FIJI

We left Tonga and didn’t really feel the true wind for about 40nm. Once well clear of the Tongan landmass, the wind became less variable and a steady 20-25kn. As it was a downwind sail, we had a couple of days of good, fast sailing covering around 150nm each day. There are many unchartered reefs in the Pacific between Tonga and Fiji and we had marked these on our charts but it still is a nasty feeling to know that there are hidden reefs out there. 

If you are heading for the Northern main island of Vanua Levi, Savusavu, There is always a hurdle to get through and that is of course sailing through the middle of the Lau group of islands stretching North to South. We travelled directly through the group via the Lakeba pass approximately 15nm wide. We arrived here early morning and were only really clear of the group that night. Of note is that is illegal to stop or visit any of the Lau group islands before you have cleared in through customs at Savusavu and received your cruising permit. This means that many people never visit these beautiful and remote islands as they keep heading West.

Heading through the group we lost our wind and entered an almost magical calm, misty world. Visibility was reduced and a light drizzle started to fall. It was almost as if we were stuck in a huge cloud. Sara woke me up after a few hours and said I had to see something, I went up on deck and she explained that a school of tuna were travelling with us, they had lead the way jumping out of the water and encircling Brahminy for hours and sure enough there they were, big yellowfin swimming directly in front of us, what a sight! Huge flocks of sea birds started diving all around us and then up ahead we saw possibly the biggest flock of birds I have ever seen on the ocean. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them diving and circling an immense school of Tuna and baitfish…Greater Frigates, Brown and Abbots Boobies, Gannets, shearwaters, storm petrels, Red tailed Tropic birds, Turns and more all joining in on the feast. It was an incredible sight in the glassy waters erupting with the sounds of the birds crying and diving, and great Tuna jumping and thrashing.

We arrived into Savusavu with driving rain and strong winds as the storm intensified. It was a lovely relief to safely tie up to a mooring at the Copra Shed Marina and have a good sleep. The Copra Shed were great and organized all of our customs and quarantine clearance formalities. My mum and stepfather Roger had arrived and were waiting for us. We had a lovely week with them although there were strong wind warnings across the North of Fiji, so the weather wasn’t great while they were on board. We met local legend salty seadog ‘Curly’ a New Zealander who has lived in Fiji for 40 years and gives advice, seminars and charts to visiting Yachties.  For up to date weather for Fiji see Curly’s blog here: http://curlycarswell.blogspot.com.au/  We also bought one of Curly’s ‘guaranteed’ lures so we shall see!

CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP…That is what we thought of Fiji for supplies after battling through French Polynesia, the Cooks, Niue and Tonga. It was a relief to have some more realistic prices and the cheap Indian food…wow! If you’re in Savusavu, a must for lunch is Muma’s Kitchen on the main street, simply delicious traditional Indian cuisine for a few dollars. The Indian influence in Fiji is huge, bright colours, loud pumping bollywood music clips in every shop front and pimped up Toyota Crown Taxis plying the streets. Savusavu is a good cyclone hole and many yachties leave their yachts here for the cyclone season. When we enquired it was about $300 AUD a month at Waitui Marina and $350 AUD a month at the Copra Shed. Waitui use Helix style moorings while Copra Shed use engine blocks and heavy steel or concrete blocks on the bottom. If you decide to do this I would strongly recommend using Colin from KoroSun Dive to check the mooring and attach a Safety line. If you don’t have a spare line onboard, Get the poly 3 strand line from a local hardware and the shackles from the Yachtshop. If you are interested in diving the area, KoroSun Dive is the go, Colin is a great guy and the gear and local knowledge is second to none. http://www.korosundive.com/

We cruised the Northern islands whilst waiting for much needed parts for our autopilot and outboard engine. After a few weeks we headed for Viti Levu choosing the inside reef passage and thanks to Curly’s charts and waypoints had an easy voyage. We did drag anchor one night as a gale force storm hit us and before we could react fast enough we had already dragged .03 of a nautical mile! Thank god for anchor alarms!! A highlight was having a large pod of Pilot Whales come right past us with many calves. We arrived in the big smoke of Lautoka and then Port Denarau Marina near Nadi. You can anchor out the front of Port Denarau in good holding ground however it is exposed to the west and North. We didn’t have enough time to explore the Yasawa Group properly but what we did see we loved although it was definitely very toursity and getting developed wherever you looked.

We cleared out at Lautoka which was painless and quick and provisioned at the local market which was huge and plentiful, thanks for a great stay Fiji! 

Yellowfin!

Mum, loving Brahminy

Roger, on board and enjoying the sailing!

Our first Sevusevu presenting the chief with Kava

Sara's new friends in a local village

How good is this taxi!

Mamas Kitchen, a must if you are in Savusavu

The old Jail at an now abandoned local Leprosarium

WAHOO!

Wild and wooly wet weather

Our mates in Tonga and Fiji, the awesome kids from Javelo!

Time to get cosy in the wet weather!

VAVA'U ISLAND GROUP TONGA - 18.41.60S 174.01.60W

We arrived into the islands of Vava’u from Nuie after 3 days sailing through seas of 2-3 meters and winds of 20–30kn. We sailed in close proximity to two other yachts Apropos and Panthera, both whom we had met in Nuie. 

Without the luxury of a SSB radio on Brahminy, this was the first time we could make ‘sched calls’ as we were within range for the VHF. We looked forward to our 1800 sched calls each evening and all discussed one topic  at length…you guessed it the weather! At one point, Panthera claimed to be in winds gusting to 35kn barely 5nm in front of us while we were seeing 12-14kn on our wind instruments. Sara and I looked at each other and giggled deciding that their wind meter was off kilter and needed repair. But then Apropos only 3 miles to our starboard chimed into the conversation and stated that they were in winds of steady 25kn! We were still reading 12kn! Then came the slow realization that it was our wind reader that was way off. Right across the pacific covering thousands of nautical miles at sea we have marveled at how lucky we had been, hearing tales of viscous winds wipping up to 30 and 40kn on the same passages as us while we have seen maximum winds of 20-24kn. We now realize thanks to travelling with these other yachts that our wind instruments need calibrating and generally only in strong winds are at about 8-10kn lower than what the actual wind speeds are…!!! We generally read the wind with our own eyes but the wind instruments help to keep it real and mean less guesswork. Well Im sure we have remained calmer thinking we are in less wind than we actually are, so probably a good thing! 

We saw Humpback whales breaching several times on our crossing changing our course a couple of times to avoid them and a mystrerious large whale feeding with tuna and birds on bait fish…

We arrived just before dawn in the Northern group of Tongan islands known as the Vava’u group as 35kn fierce winds (20kn on our wind instruments) tried to batter us back out to sea again. We travelled at about 3kn directly on the nose trying to make headway. It was about this time the fishing rod went off like a freight train. This caused mega stress as it normally does especially as Sara was fast asleep and tried to wake up and get her head around where we were going and take the wheel as I struggled to get the leviathan from the deeps on board. It didn’t help matters that a Swedish boat that shall not be named was right on our ass and had been for at least half an hour. I finally hauled a beautiful 20kg Yellow Fin Tuna on board, had pleasant words to the Swedes on the VHF and we proceeded into one of the most protected harbours I have seen in the entire Pacific, Port of Refuge (Puatalefusi or Lolo-ʻa-Halaevalu).

Vavaʻu is the island group of one large island (’Utu Vava’u) and 40 smaller ones in Tonga. It is part of Vava’u District. According to tradition the Maui god fished up Vavaʻu from the bottom of the ocean with his magic hook. Vavaʻu rises 204 m above sea level at Mt. Talau. The capital is Neiafu, which is the fifth largest city in Tonga.

I was absolutely delighted that my daughter Miica arrived with Ben the following day and we explored the wondrous and diverse islands of the archipelago. A highlight was swimming with the Humpback whales which was absolutely epic. We went with a local operator (there are massive fines if you try to do it yourself) and spent at least half an hour in the water with a mum and calf and several other whales which slowly moved away as we got too close. 

There is a great community feel in Vava’u with the close knit group of yachties especially the ones who arrived 20 or so years ago an never left. The radio net at 0800 is great and the VHF repeater stations around the islands make it easy for communication with friends on other yachts or organizing things like tours or the famous Tongan Feast. We reckon we will definitely be back to Tonga!

Sara Relaxing with a book...

Friends from Panthera and Apropos on Brahminy for Yellow Fin Tuna Sashimi!

Miica up the mast!

A lovely BBQ on the beach on a deserted island...heaven

BBQ Chicken Sara and Miica style with Brahminy in the background...

Mum & Calf!

Go Whale Girl Miica!

Mariners Cave was Awesome! You have to swim under the water for about 3 meters to get in. The most amazing thing is that as the swell comes in the pressure builds in the cave and everything goes foggy and almost steamy, its truly a bizare experience, See next photo!

As the swell rolls in, the cave became pressurised and foggy...Amazing!

Swimming out from Mariners Cave

NUIE - 'The Rock of Polynesia' - 19.0500°S, 169.9000°W

Niue – The Rock of Polynesia

Our passage from Palmeston to Nuie was short but the seas were pretty lively. We sailed on a double reefed main and the jib wing on wing when we could. The swell came in from the southeast and had no regularity. Every now and then a larger leader of the pack came rolling through. Unless it caught us at the wrong angle and broadsided us, the swell would nicely pick us up a little higher and roll on underneath but 3 or 4 times on the passage, the wave would tilt up face on with, creased dark blue and roll right at us sometimes breaking white horses from the crest.  When we are faced with a decent size swell bearing down on us the angle needs to be right in a cat. Too much of a following sea sends you surfing down a wave at furious speeds and being broadsided is not a good option. The Aft quarter seems to work well for the Lagoon in large swells coming in at 45 degrees.

Nuie appeared a black low lump on the horizon in the darkness in the very early hours of the morning. There were no lights along the whole eastern side of the island.  Before it was light enough to see the waves, I could rehear the waves pounding against the coast. As dawn came the lush green colours were a feast for my eyes and I again was transported to another time. Sailing into countries is so rare these days, and yet it was this way for thousands of years where the only way to see another land was by taking a journey by sea, which invariably would take days, weeks or months and was wrought by many risks and challengers. Maybe ive been at sea for too long but I can almost feel a connection to an age past, to my ancestors and ancient peoples who sailed the oceans. The east coast of Nuie was just like this appearing out of the vast depths of the Pacific ocean rising up out of 4000 metre depths with no buildings, lights or any man made stuff to be seen just like when Cook, Bligh and the early Polynesians would have seen this land.

We heard rumors from the local Nuiean people that the teenage boys would have to stand as lookouts during the night in order to become men. They would have to scan the water for approaching Tongan warriors who would sometimes make the 240NM crossing on a war raid. It was said that in the days of old they would come and kill the men and take many women with them.

This island literally blew us away, we were not expecting anything as beautiful, dramatic or interesting. We arrived on a Sunday and of course had to wait until Monday before we could be cleared by Customs, Health and Immigration. One major thing that we have learned across the Pacific is that nothing happens on a Sunday except church and family time. We were please to find excellent moorings and jumped over the side  for a swim the reef. The visibility was incredible at least 50 metres and we saw a white tip sharks, sting rays and huge amounts of Parrot fish feeding on the coral.

We soon met Keith, the commodore of the Niue Yacht Club, an absolutely lovely chap who couldn’t be more helpful. The Nuie Yacht club’s claim to fame is that the Commodore and all the committee members have never sailed and don’t own a yacht…Hilarious. The are no dingy docks on Niue and the surf pounds the coast so forcefully that the only way you can get ashore is to use the electric crane to raise your dingy onto dry land. This is a sometimes scary procedure when the swell is big. You need to construct a 3 point lift on the dingy for the shackle and come in alongside, get everyone off the boat, attaché the shackle and get someone to hit the raise button on the dock. Then the yacht club has provided a dingy trolley so you can park your dingy in a out of the way spot.

Keith asked me to dive on the moorings and we checked all 17 of them as we were early in the season and the bulk of yachts were yet to come. It was a fun exercise and Keith made Sara and I honorary members of the Nuie Yacht club in exchange…happy days.

We explored Nuie for a couple of weeks and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The caves dotted around the island were incredible as was the abundant fresh water cascading around the place and the dramatic landscapes. At night we were woken by Humpback whales blowing right next to the boat and at times breaching next to us rolling Brahminy side to side. Luckily during our stay the wind didn’t swing west and threaten us with the reef and we were able to stay and enjoy one of the smallest self governing nations in the world.

Coming into Nuie in the morning