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| Jessie James and family |
When was the last time you went to the supermarket? Yesterday or over the weekend perhaps? For us it was nine weeks ago. Having found arguably the most beautiful place in the South Pacific in Fulaga, we did what sets L'ORIENTals apart from all other cruisers........we lingered. Why do an island in five days when you can do it in six weeks? With plenty of food and fuel, we probably set the record for inaction.
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One of our private beaches
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| Weird volcanic "mushrooms" everywhere |
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| Not sure I understand the physics of this |
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How do palm trees grow here?
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| Good for shade; but hope it doesn't fall on me |
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| First class swimming hole |
Along the way though, we really got to know the people of Fulaga. Just an amazing group of people that live differently than anyone we've ever met. No running water, no electricity, no roads, cars, limited solar, etc.
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| The path to the village - we walked it many times |
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| The other side of the island |
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| | Lali- used for summoning villagers to the center of the village |
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A supply boat comes once a month- the Fulagans largely barter to supplement what they produce themselves. One huge export is friendship and a village-wide vibe of contentment. It's like they are one big happy family.
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| School kids mugging for the camera- not sure if the Crips want their hand signals back or not |
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| This huge mud crab was a gift from the locals |
Fulagans have difficulty remembering western names; they solved that problem by informing us that we were not "Tom and Kirstin" but "Tomasi and Tina". I was happy with "Tomasi" but Kirstin has a problem with "Tina" and although happy with Fulagans calling her this, she's leaving "Tina" in Fulaga when we leave. We also would have had difficulty remembering all of the names but in true "Tina" fashion we had an iPhone notes list with an ever increasing number of names and pronunciations.
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| Health clinic |
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| This is actually an operational post office..... |
We arrived in Fulaga as the fourth boat in the lagoon but across the weeks there the numbers swelled to 25 boats spread across the vast lagoon. What do you do when you have a lot of sailors around? Like any enterprising community you have a school fundraiser for sports uniforms. We all came together for a night of song, dance and an impressive spread that the women of Fulaga had spent days preparing. The evening was held in the community center which was built several years ago from a donation from a passing mega yacht.
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| As two of the most tenured visitors, we scored some perks |
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| Furniture is not used much in Fiji |
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| Local kids doing a dance routine to entertain us |
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The youngest performer
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| Yummy local cuisine |
Given the space on a sailboat we are generally very discriminating about buying arts and crafts from the countries we visit. Meeting Mini on Fulaga put that to the test. There are several islands in Fiji that have master carvers and Mini was definitely that. This is carving done entirely by hand - no lathes, no electric sanders - just hard work and sandpaper. We couldn't leave without a memento of his mastery. We ended up with two - the first is a bowl in the shape of a starfish and the second is a commissioned piece that features the Amel logo of our boat.
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| Mini finishing the starfish bowl- one piece of wood |
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| Before and after - a masterpiece |
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| Amazing craftsmanship using primitive tools |
A tradition in Fulaga is having your host family out to your sailboat. This was made a bit more difficult by the fact that our host family did not have a boat of their own. We took the dinghy in to pick them up and dropped off our guests but had to make one more special trip. Loma, who is related to our host family, was worried about her sick husband and needed a ride out to the Navy patrol boat in the lagoon to meet with the doctor on board. While I am out on this run Kirstin begins the boat tour and within seconds hears the sound of our seven year old visitor Manaki relieving himself in our head. Welcome to the boat! I had forgotten how much energy a seven year old boy can have. Having Starlink made a huge difference too - our guests could show their relatives (many of whom have never visited Fulaga) the lagoon for the first time via video call. Kind of an amazing moment.
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| Host family enjoying time on L'ORIENT |
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| Kirstin and Bale enjoying the views |
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| Guess he saw "Titanic" on Netflix |
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| Manaki "driving" the boat |
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| Manaki has more energy than five normal kids combined |
What we did not expect in Fulaga was to be at the center of Fiji breaking news. From our anchorage we noticed a Fiji patrol boat on the outside of the reef and wondered in passing what it was doing there. Two days later we noticed something interesting - the boat now appeared to be severely listing. Not on patrol but rather on the reef.
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| Passing this in your sailboat gets your attention |
This is an incredibly embarrassing turn of events as the patrol boat was a gift from Australia to Fiji and only commissioned ONE MONTH ago. It hit a reef on the inaugural voyage. Not good. Over the weeks tug boats and the only other floating Fiji patrol boat came as they removed all of the diesel from the boat and attempted to weld the gaping hole in the engine room. Our friend Feoko, one of the locals, joked that the island has been asking for a channel marker for years and now they had received a really expensive one. We were very nervous that during efforts to re-float the boat, they would block the only channel that can be used to exit the island. If this 130 ft boat sinks in the channel, we would never be leaving Fulaga. With that in mind, we left Fulaga just days ahead of the "big pull", which fortunately resulted in the patrol boat being towed off the reef to begin a long period of refitting.
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| Goodbye scary entrance rock |
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| Glad it isn't me welding underwater |
From Fulaga, we decided to stop in Matuku. Believe it or not, Matuku has fewer visitors than Fulaga, which is astounding. We were the third sailing vessel to visit this year! After the de rigueur hair raising passage through the cut in the coral reef, we arrived. Matuku is volcanic and more akin to the Marquesas than other Lau Group islands, but also stunningly beautiful.
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| Matuku's inner bay |
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| All alone, as usual |
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| More sudden rain in the Lau Group |
As in all Lau Group Islands, the ceremonial giving of the Kava root to the chief was in order. We were taken by Lukay to visit the Chief of Matuku (each village has a chief also). We got a great history lesson and were shocked by the fact that Starlink is here! In Matuku! The chief told us that every afternoon all of the villagers come with their phones and sit on his porch to use the Starlink.
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| The Chief's house in Matuku- a colonial era edifice (with Starlink) |
The Chief's village was not where we anchored, so there was another Chief to visit - the one ruling over Loma. Back at a restaurant in Denarau we had become friends with a server from Matuku. We have stayed in touch via Facebook and she told us that her Aunt and Uncle lived in the village and encouraged us to go find them. Although only 52 people live in Loma it was still good luck that the first person who greeted us was Mereseini's Aunt and it turned out that the uncle was also the Chief. How convenient.
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| The village Chief, Chico and family |
Uncle "Chico" was actually a stand-in Chief and not as regal as Chief Simon had been in Faluga. But Chico turned out to be kind of a Lauan super-hero. He had served in the Fijian Army as a peace-keeper in Lebanon and Syria. He was also quite an impressive mechanic. But the show stopper came when we were talking about our next stop with him- Suva.
Chico- "I go to Suva quite frequently when I need something".
Tomasi and Tina- "How? The supply boat comes only once a week here."
Chico- "I use my long-boat" (an open, 15 ft boat with a 40 hp outboard and no cockpit, windshield, etc)
Tomasi and Tina (astounded)- "Chico, that's 100 miles of open sea. You must be kidding"
Chico- "Takes 6 hours and 4 tanks of gas"
Tomasi and Tina- "You do this alone ?"
Chico- "Nobody ever goes with me a second time......you get quite wet"
Needless to say, this is unbelievably dangerous........downright crazy, in fact. But Chico considers this normal. He went on to say he navigates with a compass. Very Horatio Hornblower.
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| Touring Matuku |
So after meeting Chico and touring the 52 person village, we arrived back on the boat and were promptly visited by a swimmer from the woods next to where we anchored. We put down the ladder and invited him to join us. As he climbed out of the water, our visitor gave me his flipper. As he stepped up I asked him for the other one...........but there was no other flipper. Our visitor had as a birth defect a severely deformed left foot (this was a super awkward moment, obviously).
Our visitor introduced himself as none other than Jessie James. OK, whatever. Jessie James was kind of a Renaissance man..........farmer, fisherman, home schooling teacher, and hunter. He literally lives in the woods next to our boat (his house was invisible to us, 50 meters away) with his wife and four kids.
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| The James Gang serenades us |
Jessie, like Chico, embraced a number of risky behaviors. He went spear fishing at night, because the fish are easier to kill apparently. Jessie said there are big sharks in the lagoon and pass, but was dismissive of the danger. Jessie also hunts wild pigs with a pack of dogs and a knife. He helpfully explained how to deliver the death blow to a cornered wild pig, and showed us some scars he had from a wild pig encounter that went south.
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| Playing catch with a rugby ball- gotta use your imagination for entertainment here |
Jessie is just a guy you want to help out in any way possible. We gave him fishing line, lures, a dive suit, and I set up a solar controller for his house's solar panel array........he was so grateful, at one point we thought he was tearing up. Jessie and family have no money. Zero. It made us feel really good that we were able to help, and guilty that we couldn't do more. We also gave Jessie the password to our Starlink signal; for the first time, he had internet at his house in the woods. He was quite excited to not have to walk 45 minutes over the mountain (remember his foot issue) to charge his devices and get weak, slow internet at the school.
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| Helping Jessie wire up the controller we gave him |
Of course we received more than we ever could give. Visiting his family while they were clearing the brush to plant their farm was incredible. They literally burn the brush on the hillside and hope it doesn't spread too far.
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Fastest way to clear the hillside- light it on fire
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| Fruit basket gift from Jesse and family |
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| Jessie's house in the woods |
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| Outdoor kitchen |
The parade of visitors just kept coming. One Sunday late afternoon a long boat pulls up with four guys on it. They came bearing a gift of 50 bananas and easily as many limes. We invite them on to the boat for coffee - a key skill in Lau is the ability to share stories for hours at a time. All of these guys were farmers and exported Kava root to the USA - who knew? There are many, many places we have sailed where a long boat full of young men pulling up to your boat would trigger real worry. Not here.
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| Everyone in Matuku wanted to meet the yachties |
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| New friends enjoying the now famous "Tomasi Coffee" |
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| Too much fruit for us to have on the boat |
But our time was up. Food and fuel were starting to become a consideration. After nine straight weeks off the grid (no roads, cars, stores, or even wheels), we sailed to Suva to resupply and continue this journey. Tina (er, Kirstin) agrees with me that we've never been touched by a place the way the Lau Group has effected us. For us this place was the highlight of our 13 years on the boat and will forever stay with us. Enjoy the pictures.
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| Nine weeks worth of garbage.....time to go |
