October 2008 - Fiji
 The view from Dravuni Island |
Our visit to Savusavu, Fiji last month was useful in that it allowed us to purchase items not available in the smaller islands, but it was all so busy. The noise of the traffic, the late night music, the ferries, the buzzing dinghies, the chatter on the VHF radio, having to pay money for a mooring. Too much, too much. It was time to leave, particularly as we wanted to be in Suva, tha capital of Fiji in time for the Hindu Festival of Light on the 28 October. So, the mooring was dropped, the sails raised and the course was set.
 Parrot Fish, Namena Island |
Having escaped from Savusavu, the first stop was Namena, a small island within a reef which had been made into a marine reserve. We managed to find a small area of shelter in the lee of the island to shelter from several days of strong winds and white horses lashing the seas around us. To keep us occupied, we found endless delights in amongst the coral gardens of the bay. We couldn't go ashore as the land was was also a reserve and the wardens preferred to discourage human interference from disturbing the prolific wildlife. We have rarely seen so many nesting seabirds within the tropic islands (still not as good as Orkney though). That was fine by us as we were well stocked from Savusavu and happy pottering in amongst the shoals of fish.
 Ruth examining giant clams, Makogai Island |
The giant clams were amazing to behold and truly giant. The process for cultivating them was complex and involved heaving these monsters out of the water into tanks during the breeding cycle so that the larvae could be caught and grown in a protected environment until they were big enough not to become fish food - the fate of the vast majority of the offspring.
 Angus, with friend, in the Davuni Bure |
Our next stop was one and a half mile long Dravuni Island within the Astrolabe Reef, a large area of protected water containing several islands within the surrounding reef allowing short, calm, easy day sails between anchorages. Our arrival in the Astrolabe reef has introduced us into the small island village culture of this part of the Pacific. In Fiji, there are no public areas in the vicinity of islands, the land and water is owned by someone, normally the nearest village. As part of one's arrival in the locale, it is respectful to pay one's complements to the village chief and ask permission to visit the area. This is a custom known as 'Sevusevu' and is a strong tradition which is impolite to ignore. The main component was the presentation of a gift of kava root, used to prepare the local narcotic drinking brew. In preparation for our visit, we had purchased several bundles of the root from the market at Savusavu.
 A Tiera Batfish, yes, it really is this shape |
We arrived on Fiji's Liberation Day and the villagers had started their celebration at 9am with the men sitting in the Bure drinking kava and the women working away in the houses weaving mats. On going ashore, we were shown to the bure (an open sided community meeting hut) by Maseu, one of the young island men, and welcomed into the circle. Maseu was an island lad who had married a visiting American Peace Corps girl two years previously and now lived in the USA. He had returned to the island for a few weeks to visit his family and made an excellent host for our visit, subsequently showing us around the island.
I introduced ourselves to the chief and gave a small speech explaining who we were, where we had come from, explained the reason for visit and asked his permission to visit the village and surrounding islands, following which I presented our ceremonial bundle of kava root (placed on the ground in front of him, not handed over). He took the roots and gave an answering speech in Fijian which was briefly translated by another of the men folk for our benefit as welcoming us to the village and offering whatever hospitality they could provide.
 Ruth's favourite beastie |
Now, I was to be initiated into the mysteries of the Kava ceremony. This has held much mystique, fear, uncertainty and doubt for cruisers. Kava is the root of the pepper plant, which is dried, pounded to a powder (it was chewed by young virgins in days of old to add a nicely fermented touch to the mixture) and used to make a drink used on social and ceremonial occasions in the area in a similar way to alcohol. Its advantages are that the plant is grown locally and is cheap as it is not controlled by the government. The locals reckon that whereas alcohol makes you noisy, kava, makes you quiet and mellow. A possible improvement for Friday and Saturday night in your local town centre. The kava used to be imported into Europe and the USA as anti-depressants and muscle relaxants but it was decided that it could cause liver damage and was banned. However, alcohol is still available - ironic isn't it?
The production and drinking of kava takes place as a formal or semi-formal ceremony with rituals to be followed. The powdered root is placed in a muslin bag and swilled around in a 1 metre diameter carved wooden multi-legged ceremonial bowl by the appointed Master of Ceremonies. These bowls have much cultural significance as they used for formal ceremonies and are treated with respect. When the brew has reached the required consistency, it is ready for drinking. On being offered a coconut bowl of the mixture by the cup bearer, the guest claps once, takes the bowl, says 'bula' (welcome), downs the brew in one go, hands the bowl back, claps three times and says 'vinaka' (thank you). As there were a few other points of etiquette to be noted (remaining seated cross legged throughout, not turning ones back on the village chief, walking at a crouch, not walking within the circle, don't take photographs, etc) Ruth and I had a few practise sessions with cups of tea before hand.
 Christmas tree worms |
Having had our practise sessions, I think I managed to get through the initial ceremony without dropping any social clangers. I can report from first hand experience that kava in the ceremonial bowl looks like a muddy puddle, tastes like soapy water and leaves a slight numbness in the mouth for a few minutes and a slightly stoned feeling. We were then free to chat and exchange news, views and politics. Being hospitable folks, I was offered a further 4 bowlfuls at half-hour intervals which politeness dictated that I drink. The after effects are a queasy feeling and a desire not to repeat the experience. Subsequent kava sessions were more agreeable. I suspect that, like whisky, one needs to cultivate one's palate. Ruth managed to evade most of the session by chatting with the ladies (who generally do not participate) in the background. However, she was spotted and had to down a bowlful.
We returned to the festivities during the evening for music, talk and a further four bowls of kava. The men chatted with each other and us and took it in turns to play guitars and ukeleles and sing beautiful harmonising songs. In a community with restricted access to television, most of the people can sing, dance and play instruments. Having no natural musical or singing ability between us, our party piece was to show our laptop video of the Pacific Arts Festival from American Samoa in July, including clips and stills of the Fijian team contribution.
 Puffer fish |
Ruth was co-opted onto a team playing a cross between shove hapenny and pool on a low one metre square table with corner pockets on which a white disc was flicked to pocket the team's pieces. According to Ruth, the game is fun and easy to play when stoned.
As is usual with passing yachties we were asked for assistance in various projects. Cruisers often have skills, spares and tools not available on the small islands and it is nice to repay the hospitality shown to visitors. Angus was co-opted to fix a Yamaha electric piano (no dice, full of rust, cockroach eggs and cremated components) and an ancient outboard motor. The outboard was easier and was persuaded to run by making a new gasket for the fuel pump. It didn't seem to bothered by the array of wires and pipes hanging loose out of the innards.
 D Day of the cruise ship invasion |
One of the sources of income for the Dravuni islanders is visits by tourist cruise ships. The cruise ship passengers get to experience "real island life" for a few hours and the islanders get a significant chunk of money for the community from the anchoring fees. The villages spent several days preparing for the visit, making mats, collecting necklaces and other items to sell to the visitors and rehearsing their singing and dancing, Mesu our host had a star turn at the front of the dancers.
 Mesu, our friend and host looking after the visitors |
On D Day, the huge, white edifice appeared from over the horizon, entered the reef pass and dropped anchor just off the island. Over the next few hours, liberty boats disgorged over a thousand passengers onto the shores of the village of 90 people. We always try to be aware or local culture and behaviour norms so that we can interact while causing minimum offence. One aspect is that Fijian dress conservatively, the ladies cover arms and legs, if they swim (we never saw them do so) they remain fully clothed, they do not wear hats and sunglasses and they speak quietly. We were astonished to see many passengers, male and female, come ashore in speedos, string bikinis and stroll around amongst the locals and dwellings. To Fijian eyes, this would be similar to tourists visiting a small English village and walking around naked. Talking to the ship staff, the passengers were not given any guidance in these matters, they were not aware themselves. The village chief, however, was quite sanguine, the islanders respected the culture of the visitors, appreciated the money the ships bought in and by the end of the day the island was tranquil again. There is a link to a small video of the event at the bottom of this page.
 A highly poisonous lion fish, the first we have seen |
Moving onto Ono Island, we were able to experience another aspect of island life. The men were away working, so we conducted the Sevusevu ceremony with the Chief's wife who welcomed us and invited us for lunch the following day. As the village was too small to pay for its own school, the children were sent to another village where there was a school from Monday to Friday . On their return on Saturday, the mothers cooked up a big lunch, to which we were invited, to welcome them back. With the mothers, children and ourselves sitting cross-legged on the floor of the house, the meal of baked fish, taro and cassava was served by the mothers to the children and us first. The meal, eaten, with fingers, was followed by bread and a cup of tea. Only when everyone had had enough did the mothers eat.The men were sat elsewhere in the village Bure, passing the day chatting and drinking kava. They invited us in for a cup or two and asked if we could assist them by giving a lift to a villager to Suva. Sadly, we had to decline this request as we were not able to return on the required day.
The final island was Yaukuvelevu where an Australian and Canadian had spent over $10 million developing a hotel. About half way through the process, Fiji had another one its coups in 2006 and the investors stopped the work. Two years later, expensive mahogany woodwork is rotting, marble baths and plumbing are corroding, the individual swimming pools outside each chalet are shedding tiles. On the plus side, the friendly caretakers offered as many papayas, coconuts and bananas as we could carry.
 Seini and the Pastor visiting for afternoon tea. Ruth is holding the buns cooked by Seini. |
We needed to say a final farewell to our hosts back on Dravuni, in particular, the Pastor and his wife Seini were very keen to visit Do It to see how yachties lived. On their arrival , Seini promptly deluged us with gifts including a skirt and woven mat for Ruth, a shirt for Angus and some fruit and home baked bread. We had a very pleasant afternoon tea/coffee with a splendid chocolate cake baked by Ruth who understood the Islanders sweet tooth only too well. Sadly, we had to cut the visit short as poor Seini's stomach could not take the boat motion or more than half a slice of the chocolate cake. On the plus side, Angus managed to fix and download pictures from an underwater digital camera found by the Pastor while snorkelling, which had been lost by one of the Cruise ship passengers during the previous weeks visit.
Time is approaching to think about the return to New Zealand for the Cyclone season. So we had to sail to Suva, the capital of Fiji, to stock up and complete the customs and immigration formalities. The initial shock of the noise, smoke and commotion of a busy city was not pleasant after several weeks in the islands.
 Houses dressed overall for Dewali |
Another reason to visit Suva was the forthcoming Dewali Festival of Light, the equivalent of Christmas for the Hindu Indo-Fijians. Advertisements on the local radio talked about "cheap Dewali offers" and "Dewali bargains available now". We anticipated a colourful public display of lights, music and fireworks but Dewali is more of a family affair and other than some private fireworks and the dressing up of houses in lights, there is little of the western protracted Christmas fanfare. However, we managed to arrange for a taxi tour of the lights in the Indo-Fijian residential areas. Gabriel, our taxi driver was so enthusiastic, he drove us round to his family house to share some food and drink.
Culinary Delights
 Kava roots, wrapped for presentation |
Kava. See above, need I say more?
The locals eat flying fox bats and turtles which are considered as endangered in the first world. An interesting dilemma between accepting hospitality offered and concern for world resources should one get offered a bat to eat. There is an argument that small scale indigenous harvesting does no harm, but we are not indigenous and it doesn't take many visitors to rack up the consumption.
What Broke
One item that has been increasingly concerning us is our ant-fouling paint. The expensive potion has to be re-applied below the waterline every 12-18 months to keep control of the flora and fauna that would otherwise attempt to hitch a ride with us on our travels. This entails an expensive haul out and much work to remove the old growth, loose paint and prepare the surface for the next layer. After an unknown number or applications before we purchased 'Do It' and three within our ownership, the paint system is in poor condition with large areas falling off to be rapidly replaced by weed and barnacles.
 The Changing of the guard outside the Presidential Palace, Suva |
This will entail another expensive haul-out and an even more expensive soda or sand blasting to remove all the old layers so that we can start re-applying new layers of the incredibly expensive paints on a sound surface. The purchase of a boat is just the down payment in a whole new way of spending money and time. We have not decided where in NZ and how to do this work. Ideally, it should be carried out in a hot dry environment to keep the steel fresh and dry for the paint after blasting. Australia would be ideal but we cannot wait that long.
An important piece of equipment we use on board is our beloved Furuno weatherfax which we use to receive and print out synoptic weather charts and satellite pictures from various meteorological services. Although is is possible to use a laptop PC to receive these useful images over the single side band radio, there is nothing quite like having a piece of paper in one's hand to mull over the subtleties. We purchased ours from another yacht in Panama last year for $100, new ones go for £1500 in the UK. Recently, it has been making some strange noises and finally stopped printing. A disaster with our passage from Fiji to New Zealand coming up. We had spotted a Furuno office in Suva where they looked after the ship equipment in the port. They fixed it up in a couple of days, for no charge. If only yacht services everywhere could adopt this practice.
Next Month
By the end of next month, we should be back in New Zealand wearing socks and thermals with a duvet on the bed.
Videos
For those of you with Broadband internet, this month's videos are here:
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