Cyclones, Diving & Boat Breakdowns- Cruising Dangerously in Eastern Fiji (Taveuni, Kioa and Rainbow Reef)

Hey - Where did everyone go?

Happy Cyclone Season! Neptune actually jumped the gun and sent Lola (Category-5) across Vanuatu (an island group just west of Fiji), where a friend of ours on another Amel had a narrow escape. Over eight years in the Caribbean made us confident regarding hurricanes.....they start off Africa, are easily tracked as they intensify, and could be dodged/avoided because they follow reasonably predictable paths.

Out here, rainbows mean here it comes, not there it goes......

We have been disappointed to learn that other than spinning in the opposite direction, cyclone season in the South Pacific may prove more challenging than its Caribbean analog. For starters, despite our wealth of weather data, we're getting a lot of "noise in the system". A dangerous storm pops up on one weather model as a threat ten days out, then disappears in the update...only to pop up on another weather model. The six models we use differ significantly, so we actually check the weather 3 times daily. Additionally, we also monitor a slew of other websites that monitor the Tropic Hazards. The issue is that we are 150 miles from our hurricane pit, which is literally a hole in the ground in Vuda Bay Marina which will (in theory) protect our boat should a cyclone hit. Identifying an oncoming cyclone is important to do early, as it becomes a race..........we need to beat the cyclone to Vuda by several days to be safe. 

Oops; white dot (us)....too late to run west to our hurricane pit

That said, why are we 150 miles from our cyclone pit hunkering down in brand new (and supposedly cyclone-proof) Nawi Island Marina? Because a possible cyclone has emerged and would beat us to our pit at Vuda if we tried to race it there. Psychiatric workers are trained never to let the patient get between you and the door. We seem to have committed the sailing version of that sin. What will we be doing once it passes? Moving rapidly westward towards our pit, assuming we still have a boat to sail. Our early learning regarding the weather here is that we don't know what we don't know. So, the above pictured cyclonic mass is due in 48 hours. We have 13 dock lines, 8 fenders, and all our fingers crossed.

A bit more to do before Tuesday

Over the last six weeks we have been enjoying Paradise. Both figuratively and literally. 

Snorkeling and diving paradise

Resort life in the off-season

We set out from SavuSavu to explore one of the great scuba diving areas of the world - The Rainbow Reef. Fiji has the fortunate distinction of having numerous resorts that are extremely friendly to sailing cruisers. Paradise Resort is notable both for its warm welcome and for the reef right in front of the resort. We had the good fortune of arriving in time to celebrate the Fijian National Holiday of Fiji Day - much singing, games and even free cake was featured. 

Some festive staff and families taking a time out to celebrate independence

I smell a Grammy (click the play button)

Mr. and Mrs. Fiji in native garb.....this guy jumped out of his scratchy reed get-up seconds after his dance ended

We took a mooring ball and then started to do one of our very favorite things - scuba dive right from our sailboat. No need for a dive company or a dinghy - hop in and down you go. Fiji has by far the healthiest corals we have seen while sailing and what a treat to see them up close every day. The variety of sea life here was amazing. We watched a three foot long banded snake eel swim in the coral and then suddenly shoot 40 feet up to the surface of the water. We moved along but Kirstin shortly got an unpleasant surprise as she forgot that what goes up must come down. The very same snake descended ten minutes later two feet from her head and just in her peripheral vision. The most poisonous snake on Earth lives in these waters as well, and has white and black striping just like the banded snake eel. In fact, I'm not sure I can tell them apart (the snake is tiny). Kirstin maintains that her interloper was the harmless cousin of the poisonous snake so we will go with that.

Nice facilities at this dive resort

Cyclone season results in Kiwis and Aussies retreating south, leaving us with our own beaches

We started to fear that we were getting a bit soft so the next stop was Viani Bay. Here we planned to go diving with a real dive company to explore the Rainbow Reef. What we didn't know is that we would be doing a technical dive first - a sunny day turned very dreary by the time we dropped the anchor in Viani Bay. Our satellite imagery did not show any coral heads in the vicinity and our sonar also indicated that the bottom was fairly flat. We anchored with confidence and turned on the anchor alarm. Imagine our surprise as a sunny morning greeted us and we looked down from the stern onto a massive coral head probably 15 feet under our boat. Down in the water we went to untangle our anchor and immediately moved to what we believed was a better location, on the other side of the bay.

Dive resort- getting here from America would be a real logistical challenge

The stress of anchoring in Viani rewarded us the moment we jumped into the water off the Dive Academy's boat.  Of the 600 or so scuba dives we've done, we've used a dive company fewer than 5 times, meaning we do things alone. Diving is very ritualistic in that there is a way to put on your gear, get in the water, communicate under the water, and finally surface. In our 600 dives away from other people, we suddenly realized that as divers, we're like a lost tribe from the Amazon. We do everything differently than dive boat people. It was comical getting into the water like a Seal-Team 6 guy (the backwards roll) vs. our less dramatic but more comfortable style we had developed. 

Marina (the proprietor) beginning to understand that we're from a different planet, diving wise, from her

Ready for the plunge......

And our hand signals under water were all different.......I took the Marina's hand signal for a clown fish to be some kind of insult aimed at me. 

Amazing coral head- so perfect it looks fake. Glad we didn't anchor on this one

Colors we've never seen underwater before

The dive sites we visited were creatively named Purple Wall and White Wall and they both delivered. During the White Wall dive we descended and swam through a lava tube where you are surrounded by spectacular coral of every color. Once through you are at around 80 feet deep and look up onto a wall that is covered in white soft corals. You can only do this dive under certain conditions so that the current brings out the white corals. The pictures can't really do justice to the beauty of this place.

Diving the White Wall Short Video (click the play button)

Looks like a page from a Dr. Seuss book...

...or a 70's album cover

The famed White Wall

Surprised that evil industrialists don't use this reef as proof that the oceans can absorb megatons more pollution easily

We have slept well in largely non-rolly anchorages thus far in Fiji but our good luck came to an abrupt end as did our sleep. We made a stop for provisions in Matei at the top of Taveuni - this roadstead anchorage reminded us of rolly nights in Hawaii - little protection, but fortunately a very good restaurant on shore and a taxi to take us to the two small grocery stores in town

You can just feel the roll in this picture

Scenic and tasty spot for lunch though

We then headed to the secluded mangroves of Naqaiqai Creek. Here we met a wonderful character of a man - Eddy. 

Meeting the chief

Eddy was born and raised in this mangrove surrounded bay and continues to live in his childhood home with his brother and sister-in-law. News comes from the radio, water from rainwater collected off the roof and electricity from a few solar panels. We had only been anchored for 15 minutes when Eddy paddled over in a plastic kayak. We immediately noticed that his face was very puffy and he seemed to have a slight slur when talking. He then mentioned that he had just been stung by ten hornets. We immediately asked if he wanted to come onboard and offered medicine but he declined and just wanted to chat. 

Eddy had a mouse problem at home until he acquired "Tom Cat", who is a good snuggler

Over the next several days we visited Eddy at this house several times and had great conversations with the entire family. Turns out Eddy spent 22 years in the United States stringing power lines but decided to come back to his bay in Fiji. No power but definitely more paradise. Fiji has hands down the nicest people we have encountered in 12 years of sailing and Eddy is amongst the best. We were very sad to say goodbye, but he told us that his bay is now our base for this part of Fiji. We will be back.

Another new friend Vincent brought over a load of bananas

At one point we had 50 bananas all on the same ripening schedule......made quite a mess

The island of Kioa is its own paradise for a unique group of people - Tuvaluans from the island of Vaitupu, apparently part of the Gilbert Islands of WW2 fame. Tuvalu is an island nation to the north of Fiji (yes, I had to look it up). In 1947 a number of families decided that they needed a new island - and bought an island in Fiji for 3,000 British Pounds. Their descendants are the residents of Kioa - currently home to around 300 with a further 1700 working off the island. The reason I can share this obscure history with you is because we had to meet the Chairman of the island - Nico. We came onshore and introduced ourselves to a woman in the community center. She immediately took us to the Chairman - it is very bad form to just show up and start wandering around the community so we knew to find someone and do it right. 

Community Center of the semi-autonomous Fijian enclave of Kioa

Commemoration of the island transfer to the displaced Tuvuluans

Unfortunately in this case we found Nico the Chairman to be asleep at noon as the community had just had a four day festival to celebrate their October 26, 1947 move to Kioa. Yes, our timing was bad on a number of fronts. We had a lengthy chat with Nico and his wife and left with ten more bananas to add to the 40 bananas already on our boat from Vincent in the prior bay. Kioa is a sleepy place in the middle of the day, but in late afternoon the entire community seemed to come out to play volleyball, sing and visit. The Kioans now also have Fijian citizenship but retain their language and culture. Their appearance is very distinctive from Fijians.

A slightly too aggressive anchoring job- note the coral close to the boat

It's customary in Fiji to give the Chairman (or Chief) of the village you are anchored in front of a gift. We left Nico some water filters, a housing for them, and a digital water purity tester since he told us he wasn't sure of his water quality.  If you are in the neighborhood stop by and tell Nico we sent you.

Central meeting place- built with whatever they can find

The boat continues to challenge us with the normal array of problems. The water maker high pressure pump fitting exploded, as an o-ring gave way..........shooting high pressure sea water across the engine room. We fixed that without incident, other than the initial shock. I couldn't help thinking that this is probably what the unfortunate crew of the Titan submersible saw just before the whole thing gave way. We still try to keep us on the inside and the water on the outside.

The larger issue is our transmission. It's leaked micro amounts of transmission fluid for years, but the leak has gotten worse. I need to replace an oil seal. To do that, I need a "special socket"........sold by the transmission maker at the "special price" of $589..........that's right. A single socket, usable on only one single lock-nut for $589. Needless to say, in times like these I pushed the EUDB (Emergency Uncle Dan Button). Kirstin's Uncle Dan is a what you would get if you could synthesize a master mechanic, engineer, tool and die maker, and designer. He ran equipment maintenance for a major US city, and designed add-on equipment at the most famous Motor Cycle maker on Earth. He owns a fork-lift. That's how legit Uncle Dan is. So I've solicited his advice on how to get this problem solved.........and I'm not worried.

With all this going on, we're seeing some amazing things here. Hopefully after this cyclone goes past we will get to see more. 

Fiji never disappoints in terms of stunning vistas