9-3-99 We're still in Savusavu, awaiting weather to sail west toward the Yasawa Island chain in Fiji. Marine weather forecasts indicate winds 20-30 knots, rough seas and heavy rainshowers for the next few days. We're very protected and comfortable in our anchorage, so we'll wait for more favorable conditions. In the meantime, Pat got a #2 crewcut. He's been threatening this entire trip, and finally did it. The "#2" is a 2 millimeter blade on the shears, we think, and it only costs a dollar (and included a beard trim). All our yachtie friends say he looks like a convict .... Colleen likes it though. But now he has to wear more sunblock on top! It should still be fairly short when we fly home in three months. We picked up our tickets yesterday and here's our schedule:
12/7/99 Brisbane, Australia - Auckland, New Zealand - LA - Philly
2/22/00 Philly - LA - Auckland, NZ
3/15/00 Auckland, NZ - Brisbane, Australia
We're so happy that we'll be home for the Holidays with family and friends. And we decided to spend 3 weeks in New Zealand, backpacking and camping on our return flight. New Zealand's North and South islands sound cool, but we don't plan to sail there, so we decided to fit them into our itinerary by air instead of sea.
9-8-99 Position: Lat 16°51'S/Lon 177°28'E, the Yasawa Island group. Fiji has a cruising permit system which restricts influx of tourists in order to avoid what they consider "unacceptable interaction between the western lifestyle and the Fijians". We are only allowed to visit a limited number of the 300+ islands. The Yasawas are small islands and the most westerly group in Fiji. The inhabitants are Fijian, no Indians here. The Indians all live in the urban areas on the big islands. We are anchored in Sawa-i-Lau Bay near the village of Navotua. When we arrived, we visited the chief and presented our gift of kava, as a sign of respect. Kava is made from the root of the yaqona (pronounced "yang-gona") pepper plant. The root is pounded with a mortar and pestle, placed in a large bowl, water added, and then strained through a bundle of vegetable fibers. The strained kava is then placed in a large, communal, wooden bowl and everyone drinks from half a coconut shell. It is a ceremonial and social drink in Fiji, and now that we've had our first introduction to kava, we can tell you - it is disgusting (Pat says it's not too bad...). It tastes like watery earth, and we had to drink several muddy cupfuls, as guests of the village. Besides tasting terrible, it numbs your tongue and lips and makes you sleepy. The men in the village gather around the kava bowl every evening to drink and smoke home-made cigarettes. Hopefully we won't have to drink too much more .... we have to present kava to the chief of every village we visit here in the Yasawas! We also had an opportunity to experience some Fijian music and dancing. The village has a small musical group that entertained us last night. Colleen learned the Fijian "side-by-side" dancing. Dancers don't face each other, but instead embrace hip to hip and move slowly around with small bouncy steps, backwards and forwards. Pat had a short guitar lesson from one of the musicians. We're only staying a few more days in the Yasawas, since we decided to join a regatta and race from Fiji to Vanuata with other boats, wish we had more time. Colleen found her first nautilus shell washed up a a beach and she's traded canned corned beef and Spam for other shells with the locals. (We stocked up on canned meat products specifically for bartering in the islands!)
9-13-99 The reef systems in Fiji are very extensive and the charts are still being updated to add more! We installed steps on our mast last year, as part of the preparation for our voyage. We use them to climb up the mast to get a better view when navigating around reefs and isolated coral heads. One of us climbs 15-20 feet up the mast and points out the coral - at this height it is plainly visible as dark patches in the blue water. One other important aspect of navigating around reefs is the angle of the sun. It's impossible to see reefs looking into the sun, so we try to time our reefs passages with good sunlight. The other day Colleen spent almost 1 hour up the mast during a 3 hour trip. We've used the mast steps much more here than any other area in the South Pacific. We're now in the Mamanutha Island chain, just south of the Yasawas, at Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai Island. It's a boating party spot right now as the 1999 Fiji Regatta Week is underway. We'll take part in some of the festivities - day races, pig roasts, live figure head contest, best dressed ship contest, etc. We may even enter Pat in the hairiest chest contest. We'll wrap up the Regatta Week with the 550 mile race to Port Vila, Vanuatu starting on Sept 18th. Right now, there are about 70 boats in the harbor, 30 of us racing to Vanuatu.
9-23-99 We arrived yesterday in Port Vila, Vanuatu - Lat 16° 16'S/Lon 167° 55'E. Vanuatu was previously known as New Hebrides and was ruled by a joint French and British government (called a condominium government), until 1980, when independence was granted. The new republic was christened Vanuatu - meaning "our land". The population is about 180,000 spread over a chain of 13 large and 70 small islets Port Vila is the capital and located at the southern end of the chain on Éfaté island. There are 115 indigenous languages and cultures still thriving in Vanuatu. Bislama (Pidgin English) is the national language, but English and French are also widely spoken. We had a fast sail in the Musket Cove to Port Vila Race, and finished 19th out of 27 boats. A respectable finish for our little 35 footer, since the majority of the race boats in the fleet were 45 to 75 feet long and there was no handicapping - it was a boat-for-boat race. The big ones arrived hours ahead of us, but we did manage to beat a couple bigger boats. The nice thing about the race, all finishers receive a First Place plaque. On our way here, we caught a 4 foot long mahi mahi (dolphin fish) and saw a huge humpback whale leap out of the water right next to the boat. Good trip. We plan to stay in Port Vila for a week or so, continuing to enjoy the regatta festivities - free beer, dinners, basic partying, and island touring.
9-25-99 Last night we attended the awards banquet for the Musket Cove to Port Vila Race. It was an evening of free drinks and food, sailing stories and local native entertainment. The entertainment was a group of men with painted faces and grass skirts carrying intricately carved wooden spears, dancing and singing about hunting for wild pigs. They also played various local instruments and treated us to some great music. Of course we forgot the digital camera! All the racing boats won a prize and we received a carved wooden dolphin, since we were the only boat to report sea life (humpback whale) on the passage. We also won the drawing for the most coveted award of the race ... "The Coconut Cup". It is a varnished coconut shell trophy and comes with a $1,250 gift certificate for the Musket Cove Resort in Fiji. The Fijian $1,250 translates to $625 in US dollars! We were so excited to win. But now we don't know what to do with the prize, we aren't planning to go back to Fiji. What a dilemma. Well anyway, we partied hard last night and checked out a local disco after the banquet. The bartenders there filled our coconut cup with beer and laughed at us drinking out of it. So today is a day of recuperation and lazing about. We just reviewed SIMMER's log book and calculated that we've come 7,400 miles across the Pacific since we left the Panama Canal over 6 months ago. We're averaging 40 miles a day across the Pacific so far. That's about the same mileage we commuted to work each day, back when we had jobs. What a coincidence.
9-27-99 We're still in Port Vila, reading about the incredible islands of Vanuatu. Not sure how much cruising we'll get to do here, malaria is a problem in Vanuatu, but we hope to see one or two more islands. Here's some interesting information about some of the islands: Pentecost is the island that is best known for the original "bungee jumpers", or as they call them - land divers. Each year in April a 100 foot tower is constructed from forest materials - branches, vines, trunks,... for the land diving ceremony. In May, men and boys jump from the structures with two long vines attached to their ankles to break the fall. (You probably saw a documentary about it on PBS.) The jump is made to ensure a successful yam harvest. What a dangerous custom for a root vegetable! Another neat island is Tanna, which has an active volcano and a Cargo Cult. Mt. Yasur is supposed to be spectacular and can been seen offshore with a nocturnal glow. The locals will guide you up to the rim, and we hope to make the climb at night. The Cargo Cult, or John Frum movement, emerged as a result of W.W.II and the American soldiers that were present during that time. A belief arose that John Frum (i.e. a US serviceman named John "from" America who unloaded supplies onto the island) would ultimately return and bring a ship full of goods. Every Friday the cult members celebrate the expected coming of John Frum and they love anything American. We have a few American souvenirs to give them if we make it to Tanna.
9-30-99 We never made it to Tanna to see the volcano. The winds didn't cooperate for us to sail there and then Mt. Yasur erupted and no one was allowed near it. Probably a good thing that we decide not to beat into the winds to get there. We'd like to see a "mildly-active" volcano up close, one not as active as Mt. Yasur. Maybe the winds were telling us something!
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