Today marks our last “pure” day of cruising in Fiji. Tomorrow we leave Liku Liku Bay on Waya (also known as Octopus Resort) for Denarau, where we’ll start to prepare for departure to New Zealand.

This has been a pretty fun place even though we’ve had to go back and forth from this side of the island to the other about four times in the last five days as the wind has changed back and forth and left us each time on an uncomfortable lee shore. But…in the mean time we’ve been able to dive some of the great coral reefs here four times, including one last dive today. Fantastic, clear water and healthy coral. Just beautiful.

So…tomorrow we wake up at 0530 for “anchors up” at 0600. We’ll be heading back to Denarau with our friends Orcinius. Actually we’re still going to “wind down” a bit by anchoring at a little village they know of that’s two miles from Denarau for the weekend. John says it has a pub so maybe not so “little” nor “village” but anyway, it sounds nice and it will give us a last day or two to savor the weather and friendship before entering the marina environment at Denarau where Orcinius will work on decommissioning for the cyclone season, since they are staying here, and Charisma will be doing boatwork and shopping/provisioning to prepare for the 1200 mile trip back to New Zealand where we’ll spend the cyclone season. Why the difference in strategies? Orcinius might be going further west into Indonesia and Charisma will be going east back to the west coast of the US. So they want to be closer to Indonesia and we need the option to either go due east from NZ down in the southern hemisphere or possibly head back up this way and then work our way east. We’re still doing more research on which route we would rather take. Basically we’re looking for favorable winds, current and seas. None of our choices are as easy as coming down here. We’ll be very weather dependent the whole way back. More about that later.

In the mean time, we should have internet again in a day or so and will try to post some more pictures. Then stay tuned in the next few weeks for blogs on our voyage back down to NZ. It’s always somewhat of an adventure although we try for it not to be. 😉

With one exception. We got blown out of our nice anchorage on the north side at Vawa Bay and are back at Liku Liku (Octopus Resort).

This shows our "tracks" on the GPS - back and forth over a couple days.

We were comfortably anchored in a sweet spot and hoping to dive off the boats in the great coral, but this morning we awoke to rain. Then a bit of a break – Ann and Lisa went ashore for a little walk about. While there the wind started picking up and they (smartly) called for a ride back. A quick discussion ensued. The weather was looking like it was switching to the NE and we were major exposed. We decided to move. The only problem – John had some bread in the oven and couldn’t. OK, so we’ll wait. Not five minutes later a squall started moving down on us. OOPS, time to move out NOW.

Together we made one of the fastest exits ever, except that Charisma was short-chained. We got our anchor chain wrapped around a large rock. Some quick maneuvering and we got lucky, it came off just before the even bigger wind gusts and waves hit. Wow, did we get out of there in the nick of time!

So, back around the point into Liku Liku. It’s barely a couple miles, but the difference between exposed to the north to east or (where we are now) exposed southwest to northwest. We’re in a better place. It’s calm here and nice. The only other difference is we had some internet over “there” since it faced north to the bigger island. On this side, no internet, so just our shortwave radio. Alas no Facebook :-}

Phew! We left just in time.

The plan is to stay here another day or two if the wind/weather cooperates then head for Denarau and prepare for our passage later this month to NZ.

Position: 16 degrees 27 minutes south; 177 degrees, 46 minutes east

It’s coming on 1900 on our second night out from Nagelelevu. We’re about 16 miles from the north end of the northern most Yasawa island and are headed for Yasawa-I-Rara. It’s a bay just down from the top of the island. Orcinius got there this afternoon, so we have a bit of a description of the anchorage as well as some waypoints for coming in. It’s a bright moon, so with the waypoints and our radar we’re going to go in. We expect to get there sometime around 2200 or so. If it doesn’t look good we’ll stand off for the night and go in during daylight. We’ll see.

Last night was one of those nights that keep you coming back for more. We sailed all night in the brilliant moonlight. No clouds, stars, moon, calm one meter swell and nice warm breeze that kicked us along between 4 and 6 knots. It doesn’t get much better for a passage. Then today around noon the wind died way down and we reluctantly turned on the engine and have been motor-sailing ever since in an effort to get to the anchorage at a reasonable hour (if you consider 2200 as reasonable. Well it’s better than, say, 0300)

So stay turned tomorrow and we’ll tell you how it went and maybe describe a little of our first impression of the Yasawa chain of islands. It’s in the northwest part of the Fiji archipelago. We didn’t go here last year, so it will be all new.

Such a unique experience to come to this place. First off there are only two guys who live here and one of those has been gone most of this year. His uncle Mo is the only one living on this tiny island. Mo’s brother lived her by himself before Mo did. There’s nothing here but a couple of old shacks that they are adding to hodge podge as they find old nails and boards. The island is very remote. It is the most Northeast of the islands in the Fiji archipelago and it’s at least 50 miles from any other inhabited land. It’s also tiny. The lagoon is almost 12 miles long, but the island is only about ½ mile long and somewhat less than that wide.

My friend Mo and me on the beach in front of his house.

But, the spirit is so strong here. These two and especially Mo have such a strong belief. It’s just such fun to be around them. And fun that Mo remembered Ann and me from last year including details that he pointed out such as which path we took through the jungle(“Look, remember we went that way last year”) and he remembered that last year we were heading to Nairai to meet the folks who found our bottle. Of course we are only the third yacht that has visited his island in the last twelve months so maybe not so hard to remember. One of the boats we recommended come here last year made up a Guest Book for him to have yachties sign. That’s how we know how many have come – and we’re proud that even though we were here first, our name, a picture of Charisma and a little note are now also in the book.

It’s pretty interesting to see how simply someone can live and still enjoy life. Mo loves his life even though he almost literally has nothing. Except as he will point out, he in fact has a lot. Beautiful sunrises, starlit nights, clear water and plentiful food from the ground and sea. Mo may not have much but he is not wanting.

So, what a treat to be able to revisit for a second time such a wonderful person. I do hope we might meet him yet again.

Such a beautiful place (John and Bob walking the beach)

So long Mo and thanks for the wonderful hospitality. I hope we might be able to come see you next year.

(A postscript:  Mo asked us if we would telephone his brother Leone who lives in Suva and ask him to send a AM Radio when Matea comes back, to replace the one that broke. We called him today and had a great conversation and hope we might get to meet him in person when we get to Denarau in a couple weeks.  How fun to make connections like this from island to island and across the world).

By Ann: One of the joys of cruising in Fiji is attending church services. I know, not everyone would say that church services are their thing, but once you hear the Fijians lifting their voices in song you will agree. They are a treat. The churches that we have attended in Fulunga and Nairai were Methodist. Honestly, I was hoping to see more Catholic churches. I did attend a Catholic mass last year when we were in Suva. And I never would have known about it if our friend Mo, from Nagalelevu had not told me to look for it. Mo used to live in Suva and used to attend daily mass.

Now Mo lives on a small island, sometimes with his nephew, but for most of the last ten months, alone. That’s a big change in lifestyle. When we go ashore in Nagalelevu one of the first things you notice is a statue of the Virgin Mary on a pedestal in the garden. This statue was one of the first things that the guys “reclaimed” upon their return to the island. And today Mo has created a nice bench to sit and pray. And he adorns her with fresh flowers daily. Mo refers to the statue as “Our Lady” and stops to pray twice a day. And he credits “Our Lady” with much of their good fortune. When we asked how it was that they were able to afford a fiber (Fijian slang for 20 foot open boat with outboard), Mo put his hands in together as if in prayer, his eyes lit up and lifted to the sky and he said, “Our Lady provided.”

"Our Lady" (Picture from our visit last year - has since been cleaned up)

Knowing that I would often miss church services during our travels I obtained a daily mass booklet for Catholics. It has kept me in contact with my formal faith as we have traveled. Seeing Mo’s strong faith that he so willingly shared with me I decided to take it in for him. Pleased is not a strong enough description for his reaction. His eyes filled with tears of joy. He held it as gently as a newborn. And he thanked me profusely.

Pray for our safe travels, Mo and I will pray for you in return. Small island, big faith.

And I really, really, mean CLOSE!

How close (you might ask)? Well, I’m sitting in the cockpit around 1700 reading a book when suddenly there’s a loud splashing noise and water is starting to pour into the cockpit. My immediate reaction was rough wave and I ducked, but the water kept coming, now like a firehose with a powerful “whooshing” noise. What the hell??!! As I was getting drenched from this mystery “wave” I looked out (actually down) into the water just in time to see a whale almost touching Charisma’s side. As I was watching completely slack-jawed at the wonder and terror of it all I was also getting drenched as its blow hole was spouting so close to Charisma it hit the underside of our solar panel which deflected the water/whale snot into the cockpit and at me. As I was still processing what was happening I watched the dark grey body slide next to us – headed in the opposite direction – and saw its tail come out of the water. Fortunately it was a gentle sway instead of a slap. As many sailors know, sailboats have been sunk by just such an encounter. How we didn’t get hit I’ll never know.

I do know that I think the whale was just as scared as I was (Ann was down below on the radio and didn’t get to see the initial encounter) because the water all around where we “came together” was brown. I think we scared the $%@ out of him too!

Phew, we’ve now had enough of whales for quite some time thank you very much.

Or as we found out “Feremo”. That’s his real name. We got into the island around 1200 and Moe was waiting for us to hike across the island. He had a rice sack and I was thinking that he would pick up some garbasge on the windward side. Little did I know what he had in mind.

(Editors note: For more on Mo, his nephew Matea and this island see our blog from last year’s archive on August 21, 2013)

Any wonder why Mo loves this place. (Those are Charisma and Orcinius way off in the background. You have to anchor about a mile off the reef).

We walked through the jungle. The path was not much more defined than last year. We probably couldn’t have found our way by ourselves. Along the way he showed us places where the “old ones” had plantations. It was pretty cool to have the anthro-history lesson. You could almost hear the voices of his ancestors.

Part way across he suddenly stopped and we saw him reach down. A giant coconut crab! Moe very triumphantly announced we now had dinner! This guy was huge. Probably 30-40 years old. That’s the one problem with harvesting these animals. They grow very slowly. We only taste them here where they are not over-harvested since only one or two people live here.

Miss grabbing this crab just right and say "goodbye" to your finger.

He very carefully tied it up with vines from the forest floor before putting into the rice bag. Ah, now we get it. Moe has several black fingers and toes from coconut crab encounters. Their claws can cut through coconuts – you can image what they can do to your extremities!

So, a great hike, coconut crabs, some coconuts on the beach to recover from the hike and back to the boats for dinner of coconut crab.

John and Mo taking a break.

Bringing back the crab.

Mr. Crab ready for the pot.

The kitchen. Water's almost boiling.

Cooked crabs, dinner's ready!

You can see from this picture how their claws can open coconuts so easily.

Or should I call it “Stupid Captain Tricks”?

Either way, we almost lost our dinghy last night. We were anchored in the lagoon at Nagelelevu, coming back from dinner on Orcinius. It was windy and bumpy and maybe some alcohol was involved. Anyway as I went to put the dinghy painter (that’s the bow line for you landlubbers) through the hawse hole in the side of the boat so I could put it on a cleat, a big wave hit the dinghy and knocked the painter out of my hand. I tried to get the boat hook but by the time I untied it and got to the stern the dinghy was out of reach and sailing away into the darkness. For a split second I had a choice. Jump in the water after it or call Orcinius and get them to come over in their dinghy. I thought better of jumping. The wind was blowing it away almost as fast as I could swim and IF I caught it I might be too exhausted to climb in. Fortunately I had that choice. Anyway, John quickly launched theirs (it’s on a hoist on the stern), and zoomed over. I jumped in with our high power flashlight and off we went into the darkness. Looking downwind we saw nothing for a moment or two, then, swinging the light a bit I caught a reflection of the light. There it was and off we went. The tricky part was we were headed right for the reef. You couldn’t see how shallow the water was getting. But John is a bold driver and we charged on with me crossing my fingers. We got to it before it hit the reef and I lept in, started the engine and we headed back. Getting soaked the whole way in the steepening waves caused by the shallow water.

Phew! Thank you, John.

So today went a little better. We waited out some squally, rainy weather and went into the beach around 1300. Lisa was feeling a little under the weather, so John, Ann and I hit the beach hoping that we would find the two “castaways” we met here last year. Walking anxiously up to the hut we didn’t see any sign, so we called out, “Bula, bula” and from within the hut we heard some stirring. Coming closer we could see it was Moe. Yeah! He’s still here. And he remembered us. We spent the afternoon sitting in his hut and talking about how it was going. Turns out they just got a boat this summer and Matei, Moe’s nephew, had taken it in to Taveuni to sell some fish they caught and to take a course – we’re not quite sure what, but some kind of captain’s course probably to operate a vessel.

Here's Mo's house. He's added a room since last year.

Mo is encouraging the chickens to come in the house and lay eggs. Beats having to find them in the bush. He's also working on a hen house to keep the chickens in at night. That will be even easier.

Anyway, we brought some gifts for Moe and gave them (John and Lisa also brought some they will bring tomorrow). He was thrilled and…Coconut crab tomorrow!! This place is crawling with them so it’s the only place where we would accept one.

So, tomorrow we’ll go in for a hike across the island, then Moe said he would cook the crabs for us and tomorrow night we’ll enjoy one of the truly rare tastes in the world.