So, I’m laying in the cockpit around 2200 watching the stars, well – sleeping actually and I was startled awake by voices in the distance.  “mBomb, can you use some lobster?”  What the heck!!?  In a daze I stagger awake (Ann’s asleep in bed) and try to make sense of this.  Angels again??  In this case it’s some of the young guys from Nairai who have been out spearfishing on the outer reef.  Since it’s Saturday night and there’s no work allowed on Sunday they are pushing to the last minute to bring in fish for the Sunday feast.  And they had speared two lobsters and figured Charisma would like them.  I had given one of them, the Chief’s son, two lures and apparently this was repayment. 

 I like this economy.  You give a little, you get a little.  Nice.

So, I got a bucket to put the lobsters in, still in a bit of a sleepy haze and they dropped two nice lobsters in the bucket.  Then they shined the flashlight on all the fish in the boat and asked if I needed some fish too.  No thanks – (we have so much food at this point including almost a quarter of the pig Epele slaughtered yesterday).  I had a brief inspiration.  There were four young men in the boat.  They had been spear fishing for hours on the outer reef, an exhausting exercise.  I knew I had four cold beers in the fridge.  We don’t offer alcohol as a matter of policy, but in this case it seemed appropriate.  “Let me get you guys a cold beer,” I said in the darkness to the outline of the little open boat just a few feet off Charisma.  In the dark, I could hear the response that any young man anywhere in the world would make, “Yesssssss!!!”

They motored off very happy having paid back for the fishing lure and scoring a cold beer.  Now that I’m waking up I’m starting to wonder what the hell am I going to do with two lobsters at 2200 at night?  The only answer:  Cook them.  So, out comes my cookbook to again remind me, “Plunge an ice pick between the eyes to kill them instantly”.  (Cruising can be so cruel).  Then I cooked the lobsters, put them in the fridge and tonight threw them on the grill to finish them off and had a great dinner with mung beans, cabbage and apples with Asian peanut dressing. 

Today we went to church.  Very similar to Fulunga but smaller.  This village only has about 50 or so people including children.  But as with everywhere in the South Pacific the service was heartfelt and the singing was inspiring.  It was of course followed by a feast prepared by Esther.  I had to take a nap under the mango tree afterward to digest the wonderful food.  Ann pulled out yet another game to teach the children and leave them to play after we’re gone.  

Back to Charisma and time to prepare for early departure tomorrow.  Put away the outboard, store the dinghy and paddleboards… same routine.  As the sun began its descent Ann spots whales breaching just outside the reef.  And suddenly the sounds of a squealing pig floats across the water from the shore and we can see a large black pig being towed by its hind legs back to the village.  There was a parade of children happily following the big pig.  There is a fiber headed to Suva tomorrow for a funeral and my guess is that this pig will be a passenger.  And when we think the wild life excitement has settled down another fiber comes over to Charisma from around the point.  In this fiber is Epele driving with three of the young guys, each holding tightly to one hind leg of a small pig.  There is going to be quite the feast in Suva.

 It was a very enjoyable end to our stay at yet another lovely and special place here in Fiji.  We will never forget the friendships we have made here.

In other words, just another average Saturday in Nairai.

We went into the village this morning and Tuba (pronounced Tumba) the Chief’s son met us and helped pull the dinghy up above the high water mark. We were going to look for him anyway as we brought him a couple of fishing lures. He was very thankful for the lures and right there knocked a couple coconuts down so we would have some to drink. Next, down the beach came Epeli (who with his wife Esther are our friends here on the island) with his dog Tiger and a wild boar over his shoulders. Yes, it was dead. Tiger tracked and held it and Epeli caught it. I asked him how he dispatched it – he drowned it in the ocean. “Much cleaner. No blood”. After that he cut its throat and bled it before carrying it back. By the time we had changed from our beach/coral shoes to flip flops and went into the village, Epele had the boar hanging on a tree behind his cooking shed, had lit a fire under it and was burning the skin with a dry coconut palm frond that he caught on fire.

Burning the hair off the wild boar.

This was to burn the hair off and tighten the skin. After that he scraped the skin with a knife, then cut a chunk of dry coconut husk and used that under some running water to scrape the boar from head to tail. It was now deemed clean enough to gut and butcher. And the first cuts; the hoofs and lower legs, for Tiger to reward a job well done. (He not only caught this boar but trapped a pregnant female that Epeli hobbled to be retrieved by the minister on Monday! The minister had previously told Epele that he really wanted to raise some pigs.) Then he sent Ann and I into the cooking shed with Esther to have tea. I watched him start the process and can report it’s the same as gutting a deer.

Tiger keeps a watchful eye as Esther cooks the pig.

All this in just the first half hour of the day.

After tea we went outside to sit under their huge mango tree and rest.

Esther and Epeli's huge mango tree.

You need a lot of rest here to digest all the lovely food Esther makes. We’re having a small battle right now to see which of us can send more food back to the other. Last night she sent us back to Charisma with two fresh fish for our dinner and some home baked bread. We retaliated today with fresh sourdough muffins and jam and thought we were doing pretty good until she loaded us up with a stalk of bananas and a box of the biggest mangoes you have ever seen. AND she cooked one of the entire hams of the pork and a side of ribs and sent that as well. We’re losing big time here. Oh well…

In between all this we needed to get out of her way as she was preparing for Sunday feast, so we went out for a walk down the beach. We didn’t get a hundred yards before Ann “The Magnet” had a dozen kids following us, finding sea shells and finally singing songs while Ann recorded them with her camera and played them back to the shrieking delight of the children.

Surprise! We found kids on the beach (um, well, they found us actually).

All in all a very fun day. PS – dinner tonight is BBQ wild boar ribs with a side of mung bean salad with Asian peanut sauce. Oh how our diet adjusts to what we have!

As JHamm mentioned in response to last night’s blog, it is really something special to have friends on a small island half a world away that we met via a bottle with a note that we tossed overboard. Very small world. And today it got smaller. Our friend Epile led us to the next village, through the jungle, down to the beach, through the water to the school. We love visiting the schools on these islands but today’s had a special draw. And a Fulunga connection. The Head Master at the Nairai school is the brother of Koro, the women who taught me to weave in Fulunga! I knew it was Simi before the smiling man coming our way introduced himself. He looks, and laughs, just like his sister. And Simi was just as delightful. (Simi has not seen Koro in 14 years! But they stay in contact by phone. In fact Koro had called Simi to tell him that Charisma was in their way to Nairai — small work connections.)

The "path" to school.

Headmaster Simi and family.

And of course my day is complete when I can teach children to play Farkle. So surrounded by about thirty kids I explained the game and we played. Kids catch on fast and it is a great way to share our languages. And I always learn something new. And of course I taught them how to say nothing in Spanish…nada! They loved it.

Ann teaching the kids how to play Farkle.

As we hiked the thirty minutes back to Lawaki we were accompanied by Epile’s dog Tiger. Tiger is not a big dog. About the size of a Springer Spaniel. But he has a special talent. Tiger hunts and catches wild pig! Go Tiger! Epile said they may go pig hunting tomorrow morning but it is far too early for us to attend. But we promise to find out if Tiger was successful.

I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with the chief’s daughter-in-law as she wove a beautiful mat. Laiti happily discussed the different weaving styles with me. She can identify the island origin of a woven mat in a craft mart just from the construction. Nice.

Chief's wife is also an impressive weaver.

And really nice was Bob taking a nap at Esther’s only to be awakened by Epile who decided it was time for a bowl of kava. So a gentle voice worked through Bob’s dream inviting him to kava. Island life…issa (which is like awww…in English.)

We’re in Nairai. Back to where we met the wonderful folks who found the bottle we threw overboard at the equator (with a note in it) and after 4500 miles and 15 months at sea ended up here. That story is in our archive from last July/August.

Anchored off the beach (or rather reef).

So, we’re sitting here at anchor. It’s not a really friendly anchorage. If the wind goes at all south of east we are totally exposed. You have to time it here. But when the wind is east this little spot off the village of Lawiki on the island of Nairai is lovely.

Right now the stars are out, the wind is just barely north of east gusting to 15 knots. We hear the rumble of the gusts in the rigging and the splashing of the waves on the dinghy that’s tied just behind us, bouncing on the waves. Splish, splash. Then a few hundred meters away over in the dark toward the village, we hear, “Thud, thud, clank, thud, clank, thud…”. Those who have been in Fiji immediately recognize the rhythmic sound of kava being pounded in preparation for a long night of ceremony and celebration. The thud is the six foot long steel bar being lifted high above the head and brought down into the cast iron bowl containing the root. The clank is the steel hitting the side of the bowl as it’s brought back up above the head. The really good pounders have a syncopated song they play. The less talented sound more like a diesel engine that’s just thrown a rod.

We left Oneata yesterday morning at 1030. The sail over was uneventful and even mostly nice. With the wind dead on behind us, it was a bit rolly, but mostly 10-15 knots with no squalls. The water was a bit confused given all the islands in the Lau we were leaving behind, but when the sun was out it was so blue it was almost purple. The night brought stars and a waning moon although a little chilly – Ann put on socks and I had a hoodie over my tee shirt and shorts. That’s the definition of Fijian Chilly.

This morning delivered a nice sunrise at 0558 and then promptly clouded up. Damn. You really need some sun to get in through the reef. Without it you can’t see the coral lurking just below the surface. But, it turned out the clouds moved through just a little faster than Charisma and by the time of our arrival at 1200 it was gloriously blue water and blue sky. Entry through the reef was a non-event.

Didn't take long for the kids to find us.

Turns out word of our arrival got here before we did! By the time the anchor was set in the little patch of sand between bommies and reef that define this anchorage, there were people on the beach waving. They had heard from friends at Fulunga and from a relative in San Francisco that we were coming in. Wow. How to feel appreciated. By the time we got the dinghy launched and made our way to the beach our friends Esther and Able were waiting to give us a hand and they announced that lunch was waiting. Oh my. Fijian hospitality knows no bounds.

The village of Lawaki on Nairai.

The Chief of the village was out fishing, so his son took care of the sevusevu.

So great to see Epeli and Esther again.

After a delightful time catching up a bit and enjoying Esther’s fantastic cooking (which both Ann and I had been eagerly anticipating) we begged our way back to Charisma to catch up on lost sleep and put the boat away from the trip (fold sails, store lines, etc).

The plan tomorrow is to spend the entire day reacquainting ourselves with these fantastic people that we had so much fun with last year. We hope to take lots of pictures to share with the islands relatives in the Bay Area who we have also come to know. We’ll stay here as long as the weather cooperates. That looks to be Saturday or Sunday when the wind shifts into the south and we’ll have no protection.

Back in Nairai…issa…..

We’ve spent the last 2 ½ months in the Lau Island Group on the East side of Fiji. More specifically the Southern and Southeastern Lau.

We left Oneata this morning on our way to Nairai. Planned arrival is tomorrow, perhaps late morning if the wind holds. For most of today (and now) the wind has been holding between 10 and 15 knots with somewhat confused seas. It’s a bit of a bumpy ride, but downwind at 5.5 knots average, so I can’t complain too much.

For anyone contemplating stopping at Oneata, we highly recommend it (particularly the village of Dakquiloa. The people there were really nice and if you are looking for really beautiful tapas Oneata and Namuaka-I-Lau, a little further south, both are excellent spots. We really wished we had more time to spend, particularly at Oneata but it’s getting late in the season and we still have some spots we would like to visit before heading back to NZ.

So for now it’s rockin’ and rollin’ threading our way out of the Lau and across the Koro Sea. Dinner was very simple: soup with some homemade bread that John from Orcinius gave us before we left. These 24 hour trips make it hard to get our sea legs, so we keep it as simple as possible and stay out of the cabin in these bumpy conditions.

Speaking of Orcinius, they are going north up the Lau via Lakemba and Vanua Balava and we’ll meet up again in Savusavu in a week or so. It will be fun to compare notes over a beer (or three).

JHam asked how we kept track of where we were going on the trails. Many, if not most of the trails we have come across are very minimal until you get close to the village. The last two islands we hiked on the trails could not really be seen in many cases, it was more a matter of feeling your way. If you’re not on the trail, you can’t get through the underbrush/jungle. If you are on the trail, you move forward. Simple.

So…I have a machete and this also helps. Mostly it’s helpful for cutting coconuts to drink and eat, but sometimes it helps break trail and often I use it to mark a spot to use for coming back. A little cut on a tree that shows we were here. Sometimes when the trail forks, we just draw a line in the dirt.

A combination of things keeps us going the right direction. Also, we don’t walk late in the day because once the sun gets low you can’t see in the shade – a surefire way to spend the night in the bush.

Yes, a second day anchored just off a lovely beach at Oneata. Orcinius and Charisma are the only two boats here. There are two villages on this island, but they are on the other side, so we have a very quiet little spot.

We spent most of this morning just catching up on this and that. The afternoon’s project was to hike to the other side of the island and pick up a tapa that Orcinius commissioned from one of the villagers. OK, sounds easy, but first you have to find the trail. We went ashore and walked down the beach until we found something that looked “trail-like”. We followed it and quickly came out on the next beach up on this side of the island. At that point there was some disagreement over where exactly we should go. In the end we walked to the end of that beach and found another trail. Well, it sort of looked like it might be a trail. Through the jungle. OK, what the heck, we’ve got nothing else to do. So we followed it. It got better and after half an hour it miraculously opened to…the village! Score one for the Palangies.

The folks at this village were lovely and the tapa Orcinius had requested was almost complete. It’s about six feet long and two feet wide and inside the very intricate design is the name of the boat. It is really beautiful. The only problem was our talking was keeping Salote from completing her project, so we decided to do a little walking tour of the village. On the way we could hear someone hammering away – a sure sign that they are making the tapa paper. Following our ears, we came upon a nice woman pounding the tree bark that when soaked and pounded is turned into the paper that they paint to make the tapa.

Close up of the pounding hammer and the bark being pounded into cloth.

I’ll shorten a long story until the pictures are ready; Ann and Lisa learned to pound tapa paper. It takes a lot of muscle to pound a 2 inch diameter tree into paper. Ann found out when she challenged Salina, the tapa maker, to an arm wrestle. No contest, Salina won! Fun! Along the way we were also shown some already made tapas and Ann fell in love with one. I heard; “Oh, I can see future quilt patterns out of that” and that was that. We bought it. (Back at the boat, we unrolled the eight foot by two foot paper to look again and saw that it’s not only cool patterns, but a very beautiful piece in itself. Glad we bought it.

Ann learning to pound the bark that makes tapa cloth.

Our newest acquisition (we might have to start a museum or gallery).

So, that’s our day in a nutshell. John made a roast beef in his pressure cooker on Orcinius and we had a great dinner prior to going separate ways (for a week or so) starting tomorrow. Charisma is headed to Nairai at 1000 hours and Orcinius will be headed north to Vanua Balavu. For us, Nairai is where the bottle we tossed at the equator showed up last year and we want to visit “our family” there again. We’ll spend what time the weather will permit and then head to Savusavu to re-provision before heading out for more island-hopping. We haven’t had phone and internet for almost three months and also need to catch up on finances, taxes and more. Some things just don’t go away…oh well.

The trip from here (Oneata) to Nairai is 127 nautical miles. At our conservative cruising speed of 5 knots average, we’ll take 24 hours. We can go faster, but at night when the wind drops we sometimes go slower, so 5 knots is a good guess. Ideally, we’ll be positioned to go through the reef pass at Nairai sometime between noon and 2 PM.

We’ll see how it goes and let you know.

We moved up another island today. We’re now at Oneata. Usually, when we get to a new island there is the sevusevu or ceremonial gift of kava to the chief of the village. Well, today we experienced a different sort of sevusevu. A fiber, or 20-foot open outboard, came by once we were anchored and offered to “take our kava”. Since we’re pretty experienced with the sevusevu we were actually pretty glad to just hand it over in this case and be done with it since we’re not planning to be here long. Well, Ann said (not seriously) to Lisa that she was “crushed and that she missed the emotional contact” and Lisa’s response, “Get over it Ann”.

"We'll take your sevusevu right here!"

So…we did our duty and then took advantage of the ride to the village offered by the two guys in the fiber. The cost? A gallon of gas. OK, that works. A twenty minute ride around the end of the island later and we were in the village. It was a nice village. I wish we could spend more time here. The kids were awesome, flocking around Ann (as usual) and Lisa, and the ladies who make the tapas were very funny and fun to talk with. We bought a couple small tapas and John and Lisa commissioned one to be made and picked up tomorrow in the other village. It will be fun to hike over the island from our anchorage to pick it up. More adventure perhaps?

Kids at Oneata

This woman's name is Toga whose relatives we have met in California.

Kids on the beach.

Dinner tonight was the leftover mahi from yesterday cooked inside a pumpkin with onions, eggplant and curried coconut milk. The Fijians just put it on the fire. We have to cook it in the oven, but it’s still good! Just hollow out a pumpkin, sauté the veggies and drop them in with the curry and coconut cream/milk then cook an hour or so until done.

Nice.

We’re in Bounty territory, as in Captain Bligh. Not that I’m even close to that sort, just sayin’.

We left lovely Namuka- I-Lau this morning. Anchor’s up at 0830 and out the pass. A quick 12 or so miles (plus at least 2 more just going through the lagoon inside the reef) to Komo Island where we dropped anchor around 1130. On the way we got a radio call from Orcinius asking what we were thinking about having for dinner. Huh? We haven’t thought of it. “Oh”, they said. “We just caught a big Mahi Mahi so were thinking of fish fillet in cream sauce. Oh, yeah – we’re in paradise. We brought a mung bean salad. Some really nice folks we met on a yacht named Ohyra (I know I’ve spelled it wrong) told us how mung beans sprout and make a great salad when nothing else will stay fresh. There were right. We’re now having fresh sprout salads every day or two. Fun!

Ann and Lisa went out for a paddleboard/kayak expedition while John worked on Orcinius and I, um, napped all day. Yes, I have a nasty cold picked up on Fulunga. It’s one of those “just have to wait out all the symptoms” kind of things. I’m now on the still stuffy and starting to cough stages. Bleah!

Komo island is just a stop-over for us to break a long day into two short ones. Our real goal is Oneata tomorrow which is another 20 miles. So, we’ll leave at 0830 again and head out. The weather looks pretty good all week so we’ll probably stay there a day or maybe two then head to Nairai to reunite with the finders of our bottle while Orcinius heads north and we both meet back in Savusavu for resupply in a week. At least that’s today’s plan.

As they say here, these plans are set in sand.