Happy Holidays & 2011 in a (Coco)Nut Shell

Holiday Greetings from Calypso

Wishing you all the very best for 2012

To all our family and friends, we wish you everything of the best for the holiday season and for the forthcoming year.  As we continue our journey, we often reflect back on where we have been, what we have done, the experiences we've had and, of course, the wonderful people we've met along the way and those we've left behind.

These collages are snippits of our year starting in New Zealand with a host of jobs, large and small, in order to get our dear Calypso back in shape.  We left at the beginning of winter stopping for a month at Minerva Reef and then on  to various islands within the Fijian waters before returning to New Zealand to sit out the cyclone season again.

Boat Projects

Minerva Reef

  

Vanua Levu,Fiji

Taveuni, Gamea & Rabi

Viti Levu, Fiji

Ovalau & Others

Numkumbasanga Bird Sanctuary

Back in good old Kiwi Land

Last night, after five days of glorious sailing and a day and a half of sheer hell, we arrived back in New Zealand with such a great welcome, we know why we've returned.

Our trip for the first five days has got to be some of the best sailing we've every experienced.  Perfect conditions with flat seas, winds just forward of the beam which produced constant speeds of 7 knots, sunny skies and incredibly starry night and then....... the sting in the tail.  The wind picked up to gale force and the seas the roughest we can remember. Poor old Calypso got continuously smacked in the side with huge waves breaking into the cockpit, making life aboard rather wet, cold, boisterous and somewhat unpleasant.  Thank goodness that I'd cooked all those meals prior to departure.

We arrived back in Opua at three in the morning,  tied up to the quarantine dock, dropped into our bed for only a couple of hours before the welcoming customs and biosecurity officials arrived to check us in.  As we picked up a mooring buoy, dear Otto and Lilian, our buddies from Vagabond whom we'd left behind when we sailed off last June, arrived to welcome us back and invite us for dinner.  So absolutely great to see them both again.

Once we've spent a couple of days cleaning up the poor bedrangled girl of salt and all those things disrupted by the passage, we'll start to plan our Kiwi activities in the hopes that we'll get to see some of the beautiful country this time around instead of the constant stream of boat repairs that dogged us last season.

Farewell Fiji

Current position: 26º 34'188 S

176º  01' 030 E

Vanaka and Moce (pronounced mō thé) Fiji

Thank you and farewell Fiji

It is well into the cyclone season and we are amongst the tail-end Charlies tempting the weather gods here in Fiji. Time to move on but it's hard to leave such a wonderful place and harder still to head towards the cooler climes of New Zealand. If last year is anything to go by, make that damned chilly climes.

As we bid farewell, we sneaked in a few extra days by hiding out in the southern group of islands known as Kadavu. A truly beautiful and untouched region that, seemingly, very few yachts visit. This is primarily because there is no port of entry down there forcing boats to travel up to Suva in order to check in first. It is then quite a trip to return to Kadavu so most would carry on visiting the islands east and west of Suva. It is also illegal to stop off anywhere once one has checked out so we pretended to be invisible and prepared for our long trip southwards in gorgeous surroundings, hoping to remain unnoticed.

We had planned to meet up there with our friends aboard Auspice who we'd last seen up in Savusavu but, after making the mistake of going too far west, we realised the battle it would be to get back eastwards. Regardless, we decided to give it a go after checking out of Lautoka on the west side of Viti Levu. One last week in idyllic surroundings was too tempting. Besides, Jim had given Paul the recipe for rice wine which he's been cultivating for the last month and we just had to get together to compare notes and tastes.

Prior to leaving Viti Levu, we stopped off at the tourist area of Musket Cove which is, indeed, very pretty but it reinforced our decision of spending most of our time in the remote islands to the east of Vanua Levu. A couple of nights at Denarau also stood to doubly enhance these thoughts as it was just like parking off the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town - nothing remotely Fijian about it at all. We were glad we had a glimpse of the 'other' Fiji for comparison purposes, confirming our desire not to return there but rather to stick to those places few tourists ever get to see. We did, however, visit an incredibly beautiful Hindu temple in Nadi, Fiji's second largest city, which was certainly worth the rickety bus trip in.

 Our first night out attempting to punch into heavy seas and head winds to get eastwards proved to be a bit of a disaster. For the first time ever, I got really seasick and was lying in bed bemoaning my lot in life when an almighty crash came from the companionway. Paul had fallen and hit his head. He was conscious but needed to stay still and a cursory inspection showed a little blood so I gave him a wet towel to hold there but half an hour later, he complained of a lot of 'jelly' around him. Another check found him surrounded in so much blood I didn't think it possible for him to still be alive! I know head wounds bleed but this was just too too much.

I patched him up as much as our first aid kit and conditions would allow with more towels around him and he lay the entire night without moving for fear of passing out. In all of this, we realised that we couldn't keep sailing in those conditions so he talked me through the procedure to heave to in order to sit out the night.

All's well that ends well. In the morning he was remarkably fine. I redid the dressings but couldn't really examine it in such boisterous seas. In hindsight, he should have had stitches but conditions simply didn't allow for such procedures, so we pressed on eastwards in choppy swells and waves arriving in Kadavu's protected atolls two and a half days later.

Here we happily met up with Auspice again, with Kim and Jim arriving at our boat that evening with heads wrapped in bandages as a show of solidarity. I used a lot of the time to make up pots of stew and chilli con carne to freeze so that I didn't have to worry about cooking the first few nights en route to New Zealand should they prove to be too uncomfortable. I'd also 'found' a mango tree while in Musket Cove so got busy bottling mango chutney that we love so much.

As I write this, we are almost half way along our journey and the trip, so far, has been some of the best sailing we've experienced. Long may it last as this journey is notorious for its violent conditions. Maybe Neptune is sparing us this time - we've certainly had our fair share of the nasties. It's times like this past experience when we have to say "Remind us why we're doing this!" and then the reminder comes in days like today.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Musket  Cove Resort

Inside the Temple

Market in Lautoka

All those wonderful curry spices

Relaxing Before the Long Haul South

Entertainment on Robinson Crusoe Island

After a week of civilisation of sorts in Suva, we set sail for Likuri Lagoon or Robinson Crusoe Island as the resort is known.  This island lies on the southwest corner of Viti Levu about 75nm west of Suva.  The trip was rather boisterous and, on the second day, with 36 knots of wind directly behind us, dear George our autopilot, decided to go on strike.  Fun and games.  We were exhausted from hours of trying every sail configuration we could think of to cope with the severe downwind winds and now we had to hand steer in very very lumpy seas.  Don’t anyone dare say that’s character building!

When we arrived outside the reef Cariad called the resort to ask for assistance as it was impossible to see the narrow opening in the breaking reef.  They were fabulous and sent a boat out to escort us in which was a real saving grace but Cariad had sailed past the entrance and couldn’t get back against the winds.   They ended up having to carry on another 8nm to the next bay while we comfortably dropped anchor just outside the island resort in much calmer conditions.

The resort was a simple island holiday stopover that offers day trips from the mainland with traditional Fijian meals and entertainment in the form of dancing and music.  We had had fellow cruisers highly recommend it so decided that it would be our one touristy stop - we’d avoided anything commercial up to this point sticking rather to the real Fiji which we’d found in and around Vanua Levu.

Well, it was an excellent show, we were glad we’d made the effort but it wasn’t exactly the smartest decision we’ve ever made.  We can’t get back to Suva as planned and time is running out on our visa. 

The entertainment was colourful and professional with the dancers looking as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.  The artists are actually the staff of the resort so, during the day, they are bartenders, cleaners, kitchen staff, skippers on dive boats, etc, etc.  However, come dance time, they come alive with the music and really put on something special.  The nightime show was far more spectacular especially with the fire dancing but I wasn't close enough to take decent photos.

After an enjoyable few days there, we chose to come further west to an even more touristy venue in the form of Musket Cove where there are more yachts than we have seen in the whole of Fiji to date.  This is obviously the other Fiji, the one that most tourists see.  It looks really pretty but we are glad we did what we did spending most of our time in the remote islands and villages further east.  

Hubby spent quite a time on scraping tons of crud from the hull prior to leaving so we literally flew the 28nm with our nice smooth bottom.  While working in the water, he had a close encounter with a black & white ringed sea snake of the poisonous persuasion.  It's curiousity earned it a smack on the tail but that didn't convince it to leave.  Paul felt that it may have thought the floating line he was using to hang onto was a buddy of his but it must have eventually realised it wasn't, got bored and disappeared.

Now, our only problem is to sort out officialdom as we did not check out of Suva to come here.  The customs authorities are quite strict when it comes to moving from one region to another and we’re now in the Lautoka region where, simply, we should not be.  It may mean catching a bus back to Suva to do the formalities but we are currently looking into other alternatives.  Let’s hope it ends up a simple task.

 PHOTO GALLERY:

The Sights & Sounds of Suva

Well, the good news is, I have a camera again.  The bad news is that I had to spend the money to get one.  It’s not exactly a Rolls (or even a VW for that matter) but it is waterproof and will, I trust, last a tad longer than the last one.

We arrived in Suva after breaking the trip with a couple of island stopovers which made for really nice day sailing.  Suva is a big city by Pacific island standards and, despite the very dirty waters in the harbour (make that extremely filthy), is really not too bad.  It’s surprisingly free of rubbish but then we’ve found that Fiji, by and large, is extremely clean compared to many other Pacific islands.

It has a brilliant fruit and veggie market and good all round provisioning.  I’m in seventh heaven with all the Indian spices available and excellent, inexpensive curry restaurants.

Here, we met up with our friend, Peter of Troutbridge, the chap who sadly put his boat up on the reef when entering the harbour late at night in May.  Poor Trouters had her bottom ripped out of her and spent two weeks getting battered on the reef before he was able to float her and have her dragged unceremoniously into the Royal Suva Yacht Club.  

 His tale of getting her afloat reads like a horror story but it appears that desperation and determination finally won the day.  She now rests up on the hard with Peter having to almost totally rebuild.  We couldn’t offer much more than moral support but I think he appreciated our visit introducing us to some excellent Indian cuisine.  Best of luck, Peter, you WILL get there.

Our bedraggled stowpack (the canvas catchall that holds our mainsail) was a bit worse for wear by the time we arrived in Suva, however, we were able to find a chap who replaced the zip and re-stitched the entire cover, reinforcing where necessary.  Hopefully, it will last another few years now.

Our cultural needs were catered for in the form of a visit to the Fiji Museum but, apart from that, most of the time was spent buying a few provisions and holding up the bar with Peter.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Old Fijian Outrigger with palm woven sails

Helping myself  to the spices

The Chinese fishing "cockroaches" are worldwide

Taro root

The Flower Stand

The pineapple stall

Ginger

Aubergines et  al

How does one describe such generosity?

We had left Savusavu with another boat, Cariad, with Wattie, a Kiwi, and Diana, from South Africa, aboard.  Wattie’s daughter is married to a Fijian from Ovalau so they wanted to visit his family there.  Upon arriving in the town of Levuka on the Saturday, we were all invited to their village, Navuloa on the west side, for lunch and to watch the Rugby World Cup final the following day. 

That first night spent in Levuka was in poor holding with a lee shore, a type of anchorage that does not inspire much confidence. Even though we knew we’d have to check in there on the Monday, we needed to get closer to the village we were to visit so we left to sail anti-clockwise almost three quarters of the way to the south west corner.  It wasn’t possible to get through the shorter distance down the east coast. 

Several of the chaps came out to meet us in their skiff to show us to a good anchorage and then, once settled, took us on an amazing trip through the mangroves up a river to their village.

Upon arrival, we were introduced to the chief to perform sevusevu and drink kava before sitting down for lunch.  Lunch – the ladies of the village must have spent the entire morning (if not the previous day) preparing this feast for us.  There were all sorts of interesting vegetable dishes prepared with coconut milk, curried wild pig, crabs, fish, sausages, cassava, taro root and yams and I’m sure I’ve missed a few.  They insisted we eat before them which always makes me a tad uncomfortable but they really do seem to enjoy watching us enjoy the food first.  Once we’d finished, they (and ‘they’ consisted of at least a couple of dozen adults and children) dug in.

The game wasn’t until later in the evening so we wandered around this delightful village with all the children as our guides returning for more kava later on.  We’d mostly given up by this time but they drank the entire afternoon, evening and night.  Kava root is their main source of income in the village so I guess they have plenty for their needs.

While we waited for the game to start, the ladies made tea with dozens and dozens of doughnut –type balls that were excellent and, again, they wouldn’t touch them ‘til we’d had our fill.  I won’t go into details of how many a certain husband of mine consumed but they delighted in his appetite.

The following morning, our amazing hosts were there to collect  us so we could catch the truck (no such thing as a bus) into Levuka to clear in and have a wander around.  Levuka is the original old capital of Fiji and, as such, has some interesting history and old buildings.  In some respects, it looks a bit like an old town out of the American wild west.

When we checked in, the officials politely told us that we should never have moved around to the other side of the island and that we must bring the boats back in order to check out.  Had we done that, we would have wasted two days, one to get back to Levuka and one more to go out and around the reef to head southwards.  We ended up checking in and out at the same time even though that supposedly meant that we’d have to leave within 24 hours.  Well, we didn’t but the chances of them finding us way down on the south side were fairly remote so we stayed for a few more days before going south from that vantage point – a much more practical route.

Saying farewell to the villagers was somewhat wrenching – they had been amazing, overwhelmingly generous and friendly hosts and had obviously thoroughly enjoyed our visit too.

PHOTO GALLERY:  (courtesy of Diana Cariad)

c

A Fijian "bura"

With the village children

A few of  our hosts taking us to the village

Kava preparations

Scenes around Lavuka:

Local Hairdressing Salon