Commodore
October 9, 2024

Thursday 10 October – another village Sevsevu

We moved up to the most northern anchorage on the Yasawa Island. We wanted to pay our respect by doing sevusevu at the village here as we have not done it on this island yet. We also have a very calm day predicted for tomorrow so our plan is to go east with the opportunity of not bashing straight into the trade winds.

The village has the most stunning location, quite a lot of reef about to navigate, so a smallish anchorage. There was one other Cat anchored but it left shortly after we arrived. We went straight in with our kava to do our sevusevu, and were greeted by kids. Today is Fiji day and the kids have a day off school. They took us to the chief’s house, well at least we assume it was the chief. A delightful gentleman who has just returned from 3 months in LA. We are baffled how he got through airport immigration as his English is not that good. A Fijian friend had paid for his airfare to have him visit him in LA, in return for yard work! Considering what a grilling the US border officials give us, I wonder how this chief was able to convince his way in? His wife was delightful too, very pretty, and spoke much better english. She was making their Fiji holiday lunch and invited us to join them. We could see her preparing these little clams in coconut juice and lime. No table in the kitchen, everyone sits on handmade grass mats. Their son, brother and granddaughter all joined too. In the swirling mass of flies we told them we only needed a taste as we had just had breakfast. It was actually delicious, served with taro though, which we find absolutely tasteless and starchy. Luckily the coconut and lime juice made it palatable. It was very sweet of them to invite us to join their Fiji holiday lunch, they are so friendly. Grandchildren were sent packing to get us limes, pawpaws and delicious home grown tomatoes. It was stiflingly hot in their corrugated kitchen, so we excused ourselves when it was politely possible, plus Rowan and I are not used to sitting cross legged on the hard ground for that long! We promised to give them our enormous collection of screw cap wine bottles, they use them for storing coconut oil.

On the way back to the beach, there was a lady selling grass baskets, I hate not to buy any as they have so little and we are so lucky to be able to anchor in their lovely waters for nothing. So I have yet another basket to add to my ever growing collection.

We returned to the boat hot and sweaty, the wind has died and that has made the temperature rise. It is our first calm day in ages, perfect for our washing machine that only works in calm conditions, incredibly Catana (our boat maker) installed a washing machine with an electronic motion sensor! We tried to get it replaced under warranty as they realised their mistake but it can’t come out, the cupboards and doors were built after it was installed. So we live with doing washing only on calm days! I had 3 big loads to do, all our guest bedding and towels, plus our laundry for two weeks. I managed to get two loads hung out before the heavens opened. Our guest cabin is now a laundry drying cabin which works pretty well as it is where the inverters whirr away creating a lot of heat while charging the batteries, when we have the generator on to run the washing machine.

Rowan did a bit of hull cleaning as we prepare for our return to NZ in a few weeks. Sadly the 3 weeks in the marina while we were in the UK was a barnacle free for all on our hull. While Rowan was getting all the debris off, two huge manta rays slowly glided by, I guess it might be rather delectable food for them. Rowan managed to call me and I watched the two gently flapping winged creatures amble by. It made up for not seeing them at the famous manta pass!

Rowan did a dash into the village to drop off all the bottles, what a great recycle, making everyone happy. The vast number of bottles on board was a little embarrassing. I sent the bottles off in our two big cardboard boxes from our Farmboy fresh produce delivery. So good to get the boxes off the boat as all yachties claim it is the glue in cardboard that attracts cockroaches.

Talking of critters our enormous downpour obviously got our little stowaway gecko discombobulated, as he made his presence known. I have been cleaning her poop for a couple o months now and we have never spotted her, although we have looked hard. Amazingly she survived her 3 weeks while we were away, hopefully eating all bugs on board including cockroaches. I’m calling it a her as I posted a picture of it on our family WhatsApp, only to have Hannah identify it and give us the low down. It is most likely female as the males are rare and sterile, she can produce eggs on her own, no need for any men in her life. The bad news is it is invasive to NZ, it is a Fijian creature, so she has told us we will have to catch it……… and oh my what a mission that will be. She has sent us details on how to trap it, but we have to be careful as they have fragile ribs and easily crushed! NZ are sticklers for inspecting the boat and they ask about any creatures on board so I guess Rowan and I have our work cut out, trying to catch this elusive little creature!