S 17° 06.637
E 179° 05.607

The passage through the reef was easy. With the coordinates of especially from Don, I passed with more than 20 m of water under the keels. Here the Navionics chart is correct. No strong current to be seen and felt.

When we approached the island I saw a boat coming from the other side. They must have seen us coming. Lucky as they were, they got the only mooring ball available. First comes, first gets!

It took me a while to find a reasonable anchor spot. The entire shoreline drops of very steeply. Thus the optimization between depth of water and distance to the shore with enough water under keels and rudders is not an easy game.

Finally the hook was dropped at 20 m with 80 m of chain. The anchor holds well even when I pulled on it in direction to the deeper water. Now, I’m waiting for MaRe to turn around and go between anchor and shore to see how good the anchor spot really is on respect to water depth. It will take quiet a while more.

The islands looks nice. Forest covered. Jungle. Lots of white birds sitting in the trees is or sailing along the very steep, almost vertical slope of the jungle using the lift there. Some are returning from the sea. They must have been fishing.

Norah, Joe, and Peter went snorkeling. I stay on board. Before I go off board I want to know MaRe’s situation when she is close to shore.

Started making dough for bread. As we are now 4 on board I need to bake bigger breads and more often. Possibly every day. Will see.

… and hanging at a mooring ball of Waitui marina to be able to leave very early in the morning – we planned to get up at 0600 and to leave at latest at 0630 – for Namena Island.

Originally I planned to drop the anchor but the water is more then 20 m deep and I have to considered that there are corals down there. Thus, to avoid any problems with the anchor I decided to use a mooring ball.

Friendly neighbors who wanted to go at land with their dinghy helped us getting our two bowlines through the eye splices at the mooring balls. But that’s not all, they even will pay for us the 20 FJD next morning when the money collector comes and we are long gone. Thanks nice couple from SV AKA.

The sunset behind the mountains was fascinating. Over a rather long time the sky turned from yellowish grey in dark orange and dark grey to almost black . An astonishing event we watched until it’s very end.

On Monday I got early the 2 spare parts parcels I was waiting for. First I replaced the parts at the watermaker. This was a bit tricky because I could not get Loctite 542 or 577 which are sealants. So I used 243 which is a medium strength thread locker. So far
the high pressure connection did not leak during the pressure adjustment process (80 bar switch off pressure, with a working pressure of 60 – 70 bar), and a 15 min water making test.

I also replaced the old Raymarine ST60 Multi display instrument with a new i70s and for that I had to replace another part of my old SeaTalk network by the new SeaTalkNG (Next Generation) network. While setting up the instrument I saw already 2 things, which I consider as bugs: First, the illumination adjustment does not work with in the group with the chartplotter, thus twice a day some 15 – 20 times buttons need to be pressed to change between daylight and nighttime view. A “perfect” design. I’m wondering what the developer thought when this cumbersome system was programmed. The second bug is that AIS cannot be switched off. Thus, in a marina or mooring field there is always an alarm going off. That’s the result of a programming by someone who has never been on a boat. “A few of the new Raymarine instruments have been designed by a cheap Chinese junior high school student” is the description I use often.

Tomorrow I’m send a mail to my Raymarine “guy” in Germany who supports me very well since I have MaRe and ask if he knows some tricks to get it better working.

On Sunday, I went with Norah & Peter by taxi in the direction of Jerusalami. (Joe stayed on board to work on her Bachelor thesis she needs to submit in August.) We had planned to look at this village. However, it turned out that it’s a very small settlement. Our taxi driver proposed to go to a waterfall not that far away. We agreed and he brought us there.

The area around the waterfall is under development for touristic events. However, beside us, there were only a group of about 5 Australians there.

We walked along the easy to walk trail into the forest – or better said jungle – to the waterfall. The lush green with colorful plants and blossoms make always a nice contrast I look at, a vibrant feeling. I like this scenario, which I saw so often on the Pacific islands since the Gambier islands a few thousand national miles ESE.

Norah & Peter took a swim in the not warm water at the bottom of waterfall. I stayed dry out side and explored the area at the exit of the pond is the waterfall.

From there we walked towards the beach. There is a small settlement with maybe 20 houses. Like all Polynesien islands I visited so far, the properties are kept very clean.

A lot of “Bula” (hello) greetings what exchange with people outside there houses. From the last house a lady came out and asked, “Do need a transportation? The village was quite a bit away from the mainroad so this question to help us and to make some money was pretty reasonable. We thanked her because Norah made an agreement with the taxi driver to pick us up.

The day ended with delicious simple meal at an Fijian restaurant, Joe and I consider before we met Jullie & Don the other day.

DHL was the main thing I had to deal with.

There was first my Big Blue, my gennaker, which needed to be shipped to NZ for repair. When I arrived with the sail in its sail bag well tied up at the DHL office in Savusavu, I was told that it needs to be packed so the content can’t be seen. I was shocked for a moment because I could not see a quick solution. However, here we are on an island and the people on islands always have solutions. First William brought a box, which swallowed about 80 %. For the rest William brought a smaller box. While William worked already at the PC to initiate the shipment, another guy and I closed the parcel with 2 boxes and quiet some metres of yellow DHL tape. Once this was done William, already knew how much the shipment costs. Because only cash is accepted, I went downtown of Savusavu to the Westpac Bank. On this day non of their 2 ATMs gave me money with a message that a computer system somewhere could not process my request. A friendly lady of the bank told me that I can get money with avdebit card and my passport inside the bank. When in told her that my passport is on my boat, she told me I can try it at the other bank in Savusavu, a bit down the mainroad. There they also have 2 ATMs. One displayed already that it’s under maintenance. But the last ATM in town spit out the money I needed.

Back to DHL I learned something interesting about William. When he wrote by hand the receipt, he apologized for his slow writing. “I have to learn writing again” he said. “Why? What happened?” were my spontaneous questions.

“I had a brain surgery”, he told me…

In such moments I recognize how damned lucky I am with my health.

The sail left for Auckland the same day.

Then DHL kept my busy with the two parcel on the way to me and the time it takes getting both through customs in Nadi airport. For each parcel I sent all documents 3 times. With the help of Gina from DHL Savusavu, I learned both are through customs they but did not make it into a plane to Savusavu on Friday. The transport from Europe to Nadi was faster then customs clearance in Nadi.

Patience!!!

I also had and still have problems with baking bread. The flour we bought in NZ, and of which we still have 12 kg, has been treated chemically and this reduces the ability to rise. Only yesterday I could bake again a better bread than during the lasts weeks. The solution seems to be a long proofing of the dough in the fridge. I was already looking for a recipe with only dry yeast. Maybe the flour is chemically “killed” and contains some artificially enzymes, which react with yeast to let the dough rise. Modern bakery works mostly with enzymes. It’s incredible what trash flour is sold in NZ. The flour I got in French Polynesia was much better.

Another task was to get the route through the islands from here to Suva and to promising dive spots. I studied Soggy Paws’ “Fiji compendium”, checked satellite images, and the Navionics charts forward and backward. I also got information from Don of SV First Light. Don sails with his wife Julie since 2 years in Fiji. In the meantime I have my waypoints through the passes and to possible anchor spots. It will require careful navigation. On the other side I expect to be in wonderful diving spots.

But there is also a very wonderful event coming up. My daughter Norah and her boyfriend are on their way to here. We will sail through all the islands along the route I planned, to Suva, where they unfortunately disembark again. Their lives are back home in the Netherlands and I’m very happy that they can spent two weeks with me on MaRe.

I’m sometimes very lucky!

Today I wanted to see something of the island and took off myself as Joe wanted to work on her bachelor thesis.

I headed SW out of Savusavu. Until the Jacque Cousteau Resort, I hitch hiked. At the shore I met an Australian couple and chatted with them for while before taking off to walk along the beach of the resort. I didn’t walk much when a group of 3 Indian families started talking to me. Next stop. This time a kava-stop. They invited me to a bowl (about a small cup) of kava. A typical drink, which is important in Fijian culture. It gives an kind of fuzzy feeling on the tongue. It’s not an alcoholic drink. The following is copied from the AI, Le Chat:

Kava, a traditional drink in Fiji and other Pacific Island cultures, is made from the root of the kava plant (Piper methysticum). It is important to note that kava is not an alcoholic beverage. Instead, it contains compounds called kavalactones, which have sedative, anesthetic, and euphoriant properties.

The effects of kava are often compared to alcohol in terms of relaxation and sociability, but it does not contain ethanol, which is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Therefore, the alcohol content of traditional kava is effectively 0%.

Then I finally took off towards the cape. When I was there and saw the long a flat beach at low tide, I decided to walk until the next village about 3 – 4 km away. It appeared like a easy walk in the still wet sand of the beach. The outer reef was about 500 m – 1000 m away. The inner reef was wide and flat with ditches of water at lower areas. In one area a group of dogs had some fun out there. No clue why.

After walking for a while I saw that there are sporadically houses just inside the wilderness of the forest along the shore; it’s a kind of jungle.

I even found car tracks on the beach. This indicates that people use the beach to drive to and from their houses.

Coming closer towards the next village Nukumbalavu, I found more houses but they appeared to be partially for rent and are weekend houses. Coming closer to the village, the beach was covered with big stones. Thus, when it became too cumbersome to walk over the stones, I decided to walk into the forest until I reach the street. On my OsmAnd off-line map I saw that’s only about 150 m to the street. It turned out that I had to walk through a private property. Nobody took note of me.

When I just reached the street, the next car stopped without me putting the thumb out and gave me a lift back to Savusavu’s bus station. Perfect!

I had a good time!

S 16° 46.728
E 179° 19.856

…writing this narration and waiting for the shuttle boat back to Nawi Marina.

Left early this morning to check out some things on the Savusavu town side.

Got all the information I need and enjoy now this quiet while a of waiting for my cappuccino and a waffle in a coffee shop. All of these sounds pretty Western and it is Western. The influence of Europe and the USA is not to be overseen. The good thing is that they don’t offer coffee with xxx flavor. The cappuccino I’ll get is supposed to be coffee with only coffee taste and the foamed milk with cocoa powder.

The town is pretty busy already in the morning. Small street vendors sell produce of their gardens. In the public market hall, a fully open construction, local veggies and fruits are sold. All from the actual season. Only garlic comes from China, and apples from NZ. Chinese garlic is sold on all islands of the southern Pacific from the most SE islands of the Gamblers to NZ and up to Fiji.

The friendliness of the people here is wonderful. “Bula” (hello) comes from almost everybody. One only needs a certain physical closeness or an eye contact and there is the “Bula”. It has a nice sound and feels good. Feels like being a part of the island.

The population is a mixture. What I can see in is a high percentage of Indian people. They own most of the shops or are teachers or police officers etc. The Indian routed population is about 50 %. A few local whites are also too be recognized.

The day before yesterday, we met Olivier & Neila again. We met them a few weeks ago in Whangarei marina, NZ. First we wanted to meet in a restaurant, but then Joe proposed to have dinner for 4 on board. We talked about many things but among them there was also conversations about the growing nationalism, racism, etc all around the world. For me it was so good to have these three people with their libral mindset and openness towards understanding of human right and diversity on board. One of the high lights of my looong sail.

There’s is soon another, repeating high light coming up: Norah my daughter, and her boyfriend are coming soon on board. Last time I saw Norah, Frank & Judith, grandkids, and my wife, was the end of December 2022, when we sailed the San Blas Islands.

As for our documents we I got all now and bills for health and biosecurity inspection are paid. So we have now also the permit to sail in the listed islands. Regulation and follow up send to be pretty strict. In have to submit a report every week on where I’m, who’s on board, and….

S 16° 46.524,
E 179° 20.039

… waiting for the shuttle boat to bring us back from Savusavu to the Nawi Marina, on Nawi Island.

The Nawi Marina, in which we entered on the 21st, is located on a tiny island separated by a 150 m across a little stretch of water called a “creek”. That it is a creek, I could not recognize until iy was told that this is the Nakama Creek.

It was important to know the Nakama Creek because when we reached the mouth of the creek we were asked to call the marina to get a boat escort into the marina. Not too bad, considered the many boats at buoys and plenty of unusual marker buoys around. On top of this a guy has a job. The one who escorted us inside and the others inside are really skillful marineros. They know what needs to be done.

A few hours after docking for health inspection, bio security inspection, customs, and immigration we moved to our berth, where we will be until departure.

Looking over to the neighbor pier I saw SV KOBEL of Adrian & Dagmar. I met them first in Panama, then in Nuku-Hiva, and now here. They are here since a while and even bought a house on the northern side of Vanua Levu, the big northern island of Fiji. Fortunately, I briefly could meet Adrian because they left next day to fly to Germany for a while.

The next days were filled with getting fresh food, and look around for a new PC for Joe. It’s not that easy to get a reasonable laptop here. The solution might be that my daughter will bring a new charger with her from Holland when she comes over. However I also recommend a new PC because the old one has already it’s problems.

Today 24th I got a message from a NZ friend asking why we are on the hard again. The Garmin tracking (https://share.garmin.com/P435) is based on Google maps and the Google maps of this area is for a few years not updated. Above coordinates are the coordinates of MaRe in her berth in the marina.

I can insure you MaRe is in the water.

Currently, I’m sitting at customs again and wait for a copy of the C2C document and the cruising permit. The problem I have with waiting is not the time it takes but the “refrigerator” I’m sitting in. I would not be surprised if the room temperature is 24 degC or even lower. It’s simply COLD!

S 17° 04.674,
W 179° 57.492

As the wind is not good at all, we didn’t make a reasonable progress, and the forecast even shows more unfavourable weather, I decided to use the engines for the last 60 NM.

I don’t run engines on normal cruising RPM but a bit less to reach the most western point in a more reasonable time. Depending how things develop I’ll slow down a bit more.

Currently we only run with 5.5 KN STW.

As I wrote a friend just before, there is no need to sail always 9, 10, 11, and in peaks 12 KN.

Since yesterday wind is down thus speed is down. However, I honestly miss my Big Blue. It would be the ideal sail today.

What’s not available is not available. “Sha nai naa” it’s what the people in Osaka would say. I like this term which I learned during my research days at Osaka University’s ILE.

Since we reached the first island of Fiji last night, we always see at least one island. Most of them appear not to be inhabited. What we saw is that these islands are densely for forested. Tonight, we will pass at the southern corner of Taveuni Island and I expect that there is village or town in the vicinity of the Cape South. We’ll see.

Last night we sailed through the southern part of the Lau groupe of island. The desire to go closer or even go inside was indeed strong. But, there’s always a but, we first have to clear into Fiji.

This we will do at Nawi Marina, Savusavu, Vanua Levu Island. Current ETA at the marina is tomorrow around noon.

S 17° 33.355,
W 178° 14.397

We are drifting,
We are drifting,
Stormy waters, stormy seas….

Since about an hour, all sails are down and MaRe is adrift.

Adrift is also Joe. She asked if she is allowed to catch a humpback whale. I denied because the deck would get dirty. Now she is looking for sharks…

Swimming at only a depth range of 2000 – 3000 m, according to the Navionics sea chart for the Pacific Islands.

And this all about 25 NM from the first WPT at the”outskirts” of the Fiji archipelago.

The sunrise sky was special. The eastern half of the sky was covered with a layer of clouds, thicker and thinner. Through the thinner parts and small holes a yellow-greyish light came through and the thicker clouds made a dark grey contrast. The uncovered part of the sky was blue with a tiny of violet an the moon still high up. I watch it for a short while and enjoyed the painting on the sky.

The sea is almost flat and the weakening wind turned against us. What’s left of the wind, creeps with some 4 – 8 KN over the sea from West. This is exactly where we need to sail to. Wonderful!