December 1998
Seasons Greetings to Our Family and Friends,
Hard to believe it's time again for our end-of-the-year letter to you. This time we might actually get it in the mail sometime before the end of the year.
This has been our second year of cruising full time aboard - although it's been much different than our first year, it too has been full of adventures and new experiences. While last year we sailed all the way from the Southern Caribbean to New Zealand - more than 10,000 miles; and visiting eight countries – this year we only went as far as Fiji before it was time to return to New Zealand to spend cyclone season - sailing only 3,000 miles. We were very lazy this year, spending a week or two in every anchorage. Our original desire to sail on to New Caledonia and Vanuatu after Fiji faded away...which was OK-just what we needed!
After spending several months last Fall (April & May down here) at a marina in Auckland working nonstop on the boat (installing new radar, fixing hatch leaks, installing new running rigging, etc., etc.) we headed north to the tiny community of Tutukakaka. It has a small, cozy marina where we hung out waiting for a good weather "window" to start the 1100-mile passage to Fiji. As the New Zealand winter approached the weather became increasingly cold and damp, so we were relieved to finally get away in early June. The passage turned out to be a bit bumpy with strong headwinds and rain, but it improved as we approached the tropics and could trade our foul-weather gear for shorts and t-shirts.
Fiji's capital of Suva, while not an especially attractive city, was a goad place to reprovision, with modern supermarkets and low prices, a great 6-plex theater with new US movies for US$2 and delicious curries. But after a few movies and numerous Magnum ice creams for Andy, we were ready to start exploring the clear waters and beautiful beaches on some of Fiji's 300 "outer" islands. After a week or so we headed down to the Great Astrolabe Reef about 40 miles south. This is a huge horseshoe-shaped coral reef enclosing a beautiful lagoon dotted with a dozen or so small islands. Several have one or more typical Fijian villages with 100-200 people living in them, while others are uninhabited. Like most of the islands in eastern Fiji they are generally hilly and covered by vegetation ranging from coconut palms to hardwoods and even a local variety of pine. The villages vary in terms of how much material wealth they have, but all are neat and clean. Occasionally houses are traditional, thatch-roofed, grass-sided burres, but more often they are built of timber or cinderblock. Few villages have electric generators and water is usually supplied from a communal well or cistern. Villagers fish or farm their "plantations," living a more or-less subsistence lifestyle. While they speak Fijian among themselves English is the official language and everyone learns it in school, which is free up until about the 10th grade. So except for some of the older villagers communication was no problem, making it much easier to get to know people.
Our first stop in the Astrolabe was a small village on the island of Dravuni, where we would find the chief's spokesman, with jurisdiction over the neighboring seven islands we wished to visit. With our British friends Gordon and Jackie from Lazy Jack we dinghied ashore to experience our first kava ceremony. Fijians use the roots of the kava plant to mix up a mildly narcotic drink they refer to as "grog "that looks something like dishwater (tastes like it too, according to some). It is the custom when visiting a village to present the chief with about a pound of dried kava roots (purchased at produce markets in Suva or elsewhere) and ask permission to come ashore and to use the adjacent waters and reefs. Sitting cross-legged on grass mats, the bundle of kava is placed on the floor in front of the chief while the villager representing you conveys your respects and asks for permission to visit. Once the chief picks up your offering and makes a little welcoming speech (in Fijian) you are accepted as members of the village and come under the chief's protection. We're not sure what happens if he doesn't pick it up! We've held our breath on a few occasions while the chief scrutinized our kava offering for quality. They aren't shy about letting you know what they think, nor in asking you how much you paid for it in the market since growing kava is a primary source of income for many. An influx of European and American buyers who are marketing kava for relaxing and as a sleeping aid has driven up the price a great deal. Sometimes the chief will have some of the kava pounded and a bowl of grog mixed up then and there, in which case everyone drinks, with accompanying ceremony, until the bowl is empty. We were somewhat apprehensive about doing sevusevu (presenting kava) when we first arrived in Fiji. Many cruisers avoid doing sevusevu, perhaps because of the inconvenience or expense. We were thanked on several occasions by villagers for honoring and respecting their ways by presenting sevusevu and were struck by the importance of this small gesture to these generous people. Presenting sevusevu also helps you overcome any shyness or reticence in dealing with the locals, and always, in our experiences, led to a much fuller appreciation for and understanding of the Fijians.
In Dravuni the chief was represented by George, a tall, good-looking man in his 20s who spoke excellent English. After accepting our kava he informed us - in the peculiar way that Fijians have of issuing an invitation - that we would come to church the next day (Sunday), which would be followed by lunch at this mother's house. Sunday dawned wet and windy as a weather front rolled over us. Andy decided he needed to keep watch on the boat (a good excuse to avoid the downpour) so Jill, Jackie and Gordon set off in a driving rain in the dinghy. Listening to George (choirmaster of Dravuni) and his choir sing was really a treat, as was the meal at his mother's (although we didn't properly appreciate the "special " platter of fish heads and tails they'd saved for us). George became our friend and we were invited to additional meals ashore and grog-drinking sessions during the two weeks we spent at Dravuni. This is also one of the best dive locations in Fiji, and George took us on an excursion to the outer reef in his outboard skiff where Gordon and Andy scuba-dove on a very deep wall while Jill snorkeled around the top of a pinnacle.
This more or less set the pattern for the five months we spent in Fiji. Except for a few visits to Suva or other towns to resupply we sought out the more remote villages on islands in north-eastern Fiji. The Fijians are perhaps the happiest, friendliest people we have ever met (we know, last year we said that about the Cook Islanders!) and we invariably were warmly welcomed. We've shared many meals with various families, sitting cross-legged on straw mats; which is a little hard on our western- framed and aged anatomies. Sometimes we entertained Fijian friends with tea and cookies on First Light. Most Fijians don't drink alcohol but love their lemon leaf tea and infrequent Cokes.
Early in our stay we arranged over the long-distance radio to rendezvous with our friend Frank Robben, also from the San Francisco area, on his boat Kialoa IL We had spent some time in New Zealand with Frank and his Sri Lankan wife Cynthia and their (10-going-on-21-year-old) daughter Maria. We met them along with Cynthia 's grown son Anthony at Bequa, the island famous for it's Fijian fire walkers. We were lucky to see a fire walking ceremony performed at a small resort on the island, along with some local singing and dancing. Stopping back briefly in Suva, we were delighted to see that our good friends Steinar & Birgitta of Maria II had arrived safely from New Zealand. We shared stories over a few meals before they headed west and we, eastwards.
Among the biggest attractions in Fiji (besides the Fijian people) are the clear water, beautiful hard and soft corals, great variety of sea shells and abundance of exotic tropical fish. So naturally we snorkeled at every opportunity, usually daily. Our new aluminum-bottomed dinghy allowed us to make lengthier expeditions; occasionally to the outer reefs. Andy enjoyed several dive trips with dive operators to some of Fiji's famous dive sites, such as the Rainbow Reef in the northeastern part of the country.
We also spent time ashore exploring islands and finding out about how our Fijian friends lived. And, of course, there 's always a lot to do to keep the boat running. But generally we were pretty lazy - lots of sleep, lots of reading, hikes and beach walks hunting for seashells. During one seven-week period we never got further than 40 miles from where we had started. As opposed to last year, a good part of the time we were on our own - we went over a month without sharing an anchorage with another boat.
Northeastern Fiji was lush, dozens of anchorages to explore, the waters clear, people exceptionally friendly and few cruisers - so why go further? Andy even changed his mind about doing the Musket Cove Regatta and race to Vanuatu - too far too soon. We never even got over to western Fiji - the Mamanuccas, the Yasawa Islands... where most of the cruisers go. We lost interest when we learned they were having a terrible drought, and other cruisers reported that the diving/snorkeling wasn't good and the anchorages windy... There were several unanticipated factors contributing to our "slow-down" in Fiji. When you do sevusevu, you don't tend to sail off the next day. Aside from the financial aspect, the Fijians are usually very forthcoming with invitations -- to hike to their plantations, to see their kava crops, to go fishing, diving, have a meal, go to choir practice, see a waterfall, attend a rugby match, watch the aunties weaving mats, etc., etc. Sometimes they also make requests -- can you fix this? deliver a child to school by dingy? take someone to a telephone? When we sailed from island to island it was usually no more than 30 or 40 miles -- easily done in a "day". But a "day" in Fiji means the part of the day where the sun is in the right position for sighting reefs and is very short. It's tricky planning inter-island trips to depart a pass with good light but still arrive at the next pass with good light... While the distances aren't great, sailing in Fiji is quite challenging (read "nerve wracking") due to the coral reefs that are EVERYWHERE! Many of the reefs are just below the surface, hard to see, with bits and pieces miles from the nearest land. Something like 30 boats a year go up on the reefs and we were determined not to be one of them. Sometimes careful is real slow, especially when you have over 8' of keel under you. We scared ourselves a couple of times (relax, Moms) but it served to make us all the more vigilant
In early October we were very happy to be able to rendezvous with our good friends Skip and Ilze aboard Scoots. We had spent a lot of time sailing with them toward the end of last season, and in New Zealand. But they had decided to go back to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands to revisit some places we had been last year, so we hadn't seen them for five months. We kept in touch via the Inmarsat C satellite email system, and eventually by radio, and had a fun reunion in the small, picturesque town of SavuSavu on Vanua Levu. Kialoa II on their way to Hawaii, was also there.
We wanted to show Skip and Ilze some of our favorite spots in Fiji so after several intermediate stops we headed for the island of Ngau (pronounced now). One of the advantages of travelling with these two is that they're enthusiastic fishermen. Going in one pass they hooked two Wahoe simultaneously, and in another lagoon Skip speared a very large crayfish. Being fishing illiterates ourselves, we enjoyed the fresh seafood - thanks Scoots.
Ngau is a large, mountainous island that's somewhat off the beaten path, so relatively few boats call there. On our first visit we had made some good friends among the villagers and children of Somosomo and when we unexpectedly returned with Scoots they welcomed us back like longtime members of the village. We had also become friendly with Americans Kevin and his wife Therese, a world-class harpist, and their two young children, who, along with their friend Mike and with help from the villagers are building a small resort close to Somosomo, the first for this island. They joined us; first on Lazy Jack and later on Scoots, when we, along with several local adults and children, piled aboard and went for a diving/snorkeling expedition to the southern pass. Andy had a great drift dive, with unbelievable numbers of large fish, including white-tip and black-tip sharks, and while Jill enjoyed snorkeling in the very clear (visibility 200 feet) water, she didn't care much for the sharks lurking about. Back in our anchorage in Somosomo Bay we got a kick out of the giant manta ray's that live there -- Andy insisted on jumping out of the dinghy to snorkel with them briefly, but they were shy and left. The night before we left Ngau there was a big grog-drinking session in the community hall. We were treated to the villagers singing a lot of their local Fijian songs (usually most of the music we heard was religious), accompanied by much hilarity. The women presented each of us with beautiful flower leis, and we departed amid many warm farewells for a finial dinner at Joe and Tete's house. When we left Ngau for the 50-mile sail to Suva First Light had aboard our Somosomo host Tete and her 2-year-old daughter Karin. We were struck temporarily speechless but soon recovered as 3' bundles of taro root, numerous boxes, burlap sacks of coconuts and a bucket of shellfish (innards) and other produce destined for their relatives in Suva was loaded on board. Jill, Tete and Karin slept peacefully while Andy, despite the load outran Scoots with their share of passengers and agricultural cargo. (Andy and Skip have a little friendly rivalry going, keeps them both on their toes). We hung around Suva for a week doing last minute provisioning for the passage to New Zealand. We also took part in the Sunday "rum race" at the Royal Suva Yacht Club -- good fun. First Light easily took line honors but two of the smaller local boats corrected out on us by a few seconds under the rather mysterious handicapping system they use. Actually, we were happy just to finish without any damage before our passage. After clearing out with officials in Suva we sailed back to the Great Astrolabe Reef for some last snorkeling while we waited for the right weather for our passage.
The passage started out great with a lovely spinnaker reach, but soon the wind came around until it was right on the nose and we had to sail close-hauled with the boat sharply heeled. After several days a low-pressure system unexpectedly developed and the trip quickly degenerated into the worst passage we have yet experienced. Winds rose to the 40-knot range and the seas built to over 20-feet with breaking crests. It was quite a rough ride and with tons of water cascading over the decks we soon discovered old leaks; new leaks... Fortunately First Light stood up well to the pounding and since she sails well close to the wind we only had to make one short tack in order to get to our destination at Opua in New Zealand's Bay of Islands. It was a huge relief to pull into this safe refuge after 8-1/2 days. While we had ripped our mainsail and our jib, had a wave take out our spray dodger, and it's taken us several weeks to dry the boat out and put everything back in order, we were basically intact. Sadly, the same was not true for other boats caught in the same storm conditions.
British cruisers Roger and Anita, who we had become friendly with in Suva, had a very bad passage aboard their boat Woody Goose and wound up going aground in a remote bay in New Zealand, pounded by giant surf. Tragically, Anita was swept overboard and drowned. Roger was able to swim ashore. We were deeply saddened and quite shaken by this news.
As we write this letter we are back in Tutukaka, where we started from last June. Along with Scoots we are working our way down the beautiful east coast of New Zealand's North Island probably stopping somewhere neat, like Great Barrier Island (50 m. offshore) for Andy's birthday and Christmas. We will base First Light a marina in Tauranga, about a two-hour drive south of Auckland. There we will tackle our "to-do" list (the one we completed last year). We also plan to leave the boat there for three weeks while we tour the South Island by car, and again when we return to the U.S. for a visit in late February or early March.
We 're still not 100% sure of our plans for next cruising season, starting in May 1999. Then again, it probably doesn't really matter since we're learning plans change! But we will probably visit New Caledonia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands and wind up in Australia for the next cyclone season, Nov '99-Apr 2000. (Geez, that "2000" sounds and looks really weird!)
We hope you have been having a lovely holiday season and that the New Year will be very good to you. It's always a treat for us to get mail from friends and family, so please drop us a line when you can at address below.
Andy and Jill
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