While in Susui the adults did a hike while the children were in school. At first we thought our guide was going to just show us his plantation, but then it developed into a full on bushwash to find the ancient village site and a cave in which there are human remains from the days when they still practiced cannibalism. After hiking in flipflops and skirts for quite some time, then coming across a wasps nest, we decided we should head back without seeing the ancient village. Since the hike took quite a long time, the kids were already finished with school for the day. The girls stayed on the beach and played with their new friends and the boys took our dinghy and headed out to Nirvana. With great surprise the villagers all told us they had never seen such young boys drive a boat by themselves.
The kids went to school every day that we were in Susui and they were even assigned homework. Axel said this was the best school he had ever attended. While the kids were in school on Thursday morning, we looked at the weather and decided we should leave that afternoon to sail to Fulaga. So when we picked them up for lunch they had to say goodbye to all their new friends. When we pulled anchor about an hour later, all of the kids from the school ran down to the beach to wave goodbye to us. They kept yelling and laughing and waving, it was a tear-jerking departure.
The sail from Susui to Fulaga is about 120 miles southeast, with the first 8 miles going directly into the east wind inside the reef of the Exploring Islands. We knew this was not going to be comfortable, but it was uglier than we thought, so we tucked in behind Mania Island for the night to let the wind and waves settle down a little more. Bright and early the next day we headed off again. We had great conditions with 10-15 knot east winds and comfortable seas. Early afternoon, when we could see Lakeba (an island about half way), we decided we would stop and anchor behind the island for the night. The anchorage is just an indentation in the reef, so initially you don't feel like you are really in an anchorage, but once we were stopped, we realized it was quite protected in all but west winds. The following morning we hauled anchor and headed out, but almost instantly turned around. The wind was blowing 15-20 knots from the SE and there was a 6 foot S swell with wind chop on top. As our course was directly into the wind and waves, it was going to be very slow and uncomfortable progress, so we turned around and waited another day. That gave Gary and Axel time to take the dinghy into town and buy some provisions. They managed to find gasoline, a few tiny frozen chickens, eggs and sausage, but there were no vegetables or fruit in either store. Everyone grows their own, so there is no demand in the stores.
We set sail the following morning for Komo, about 30 miles away, one of our most pleasant sails. We arrived at Komo about 4:45 pm, so the light was dwindling for our entrance through the pass and across the lagoon. It was quite stressful, but ultimately we anchored in an extremely picturesque location. In the morning we went into the village and presented our sevusevu to the chief. The village was quite large, 142 people, and extremely tidy. Cricket was their sport, and in the center of the village was a well constructed cricket pitch. On Wednesday we watched a game against some players from Suva. That day we also went to the school where the younger students did a performance for us. They were so excited to have visitors. The teacher told us that the village was completely out of water. She was really upset, she said all she had were coconuts for her children to drink. She said others were bathing, cleaning and drinking out of a tank in the village that still had a little water, but that was too unsanitary.
In front of our anchorage was a white sand beach. The reef that extended out from the beach to a hanging rock and small island hosted a vast array of soft corals. At dusk the fruit bats would fly from the small island to the main island to eat for the night. One day after our arrival, Nautilus joined us, and we had a raging bonfire that evening. Gary, Hans and I went snorkeling/spearfishing at the pass and Gary caught 5 fish. So we had them over for fish tacos, a new food to people from Belgium, but they really enjoyed it. They left the next morning as they thought the anchorage was a little too rolly for them, we hardly noticed it. Sometimes it is nice being on such a heavy boat. Just after they left, one of the local guys came by looking for Nautilus saying he had 2 lobsters for them. Then he tried to sell them to us for $50 Fijian, we said we didn't want them, but after chatting for a while, when they were just about to leave, I offered him $20 and they were ours. One was huge, we had a lobster omelet for breakfast and lobster sandwiches for lunch the next day. Yummy!
Finally the wind shifted to the northeast and we headed off for Fulaga. The trade winds blow fairly steady from the southeast, and the Lau Group lies on a southeast line, so it is challenging to sail down the length of it. Another nice sail and we arrived at Fulaga right about low tide. The pass into Fulaga is narrow, long, and the lagoon is full of coral heads. By the tide charts we should have arrived right at slack tide, but there was still about 2 knots of current coming out the pass. This made the water quite turbulent and there are a lot of nutrients in the water, so the visibility was not good. As we reached the end of the pass, I asked Gary if we could turn to port, he looked away for one moment, and we ran hard into a large coral head. We tried backing off, but did not budge. From about midship forward you could see coral reef on either side of the boat. We were truly aground. Fortunately we knew we were at low tide or almost at low tide. We sat for about 10 minutes until the water went slack, so we knew the tide would start to rise. About a minute later we could feel the boat bouncing on the reef, then I started to back us off. Once off the reef, we still had to navigate our way to the anchorage. The visibility was poor, so Gary could only see the coral heads when they were about 20 feet from the boat. Only once did I need to do a harsh course alteration. We were both extremely relieved once we dropped anchor.
We were the last of the big group to arrive. Through lots of planning and luck, we met up with the other family boats. We had met some of these boats in Bora Bora, spent a long time together in Tonga, we all wintered in various parts of New Zealand, now finally met in Fiji, and some of these boat have been travelling together since Mexico. There were five family boats, us, Nautilus, with 2 kids, Lumbaz with 4 kids, Fluenta with 3 kids, and Exodus with 2 kids. Gigi and Axel were soooooo excited to be with their friends. Lumbaz, Fluenta and Exodus sailed straight from Savusavu after checking into Fiji about a month behind us.
Fulaga may be one of the most spectacular spots on the planet. The lagoon is scattered with coral rocks towering about 50 feet out of the water all perched on tiny bases that the water keeps etching away. There are numerous larger islands that surround most of the lagoon and these are dotted with white sand beaches. The water is a brilliant turquoise over the white sand, and the pass is so loaded with coral and fish. There are so many nutrients in the water that there is an abundance of fish, although this does obscure the visibility.
Only minutes after anchoring and securing the boat, both Gary and I headed out to go snorkeling, the kids joined their friends. I joined the Lumbaz family to drift through the pass and Gary headed outside the reef to spearfish with the guys. He got 4 fish in about 20 minutes, of which he gave 2 away to other families. For the next 2 days we proceeded to do 2 snorkeling/spearfishing sessions a day at the low and high tide, so we were all feeling a little tired from all the swimming. Gary speared a bunch of fish, including a dogtooth tuna. The pass is filled with a mind blowing number of different hard and soft corals covering every inch of with life. We saw swimming nudibranches, pipefish, an enormous moray eel, schools of angel fish, white tip reef sharks, and numerous colorful little fish. Until now my favorite snorkeling had been Minerva Reef and Fakarava, now I can add this to the list of the world's best snorkeling places.
We went to the village the morning after we arrive to present our sevusevu to the chief, but you are supposed to go as soon as you arrive. When we said we didn't come in right away because we ran aground, they already knew of our issues and completely understood our predicament. After meeting the chief we were taken to our host family. Since this island gets more visitors than most in the Lau Group, they have devised a system of linking each visiting boat with a host family that can answer any of our questions and show us around town. The father of the family, George, is one of the school teachers, so he has perfect English. His wife, Ma, has very good English making it easy to talk with her. They have 3 children, Sala, girl age 9, George, age 7, and Sevati, boy age 1. Almost immediately after meeting them they provided us with a delicious lunch of fish cooked in curry and coconut milk with rice. George had to go back to work, so we sent Gigi and Axel out with him to join the school children playing sports.
Back at the boats, Gigi and Victoria organized some of the kids to camp on the beach. They organized each person to bring something to add to the dinner and breakfast, brought 2 tents, Axel's machete, fire lighter, a cooking pan, … They got started a little late in the day to set up camp, but I took the 5 of them to the beach, they setup 2 tents, then realized the 3 girls had 1 sleeping bag and a blanket and the 2 boys had 1 sleeping bag. Since it is Fiji, we all figured that would be enough warmth for the night, but the next day they did complain it was a little cold. After the tents were setup we made a fire and they cooked their dinner, then I left them and hoped that their tents were high enough above the high tide mark, and that no one would have a machete accident. At 8:00 am they called on the radio to announce "we survived the night!" and to invite the other kids to join them. Not only did they survive, they ate quite well, Victoria (age 11) made biscuits for breakfast over the camp fire. Now they are planning a bigger 2 night outing will all the kids.
On Sunday everyone from all the boats were invited to church with their host family. In addition to the boats with kids there were 4 other boats, each with just one couple aboard, so the sailors constituted a very large presence in church. All the women and girls are expected to wear long skirts, and shirts that cover their shoulders. The men and boys are expected to have on nice collared shirts and a sulu (a man skirt). Gary did not have a sulu so our host, George, loaned him one, and Axel was fine without. Many of the men off other boats had purchased one in Savusavu before coming here. The singing in church was beautiful, but the sermon was long as it was in Fijian. The kids said it was all boring. We keep hoping that someday they will realize how special it is to be invited into a community like this. After church we went over to our host family's house for lunch. It was extraordinary! They made mussels in a garlic soy sauce, clams in a sweet chili sauce, whole fish in curried coconut, yam (different than American yams), noodles, and cassava coconut bread. Plus Ma made 2 different desserts, one with custard top and pastry bottom, and a fluffy chocolate cake made with coconut milk, and I brought banana cake. Needless to say we ate too much, since it was so good, and they kept insisting that we have more. Axel didn't really eat and savory food, but he devoured the sweet food.
As you can tell we are really enjoying ourselves. We have not figured out how long we will stay here, but it is so beautiful it will be hard to leave. Although it has been 3 weeks since veggie shopping in Somosomo, Taveuni and 4 weeks since the bigger shopping in Savusavu, we are starting to get low on veggies and other various items. The kids are really thrilled that the veggies we have the most of are eggplant and pumpkin. When Gigi was talking with the Lumbaz girls, she said she was missing leafy greens so they gave her a bok choy and I made a bok choy Caesar salad.
One of the nice things about this island is they don't have internet, although that makes it harder to update the blog, and impossible to post pictures, it is really nice not being connected.
Cheers,
Julie
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