Ann and I were up at 0200 as promised and after putting some last minute stuff away and having a quick bite for energy (and some coffee), we were ready to raise anchor beginning at 0245. BUT, Charisma had other ideas.

As I was raising the anchor (with Ann at the helm), it quickly became clear that the chain was caught on one of the only rocks within 100 yards. I could even see down the 17 feet through clear water in the moonlight. The chain was going right down to the rock. And it wasn’t budging. I tried all my tricks. Back down, go left, go right, let out slack, drive over the top. Each time we tried something, the result was the same. We would come up with a lurch and a thunk as the chain strained as Charisma’s 24 thousand pounds came to a stop. After 45 minutes of absolutely zero progress, I thought of one other trick. I knew that we had swung a full 360 degrees in about an hour’s time yesterday as a squall blew over. I figured that meant the chain might not just be “caught” on an undercut, but wrapped all the way around something. So, last try before giving up and diving on it in the morning to figure out what to do next-I had Ann drive right up above the rock and stop. Then I dropped about 20 feet of chain on top of the rock and quickly cranked it back up again. Darned if it didn’t work. All the slack on the chain freed us and the rest was simple. Almost.

OK, anchor’s up and we’re heading out-in the dark (moonlight helps) following a path on the gps that we made coming in. Easy. Except, just as we got the anchor up and turned toward our first waypoint in deeper water, the instruments all died. Zero data, just lines where the data should be. No course, depth, speed, nothing. What the….? Just then as I’m going in the electronics locker to take a look at things, my headlamp-with brand new batteries died. OK, what the heck’s going on here?

Fortunately the gps down in the nav station was working and it had the key info we needed. We would have to “yell” the course and depth up to the helm, but at least we had what we needed to get going. An hour late.

So, off we went-a nice moonlit night. Ann and I were sad to leave Nagalelevu (and apparently so was Charisma), but we had a lot of fun there, really soaked up the experience and are looking forward to new adventures.

We are presently anchored in Albert Cove on the island of Rabi (pronounced Rambi), just north of Fiji’s north island. It’s a nice spot and we’ll likely stay a day or two at least before moving south. The sail over here was beautiful. A nice 12 knot breeze with little in the way of waves or chop. `It was one of those days that reminds us why we sail.

P.S.-I don’t know why the electronics all of a sudden refused to work, but have isolated the problem to the instrument network that goes to the helm. When I disconnect this line the other ones come back to life. So next step (tomorrow) is to look at the network. I think there might be a loose connection somewhere or at least hope it’s that simple.

As for Charisma, sometimes she’s a naughty girl, but we all have our days. I have found over 40-some years of sailing that every craft has its moods. Some days you just can’t get your boat to do anything you want. Others are a delight. Fortunately we usually have more of the latter than the former and we’ll hope Charisma is over her tantrum.

Much as Ngelelevu is a fantastic place, after a full week anchored here, it’s time we move on.

We made sure to pack the bananas.

Today we did some paddleboarding in the morning after breakfast, but then some weather moved in and it rained for most of the afternoon. Good for catching fresh water. Not good for goofing. Oh well. Ann got some reading done and I had a nap in preparation for leaving tonight for our next destination.

We’re planning to set the alarm for 0200 (yuk) and be anchor up by 0300 for a 50 mile leg east-southeast to Albert Cove on the NW tip of Rabi (pronounced “Rambi”). We think it’s likely to be a 12 hour trip and would like to get in no later than 1500 so we have some light to see the coral reef. If we have a nice breeze we’ll get there in closer to 10 hours and so much the better.

We’re now on the path toward Nairai which is where the bottle we dropped at the equator ended up. We should get there in approximately the next 10 days as we have a few places we’re planning on stopping along the way and we need at least a two day stop on Taveuni to resupply. The beer, rum and ginger ale supplies are getting dangerously low. Tonight I used the last of our eggplant, so fresh veggies are on the dwindling list. We do have two huge pumpkins so those should give us fresh veggies for about 4 days. Tomorrow I’m going to make something we’ve been hearing from a number of Fijians. You hollow out a pumpkin (these are gourd-like, more like giant squashes), then add onions, garlic coconut milk and fish. Put in the oven at 350 until done. Sure sounds good!

OK, we’re sitting here just finishing dinner after another great day in this incredible place, waiting for the full moon to rise over the island. Anticipation runs high tonight as there’s hardly a cloud in the sky. The stars are amazing. There are no lights (other than ones we may turn on) within 60 miles (Taveuni)-which means they are waaay over the horizon and we can’t see them. Pitch darkness, which interestingly is not so dark. Turns out the stars provide far more light than we think. When there’s no competing light, the stars make it pretty easy to see.

Moonrise over Nagelelelu

By the way, I'm getting pretty good at cutting coconuts with my machete.

But-a full moon rising over an almost deserted island? It doesn’t get much better than that. There are no lights on the island, so this should be good.

By the way, I saw the green flash on today’s sunset. It was so clear on the horizon there was a very clear bright fluorescent green flash the moment the sun went below the horizon. Very cool.

So-there was very little wind today and even fewer clouds (finally). The colors in the lagoon were the stuff dreams are made of. Hard to adequately describe the teal, turquoise, cerulean and other blues in the water. I can’t wait until we can post some pictures which unfortunately won’t be for some weeks yet since we’re a ways off the grid (other than the shortwave radio which lets us post this text file).

Anyway, we made good use of the day by breaking out the paddleboards. Wow, paddling along in the ice blue over sand. Charisma is a mile off the island and we made it half way in and were still in less than 20 feet of depth over sand and occasional coral. When over sand, the water lights up like an aquamarine gem. It’s just amazing and you are floating as if weightless over it all on the paddleboard.

After lunch, we made a quick trip in to see our new friends Matea and Mo. We had a nice time sitting under their banyon tree on the beach drinking coconut milk during the heat of the day. When they saw us heading in to the beach, they very kindly knocked a bunch of coconuts to the ground and had cut the ends off by the time we walked down the beach to their camp and we all enjoyed the cool coconut milk.

We also (making the most out of a great day) went snorkeling at low tide on some of the bommies that emerge. (Break, Break! Moonrise. As I’m writing this the moon is coming up and backlighting a cumulous cloud in the distance. It’s just plain surreal). OK, back to the blog-snorkeling. Fun.

OK, that’s about it for today. There’s a five knot breeze and it’s about 80 degrees and stars 360 degrees around. I think we’ll be sleeping on the cabin top for a while tonight. See ya!

(Note: Probably one more day here and the wind will fill in and we’ll look to head out on Sunday (our time, which is two days from now). Not sure exactly where yet so we’ll let your know!

We are still at Naqelelevu and still loving it. But our private anchorage was interrupted when another sailboat came in yesterday! What? Just kidding, they are nice folks on a boat named Wakaya and are from the US. What’s not to like?

There is no huge hill or mountain to climb here to look down on the anchorage…my favorite pastime. So we settled for the next best thing…a lighthouse! It doesn’t really look like a lighthouse because it is just a steel structure with a revolving light on top, but it was high and that counts! Oh, and did I tell you that the light revolves but does not shine. Oops. Time for the Fijian government to come fix their lighthouse! (From Bob: Ann MADE me climb it with her. Scared the bejeebers out of me. It was 90-100 feet tall and only about six feet wide at the top AND with both of us up there it swayed! Yipes. I was very glad to get back on the ground as all I could think of was that it might topple over with the two of us up there.

Bob's only comment; "You want me to go up there?!!!

When we went ashore with the folks from Wakaya coming in right behind us we took this opportunity to let Matia and Mo tell their story to another set of listening ears and we headed to the lighthouse.

We got the perfect day! The clouds were rolling by but not blocking our view as had been the case a few days ago. So we found the trail to the lighthouse and started the climb. It was amazing how much it moved in the gentle breeze just based on our movement up the stairs. All 88 stairs! But it was breathtaking when we “summited”. Pictures were quickly taken and we hurried back down, safely!

That's a mighty small ladder....

...oooh, I don't know if I like this....

OK, we made it, but DON'T MOVE, IT'S SWAYING!

Click on the picture and look really closely and you might see Charisma out there.

Nice view. (OK, let's get down).

Back on the beach.

The beach.

Of course the day would not be complete without a snorkel at a few of the nearby bommies and sundowners with the new folks in the neighborhood! And now we await a crab omelet that the chef is preparing. (From Bob: on today’s snorkel we saw a stingray hiding under a rocky ledge and the big surprise was a couple of Trevally’s that looked really huge under water. They were so large they startled both of us.

Oh, and the full moon is just breaking through the clouds. Naqelelevu, lovely from above and below!

Today had three or so, highlights. Mighty Mo was later in the day, so I’ll get to that in a bit.

For now, I’m sitting in the cockpit under a full moon that’s reflecting off an absolutely still lagoon with the island silhouetted in the background.

Amazing clear water. The rocks you can see are 30 feet down.

We woke to still water as well. It was an amazing early morning as the water was still and the water is so clear it felt like you could reach out and touch the sandy bottom. I took some pictures of the anchor chain snaking off in the distance along the bottom as well as a couple of stingrays that were out for their morning cruise.

This was followed by banana pancakes! Yay!

Then we went for a snorkel. The coral here is just OK, but the fish population and diversity is amazing. We saw fish that we have not yet seen anywhere else.

Snorkeling done, we then went in to the island for a visit with Matea and Mo. They were waiting for us and anxious to show us a new path to the other side of the island they had been working on. Um, OK (knowing this meant bushwacking behind two machete wielding Fijians). You learn to keep your distance when they swing those things. Anyway, it’s always fun going through deep jungle and then coming out on the other side where the ocean waves are crashing against the shoreline.

On the way back Mo disappeared. He’s always barefoot (how do they do that-even over the sharp coral?!) so you can’t hear him walking behind you. Then you turn to say something and no one’s there. We were almost back to their hut when we heard a whistle. Turning around we could see Mo walking along the path carrying something. As he came closer we saw that he was (very carefully) carrying a huge coconut crab. Mighty Mo had caught Godzilla the crab. These things are huge and their claws can saw open a coconut, so you know what kind of damage they could do to your fingers. Awesome! Then we found out. This was OUR crab. They were going to cook it for us and send us back to Charisma with dinner. Wow. Coconut crab is a delicacy that we have only barely tried once. There was so little of it as it was passed around we only got a hint at its glory. Now we had our very own. Back at the hut, they prepared a pot to boil the crab. While we were waiting for the water to heat they showed us how to clean and prepare it. Simple. One of the unique things about coconut crab is a pouch on the inside of their tail that holds a buttery oil that they collect. It’s literally coconut butter. Delicious when scooped out and spread on the meat (and a homemade English muffin as it turns out).

We saw Mo coming back down the path. What's in his hand?

Handling the coconut crab veerrrry carefully.

Matea and Mo's kitchen.

Chef Matea at his "stove".

Matea presenting us the cooked crab.

So, crab cooked (this beautiful blue crab turned bright red – that’s how you know it is done cooking), they sent us off to our evening. We had no idea just how delicious it would be. I have to say this may be my new favorite of all foods. Too bad because coconut crabs are slow growing and on most islands, it’s not good to take them as they get depleted quickly. Out here on Naqelelevu there’re only two people on the island and they are very respectful of their resource. We saw these crabs everywhere as they are not over-harvested here so we didn’t feel guilty about eating this one.

Luscious dinner and the best part-the two of us could barely eat half the crab (with the coconut butter-like stuff, it’s so rich), so we have more for tomorrow. We’re thinking either crab omelet or crab cocktail with Waldorf Salad. Hmm, we’ll have to see.

I know you’re all tired of hearing this, but it WAS just another day in paradise. However, we’re so glad we’re here experiencing the richness of this simple life.

That’s one of the cool things we saw today. But, it took half the day for the rain to stop so we could go into the beach and see it.

Yes, we were stuck on the boat as the squalls came through and the weather couldn’t decide what it wanted to do. The only consistency was rain. The thing that kept us on the boat until the afternoon was that the wind went north, then west, then built from the west. West is one direction we don’t want in our anchorage. Every other direction we’re protected by the barrier reef or island, but from the west, there is a ten mile fetch to the other side of the lagoon. As we say on Charisma; “that’s no bueno”. So we stayed aboard. And read our books. And watched the wind build and the rain come down. Charisma was rocking and rolling and we almost had the bow going under water in the waves. Just in time to save the day, the wind drifted back to north and settled. Yes! Now we could go ashore.

Nagelelelvu after the rain moved through.

First I should briefly describe this place. It’s an Atoll-which basically is an old volcano that has sunk beneath the sea, the rim of which has been covered by coral that provides a protective barrier for the lagoon inside. The lagoon formed by the barrier reef is about 10 miles long, 2 miles wide and averages 100 feet deep. The entrance to the lagoon is at the far end and was created eons ago by fresh water erosion when this whole lagoon was above the surface. But now, inside it all was see is a white line around us which is the surf line and we hear the roar of the ocean waves breaking on the barrier reef. That’s what gives us protection. On the eastern most side of the lagoon is the only part that is above water-the island proper. It’s barely above water though and also made of coral, it’s about 20 feet above sea level with a lovely sand beach on the lagoon side. Add to that the height of the coconut trees and rainforest trees and that’s all there is. You can only see it from about 5 miles away. We’re anchored on a sandy patch on the edge of the coral a mile off the island. It’s not too convenient, but the good news is this is what keeps the island from becoming too popular. It’s not easy to get to, nor easy/safe to stay here in a boat (and we’re ready to leave on a moment’s notice should the weather turn on us). We’re a bit on the edge, but at the same time thrilled about being the only boat here.

Mo accepting sevusevu from us (that's kava root in his hands). The smoke is burning coconut husk which keeps the mosquitos at bay.

We really wanted to get back to our new friends Matea and Mo. We had promised some supplies and wanted to make good on our promise, but taking our little inflatable dinghy a mile through the coral bommies to get to the island in adverse wind/waves was a non-starter, until the wind shifted. But finally, shift it did. We stocked up on stuff they needed; batteries, fish hooks, a lighter. Then we added some World Cup Rugby hats that Ann found in NZ and most importantly; sugar. They really wanted sugar for their tea. Oh and even though this wasn’t officially a village, we decided we would bring some kava and do a sevusevu. They really appreciated that and when we finally got to the beach and up in their hut to deliver the supplies, when we pulled out the kava for sevusevu they were touched. A very solemn ceremony followed whereby Mo (the elder on the island at 68 years old) accepted us and we are now not only protected by them, but always considered welcome to their island. Now it was our turn to be touched.

The supplies we brought were reciprocated in kind. After a delightful couple of hours chatting in their hut and then back on the beach, we came back to Charisma loaded down with half dozen huge papaya, two giant stalks of bananas, a large pumpkin and half dozen coconuts that they pre-trimmed for us so all we have to do is cut the ends off to get the milk and meat inside (instead of having to trim off the infernal husk). And as we were getting ready to leave, Mo presented us with the biggest, most beautiful conch shell we have ever seen. It literally took our breath away when we saw it. It’s over 18 inches long and, well, we will have to get a picture up to really do it justice.

Mo presented us with this impressive conch shell.

Oh, and the science project. They have a huge 12 volt battery in their hut that is charged by a solar panel . The battery supplies all their electricity. The problem is, some devices need less than the full voltage. The other issue is what do you do when you want to use multiple devices, such as charge a phone (which they can’t use here since no signal, but which has photos on it so we could see their family back in Suva and a camera they use to take pictures.) The solution it turns out is akin to an old science project that I can barely remember, but which has great practical value here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The cell phone/camera cannot take the full brunt of the battery, so they use an electrolyte to reduce the amount of current flowing through the line. What is the electrolyte you ask? Seawater. They put one end of the positive terminal wrapped around an iron nail into a bowl of seawater and the other side of the line wrapped around another nail into the other side of the bowl. This lets current flow, but at a slower rate than if it went directly through a copper wire. Also their circuit board was a piece of wood into which they had pounded half a dozen nails. Want to run one device? Connect it to one of the nails. Two devices? Connect to another nail, etc. Brilliant.

It’s been such a privilege seeing how these two manage to live essentially cut off from civilization. They get some supplies from time to time from fishing boats that come by to fish the waters in their lagoon, but as I noted yesterday it’s been over a month since anyone has been here. But they live well. Fish, crab, coconuts and a number of vegetables both wild and domestic are part of their diet. They both are quite healthy based on this diet save for the lack of good dental care that we see all over Fiji (Tonga too).

So…we would like to stay here another couple of days and are watching the weather to see if it will cooperate. If it does, we’re invited tomorrow for coconut crab lunch (they are hunting for them tonight using the new D-batteries we supplied to power their flashlights). We would also like a day or two to just snorkel as this is the clearest water we’ve yet seen. Ann did a little snorkeling yesterday and was giddy with excitement about the number of fish she saw in just her short time in the water. It’s been too rough though to take the dinghy to more remote and interesting spots.

OK, cross fingers for two days of nice weather!

P.S. As I finish writing this, the moon has come out from behind the clouds and the wind has dropped and it’s quite warm. It’s looking like a “lay on the deck and watch the moon” night 😉

What a great day! I’m sitting here finishing off the day watching a dramatic sunset off to the west and an almost full moon coming up and shining off the still water of the lagoon in the east.

The moon is so bright we can see the island.

Dramatic because we seem to be sitting in the middle of a low pressure zone which means all bets are off as to the weather. It’s been fairly still but cloudy today. There have been periods of rain and the wind has shifted out of the north but I’m holding my breath that it doesn’t all just fall apart and leave us having to make a hasty exit to avoid being as exposed as we are. Fortunately our anchor is still buried deep (Ann dove it a couple hours ago on a late afternoon snorkeling expedition. She also saw two stingrays and numerous fish around the bommie she swam over to investigate.) This is an amazing place, and somewhat protected from the ocean swell by a barrier reef, but it’s 10 miles across, so if the wind builds from the wrong direction-we’re in a bad place.

Stingray swimming under the boat, 30 under 30 feet of very clear water.

How often do you get to see your anchor chain on the bottom in 30 feet of water?

But, I digress. The day started with a huge squall at 0600. I thought that meant the day was shot but by 0800 the squall passed and it became partly cloudy with boobies. Yup, I was sitting in the cockpit having my morning cup of coffee when an adolescent booby (he still had some white down feathers on his head) did a fly by. Before I could get up to see where he was going to land, he landed on the dinghy tethered about 10 feet behind us. Silly bird. He sat there through breakfast and would likely have stayed all day except we had other plans. I pulled the dinghy in to put our gear inside and the booby didn’t budge even though he clearly saw I was pulling the dinghy in. I called Ann to see. She said hello to Mr Boobie, took a picture and then I decided I’d see what it would take before he became the least bit concerned. Seemed that throwing some of my gear in the boat was the deciding factor. Wow. That’s a bit of an example of how far we are off the beaten path right now. I don’t think this bird really sees much boat traffic and was very unconcerned with our presence.

Get off my dinghy, you, you, Booby!

On the beach at Nagelelevu

So, we finally had weather that cooperated enough that I felt comfortable going ashore. It’s almost a mile across the shallow reef from Charisma to the beach, and I don’t like being so far away in really poor weather. Anyway, the wind moderated from yesterday’s 15 gusting into the 20’s so off we went picking our way through the coral. As we approached the beach we could see a figure walking our way pointing us to a good landing spot. We received a most enthusiastic reception from Matea. He and his uncle Mo are the only two people who live here and they haven’t seen another boat in over a month! Matea was so excited to talk with someone other than his uncle that we had to wait about 10 minutes to get a word in.

Matea.

Matea's Uncle Mo

Here’s the short version of their story: A decade or so ago there was a village here. We’re not sure why everyone left (we think maybe a cyclone destroyed the village), but for about the last ten years there’s only one person who has actually lived here and his name was Tiko. Tiko was Mo’s cousin, but Tiko passed away last year. Mo has lived here on and off for six years or so and now Matea has moved here with Mo and their plan is to make this home. They are not only fixing it up, but working to make the island an example of sustainable living. Matea is very articulate about making sure he is not using resources faster than they can reproduce. They are developing compost to help create vegetable gardens -these small atolls don’t natively support veggies as they are all coral (limestone). It takes effort to make soil that vegetables can grow in. Matea is in his thirties and Mo is 68, 69 on September 5th -Ann always finds this info out- and we were made to feel like members of their family. We were given a very, very warm welcome that just made this trip worth the effort.

Matea in front of their house, getting ready to take us on a jungle tour of the island.

We mentioned that we would like to see the windward side of the island and before we could utter another word, they both grabbed their machetes and we took off. What an adventure! Machetes were definitely needed. With both of them slicing their way through the jungle, it took almost two hours to go what I would estimate as about ½ mile. At most. The jungle/rainforest was so thick, we could hear squalls pouring rain overhead in the forest canopy, but not a drop hit us on the floor. I’m not sure we’ll ever experience anything quite like it.

Heading through the jungle. I learned very quickly not to follow too close. One word: "machete".

On getting back, Matea went and got a bunch of green coconuts for us to feast on. The milk refreshes and the meat inside is delicious and very filling. I could go on and on, but we’re going back tomorrow and no doubt will have more to say about these wonderful folks, so I’ll leave it here for now. They are going to supply us with bananas, papayas and coconuts and we’re going to bring in some supplies-notably sugar which they are yearning for in their tea. We’re just hoping the weather holds as we would like to stay here two more days. One day to go back to visit and spend more time with our new friends and one day to just snorkel the bommies out here where we’re anchored. Since we’re literally inside a coral reef surrounded lagoon in the middle of the ocean with nothing else anywhere close, the water clarity is just amazing. I was taking my afternoon bath on the deck and could see a starfish 30 feet down on the bottom as if it were in my hand. Just stunning.

After the hike, Mo cut us some refreshing coconuts to drink.

Yum...

Here we are in paradise. A deserted island, no other boats around and all day….it rained.

The day started off beautifully, but with clouds in the distance.

But...the squally weather caught up with us making this a stay on the boat day.

Oh well, we are in paradise. Even though it’s raining, we are in shorts and tee-shirts. We did get some stuff done and tomorrow is supposed to be a light wind day. I just hope that means “no rain” day too.

After morning coffee and banana pancakes (more on them below), we tidied up Charisma from our all day sail the day before. We folded the main and stays’l, put covers on both, deployed the dinghy (which means untying it from the foredeck laying it across the main cabin and using the foot pump to inflate it. Probably five hundred pumps, I’ve lost count, but it takes about fifteen minutes to inflate), put on the engine, oars, etc. Ann also did the laundry and I, um, took a nap.

Did I say the morning was gorgeous? Someone’s teasing us because it was absolutely cloudless. The purple/blue of the deep water right next to us contrasted brilliantly with the light turquoise of the 20 foot depth water we’re anchored in. There’s a hard line between the two colors that snakes right around Charisma. Off in the distance, about ½ mile away is the white line of breakers on the barrier reef. Really stunning, but off in the distance we saw some squally looking clouds and decided not to go in to the island until after lunch. Well, after lunch, we got hit with the downpour that has continued all day-so it’s a front and not a squall. Oh well.

Last night was stunning. There was a half-moon shining brightly and no clouds. The cool part was that the moonlight shone through the really clear water we’re anchored over and the water had a greenish radioactive looking glow from the moon hitting the sand and reflecting back. All around there were also dark patches where the bommies lurked- hard coral structures growing to within a few feet of the surface waiting to snag an unwary boat. But we see them!

The only other thing about this spot is that twice a day when the tide is high, we get larger waves rocking through our little piece of paradise. At low tide, the reef upwind of us clearly blocks the ocean waves and they break on the hard coral dissipating their energy. But, at high tide, some of the wave makes it over the reef and into our anchorage. It gets pretty bouncy. Right now that occurs about mid-afternoon and very early morning-around 0500 . Not such fun.

But what the heck. If this were easy, it wouldn’t be as much fun, er, right?

As my sister wrote us a while back; “The difference between adventure and ordeal is attitude”. We often find ourselves quoting that line as well as sharing it with our cruising friends who also knowingly nod their heads. Thanks Sue.

Oh, the pancakes! I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to eat regular pancakes again. Banana pancakes are absolutely the best. You just take overripe bananas, smash them in a bowl, then add pancake mix and water to the right consistency. They cook up with a slightly crunchy outside, probably due to the sugars from being overripe. Yummmmmy!

Position: 16 degrees, 05 minutes south; 179 degrees, 11 minutes west (If you put these coordinates in Google Earth, you’ll see that this spot is a mile from the island. There is a shallow reef between this nice anchorage and the island proper. A long dinghy ride tomorrow-and wet if the wind holds up)

(By Ann) 5:30 am announced itself with an alarm clock. Time to get up and get going. It is time for adventure sailing. As cruisers you often get caught up with where others have gone and find yourself following the trail of other cruisers. Fun but not always really special. On Charisma we sometimes like to do it “our way”! Thus the early wake up call.

A little blue water sailing always lifts the spirits.

After a long day, here's where we ended up. Not bad! (you can see Charisma's shadow on the sand 30 feet down)

We picked up anchor at 6 am from our lovely little spot at Budd Reef and had to retrace our steps back to the opening and around the outside to the Rabi Channel which would lead to….the northeastern most island in Fiji…Nagalalevu or Quelaleu – the spelling depends on the chart or map you are looking at.

We knew it was a 40-something mile trip just to the entrance of a large lagoon that is the home of Quelalevu. Oh, and it took another 8 miles to get across the lagoon. Charisma makes about 6 miles per hour so do the math… to hit both passes with the required visibility to avoid reefs, we needed to get moving early. We were rewarded for the early start with a beautiful sunrise which made it easier to get going.

It was a glorious sail up the Rabi Channel. Bob had fun playing with adjustments on the new sails. The repair to the stays’l held beautifully. Charisma was smiling and the day was full of sun and deep blue water. Well most of the day was.

When we took Curly’s class on cruising in Fiji he emphasized “visibility”. Don’t move if you can’t see! Makes sense. So Bob checks the grib files to make sure the cloud cover is not excessive, rain is not expected, and what kind of wind we should expect. It looked pretty good for heading northeast. We jumped at the chance to go somewhere that no one else usually goes. We heard from our friends on Eagle’s Wings that they came to Quelelevu last year and expected to be lonely. They were surprised by five fishermen who were temporarily using the island as a base. We do not know what to expect this year,but anchored here we have seen smoke on the beach, so we do know someone is there.

But back to Curly’s rules: visibility….yeah, we made it to the pass at 2 pm. Unfortunately we could see a squall and some additional clouds coming our way. Our charts showed we still had almost 8 miles to go inside the lagoon to get to the anchorage. Yuk! Later both Bob and I talked about being prepared to get to the anchorage with no visibility and turning around, heading back out the pass and waiting until morning if we just couldn’t see well enough to avoid the reefs. Not our first choice, but a prudent choice.

As JHam would note, our tattoo mana must have been working. (I was silently praying the whole way across the big lagoon too.) Just as the bottom depth started reading 50, 40, 30…the sun broke out of the clouds and showed us the way! I love a little guidance from above. We circled once and dropped anchor on the second pass in 20 feet of pure sand! The anchor dug deep and Bob let out a lot of scope, so we can sleep well knowing we’re well dug in.

(From Bob: The other amazing thing is that for the whole 40 something miles I had Charisma set close hauled. That is to say we were sailing as close to the wind as we possibly could. I wasn’t particularly trying for a given course, I just knew we had to sail as high as possible given the wind direction. Wilson was steering the whole way as well. With that combination-magically we actually were delivered right, exactly, at the entrance to the reef (which is only a few hundred yards wide). It was as if we were meant to be here).

Just in time to make the traditional Charisma and enjoy the best Fijian sunset yet. Yep, adventure cruising has its advantages! Tomorrow we attack the shore…which had smoke rising from a hut as we arrived! New friends to meet tomorrow!

Position: 16 degrees, 29 minutes south; 179 degrees, 43 minutes west

A nice little anchorage at Budd Reef.

I couldn’t think what else to call this. A full day. That’s kind of what this day has been-along with a few surprises.

Right now, it’s after dinner, dark, a half-moon illuminating a sky that’s about 80% clear. We’re backed into a sweet little cove at Budd Reef (the lee side of Yavu Island which is one of three islands inside Budd Reef) north of Taveuni Island. We motor sailed here-about 12 miles from Taveuni-in 20 something knots of wind and 5 foot waves. It’s supposed to be an atoll of sorts, but the reef surrounding the inside islands is pretty nonexistent. We sailed through the SW corner and just saw a little greenish/yellow water where the barrier reef was noted on the chart. Not much else except the depth changed from too deep for the depthmeter to register, to about 280 feet the rest of the way in. Anyway, here we are.

We’re anchored stern in, about two boat lengths from a hard shelf reef with a little beach another 10 yards in. A couple years ago I never would have attempted anchoring in a spot like this, but we’re learning to be more creative out here where there’s not always “the perfect spot”. We circled in really close to the reef, then turned straight out about 100 feet. I dropped the anchor on a patch of sand and we backed down letting out chain until we were about three boat lengths from the reef. At that point I locked the chain and we backed down hard until we were ½ boat length from the reef and saw the anchor was holding solid. We slowly eased the engine back to idle and the weight of the chain (in 30-40 feet of water) pulled us out as it settled. So here we are. Ann dove on the anchor and confirmed it’s buried in sand. We know that if the wind blows us hard in to the reef we’ll stop before we get there and with the little back eddy we have, we’ll stay about two boat lengths from the reef all night. At least that’s the plan.

The other notable event of the day has to do with Ann diving naked into the cove-but let’s talk about the morning first. Back on Taveuni we awoke to a little less wind than we’ve had the last two days, but the GRIBS showed it was going to increase. Bummer. We would have been boat bound if we had stayed another day. So we took advantage of the lighter morning winds to put the engine on the dinghy and head in for supplies. We were very low on fresh fruit and dangerously low on ginger ale for our Charismas. At very low tide, it was a little dicey winding out way in through the reef from ¼ mile out where we were anchored, but we made it. We left the dinghy anchored in shallow water (the tide was coming in) and waded in to the beach. There’s a little store about 200 yards to the left and a vegetable/fruit stand about another 75 yards past that. Armed with our heavy carry sacks, we bought enough supplies to last us a while (we’re not sure at this point when we’ll see fresh food again-likely not for at least three weeks as we’re on an adventure sailing leg of the journey to some outer islands where there are few to zero people and supplies). Anyway, mission accomplished and back to the dinghy, brave the reef at somewhat higher water, get back to Charisma and get ready to leave the anchorage.

Only problem with anchoring the dinghy in shallow water, is when the tide comes in if you didn't time it right.

Leaving an anchorage means: unloading and storing all the food, putting up the dinghy engine, hauling the dinghy up on deck and securing it on the foredeck, closing all the hatches, plotting the course out through the reef, getting the snubber off the anchor line, briefing the exit plan, turning on the engine and hauling up the chain, all the while watching out that we don’t hit the reef on either side of us and once the anchor is up, and aiming out through the opening. Whew! Then a nice three hour motor sail up to Budd Reef where we’re poised for the next leg tomorrow. That’s the real destination-Nagelelevu, also sometimes spelled Quelelevu. Anyway, it’s the northeast most island in the Fiji chain. Part of the Ringgold island group. Not often visited, but supposed to be beautiful, wild and unpopulated. For many years it was rumored there was only one “old man” living on the island. Seems like he has passed on and now there might be some fishermen occasionally visiting. We’ll see and report. It should be about a seven hour sail there tomorrow. We’ll be leaving at 0600 so we get there with (hopefully) good light to see the reef for entering the lagoon.

OK, so you’ve been waiting for the naked Ann diving story, eh? Well, we had both finished bathing for the day. Ann was doing some laundry in the galley and I was in the head shaving when we both heard a sharp “thunk” on the deck. What the heck was that? After rolling some ideas through my mind I realized it could only be one thing. Our internet thingy. I had put it in a rainproof pouch and hauled it up the flag halyard and darned if we didn’t get internet from the island of Rabi about 10 miles away. Problem is it came loose (how in the world that happened, I have no idea), hit the deck and bounced over the side. Once we realized what the noise was, Ann hit the deck in one bound shedding clothes along the way. Grabbing her fins, mask and snorkel she lept over the side trying to get the thing. The last thing I saw was her lily white bum glowing in the late afternoon light as she slid below the turquoise blue of the water. Problem was the package was sitting on the bottom thirty feet (by the depth sounder) down. “Give me the boat hook!” she shouted while I was changing into my swimming suit. I tossed it to her and she dove for the second time trying to get close enough to hook the thing. Even with the boat hook she came up short. Ann has only really been snorkeling and diving for a year or so and while she’s getting pretty good, 30 feet is a long way down. I don’t think I’ve ever free dived 30 feet before, but our internet connection was at risk, so I now jumped in the water (more suitably clothed) and looked where Ann was pointing. Yipes, that’s a loooonnng way down. OK, hyperventilate three times (no more or you can make yourself pass out-not good) hold the last one and DIVE. Down, down, down-almost there-try to grab it, missed-should I go up, no I’m down here, keep going-one more grab, GOT IT! Now up. You look up at this point and see how deep you are-Charisma looks so far away- and feel your lungs burning out and think, “Am I really going to make it back up?” Go, go, go…break the water-BREATH! Wow, that was a deep dive for me. (Yay, Bob!)

The bad news though is the dongle looks DOA. It got wet and likely is dead. Ever optimistic, we have it in a bag of rice hoping that may dry the thing out. We’ll see, but we may be “off line”, other than this blog which we will continue to post daily via shortwave radio, until we can replace the internet thingy. The earliest that might happen is about three weeks or so when we might get to Suva.

Oh well. We’re going to be out of internet range anyway for a few weeks as we visit some outlying islands, so “that’s life”.

Anyone who needs to reach us can either send to our sailmail account or post to this blog. We’ll get back to you when we can.

In the meantime, we have a beautiful night to enjoy anchored off this deserted island.