Fishy Fishy in Fiji
- labadiemichael
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Well, the last blog ended with two poems, so this time we have decided to spare you from any versed literature. You are welcome. The passage to American Samoa ended well—10 days in total and nothing eventful happened. That can make for a boring passage but hey, sometimes boring is welcome.
American Samoa was a moderately interesting place, and we had an equally interesting stay there. Let us know how you think we define the word interesting after you read this. Upon arrival, we went to a designated customs dock to do all the fun things you do when clearing in anywhere, and it was relatively straight forward. Three or four different agencies came on the boat, checked some things out down below, asked for maybe 50 crew lists, etc. Normal stuff. We went to the anchorage afterwards and after four attempts the anchor dug in finally. It was late by this time and after a ten day passage it is mandatory to celebrate with a beer or two or three. Soon after, the island of American Samoa thought we were worthy of being formally welcomed to the island; We were welcomed with wafts of all the cooking tuna parts that the Starkist Tuna Company has deemed “unfit” for human consumption and has allocated to the dogfood department. We all grew to love the smell. Most of the time in American Samoa was spent provisioning, which isn’t necessarily the most enjoyable experience, but what did make this enjoyable was the fact that everyone spoke English. After a couple months of trying to speak French and not being understood, a little conversation was welcome. All in all, American Samoa was not a highlight of our trip—the smell was rank, the weather was foul, the food was meh, but the people were extremely kind, and this was the redeeming quality about the island.
We finally had a good weather window, so we set the sails for Fiji. This five day passage was opposite from the last one. For the first couple of days we were averaging at least 7 knots under sail. We were rushing to get to the port of Savusavu in Fiji before a front came in from the west. We made it with 12 hours to spare. Customs here was a bit more efficient, we got squared away in a couple of hours and were told to wait two days until we could pick up our cruising permit. We did some provisioning of course, and the most exciting thing on the list was Kava root. This is the root that we offer to the chiefs of local villages in order to receive permission to anchor and fish in their waters. This ceremony is called Sevusevu. At the time of writing this, we have done two. We decided to leave Savusavu after a couple days to start cruising around Fiji, and since then it has been a blast. We have had Fiji all to ourselves, seeing only the inhabitants of remote villages tucked away into the little corners of their own islands. No other boats, no tourists. The weather hasn’t necessarily been the best, and we’ve had to move around a lot to deal with the shifty wind directions, but the beauty of all the places we’ve been has made up for it.
We were all talking about how we felt like we weren’t getting enough exercise out here in Fiji, so we decided it would be best to start pulling up the anchor by hand. It was our decision and it has nothing to do with the fact that the windlass is seized and completely down for the count. After several days on the hunt, Mike did find us a windlass, but he found it in Tasmania, and it will take almost three weeks to get here. This is the best option by far, believe it or not. We are looking forward to three weeks of cardio and strength training after so many months of muscle degradation.
So far, the eastern hemisphere has not let us down. Officially out of Polynesia, we will be exploring Melanesia for the next several months.
Comments