(From Ann) Well we repositioned today from Katherine Bay on Rabi Island back over to Mattei on the very north tip of Taveuni. We spent a few days in this anchorage when we tried to go see the triple waterfalls and instead had a blast at a water slide. We are back here to reprovision, especially the basics: chocolate, cheese, beer and wine. And rum if it doesn’t cost too much. Actually even if it does, since we’re down to our last bottle from New Zealand. We awoke to a torrential downpour this morning. With our new funnel rain catcher we managed to catch 3 gallons of water in 20 minutes! No need to run the water maker as we made our anchorage change!

Fish on!

Raincatcher v1.0 (the bucket version) Funnel tied to the solar panel on each side of the boat.

And best of all, as we approached Taveuni that wonderful sound of “zing!” Fish on! Yep, we caught another good sized mahi mahi! And Bob is planning to make ceviche to go with Charismas tomorrow! Such a treat!

(From Bob) Dinner was a treat. Fish doesn’t get any fresher and we took the dinghy in to get a bottle of cold Sauvignon Blanc to go with it since we ran out of wine last night. There’s a little store just up the road from the beach where you land the dinghy. We picked up the wine, some chocolate and next door a little vegetable stand had some fresh green beans. Perfect, since we’re out of everything fresh.

I was hoping to poach the mahi in coconut milk, but when we started cooking we found we had used it all. Darn. Oh well, a very light sprinkle of lemon pepper, sear the fillets in butter-both sides-then add finely chopped garlic in a little more butter for about 30 seconds, then a couple tablespoons of Japanese Fish Sauce. It smells really bad when it’s cooking but you put a lid on it and gently steam the fish while the rice is cooking and oh, boy, it adds some real flavor. Worth a try at home.

We’re sitting in the cockpit after dinner and I’m marveling at this spot. We’re tucked in behind a little motu to windward that’s helping to break the waves/chop. The rest of the way around us are reefs that keep the waves at bay. We’re anchored in 25 feet over soft sand. The anchor set very firmly. The stars are out for now. Nice. The only downside is that because of the reef, it’s about ¼ mile dinghy ride into the beach. BUT, it’s nice to be tucked in a nice spot. The weather’s supposed to be unstable for a couple days. Rain, maybe wind. It’s really nice to know that we have good holding and protection from the worst of the wind/waves. There are many spots you stop in where you really don’t sleep very well when the weather is changing. You hear every creak, groan slap and flap and wonder whether that’s the one where you slide backwards into the reef or rocks. This spot is pretty comfortable although just looking at us you’d think we were just anchored in the middle of the ocean because we’re so far out from shore due to the reef. It’s also nice that we’re the only boat here. No worry that the guy upwind is going to drag anchor in a blow and drag down on top of you. The reef is very low and not too visible from shore, so from the beach Charisma looks like she’s just anchored in the ocean. So, all in all this is a nice spot.

Our plan is to go to town tomorrow and resupply. This means taking the dinghy ¼ mile through the chop (with foulies on to keep from getting soaked), dropping an anchor in the shallow water and timing the depth right so I don’t have to swim out in deep water to retrieve it. The tide will be rising so we’ll watch for that. We have already spoken to one of the taxi drivers and he’ll pick us up, take us shopping and bring us back for $15US. There are resorts on this side of the island so there are some independent taxis like this guy (his name is “Dip”, pronounced Deep). There’s only one road partway around the island-and only a portion of it is paved, so there are a few cars. So that’s tomorrow-rain or shine-because Sunday everything is closed and we want to be fully stocked and ready to go when the wind/conditions are ready for us to head south which could be as early as Monday.

We motor-sailed today from Albert Cove on the north end of Rabi to Katherine Bay on the south side. Rabi is only about 12 miles long, so it was a relatively short trip. In fact, these jaunts are the tiring ones because you have to put everything away (dinghy outboard, dinghy, misc stuff that accumulates on deck, etc, etc) and then get it out again three or four hours later when you re-anchor. Oh well, complain, complain.

Anyway, the highlight of the day was our trip ashore at Katherine Bay. Not because anyone was very friendly. They were not, for the most part. The adults ashore didn’t go out of their way to even say hello which is most unusual. But, the kids were so fun. We were quickly adopted by four little ones between the age of 6 and 13. They escorted us through their village, into the next one and back. They only dropped behind when we walked down the road outside the village. At the point the houses ended the kids said they couldn’t go any further. We thanked them for showing us around and went on our way little knowing they would be waiting at the dinghy to help us back in the water almost an hour later.

Our guides to Katherine Bay.

They were pretty silly...

Very cute!

...and fun...

...and of course, they adored Ann!

The highlight of our time with the kids was when Ann showed them how to “whistle” by putting pieces of grass between your hands and blowing. A couple of them picked it up and were able to do it. We’re thinking we have now forever changed their culture. Cruisers will come here a year from now and be serenaded by people whistling with blades of grass.

Some shots of town:

"Main Street" on Katherine Bay.

A streetlight.

A woman who had been out collecting pandanas leaves for weaving.

Another step before weaving-you have to dry the pandanas leaves

One of the entries into town from the bay through the mangroves.

Charisma happily waiting for us back on the bay.

They start 'em with a machete pretty young here.

So, a quiet night and then we’re moving on another 25 miles down to the south end of Taveuni tomorrow (hopefully, weather permitting-there’s some rain coming but it’s not clear whether tomorrow or later). It’s a place called “Paradise Resort”. From there we can get a taxi up into Somosomo to resupply. We’re out of wine-sigh-and other essentials. I made a green curry tonight with the leftovers from last night and our last carrot. All we have left in the way of veggies is some potatoes that are sprouting. So we hope for paradise tomorrow with all the irony that statement brings.

We’ll see.

I’m in the galley starting a special dinner (more on that below) and Ann’s in the cockpit reading and we’re surprised by a very special delivery. Four, what my uncle used to call “ankle biters” in an outrigger canoe pulled up to Charisma. Mind you we’re a good 100 yards from the village here at Albert Cove, but this outrigger had two older boys (10 and 8 years old) paddling with their younger siblings (3 year old and 18 month old) in it. I heard Ann gasp when she saw the canoe and call out to them. Turned out they had been sent out on a mission by their grandfather, Samuel. We had been with him earlier in the day and he promised limes. We said we would come in early in the morning before leaving tomorrow to pick them up. But being a proactive guy, he sent his grandkids out with a burlap sack full of limes and a guananaba. Very much appreciated. Now we won’t get scurvy. 😉 We returned the favor. Ann gave the kids a beach ball and they headed back to the beach with smiles looking forward to playing with their new toy.

Bula!

Special delivery!

Earlier in the day we went on a tour of the area with Samuel who is the patriarch here. He took us on a hike down the beach to his “plantation”. The plantation consisted of batches of taro and yagona (kava). The old plantation was wiped out by Cyclone Evan last year, so this is rebuilding for them and they are proud of the effort. On our way back down the beach, Samuel told us to keep going as he ducked into the bush. He would meet us back at the huts. So we continued down the beach and spent some time back in the village (it’s not technically a village, but a series of huts that this group of people use as a fishing base. Since the kids were on holiday from school, there were four families here which are more than usually reside here). Anyway, we got to know some of the family while we waited for Samuel. And waited. And waited. We watched Samuel’s wife weaving roof sections for the new house out of palm leaves and another of the women cooking coconut oil that they sell in the larger village down island. Finally we decided it was getting late-the sun was setting-and we needed to get back to Charisma. We were just wading out to the dinghy which was anchored in shallow water off the beach, when we heard a shout from down the beach. It was Samuel. He was smiling and waved us toward him. Off we went and as we got close we realized he had gathered a treasure for us. Real heart of palm. Normally an expensive delicacy in the U.S., here you just chop down a young palm tree. Normally we would be concerned about chopping down a tree, but there are so many young palm trees and so few people living here there was no loss. With great gratitude, we accepted his wonderful gift (not knowing that he was yet to send out the kids with the limes as well). Turns out our gift of a whole bag of rice (among a bunch of other stuff) yesterday was really well received as they have none and won’t have any until they go back to the village in a week or so. Once again, we already regret leaving a place where the people are just so wonderful and kind.

Samuel cutting our heart of palm.

Samuel's wife weaving coconut palms for a new roof for their hut.

Weaving the new roof.

Oh, and dinner. We have been intending to prepare an authentic Fijian dish of fish cooked in a pumpkin, but when we checked our fish supply we realized we had run out. Well, yesterday when we brought some supplies ashore one of the things the folks here gave us was a bag full of salted, smoked fish. OK, we’re in business, so here’s the menu: you take a Fijian pumpkin (actually more like a large butternut kind of squash), you cut a hole (keep the “lid” that you cut) and hollow it out, then fill with onions, garlic, fish, coconut milk and whatever else you want. I added slices of our new heart of palm. Put the “lid” back on with the whole thing in a pyrex dish and put in the oven on 375 degrees for an hour more or less. Oh, my! There’s a whole new set of future recipes coming from this basic treatment. The Fijians of course put the pumpkin in a lovo and bury it in the ground. We don’t have a lovo or ground for the matter, so the oven is it. Anyway, an amazing dish. At Ann’s suggestion, I cut the two ends and turned them up then filled them with the fillings. This left the center of the pumpkin to use in a curry tomorrow night. Yum. Yum. And yum!

The stuffed pumpkin just about to head into the oven.

So there you are. We’re (reluctantly as always) leaving here tomorrow. Probably for Katherine Bay a ways down the coast of Rabi, but we may go over the top of the island and sail back down to Taveuni. We need to resupply on our way south to Nairai to meet the folks who found our bottle that we threw over at the equator back near Mexico. As I might have mentioned in previous posts, we’re now desperately short of wine, nearly out of beer and almost out of rum. We’re down to our last bottle of Kiwi rum. Thank goodness Ann has developed a new rain catcher that involves a funnel attached at the corner of the solar panel so at least we have fresh water and can make tea. (Quick get me to a real store!)

We’re at Albert Cove on the island of Rabi, north of Fiji. Rabi is now actually part of Fiji, but, well it’s a long story and you’d best just look it up on Google. It’s an interesting and sad story about rags to riches to rags. A culture from an island north of here that was relocated after WWII.

The entrance to Albert Cove.

One of the two or three huts on the cove.

Charisma safely tucked inside the reef.

Anyway, while we came in day before yesterday (Sunday our time), we got in late and then spent yesterday on boat projects. It was a windy, cloudy day and easy to just stay on board. Fast forward to today-we went ashore and moments after pulling up on the beach received a hearty; “Bula!” from an obvious “Elder”. Turned out it was “Samuel” who our friends Chris and Rani from Ladybug had told us about. With this info at hand, we immediately told him: “Chris and Rani said ‘Hi’!” Well, that was all that needed to be said. We were now Samuel’s best friend. He told us about Rani’s curry and all the other kindnesses of Chris and Rani. The fact that we knew them even “forgave” the fact that even though we got here on Sunday, we didn’t come ashore and introduce ourselves until today (Tuesday). OK, lesson learned. Respect the local culture and don’t just sit on the boat (well, we WERE working on projects…. You should see how our stainless shines!)

Here's Samuel standing by the copra cooking oven.

These are some of the folks who live at Albert Cove at least part of the time.

One of the larger huts in this little settlement (it's not quite a village)

The interior of the hut.

So, we also made a good impression on our own since we brought some goodies ashore. A glider, balloons and soap bubbles for the kids (which they immediately ran off with and we saw them playing on the beach), a 5 lb bag of rice, some “lollies”, some canned corned beef (all they subsist on here is what they grow and catch, i.e. fish) and sundry other stuff. In fact, they seemed genuinely touched with the gifts. Enough so that we received a bunch of papay and smoked fish in return and the promise of limes and something else we did not quite comprehend. A surprise! We were also invited back in to see a new hut they are building.

Anyway, a fun day meeting the local folks. We also went snorkeling. Beautiful as expected. What we didn’t expect was seeing some coral that we haven’t seen before-in great quantities. We need to get a book on coral so we know what we’re seeing. But the good news is, the coral is very healthy and growing here.

Tomorrow-back to the beach and more snorkeling and a few misc boat projects. I also still haven’t tracked down the mystery electronics bug. The helm instruments have stopped working. Bummer. Electronics are great when they are working but are the biggest waste of time in the world when they are not!

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!