As we hang out on Helios on another rainy day, I thought I'd share a few photos we took while exploring Falaga's lagoon.
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Moana-i-Cake is the main village on Fulaga, and its inhabitants quickly adopted us as one of their own. After presenting our sevusevu to the 93 year old chief, we were assigned Tai as a host.
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The clouds lifted enough by Wednesday evening for us to enjoy some final adventures in Falaga. We went for a dive on the reef outside the pass Thursday morning, spotting two-foot spade fish, an eight-foot grey reef shark, a tornado of four-foot barracuda, and a school of snapper 100 deep. It was magnificent, even if we were racing against squalls looming on the horizon.
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We’re going on eleven days in Falaga, and the adventures keep coming, rain or shine. After our initial few days in the village, we moved Helios to an anchorage on the eastern end of the lagoon to be near the pass. From there, we could monitor conditions to go diving. Given the geography of the lagoon, the ebbing current can flow as high as four knots, yielding standing waves and dangerous conditions. Timing our dive with the current was critical.
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Last Thursday, we sailed south from Munia to Fulaga, a remote island in the southeastern corner of Fiji. It was one of my favorite sails yet: 16 knots of wind on our beam, the Milky Way hanging low and swollen in the sky, so many shooting stars they were practically falling on the deck until the moon rose blindingly bright around 0300. The seas were mild, and the movement of the boat felt like the gentle rocking of a cradle as we navigated between dozens of islands and reefs that compose the Lau group of Fiji.
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My parents are raising a glass to 40 years of marriage this July 31. I remember their 30th, when my dad gave my mom a pair of gorgeous sapphire earrings, and she and I went to Zebra's in Berkeley to have a second piercing put in her ears. The woman with the needle against her ear lobe was amazed that a marriage could last so long.
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Dominic and I spent a long afternoon exploring the abandoned village in Munia. There were frangipani trees in blossom, a lonely dog sleeping in a doorway, a single pig in a pen. There was an old Morris Commercial lightweight truck close to being fully reclaimed by the jungle. Dominic examined a rusted-through leaf spring, dropping it on the pile of other parts with a loud clang. The clanging caused an eruption of eerily human baby-like wails from the tree tops above us.
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Last Sunday, Dominic and I cruised from Susui to nearby Munia Island. Recently abandoned, the villagers that lived here sold the island to a Japanese development firm and moved to a nearby island, Avea. They left two people behind, an older couple, to maintain a presence on the island, preventing other villages from claiming it. In the wake of Cyclone Winston, the structures were destroyed and the couple moved to Avea.
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Our other favorite part of Susui: the beach on the far side of the island. The sand was white and soft like sifted flour; sand the likes of which I haven't seen since the last time I dug my toes into a Florida beach; endless sand punctuated by volcanic rocks, impossibly huge trees and collections of driftwood, nautilus and cowry shells, and the occasional rainbow.
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Dominic caught this beauty trolling in the dinghy between Susui and neighboring Munia Island. Not having much luck in the Lau, Dominic did some lure reconfiguration before heading out: heat-shrinking two double hooks together and hiding the new quad hook beneath a skirt of a large orange and pink squid lure.
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We have spent the last five days exploring Susui, a small village just off the southern coast of Vanua Balavu. The fun began with a traditional sevusevu ceremony—we presented the waka root when we first arrived and were invited to drink kava with them the following evening.
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Bavatu Bay is on the eastern edge of Vanua Balavu and the first place in the Lau where we got to do some on-land exploring. Bavatu is a well protected bay with a tiny wharf and fresh water spring, and a steep stair case winding up the hill to a ranch atop the limestone cliffs.
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Popped my head into the cockpit at 0630 earlier this week and found this gorgeous sunrise waiting for me. It made for an excellent start to a spectacular day—after four days in blissfully empty anchorages, we were bound for Susui, a village on a small island of the southern coast of Vanua Balavu. We had an easy afternoon of motoring into nonexistent winds and have spent the last few days exploring the beaches, reefs, and bountiful seafood with other cruisers and the most generous Fijians we’ve met yet.
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Leaving Savusavu, we cruised east along the southern edge of Vanua Levu. Motoring upwind (in an unexpected two meter swell, oy!), we spent one night in Fawn Harbor before arriving at Viani Bay, a common cruiser hangout from which to explore the Somosomo Strait and the neighboring island, Taveuni
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Cruising from the Marquesas to New Zealand last season felt like going back to freshman year of college. You arrive in Nuku Hiva after 23 days at sea, brimming with excitement for new adventures, anchored next to strangers who rapidly become your cherished friends.
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We had a perfect day of sailing as we left Namena reef: 18 knots of wind, flat seas, and an easy, three hour jaunt north toward Savusavu, the second largest town on Vanua Levu, the second largest island in Fiji.
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Went went to Namena for the reef, but we stayed for the birds. Namenalala is home to a rookery for some thousands of boobies that spend their days circling and squawking, preening and roosting.
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Namenalala was our primary destination in the Lomaivitis because the diving in the reef surrounding the islet is famously colorful.
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We spent a week cruising the Lomaiviti Islands as we day-sailed our way between Fiji's two largest islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. The group is small and infrequently visited; there are only a handful of backpacking style hostels slung across the ten or so islands. Our first stop was Naigani. There was a horse-shoe shaped anchorage on the western edge of the island, protected by the land on one side and projecting reefs on the other two.
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Another gem of the Yasawas—the caves at Sawa-i-Lau. One of the northerly islands in the chain, Sawa-i-Lau is unique as a limestone island in a group that is primarily basaltic. The island got its name because the caves within, the island’s primary attraction, are rumored to extend all the way from the Yasawas on the western edge of Fiji to the Lau group on the eastern edge.
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