16.46S 179.20E  Thursday 26^th June Arrival at 10.00am in Fiji – Vanua Levu Island -  Savu Savu moorings and anchorage - we are now in a new hemisphere! What a wonderful sailing experience we had too – sunny days, moonlit gentle nights with 10- 12 knots of wind behind us, so we had the twistle rig, with poles, up all the way through the ‘exploring isles’ or Lau Group to Fiji.  This is the most remote region with 57 islands, many uninhabited, and treacherous uncharted reefs.  Since the military coup a year ago it is not permitted to drop anchor in this region so we kept to the main ‘channel’ and admired the beautiful island landscapes and beaches from afar.  Fiji was once known as the Cannibal Isles and is made up of over 300 islands, many inhabited these days by a rich mixture of vibrant Melanesians, East Indians, Polynesians, Micronesians, Chinese, Indians and Europeans.

The Suvu Suvu yacht club is based at the Copra Shed which has its own dock with limited space for a few yachts to anchor stern too, along side –

Copra shed with yachts stern to the jetty

the rest of us are up a rather stagnant, sewage ridden swamp!  But hey ho – the view is pretty and a quick foray ashore showed a promising array of Indian owned shops, fresh produce and curry restaurants!

Pretty anchorage ……. Gift of huge fruit basket from our hosts

We are here for a week and a very comprehensive itinerary has been prepared for us including village tours, rainforest trips and activities including an optimist sailing race (with a very large incentive not to capsize I have to say).

Motoring to our pre allocated buoy……….

Peter Seymour BWR flew out to smooth our arrival and the whole procedure went like clockwork.  The bureaucracy here, taught and well learned, by the colonial British can be awesome so we were all relieved to say the least.  There is absolutely no sign of any military heavy-handedness here…….in fact story has it that the leader was peacefully escorted back to his own island with no bloodshed with all his ministers left in place! The welcome ceremony was hosted by the Savu Savu yacht club which is very well supported locally and has a tremendous input into the community, offering all children the opportunity to learn to sail free of charge.  All kinds of fund raising events are sponsored towards this goal and consequently there is an instant feeling of ‘community’ when you step ashore here.

Going back to the welcome ceremony…….. the ‘elder’ of the village performed the ‘meke’ inviting five of the men from the Blue Water Rally to participate on behalf of the rest of us – Hugh (Stargazer), Ian (Paramour), Peter (Lousill),  Lee (Glendora) and Robert (Heidenskip) were asked to form a cross legged seated line on a large blue waterproof mat facing the solemn ritual.

The ceremony begins – Left to right - Robert, Lee, Peter, Ian and Hugh – lambs to the slaughter……….(thank goodness for their representation)

The bare chested elder clad in his straw skirt, surrounded by several ladies, men and children then proceeded to pour some dubious looking water into an old wooden bowl whilst rubbing all the debris from around the edges and giving his hands a good wash at the same time.  He then whisked a large clump of straw from his apparel and gave the contents a good stir, with the same vigour as you would clean a pot with a brillo pad, before systematically squeezing the straw as you would when rinsing out your washing.  Once this was completed to his satisfaction he dropped all the straw back into the water and gave it all another swill around before two of the children poured the root of a ground pepper plant into the mix…….kava!!

Got the picture…………?

Of course our delegation were all looking on in keen anticipation of the delicious narcotic intake to follow…... a half coconut full is proffered - and it’s a traditional must to down it in one gulp - followed by three delighted claps of the hands to show full appreciation, before the next recipient gets his share – oh joy!  And more joy was to follow……. When they had all had a brimful of the beige nectar, there was enough in that old wooden bowl for another round of the same…..