Wind!

We are anchored at the northern tip of Taveuni. The good part is we’re inside a low reef that pretty much surrounds us, providing protection from the ocean swell. The bad side is we’re fully exposed to the wind. It’s been blowing in the mid 20’s since last night and we’re getting tired of the constant slamming back and forth. Hopefully it will ease later tonight/early morning-at least that’s the forecast.

In the mean time we’re stuck on board. It’s too cloudy to leave-you can’t see the reefs and could slam into one-and too windy to go ashore in the dinghy as it’s at least 300 yards through significant wind chop which would completely soak us through within a minute or two of leaving Charisma.

The answer? Boat chores and books.

Ann read an entire book written by another cruiser about her experiences cruising Fiji and she baked a loaf of (delicious) bread.

I had two things on the maintenance list. It turned out both were more essential than I had thought. Adding water to the batteries was one and they were much lower than I expected, so glad that was not put off by even one more day. Fixing the flux gate compass was the other and the problem there was in the “unexpected” category.

Using alligator clips as temporary fuse holders after the real ones melted down.

The symptom that something was wrong was that the radar was not aligning with the gps. I though it had gone out of alignment due to a shift in the magnetic field (we moved a metal French Press coffee maker out of the cabinet the compass is in). I hoped it would be a simple recalibration (i.e. Push a button on the unit). Alas, it’s never that simple. In looking at the thing, I noticed the status light wasn’t on. Uh oh! No power-bigger problem. After a bit of troubleshooting, I determined it must be a blown fuse. Yup, that’s what it was. A bit of water got into the inline fuse holder and ZAP, all done. In fact, two fuses. One on the positive line and the one on the negative line. OK, I have fuses. I opened the fuse holders. Oops, those are fried too! I don’t have extra fuse holders. Now what?

I thought about just hard-wiring the lines, but if there’s a fault, you fry thousands of dollars of equipment and guarantee they are dead. OK, that option is off the table. Looking around for something to work, I spied four alligator clips in my electronics box. Hmmm, I wonder? Yep, some wire stripping, alligator clipping and black electrician taping later, I now have workable “fuse holders” and we’re good to go. It’s not pretty, but it should work until we’re back in the first world and I can source the right size fuse holders.

Maybe it WAS a good thing we had to stay on board today?

Post by Ann-
Our plan for the day was to go visit the much acclaimed water falls of Taveuni! There are three of them in a row and most people only make it to the second one. Rita and Ulli from Anni-Nad happily accepted our invitation to join the fun. Our taxi driver, Wani (patience is his middle name-call him if you need a ride. 929-0339 in Fiji) told us we should meet him at the boat ramp at 8 am. Ugh! That meant a 6:30 alarm clock – not in our normal time table, but we did it.

Rainy day? No problem...for the frogs! (photo by Uli Pusch)

When we researched islands to visit in Fiji, Taveuni stood out because of these water falls and I (Ann) did not want to miss them! It was a scenic drive around the island crossing several rivers on very low to the water bridges. When we arrived and started the hike we were greeted by a frog hopping along the trail. So cute! Who doesn’t love a frog! But man are they hard to photograph – very shy.

By the time we reached the first waterfall the sky had opened and the rain came down! The power of the waterfall could be heard well in advance of it’s siting because of the quantity of water coursing over the top! And the rain continued! And continued and pretended to lighten and then continued some more. The swimming pool was getting muddier by the moment.

This lovely Fijian woman and her child were the caretakers of the waterfall trails.

Helpful sign on the way to the waterfall (before it started really raining)

What to do? We decided to wait out the squall and moved to the covered picnic tables. And that’s when we notice the frog party. All over the ground was hopping! Big frogs, little frogs, mama frogs and her babies. All with Ulli chasing them around to get the perfect picture. Yes, it was quite entertaining. But eventually we had to make a decision, press on to waterfall number two or head back. When Bob mentioned that the rivers we crossed were probably getting quite full and rising quickly, the decision was made…head back to the taxi. Sigh.

Wani had also agreed to take us to the grocery store on the other side of the island so off we headed. That’s when Rita and I got the idea to go to some other points of interest…like the Catholic Church. The one with the famous white cross that can be see very far off as you cross over from Viani Bay. The cross commemorates a famous 19th century naval battle where the Taveuni warriors turned back a large Tongan invasion force. Apparently a Marist priest (French) provided the strategy that included Taveuni troops holding a small white cross. The cross on the hill commemorates this victory and a beautiful church was built. It also happens to have a school that is part of it and Wani’s youngest daughter attends it.

At the base of the road, groups of parents were busy cooking LOTS of casaba root to feed several teams of young kids that would be traveling to Suva this weekend to represent Taveuni in a sports contest. The kids were in the field practicing. A great scene to happen upon!

Bet you thought the kids were playing slip n’slide based on the title of this blog, right? Nope! It didn’t rain all day on this side of the island.

Rita asked Wani for one more side trip…did he know where the water slide was? Of course! So off we went up into the hills, off-roading almost! But the rain had stayed on the other side of the island so we were hopeful!

Ulli stopped to check out the prison that we passed on the way up (yes, Wani said most people are in for theft. There were 18 inmates and 17 staff!). The rest of us continued on foot toward the water slides! We found it but it looked more like a series of small waterfalls. How is this supposed to work? Wish and your wish is granted…just as we wished there were kids there to show us how to navigate the slides, two young Fijian men (about 18-20 years old) appeared out of no where!

Ann and Rita hit the slide. (photo by Uli Pusch)

Yippeee! (photo by Uli Pusch)

Did someone say; "Fun"? (photo by Uli Pusch)

Jimmy and Junior could not have been better hosts. Bob was in hiking shoes so passed on getting wet. Rita and I took off up the side of the slides with the boys guiding us and lending us a helpful hand. And after a vivid demonstration by Junior, we jumped in and gave it a go! Such fun! Slide, splash into a pool, slid, splash…all the way back down! Who doesn’t love a slip ‘n slide! And our timing was perfect, just as we finished four cars of “tourists” arrived to play.

We ended the day with a much needed refueling at the local grocery store and the veggie markets on the road side.

So a day that looked to be a wash out turned out to be a blast!

Today, leaving Viani, our Mojo was aligned. Not sure what with, but hey, I’m not complaining. What am I talking about you’re probably saying?

I’m talking about the dreaded task of bringing up the anchor and 200 feet of chain after 8 days in the same place over a rocky bottom. The wind shifted about twenty times around the clock (north, south, east, west and back) during our stay, so we were pretty sure the chain had wrapped around more than a few bommies (big coral rocks on the bottom). In fact, it pretty much had done just that. BUT…it was OUR day-we got it up without too much drama. Took about 1/2 hour or so. Jack was watching from our neighbor’s boat-he rowed out early to say goodbye to us and Southern Cross-so we had a lot of incentive to “look good”.

Turned out the chain WAS wrapped around at least four differnt bommies. You know it because you pull the chain up tight and there’s a sickening grinding sound and the whole boat shudders when a wave passes underneath and yanks the “short chain” with a jerk. But we went forward, backed down, went left, backed some more, tried going right and just worked each one loose. Ann did a spectacular job on the helm and I’m proud to say we did it all without a word. All hand signals until the final one where I put both fists together to signify the anchor is up and she can head out of the anchorage. It was a great feeling and when Jack let out a big Whoop! We knew we had “done good”.

Out in the channel between the islands of Tavenui and Vanua Levu, we motored north (there wasn’t a breath of wind) to Matei on the tip of Taveuni. On the way we saw some dolphins, but they were just teasing as they didn’t come over to play. A little later I spotted something that I thought was a turtle. I called it out to Ann who looked in the binocs. A shark! In fact a rather large one just cruising along probably just enjoying the warmth of the (very hot) sun. The length between the dorsal fin and tail was about 4-5 feet, so I imagine this guy was a 10 footer. He passed about 50 yards behind us, so we never got a real close up view to determine actual length. That’s OK with me.

A little later, WHAP!, our hand line slapped on the deck tearing the clothespin off the lifeline. FISH ON! We hoped for a tuna, but a Mahi it was. Oh well, they are delicious and a welcome change from our vegetarian diet of the last week (we’re pretty much down to eggplant and Bok Choy that we’ve been trading with Jack for flour and sugar). I’m going to make some ceviche with the wild limes we collected from our hike and we have about 10 more fillets as well, so fish dinner for the week!

After landing Mr Mahi, we got back under way and in a few more miles saw that there were two other boats in the spot we were headed for. In a past life I would have said: “damn, there are other boats there”, but now it’s more; “hey, there’s “Puddy Tat”- the very nice folks who we met in Viani and who hosted us on the Cabbage Patch snorkel expedition, and “Anni Nad” our friends Uli and Rita from Germany who we became friends with in Whangarie and came to our wedding.

I’ve said it before. Cruising is about the people you meet as much as about the places you go. We’ve been very fortunate to meet so many wonderful people and it’s great that we’re able to catch up with some of them here.

This must be sounding boring, but it’s such a beautiful place, it’s hard to tire of it.

Yesterday, we got Jack to guide us on a hike through the bush to the other side of the island. Sounds like a bigger deal than it is since we’re on the upper end of a peninsula. Still though, it was a 1 1/2 hour hike each way through the jungle. Really fun with Jack, since he was able to point out many exotic fruit and medicinal herbal trees and plants. And, we got to hear three more hours of his stories! (We took turns with who got to walk right behind Jack).

Jack leads the way across the island.

In the jungle with Jack

There was a little farm about half way across where we stopped for a break (with Mark and Viki from Southern Cross)

The day actually started with a tour of the local school which covers K through 8th grade. After that, it’s boarding school. The kids were a kick and a half and we spent some time in the 5/6 class where the teacher quickly sensed an opportunity for a teaching moment. He had each student stand and tell us their age, best subject and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Of course when it was my turn I made sure to note that I was never going to grow up!

Kids heading to school on the morning school-boat.

Entrance to school (click to read the sign)

The path up to the school.

Look familiar? A universal schoolgirl pose even in Fiji.

Ann had a brilliant idea and grabbed their world map off the wall and gave them a geography lesson showing where we came from and talked about the island groups we had visited. As always, she had the kids enthralled. We did this with Mark and Vicky from Southern Cross who are both teachers and they pitched in with their expertise as well. I’m sure the students will talk about our visit for a while.

Some of the kids.

We got to meet the 5/6 grade class where the kids all stood up and told us about themselves.

Ann wowed them all with a geography lesson on where we came from.

Also today, more diving! I’m definitely hooked. Especially the drift dives where you “bomb” along in the current. Sometimes it moves really fast, and you feel like you’re on a freeway but with no brakes. It can be a little scary (for this new diver) because stuff can happen really fast on this kind of dive. It’s definitely on the edge and you’re at the mercy of the current and swirls up, over and around the coral reef. Anyway, we saw more beautiful coral and so many fish, you just get numb. I did notice a new, unique one though. The Unicorn Fish. Look it up-it’s pretty cool looking.

The dive boat ride out to the reef.

Coral Madness!

OK, finishing the day-back on Charisma then an hour or so paddle boarding and a pot luck dinner on board Southern Cross. What did we have? Fortunately Jack rowed out and brought us Bok Choy and Eggplant from his garden, so the dinner menu was easy! We traded a package of dried beans for the veggies.

A new boat came in late afternoon. A Lagoon 38, named Pelagic. By the time we got over to Southern Cross Mark had already secured cocktails on Pelagic tomorrow night. Ahhh, such a busy social calendar out here cruising!

So now, we’re back on Charisma and there’s (wait for it!) LIGHTNING on the horizon somewhere. We can see the flashes but can’t quite tell when it is. Sigh. At least I can rest a bit knowing that today we fixed a little problem with our anchor. After spinning around for a few days as the wind shifts, our chain has fairly hopelessly snagged on the rocks below. We got what’s called “short chained”. Basically, it’s like a dog that goes round and round a tree on a leash until it chokes itself if it’s not careful. In our case, the chain lost its “catenary” which is the bit of sag that absorbs shock from wind gusts. It just went straight down to the rock it was wound around so as we “bob” up and down there’s no shock absorption of the chain-it just jerks the boat. It can be a bit unnerving to hear and feel. Anyway, we spent about twenty minutes maneuvering with the engine on going left, then right, back and forth, trying to untangle the chain. Finally a bunch of it came up, so we put a float on it to keep it from tangling again and let a bunch back out. A long story to say that if the wind comes up tonight from the lightning, I’ll be less worried now that we’ve at least sorted that bit out.

OK, that last bit was boat geeky-for our friends who are not cruising yet, but will be.

View of our anchorage earlier in the day.

It's Charisma time!

I did a two tank dive today along Rainbow Reef in Viani Bay. Ann was going to come but at the last minute a sun sore on her lip split and was bleeding like crazy. Not a good thing to dive with. She instead stayed on a Charisma and made bread! How lucky am I! (Notice that was not a question, but a rhetorical comment)

So, the diving. It was gorgeous even though it was a very overcast and somewhat windy day.

The operator picked us up (Mark and Vicky from Southern Cross came in to the anchorage yesterday afternoon and joined in the diving today) on our boats. That was fun. Just wait for them and they come alongside. You jump aboard and you’re off. They come over from Taveuni-which is a couple miles away across the Somosomo Straight. It was the three of us and a young woman from Calgary (who is a vet student there).

Sea Anoneme and Anenome Fish (the orange guy hiding inside)

The hard and soft corals are amazing.

The soft corals only "come out" when the current is running and they can filter feed from the moving water.

Drifting along "The Wall" with the current.

So there we were…I won’t go into detail about the two dives, but the highlights were:

-Some of the most beautiful hard and soft coral anywhere.
-A smoking fast drift on our second dive past the Purple Wall and the White Wall. Big current, very fast! The soft corals waving in the flow of the current were spectacular.
-The highlight for me; five large mammals-either pilot whales (that’s what the dive operators said they were) or Risso’s Dolphins, which is what my books would suggest. No matter which, they were at least 12 feet long, very curious and came within about 20 feet and took my breath away to see them underwater. I figuratively dropped my jaw (but not with my breathing apparatus in) and the dive guide I was with had to bang on my head and point at my camera to remind me to take a picture. I was so in awe, I completely forgot and was just staring at these stunning creatures.

First these guys checked us out...

Then their friends came over...

Awe inspiring.

I think we’re going to try and dive again on Saturday. This is just such an amazing underwater landscape. In the mean time, tomorrow (Friday) we’re planning on going in to the school during their recess period around 1030. We see the kids getting picked up every day around the bay by longboat around 0730 and then taken home again around 1600. It’s cute to see almost a dozen little ones zooming to school in the open boat and then jumping out and wading over the reef to class.

(Hint: there’s some new pictures that go back a few days posted 7/6/13)

Today was “get off the boat” day.

We saw a cool looking path on the other side of the bay and decided to head for it.  We learned it’s name is “Prayer Hill”.  I’m thinking that’s because you “hope” you’re going to make it up, and you “pray” you can get back down.  It’s pretty steep.  In Fiji they don’t mess with switchbacks.  You have a ridge?  Go straight up.

If you look closely, you might see the path up the ridge. it's called Prayer Hill. (click to enlarge)

We found a convenient path "hacked" through the mangroves to get ashore.

Jack's nephew Dex was nice enough to guide us through the mangroves to the beginning of the hike.

Ann summits the hill.

And....a picnic on top!

Viani Bay.

You might be able to make out Charisma in the little cove at the top middle of the picture.

Once back down from the hike we watched Dex work on his new raft. All made from bamboo, he'll use this to fish off of.

Anyway, we had a nice little adventure, met one of Jack’s nephews; Dex, who was nice enough to stop work on his raft building project to guide us to the beginning of the trail.

The pictures tell the rest of the story, but the day didn’t end there.  We got back to Charisma by about 1400 and had time to inflate the paddleboards!  Yay.  We tooled around the bay for an hour or so and met up with one of the folks who lives here.  She had spent the last several hours in the water hunting dinner.  What did she have in her bucket?  Octopus!  And a couple of fish.

The paddleboards are so fun.  Many thanks again to Mom and Dad who got these for us as wedding presents!

Well, we’re here. And we caught two fish on the way up. Problem was they were both Mahi and a bit small so we let them go thinking what we really wanted was a nice big TUNA. Alas, no joy on the tuna.

We're here in Viani.

We're anchored off a little island that has one family living on it.

But, we’re tucked into a gorgeous spot in the NE corner of the bay, just next to a little island that provides some shelter from all but direct south wind. Right now, there’s absolutely zero wind. We could be on a mountain lake.

Last night we caught up with Rich and Jan on Slip Away (which was great) and also got to meet Andrew and Kerri on Mariposa, a Westsail 42. We had a pot luck and really enjoyed the evening. New friends and old. Great combo.

Mariposa (left) and Slip Away.

Today, we had a wonderful first full day in the bay thanks to Puddy Tat, a Brit/South Africa duo (David and Silvie) who were kind enough to offer their boat as “taxi” for the day. They contracted with Jack, the local fixture and character, to guide them to a couple of snorkeling spots on the barrier reef. Would we like to come? “You Betcha!”

Here comes Jack. He rowed about 1/2 mile from his house on the beach at the other end of the bay.

Meet Jack. What a character. I really enjoyed his stories. He'll talk all day if you let him. He's been guiding boats one way or another for 40 years.

The deal with Jack is you pay him $10 Fijian per person and make lunch, and he’ll guide all day. And as a bonus, we got to hear his stories of guiding boats in and around Fiji for the past 40 years. Definitely a character and a lot of fun.

We also had some tremendous snorkeling. The first spot we stopped at in the morning was the “White Wall”. This is an internationally known dive spot, but how would snorkeling be? Just OK is the answer. We battled a bit of a current and ended up snorkeling a couple hundred yards up current and then sliding back to the boat. The coral was just OK-the better experience is deeper-but there was a highlight. I got to see a shark pursuing an octopus. I didn’t see the final outcome, but it was a thrill to watch the chase.

Then we relocated to the Cabbage Patch”. I thought, “well, what a stupid name” until I dove it. Wow! That’s exactly what it was. I’ll try to get some pics up soon. It also had some of the most beautiful coral we’ve ever seen. Ann and I felt really fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this spot. Many thanks to David and Silvie for playing “taxi” and taking us all out to the reef.

Ann diving down to the Cabbage Patch coral formations.

Yup, looks like cabbage!

The coral here is just stunning!

We just can't get tired of these views.

So, we’re here for a while. In the plan is: diving (with tanks-there are several operators who will pick us up at Charisma), going ashore to meet some of the locals and do some hiking, and hopefully paddle boarding. There’s also some bad weather due in the islands this weekend, so we’ll likely hunker down in this nice bay until that blows over.

We’ll see what comes.

So we left Cousteau Resort around the corner from Savusavu and motored 20 some miles up the coast. We’re now in Fawn Harbor, which is not a “harbor”, it’s a bay and we’re the only boat here. We came in through the reef around 1430. Pretty straightforward other than a significant dogleg. We had good visibility though, so easy to see the shallow water/reef. Once inside we choose the western side to avoid the need to do sevusevu at the village to the east since we’re only stopping here for the night on our way to Viani Bay where we expect to spend a week or more.

The hook's down and the sun's setting...

Surrounded by mangroves but we were the only ones here.

This is a nice spot. It’s actually a hurricane hole-surrounded on all side by mangroves. And living in the trees above the mangroves are hundreds if not thousands of fruit bats. We had quite a show just befor sunset as they all rose from the trees and flew around. It’s pretty impressive since they have a wingspan of somewhere around three feet!

The only disappointment today was not catching fish. I was sure we’d get one. We had two lines out and were seeing baitfish jumping all over the place, but no joy. Maybe tomorrow.

We’re planning to leave early for Viani. Hopefully we’ll get there before noon and have time to play a bit before end of day. Also hoping to hookup with our friends on Slip Away, who we have heard are there until Monday.

Our goal for Viani: dive (it’s supposed to be one of the best dive sites in the world), paddle board, meet local people and hike. There are some worthy hikes to waterfalls on Taveuni Island, just a little ways across the Somosomo straight from the anchorage-or so we have heard.

Stay tuned. I think there’s Internet coverage at Viani too, so maybe we’ll be able to upload our pics as well.

P.S. a big shout out to our families who are at “The Beach” starting today. That’s Aptos in Santa Cruz, Ca. If we weren’t here, we would be there with them and we are thinking of them and all the fun they are having!

Here’s Ann’s Facebook post for today (since we’re still in internets range), couldn’t have said it better, so here it is:

“Today’s itinerary went like this: coffee in the cockpit, dinghy over to snorkel area and snorkel (disappointingly cloudy), instead of snorkel let’s scrub barnacles off of Charisma’s hull (lookin’ good!), lunch, paddleboard to the reef on the other side of Cousteau and back to check out alternate snorkel spot, tie paddle board to buoy and enjoy simple beauty, back to Charisma to get snorkel gear and dinghy to return to great spot (so many fish they startled me when I rinsed my mask prior to getting in), back to Charisma, Bob naps, Ann takes three more paddleboard laps of anchorage, showers, delightful sunset display with a Charisma in hand. This is cruising!”

The dive boats moored off Cousteau Resort where we're anchored today.

Part of the resort from our anchorage.

Our view away from the resort.

OK, I should add that free diving on one of the bommies, I saw a Lionfish. First one I’ve seen in the wild. He was hiding under a coral overhang. Very graceful.

So, we finally got to use our new dive certifications.  This morning (leaving at 0630-bleah) we took a dive boat and went 20 miles off Vanua Levi (the north island of Fiji) to a reef called Namena.  It’s a designated marine sanctuary, so lots of good, healthy coral and abundant sea life.

We moved Charisma yesterday from Savusavu, about 6 miles down the bay out near the coast to the Cousteau Resort where we anchored for the night.

Up at 0630 and headed out.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story, but suffice to say we had an awesome time.  The Cousteau Resort dive team did a fantastic job.  They were very professional and fun.  On the way back they spotted a whale and headed over to it.  I don’t have pictures-but it was sleeping until we coasted up to it.  Then it raised its head to look at us and we saw the blunt nose of a sperm whale (I’m pretty sure).  It then eased on back in the water and slid under waving its tale at us as it disappeared into the deep.

Many thanks to Kathy at Waitui Dive for arranging a great dive for us.  I’ve said before, and we will again, she’s the person to call at Waitui Marina when you go to Savusavu.

Anchored off Cousteau Resort. $1000/night for the resort and I'm glad to say we have a better view for free!

Had my coffee and ready to rock.

Heading out. Twin Suzuki 250s made short work of the 20 mile ride. Nice flat condtions didn't hurt.

Ann did a great job getting down to 80 feet where we spent most of the dive.

We love the delicate Fan Coral.

The colors are amazing.

Sting Ray! This one was the biggest I've ever seen. It was easily 3 feet across.

Can you find the turtle in this picture? You may have to click to enlarge it.

Sushi! (actually dogtooth tuna. Very yummy)

Some sharkies came over to check us out.

Ann pretending she's a fish. "Hey wait for me guys!"

And of course if there's an arch, we must swim through it!