Harmonie - Musket Cove, Malolo Lailai Island, Fiji

Musket Cove, Malolo Lailai Island, Fiji - with pictures

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Sat 5 Jul 2008 01:57

17:46.294S 177:11.609E

This version has pictures attached.

On Tuesday (7/1) we motored the short distance around the reefs to Musket Cove Marina on Malolo Lailai Island. The space for the marina must have been blasted out of the reef because the channel leading in and the space once in, is extremely narrow. At low tide, the place is completely drained of water except for the trench that the boats are sitting in (picture 1). The entire beach that rings the resort area goes completely dry. If you were staying here and planning to enjoy a lovely beach, you'd have to time your beach bathing around the tide tables.

The rally boats are lined up side-by-side along the dock with no space between, sterns to the floating dock with anchors out front (picture 2). It's good that we all know and like each other because the quarters are close - think trailer park with no space between the trailers. Being on a dock in completely calm water is a strange sensation for us. The ability to simply step off the back of the boat onto a dock is rather liberating. No dinghy, no perpetually wet butt, no coordinated and scheduled trips to shore - you simply walk off the back of the boat and there you are. This is the first time we've been on a dock since Tahiti two months ago and it really is a nice change - at least for a little while.

Musket Cove and the island of Malolo Lailai is filled with resorts and nothing else, which leads to another strange sensation for us - we aren't the minority. We are surrounded by tourists from New Zealand, Australia and the US. It's really odd to go from the traditional Fijian village of Yalobi to the posh resorts of Musket Cove, all in one week. Entirely odd. There is not much to do here, so most are catching up on boat projects and taking advantage of the calm water and the accessible dock. Don the marvelous maintenance man has been in high demand and has helped Cleone replace some rigging, Asolare fix their water maker and Basia fix their dinghy's outboard motor among various Harmonie projects.

As soon as we arrived, we went in search of a hairdresser. Our last hairdresser encounter happened in Tahiti two months ago and we were both long overdue for a cut. The nearby resort spa offers hairdressing services, but the hairdresser is no where to be found. 'She's not here today.' the spa receptionist said. 'Will she be back tomorrow?' we asked. 'We don't think so, we don't know when she is coming back.' Ok, plan B was put into service. Lindsey from the British boat Quasar is known to cut hair. We presented our case to her and she agreed to help us out. Yesterday afternoon she showed up as planned with a tall white bucket, which she planted upside down on the dock. Don went first and sat on the overturned bucket. Twenty minutes and twenty conversations with gawking boaters and tourists later, he was a new man. My turn. I complimented Lindsey on the white bucket.

'Yes, it's great isn't it? It even has a name. It's called Gandolf.' Lindsey explained.

'Gandolf?' I asked 'As in the Lord of the Rings Gandolf?'

'Yes, exactly. I used to have a gray bucket, but it got lost so we got a new one and the new one is white.'

I get it. Gandolf the Gray turns into Gandolf with the white robe and white hair. Perfect.

So imagine having your hair cut in public (in a resort no less) sitting on a bucket named Gandolf on a dock for all the world to see but no mirror for you to see. All the world makes comments as they walk by and you can do nothing but have blind faith in the boater/tennis teacher/hair dresser named Lindsey from the boat Quasar. Surprisingly, the public haircut was a pleasant experience and we both turned out the better for it. Lindsey took our payment and plans to put it and any other hairdressing revenue she gains throughout the rally toward a cancer research charity. What could be better than a public, bucket-sitting haircut to support cancer research?

There has, of course, been time here in Musket Cove for at least one rally cocktail hour, one pig roast and one group barbeque (it is the 4th of July, after all...what's the 4th without a barbeque?). The pig roast was followed by, you guessed it, Fijian dancing. And singing this time. The dancing was much less trumped up than what we saw at the resort on the mainland. The girls were dressed much more conservatively and the dance did not include hip wiggling of any kind. The singing was captivating and sounded just a tad bit African. No musical instrument accompaniment at all aside from some drums. We are told that there is nothing like a church service in Fiji (we heard the same about Tonga too). The services are filled with music and singing and although it's all done in Fijian it's said to be unforgettable. Maybe we'll catch a service next year when we come back. Picture 3 is the men performing the spear dance at Musket Cove resort.

All good things must come to an end and tomorrow we set sail for Vanuatu. The distance is only 450 miles and should take us about three days. The weather forecast is calling for no wind tomorrow and then pretty big winds for the rest of the trip. This should make for a pretty quick sail after the first day. We will be making three stops in Vanuatu with the rally and then saying good-bye to our friends after the third stop when they will all leave for Australia and we will stay in Vanuatu. We are not looking forward to the good-byes, but the stops in Vanuatu before then should be very cool from what we have heard. Our first stop will be on the island of Tanna where we will visit a traditional village as well as the only accessible active volcano in the world. We've started taking our malaria pills, since Vanuatu is a malaria hot spot, and will do our best to steer clear of the mosquitoes. Other than the threat of malaria and poisonous sea snakes we should have a good time in Vanuatu.