| FIJI via WALLIS Sept- Oct, 2004 |
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| We departed Samoa on Sept 20 on a broad reach, port tack. It took us 2 days before we sighted Wallis Island. We heard that you should only negotiate the pass there around slack tide as the ou-flowing current is strong, but as it turned out we went in 2 hours after low tide with no problems. The anchorage was a bit windy but there were many options so we could move around while visiting. Wallis is a French protectorate. The local name for this island is Uvea, however, the name Wallis stuck after a visit from the British captain, Samuel Wallis, though the French came later and claimed it for themselves. |
| The people here have ancestral connections with Tonga and their native language is very similar. There is virtually no English spoken here, so it really helps to know some French. While we were here, we were fortunate to meet some terrific people who motored up to our boat one afternoon and invited us to dinner. He was a Frenchman who was in Wallis teaching electronics in the high school and his daughter, about 27, was visiting for a couple of months from Paris. He hardly spoke any English though she spoke it very well, so with our broken French and her excellent English we got on quite well. The afternoon before we went to dinner, Lilia, the visiting daughter, took us on a short excursion to a fantastic |
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| Church of the Sacred Heart, in Fagauvea, Wallis Island click photo to enlarge |
| volcanic crater lake called Lalolalo. This lake is an almost perfect circle surrounded by sheer, rocky cliffs that drop into the 80- meter deep waters of the lake. It is said that with the great depth of the water and the remoteness of the lake, the American forces dumped equipment into it at the end of WWII. That night we had a fantastic dinner at a lovely restaurant with about 6 of their friends. All were from France and in Wallis for a limited time teaching, working in politics and running a computer business. They were great people and as the liters of wine started to kick in the communication gap didn't seem to matter much any more, the laughter was non-stop. The next day we had them out to the boat for lunch and said goodbye as we were leaving the next day for Fiji. |
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| Crater Lake Lalolalo click photo to enlarge |
| Lilia, Michel and Michel in the cockpit of AG. click on photo to enlarge |
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| Small rock formation near the Wallis Island pass click photo to enlarge |
| FIJI: OCT- NOV, 2004 |
| We departed Wallis on Oct 1 for Savusavu, Fiji on a beam, SE winds, a full jib and a double reefed main sail, it was a good start. We were moving at 7knts our first 2 days and realized that we would have to try and slow "Grace" down some to time our arrival with the light of day. Luckily the wind dropped a bit on the third day and backed behind the beam so we were able to slow her down. By the fourth day we had to start motoring into the pass to Savusavu Bay. |
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| Savusavu anchorage click photo to enlarge |
| The Fiji Archipeligo has over 300 islands, the biggest of which is Viti Levu at over 10,000 sq. km., the Vanua Levu at over 5,500 sq. km. Knowing that we had only a month here before our seasonal migration back to New Zealand and out of the cyclone belt, we decided to spend it on and around Vanua Levu. After picking up a mooring at the Savusavu anchorage we immediately got caught up with our old friends on the yacht "Rigo", Steve and Iretta, whom we hadn't seen since we left New Zealand 5 months prior. |
| a couple of days after we arrived we went on an organized bus ride to Labasa, the largest town on the island. With our terrific tour guide, Curly, a cruising Kiwi who settled from New Zealand to Savusavu many years prior, it was a great way to see the countryside with the numerous sugar plantations on one side and the magnificent NW coast of Vanua Levu on the other. The Indian population is dominant in and around Labasa, mostly descendents of indentured laborers brought to work on the plantations many years before. |
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| Rich and Curly click photo to enlarge |
| plantation workers in the sugar cane fields on the road to Labasa click photo to enlarge |
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