Mainland Fiji
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2006
1
18
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Lautoka,
Fiji
Monday, September 25, 2006
So here we are...Fiji. I'd never really heard much about Fiji other than it was a tropical paradise on the other side of the planet to England. It is amazing! TheIslands are extremely beautiful, giving stunning beaches and reefs to gorgeous mountain communities.
After leaving Savu Savu we sailed around the south west coast of Vanua Levu (great sails and we were able to raise the cruising chute and maintain at least 7kts), heading for the island of Yadua off the western coast of Vanua Levu. It took 3 days, as we didn't want to sail during the night, because there are many reefs around Fiji. Some of the time you are navigation in areas that the chart points out are inadequately surveyed...very helpful!
We snorkelled the reef near our anchorage in Yadua and saw the most amazing live coral that any of us had ever seen; the most beautiful colours and shapes of hard corals, teeming with life
Naviti and Waya Pan
. On our second snorkel we swam with a 3m wide manta ray for 15 minutes, which always is an amazing experience. The island had a great little village where we went ashore to give sevu sevu, a ceremony involving an offering of kava (a root that is ground up and added to water and drank on special occasions). Traditionally, any visitor to a Fijian village gives sevu sevu to the village chief, who then grants the visitor access to the village and its land. These traditions are still very much alive, so every village that we visit we go ashore and give sevu sevu to the chief to allow us to anchor in the bay and snorkel the coral. It is a great way to see Fijian life and the close community within the village. However, as there are maybe one or two villages per small island in the Yasawa group, we had to go through this almost every day as we made our south through the Yasawas.The Yasawas lie to the north west of the main island of Viti Levu and are a big holiday destination with beaches and reefs that you would normally associate with Fiji. We stopped at an anchorage in a semi-enclosed bay and anchored next to a huge limestone island, which had great caves we spent the afternoon in. We gradually made our way further south, sailing for 4 to 5 hours and stopping for a night.
We anchored at Waya Island off the Octopus Resort beach, an amazing place for a resort and again a picture postcard beach
Naviti Village
. During the night the wind picked up and was blowing a constant 25kts and we were unsheltered. The anchor held well but the anchor chain and rope and the pulpit were under a lot of pressure so we moved around to a sheltered anchorage around the corner at first light. It was still very windy and raining when we arrived the anchorage, which was towered over by two huge limestone peaks, the sort of peak that you look at and think, "we should climb that, I bet you could get a great picture of the boat from up there". So we did!It was a great climb that took us up a muddy and slippery trail for about an hour and a half to the top where we had some amazing views (hopefully I can upload some pics). It was well worth it and we wouldn't have climbed it if the weather hadn't been so bad.
We sailed south to the Mamanuca Islands and stayed a night in Musket Cove, a great little marina and some civilisation. We took the dinghy into the marina to pay for out mooring fees and found Anthem and Great Sensation were in the marina, who we hadn't seen since Tonga and we first met them in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia so many months ago. It was great to see them and we all met up for a drink at the bar (in the rain!).
Yesterday we had a short sail from Musket Cove across to Vunda Point Marina on the west coast of Viti Levu. So here we are, mainland Fiji. There are a few jobs on the boat to do and then we plan to hire a car for a few days and see the island before heading off for Vanuatu in a weeks time.
Lots of love to you all,
Tom xxx
