Crossing the line - again!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 23 Aug 2010 21:23
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Monday 23 August 0725 Local Sunday 22 August 1925
UTC
16:26.75E 179:56.34W
West! yes west, we have crossed the 180 meridian
again on this sojourn, which is one of the very few times on the whole trip we
have sailed in an Easterly direction. It is also up wind, but in 15 knots or so
of breeze this is no hardship and Rhiann Marie sails very well to
windward.
The start of this stage of our adventure from Viani
bay started at about 0930 and by neccessity of our program, would be into the
sun for the first couple of hours. We were told the bommies in this area would
all have marks on them, as the large scale chart showed, but in fact they did
not. Both Trish and I therefor were on red alert with Trish at the wheel and me
up the rigging. It is quite stressful, but
we were able to identify all dangers in time, with only one handbrake turn
required and then when the sun came overhead and behind the picture was
even clearer. This is the critical thing when eyeball navigating - that the
sun is overhead and behind in a clear sky and that the water is clear. In the
North coast we will only make short daily journeys in the morning from 1000 -
1300 while the sun is up and behind us or overhead. We will also head off
outside the reef if there is heavy rainfall which will make the water murky and
difficult to see dangers.
Anyway, why would we do all these things? Here's
why. Before leaving Viani bay I checked the chart and spotted a small bay which
looked like a nice anchorage and stopping off point on our journey. On passage
when we finally got into open water I decided to check the electronic copy of an
old pilot book I had obtained in Savusavu to see if it mentioned anything
about anchorages on Rabi (Rambi - "b" is pronounced "mb"). There it
was - a small passage saying that the anchorage I was heading for was in
fact the "best kept secret in Fiji!"
We arrived into a stunning well protected bay in
behind the protection of the reef. It was a very hot and sunny day and we
decided to have a snorkell along the coral heads near the shore to cool off. As
we came out of the water a man on the beach in native dress beckoned us to come
ashore.
When we got there he and his wife were sitting
under a tree with her very young brother and had prepared some Kava to share
with us. The lady had woven two traditional Fijian head dresses for us. One
lady's type for Trish and one men's type for me. We were
invited to sit with them and were "crowned". We had a little kava - only, in all
honesty because it would be rude not to. Trish can get away with having only one
small bowl but I can not.
They were in fact "Banaban", not
Fijian, people who had been evacuated from their homeland of Ocean Island
under threat of Japanese invasion during the second world war. They did not
operate the village system, with village chief, that the Fijians do. They
claimed in broken English "no man can be a chief - there is only one chief
- God" they said pointing heavenward. They told us that having been evacuated
from Ocean Island, while their lives had been saved their language had been
lost, though they still spoke it.
They were however incredibly content and very happy
people. They were living in the simplest way you could possibly imagine.
The house was really just a lean to made up mostly of palm fronds and a few
sheets of old corrugated iron, and was open on three sides. The previous house
he told me had blewn away in a strong wind. I'm sure this one will too. All
around though the place was really untidy they had planted things in a haphazard
way. There was; tapioca/casava, paw-paw, coconut, sweet potato, yam, aubergine,
banana etc etc. They had a few pigs and chickens too and with an occassional
fish lived off the land in a subsistence way.
They gave us sweet coconut to eat and cracked open
a couple of green coconuts for us to drink "fresh water". They were very happy
and generous people yet clearly had absolutely nothing ......... or perhaps they
had everything, I'm not sure.
We were invited back the next day (today) for the
lady to teach Trish how to weave the coconut and pandannis leaves into
baskets. We asked if we could bring anything. "What do you mean?" they asked.
"Is there anything you need that I might have?" I replied. "Oh it's up to you"
they said. They clearly did not want anything nor think they needed anything.
If we bring something it will be some
practical things like nylon chord to help secure their "house", and such like.
I'm sure that these people would have lived like this hundreds of years
ago. We were going to leave this morning for the Sau Sau passage but we
will stay here today and maybe make an overnight passage north or go tomorrow
morning.
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