Fahiti ho!

She walked up to me and she asked me to dance I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola L-O-L-A, Lola La-la-la-la Lola Anybody remember the Kinks?  British Invasion rock era?  Yah, didn't think so. However, this Lola has the potential to be a problem for Dave.  She's a Cat 2 tropical cyclone headed this way.  And strengthening.  Will I fly out before she hits Fiji?  Time will tell... See the little '1012' In the middle of the map?  That's us.   See that ugly set of concentric circles?  That's Lola. Update: Current forecast models show Lola veering toward Vanuatu.  She is not expected to hit Fiji.  On the one hand this is good news.  On the other, it means I've been stood up yet again by a woman.  Of course, the Lola in the song was a man, so there's that...

Stardate October 20, 2023 Job one is to get a haircut for the wedding.  I know a guy...  My barber is Wahid Khan and he is a master.  He is the manager at Shazia's Unikk Barber Shop in Lautoka.  He has cut my hair twice now and I swear these have been the best haircuts I have ever had.  Real old-fashioned, with straight razor trims and a splash of astringent cologne at the end.  He charges $15 FJD.  That's $7.50 USD.  Unbelievable. So I want into Lautoka this morning with the intention of getting my hair cut.  Turns out I missed the bus at Vuda.  Don't know how - I was early.  I guess so was the bus.  There was a guy siting there who told me that the bus had gone.  About this time his ride showed up.  I asked him if he minded sharing the taxi into Lautoka.  He laughed and said it was his friend but he would ask.  The friend said sure and I hopped in the back seat.  About the half-way point, the friend suddenly remembered he had to go to Nadi - the opposite direction.  So th

Stardate Wednesday, October 18, 2023 Well, that was easy.  Didn't start out that way.  Tried to reach Vuda Marina by phone - no answer.  Email? No response.  VHF?  Out of range.  Crap - all I wanted to know was whether or not I could come in early. So I suggested to Nick that we dinghy over to shore in Saweni Bay and walk to Vuda.  He thought that a perfectly good way to get off the boat and stretch our legs. So off we go in the dinghy.  Manage to find a sand spot on the beach that wasn't protected by coral.  Walked along the beach to the road access and there, waiting for us, was a taxi.  Karma.  Turns out the guy was a local cab driver and he had just taken his family to the beach for swimming.  He said he needed to drop them off and he would be back in ten minutes.  He was. So we rode in style to Vuda.  Turns out it would have been quite a hike.  Checked in at the office, and of course they had moorings available.  Just call on VHF when you want to come in.  Oh, and we can s

 Stardate October 17, 2023 Had sundowners with the kids as scheduled at Vatia Wharf last night.  They came over to get me and we went to Nick's boat.  Got pretty dark before we broke up the party.  My anchor light was on; theirs was not.  You couldn't see their boat against any background - it's a pretty big bay.  I stood in the cockpit and held a small flashlight on their boat which you could barely make out.  They made it back. Stardate October 18, 2023 Ok.  Time for a milk run down to Lautoka and Saweni Bay, just north of Vuda Marina.  Easy peasy, right? No wind, right?  Yep, for most of the way.  Full canvas up, motor sailing at 4.5 mph. Then I come to the narrows just north of Lautoka Bay.  Now this is not a particularly narrow passage, as Fiji reefs go, but it does have nasty reefs on either side.  And it was right in the middle of this passage that my Navionics decides to take a vacation from working.  I had seen this previously - a pink circle appears on the bottom

 Stardate October 15, 2023 Beer and dinner last night at Volivoli.  Met some kids from Europe who were well on their way around the world in a 50 ft Dufour.  They bought it in Cypress from a charter outfit and it wasn't kitted out for blue water.  No water maker, etc.  It was clearly a coastal cruiser, but they are making the best of it.  Or maybe the worst - they spend most of their time repairing the windlass.  Now raising the anchor is pretty important on a boat and having a reliable windlass would be one of my primary concerns.  But I guess they're getting pretty good at fixing it. Nick and I miscommunicated - I thought we were going to have dinner again at Volivoli and he went ahead and ate on his boat.  No problem, we go to the bar again.  This time we were greeted by 'Reserved' cards on every single table in the bar with chairs.  WTZ?  Turns out they had a big barbecue this evening for all the dive groups at the resort, some 37 people in all. Ok, we stood around

 Stardate October 14, 2023 A milk run until the last hour.  We had planned on stopping in Viti Levu Bay overnight.  We had made such good time that Nick suggested we push on to Volivoli point.  I think cold beer may have been the deciding factor.  I did point out that we would be passing up our last chance to do sevusevu and get rid of some kava.  Beer won out. The passage between the island and the reefs is not as fraught as it looks on the chart.  Plenty of room, good visibility, and the wind had dropped considerably from the crossing. Until here.  By now the wind had shifted to the east and was on the beam at about 35 knots.  The Navolau Passage is rather narrow and I had the main full up.  I wasn't worried about the narrow passage, but making that 90 degree turn to port did give me pause.  Especially in that wind.  I elected to keep the main up, thinking that I could use it further on (which was true).   So I come up to the turn and pulled the wheel over.  I had the preventer o

Stardate October 13, 2023 It was a short jaunt to Naigani, where we found an anchorage close in that protected us from the weather.  A few bommies scattered about, but a large sand patch with good holding in 40 feet suited me just fine. We got out and walked the beach, picking up shells for grandson Jack.  Nothing much to do here, the village is on the other side of the island.  Probably the most picturesque anchorage we have had, though.  It reminded me of the Palisades on Isle Royale.  We both commented on the trees on the cliff, looking like a hanging garden with their drooping limbs.

Stardate October 12, 2023 25 mile hop to Makogai Island.  The preferred entrance is on the west side, so we had to loop all the way around.  The preferred entrance is also next to a breaking reef.  I mean right next to a breaking reef.  Looping from the north, you are barreling straight for breaking waves and at the last minute you turn 120 degrees to follow the ferry route.  Criminy!  Nick tried to cut the corner and wound up in 21 feet of water.  I noticed his quick dogleg to starboard to get back out to deeper water.   I followed him after his course correction - we were still off the ferry route by 100 m or so.  I saw 28 feet on the depth gauge as I crossed the underwater ridge.  Way too close for comfort.   Anchorage was protected, good holding.  We hopped in the dink to sevusevu and were received with a blissfully short ceremony, following which a woman named Mare took us around.   Makogai was the home of one of the largest leper colonies in the world , apparently, in the

Stardate October 11, 2023 We left Paradise Resort and Taveuni at 7 am for the long stretch across the Koro Sea to Koro Island.  (No chart plot - I forgot to hit 'save'.)  Pretty uneventful on the crossing, good wind on our beam.  A little rolly at times, but otherwise a good run. We pulled into the little harbor on Koro Island where Navionics had indicated there were moorings as well as an anchorage.  Hah.  Nick made a pass with his fish finder on and announced that the bottom was all coral.  Not to mention pretty deep.  There was one mooring ball visible and Nick couldn’t snag it.  I proposed to anchor, drop the dinghy, and help Nick get moored.  He agreed and hovered while I got the dink ready.   At some point he tried again and this time got his boat hook stuck in the mooring ball’s line.  He did manage to get a mooring line attached, but was left holding his boat hook while I finished prepping the dink.  I finally got over there and it took some time to untwist his b

 Stardate October 9, 2023 Marina at the Dive Academy in Viani Bay had suggested we contact Jass for a tour of Taveuni.  So today we had the tour. We started with the waterfalls.  They are on the opposite side of the island from Paradise Resort.  Think of a reverse question mark with PR as the dot.  Or you can look at the map below.  The red arrow is not the boat - it's the position of my cell phone at the waterfalls.  Paradise Resort is at the lower left. Now this is not a big island; about 26 miles end to end.  Now the road...  Jass had a Prius and we were traveling on Press on Regardless roads.  The first ten miles was gravel, ruts and rocks.  Did I mention potholes?  I asked Jass if the road was ever graded.  He said "Once every six months."  You could tell. It took us two hours to reach the waterfalls, but we got the entire island history, which houses were owned by which rich foreigners.  (The guy who owns Red Bull owns an entire island.).   The road was paved a mile

 Stardate October 8, 2023 Sunday.  We have a tour of Taveuni scheduled for tomorrow, so we're kind of stuck here today.  Not much to do - might as well go snorkeling.  We had been told by several cruisers that there were nice reefs right off the mooring field.  Ok, will try. Actually, I enjoyed this reef more than Rainbow Reef, mainly because it was so shallow you could get up close and personal with the reef life. BTW, I gave up waiting for Blogger to upload the videos.  I put them on my Facebook page. The brightly colored spots on the coral are Christmas Tree worms.  They burrow into the coral and retract into it if you touch them.  

 A quote from Nick.  We're sitting on the bluff watching the sunset.  Taking pics of our sailboats.  Drinking cold beers.  He comes up with "Somebody's got to do it."  Meaning us being here.  Yep, Nick.  You nailed it. Fleur. Peregrine photobombed by catamaran. Look at that sky!

 Paradise resort on Taveuni.  Pics will try to do it justice...