Viti Levu - Musket Cove (Fiji) in Google Maps (web browser) and in Google Earth (separate application)

It’s a beautiful sunny day with light winds and for the first time in 6 months I’m setting sail on my own. The wind shifts hardly out of the marina, I am dropping the daggerboards (centerboards). One holds properly on the halyard while the other disappears down the shaft water. Luckily it cants and blocks at the bottom of the shaft and I jump with a line overboard to secure it. A few minutes later it falls out entirely and slowly floats back to the water surface. It’s nevertheless very heavy and I just about manage to lift it in the dinghy, towing it to Musket Cove where I hope to find a helping hand. Not everything is easier single-handing… With the help of Graham it takes less than 15 minutes to remount it.

There’s not much to do on Blue Bie or in Musket Cove. I service the winches, enjoy a few hours on a sandbank and at the pool of the Musket Cove Resort. In the evening I am grilling an excellent steak at the beach BBQ together with cruisers from all over the world.

I’m setting sail without clear destination planning to visit some surf spot and eventually Likuri Island. Already the first island looks inviting and I stop for the night. I get permission to come on the private island owned by a resort. Traditionally the land, the water and the reef belong to the villages and one needs a permission to anchor. Unfortunately, this tradition has been transferred to the resorts, too, which now claim some of the best surf spots in the world as private!

The resort is occupied by young surfers; the surf is huge and runs very fast. Not only the surf is huge – a substantial beach break fills my dinghy and I’m happy that my camera is waterproof! Moving on I’m sailing past the famous ‘Cloudbreak’ surf spot. Only the spray is visible from the islands; the spot itself is too far out for the 5m high surf to be visible. The spot is for professionals only! I get in the wind line of the SE-trades a bit later and beat to windward for an hour to reach the perfectly protected Likuri Island with the Robinson Crusoe Resort.

I’m passing a few relaxing days at the Robinson Crusoe Resort, a small backpacker resort with many day guests. Cruisers are very welcome and can join the ‘Yacht Club’ for 1 Fiji dollar and once they have consumed a beer at the bar! Cruisers are invited to all the complimentary resort activities and one of the best shows in Fiji.

I’m having dinner at the resort and it still feels a bit awkward to eat all by myself when everybody else seems to know someone. After dinner an older Fijian lady invites me to a local dance. My attempts are everything but smooth and her group hollers and takes pictures. I’m immediately adopted by the participants of a seminar Pacific Counseling & Social Services, the Fijian social services and a dozen participants visits me on board. Sometimes it happens fast and unexpectedly!

I’m returning to Port Denerau after a few days to fix the fridge and the power meter. The specialists in the marina can’t help, but a handyman in an electronics repair shop knows how to fix the power meter. I love these repair shops in the developing world, which are as good as extinct in our world: Someone who knows how to fix things –electronics, starters or simple zippers. In our world we would just replace it! For the fridge even his help is useless and I have to get spare parts from the States. It’s even better to be able to live or make use of the best of both worlds!

After provisioning for a few weeks in the Yasawas, I’m sailing to Musket Cove. I’m learning that I can clear out here on October 21st rather than having to sail to Lautoka. I hope Aeolus is aware of this date and offers a timely weather window for the passage to New Zealand. Usually it’s approached the other way round: one waits for a good weather window and then clears out accordingly! A windy daysail brings me to Navara Island, an uninhabited island with a beautiful anchorage. No artificial light disturbs the nightly firmament and the corals thrive in the absence of human population. I have rarely seen as beautiful and diverse coral, which create fantastic underwater towers, plateaus and valleys.

I’m stopping at the Manta Ray Resort again to snorkel with the manta rays, but once more the evade me. They haven’t been seen in a month! I am enjoying the ambience and the tasty food of the resort nevertheless. There are many young backpackers here, who make me feel older than I am.

I’m motoring a few miles against quite strong trade winds to visit Soso village and its 300 inhabitants. I’m presenting Sevu Sevu to the village chief. His son and spokesman Wiki blesses my present and welcomes me to the village. It’s Sunday and I’m going to church. The choir starts to sing invisibly somewhere outside the church. It feels as if angels would be singing and a shiver is running down my back. After church I’m passed around from household to household for a chat and am invited to join Wuki and Rosi for lunch. Rosi cooks excellent food from the sea and the garden. There’s not a lot of money in the village: They are still cooking with wood because it’s cheaper than cooking gas. Their environment provides them with most things and the the rest they are buying with the proceeds from selling souvenirs to tourists.

It’s raining for three days and I’m seeking shelter in the protected Blue Lagoon. I’m not the only one with this idea and there are 3 Swiss boats amongst 7 on anchor. I have met Frank and Rita on their yacht Leika before, but am meeting Hansruedi, Luzian und Christoph on Balena for the first time. I have been lucky to catch a beautiful Spanish mackerel on the way to Blue Lagoon and am sharing it with the other cruisers on anchor. What goes around comes around and I am invited the next day for dinner on Two Oceans, sailed by the Israeli Miki and his Austrian crew Volkart. It’s a small world: Miki knows Nila, who has been sailing with me two years ago and Volkart contacted me over Find-a-Crew to sail with me to New Zealand.

I have quite a few requests of people, who would like to sail with me to New Zealand, but I am feeling more and more convinced to do this passage on my own: I haven’t done a longer passage on my own in the last two years, which is taking a bit the naturalness to do it. It’s important to me to get this back and doing a passage single-handedly is the right means!

It’s still overcast and not ideal to sail the reefs, but I am using the good wind to sail to Vomo und Treasure Insel. Sailing in these conditions is still marvelous, even after four years at sea. I let Blue Bie run under full sail even if the guidelines recommend a reef, since I can steer her with two fingers. I’m navigating with Google Earth for the first time, since the reefs are better visible than on the charts. Google Earth stores up to the last 2GB pictures viewed online in its cache and one can retrieve these pictures afterwards without an internet connection. One can even see the position on the satellite picture real-time, if one connects the GPS via NMEA to the computer (Google Earth Tools – GPS – Realtime). Google Earth won’t replace the charts, but is a valuable additional tool.

I’m returning to Port Denarau for the last time, which has developed to my base in Fiji While it’s not very idyllic or typical for Fiji, I feel comfortable and can get everything here and in Nadi next door. I enjoy it even more, because I’m meeting Ralph on Relax again, with whom I have spent many pleasant hours in French Polynesia and Hawaii. There’s hardly anything to do on Blue Bie; I am reading a book, have roast pig with ten other cruisers for dinner and keep Ralph off his work. Even the provisioning for the passage to New Zealand is done quite quickly, because it’s a short but tough passage. My fridge spare parts arrive in time, too, but I decide not to repair it before New Zealand. The batteries are a bit weak and I feel better for the passage with full batteries and an empty fridge!

I know the wind shift on the way to Musket Cove by now and enjoy sailing while four sailboats motor by. I am cleaning the underwater in Musket Cove so that I hopefully don’t have to haul out in New Zealand upon arrival.

The weather window looks good to participate in the end of season clearance in Musket Cove and it doesn’t take much to be ready to leave. Clearing out with the Lautokan authorities is nevertheless a hassle, because of the crew change wrongly registered by the authorities in Levuka. I can finally convince them with the e-ticket and a copy of the exit stamp in the passport that Loly is no longer in Fiji, but back at work!

I’m hence spending some more time at the beach BBQ with other cruisers, which nicely rounds off three very interesting months in Fiji. I could well imagine to come back next year again!

Travelling Western Australia

22.01.2012