Author Archives: dennisandbarb

October 02 -04

16 13.237 S – 179 24.973 E

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Barb:

Our GSR passage charted on OpenCPN

We did not want to cruise the North side of Vanua Levu without at least one anchorage on the ‘Great Sea Reef or GSR’ (The world’s third longest continuous barrier reef and runs for over 200 km).  Before we left Denny had charted us a route from our anchoring point to our planned destination. Once inside the reef I stood at the bow to circumvent any uncharted ‘Coral Bommie’ hits. But we pretty well motored through the planned route.

An anchorage with the water a crystal clear, teal blue color pallet . Where does water end and sky begin. A picture simply cannot capture the beauty

We anchored in deeper water the first night as we couldn’t really see well under choppy water conditions and waning daylight. The next day, under flat, calm sea conditions we moved the boat closer to the reef and anchored with 8 – 10 ft of water under the keel. This made it easier to explore the reef with our still ‘unhealthy’ outboard. What a beautiful anchorage with Sting rays traversing under the boat, the vivid blue, teal, crystal clear sea, the vibrant sunsets and the sensation of being all alone.

We went looking for some good coral reef snorkeling but never really found it. It seems like the threats that were identified 10-15 years ago such as siltation and over-fishing are still threats and the coral continues to slowly die. I did see first 5 ft. reef shark of 2016 but it seemed to be more scared of me than I was of him. There were a couple of local boats at the pass and of course Denny had to investigate. Maybe they had some knowledge of where we should explore. What we found was another American influenced industry. There were 2 manned boats assisting 4 or more scuba divers who spent 5 – 6 hours per day, 6 days a week underwater netting little fish for American household aquariums (they throw a net over a rock then use a stick to scare the fish out from underneath and into the net). They were getting paid $600/week, given access to free fuel and scuba tanks to catch these little fish that were trucked to Labassa flown to Latoka and then on to the USA. Many of the local divers now suffer from the ‘Bends’ or Decompression sickness. Something to think about the next time you see Tropical fish sold in pet stores. The boat attendant, after learning Denny was from the USA, of course had to ask about Trump ???

Wearing clothes is optional at the reef

At 6 am the next morning we heard the now soon becoming annoying ‘Bulah’ cry. We scramble to get dressed and see the usual Fijian power boat and about 4 locals hanging on our Starboard side deck (not something we expected at our secluded reef anchorage). They asked if we had any tools they could borrow so that they could investigate the problem with their outboard motor. It turned out to be the ‘recoil’ and with a temporary fix which was a piece of ‘line’ for the ‘rip’ cord, which Denny provided, they were on their way back to the Labassa for a permanent fix. Considering the wind had picked, the dinghy wasn’t working properly and we were getting short on fresh vegetables and fruit we decided it was time to head to Malau where we could easily take a bus to Labasa. There we could re-stock and hopefully fix our broken outboard propeller.

September 29 – October 2

16 14.701S 179 31.826E

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Barb:

 We had a beautiful sail using just the 160 jib from Tilangica to Veravera Bay. The Sau Sau pass was easy to navigate through and we anchored just outside of Wainikoro River. We intended to do another river tour but this time it would be with a ‘not so heatlhy’ outboard dinghy motor. Denny hit a rock at our last anchor while navigating thru some coral. I did my usual Kayak tour first and explored the surroundings. It was a mixture of white beaches and white maybe Gypsum rock. A small rock island nearby was home to sea snakes, crabs and small eels in the low tide pools. I had intended to climb to the top until I saw the sea snakes doing the same and that made me think twice. On the main Island I joined Denny who was exploring via dinghy. He found a small pineapple patch. The pineapples were still small and growing.

We did a slow dinghy tour up the river on a very hot day. The villages seemed to be mostly Hindi and area by the river banks appeared to be mostly sugar cane and cattle country. The cattle were tied to ropes, no shade and little greenery which doesn’t fit in well with the Hinduism concept of no-violence or well being to all life form (but I guess they must also be eating the beef). This part of the island has not seen much rain! We had to get out of the blazing heat so we had a picnic in the dinghy under the shade of some large trees with our usual snacks of sardines and crackers. We loitered there for a while until the afternoon heat was not so intense. There was some boat traffic  but the people seemed to be busier with day to day and not so interested in a quick chat. On our way back Denny took a detour through the mangroves and after many twists and turns I felt a little lost. I didn’t want to know if Denny felt the same, luckily his sense of direction is much better than mine. He did lead us to a dead end where my videotaping came to a crashing end (the Mangrove roots are hardier and denser than they appear). We exited the river from a different point and then had a very wet dinghy ride home. We both agreed it was time for change and so our next planned anchorage would be a reef stop.

September 25 – 29

16 11.382S 179 46.251E

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Barb:

We still have not seen any other sailboats. This anchorage will have to be our NEW favorite anchorage. And it’s the local people that have made this a special place. We stopped here so that we could take the dinghy and explore the Wainikoro river but inadvertently ended up at the wrong river, the Nasavu river. We had picked out the anchorage based on another cruisers information but while we were trying to anchor where we thought they had anchored we ended up with a foot of water under the keel and the tide going down. It was a close call and we got a little bit of a scare. Once we were anchored we had a closer look at the description of the anchorage and realized that we were at the wrong river. We decided to explore this river while we were here.

As we started our river tour we saw a few villages and locals waving as we passed. We went as far as we could go by dinghy and it turned out to be the last village on the river. Unfortunately, we don’t know the name of the village. The people there encouraged us to get out of our dinghy and visit for a while. We ended up sitting in the shade with a number of the locals. We ate their papayas and drank fresh coconut water out of Fijian straws (a plant that has a hollow stem, which they cut and use as straws. They use the leaves to rub on infected cuts). Wish I knew the name of the plant. They ate the lunch I packed which included Sardines, crackers, chocolate chip cookies, fresh carrots and fresh radishes. The radishes they did not like!! We were the first cruisers to visit their village and they made us feel very welcome. They could see that the heat was bothering Denny a little and before long one of the ladies came out with a fan and sat and fanned Denny and me for the next 2 hours. Before long they brought out the Lali drum and beat out a rhythm while singing in harmony and a few ladies and one man put on a show dressed in some silly dance costumes. They got us out to dance as well and it was a lot of laughter, singing and story sharing. They were not even interested in a Sevu Sevu ceremony or Kava as that is what they grew and it is their main source of income. They invited us to spend the night but we gracefully turned down that invitation. As we left they offered us Papayas and handmade ‘fans’ as gifts (Denny expects me to fan him all the time now, NOT).

On the way back we made a little detour through a mangrove stream and ended at a little local farm where a lady was taking a bath in the stream. She spoke a little English and yelled out something in Fijian to her husband. He showed up with more Papayas and 3 fresh Capsicum (green peppers) for us. It’s been months since we had fresh capsicums. They wanted nothing in return and shouted God Bless you as we left knowing we had to get back before dark.

During the time we were anchored here we had a local boat from a nearby village drop by and say hello as they travelled to or returned from their fishing expeditions. They fished for sale at the Labassa market. They inquired about ‘Trump’. Everybody here has to ask about Trump when they find out the boat is from the USA. Well known but not well liked. They seemed to have cell phones and they explained that the cell phone tower was only a year old and things changed for them once they got ‘connected’. Now they have bills to pay. As one of the young men put it ‘We had the trees and the water, now we have the trees and the water and “Trump”‘. They were such a fun, happy bunch of young locals who badly wanted us to visit their village but we ran out of time.

We were visited by the caretaker of Tilagica Island. The island was purchased by an American ‘Sight unseen’ and has yet to visit the place. Stan Louis , the caretaker lives there with his wife Ana and their 4 year old son George and their dog Master. They dropped by the boat with more beautfiful, fresh Papayas and invited us to visit the island. It was a beautiful place with a main building flanked by two other buildings which were the sleeping quarters. The place even has a wine cellar, although we didn’t tour the inside. The Caretaker’s home was off to the side, small, quaint and comfortable. They served tea and deep fried dough bread (donuts) and then offered us use of their shower. What a luxury to be able to stand in a clean beautiful hot shower (although we both used the water sparingly and didn’t really want hot water). Beautiful family. In return we gave them a large bag of freshly popped popcorn and some new movies to watch.

It was definitely the people that made this anchorage our special Shangri-La!!

September 22 – 25

16 10.829S 179 54.701E

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Barb:

Once through the reef we were escorted into this beautiful anchorage by a local boat that asked for matches in return. We were greeted by a pod of dolphins that hung out for the day feeding on an abundance of small fish.

There was also a large number of jelly fish in the water. The locals pointed to where there was a fresh water stream. We were looking forward to maybe being able to wash off some of the salt but we weren’t counting on much as it hasn’t rained much on this side of the island.

It was a nice dinghy ride through a mangrove stream and it opened to large fresh-sea water hole with a little waterfall. It turned out to be a stunning swimming hole. 

We spent two days exploring the various pools filled with nibbling fish, swam, bathed and did all of our salty laundry. Two days of walking around comfortably in the nude enjoying our own private swimming hole. We saw bats, dolphins and turtles. And after the initial encounter with the locals we were on our own to explore the mangroves by Kayak or dinghy. Our favorite anchorage so far!!

September 18 – 22

16 09.557S 179 56.849E

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Barb:

We left Rabi at 6:30 in the morning and it was a beautiful 28-mile sail with the wind on the beam. The pass through the reef was a little daunting and at one point we only had 4 feet of water. There aren’t many cruisers that actually sail the north side of Vanua Levu so we expect to be soloing most of the way and going through somewhat uncharted passages. That’s what we like to do!! We anchored in a beautiful shallow spot surrounded by coral which were very pronounced when the tide was low. There were a few local boats that passed by and all were excited to see a ‘big’ boat and made sure to wave and welcome us.  It was a great spot to do some boat maintenance which included going up the mast to try and fix Wind Speed indicator. In the meantime, I played with my kayak and I played in the galley being trying to figure out the 101 ways of serving fish.

On our last day we took the dinghy to a nearby, dilapidated peer to visit an old copper open pit mine. We did the ‘death march’ hike on what was probably the hottest day since we left NZ. At the top we found the old mining camp and in the shade in the remains of one of the buildings were about 10 local Fijians all dressed in their Sulus, shirt and ties holding what looked like a ‘Bible’ study. They welcomed us and gave us permission to look around especially since we announced that we had Cava in our dinghy and would do Sevu Sevu at the Chief’s house in the village. The walk around was almost unbearable in the heat and we didn’t see much except evidence of the mineral ‘tailing’, a beautiful view of the reef pass and a spider web with one fat, greedy spider.

Back at the village we did the Sevu Sevu and they actually had a Fijjian, wordy, clap clap ceremony, all dressed in their finest. We hung out for a little bit and did the customary group picture.

September 14 – 18

16 27.314S 179 55.990W

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Barb:

Back to cruising where the white beaches are

It was a beautiful sail to Rabi Island. Close to our planned anchorage we hooked another fish on the rod and reel. We probably had hooked another fish on the trolled line but the coke bottle-Oreo cookie lure was bitten clean off. I was a little nervous about losing this fish again. It was hard to tell what we had on the line as it just seemed to dive deep taking a ton of line off the spool. After 20 minutes of playing with the fish we got it close enough to see that it was a nice size Wahoo. We did bring it on board and managed to bend the gaff in the process.

Rabi was a pleasant anchorage and we were the “little boat” again with a 62’ Dashew on one side and a 52’ Catamaran on the other side. Denny ended up getting sick with a flu bug that seemed to be going around in Savu Savu making our friends Ernst and Michael sick. This particular virus seemed to like male hosts only, luckily for me. So while Denny recuperated I played with my Kayak.

The island offered nice sandy, white beaches and we even managed to have a beautiful picnic on a nicely deserted beach. We did a little snorkeling but there really wasn’t anything to exciting here. A walk through the nearby local homestead, which we did while they were away for the night, left Denny and I a little sad. It was drab and a little unclean and there were some large pigs and many, many piglets making themselves at home while the family was away. Maybe Copra was their main source of income but they were obviously very poor. After 4 days in Rabi we felt it was time to leave.

September 14, 2016

16 43.271S 179 53.414E

Link to Google Maps

Posting by Dennis:

Early, at 2am, we left Savu Savu heading for Rabi island 80 miles to the northeast. We motor sailed out and around the point into four foot seas with the wind on the nose, it was going to be a long day.  Landfall did ok loping through the waves, it is not very encouraging when you see -.8 VMG (Velocity Made Good toward our plotted way point) on the plotter, it is going to be a very long day.  The Day just plugged along with landfall banging its way along at a good twenty degree heal.  It is hard to imagine just how much work it is to move around when the boat is healed over like this.  You can’t really cook or do much of anything, it was turning out to be a very long day.  As the day wore on we worked are way eastward getting more in the lee of the island of Taveuni so the seas eased and soon we were beating straight toward the Somo straights.  As we motored trough the reef Barb hooked a Dorado fish on the rod and reel. It was fun to watch her play the fish as it leaped out of the water and would run from side to side. It is so much more fun to catch a fish with a fishing rod rather than a rope.  Finally, she lost the fish, which was just fine with me, since I didn’t feel much like cleaning the thing anyway and our freezer was full of Dorado. We were hoping for a Tuna or a Wahoo.

View of the narrow entrance we navigated by night

The problem was it was getting late in the day and we were not going to make it to Rabi island so we were going to have to anchor somewhere for the night.  So we went for plan ‘B’, a noted hurricane anchorage. We ended up pulling in to Naqaiqai Creek in the dark using the spotlight and anchored in front of a small house belonging to a very friendly old man. We knew it was ok when we heard his booming voice over his barking dogs “Bulah, welcome home!!”.  Then it was a dinner of boiled vegetables and off to bed, a very long day indeed.

September 12, 2016

23 39.395S 178 53.958E

https://maps.google.com/maps/place/@23.39395,-178.53958,12z

Posting by Barb:

We have been in Savu Savu, Fiji for a week. We have been catching up on emails, phone calls and dining out with friends.  We are now getting ready to make our move to the next anchorage on Rabi Island about 70 miles away. It is a little more isolated and we will not have internet so we will be emailing and posting via SSB. But before we go I wanted to post our Minerva pictures.

We both loved Minerva. There are many stories of shipwrecks and seeing the reefs on the navigational charts, it was a little daunting to think we would have to safely navigate through a pass in the reef  but once there I realized there was nothing to fear. Denny of course had no fear.

We had a couple of relaxing days there. I managed to try out my Oru Kayak for the first time and loved it. We explored some of the shipwrecks and walked on the reef at low tide. But the highlight for me was the Crayfish feast we had. Denny and I headed to the edge of the reef during low tide and scouted some pools where there may be Crayfish. I will never forget Denny’s face of utter astonishment when he went for his first dip in a pool to come up 30 seconds later exclaiming there were 50 or more BIG crayfish below him. But they disappeared pretty quickly in the overhang crevices. In the meantime the waves were crashing in and Denny took a beating as you can see by the numerous scratches on his legs (and it was worse than what the pictures can show). We quickly learned that there were pools around with Crayfish but far enough away from the edge of the reef so that the waves weren’t washing in. Catching the crayfish was a simple of matter of catching them as they swam to the safety of a rock crevice or hole. And when they latched on to the rocks with their claws there was no getting them off. In one particular ledge overhang there were 5 lobsters hanging out but when Denny had a closer look he spotted a large Moray eel giving him the evil eye. From that point forward Denny was a little more cautious about sticking his hand in the crevices searching for the Crayfish. We came home with 5 large ones and had a fine feast.

For more Minerva Photos click here