Getting Ready to Depart Fulanga

We have been having some problems with the sailmail lately and just want to give you a little update, in case we can't reach out to you tomorrow. The weather is beautiful today, but maybe too windy for snorkeling one more time in the pass. I was on Chesapeake, visiting the village most of yesterday, while David did try out his spear-gun with Riada Dave; it was kind of a fiasco, but he learned a lot about his gun so that he left here this morning in the longboat with some local divers and some confidence. It's pretty tricky out here trying to shoot fish so I do hope he has fun today. Tomorrow we will all go to the village for church and lunch, and then we will have a farewell evening with Chesapeake and the Soggy Paws group who are now with us. Our plan is to leave sometime on Monday for the small island of Matuku, which is supposed to have surf and maybe just stay a day or two. Then we will head for Kandavu, which is supposed to be another fabulous adventure of diving, surfing, hiking, and meeting some more wonderful villagers. I am also looking for fresh veggies, which, I have heard, they have. That would be fun!:) Yesterday, Tai, the local host did give me some fresh greens they call cabbage, and I will test them out this evening. That's it for the news and I pray I can send this out to you.

Another Day in Fulanga

We rode over to the village entrance bay with Ricky, on Guava Jelly, and took Worm with us so we could dinghy back. The mosquitoes are huge on the land and they are everywhere! YIKES!! Good thing others had warned us and we covered our bodies with Repel and clothes. The walk into the village was beautiful and took us about 30 minutes. We were welcomed wholeheartedly with the Bula spirit, did our sevusevu with the headman, since the chief is in Suva at a huge meeting of the Lau islands, and then we visited the carving area, the school, the basket/mat weaving area, etc. These people are very productive and are known for their wood carvings, especially the making of the kava bowls out of one piece of wood. Ricky was visiting to learn how to make his own bowl with the head expert, Niko, and it was very cool sitting around watching this labor of love. David helped the mechanics try to fix their generator with very limited tools, so he is now in there again this morning with tools from the boat and hopefully they will realize success. We will visit them again on Friday and do some trading for some carvings and woven goods, along with visiting the classrooms one more time (the students are so cool), and they plan to make us lunch. Again we are amazed by the warmth of the people and we feel so privileged to be here. Tourism has not reached the Lau Group yet, so they are helping us enjoy our time, just because they want to show us what they have. David made a date with Soki to go spear-gun fishing and hunting for lobsters on Saturday, which is when the men catch lots of fish for their Sunday afternoon feast in the village; they all set aside Sundays as their family/community time.  Looks like we will be here for at least this whole week and that is just fine by me. Linda and I are going kayaking in a short while and I hope to snorkel the pass later today. Not too shabby living the dream right now!!!!! Love to all.

Fulanga

LOCATION: S 19 degrees 09.26' W 178  32.48'   What an incredible sail we had from Susui Bay to Fulanga; we left yesterday afternoon at 1:30, motor sailing out the pass at 3:30, with whales breeching in the far distance, both inside the pass and out. There were a whole group of them outside, diving and playing as we left Vanua Balavu with clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Gentle wind and waves greeted us as we headed down to Fulanga Island in the southern Lau group, about 105 NM from the pass. We killed the engine and began a wonderful beam reach down through the scattered islands averaging 6 kts and as the sun set, it felt like we were gliding to our destination. Billions of stars filled the clear skies and as one of us slept easily, the other seemed to thoroughly enjoy just being in the comfort of the warm evening breezes. Sidewinder smiled all through the night and I was delighted to find a sliver of the moon lighting the way when I woke up for my early morning watch at 3. A beautiful sunrise with the island of Fulanga in the distance was a wonderful way to meet the new day and in the distance, we saw our friends on Chesapeake getting ready to go through the pass. Riada and Guava Jelly greeted us on the VHF and we entered the narrow, somewhat shallow, but clear pass at about 10:30. This is the most incredible island we have ever experienced so far. It was surreal slithering through the aqua-blue turquoise water dotted with many little mushroom shaped islands, heading over to where the other boats were anchored, in front of amazing sand beaches ladened with palm trees. The water color is so unbelieveable because of so much sand; it is like one of those calendar covers showing an exotic Pacific Island. WOW. As we dropped anchor in about 15 feet of water, Dave and Carolyn from Riada and Ricky, from Guava Jelly were leaving to go snorkel the pass and we all quickly grabbed our stuff and went along with them. What an amazing dive through the same pass we had just entered! Such clarity and colors and varieties of coral and fish!.......and big fish!!!!!! Saw 6 large reef sharks, along with HUGE groupers, parrot fish, and Wahoo. On the way in, I drifted and swam back to the boat and was lucky enough to find a big turtle who did not see me for the longest time, so I was able to float above him just observing. What a treat! We are both very tired tonight and it is time to stop. All I can say is.....I am sooo glad we have taken the time to explore the Lau further; this is by far the prettiest, most extraordinary place we have found so far in all of our travels. We are so fortunate.  

Setting Sail

We took the long boat over to Lomaloma in the rain and wind yesterday to get last minute supplies; they had no eggs nor any veggies, except onions and potatoes, so I will ration out the last of my cucumbers and bok choy as we go south. Today we woke up to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and very light winds. We are doing a snorkel and picnic on the beach with Jacob and Save (Sabe), who are the two locals from Susui showing us a great time; David and the boys are going to dive for clams and then bake them on the beach with mangrove roots for our lunch. We are still planning on leaving tomorrow for Fulanga (Fulaga), which is about 130 miles south. The s/v Pincoya arrived yesterday after doing lots of dentistry in the southern Lau; they said Fulanga was absolutely beautiful with great snorkeling in the pass, so we look forward to exploring that area.

Engine Woes in Tota Bay

Hi there! The strong winds and heavy rains never came and even though it is over-cast it is lovely here on this little bay. This morning Capt David is trouble-shooting why the engine will not accelerate over 1800 RPM while underload and so far we have discovered nothing. Let's hope by changing the fuel filter, the problem will be solved. It has been a long time since we have had engine issues, thank goodness! Linda and I are going kayak/tide-pooling in a short while and hopefully will be able to walk around the corner to Rueben's estate to check out the veggie situation and maybe catch a short horse ride. Our tentative plan is to leave tomorrow for the southern area of this island to a little separate island called Susui, close to where there is supposed to be surf; we also hope to be able to make our way down to the southern Lau island of Fulagi by mid-next week, given a good weather window.

Suzi (from the same spot)

We are half-way down the eastern side of Vanuabalvu and are surrounded by cliffs, jungle trees and way up high, some pine trees. Here in Little Bay, the water is greenish, due to the mangroves which also grow along the sides. In order to enter this bay, we had to motor through a fairly small cut, between high cliffs and reefs which extend out, not something one should do in poor light. Further in, there is another, more narrow cut through some high walls and then it opens up and extends quite a ways back. The story is that seaplanes landed back there during WWII, trying to protect the Fijians from being taken over by the Japanese. I will find out more info and let you know. We ventured back there in our dinghies and kayaks, but it was a bit shallow to really go all the way back. As I did some stand-up paddling back, against the current and the wind, I truly felt like I was in a different world. It was like a huge lake, surrounded by mangroves and then, as I got closer to the passage back to the boats, I felt like I was somewhere in the Sierra mountains, going up a river valley, surrounded by huge cliffs with pine trees at the top of the jungle canopy. It was splendid and tough going through the most narrow part, fighting the current and wind; such a great workout! There is a beautiful little beach right off of our starboard side, with palm trees and white sand. The care-taker, Ruben, from the estate around the corner, came to greet us and showed us how to shuck the coconuts properly; he also climbed a coconut tree and brought down some sweet green coconuts for the delicious natural juice. We will go visit him on the estate when the weather gets better tomorrow, we hope; he has a horse I am welcomed to ride. YIPPEE !  

Mavana (17°11'S 178°57'W)

We made it down to the pretty village of Mavana with Chesapeake to check in with the chief, yesterday, late morning, and then we were taken to the farm where we were able to get some bok choy; it was great to be able to pick up some fresh veggies! The trip was a bit stressful just because we haven't been here and there are "bommies" (coral heads) everywhere, but our charts are pretty right on and the visibility was pretty good so we did fine. We worked our way back up to a small bay that is well protected, but a bit tricky entering with a small pass between high cliff walls. It is really beautiful here and we look forward to winding our way up the river valley in our kayaks (Linda and Jim have kayaks as well). Rain and wind are supposed to hit us tonight and carry on over the weekend, so we will hunker down here until the weather settles again. The snorkeling is supposed to be beautiful here so we do hope to explore that as well, before moving.