Fahiti ho!

 Ok, blog is caught up to Friday, May 16.  Posts are in order, so you'll have to scroll down to start from wherever.

 Ok, I'm a long day from Savusavu.  Calm waters, cell coverage, restaurants and bars.  I'm gonna do this, come hell or high water. Got up and made pancakes.  Was down to a quarter tank of diesel so I took the time to add my 40 liters of reserve to the tank. Up anchor at eight, motored (surprise!) straight into big swells at the head of Nadi Bay.  Tough it out, gotta make happy hour. Three hours later I'm across Wainunu Bay and entering Nasonisoni Passage.  This is a well-known passage - I've been through it several times now.  But not in this wind.  Nasonisoni generally runs on an angle of 116 degrees.  The wind was howling out of the east (90 deg).  Ok, I can do this.  Happy hour awaits. Coming out of the east end of Nasonisoni the swells were some of the biggest I've ever seen.  They rivaled the ones Nick and I saw coming out of Fawn Harbor two trips back.  The boat was twisting and corkscrewing on top of the swells, all...

 Looked like a good day to travel, plenty of blue patches, some hint of wind. Some hint...yeah...haha. Motored out from Koroinasolo at 7 am.  Put the main up.  Got outside the reef; the wind is on my nose.  Drop the main.  (Spoiler alert - for the rest of the trip the sails never got used because the Fiji wind gods were somehow offended and kept the wind on my nose for the entire trip!  I didn't think it possible, but I'll testify to it.) Slogged my way down inside the reef past Bua Bay, past Nabouwalu and Coconut Point, all exposed anchorages.  Managed to turn from 142 degrees to 66 degrees AND THE WIND STILL WAS ON MY NOSE.  That's SE to NE, folks.  And I'm far enough out so that it shouldn't be land effect.  Holy wah! Made it to Nadi Bay with its open end facing directly east.  I knew it would be rolly but having been there before I knew it had a good mud holding.  And yes, it was.  Rolly and muddy.  Set the Prusik...

Koroinasolo Again more visitors on launches.   The first was benign - a launch full of kids and moms going somewhere.   It’s amazing how many bodies they can fit on one of those launches and not sink it.   I think there were a dozen kids and half as many adults.   They were very friendly and just wanted to say ‘hi’. The next two launches were again curious about me.   “You are alone?’   Yes.   And I’m going in to do sevusevu as soon as I drop my dinghy.   JFC, leave me alone. I went in for sevusevu about 11:30.   Found the locals on shore to be very normal, hyper-friendly in the Fijian way.   Met the headman, who is quite young for the job - maybe 40.   His aunt is the chief, but speaks no English so he gets to do the sevusevu ceremony.   It was mercifully brief and then came the question session.   I had read that some headmen keep you there on the sevusevu mat for hours, asking about your country and your boat and whatev...

Ok!   Patches of blue sky at last!   The wind was still about 25 knots out of the west, but I managed to get the anchor up and motor out of the bay against the wind.   One aborted try to raise the main later and I decided this was a motoring day. Of course the wind shifted as I wound my way between reefs.   Always just about in my face.   Still, I made Koroinasolo Inlet in 8.5 hours, dropping anchor at 5 pm.   Koroinasolo is a great weathering hole, a 1.5 mile deep bay that runs N-S with surrounding hills.   Also one of the prettiest bays I’ve seen in Fiji. The people on the other hand… It seems to be the custom to drive by visiting yachts and…hop on!   WTF?   At least the first guy only asked for ‘cake’ for his two kids.   I gave them each a cookie and he seemed satisfied.   The next guy (Henry) showed up after dark.   I’m laying on the settee and all of a sudden there’s a light shining in from the cockpit.   Henry took i...

You gotta love the navigation in Fiji.   Back in the day, mountain tops and reefs were primary points of reference for navigation through the reefs.   The Navionics charts (and presumably any paper charts) still carry those references.   And then every once in a while you see this: Northern Edge of Nasoviyaga Island Coconut Trees On 245D That’s one terminus of a transit line?   Seriously?  Presumably the heading is 245 deg.  But what's with the coconut trees reference? So here’s Nasoviyaga Island.   If you look hard you can make it out.   I think it has five palm trees. A closer look, different angle.   Maybe six trees. And every cyclone that comes through leaves us with fewer coconut trees.   Yet somehow they are important enough to mention in the chart.  Strange...

“I been rocked by the wind, driven by the blow, I’m drunk and dirty, but don’t you know that I’m still…sailing.” Sorry, Linda.   I had to change the words.   Actually sorry to whoever wrote that classic.   Lefty?   Tom T?   It’s the ear worm du jour. So the plan was to motor like mad today, starting at first light.   There was supposed to be no wind all day, according to Predict Wind.   Then the wind was supposed to shift to the west, giving me a nice push once around the point to Savusavu.   Ah yes, the best laid plans… Woke up at five to torrential rain (again).   JFC what is it with this rain?   Then I heard the rigging start to sing.   Uh-oh.   Then the boat started to hobby horse.   Then it went from a hobby to a vocation.   So much for the plan.   Looks like I’m sticking it out at anchor again.   Good news is I have a mud bottom and a great set; I’m not dragging, at least. 8 am.   Vocation went to...

Left Blackjack Bay at 9 am.   The water was still colored but no longer the chocolate milk of yesterday.   Funny, because the rains were as intense last night as the night before. Had some wind, maybe 10-15 knots from the east.   Raised the main and sailed downhill to Labasa.   I had the Genoa out a bit in the bay outside Labasa, but otherwise it was just the main.   The passage through the islands later in the afternoon I motorsailer because the wind had slacked.   Dropped anchor in a little cove called Nukubati.   There is an island to my stern and on the other side there is a luxury resort.   I didn’t have the energy to try and crash their happy hour.   Think I’ll just hoist an extra beer tonight. I had to anchor here.   How often do you get to say you anchored off ‘Dokaniwere Point’?

  May 8 Woke up to sunshine.   Aha!   Time to move out.   There has to be an anchorage with better shelter from the east winds further on.   Two solid days of torrential rain and nutso east winds have made me antsy. Left at nine am and motored outside the reef.   The last few miles was almost directly east, into 25-30 knots and between two reefs.   The water was funneled into big swells to boot.   Not fun, but had to be done to clear the reef and get outside for the downhill run to Sau Sau passage about twenty miles west.   And it was a glorious downhill run.   I set the Genoa about half out and shut off the motor.   6-7 mph with the wind on a broad reach.   Very reachy - almost directly astern many times.   I relaxed and read science fiction in the cockpit. Had to turn into the wind again coming through Sau Sau passage to get back inside the reef.   The swells were gone because of the extensive reef to the east, but ...

7:58 am.   I’m relaxing after just finishing my morning Sudoku when I hear kid’s voices.   I go up the companionway and there is a woman in a launch with four little kids and two dogs!   It was Sophia, the current operator of Also Island since Jim has passed.   I think she just wanted to say thank you for the glasses I dropped off yesterday.   She kept asking if I was coming in today and I tried to gesture at the dinghy already snugged up under the davits for travel.   I said ‘too windy’.   She gave me that look of ‘I’m in a launch with four little kids and two dogs and you’re saying it’s too windy?’   Yeah, I’m a wimp, Sophia.   Actually I prefer the moniker ‘cautious sailor’.   This sailboat ain’t goin’ anywhere today. Today was supposed to be the day I leave Also Island, weather permitting.   Well, weather didn’t permit.   Holy moly, the winds whipping over the hills to the east!   Shaking the boat even.   I need c...

  May 5. Also Island Don’t know why it’s called Also Island.   It was started by a guy named Jim Bandy back in 2000.   It’s a ramshackle enterprise, with a big deck full of half-disassembled outboard motors and other machinery.   Jim is a kind of legend in Fiji and I was excited to meet him. I walked up the stairs and met Veronica, who was taking care of the place while her mother was away.   Turns out Jim died a year ago of prostate cancer.   No one had updated the Fiji Compendium with this fact, so I couldn’t know.   I’m starting to think I’m a jinx:   First Morena dies two weeks before I visited at Naqaiqai, then I crash a funeral in Kioa, and now I find Jim Bandy has passed.   I’m scared to get back to Somosomo - who the hell else has kicked the bucket? Village across from Also Is.  Can't find the village on a map so I don't have a name. “This is my home,” the headman said, touching the wood floor of the porch.   “This is now yo...

  May 3. Albert Cove This was going to be the jumping-off point for my passage around Udu Point, the easternmost jut of land for Vanua Levu.   Decent anchorage, although I don’t think the protection was quite was good as was extolled in my sources.   Did sevusevu with three ladies, two of whom found glasses to fit.   The sevusevu was perfunctory, sort of like the quick ‘grace’ that people pray before eating. May 4.   Off around Udu Point Got underway at 6:30 am.   The crossing was, as the Brits would say, sporting.   20-25 knots with four foot swells.   The good news was this was all on the beam and I averaged over 6 mph for the trip.   I made Udu Point by 10:30, gybed and started down the back side with the wind now on a broad reach (from behind, left quarter).   Pulled into the bay outside Also Island, found 25 feet with mud and anchored for the day at 3:30. This was again supposed to be a protected anchorage.   Well, Sparky, let ...

  There is a mission run by the Seventh Day Adventist church here that runs a medical clinic occasionally.   They bring doctors in from all over and put them up in a very nice resort setting (see pics below).    The doctors perform general, dental and vision care.   Aha!   Vision care!   I’ll bet they can fit prescription glasses! I anchored offshore and paddle boarded in with 3-4 dozen pair of the strongest prescription glasses in my backpack.   Sure enough, I found a guy to give them to even though the clinic was on hiatus.   Rabi (Pronounced Ram-bi) It was about a three hour motor north to Katherine’s Bay.   Good anchorage, could use better reef markings.   Dinghied in with the intent of getting my jerry can of premix (two cycle fuel) filled.   Of course I had to ask about glasses and I just happened to have my backpack with me.   So I sat down next to the main road and people appeared like magic. I met a kid named John...