Am I in Paradise?
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Mon 2 Jul 2018 05:07
We are currently anchored in Little Bay at the top of the Island of Vanua Balavu. This is in the northern Lau group of islands on the eastern side of Fiji. The islands are of both volcanic and coral limestone origin; the north part of Vanua Balavu is limestone, the south of the island is volcanic. The bay is long and narrow but only the seaward end is accessible to yachts, the inland part having a narrow, shallow shelf leading into it. The bay is bounded by precipitous limestone cliffs that are covered in dense forest. Deep calls which sound like howler monkeys echo around the forest. The locals say these are the ghosts of Fijians come to haunt the yachties but in fact they are made by the Golden Dove. There are sandy beaches, turquoise blue water and the reefs at the entrance ensure a smooth anchorage. The depth to anchor in is a fairly consistent 10 meters and the bottom is firm, fine sand with a mud like consistency. As anchorages go this is about as good as it gets but it is a hidden gem. It is not mentioned in the more general Pacific cruising guides and our Navionics plotter chart shows drying reef across the entrance with no depths given. Annoyingly the considerably cheaper Navionics chart on our iPads is much more accurate.
The nearest village is an hour’s walk along the coast. There used to be a more direct inland track but this was obstructed by fallen trees as a result of Tropical Storm Winston in 2016. The “caretaker” of the anchorage Tui and his wife Bui live around the headland where they rent a smallholding from the village company that owns the land. Coconut, banana and papaya grow in profusion, pigs and chickens are raised (the wild pigs descended from escapees in storm Winston are prized) and various root vegetables are grown. Tui is allowed to act as village representative and undertake the Sevusevu ceremony to allow yachties to stay in the village area, although the four yachts in our group that came in together opted to go to the village with Tui to do the ceremony with the chief.
The village is still recovering from Winston but most of the civic buildings have new roofs and, thanks to the NZ Government, there is a brand new primary school and staff housing. Some villagers work in the capital Suva and send money home, some are supported by other relatives and all supplement their food with fishing, growing vegetables and harvesting fruit (papaya, bananas and coconuts).
Yachtie life in Little bay is dominated by the weather. A big high pressure system from the south west is pushing northwards, squashing the isobars to the north and combining with the trade wind airflow to create a strong south easterly flow. Our anchorage bay runs north south and we are sheltered from the steady prevailing wind by the high forested land on either side. However, the wind funnels down our bay in increasingly big gusts and we are all swinging wildly despite anchor sails. Three of the five boats have two bow anchors out - including Vega. Some swings bring us to within 10m of the adjoining reef and although we have 10m depth right up to the reef and the holding seems good, we may only have seconds if the anchor comes adrift - hence the second anchor.
When the wind is strong we rig a bridle for attaching two snubbing lines to the anchor chain (a snubbing line hooks onto the anchor chain and takes the strain, relieving pressure on the windlass and providing some “give” against shock loadings). There is a loop of loose chain that hangs down between the snubbing line attachment and the boat. With the bridle we have a snubbing line from each side of the boat which spreads the load between two lines and provides a more even pull on the chain. With just one snubbing line the pull is from one side of the bow as we don’t have a bow roller right at the front. For some reason the anchor chain is twisting as the boat swings, wrapping one snubbing line attachment over the other and wrapping the loose chain over one of the lines. It all graunches with a loud knock when untwisting on an opposite swing. You can only hear this from the front cabin where we sleep which means several trips to the bow each night to straighten things out. I have tried various combinations of line tension and orientation of chain attachment to no avail.
So, when not sitting lazily in the cockpit and watching one or two locals fishing along the shoreline, or going for a snorkle on the nearby reefs, or going to church in the village to hear the wonderful singing and be given a fish lunch, or rejoicing in the relatively cool air we are fretting about the rising wind and our anchoring arrangements.
Many consider Fiji to be the finest cruising area in the Pacific. The islands are beautiful, the locals extremely friendly and welcoming and as we sit here it could be the scene of any number of novels about tropical paradise. If only the snubbing lines didn’t keep graunching.....................
Footnote: During another sleepless night I worked out that the loose loop of anchor chain wasn’t long enough. In the bigger gusts the snubbing lines were stretching enough for the anchor chain to be pulled taught and twisting as it did so. A longer loop of loose chain has fixed the problem! At the same time the second anchor didn’t seem to be holding but I left it out in the hope it would catch if the main anchor dragged. This morning I was able to pull up the second anchor from the boat to find two tree branches wrapped around it and the anchor line, preventing the flukes from digging in. We have now reset it and are not swinging so much towards the reef. Thankfully the wind is slowly moderating and we just might find ourselves in paradise.