The purpose of this blog is to document my many travels aboard a sailboat and to hopefully spread awareness about and inspire others to look into the cruising lifestyle. I recently purchased a Bayfield 25 sailboat named I'm Easy (currently in Parry Sound, Ontario) and will be spending this year fitting her for a potential sail through the Great Lakes, down the Saint Lawrence River and out into the Atlantic Ocean!
We did the 195 mile return trip in much less time than it took us to get there, but then we had wind and waves more in our favour this time.
The winds were close-hauled with around 20 knots on the first day, so we were heeling pretty bad. That combined with the waves on the bow, we took on some water and our primary bilge pump stopped working. We luckily had a secondary pump, along with a third manual pump (Whale Pump), so we didn't sink. Gary had a spare pump and spent the first day replacing our primary while the boat was heeling at 40 degrees.
The second day was a breeze though and the winds/waves were on the beam. We ended up reeling in a monster Mahi Mahi, the biggest one yet (nearly my arm span), and now have fish for the next week.
We hit Cousteau Point at around 6:00pm and decided to drop anchor before we lost all sunlight. We'll leave either tomorrow or the day after and do the final dozen miles to Savusavu.
It looks like our weather window will be tomorrow, so we went back to the village one final time to say goodbye. Here is the Captain and I with the village chief.
And the wood carvers hard at work.
"Are you guys working hard or hardly working?" Nobody knew what I was talking about.
We met someone named Tai who gave us bananas and some papayas for the road. Here we are saying both hello and goodbye to him and his son, Coola (or something like that).
But not before having. Some coconut water!
He made the straws from the stem of some plant.
As we were walking out, more and more children ran out to join us until we had this huge procession following us out.
They don't get visitors very often, so they were really sad to see us go (even the ones who had not even met us yet).
We spent the weekend hanging around the boat, swimming and reading. We were basically just waiting for a good weather window to sail back to Savusavu. Gary went out in the dinghy a couple times to try to catch some fish for dinner, but I was too engrossed in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels to go with him. He sadly came back empty handed.
Today's activity involved climbing to the peak of the mountain here in Fulaga. There isn't really a trail, so we had to climb up raw nature. I'm glad I wore my flip flops.
At the top, we had a beautiful view of all of Fulaga and the bays on both sides of the village.
The flag was placed there by previous cruisers who had made the ascent.
Sailing Across the Pacific Ocean 2013 (Part 25) - The Cave of Bones
We went back to the village today after hearing about this 'Cave of Bones' that you can hike to. Sara was available obviously, so she guided us on the hike along with her cousin 'Neds'.
The cave holds the remains of some Tongan people from a great battle hundreds of years ago. The Fijians were known as cannibals, they would eat the bodies of their enemies to gain their warrior essence. So all these people were likely eaten as well...
We walked past their pig styes before getting to the hill and this one pig went nuts as I passed him, so I took a photo of her and the piglets making all the racket.
I was staring at these pigs longer than I thought because when I looked up, the group was gone and I had to run and find them.
The cave wasn't too far from the village
I wanted to go inside, but I was afraid it was some sacred place and it would offend them. Sara must have read my mind because she said we could climb in if we wanted.
So I did.
There were bones all over the floor and skulls that lined the walls.
This one's jaw shot open when I touched it as if it was screaming!
Scared the hell out of me. I closed his jaw before leaving...
On our way back, while everyone was thinking the day was over, Sara mentions that there are TWO other skull caves we can explore. The hike really set the mood with its 'Indiana Jones' atmosphere.
We had to climb this vine.
Just kidding, no we didn't.
But there were some skulls along the cliff face as we approached the caves.
This cave had a much steeper climb leading up to it.
And of course, bones.
There were remains of an old wooden boat in this cave. Sara told us the story of a man whowas out spear fishing and accidentally speared himself in the leg. He then carried the wooden boat up to this cave along with his family, and died from his wounds. I don't quite understand the story, but that is what we were told.
I don't know how he was able to get a boat up there, we could barely do it without one.
The climb to the final cave was MUCH more difficult, so Gary and Jan stayed back and I went with Sara and Neds. After an exciting vertical climb, we had to crawl through a really tight and pitch black tunnel.
There were no skulls in this cave, but it was full of bats. This is where the villagers all come when hurricanes hit the island as it is up high, large, and well-protected.
Sara wrote our names on the wall to commemorate our adventure.
We spent the morning relaxing in the sun. I went or a quick swim to see if I could find anything underwater, but the water isn't very clear here due to the ground being all sand. The only thing I saw was this strange sole jellyfish floating around.
He let me snap a few photos of him before disappearing into the abyss.
We have to go back to the village today because we forgot to bring cash with us yesterday. They want $50 (flat fee) for us to stay here. This is very reasonable as we can stay as long as we want and can freely explore all of Fulaga. We are also going to bring some gifts/trade items of tea and sugar which they are really excited for as their store just ran out of these items.
We woke up this morning to a beautiful cloudless sky above us and glowing turquoise waters below. I just had to take some more photos of our surroundings.
I am going to swim to this little cupcake motu, climb it, and pluck a coconut from atop that sole tree.
After breakfast, we headed ashore to find the village of Moana-i-Cake, where we will meet the chief and be welcomed to Fulaga. Here is a shot from shore looking back at our boat.
We had to follow a trail for twenty minutes through the beautiful Fijian wilderness to get to the village.
Jan made us dress nicely because she wanted to make a good first impression.
It was a really nice hike.
This tree stood out alone and looked to be dead except for the few flowers blossoming at the top.
It is fall back home in Canada right now, but here in Fiji, the first day of spring is just around the corner (September 22nd).
We had to stop and gaze at the incredible beach and bay that we could see on our left through the trees.
This is on the opposite side of the island where we anchored.
After twenty minutes, we finally reached the village.
The first people we ran into was a group of women preparing food for lunch. It was really quiet when we entered as The children were in school and the men were all out tending the plantation on the other side of the bay. After meeting all the ladies, we were escorted to the Chief's house by a girl named Sara.
She answered many of our questions on the walk there. The village has 80 people, and this is the primary village of Fulaga (the other two villages are called Moana-i-Ra and Naividamu).
Here is the chief's house.
Take off your shoes before entering.
Normally, you do not speak directly to the chief and have a representative from the village speak for you, but since the men were not there, we were allowed to speak to the chief and Sara acted as a translator.
We went through the whole introduction process and gave our offering of yagona.
After we were welcomed into the village officially by the Chief, Sara brought us to the school to see the children hard at work.
We got to meet all four teachers who work there.
I disrupted this one class and stuck my head in the window to say hi.
There were four total classes in session, and they were in the middle of their reading time.
How would you have liked to have this in your schoolyard?
After ruining reading time for the kids, we were invited to join the ladies that we had originally met coming in. They were in the process of weaving and serving lunch (which we were invited to join).
They served some sort of cabbage soup with cassava (a root similar to potatoes, breadfruit, or tarot root).
I could barely walk after sitting cross-legged for so long.
This little guy joined us for lunch. I was glad to not be the only one with food all over my face.
They took us afterwards to see the woodcarver and some of his amazing work.
The bowls were amazing, and that little black thing at the top-centre is called a 'cannibal fork'...yikes!
Sara saw us out and invited me to come play volleyball with them on the morrow. I'll have to bring some of my Miller Lake skills to Fiji.
We saw this really bright blue Kingfisher on the way back.
On the way back to the boat, we decided to take a detour in the dinghy and check out some of the motus all around us.
This place is just breathtaking. It is hard to believe we have this massive bay and all its treasures all to ourselves.
