Wow, talk about your culture shock.

We’ve gone from being on islands for the last four months where we “might” see another boat or two, to here, where we’re tucked into moorings with about 30 other boats!

Musket Cove. We haven't seen this kind of developed area all season.

The good news is we’re catching up with some old friends (Eagles’s Wings, Light Speed, and based on a radio chat this morning, Bright Angel, Kahia, Ladybug and maybe GatoGo who we haven’t seen since June).

This really is a fun place. Lots to do and this evening, we went in to the beach with the dinghy for a BBQ. Fun! And the staff here couldn’t be nicer or more accommodating. More on that in future posts.

The sail down here was in 20 plus knots and 2 meter seas. As we passed through the reef into this area known as the Manamucas, we metaphysically also passed from the “untamed” side of Fiji (on the eastern side) to the
Resort side where we are now. We’re seeing motorboats, airplanes, helicopters…not in huge abundance like on a weekend in SF Bay, but compared to the previous months of isolation, it’s, well, different.

It’s also almost October. Wow, how the time has flown by! Seems like only yesterday I was swearing at the bad luck to have gotten contaminated fuel in the storm coming north from NZ. Besides being the month (October) for that good German Brew, it’s also time to begin planning our voyage back out of the tropics to New Zealand. Cyclone season starts here in December and to keep our insurance company happy (as well as for our personal safety) we have to go south of 30 degrees south, which for our purposes is Enzed.

So-we have about two more weeks or so of exploring here and then we’ll need to resupply and start watching for a weather window that gives us favorable winds and seas for the 1000 mile voyage back to Kiwi Land. After the last two very rough, tough ones, we’re hoping to get a break this time (knock on wood!)

As we say here in Fiji-“Stay Tuned”. 😉

P.S. to my good friend JHam: love the idea about storming the beach with our newly developed explosive devices. Two problems keep us from doing that at this point. One, these devices now further evolved and perfected, taste too good to lob over the wall in support of an invasion and Two, the folks who work here are just waaay to darn nice! Call us sissies, but we’re going to “Make Charismas, not war!”

Yep, that was the end of our day. We had some wonderful music going in the cabin after dinner (I think it was Etta James) and a candle. What else do we need? We even managed a couple swing moves in Charisma’s very limited interior!

A nice end to a very pleasant day.

Earlier in the day, we went in to Likuri Island, AKA Robinson Crusoe Resort, and explored a little. Little being the operative word since we walked the perimeter of the island at low tide in about 25 minutes!

Likuri Island in the background.

We stayed for the lovo baked lunch (fish, ham, chicken, kokoda, rice and pasta) and were pleasantly surprised by the hula dancing entertainment. Back to Charisma in the afternoon for a nap (we both still are recuperating from colds caught in Suva) and then the best part of the day (well, best part other than dancing with my Sweetie!), a Charisma while watching yet another wondrous sunset.

Mañana we head for Musket Cove (weather permitting). For now, it’s a peaceful night and time for some star gazing.

James Brown use to be billed as “The Hardest Working Man In Show Business”, and he did break a sweat, but the folks here at the Robinsone Crusoe Resort did that and then some tonight.

We had another 40 mile plus day today. Another 7 hours at the helm because we stayed so close to the coastal reefs I didn’t want to use the wind vane. It’s accurate on long distances-amazingly so-but in the short run, it can wander. Anyway, we left Vananui at 0800. Put up the main sail inside and sailed out the reef in about 15 knots. It was a gorgeous “blue water” kind of day, but the wind kept building. Around 1100 I put in the first reef and sometime after lunch, it was getting too hard to hold our course so I put in the second reef. We were still doing 7 knots by this time with the second reef. As we closed with the southern most tip of the island, I didn’t want to gybe, so we furled the jib and went DDW (direct down wind) and even a bit by the lee and were still hitting sevens with 6-8 foot waves about 1/2 mile off the barrier reef. Pretty exciting sailing! I even had Ann put the companionway boards in as I was concerned one of the waves might break down into the hatch.

Finally we got around the point and were able to ease up a bit toward Likuri Island. But, there’s not a lot of protection and at the entrance to the pass we still had some sizable waves making taking the sail down a bit of a chore. All managed though and through the pass in the reef, although we had a few anxious moments trying to determine the correct course to take. It was fairly cloudy and we couldn’t see the inner reef until we were almost upon it.

Finally inside, dropped the hook in 20 feet over sand. Thanks for that; it grabbed hard and is set well while we’re sitting in mid twenty knot wind a couple hundred yards in the lee of the island. Windy, but at least flat water.

So, the show…it turned out to be great. Lovo cooked dinner (delicious) and an hour long Fijian dancing show for only $25 Fijian (about $12 US). There were about 6 woman and 8 men and they really worked up a sweat. It ended with an amazing fire dance where each performer had a turn twirling batons with the ends lit and several also did “fire-breathing”. Spectacular! They even had a guy stationed at the side of the “stage” (really it was just in the sand in front of the tables) with a fire extinguisher!

...just in case...

Hula and fire. Don't try this at home.

A nice show...

These guys really worked it.

We have now seen the hardest working Fijians in show business. It was a great show.

We’ll go ashore tomorrow to see what else there is to see, then in a day or so head to Musket Cove, a very famous gathering spot on the western side of Fiji (you’ll have to Google it, I’m too tired to write more for now).

It was 0630, I was just settling in with my morning cup of coffee when-blabooom! YIKES, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!

Ginger beer in a screw top wine bottle. We put it upside down in the sink. When it blew, the bottle hit the ceiling and came back down in the other sink. Tasty ginger beer everywhere within 12 foot radius.

I guess, those screw tops aren’t made to take much pressure. 😉

This was the bottle we added more yeast to last night as a test, since they were not carbonating as much as we hoped. Hmmm. Test successful, sort of.

We have now gone from a batch that tastes good but is a little flat to a batch that may be possible to use as a defense against maurading cannibals, if we can perfect the fuse mechanism. I think we’re making progress.

Vananui Bay is about 30 miles around the sw from Suva. We left this morning around 0730 and arrived about 7 hours later. The 2nd half of the trip was the best part. The sun, blue sky and blue water came out, we squared away about 150 degrees to the wind and were doing a solid 7 plus knots touching 8 from time to time. Inspiring sailing. The waves were good size too, so I choose to sail through the pass into the small bay instead of wrestling with the sails in 5-7 foot waves offshore. It’s often a toss up which is more terrifying. ;-). Sailing into a fairly small pass sure gets your attention. There ended up being plenty of room but the wind gusts, round ups and big waves breaking on the coral reefs on both sides of us what seems like only a few yards away is invigorating to say the least!

The reward: we’re sitting here, the only boat in the bay, watching the sun set and the stars come out and listening to the roar of the surf on the coral of the outer reef. Wow.

Ann is kindly making dinner tonight, so while sitting here writing this and sipping some wine (we already had our Charismas with homemade ginger beer!) I can smell the fragrant aromas of dinner wafting up out of the hatch (and I hear fish jumping out of the water all around us).

Tomorrow, another 30 something mile leg and we’ll be at Likuri Harbor and Robinson Crusoe resort. We’re looking forward to the island hospitality and Fijian dance show. We’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from friends who stopped over.

As always, stay tuned to see where we actually end up. 😉

Yup, we’re still sitting here.  It rained last night and was still rainy this morning and I was kind of tired and the combination with a grey, windy day made it seem like the best choice is just to stay here one more day.  Not good to take a fairly long ocean leg past reefs and such when you’re not sharp.

It should be nicer tomorrow.  Forecast is for clearing, so now we just need to decide WHERE to go.  We know we’re heading west around the south end of Viti Levu (the southern most of the larger Fiji islands) but we have choices to make.  Visit the island of Bega just south of here and stay for a couple days, or make more haste around to Likuri Harbor and Robinson Crusoe resort for the Saturday show?  Hmmm.

Stay tuned to find out.

But only for another day or so.

We’re just waiting for the winds to become more favorable, which should happen maybe Thursday, at which point we’ll head west around the south end of the island.

We're anchored in a nice little spot about five miles away from the industrial port of Suva.

Ann and I are now official cruising members of Royal Suva Yacht Club

Our next destination is Robinson Crusoe Resort. We’ve heard fom others who have gone there that there is a great show including fire walking. I’m not doing that (I don’t think) but I’ll watch. The only issue is its about seventy miles away, so we’re trying to plan a halfway point to stop and spend the night. Two legs of 35 miles (7 hour days at 5 knots) are part of the plan.

So, tomorrow back to Suva for final vegetable supplies and ready to leave Thursday. OK, I admit it, we’re stocking up on rum too as we’re precariously low. OK! OK, beer and wine too! We’re fine on spaghetti sauce though. 😉

P.S. we had a delightful evening catching up with Bob and Linda fom Bright Angel who are anchored about 50 yards away. Had them over for dinner. How fun to catch up and compare stories with folks who we first met in Mexico almost two years ago! Really great to see them and catch up. Two of our favorite people.

(From Ann)
In the capable care of Captain Ron!

Captain Ron.

Okay, maybe that doesn’t make much sense…Captain Ron, capable hands…but in Suva it does! Yesterday we ventured ashore with Linda and Bob from Bright Angel. We headed toward the hotel that supposedly has a dinghy dock and found nothing that looked much like one. When there he was…Captain Ron! “You can tie your dinghy up behind my boat and use the swim step to get ashore!” Okay, why not! Especially because Captain Ron is docked just in front of the police boat.

Captain Ron is actually from Seattle but has happily settled here in Suva on his boat. Scratch another item off the bucket list ….meet Captain Ron!  We also found out that his daughter lives in Oakland.  We’ll try and get in touch when we’re back for the holidays.

Suva was a culture shock! We had not seen a paved road in at least two months and that one turned into a dirt road as it rounded Taveuni. This road was not only paved but full of screaming fast cars! Maybe we were still adjusting but they sure seemed fast. We hailed a taxi and got dropped off at the main bus terminal. Very dangerous place to walk as 20-30 buses were all in a hurry to keep their schedules.

But we maneuvered through the buses and crowds of people waiting for them and crowds of vendors selling snacks for your bus trip…you get the picture..sensory overload! And this is before we got to the market.

This is the outside part of the market.

$2 Fijian for the whole bowl of tomatoes is about $1 US

These folks are selling clams (as well as coconuts and other assorted stuff).

The Suva Market is the self-proclaimed largest market in the South Pacific and I believe it! Your senses are assaulted with smells, colors and sounds! This place is full of the best looking fruits and vegetables we have seen. They even sell rolled pandanas rolls ready for weaving. Bob and I stopped in a hand made craft booth and were delighted to find out that it was associated with Fulunga. They were equally thrilled to hear how much we loved it. Unfortunately we we out of sight just long enough to lose Bob and Linda. No worries, 45 minutes of cruising the market and back to the bus station and we were finally united. We kaivalangi (white people) kind of stand out!

Meanwhile...upstairs in the Kava market...

The kava from each island area is different due to soils and water. There's a dizzying array to choose from.

You can taste the difference, but they all taste somewhat like dirty water with a kick and you end up with a numb tongue and throat and a bit of a happy smile.

Sensory overload got the best of us and after a delicious pizza for lunch we headed back to our very small, very quiet boats having only been nearly run over once. We will attempt to see more of Suva on Monday, when hopefully the rain will have lightened up!

Meanwhile I have just processed our first batch of ginger beer. Tasting trials take place on Tuesday!

From Ann
Yes, we made it to Suva and are happy to be on a mooring ball in a bay just off of the main harbor. With the weather that is headed this way, we are set! We hope.

Not much here, but they had a nice restaurant where we enjoyed our evenings having dinner with Rand.

But we never quite shared our story of Leleuvia and that’s what I am ready to do!

As Bob said, we stopped here because our friend, Rand Axelrod who we met in Aitutaki and spent time with in New Zealand is here. Rand is helping farm coral in the lagoon. It is a very interesting process. Here is how Rand describes the process:

“Coral trimmings are taken from a healthy distant patch of coral then transplanted into small cement pots and place into a submerged rack. After 60-90 days the coral will have calcified onto the cement pot. Once this occurs, the pot can be wedged into a hole in the reef that is to be regenerated.”

Who would have thought you could grow coral in cement! Rand took me on a snorkel tour of the garden and it was fascinating. This area has many varieties of coral in a ton of different colors. I also got to see the clams that Rand helped move to a protected location. They were about 6-8 inches across with beautiful lips! Rand took pictures so when he sends them to us we will share them!

The other joy of Leleuvia was the paddle boarding! At low tide a lovely sand spit forms along the south side of the island. Perfect place to paddle to, right! So we jumped onto the boards and away we went. Oops, we found a lot of coral and shallow water as we got closer. No problem! We stepped off our boards and carried them about 100 meters to the high spot of sand. We parked the boards and went exploring!

The tide pools were full of shells and eels! We were able to explore for well over an hour as the tide turned and started to rise. As a result we only had to carry the boards about 10 meters before we could float again. And just as I was putting my board in the water an eel made a bee-line for me! Yes, I screamed like a girl and jumped up on my board. Bob was concerned I would squish it because it stayed hidden under my board! So what! Fortunately it finally decided that my board was not the best hiding spot so headed first for Bob’s and then back into the tide pool! Phew!

We were able to paddle down wind back to Charisma just as the wind and waves were beginning to pick up. Perfect timing. Love these paddle boards!

Finally made it into The capital of Fiji! In good style too! We came through the reef and into the harbor under full sail.

Suva is the first large town we've been to all season.

We had a very good, if long day. We left Leleuvia at 0600 on the dot for our 55 mile passage. It was a great ocean sailing day. Sun, wind, blue water, we had it all. We averaged 5.5 knots and made the trip in 11 hours, tying up to a mooring off the town of Lami on the sw side of Suva Bay at exactly 1700. Good timing, since that’s just about “Charisma Time”. That gave us extra incentive to fold the sails and tidy up and we were comfortably sitting in the cockpit gazing across the bay, Charisma in hand, by 1730.

It feels a bit strange to be back in civilization. We can hear cars on the road and a generator on one of the little islets off in the distance. But we’re looking forward to visiting this largest of Fiji’s towns for a few days and thanks to our friends on Ladybug, we’re tucked into this really nice snug cove instead of the industrial area off downtown Suva where most folks anchor in mud. We definitely want to visit the area, especially see the Royal Suva Yacht Club, but we’ll do it by bus and enjoy our relative peace and quiet At our anchorage on this, the opposite side of the bay away from the industrial areas.

More tomorrow as we grab a bus into town and explore Fiji’s only really large, industrialized city.