When we were on the dock at Port Denarau, Tim struck up a conversation with one of the local guys. As usual, he asked the guy where the good spearfishing is, where he could find the dogtooth tuna. The guy told him Viwa. He could find dogtooth tuna at Viwa.
So, is it any surprise that we went to Viwa?
Viwa is a lesser visited island because it’s about 15 miles west of the rest of the Yasawa chain, sitting out there all by itself, apparently hoarding all of the dogtooth.
It took exactly zero effort to convince the other kid boats to take a detour out to Viwa, and before we knew it we were all on a beautiful spinnaker run day sail from Manta Ray Resort out to Viwa. I think we were all looking forward to being a bit off the tourist track again.
The Navionics charts for Viwa were pretty much worthless, but we had heard or read that there is a shipwreck at the pass, so when we had a visual on that, we used it to guide us in. I would highly recommend studying the high-resolution satellite imagery before attempting this pass. Luckily, we had a bright sunny day with good visibility. The pass is narrow, made even narrower by that shipwreck right in the pass. When entering, you pass with the wreck on your starboard side and the coral up nice and close on your port side. The pass is short, so you are quickly inside the lagoon, which is shallow, and absolutely stunning.
We proceeded around the corner of the island, but found if you went all the way around to where it looks like you would have best ESE wind protection, it shallows very quickly. So, we four boats ended up anchoring in a line, with Exodus anchor waypoint at 17 08.890 S, 176 54.560 E. We anchored in about 20 ft of water, but the holding was very poor as it was sand over rock. We also noticed that we didn’t face the wind but rather there was always a decent north to south current running which kept us pointing more north all of the time. These anchoring conditions are not ideal and we would not want to be there in any sort of bad weather, but we timed it perfectly and had a couple of calm, sunny days.
Before we even had all the anchors set, we noticed a welcoming committee of kids dotting the shoreline. At a certain point one kid jumped in the water and soon many others followed and soon they were all headed out to the boats to say hello. However, a local fishing skiff came up and the men inside scolded the kids and turned them back to shore. The men stopped by the boats to say hi (in the photo above you can see them at Exodus) and they welcomed us to come ashore and do sevusevu. We also learned that they scolded the kids because of the strong current.
As soon as we could all get ready, we headed to shore for a big group Sevusevu. We dinghied around the corner (back in the direction of the pass) and landed the dinghies on the beach where more kids met us at the beach and enthusiastically helped us with the dinghies. Then it didn’t take long to find someone to take us to the meeting hall and act as our spokesman with the chief for our Sevusevu. The chief either didn’t speak English or chose not to, but our spokesman had impeccable English, so we learned some things about the village and its relationship with the sole resort on the island. At some point many children from the village joined us in the meeting hall, and when we told them it was Elizabeth’s birthday, they were all smiles and sang her a happy birthday song.
The picture below shows all of us sitting in the meeting hall in Viwa, and as you can see it’s an intricately built wooden structure (that for some reason they have painted light blue) but what you can’t see is the wonderfully traditional thatched roof. However, what I really want to point out about this picture, that which struck me with a warm sense of community when I noticed it, is that none of us are sitting with our individual families. We are all scattered about, sitting next to our other boat family members, because it’s obvious to me as I think back on it now, that by this time in our journey, we really were like one big extended family.
After the Sevusevu we were offered a tour of the village and of the resort, and we didn’t hesitate to accept the offer. We noticed that village was clean, and the people seemed to be busy as we made our way along a trail towards the resort. In contrast to other places like Mana, for example, the existence and location of the resort relative to the village was very inconspicuous. In fact, I think we could have spent our entire visit without even knowing it was there if they hadn’t told us about it. This resort seems to have a positive impact on the village in that it’s not imposing, but it does employ many of the people, so it is a boost to the local economy. And judging by the way we were treated, especially by the children, the resort does not seem to have a negative impact on the way the people view foreigners.
The resort was small and beautifully situated on the coast. We met one of the owners who seemed to be quite proud of what he has built up and his relationship with the locals. It’s hard to see how it can be a profitable operation, but maybe they have a small group of loyal clients who have the extra money to spend in order to have a very out of the way vacation. We didn’t stay long at the resort, and after snapping a few group photos we headed back to the village this time walking along the beach.
That evening we had a celebration on Field Trip for Elizabeth’s birthday, and the girls were all scheming to have a sleepover. I’m not sure what came over me, but in an effort to let the girls have their party without their little brothers hanging about, I volunteered to take the boys for a sleepover on Exodus. So, five-year-old Nils and seven-year-old Michael joined us for a “boys’ night” and although there is quite an age gap, Alex and Brenden adore their little cruising buddies, and everyone had fun that night, playing Legos and watching movies.
We were only at Viwa for two nights, so that gave us really only one full day to explore. In the morning all the moms and kids headed to shore to the village while all the dads went spearfishing. Once on shore the kids wasted no time in starting up water games with the local kids. Someone brought a ball to shore, and they played catch and who knows what else while we moms walked around the village. Almost immediately we were met by local women who informed us they were putting on a handicraft market for us, but they weren’t quite ready, so we were welcome to walk around while we waited. A handicraft market for us? Don’t they know that cruisers are travelling on a budget and aren’t really known for spending money on trinkets and souvenirs? Well, maybe not, since they don’t get too many cruisers here and they likely assume our behavior would match that of other western tourists they are used to from the resort. I hadn’t even brought any money to shore. The women of the village did a really fine job setting up the market, so you could tell this wasn’t their first rodeo. It was a small area with thatched roof coverings and mats on the ground where various women had things to sell, but we learned that they didn’t make much of it there, rather they bring it over from the mainland. When we arrived, they put leis around our necks and encouraged us to look around. I was relieved when some other people came from the resort as the pressure to buy something was lessened, but in the end, I borrowed money and bought a basket that we now use to store our yaqona bundles in.
In the afternoon when we were all back on the boats, and even the spearfishermen had returned, the kids from the village became more and more emboldened, and eventually several of them swam out. Our own group of boat kids were feeling a bit cliquish and just wanted to play games together on Breeze. But that didn’t mean there was no fun to be had with the local kids, especially since our group of boat dads are really just a bunch of kids at heart. It started with just giving the kids rides in the dinghies, but then Lumbaz busted out some pull toys, and the real fun began! Lumbaz and Exodus dingies were both towing kids behind, but no one was left out. Any of the kids that weren’t being towed or didn’t fit in those two dinghies were ferried around in Field Trip dinghy to be part of the fun, and what fun they all had! Genie and I even took a turn on the banana boat, and luckily there was photographic evidence thanks to Breeze or Alex wouldn’t have believed I had done it. Surely his mom isn’t that fun, right?
In the evening, we had a nice potluck dinner on Exodus, because as it turns out, there were fish in Viwa! The spearfishermen came back with a nice sized Walu and it easily fed all four families.
We could have easily stayed longer in Viwa as it felt like there was still more fun to be had, but the weather forecast indicated the wind would be picking up, and as I mentioned, this is really only a place to be in calm weather. As we were all pulling up anchor the kids from the village all ran out to the ledge again, this time vigorously bidding us farewell.
Gresham Family Exodus 