Attack of the Giant Blue Jellyfish - Buca Bay, Vanua Levu Island, Fiji
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 12 Jul 2009 01:31
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16:40.002S 179:49.889W
On July 3rd we left Fawn Harbor and motored through
the Somosomo (not to be confused with Savusavu) strait that lies between the
southern coast of Vanua Levu Island and the northern coast of Taveuni
Island. Taveuni Island is reportedly very beautiful, but
we motored and sailed by it twice without ever really seeing it.
Its tall peaks are constantly enveloped in mist and it's no wonder that a
good bit of the island is covered in rainforest. Its tall peaks
did mean we had to motor whenever we were navigating on its lee side - no
wind to be found in the shadow of that monster. Storyteller found the
calm waters and no wind situation to be ideal. We at least used the
opportunity to make lots of water as we motored the thirty or so miles from Fawn
Harbor to Buca Bay on Vanua Levu's east side.
We arrived in Buca Bay and found it to be lovely
(picture 1). However, as soon as we dropped anchor and took a closer look,
we realized we had landed in a hot bed of giant blue jellyfish.
Zillions of them. At first they looked like dots of blue paint on the
surface of the water (picture 2), but on closer inspection, we saw they had an
amazing structure, with what Sue (of the Sue and Grant variety) described as
'frilly' edges. Really beautiful in a jellyfish sort of way.
Beautiful until Storyteller sucked one into its generator water intake, causing
the generator to quit. And beautiful until Jackie and I hopped in she and
Michael's dinghy and chewed up about twenty giant blue jellyfish with
the outboard motor on our way to shore. We could tell when the
outboard ground up a giant blue jellyfish because there was a
sickening thud followed by a bit of a choking sound from the motor
before it caught its breath and moved us on to the next giant blue
jellyfish in its path. Ugh.
Jackie and I hopped in the dinghy and went to shore
on a quest to find out about the local ferry service. We were hoping we
could leave our boats in Buca Bay and catch the ferry to the mysterious island
of Taveuni and back the following day (there are no good anchorages around
Taveuni Island). We were successful in learning from a local Fijian named
Moses that yes indeed, a ferry runs from Buca Bay to Taveuni, but once per day -
meaning we could get to Taveuni, but would have to wait until the next day to
catch the ferry back to Buca Bay. Hmmmm....when they said the ferry
operated once per day, we should have realized they meant literally once per
day, not a round trip. We were hoping to get to Taveuni to see the amazing
waterfalls and natural water slide we had heard about. Also, the
snorkeling near there is supposed to be marvelous. Always keen to help a
foreigner in need, Moses suggested we wait to talk to 'The Doctor' before we
gave up on the idea of going to Taveuni.
'The Doctor?' we asked.
'Yes, The Doctor. He's not here right now
because he is delivering coconuts to the village. But he will be back. You
can wait near the cafeteria.'
A doctor delivering coconuts?
Cafeteria? After a little more conversation, it became clear. We
were standing on the grounds of 'The Mission', an exclusive rehab? meditation?
spa-type get away built and run by the Seventh Day Adventists. The
'cafeteria' was a beautifully built structure with a traditional thatch roof
covering a modern looking kitchen and wide veranda eating area which faced a
well maintained swimming pool. There was no one there with the exception
of Moses and another Fijian who was painting window trim. Ten minutes
later, The Doctor appeared.
The Doctor, an Argentinean who had recently spent
time at another mission in Madagascar, was the resident doctor for the
rehab/meditation/spa-type Seventh Day Adventist get away. He
also cared for the local villagers in the area. A very charming
forty-something guy, the doctor explained that he was expecting a group of
Americans to fly in the next day and he planned to pick them up from the
Taveuni airport in The Mission's motorboat. We told him about our desire
to visit Taveuni and he offered to ferry as many as four of our group of eight
to Taveuni and back the next day. We accepted his offer and left the
doctor, chewing up more giant blue jellyfish as we made our way back to
Harmonie.
While we were gone, the men folk (Don and Michael)
had been visited by the local village chief, who came out to our boats in his
nifty fiberglass dinghy and outboard motor (no dugout canoes or bamboo rafts for
this chief - maybe the dinghy and motor were a gift from The
Mission?). Don and Michael invited the chief aboard and went on to perform
the sevusevu ceremony with him. Sevusevu is the process by which we ask
the village chief's permission to anchor in his bay, swim, snorkel and walk on
his beach. For these privileges, we offer the chief a bundle of kava root
(which we buy at the Savusavu market). Unless the chief takes a
disliking to us, he will accept the kava, say a quick prayer in Fijian and
welcome us to his village in return for the offering of kava. All in all,
not a bad deal. This chief explained to Don and Michael that he had seven
children, one of who was living in California (a son). A common theme in
Tonga and Fiji where offspring end up in far flung places - especially the
offspring of relatively well-to-do families.
As we travel around the islands of Fiji, we will
perform sevusevu with the chief any time we anchor within sight of a
village. We did sevusevu once last year when we visited Fiji, but because
our time was so limited then, we only visited one village. This year we
expect to get to at least five or six. If you are confused by all the
Fijian names for things, don't be. We sometimes forget and use Savusavu,
sevusevu, Somosomo, Suva and sula interchangeably. Hopefully we'll never
do this in front of a Fijian though, not sure it would go over
well.
The end of the story of Buca, or what we now call
Jellyfish, Bay is that we decided it was too hazardous to stay there
and risk sucking a giant blue jellyfish or two into our generator or engine
water intakes (not to mention toilet water intakes!), so Michael and Jackie
dinghied back to shore and declined The Doctor's kind ferry offer
and Storyteller, Lady Kay and Harmonie motored slowly and carefully
out of Jellyfish Bay the next morning on our way to Rambi Island. I'm
happy to report there were no further giant blue jellyfish water intake
incidents along the way.
Anne
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