25-30/7/24

We had an early departure from Viani Bay to sail around the top of Taveuni Island to Nai Viivi, a very sheltered inlet on Qamea (pronounced “Gar-may-ah”) Island. The plan was to shelter here while a(nother) predicted spell of high winds passed by. These bogi walu winds were to become more like constant companions than isolated events that occur perhaps once or twice a year!

On arrival we spoke to Peggy and Pat on Calista. They told us they were planning to beat the bad weather by sailing overnight to Vanua Balavu in the Lau Group. After some serious weather checking, we decided that this was a much better plan than sitting in the mangroves for (at least) the next five days.

So at 17:15 we left the shelter of Nai Viivi mangroves and sailed south between Taveuni and Qamea before turning south east as it got dark.

The sailing conditions were perfect but we were trying to go slowly so that we would arrive at the reef entrance at around 9am when we would have a good view of the (poorly charted and sometimes treacherous) reefs. We just couldn’t go slowly enough, gave in to speed and hove to about 7 nm NE of the entrance for several hours. Eventually we sailed to the entrance and motored through at about 9:30am before continuing to Bavatu Harbour.

This was an absolutely stunning anchorage surrounded by high cliffs. Calista had followed us from Qamea but had crossed the reef ahead of us. We met up again in Bavatu.

A close call

As we anchored, Jonathan found a piece of broken bolt on the trampoline. We eventually tracked it down to the main bolt that holds the boom to the mast at a fitting called the gooseneck. It had sheared off completely but fortunately the remaining half was still in place supporting the boom. It could so easily have come out while we were sailing and given us a major headache.

We put out an all stations (all in Bavatu Bay) request for help on the VHF and Pat was able to find a suitable bolt that was adequate for temporary support but almost certainly not safe to sail with. We ordered a new bolt from New Zealand to be delivered to Nawi Marina. The delivery was supposed to take one week door-to-door. This was to become a long, long saga.

In the sh1t in paradise

There are always boat jobs to do.

Nigel and Jonathan set themselves the task of descaling all of the pipes on the toilets. This involved dismantling all of the toilet systems so that the pipes could be taken outside and given a severe beating (apparently a stern talking to is simply not good enough). With several years of accumulated calcium deposits removed the toilets now flush much more effectively. You will be pleased to know that were no photographs of the work.

Totally unrelated to the descaling work, Nigel needed a hair cut. He has finally allowed Sue back with the shears. It’s 12 years since the Abu Dhabi haircut incident but the memory lingers on.

The things we do in paradise.

Time ashore

We have been introduced to an app called No Foreign Land. It is an app or website that allows boats to post their location and information for others to see. From the app we could see there was an interesting looking walk starting from a small jetty here in Bavatu Bay.

The “sometime store” was definitely a “not this time store”. We only got slightly lost and we did manage a circular route that took us to a view point overlooking Fiji’s Bay of Islands which was to be our next destination. We also met fellow Island Cruising members Dean, Nola and Mark from Masterplan, who had exactly the same idea for some afternoon exercise.

The whole crew needed to raise the anchor

Our Bavatu Bay anchorage was so sheltered that the boat had been able to swing around in the gentle breezes that could come from any direction. We knew that we had been moving in ever decreasing circles with some sharp jolts from anchor chain at times. The reason became apparent as we tried to raise the anchor. We were well and truly stuck.

It took all four of us to raise the anchor. Sue manoeuvring the boat, Jonathan managing the anchor chain, Claire managing the hoses on our surface supply diving system and Nigel diving to untangle the chain that was hopelessly tangled around several rocks and outcrops of coral.

Mission accomplished, we retraced our steps to the reef entrance and then continued south to the village of Daliconi (pronounced “Dal-ee-thone-ee”). Here we had to get permission to visit the area in a ceremony known as sevusevu. This involves meeting the chief of the village and handing over a gift of kava root. It is taken very seriously. We all wore the local sulu and were required to sit on the floor as our gift was handed over and accepted with much reciting and clapping of hands. We were to learn later that the villagers really appreciate that we respect their customs.

While anchored off the village we were joined by a very familiar super yacht. Michael Hill’s yacht, The Beast, which we had often seen around Whangarei, pulled up alongside us. We offered to do sevusevu with them but they had already completed the formalities and were just there to allow guests some shore time.

Next stop the Bay of Islands.