FIJI 2005

We left Opua, New Zealand in the late morning of May 23 after waiting there for the right weather conditions for 2 weeks.  Nine days later we arrived in Savusavu, same point of entry that we made last year. Great to see some of the people that we met the year before, but we were eager to get going so a week later we did an over night sail to the eastern most group of islands called the Lau group.  Turned out there were a few other boats also going over to the Lau, our friends on Nordlys from England, Shadow Fax from New Zealand, Moonshadow from San Diego and some new friends on the boat Billabong from California came a little later. We had a terrific check in  and sevusevu ( discription of sevusevu in Fiji 2004) which was a nice intro to this beautiful group of islands.

vista from the Lau group click photo to enlarge

After our sevusevu we got a complementary tour of the main village and even visited their school. Photos of school children below - click to enlarge

some of us yachties waiting for sevusevu in the Lau. click photo to enlarge

signing the village book.        click to enlarge

Just two of the many  things that make Fiji unique. Left, a bure(house) Right, fruit bat in a breadfruit tree

Being in the right anchorage at the right time we even managed to have a celebrity sighting and get a photo.  Photo at left shows Mel carrying a load out to a yacht waiting to take him and his entourage to his newly aquired fijian island. click to enlarge Poor  guy, he still can't manage to get away from the paparazzis, even in the remote Lau group of Fiji.

Also unique to the South Pacific Islands is the delicacy, Beche de Mer or as we know it, sea cucumber, shown below cooling after roasting. click photo to enlarge

One of our favorite areas in the Lau was  an area called the Bay of Islands. With it's exquisite, clear, blue, calm water the Bay of Islands is a cruisers paridise. We did a lot of scuba diving, snorkeling and general dinghy exploring. The picture at the top of the page, the one at left and the 3 below show the serene, unspoiled beauty of this very special place. click photos to enlarge

As we were expecting our daughters, Amanda and Guinevere for a visit we could only stay in the Bay of Islands for 3 weeks. Although we felt we could have  languished passively here for much longer, we were anxious to see the girls. So we sailed for a couple of days to reach Musket Cove on the west side of Viti Levu where we were to pick them up.

There's a great little resort at Musket Cove and for a small fee you can pick up one of their moorings. We had full use of the resort facilities including pool, showers, beach, grocery store and restaurants. There also was a bar and barbeque area where drinks were $3.00 Fiji, about $1.50 US and we would often have barbeques with the other yachties there. It was loads of fun but after letting the girls have a week in the goodlife we sailed south and east to the Astrolabe Reef near the island of Kandavu. Along the way we stopped at Richard's favorite surf resort, Namotu and the famous, Tavarua. Unfortunately the waves weren't breaking that day so the girls were unable to witness the massive surf that those two small islands are famous for.  Click photos to enlarge

Musket Cove Anchorage

Guin flying into Musket Cove

posing at the lookout at Tavarua

The bowsprit girls

"Grace" anchored in front of Namotu

The boardroom at Tavarua

Richard catches dinner

Fiji Palm

We had some great times showing the girls what cruising in Fiji was like, including a couple of sevusevus which gave them there first taste of kava and an idea of the islands culture and people.  There were quite a few rainy, stormy days that we were confined to the boat but the girls brought enough dvds to keep us entertained. After spending time secluded in the Astrolabe reef we sailed back towards civilization and the town of Nadi and Lautoka for fun shopping.  A couple of days after the girls left we took off for New Caledonia to meet up with our annual crew member, Clay.

To more Fiji photos To New Caledonia To home For comments from visiting crew