 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
30th October - 21st November, 2005
Leaving the calm anchorages of Vava’u, Tonga in our wake, the ocean passage to Fiji that had
so intrigued Mark's sister Lisa was finally upon us. Unfortunately so was the edge of a low
pressure system heading the other way towards us from Fiji.
For Skardu that meant strong winds, some fast boat speed, and a very wet, bumpy and wild
ride. At one point the wind died to almost nothing, clocked around the compass twice, and then
within seconds smacked us with winds up to 35knots. Waves kept crashing over the decks,
and Neptune even reclaimed our beloved fishing hand-line when it was swept overboard. Lisa
couldn’t see the fun of getting cold and wet to steer the yacht through large waves, so quite
sensibly opted to remain prostrate below deck. In fact, aside from the odd break to eat some
Ritz crackers or to run up on deck to “feed Nemo”, we saw surprisingly little of her the first few
days! Fortunately her "little bit of hell" ended after about 48 hours, and she finally resurfaced to
windy, but sunny weather... ahh, the tradewinds; how quickly it can all change. As it happens,
we later found out that our friends aboard the yacht 'Tandem' were dis-masted in the same low
that had just swept by us. Fortunately their 'Mayday' distress signal was picked up, and they
were eventually towed to safety.
Before we had left Tonga we organized an informal fishing competition with a couple of other
yachts (‘Moana’ and ‘Amadis’), and so as soon as we could, we put all our best lures out. It
wasn't long before we starting having bite after bite. After losing the first 5 fish – given our luck
over the previous Christmas we assumed Lisa was jinxing us – we started to haul them in thick
and fast, starting with a good-sized Mahi-Mahi that we had from "hook to cooking on the BBQ" in
under an hour. That was followed soon after by a couple of large 20lbs Wahoo (powerful deep-
ocean predator fish that we've been dreaming of catching since the Atlantic – and finally we
landed our first two at once), and a Barracuda the following morning. All this as we threaded
through the various outer islands of Fiji on our way to the west coast. With a multitude of small
islands and reefs strewn between Tonga and Fiji, these are notoriously treacherous waters, and
without a working radar we had to be extra vigilant of our whereabouts. Fortunately the rest of our
trip went without mishap, and we even got to see a bit more of Lisa on deck.
“Bula, Bula” Fiji
Having got used to lush, tropical island settings during the last 6 months, Fiji’s landscape (at least
on the West coast) was very different from what we were expecting; the golden-brown hills more
reminiscent of the hills around San Francisco than a tropical paradise. However, as soon as we
set foot on land in Lautoka (the sugar city, and unofficial capital of the West coast of Fiji’s main
island) it was clear we were somewhere different. There is a HUGE Indian community here
(over 50%) which is reflected in the numerous Indian restaurants, Bollywood films, and the
massive assortment of colourful, fresh and cheap food and spices in the market! From the
ubiquitous kava roots, to the more exotic “sea grapes” (which look like clusters of green
blackberries, but taste like seaweedy saltwater!) it was a veritable exotic feast. In contrast to the
Indo-fijians, the ethnic Fijians are mostly of Melanesian origin (think Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands etc) and are therefore much darker and more African-looking than the
Polynesians we've been used to over the last few months. All are super-friendly, and without fail
one is greeted by "Bula" (Hello) by almost every passing stranger.
Muscadet Fueled Concert
Despite being far away, the "Suvarov Effect" once more came into its own. As we approached
our first anchorage we didn't recognise any familiar yachts until the tiny 28ft French boat ‘Edgar’
hove into view. Patrick, the captain, had bought the boat for $1000 in France as it sat covered in
moss and mold in someone’s back garden. Somehow, he and his girlfriend Lynda managed to
resurrect it with a lot of TLC and very little cash, and sail it halfway across the world... it just
shows that you don’t need a lot of money to sail around the world, just the gumption to do it.
Eager to hear more stories, and also to offload some of our fresh fish, we invited them over for
dinner the following night: pan-seared wahoo accompanied by a couple of bottles of Muscadet,
and the obligatory rum cocktails. As it happened, Lynda used to work for the Muscadet region
wine board, and was thrilled to have her first bottle in over a year! After dinner, we even had a
little concert with Patrick's guitar, Lynda's bongo drum and Mark’s harmonica... a lot of fun, and
a very late night.
Whistle-Stop Tour of Fiji’s Islands
After our overextended visit to Tonga, our stay in Fiji was a bit of a tease. The frustration of not
being able to postpone Lisa’s return flights home limited the scope of our island-hopping itinerary,
and our need to get out of the tropics before the cyclone season set in during December, meant
we didn't have enough time to do this large country justice. In the end we decided on a quick 3
day island hop among the island chains of the Yasawas and Mamanucas, on the westernmost
fringes of Fiji - beautiful lush sand-fringed isles set behind protective reefs.
The first stop was the deserted island of Navadra. It’s quite unusual to find an uninhabited island
in this neck of the woods, as even the tiniest little sand dollops seem to have backpacker resorts
sprouting out of them. To put things in perspective, Fiji receives over 430,000 tourists per year,
which is twice as many as the whole of French Polynesia, and over ten times as many as visit
Tonga annually. The fact that we were in the most intensely visited area made this deserted
island so much more special, and it gave us an idea of the thousands of Fijian islands we wished
we had more time to see.
More Lessons Learned
From there we headed north to Waya, a larger island marking the southernmost tip of the
Yasawa island chain, and somewhat suggestive of the scenery in the Marquesas in French
Polynesia. As local custom dictated, Mark and Lisa went ashore in search of the Village
Headman to ask his permission to anchor and visit the village. We presented him with a “sevu
sevu” or gift of ground Kava, the local anaesthetic drink favoured in this part of the world, and to
which we had become accustomed in Tonga. After asking where we came from, he gave a
long incantation - unintelligible apart from the one word “ ’merica” – and following much hand-
clapping we were welcomed into the village. We had a quick stroll down "main-street" - which
was actually a path 2 foot wide - and came across the local church in full swing. We quietly
chatted with a Fijian named “Mesu” waiting outside. It turned out he was the choirmaster, but
because he had arrived late for church, he had not been allowed to enter. Instead Mesu invited
us into his "bure" or thatched-roof cottage on the beach to visit and accept his hospitality for a
while. We had a lovely time, took some nice photos and then he invited us to return later that
evening to have some kava... the Fijians continue to impress with their friendliness. We returned
back to Skardu in time to have a quick siesta before heading back to shore later that evening.
Unfortunately, too much fresh air and a broken alarm clock got the better of us, as we slept
through to 10pm and missed our kava rendezvous. Suitably rested, the next morning we set off
on a steep hike high above the bay, and on the way back through the village visited Mesu with a
peace offering of kava and our humble apologies. Only then did we find out that he had arranged
for half the choir to come to his bure the previous night to sing to us while we drank kava!!!
Lesson learned, never let sleep get in the way of experiencing new adventures!
On returning back to Lautoka for the second time, we had drinks with our friends Eric and Berit
on ‘Fruen Fra Havet’ before we headed into town for Lisa’s last dinner in Fiji. On the menu:
some of Lautoka’s finest Indian curries… yum. The very next morning, we sadly had to wave
Lisa goodbye as she jumped in a taxi to tackle her multi-day flights back to Boston. Throughout
all our changes of plan, struggles with the engine and arduous ocean voyages, Lisa was a real
trouper and a joy to have aboard. Now if only we could get her to start baking cakes on the first
day she comes aboard instead of the day before she leaves!
Preparations and Weather Windows
With too little time to explore Fiji’s islands further, it was time to make preparations for our
passage down to New Zealand. On the list were filling up with fuel and water, provisioning,
checking all our rigging and pouring over weather charts for the proverbial “weather window”.
We visited Vuda Point marina for a couple of nights to complete some of these chores, and in the
off hours caught up with our friends Warren and Stephanie on ‘Mico Verde’ whom we hadn’t
seen since Suvarov. Scared of incurring customs duty in New Zealand for the alcohol we had
on board, we quickly knocked up some fairly explosive mojitos for everyone. The next day it
was reported that two people answering to our descriptions were seen dancing on the bar of the
local marina late into the night. We have naturally denied any involvement.
The last task on the list - check weather - was the most innocuous, but also the one that
engendered the most conversation. Yachties are notoriously one-dimensional when it comes to
their topics of conversation; top of the list is discussing weather, and in particular “weather
windows”, the ideal time slot to make a multi-day passage across oceans. Every weather
forecaster, both amateur and professional alike, has their own strong differing opinions and they
never seem very accurate beyond a few days out. Bearing this in mind, we did our own
weather analysis so that we alone could be blamed for getting it right or wrong. Despite warnings
of a strong low forming in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand bringing evil
weather our way a week or so down the line, we saw a few days of safe and clear weather
immediately ahead of us, and so ignored the doom-predictors and made our decision to leave.
Varied Weather and A Warm Welcome in New Zealand
We vowed one day to return and do the rest of Fiji justice, but for now our sights were set on
arriving safely in New Zealand 1,200 miles away. We kept a close eye on that feared low
depression that continued to converge on our destination, with the promise of some lively winds
over 35knots on the nose (not a good forecast!). However, we were soon reassured on our
second day when we saw two other yachts sailing within our horizon… at least we weren’t the
only ones who thought this was a good time to leave. During our 10 day passage we had a bit of
everything, strong wind and big seas on the nose, water over the gunwhales, pouring relentless
rain, calm winds from behind us, and flat seas, but luckily for us, the one thing that never
materialized was that low from the Tasman Sea. Instead we had to deal with the effects of
heading south and sailing away from the tropical belt we had called home for the last 12 months.
Each day we had to dig out an extra layer of clothing to wear as air temperatures dropped from
30C to 15C and sea temperatures dropped from a delicious 29C to a rather chilly 17C. At one
point on a particularly wet night-watch, we could each be found sitting inside empty sail bags over
our full Atlantic foul-weather gear…. photos will never do the pathetic sight justice. Fortunately,
our passage ended on a high note. On our last night it was so calm that we cooked up a huge
risotto with porcini mushrooms, and polished off a bottle of wine listening to Handel’s “Water
Music” under the stars... we normally don't drink on passage, but this was too calm a night and
too good an occasion to miss. If only all night watches were like this.
As the green hills of New Zealand appeared in the morning light we turned on the VHF and could
once again hear the chatter of familiar boats that had already arrived. The first glimpse of the
delightful 'Bay of Islands' on the North-East coast of the sub-tropical North Island reminded us of
parts of England at their finest, with green hills and rolling pastures tumbling into the sea.
However, the highlight of our arrival was the two different sets of visitors that greeted us. The first
was a pod of visiting orca killer-whales, two of which came so close to our stern that we thought
they were eating all the growth off our rudder: as we stood on the transom they were litterally only
a meter or so from our feet! A research boat later told us that they feed on stingrays in the
shallow bay, and are the only pod in the whole world to do so. The second treat was seeing
Quintin’s parents Gerald and Terry waiting on the dockside for us as we pulled in. They had
seen us off on our maiden voyage from Hamble in England over 16 months ago, had greeted us
upon our arrival in the Caribbean after crossing the Atlantic, and had now flown out to New
Zealand to see Skardu complete her voyage half way around the world! With another 18,000
miles now in her wake, who knows what other adventures are in store for her in the future?
