This may be the closest thing to paradise that there is. The island is gorgeous, virtually untouched and the villagers are the nicest, kindest folks we have ever met. It’s such a delight to be here and to spend time getting to know some of the folks who live here.

Alfredi, one of the many talented wood carvers in the village.

Alfredi showing us where "our parrot" is going to come from.

A couple of cases in point-today we walked into the main village to pay Alfredi for a carving of a parrot he did for us. On the way in we stopped by another house where we have gotten to know Bis and Joana. A young couple in their early 20’s who have gone out of their way to befriend us. As we were sitting in their house (they have a more substantial home than many, having inherited it from Joana’s parents who have passed on) they invited us to come for lunch this Sunday after church. Unless something changes our plans, we will do that.

After our walk through the village, we finally got to go snorkeling. The wind has finally laid down a bit and we were able to run around in the dinghy exploring some of the vast lagoon that is inside the 6 mile wide reef/island. There are literally hundreds of little island motus inside the reef, many with their own little sandy beaches. We could (and might) literally spend weeks here or more just exploring these islands and beaches. The snorkeling was unremarkable except for the two manta rays that Ann spotted before we were ready to actually get in the water, but we weren’t trying very hard to find a nice spot. This was just an excuse to get in the water. Tomorrow the wind’s supposed to go down further and we’ll likely spend most of the day exploring.

Mattei and family visit Charisma.

Such a great time having them on board.

The absolute highlight of the day was a visit that we had planned a couple days ago-from Mattei, his wife Ma and son Wise (pronounced “Wyse”). As you may recall from previous posts, Mattei is the island Chief’s grandson and was our host at the Sevusevu when we first arrived. He and his family have since been particularly gracious and when he mentioned he had never been on a “yacht” before, we jumped at the chance to host him and his family. So, after diving, we cleaned up ourselves and the boat and at 1600 as agreed they all showed up on the beach. I went in on the dinghy and brought them out to the boat and we had an absolutely delightful time. We took pictures with their camera and ours of each other behind the wheel, on the bowsprit, in the dinghy, etc. Then Ann taught everyone to play Farkle-the entire South Pacific will soon be playing this game if she gets her way. She presented a game to Wise as a gift as well as Fiji World Cup Rugby hats to Mattei and Wise. These went over very well along with some other miscellaneous commodity goods to help tide them over until the next supply ship gets here.

Such a beautiful gift they brought us!

Ann showing how a Gafigafi is worn (ours will be treasured and used as a wall hanging instead)

The highlight of their visit and our day-if not our whole season-were the unexpected gifts that they brought us! First off the dinghy was a very kind gift of the small, sweet bananas that grow around here. They presented a whole “bunch” of them to us in a woven basket made from palm frond. Delightful! And so appreciated as we’re out of bananas. But then, they reached into their pack and brought out a carving-a Fijian mask. Beautiful wood and carving, about 20 inches high. We’ll treasure it in the years to come. But, then Ma got a smile on her face and pulled out a gift that we’ll truly never forget. We would call it a lava lava-Mattei corrected us but we forgot to write it down. (We’ll get the name and correct this post when we’re back in town). This is a very intricate woven dress for very formal occasion. It turns out they were leaving to come down to the boat and trying to sneak out past their grandfather, the Chief, when he saw them and asked what they were up to. When they told them about coming to see us on Charisma he told them they must bring a gift and had them go into his things and bring this incredible “garment”. I call it that because people wear them, but they also use them to decorate their homes, which is what we’ll do.

We have seen and admired them in our travels, but these are not available for purchase anywhere-they are made for family and literally handed down over the generations. We were speechless.

The top is made from very finely woven pandanas leaves-much finer than the mats we sit on everywhere since this is meant to be worn, or in some cases used as a wall hanging (which of course is what we’ll do someday). About 2/3’s of the way down the 4 foot wide item, very bright colorful yarn is woven into the piece in a zig zag patter of brilliant pink, green, blue, white, maroon, green of varying shades. Then at the very bottom is a 10 inch long bit made from tree bark that has been shredded into very soft and fine flowing fringe. The entire piece is almost six feet long-enough to wrap around a substantial size woman and cover from high waist down below the knees-or as I noted, in our case made into a beautiful wall hanging that will always remind us of the beautiful paradise and our friends Mattei, Ma and Wise.

By Ann

Ann and an admirer.

Our "guides" on our beach walk.

More kids on the beach.

You're never alone when you're walking on the beach.

We are still anchored off the main village of Fulaga. Today was full of mundane chores for me. Translation – laundry day. I really miss a washing machine. My wrists hurt by the end of the day from twisting the clothes to wring the soap and then the excess water out. But it must be done. I also made Joaner’s Chocolate Chip Cookie dough. We are hoping to have Mattei (the chief’s grandson) and his wife Ma, and son Wise out to see how the “sea natives” live and thought it would be a fun treat.

After these fun chores we went ashore to walk through the village and then back along the pretty beach to look for shells. We have figured out that it is never a quick walk through the village. Everyone wants to meet you and talk to you. Today we were welcomed into a home of a young man and his wife. Very nice house. She inherited it from her parents. (Unfortunately unless their names are Anglicized or very simple we don’t catch them.) We ended up having a nice discussion about life in Fulaga with these folks. This is what struck us…people here are really quite educated. You just don’t expect it. But we are finding that most young adults ( over 20) have been to the university in Suva. We are not sure who pays for their education but they have attained a degree and returned to help their home village. The couple we spoke with met while in college getting degrees in Economic Development. Yes, we were surprised too! Kudos to these guys for trying to improve their island’s economic status. We find that even the teachers have been educated in Suva and come back to teach. Most of the villagers that are aged 13-30 seem to have learned quite a bit of English. The children are being taught English in school as well as the basic Three R’s. Those older than 30 always seem to have a youngster around to help translate. It’s amazing. As the title of the blog indicates we had a lovely walk with the kids today. It was not intended. It just worked out that by the time we got around to passing the first village, the kids were out of school. Of course it started with a huge. “Bula!”. They love to greet us. And from then on we had at least ten “shadows”. As Bob and I realized this we decided to play with them. You should have seen their faces-first fright, then surprise and delight, when we quickly jumped around on the one lane path in the middle of the jungle and shouted, “Boo!”. They were NOT expecting it and shrieked and laughed. Our shadows were now firmly attached. Our afternoon stroll, possibly romantic – remember this is our honeymoon! – included at least a dozen school kids. They happily searched for shells, climbed trees to act like monkeys, and beg us to come to their village, their church, take their picture….you get the idea. Very entertaining. Finally the kids departed and we returned to Charisma. We bashed our way from the beach back to the boat into one foot wind chop and are hoping that the winds die down a bit tomorrow. Can’t wait to get into the water or at least play on our paddle boards. Tomorrow we will wander into the village again and see who follows us this time!

If church was surprisingly fun, the rest of our Sunday-the first full day in Fulunga-was equally exciting.

This is the Chief's residence.

Ann and I with friends on Slip Away (who we met for the first time in Savusavu) and Chief Daniel.

Chief Daniel with his grandson Mattei and great grandson Waes

As we mentioned before, we were fortunate enough to have met the chief’s grandson, Mattei. After church he was kind enough to ask us if we were like to meet his grandfather the chief of the island. As we sometimes say in California; “Duh…” We of course could not pass up an opportunity like this and followed Mattei to the chief’s hut -actually a bit larger than the others, but comprised mostly of a large room about 20 feet square with a wall at one end that partitioned Daniel’s bedroom. The main room had little furniture, you sit on the floor covered by several large woven pandanas mats. The Chief sits in a chair behind a small table and behind him on the wall are several lovely tapas.

Daniel is 84 and has been Chief for about 10 years. The position is hereditary-going to the eldest son. Mattei is in line to someday take on the role, but not for some years as the Chief has several brothers and there’s a line of succession.

After spending some time meeting with the Chief, Mattei said that we would stay for lunch. OK… At this point we moved to the next hut where there was again the pandanas mat on the floor. Also, there was a large cloth that ran down the middle of the hut on which were numerous plates of food. We all sat cross-legged along each side of the food with Mattei, his wife Ma and son Wise and several other relatives. Along with Jan and Rich from Slip Away there were about a dozen for lunch. After a prayer, the cloth covering the plates was lifted to reveal plates of Octopus, Red Mullet (local fish), and two kinds of Casava root-all cooked in coconut milk. Delicious!! Stuffed from lunch we decided to take a walk down to the second village (there are three on the island and a total population of about 90).

Lunch after church with Mattei and family.

This kitty was just sure he was going to get some of the delicious fish!

It was about a 10 minute walk through the jungle to the next village and no sooner did we reach the edge of the village than all the kids came spilling out of their Sunday-school class to greet us. One of the delights here is that everyone you meet comes up to you, shakes your hand, tells you their name and asks yours. “My name is Bob” is something I got very good at saying as the day wore on. There were two dozen children here all of whom went through the ceremony with Rich, Jan, Ann and I. It took a while.

After the introductions, the kids quickly split up into two groups and suddenly started a singing competition. One group would sing a song and then the next group would try and out-sing them. Fun!

A delightful day getting to know all of our new friends here at Fulunga.

Tomorrow, the cannibal caves.

Yesterday was amazing. Arriving here after the long sail down from Savusavu, doing the sevusevu and then back to the boats and an invitation for cocktails on Slip Away (before we all dropped dead from exhaustion). We had a nice time on Slip Away and back on Charisma dropped into a deep, deep sleep only to be awakened by our alarm for Sunday service at the church in the village near where we’re anchored (there’s a church in each of the three villages here).

The kids were so excited to have us with them in church.

One of the choirs in the next village.

The other choir in the second village. They were competing with each other as they sung for us.

We were told to arrive at 9:30 and being cruisers were of course 10 minutes late. No worries, the villagers knew-the service didn’t really start until 1000. But there was singing.

As we arrived the children we met yesterday ran out of the church calling our names (everyone here is amazing at getting and remembering your name). “Ann, Ann, Bob, Bob, come with me…” was what we heard and then little hands grabbed ours and off we were towed into the church. All the kids guided us almost to the front and then adjusted the pews to give us some extra leg room. Once we were settled all the kids sat in the first three pews in front of us….and stared. They just smiled and stared at these strange people from so far away. They were fascinated with us and since they knew our names from the day before when we in town, now they wanted to know where we came from, how old we were–everything And they were all so beautiful and darling. Big smiles, big eyes, happy personalities. They were delightful! Seating in the church is very specific. Children on the front left, (there were about 15 of them from the ages of about 6-15) yachties (us and Slip Away) behind them, women on the front right and men in the back.

The service was all in Fijian (other than a small bit in English welcoming us to their church-so nice!) , so I have no clue what was said. Since it was Methodist and not Catholic, Ann was a bit lost as well, but there was a lot of singing and it was heartfelt and beautiful. The harmonies were amazing. And there was only one instrument. A triangle. This helped to keep the beat, but other than that, nothing. Just lovely voices and the sound of happiness.

During the service since I didn’t know what was being said, I was struck by the visual richness of the scene- A tropical trade wind was blowing through the windows Out the windows on the left side of the church you could see the ocean with waves breaking on the reef and the turquoise lagoon inside. Out the right side windows were the village huts. Rusting corrugated tin roofs showed many luscious shades of orange, red and brown against the tropical foliage of palms, bananas and such. The sides of the huts were painted in many pastel hues including pink, orange, turquoise, lavender and peach All in all, a stunning visual feast for the eyes.

Church for me has rarely been so captivating.

The last couple days have been amazing for the incredible hospitality that everyone here at Fulunga has shown us. Today was incredible for the adventure we were able to take to see the caves where cannibalism was performed a hundred years ago.

You have to climb up the rocks, then you peer over the edge-oh my!

Yup, after hiking through the jungle and climbing up the hill, here it is!

Climbing up to get to the cave.

Our guides to the caves.

Judging by the condition of the trail (almost non-existent) we are a of the few who have had the good fortune to visit this spot. We gathered in the village with our friends from Blue Rodeo, Slip Away, Evergreen and Just In Time, a Kiwi boat we just met.

Anyway, Mattei had mentioned the existence of these caves and we said we would very much like to see them. Not expecting too much, we gathered outside his house this morning around 0900 for the hike up to the cave. Well…our expectations were far exceeded. As we hiked up the hill behind the village, we were treated to an anthropologists dream. Mattei showed us where the “old” village used to be situated back when there was open warfare among villages as well as islands in this part of the world. As we hiked higher up the hill, we were literally transported back to a place in time when sentries were posted on the peak watching for any sign of an enemy approaching. The rock foundations of the old village-not inhabited since the late 1800s-are still visible and we were able to see how it was sited literally at the top of the hill and on the edge of an impassible cliff. This was a fortress in its day-now mostly swallowed by the jungle-since the village moved down to its present position nearer the water a hundred years ago. Still-you could almost feel the spirit of the ancestors.

And if you couldn’t quite feel the spirit, once we came to the cave and climbed up to look inside, you could see the spirit. Skulls and bones. Stacks and stack of them. Some staring out at you untouched for these many years. It was eerie and amazing. The fact that this is still here completely intact is absolutely amazing! We ended the day feeling extremely privileged that we could experience something like this in such a pristine environment, untouched, in a state of repose that so vividly depicted a way of life that (fortunately) has been gone for over a hundred years.

Amazing. (I can’t wait to share the pictures when we’re back where we can access internet)

As a sign of respect when doing Sevusevu, you must wear a sulu. Here's Jon from Evergreen and I in our sulus getting ready to hike into the village.

Presenting the kava. It's on the ground next to one of our hosts named Tai. You always place it on the floor and never hand it to them.

These are two of the chiefs from the neighboring villages making speeches (in Fijian). Hopefully they will accept our offer and allow us to stay!

Offer accepted. Now some kava drinking will start. The bowl is on the left in this picture.

Whew! Now we know how to do that.

Sevusevu is the tradition of presenting kava to the village chief as a gift, and asking for permission to anchor in their waters, snorkel in their waters and enjoy their island. We had read about this ritual and heard about it. We were instructed to locate the “turango ni koro” (the head of the village) and ask to be presented to the chief to present our sevusevu – gift to the chief. So we arrived in Fulanga with our friends from Evergreen and Slip Away. We all went ashore and clumsily asked to meet the “turango ni koro”…only to find he’d gone fishing! Oh no! What do we do now?

We were fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of the grandson of the chief, Mattei, who agreed to be our go between. Mattei presented us to the village elders, which included the chiefs of the nearby villages – Moses and Moses. The chief of Muana-I-Cake was not feeling well so was not present. No worries. Both Moseses and a stand in for the chief were willing to take our gift/sevusevu.

Being sevusevu virgins we were not sure what to expect and were actually a little nervous. Silly cruisers. It was a delightful event. Mattei acted as our go between and presented our yagonga (kava root). The magic words…”we accept this gift…” were said and we were given permission to roam the islands and enjoy the beautiful lagoons. And we were offered a sip/bowl of kava. Bob and I had tasted Tongan kava but this was more “peppery”. The whole ceremony was relaxing, welcoming and fun! Why do we worry about these things? Because we can.

We sat with the men of the village sharing kava and talking about where we were from and who they were. We signed in as cruisers visiting this year. Apparently about 80 cruisers visit each year now that the Lao Group is open. We were about the 20th cruiser here. We paid our $50 fee to support the local government and were on our way.

All of our worry was for naught. The locals are very excited to see us arrive. We were a bit out-shined by Koshi and his wife on the Japanese yacht (there are not many Japanese yachts out here – in fact Yoshi is the only one we have seen!) but we Americans are very welcome here in Fulanga. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the village and meeting many children who were anxious to meet us and practice their English and introduce themselves. This village is one of three in Fulanga. One of the other villages is only 10 minutes further down the path. The third village is a long dinghy ride away and just inside the pass to the right. Eventually we hope to visit that village too.

We came back to our boats thrilled that our sevusevu was such a wonderful event. It is culture greeting culture with the utmost of respect. We are honored. More about our time in the village tomorrow! Bula!

Position: 19 degrees, 00 minutes south; 178 degrees, 36 minutes west

Sunrise. Waiting offshore for the sun to come up so we can see the reef to get through the pass.

Approaching Fulanga at daybreak.

It’s 0400 and we are about 4 miles north of Fulunga lying ahull in the early morning waiting until the conditions for going through the reef are safe-which will be about 1000. What’s safe? Good visibility-meaning the light to your back and high enough to see the reef under water, and the right tide. Today, we’re looking at high, slack water so the pass won’t resemble a water slide with water rushing out of the atioll.

We’re sitting here beam on to about 5 knots of wind, flat water essentially going sideways at about 0.5 knots. Waiting. The engine’s running to help the watermaker and I’m trying to fill the tank before we get inside and anchored.

It’s a beautiful night. Stars are surrounding us, very low clouds scud across the low horizon and a half waning moon is directly above. And it’s warm. I have short sleeve shirt, shorts and flip flops on as I write this sitting in the cockpit with the cup of coffee Ann so kindly made for me before she hit the sack. She brought us down through the pass that approaches the island with numerous reefs and atolls along the way on either side of us and deserves some rest.

This spot where we’re sitting right now is one of the most secluded in the world. It’s not easy to get to-from the south it’s 1100 miles to New Zealand and from the north it’s 200 miles out of the main Fiji islands, but usually straight into the trade winds. Normally this is a punishing ride and few elect to make it, but we have been fortunate to have this weather window where the trades stopped for a couple days and decided to take advantage to visit this beautiful and secluded spot. Once the trades start to blow again in another day or two, they will in essence “lock the door” on getting down here. We of course now have the advantage of using them to make our way through these islands (called the Lau Group) back northward to the main Fiji archipelago over the next 4-6 weeks (or until supplies run out)

A number of our cruising friends also saw the window and will be here as well. We’re excited to catch up with them. When we left on this trip I thought that the best part about it would be sliding in to a deserted island and playing Robinson Crusoe. We have had some of that, but to my surprise the best part of cruising is really having the chance to anchor with friends we’ve met along the way (and new ones yet to be met) and swim, dive, and get together. It’s quite a community out here and we’re lucky that a number of folks we have been criss-crossing the Pacific with for the past year will be here. The boat count via shortwave radio as of tonight is: Blue Rodeo, Gypsy Heart, Evergreen, Slipaway, Eagle’s Wings- who should all be here by this afternoon and in the coming days we also might see SuperTed, and Astarte. Fortunately Fulunga is big enough that everyone will be able to pick their own little island motu inside the atoll if they so choose.

Part Two: It’s 2100. We made it in through the reef, went into the village and did the Sevusevu and had cocktails on Slip Away with Evergreen. We’re too tired to detail the day, so will leave it until tomorrow to provide more detail. Suffice to say, this is truly a lovely and magical place.

From Ann- Before we get into telling the story of how we lost our virginity (Sevu sevu virginity, `watch tomorrow’s blog) I need to tell you about our night at sea. We have been very fortunate to have the waning moon leading us south. This is the moon that has been trumpeted as the biggest moon the earth has seen. And I believe it! I was on watch at 11 pm last night when the moon started to rise. It was initially obscured by low clouds and was difficult to identify. Okay, I admit it. I thought there was a large ship in the distance that I had not paid attention to. But thankfully it was just a spectacular moon that lit up the low lying clouds from the back side. Odd shapes always look like boats to me. Luckily I figured it out before I woke Bob up! And this moon lived up to its reputation. The way it rose out from behind the clouds resembled a volcano errupting. The color was a vivid orange and the clouds did a lot to increase the drama. It was stunning. No camera could capture this surreal scene – I tried. I really wanted to wake Bob up to see it but passed on the urge. Good thing because I woke him up an hour later. The seas were incredibly flat. So flat that the stars were reflected in the smooth surface, as well as the quickly rising moon. The water resembled black salad oil – smooth as silk and fluid. It was so pretty. As I took my eyes off of the moonrise to check the other horizons I noted a long dark “something ” off of the starboard side of the boat. I even pulled out our super duper flash light to see if I could get a better look at what this was. The shape seemed to be getting closer. (Side note-as I lit up the sea with the flash light the tiny phosphorescent sea life floating there absorbed the light and reflected it back. So cool.) I ran down to the radar/chart plotter several times to help identify the object. Was it a low ship, land or a sleeping whale? My imagination was running wild. But I could see the darkness getting closer. When I checked the chart plotter we were right on course. It was getting a little eerie. Knowing that we were sailing through a strait with islands all around I was concerned that some uncharted land was about to halt our progress. I had had enough! So I woke Bob up. In some respects I think I made up the dark mass just so I could share the spectacular evening with Bob. And he was appropriately in awe of the glorious evening. And equally baffled by the shape off the starboard side. After watching it for another half hour we determined it was a charted island that we were passing and that it was somewhat of an illusion in the dark. Phew! Thank goodness Bob appreciates my wake up calls, rather than having a distress call because I was afraid to wake him. And he got to marvel at the oily sea reflecting the moon and stars. No ripples, just oily dark rolling by with fans of phosphorescence sprouting from our bow wake. I love evenings like this!

Position: 18 degrees, 37 minutes south; 179 degrees, 3 minutes west

Hooked this Walu right at sunset.

We’re about 60 miles out from Fulanga (it’s spelled many different ways, so use your imagination if your map is not exactly the same as ours). We had our Charismas with the sunset, which was beautiful. After the sun went down, Ann got on the radio for the nightly check-in when the fishing reel took off. I had a feeling we might get a hit after sunset, so I left the line out.

Turned out I was staring right at it when the fish hit. We got him in and filleted with no drama in time for dinner! It was a Spanish Mackerel which in this part of the world is delicious. Very mild, white meat. It kind of looks like a smallish Wahoo. People were just talking on the radio this morning about how they were hoping to catch one. It wasn’t a huge fish, but gave us enough large fillets for four meals plus chowder.

We gave the engine a work-out yesterday. We ran it all night for a total of about 20 hours. There was some leaking and it wasn’t clear exactly what it was or where it was coming from which produced some anxiety. Looked like oil but very thin. Didn’t smell like diesel. Puzzling. But I think we have it covered now. It seems to be from a leaking injector. I tightened it and the leak appears to have stopped. The oil-like color must have come from the drip gathering old oil on the engine on its way along the side and into the pan. Didn’t smell “diesel-like” but I’m guessing that’s because it was “cooked” on the way down the engine. Anyway, the engine oil (from the dipstick) looks good and the leak seems to have stopped so cross fingers we found it.

After all the motoring, we were able to shut off the engine this morning and sail all day. We were ahead of schedule so were able to sail along from about 0900 until this evening at about 2 knots in the light breeze. All in all it was a wonderful day. ! No clouds, gentle breeze, flat water and warm. It was one of the nicest days sailing we’ve had in quite a while

Now at 2000 the wind has almost completely quit. It’s a pond out here. The stars are reflecting on the mirror smooth water and we’re just floating along at about one knot. We’re going to have to start the engine again in a little while as we have about 60 miles to cover before morning, which is not going to happen with the minimal breeze we have.