is in the sun drying, later we will fry them and make chips.

Dan and I took a dinghy ride part way around the leeward side island in search of a beach, none was found. We discovered later it was on the northern side of the island, too much wind and waves for a dinghy ride.

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The next few days it will be quite windy, 20 with gusts to 25 knots from the Southeast going East as it progresses and with 6 ft waves. There is a South Pacific high pressure system just north of New Zealand driving the wind. Accelerated winds on the top of a high are referred to in the Fijian language as a “Bogi Walu”, an eight day wind. We are in a comfortable protected calm anchorage. It’s not a bad weather event, just not a pleasant sail.

Friday July 16, Semiti came by this morning selling live lobsters for $15. Liz and Chris purchased 2 but he gave them 3. We did not buy any, mostly because they were very large crustaceans and we don’t have a pot big enough to cook them in. Later we had a wonderful potluck lunch of lobster and tuna salad with Liz and Chris on s/v Indigo2, before we depart for Vanua Balavu. Our sail should take us about 15-17 hours to get there. Anchor up at 2:30 pm.

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Saturday July 17, arrived at Vanua Balavu at 10:30am entered the pass just as the sun came out after a rain squall. We anchored in the area known as the Bay of Islands. Also anchored here are Laure and Stephane, a family boat with 3 kids, on s/v Olena from Switzerland, and Sumi and Robert on s/v Coral Trekker also from Switzerland. We met both boats while at Savusavu. After catching up with them we took a dinghy ride around the bay to see the mushroom shaped limestone islands. The bay has numerous small islands with a maze of coves and is bordered, as most of the island is, by limestone fjords.

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The village here is in lockdown, we were told not to come go to the village , there will be no Sevusevu. COVID cases in Fiji have been drastically increasing over the past month.