No yachts for nine days!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Tue 31 Aug 2010 22:13
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Wednesday September 1st 0828 Local 2028 UTC (August
31st)
16:50.85S 177:28.03E
Well it's hard to believe it is September! Our
original plan would have had us in Australia by now but we have enjoyed the
Pacific Islands more than anywhere else we have ever visited so we are
pushing to the limit the time we can spend here.
The most important thing that dictates our program,
is of course the cyclone season. This starts early November and conventional
wisdom says we should be out of the area by then. The problem is "the area" is
all the way to the north of Darwin in Australia and that would mean we would
have had to rush completely through Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu (in fact the whole
pacific) as well as Australia. Now, Australia may be easy to visit again, but
these other islands, one may never ever get another opportunity to see. So the
solution was to speak to our insurers and try to organise an acceptable
risk management plan to sail through the start of the cyclone season and not to
leave Darwin till mid January. They have been understanding and will work with
us to try to accomodate our plan.
And so it is that we have managed to extend our
time in the Pacific, but we will pay for it later, hopefully not with any
cyclones, but probably with unfavourable winds up the East coast of
Australia.
In Fiji we have had an amazing time and our
sojourn to the north of Vanua Levu was a memorable adventure. Though the
navigation was challenging, we often found marks on the end of coral reefs where
they should be. When visibility was poor we picked them up with the radar.
However I shall not do any self congratulations until we are well and truly
under way on our passage to Vanuatu - and outside the Great Sea Reef!
We have now not seen another yacht - near or far -
for nine days! That demonstrates how far off the beaten track we have been and
this in Fiji, which is full of cruising yachts. Daily we have been trolling
a line or spear fishing and catching fish every day. When visiting villages
we are almost always given fruit or vegtables and we return gifts too. We have
had papaya, banana, plantain, coconut, aubergine, limes, yams, chillies and so
on. Our diet therefor has been fish, pan fried, in the oven or in a curry
together with ingredients from the fruit and vegtables we have had. Papaya
with coconut in a curry goes well, boiled and fried plantain is delicious, dry
fried aubergine accompanies any dish. Lime juice, with
chillies, onions, peppers and soft coconut meat has been used
regularly to make a ceviche / sushi. This can be caught in the morning, gutted,
filleted, sliced and diced on the spot, and eaten for lunch. It keeps
well for a few days in the fridge. Were it not for the sundowners I would say we
have a healthy diet. But hey - man can't live on bread alone! Our
favourite fish is Mahi Mahi, but all of the Tuna/Mackrel/ Bonito family are
excellent, Trevailli is delicious too and Red Snapper make a great lunch or
dinner fried whole. Parrot fish goes well in my coconut curries. We
also caught a very strong Baracuda the other day but I decided to throw
it back, as it could be saved and often in areas they are not eaten. Anyway
to be honest the damn thing was so dangerous I was glad to get it
overboard!
In Fiji we have also found, like anywhere else you
go, that the further off the beaten track you go the more "authentic" your
experience. Meeting the Banaban people in Rabi was humbling and our experience
with the chief and his family in Kavewa was a real insight into the traditional
Fijian village way of life. Visitors in Fiji are encouraged to bring traditional
Sevusevu (dried Kava root) when visiting a village. We have found that
the traditional ritual acceptance of this varies significantly from place to
place. In Kavewa, where we were way off the beaten track, the Sevusevu
ceremony was very ritualised with a lot of the village men gathered
round the chief, his son , Trish and I on the pandannis mat. All chanted and
ceremoniously clapped along with the chief who then ground our sevusevu and made
kava from it right there and then, in a very grand kava bowl. We were seved
and drank the kava all together in a most formal way. They told us we were only
the second yacht ever to stop at their village. On the other hand we are now in
the Yasawas, in a location where they get a lot of boats, due to the caves they
have here, the sevusevu though expected was carried out very
unceremoniously. In the north end of Yasawa island, again where they seem to
have fewer visitors there seemed to be more sincerity to the
ceremony.
We entered the Yasawas from the south of Yandua
round the north of the group and are working our way down the islands to Musket
Cove where we will relax for a few days and pick up some forwarded mail.
The whole area is strewn with coral and is poorly charted, so while we have
enjoyed Fiji it will be nice to visit areas where we have
more reliable charts for. Time and again we see reefs, bommies and
even islands that are not on the chart but are physically there and vice
versa!
We have had torrential rain for the last
couple of days, which we know all the villages are happy with, but we would
like the skies to clear up, so we can navigate if nothing else.
Today I have attached a photo of a woman we met on
our church visit at Nukubati. She is 96 and still going strong - that is
probably because it is water in the bottle on the floor beside her - not
Gin!
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