Fiji January 04, 2006 Bula Everyone, Happy New Year Everyone! Boy have we been busy. Let us catch you up. The Friday before Christmas we rented a four wheel drive crew cab and headed to Labasa with our friends Vili and Ima, their son, Isikeli and nephew, Semi. We arrived in Labasa at noon and shared lunch at one of our favorite curry restaurants there. Afterwards, we joined the throngs of last minute shoppers strolling up and down along the main street. We jumped back in the truck with our few purchases and headed to Navidamu Village with a stop at Semi's home on the way. Semi had been staying with Vili and Ima during his school holiday, but it was time for him to go home for Christmas with his family. The new school year starts soon, too. Semi's home is really out in the bush and we would not have been able to reach it without the four wheel drive. Towards the end of the journey it was almost as though we were making our own road through the tall grasses. Their home is not in a village, but in what they call a settlement. Each house seems to be out in the middle of nowhere by itself and there is no electricity or plumbing. Semi's family has very little in the way of material comforts yet they were very gracious hosts, serving us tea with bread and butter during our visit. We've become very fond of Semi over the last couple of months and it was sad to part. We plan to see him again before we leave Fiji. After leaving Semi's and making our way back out to the dirt road we continued on to Navidamu Village. About a mile before we got there, we came upon a bus that had stopped to let the villagers out to walk. The road was too bogged down from the rain for him to continue. We stopped to let as many as could fit in the bed of the truck hop on for a ride. Barely made it to the village with so much weight in the back! The road ends right at our friend, Sam's house. We had been unable to contact him to let him know when we would come but the happy reception seemed genuine. We presented Sam's father, Henry (the chief of the village) kava..... let the ceremonial drinking begin! We also brought a bucket full of cookies, cakes, jams, tea and cups for their morning tea on Christmas Day which was appreciated by the women and children (they don't do kava). Sam's brother and family were visiting for the holidays and it was a festive occasion. We joined them for a delicious dinner and it was well past dark before we headed back home. We had an incredible Christmas with Ima's family, which, with her parents and nine brothers and sisters their spouses and children, is huge. The day started with a breakfast tea; bunches of cakes, breads and coffee. We got the seats of honor (the only two in the house) and were treated like royalty all day long! Preparing the food takes hours with everyone working at it. Then it's cooked in a lovo or underground rock oven. What a feast! Chicken, fish, dalo, palusami, casava, curry dishes, chop suey, watermelon and more. Jim was honored with his own goat head. It was great, tastes like really tender pork. After finishing the lower jaw and tongue, he gave the skull to the kids. There were only four heads and they are a delicacy. Four or five kids crowded around each one and picked them clean in a frenzy! Strange as this sounds it's all perfectly normal and fun. The Fijians love to watch our faces and laugh while serving us stuff like this and yes Barb tasted some, including a little brain! They say eating the brain makes you smart! What was really neat was that (aside from our special treatment) it was their traditional Christmas celebration. You could tell the way everyone went about the business of preparing the lovo and foods that they all enjoyed working and cooking together, and that it sure wasn't the first time! They had an impromptu little church service with Panapasi, Ima's father, giving a short sermon and his brother, Gabby and family singing hymns in harmony. Beautiful. As we said goodbye to everyone that evening, they all said what an "honor" it was to have us spend the day with them.....we tried and hope we were able to convey that "the honor was all ours!" The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, some of Ima's immediate family came down and we shuttled them from the marina over to the island that lies just across the bay via our dingy. Most stopped by the boat to take a tour. Jim got to help with a fishing expedition. Ima's father, Panapasa and her brother, Gabby (jr), waded out chest deep and stretched a net about a hundred feet long and parallel to the shore. When they were ready Jim, along with Ima and her mom, Angela, rushed out from the shallow water beating their arms and throwing starfish to frighten the fish into the net. The process was repeated over and over as they worked their way around the backside of the island. After getting a bag of fish they rejoined the picnic. Before long there was a big fire burning and we were each given our own cleaned fish (head on of course) to set directly into the fire. A couple of the guys turned them with sticks until perfectly done then served them on banana leaves insulated with coconut husks so we could hold them. We ate the fish with our fingers along with leftover dalo from Christmas. Adults have the bigger fish, small kids small fish. It's so cute to see the little ones each with their own little fish! When we finished eating, we just tossed the bones, banana leaves and anything else into the fire....we left a nice clean picnic area...no fuss. Afterwards, at Angela's request, some of us returned to the boat for yet another viewing of "Finding Nemo". The forth time for Isikeli!!! Kids are the same everywhere... We rang in the New Year with a potluck and barbecue dinner at the Waitui Yacht Club. Along with our fellow cruisers from Sweden, Finland, Trinidad, England, New Zealand, Australia and America we partied and danced all night! We invited our friends, Vili and Ima. There were a few other Fijian and Indian guests as well. The Fijians have a tradition that you "wet" someone during the month of Jan for good luck. After midnight we were all hosed down by Taki, one of the Fijian guests. For the last few days we've seen people laughing and running around wet. In the strictest sense of the tradition, after you "wet" them you give them a dry shirt to put on and to keep as a souvenir. Nowadays it's mostly just the wetting that takes place. We purchased squirt guns and have joined in on this tradition. We spent the last week playing cards, sailing, watching movies and just hanging around together with our Fijian friends. Everyone's been on Christmas vacation. Tuesday, everyone went back to work and their usual routines. Us too! We need to catch up on some regular maintenance and chores. Our visas will expire on Jan. 27th and rather than spend $800.00 bucks or so to extend it, we've decided to sail to Fortuna. It's about 250 miles north east of Fiji and because it's a French territory we can get our passport stamped and then come back to Fiji and begin again. We plan to be ready to leave the first of next week. Then we'll look for a good weather window and take off. We don't want to wait too late, cause Tres and Todd will be coming to Fiji for a visit the beginning of February and we'd like to be here to see them ;] Hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as we did. Barb shed tears while talking to the kids via phone on Christmas Day, but aside from that, our Christmas in Fiji was awesome! We haven't gotten those pictures from you guys yet. Guess they must be in the mail. We'll be in touch soon. Moce, Jim and Barb S/V SpanishStroll Fiji/Futuna January 28, 2006 Bula Everyone, After the holidays we spent a couple of weeks kicked back in the rain, studying the weather and getting the Spanish Stroll ready for the crossing to Futuna. Our six months was up here in Fiji and an extension costs over $800 so we left on the 17th and sailed up to Futuna, a French island about two hundred and fifty miles north east of here. It isn't far but this is the middle of cyclone season and you have to be real careful. Another U.S. boat, a Tyana 37, sailed up the week before us and got caught. They left with a low in the area that developed into a cyclone and got blown onto the reef at Futuna. They were lucky. The people there swam lines out and pulled them off with a tractor. They were able to limp back to Savusavu with a broken steering quadrant and no reverse in the transmission. Rumor has it, it was the last straw for the wife and mother of two on board. If you want a good deal the boat is now for sale in Lautoka, Fiji. We took off a day after they got back. Of course this was a big drama here amongst all the cruisers. We're all connected by ham radio and there were many comments about our sanity. We dropped in right behind the cyclone (there were two actually) and although we had to beat into the wind all the way up the weather was great throughout our whole trip. Futuna is a nice little island and the people are friendly. It reminded us quite a bit of the Marqueses Islands. Lush and volcanic. French is the local language but we met a few people who spoke some English. We all gathered at the small magasin, Begaud's for beers our one afternoon in town and they enjoyed practising their English on us. We hardly remember any of the French we learned in Polynesia. Bonjour, merci beaucoup, au revior. We had a great time! Oh la la... We didn't want to push our luck so we stayed just one day and one night. Coming back we enjoyed some of the very best sailing we've done since we left California. We had a perfect broad reach with a 1 1/2 knot current going with us. We averaged 7 knots for eighteen hours before running out of wind and starting the motor. We made the 250 miles in less than forty eight hours and pulled in with charged battery's, a full water tank and a freezer full of mahi mahi and tuna. It's about time all our weather studying paid off for once. Or if we just got lucky, it's about time we got lucky for once! We got our passports stamped in Futuna and now we have another four months on our visa after checking back into Fiji. We will pretty much stay put here in Savusavu, except for local sailing, until we leave in April or May. The weather seems to be nice and settled for a couple of weeks with clear skies and fresh breezes changing to hot, humid and rainy the next couple of weeks while lows in the area threaten to deepen into cyclones. We hope we're seeing a pattern. The last week has been the hot humid type and if it holds out for another week it should be changing back to clear skies and fresh breezes just in time for Tres and Todd's two weeks visit with us. We can hardly wait! Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon. Moce, Jim and Barb S/V SpanishStroll Fiji February 21, 2006 Bula Everyone, Wow, it's hard to believe that Tres and Todd have been and gone. What a wonderful time we had visiting with them over the last two weeks! We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did. We picked them up at the Savusavu Airport on Monday the 6th. The airport is a small, one strip affair with only one gate that's marked arrival on the outside and departure on the inside. They arrived at 8:15 am Fiji time (about 9:30 am). After a quick five minute taxi ride to Waitui Marina, our current "home", we deposited their luggage onboard and took them to one of our favorite restaurants, Decked Out, for their first taste of Fijian Food. Tres had a hamburger and fries. We spent the first three or four days relaxing on board and getting caught up with each other. We'd last seen them in New Zealand (Mar 05). Late breakfasts or early lunches... With only two showers at the marina, two of us had to kick back on the patio at the yacht club and relax with Fiji Bitters while two showered. They had fun getting to know the staff at Waitui Marina and Yacht Club and trying to learn all their names; Liti, Lisi, Ili, Vitoli and Tom. Friday night was the weekly marina barbecue where they had a chance to meet some of the other "crazy" cruisers who, like us, choose to stay in Fiji during this cyclone season. Saturday morning we all hopped into a rental, along with Vili, Ima and Isikeli for a trip to the north coast of Vanua Levu. With all the rain lately we were concerned that the roads might be closed. There were landslides here and there, but the roads we traveled went all the way through (barely). We were very glad that we'd opted for a four wheel drive van! Our first stop was Labasa, where we had lunch at the Oriental Bar and Grill overlooking the busy bus terminal and vegetable market. Afterwards we did a small amount of shopping before the stores began closing at their usual time, 1:00 pm on Saturdays. The sidewalks were teaming with people and we played follow the leader, weaving in and out of the crowds to make it in time to the few stores that were on our list; the pharmacy for antibiotic powders, the photo shop for a picture frame and then finally the grocery store for some goodies to take to the friends we would visit in Seaqaqa Settlement and Navidamu Village. Our second stop was Seaqaqa settlement, where Vili and Ima's nephew, Semi, lives with his family. Leaving Labasa we backtracked to the Seaqaqa crossroads and turned off the main road. After less than a mile we were on gravel and that quickly turned into dirt (mud). We traveled pretty far back into the bush. The last part of that journey was through tall grasses with barely visible mud ruts from the very few vehicles that venture there. At one point, Vili got out of the van and walked in front to make sure we stayed centered on a small overgrown bridge. Semi's father, Henry, grows kava and we had made arrangements to buy some to take with us for the sevusevu ceremony in Navidamu Village. Kava isn't just for village chiefs anymore and we shared a bowl (or two) of kava with Henry. While the men stuck with kava drinking, Tres and Barb wandered outside and joined the women and children gathered under a lean to for tea. We had a really nice visit in spite of the communication challenge. Laughing and smiling go a long way. When we said our goodbyes Semi's parents said they would like to visit us in Savusavu before we set sail in April. Next, it was on to our third and last stop of the day, Navidamu Village. The bridge right before we reached the village was barely hanging together, so we parked and walked the last little bit. Sam's children, Rocky (Sam Jr.) and Josephine were waiting just on the other side of the bridge and walked with us to their house. We had promised Sam and his wife Mariam back in November that we would bring Tres and Todd to meet them during their visit and you could tell they were pleased that we had kept our word. After washing the mud off our feet and legs, we gathered on the porch with Henry, the chief of Navidamu, and presented him with the kava we had brought as sevusevu. After the presentation they crushed and mixed some of their own kava then waited while we drank the first couple of rounds. We were pretty confused until they explained that this was their "sevusevu" to us. We had not heard of this before and took it as quite an honor. As we all sat around drinking kava Tres and Todd were kept busy fielding questions about America. Tea was served and Rocky proudly brought out the family pig to show us how big it had grown. It started getting late, we tried to make excuses, but we couldn't leave until we shared a meal of delicious eggplant curry and rice. Then with Mariam carrying a lantern, surrounded by kids, we were accompanied back to the van. They had fun helping us get our feet and shoes clean in the creek under the bridge before we piled back into the van for our trip back to Savusavu. Tres and Barb each came away with a really cool souvenir, a handmade fan from Akisi, Henry's wife. What a full day..... and what an excellent Fijian adventure! As a special treat from Tres and Todd, we all moved off the boat and spent Valentine's Day at the Hot Springs Hotel. We swam and lounged around the pool for most of the afternoon before retiring to Tres and Todd's air conditioned room to share a dinner of curry rotis and a little impromptu party. We opted for a "fan" room so as not to get too spoiled, but with a full size bed, cool sheets an overhead fan and huge bath right there INSIDE the room, spoiled we were! The Friday before Tres and Todd had to leave, everyone got together for a lovo (food cooked, covered in ground over hot rocks, remember?) at Ima's parents, Panapasa and Angela's house. A little smaller than the group at Christmas, but most of Ima's brothers, sisters and their children were there. We arrived early in time to see the lovo get started. Todd had the honor of lighting the fire. We encouraged Ima to keep it simple with just the chicken, pulasami, dalo and casava cooked on the lovo and none of the intricate side dishes from her kitchen. Once the lovo was opened we all gathered in the main room of Panapasa's house to eat. Paper plates and no utensils...simple! It started to rain as we ate and continued off and on for most of the afternoon. We all stayed dry and comfortable inside. Ima's family serenaded us with Fijian songs. Her brothers, Bure and Gabby, amused us by strumming a couple of songs on one guitar, together, at the same time. Now that's sharing! We were stuffed and decided to either take naps or walk back to the boat (it's all downhill). We took advantage of a break in the rain to take our leave. The path out was very slippery, and we very slowly and carefully made our way.....except Jim. He fell on his butt and slid down the first muddy incline. Quick but rather messy. They were all laughing their heads off as they waved goodbye...Jim has a way of showing people a good time ;] There was a big turnout to see Tres and Todd off at the airport on Sunday morning. They hopped in a small taxi with all the luggage and we followed in another, stopping to pick up Ima, Isikeli and Louie on the way. When we arrived, we were surprised to see Panapasa and Angela (Ima's parents) already there. They had gotten up early, were all dressed up and had walked the 3 miles to the airport beating us all! We were all sad to see them leave. Ima and Angela cried along with Barb as Tres and Todd boarded the plane and flew away. Thus ended Jim and Barb and Tres and Todd's Excellent Fijian Adventure. Moce, Jim and Barb S/V SpanishStroll Fiji March 14, 2006 Bula Everyone, Sorry we haven't written much lately but were just so busy :} Actually we have been on the move but haven't gone far. We got everything together and left Savusavu last Friday for a one to two week cruise around the Venua Levu area. The first night we stopped off the Cousteau Resort just at the pass out of Savusavu Bay. Our friend Curley asked if we'd checked out of Savusavu on the VHF radio and another friend joined in for a discussion of how technically we're supposed to check out, and back in every time we leave Savusavu. With all the publicity we decided to spend the weekend in the bay and check out Monday morning before leaving. After a nice weekend anchored out we went back in to Savusvu and did the paperwork at customs. Back on board ready to break the dingy down we received a radio call that the post office had a package for us. Our first replacement floor and keel for the dingy had arrived and they said it included shirts and hats. They had been missing on a ship somewhere so Zodiac had already flown in another set for us. We were eager enough to see the shirts and hats that we decided to delay our departure long enough to pick up the package. This involved rowing (the dingy motor was already stored) to shore and walking to the other end of town and back. Not far, but as always it's hot here and getting from the dingy dock to the street means walking through our favorite bar (yacht club) Waitui Marina. We did alright going but couldn't make it on the way back, too hot! After checking out our new goodies and a few Fiji Bitter long necks we decided it would be best to wait and leave Tuesday morning. While sitting out on the Waitui patio we noticed a strange looking boat at the main dock about a half mile away. It looked like one of the Chinese fishing boats we'd seen in Tonga. Our friend Lisi told us it was a Fijian boat from Suva. We decided to walk down and have a look. It was quite an interesting boat (small ship), a long liner all rigged to fish that had just come in for ice. A few guys were sitting on the dock drinking kava and watching us. One introduced himself as the captain and offered us a bowl of kava. While we were visiting he asked if we like fish. We said sure and he spoke in Fijian to one of the crew who ran off obviously to get us some. He came out of the hold with a big bull Mahi Mahi about forty five pounds that had obviously just been caught and a big knife. We were pretty excited to be getting a piece but were once again blown away at the generosity of the Fijians when he cut it in half and shoved the whole thing into a rice sack and gave it to us! We happily returned to the Marina, Jim stumbling along with the sack over his shoulder and fish juice running down his legs. We decided to share this one with all our friends at Waitui Marina and had a great time chopping it up on the dock. Everybody got plenty and of course this called for more longnecks! It was a nice delay but we did get off Tuesday morning and motored east about twenty miles to Bakabaka anchoring just inside the river leading to the Salt Lake. It is beautiful here and very quiet compared to Savusavu. Yesterday after arriving we pumped up the dingy and followed the river up the two and a half miles to the Salt Lake. What a beautiful place! It's a large saltwater lake connected to the Koro sea only by the small river. It was a short stay since the tide was rising and the river really really gets flowing. There is a lot of coral and one bridge that we had to pass under before the water rose to the point we couldn't. It was a lot of fun. We came back to spend a perfectly calm night at anchor with a full moon and plenty of stars :) It's now Wednesday morning and as soon as this emails done we'll break the dingy down and head to Fawn Harbor, a reef protected anchorage about twenty miles east of here. That is our plan anyway, we'll see what happens! Hope you are all happy and well. Moce, Jim and Barb S/V SpanishStroll