Fiji: Day 2

We spent the day moving the boat to a slip in the marina, and then after hitting the bank, walked around paying our dockage fees to the health officials and customs.

We met up with James and Leslie in the evening from Coba Libre and had some arrival celebration drinks. 

We have signed up for a seminar with 'Curly' for tomorrow. He is a local chart fanatic here who has been here for 30 years. His free seminar goes over safe sailing in Fiji and he sells custom charts complete with waypoints and safe passage areas. We have been listening to Curly on Rag of the Air on the SSB Radio since Tonga on channel 8173 (upper side band). He has a really good reputation here in Fiji.

We also signed up for a "lovo" feast on Friday where they cook the food underground, using the heat of the soil or something. We are supposed to bring a gift of kava root for they chief (which they are very serious about) and they have a very strict procedure and set of rules for the kava ceremony.

Fiji: Day 1 - Arrival

Monday, July 29, 2013

We set our clocks back again as Fiji is behind Tonga by another hour. Fiji came into sight with the rising of the sun this morning.

We entered the huge channel going into Savusavu at around noon.

 It was really simple as the channel itself is a few miles wide. There is an unmarked shoal in the centre and supposedly some exposed rocks (which we could not see), but they are a good mile to the west of the east side of the channel, so you have plenty of room to avoid it.

Halfway into the bay, we entered a little channel that brought us to Copra Shed, the marina we are staying at the next week or so.

It was a little cloudy when we arrived, but that all cleared up within a few hours. They put us on a mooring ball and the health people came out to our boat immediately, but the customs people were on their lunch break and we ended up waiting for them until 5pm.

We just stayed on the mooring ball for the night as it was so late when we left. We will move to a slip on the morrow (haha).

Tonga to Fiji: Day 3

Sunday, July 28, 2013

The rest of the trip was really wavy and the boat was rocking like mad the whole time. No one got any sleep and we were all really excited to hit land on the morrow (haha).

There was no shortage of wind, we were getting above 20 knots for most of the trip out of the southeast.

Tonga to Fiji: Day 2 - Survival of the Fittest

Saturday, July 27, 2013

We upgraded the line on our fishing rod from 20 to 40 pound line and it made a huge difference. I felt much more confident in the strength of the rigging and was able to play it more.

After trailing the line for a few hours, something finally caught and I jumped up to start reeling it in. It was a real fighter and swam far and deep, so I figured it wasn't a Mahi Mahi. I was thinking either a Tuna, Wahoo, or some other mystery ocean fish. After a few minutes of wrestling with the thing and the fish still being hundreds of feet from the boat, a huge school of Mahi oddly swim up to the stern of our boat as if they were following us. I was confused, but figured I had one of their brothers on the line (even though its behaviour was odd for a Mahi and it was nowhere near the boat yet). When I finally reeled it in close enough to see, I see MORE Mahi swimming around my lure as if they are attacking it. There were a good 50 Mahi hovering around behind our boat as I realize I have hooked a small Tuna, and the Mahi are all trying to eat it.

Tuna are much stronger and more agile than Mahi, so he was able to avoid most of their attacks, but he was exhausted by the time I pulled him up to the boat. I saw the Mahi all lunging at him and did my best to pull him out of the water when they did and save his life so I could kill him and eat him myself.

We got the Tuna onboard and I threw the line back out in hopes of getting one of these Mahi. Within 30 seconds, I was fighting another fish and reeled in a nice big Mahi to go with our Tuna.

Tonga to Fiji: Day 1 - Goodbye Tonga!

Friday, July 26, 2013

We departed for Fiji at 6:00pm today. We have been in Tonga for almost a month now, but it feels like we have been here for much more than that. It was beginning to develop a 'homely' feel to it. That is when you know it's time to go. Well, that and because your one-month travel visa there is about to expire.

Goodbye Tonga!

Tonga: Day 25: Swallows Cave

Thursday, July 25, 2013

We went for one last snorkelling adventure before leaving Tonga to Swallows Cave on Kapa Island.

This was one of the creepiest places I have snorkelled. I was just waiting to get rushed by snakes again.

Matching the landscape above, there was a huge and steep cliff underwater leading up to the island.

Underwater cliffs like this are always great snorkel spots. I saw some unique coral fish swimming around.

Then the cave itself drops off into an abyss on the other side of the rock wall at its entrance.

Here is a view of the roof of the cave.

It was really discomforting swimming over a seemingly bottomless hole in the cave. The water was really blue though.

Here's a shot looking out.

I dove down as deep as I could and snapped this amazing picture looking out from underwater.

I did it again when Jan was swimming by overhead. You get a better idea how big the cave was with her as a reference point.

There was another less impressive cave a short swim from the above.

Here's looking up.

There was a disgusting and weird growth on the side of the entrance that freaked me out at first sight as I thought it was a monstrous stingray.

Tonga: Days 23 & 24

Tues & Wed, July 23 & 24, 2013

We are planning to leave for Fiji on Friday, so we spent these days preparing and provisioning for the next leg of our journey.

In Tonga, you can only get fuel when you leave for some reason, so you have to schedule with them the exact time and day you are leaving so they know to show up at the fuel dock with their fuel truck.

The was a gap in the constant river of jellyfish that flow through Neiafu Harbour, so we used the opportunity to make water. Here's the ol' makeshift rig we have to get water in our tanks.

We haven't replaced the switch that routes the water maker output to the two tanks yet, and it's stuck pouring it into the galley sink. So we just rig up a funnel and hose and run it to the tanks.

I also cracked open our last coconut the one day to find a little palm tree starting to grow within.

This is the early stage of the root of the tree. I ate it and it was delicious. They sometimes put it in salad and call it 'the heart of the palm' as the tree dies when you remove it.