Savusavu to the Yasawas

We spent another few days in Savusavu doing the “cruiser thing” –happy hours and eating out—Destiny our Texan friends are with us and we enjoyed yet another Chinese meal with them—F$16—C$8—for all you can eat. |
We shipped off the wind generator to Auckland –it appears that a bearing has failed but the company which fixed it before has offered to fix and ship it back at their expense.
I had my Indian cooking lesson so bought spices with weird Indian names so the food should be authentic!!
The next item on the agenda is to restock fruit and vegs to enable us to live for the next month or so as we cruise to the Yasawas which are a chain of islands off the West Coast of Fiji which offer great snorkelling, reefs and sun. The range of fruit and vegetables are amazing so we are well stocked.
Our passage from Savusavu wound its way through the reefs to the west of Vanua Levi where we crossed to Yadua, an island a day sail away. Once again we were happy to have the overlays of passages from boats which had previously been through these treacherous reefs. We take GPS positions from them and plot our course before leaving and it seems to have worked well so far.
We made our way into a beautiful bay surrounded by reefs.
The next morning was the trek to the village on the other side of the island, the path had become overgrown since last season so we spent some time pushing our way through the scrub. You needed to climb to the top of the hills and it was very hot. I became light headed and will increase my salt intake as I recall this happening before in the tropics.
We were very glad to finally spot the village and were greeted by a lot of very friendly villagers. They come up and shake your hand and introduce themselves and ask where you are from.
The biggest difference here from previous south pacific islands is the pride and care of their settlements. They have very little money and a lot of the bures (huts) are thatched with woven mats covering the floor. The grass around is trimmed and raked and is as immaculate as any middle class suburb in our western world.
We were directed to the chief’s house where we were invited to remove our shoes, sunglasses, hats and bags and sit cross legged on the floor—Ken who has never been able to sit cross legged has to fold his legs as best he can!!
The chief was out fishing but his wife and family was there and they got in another old man to accept our sevusevu. They then chanted some Fijian words and clapped at intervals after which our sevusevu (kava) was accepted and we now are free to enjoy their island.
The wife then invited us to share lunch with them which was large amounts of boiled cassava (tasteless roots which look like parsnips) some fish stew and some donut like fried balls washed down with lots of tea. It was very welcome after our hot tiring hike.
As we left many other villagers came up to us and invited us for even more lunch which we declined but did accept a breadfruit and got cooking instructions for it.
We then tackled the hike back over the hill but somehow when you know where you are going it never seems as far.
The next few days were spent snorkelling the reefs of the bay and exploring the white sandy beaches. The coral is pristine and we are quickly learning to rate anchorages by the clarity of water and reef structures.
Next stop was another day sail across to the Yasawa Island group which is reputed to be sunny and dry and a beautiful cruising ground.
Using our chart overlays we wended our way over the next couple of days through the reefs and day sailed to the northern most anchorage at Sawai-Lua.
This bay has with several villages and a unique cave system. We had caught a mahi mahi on our way in most of which we gave to some villagers when they came out to greet us.
The next morning we joined another boat and took in our sevusevu. Once again the ceremony was repeated with us fully dressed with our hats and sunglasses off and feet tucked under—feet are not meant to be shown.
They took us for a walk showing us the school and village. The people here are very welcoming but are always trying to sell you something at the same time. They bought some lobster to the boat to sell and one of the women made us a loaf of bread. They always have “shell markets” where they sell whatever shells they have collected along with an assortment of jewellery which appear to be imported.
The highlight is the caves; great limestone formations on the cliffs where you climb up to enter the caves and climb down and swim through. They are quite spectacular and the villagers make quite a good income from this charging F$10 per person. We spent quite some time enjoying them. There are hieroglyphics on the walls from some unknown former inhabitatants.
We enjoyed snorkelling the bay and I did a hike over the hills with Rixzene who was the crew member on the other boat. She asked us if we would give her a ride enabling her to get back to the mainland as the relation ship with her captain was not a happy one. We agreed so once more have a “hitchhiker”.
Our next stop was down the coast into a bay which has a couple of resorts where we had been recommended to go to. This turned out to be excellent advice as the snorkelling was outstanding –discovering the amazing lion fish—see blog snorkelling picture. The other advantage was beer in the bar onshore—our beer was long gone and so we took advantage of “happy hour” and then Rixzene bought us dinner which was great. It was an Indian curry night followed by a movie on an outdoor screen (sheet) on the beach—great fun.
The next day we went ashore after another great day snorkelling for our happy hour to find another couple we knew from an American cruising boat so joined them for a barbecue dinner at the other resort.
Sadly it was time to move on to the next anchorage which was the infamous Blue Lagoon—the same one where the movie was shot. Cruise ships come in here and after the more remote areas we had been in it was a let down. The highlight was going by dingy to the vegetable farm. This consisted of going at high tide and finding your way through the mangroves to the family who took us to the garden and harvested green peppers, cucumbers, bok choy, tomatoes and spinach. Last December there was a cyclone come through here so a lot of the fruit was destroyed including the bananas which we are so used to having vast quantities in the tropical islands. Cucumbers and pumpkins seem to have escaped the storm and we now have 8 cucumbers—hmmm cucumber bread!! Rixzene’s speciality is pickles so we have them with everything.
Next stop was the pass where the manta rays are meant to swim through at high tide. Once again there are many tourist resorts and at high tide the next morning along with a half dozen tourist boats we spent several hours fruitlessly looking for the mantas. Apparently other years there are many but for what ever reason this year there are very few. The anchorage was not one of our favourites so we left the following day to yet another bay.
There is a path on shore crossing the peninsula where you snorkel out to a wrecked spitfire from the Second World War. An elderly couple live on the shore and the lovely lady showed us where to snorkel—we were disillusioned expecting a tale of bravery to find that it had been an American pilot who was showing off and clipped the top of the coconut palms and crashed into the sea!! The plane is still there so was fun to see. We were visited by three teenagers in the afternoon on their kayaks and we gave them lemonade and printed off their photos for them.
We then sailed to the beautiful Waya Island and anchored in a spectacular bay in front of the Octopus Resort. A Canadian boat Cats Paw IV was there—they had left Canada with us but we had not seen them since Tonga—we joined them for some “boat games” and spent another evening dining on shore. The resort is a happening place so we enjoyed the party atmosphere.
A yacht which had not survived the cyclone was onshore on its side and Ken managed to get a winch off it paying the local villager C$17 for it. We also hiked over to the hill to the nearest village but they are so used to tourist paying exorbitant amounts to hike in the hills we decided not to go further.
After a few days we left to sail the length of the island anchoring off a village beside a sand spit connecting it to a smaller island.
In the morning we stopped at a 70 foot power boat on our way to shore and were invited on for a coffee. Wow that is the way the other half live!! It was owned by an Auckland man—he is the largest stockholder of Apple computers in NZ so has lots of money!! He and his wife and another couple were cruising the islands having their families visit during the season. They were having issues with one of their navigating screens so were having someone flown in to fix it—that is our problem we can not afford to fly anyone in to fix our issues!!!! They were very hospitable and we enjoyed visiting with them.
Afterwards we carried on into the village with our sevusevu. It was lunchtime at the village so we were invited to share lunch which was more cassava, breadfruit and some fish. The highly carbohydrate rich diet seems to make for very overweight woman which is sad as the children who obviously burn off the calories are very slight. They once again were hugely hospitable and the children took us for a hike up the hill to view the island from a ridge. We had taken a family photo so the kids came back to the boat while I printed off some pictures for them. They definitely have come to learn that cruiser’s are very generous and so we are constantly being asked for things—we are learning to become tougher as you would have no fishing gear or batteries if they had their way. They are lovely people though and we enjoy them a lot. The children are very well brought up, happy and well spoken. The level of English is exceptional and schooling is respected very much more than in the Polynesian Islands. All of the children aspire to be teachers or nurses so will be interesting to see where the next generation will go. The Fijian people are Melanesian primarily but border on Polynesia and with the Indian influence it makes for a complex and interesting mix.
We are sailing into Musket Cove today where I will post this blog. It is a sailor “hang out” so we will spend a day or so “hanging out” and arranging where we will go to have new trampolines made and we need someone to look at our alternators as they do not seem to be making enough power. It is on an island and is 25 miles from the mainland where we will go to have the work done.
Rixzene will leave us on the mainland, we have enjoyed having her on board and it has been nice to have an extra pair of eyes negotiating the reefs on which many yachts have foundered.
We will get our necessary work done and then ready ourselves to continue our adventure to Vanuatu—we understand how so many boats spend many seasons in Fiji as we do not have time to cover a small portion of it.