In Port Denarau

Hello,

I finally put some pictures up on the blog as we are in Nandi now and have good internet. This is the first time in two months so we are pretty excited. We have had some parts flown in from France which arrived and we have now fixed our grey water pump. Also our am/fm/CD player is being repaired in Nandi and is ready for pick up today. They had to re solder the mother board!! If we were home it would have been a throw away for sure.

It is really strange being back in civilization. Lots of noise and restaurants and bars and we are thinking why do all these people enjoy this so much. Maybe we have gone a bit to native! We are going to go over to Suva on Saturday and come back on Sunday so will actually sleep onshore for a night and that hasn't happened for many months. We are going over there, which is a four hour bus ride each way, to see our friend Peter, who crashed his boat on the reef into Suva and spent two weeks getting it off. It sounds like it will take him a year or so to get it fixed and he had no insurance! He is a writer who has just signed his first publishing contract. I guess writers need to go through as many tough times as possible to have the material to use in their craft. We will let you know when the book comes out. I imagine it will be first an e-book but don't know at this point.

We will be here until Monday when we go to Musket Cove for the week and then will check out of Fiji and sail off to Vanuatu which is six hundred miles to the west. We do not know what will await us there but we do know it has a lot of malaria so have all the drugs to take to keep us healthy. The last bug bite I got has taken three weeks and two bouts of antibiotics to get under control so I am going to be very careful when in Vanuatu.

We hear summer has finally arrived on the west coast so hope you are all enjoying the warm days.

Fiji July 29th

pictures of Fiji

Big feast at Kia island

at anchor in Kia

our hike up to the top of Kia to see the cannon

View of the reefs from on top of Kia

going to church on a Sunday morning

A normal market scene

Marian trying to get an internet connection!!

House on Rambi island

outrigger with a tarp for a sail

internetting under a palm tree!!

Another beautiful sunset. Yes we are spoiled!

Marian and Pam playing

up a creek for a swim in fresh water

dinner being prepared

cooking in the ground

A bamboo raft that the Fijians use to get out to the reefs which are miles offshore

Kilkea anchored in Savusavu

Vanua Levu

July 13th

Yes we are still alive and well. We
have gone rather native here in Fiji on the island of Vanua Levu with us being
out of touch for weeks at a time. Rather nice to not know what is going on in
the world.

We spent a week in most places we have
been rather than running around sailing every day. A week in Viani bay with 8
other yachts. We went out on a power boat, a Nord Haven 62, with about 15
onboard to the reef which is about 4 miles from the anchorage to do some diving
and snorkelling. Beautiful corals and lots of fish. The village in the bay has
about five buildings and the school which kids(45) arrive to in the morning via
boat. They had a Lovo which is a dinner that is all cooked in the ground for us
yachties. Usually these sorts of things which are fairly common in the south
pacific islands are fun but the food is bad. Fortunately this one was the
exception with the food wonderful.

Next we moved to the north end of
Taveuni Island where we had a big celebration on one of the catamarans who were
celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. It is amazing how many people cat
can accomodate. I think we had 16 or more onboard. You couldn`t do that on any
of the monohulls. The next day 11 of us loaded the local bus to go around the
east side of the island. Well the road which was paved ran out after a mile
then turned into a track full of potholes and whatever for about 25 miles until
mercifully it came to an end. Actually the views on the road were beautiful as
we were along the shoreline most all the way. We did go by some small villages
which were clean and tidy and everyone waves and smiles and calls bula to you.
The bus is a 1930`s machine with open windows that have a tarp to pull down in
case of rain. When it rains here it really rains and if inside one of these
things it is really hot. At the end of the road we went for a walk which was an
hour and forty five minute each way. It was mostly along the shoreline with
bananas, lemons, papaya etc all along the way. Towards the end we turned up a
canyon following a river up to a pool of clean fresh water. We swam up through
two pools and into a caldron with two waterfalls. It was wonderful to just
soak! At least we got some of the salt out of us. When we got back to the end
of the road where there was a village we had arranged to have a couple of vans
pick us up for the return journey. Well the old bus was bumpy but the vans with
no suspension were a lot worse. After that trip back eight of headed to a bar
reasturant, sort of for beers and something to eat. I think we drank them out
of beer!! Did I ever mention that yachties drink a lot of beer.

So after six or seven days, that is
always hard to keep track of, we set off for Rambi island. This island was
given to the Banaban people of Ocean island in the Gilberts around 1945 as
their island was mined for phosphates to the point where they dug everything up
and the sea invaded, sinking there island. Great planning eh!! Anyway Fiji gave
them this island and another for their use and ownership. Today the people here
are Gilbertese and they still use their language on a day to day basis as well
as some English. They are smaller people than the Fijians and a lot shyer. We
were anchored in Albert cove which is picture perfect and could grace any
yachting magazine. We stayed here for about 10 days as the weather kept us
there, which was fine for us as in the bay all was well with happy hours on one
of the six boats each night and more beer! I did say it is hot down here.

Finally we all left Albert cove, three
of us going around to the north side of the island and the other three heading
back around the south. As chance would have it all of us going north were
Canadian boats from Vancouver and Victoria. We had a good sail, the first in a
long time, and arrived through a pass in a reef to a very low lying island
which we got some shelter from the 20k wind that was blowing. Around here you
need to have good light to navigate the reefs which go out seven miles
offshore. The charts are marginal at best so you need to be looking out
carefully. The next morning two of us went outside of the reef and then
re-entere where we had better charting and worked our way past Labasa, the main
town on Vanua Levu, to a small resort of Palmlea. Once inside the passage we
found we could connect to the internet sort of. So for about two hours Marian
fumed about the connections coming and going. Anytime we get an attachment our
mail bogs down and then fails and we have to start the whole procedure again only
to have it happen again.I know how sorry you feel for us!

Palmlea resort was great as the owners
Joe and Julie had been cruisers and know what we need. Beer!! Yes we were
running dangerously low. The resort has just six bures and will accommodate
only twelve people and it is lovely. We ran a tab and had some dinners and
lunches with them. They took us to town, about a half hour drive, three times
to do shopping and for John and I a trip to the dentist. The doctor was an
Indian Fijian and very good I think. At least the cost of repairs was
inexpensive. At Palmlea they have a lap pool that the girls enjoyed and on July
1st they did us proud with a big Canada Day dinner party joined by two other
Australian couples and a good time was had by all. An interesting story about
one of the couples Bernie and Evelyn on a boat called Australia 31. When we
were in Tahiti last year around this time we heard Bernie put out a may day
call on route to Raiatea as Evelyn had passed out. The long and short of it she
was medivaced to Tahiti where it was discovered she had a stroke. It appeared
she had had it. What happened was Bernie had her medivaced to Australia where
he was told she would not make it and that the doctors wanted to pull the plug.
So he and his two daughters decided to do that but when they went in to tell
the doctors they were told that she was responding. Fast forward to Fiji a year
later and here we are having Canada dinner with them. Amazing and did I mention
that she has cancer and he is doing her chemo onboard their boat. I think that
they are a little crazy as we would stay home but it what she wants and they
plan to sail the boat to Australia this fall.

After a week at Palmlea we went out to
Kia Island which is only about 10 miles away and out on the edge of the reef.
Now this is like going back a hundred years. There are four hundred people
living on this island with three villages. When you arrive you have to do what
is called sevusevu where you present yourselves to the chief and give him a
gift which is kava. The women do most all the work in Fiji and the man drink
kava all the time. Just like us but we like beer better and our women seem to
like it as well so that puts us one step ahead of them. Just kidding. We are
just the two Canadian boats here and Marian and Pam went to Sunday church
services at one of the villages. They ended up sitting and standing for a
couple of hours, no chairs, and got an invitation for lunch for all of us at
the third village on the island. It was a big affair with at least 30 sitting
cross legged on a matting with plates in front of us with a huge layout of
food. As you would expect lots of fish and plantain, cassava, curried pork and
greens. All very good but after an hour sitting cross legged our back were
giving out. Pam was laid up for two days after this. This was an unusual feast
as it was in remembrance of one of their villagers who was lost while fishing.
They found the boat and nothing else. So it was their way of celebrating one`s
life.

When we arrive at any of these
outlying villages we find we are surrounded by the children which is a lot of
fun and then the head man will ask us if we can help them do something. These
people seem to know nothing of anything mechanical or electrical but somehow
will have a big screen tv but no electricity to run it let alone a station.
John on Passages is great with this stuff and fixed a starter motor on a
fishing boat, with no radio or safety gear onboard which was towed here by
another yacht as they we drifting for the Solomon island a few thousand miles
away. Next we tried to fix a water tank that had a foot long break in it. We
left before we knew if our patch work would hold but hopefully it will. The
next thing that happened was one guy asked if we could fix his portable generator
a little Yamaha. The problem was the fuel had dirt in it and needed to be
cleaned but as soon as others saw us helping with this one two other generator
showed up that did not work. All of these generators are new but no one here
knows how an engine works or how to fix it or anything electrical. They also
have no money so cannot pay to have them fixed so when a yacht arrives it is a
big day for them as they know we can fix some things and have spare parts. It
keeps us busy but it does at times get too much.

Onward to the Yasawas which are an
island group on the north west side of Viti Levu. This was an overnight passage
of 100 miles for us as we needed to be here with good light to anchor. The
passage was fine but was blowing hard when we arrived. The day before we left
Kia Marian and I with the village head man hiked up to the top of the island
where there is an 1800 something cannon! This climb was on no trail so we were
bushwacking and most of the time on all fours climbing mostly straight up. I
think I said it is hot here but now this is really hot. The view from the top
was fantastic with all the reefs going from horizon to horizon. When we ever
get online with a good connection I promise I will add a bunch of photos. The
way down was not much better with Marian going down backwards most all the way.
On this hike I got a bug bite that by the time we got here my foot was getting
rather swollen so now am on some strong antibiotics and told to sit with my leg
up with no swimming and worst of all no BEER. Oh well a few days will probably
be good for me.

I will try to do better with the blog
but no promises.