17 | Exploring the Islands of Fiji, Vanua Levu and Taveuni

After the two weeks at sea to reach Fiji, we quickly settled into the little town of Savu Savu. It's a relaxed, friendly place, full of bright colors and lots of activity. Compared to the high prices and limited selection in French Polynesian markets, we felt like we had entered the land of plenty. Fresh produce was abundant, the grocery stores well stocked, and restaurant meals cost only a few dollars per plate. There were some repairs that needed to be made to get the boat back into sailing condition after the rigors of the voyage. I was just going up the mast to replace that jib halyard block, and I was climbing this rope. Luckily I wasn't very far off the deck before I saw the damage. So do you think it was chafing on the block that burst? I think it chafed on the damaged block, so we've got cascading failures here. Luckily I have a new rope, but it's this really ugly red color. Safety red. Safety red, yeah. So our water pump has been leaking seawater out of the slot here pretty much since I bought the boat, but I keep replacing the seals and taking it apart and fixing it, and then it's good for a while and then it starts leaking again. So we got an alignment tool and now we're going to align it to the engine, and the oil is looking a little bit milky inside, which is very bad. It means we might be leaking some water past the second seal and into the engine, so we're probably going to have to do an oil change too. We carry an extensive collection of spare parts for all the equipment on board, as importing parts can be difficult or impossible in many places. Oh, it's like literally the size of the bearing. That's probably a bearing race. No, it has a sleeve in it. After a day of trying to hammer the pump shaft out of the bearing with progressively larger hammers, we gave up and went to town looking for a mechanics shop with a press. Luckily, we had a spare shaft as well as new bearings, so there wasn't any permanent damage from our efforts with the hammer. Oh, nice. Yeah, that looks so good. Smooth running. Yep. Dad only had a few more days with us, so we rented a car to explore the surrounding area. How are you? Good, how are you? We're from Washington. All across the Pacific, we had seen coconut plantations and copra drying racks, so it was great to finally see how the copra is used to make coconut oil and other products. Well, the road has just reached a river, so I guess we're at the end of the road. All right, turn around. We toured a small permaculture-based cocoa farm and chocolate factory on the outskirts of Savu Savu. Yeah, that's what we do, yeah. It's quite tough. It should be a pleasant experience. That's the idea anyway. How's the fresh chocolate? Fantastic. Leaving well before dawn, we set out for the 40-mile upwind bash to Vianney Bay. Well, we left at 4 a.m. and everything was great until we got halfway to our destination. Not quite halfway. Not quite halfway, and just no matter how we did the map, we weren't going to make it in daylight. So the turning point was when Jonathan and I had our first event of seasickness for real. I wouldn't say that was the turning point. We got sick for the first time ever. Maybe food poisoning. Maybe it was just too rough. Not sure yet, but we were still pushing on and then we realized it was going to be dark and we needed to enter the reefs in daylight. So we've given up and now we're turned around and going back where we started. And it's really nice out here if you go downwind. Yeah, it is. Wow, it's beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah, it is. We get a photo this time? Yeah, and a measurement. We stopped at the reef on the way back to town for a quick swim in the clean water outside the to present a bundle of the roots to the local chief and a short ceremony will be conducted to grant you access to the lands and waters belonging to that village. It's an ancient custom and literally places you as a vassal of the chief under their protection for the time you are there. In the nearby village of Vuodomo, we presented our hava root and were assigned a local guide to show us around. The root one, this one we plant this for the rears. Three, four, five, six to good mature then good taste. A little village outside Savu Savu and the water is cool and it feels so good. It feels so amazing. We just had our first havas, hava exchange. we found large sugar cane farms. It must have been peak harvest season as trucks and small locomotives were hauling huge quantities of cane down to the mill. We visited the immigration office to remove dad from the ship's crew list as he had to return home. After a much easier second attempt at reaching Viani Bay, we relaxed for a few days, getting used to having just the two of us on board once again. Just across the Somosomo Strait lay the island of Taveuni, a garden isle set directly on the offers free moorings to cruisers as well as the use of their restaurant and dive shop. Gracious. It's huge. He's almost got like a lobster tail. Heading up the Somosomo Strait, we anchored in the open roadstead within walking distance of a town. As it was an exposed location, we planned to stay just a few hours for some final provisioning before heading out to much more remote islands. kava, grabbed some fresh vegetables, and now we're headed over to the Lau Group. a beautiful and remote group of islands that are often missed due to being upwind of all the ports of entry. It will end up being one of the most spectacular cruising grounds of our entire voyage thus far.