From Vanua Levu to Viti Levu
Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Fri 22 Jun 2012 21:57
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17:24.4S 177:45.2E
For the past couple of days we have been working
our way westward between the Fijian islands of Vanua Levu and Viti
Levu. Viti Levu is the main island with the capital Suva on the south
side. We are taking the northern route around Viti Levu because it has
good breezes, but calm seas and many anchorages so we can do the passage as a
series of short hops each day. Curly's chartlets give us the waypoints we
need to navigate safely through the reefs, which is fine provided you enter the
waypoints correctly. And when you enter them incorrectly then there is
always Serendipity to call up on the VHF and ask why you are deviating from
the plotted route and heading directly towards a rock.
On our way down to Viti Levu we stopped at the
islands of Makogai and Naigani.. Makogai is the site of a research station
where they breed giant clams and turtles for reintroduction. In the past
they developed a special breed of tropical sheep and shipped out breeding
pairs to all the farmers on the islands. These sheep were worth tens of
thousands of dollars, but allegedly the village chiefs have enough
influence that few farmers actually got their breeding pairs and 95% of the
sheep were eaten by the chiefs families.
Naigoni is a small island with a small holiday
resort on it. The resort was on the other side of the island from the
anchorage, but Bertie, Estella, Daniel and I were determined to find a Pina
Colada so we walked around the rocky shore to the resort, only to find the bar
was closed. We then cut across the island as a simpler way to get
back to the anchorage, but got a bit held up in the jungle and then delayed
by the increasingly rocky shoreline. The final headland was
impassable by land and so I had to swim around it and hail the nearest boat
(Serendipity again) to come and pick us up. We got back just before dark
but Andrea was not impressed.
The night before last we did find the very
nice Wananavu beach resort for dinner. They were very welcoming of
yachts and on the day we arrived they had a traditional feast with Fijian
dancing. The hotel is in a beautiful setting, with good
value food. A good stopping place for any passing yachts. The
only problem was that, despite the anchorage being well sheltered, there were
still gusts up to 35 knots in the bay and Anastasia started dragging her
anchor. Fortunately it was an offshore wind, and the downwind
reef was half a mile away, so we had time to get back in the dinghy and
re-anchor her before she hit anything. Another yacht, Working on a Dream,
had their dinghy tied to the boat but it was flipped over by a gust, and
they had to spend three hours stripping and flushing the outboard with
fresh water before the salt water destroyed it.
The winds abated slightly overnight and we had
an excellent sail yesterday along the northern coast of Viti Levu.
The hills on this side of Viti Levu are covered with greeny brown grass and
scattered trees rather than jungle, so it looks a bit more like Scotland than
the tropics, until you look carefully at the shoreline and see the mangroves
growing there.
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