Category: Narrative

Lumbaz was southbound in order to be positioned to clear out soon and head west to Vanuatu and beyond. So, even though we had already been there we followed them down to Navadra. Soon our kid boat fleet was all the way up to seven, since Nirvana was already at Navadra when we arrived, Fluenta arrived a couple days later, and a boat called Honey who we briefly met back at Musket Cove arrived soon after.

The kids were quick to set up basecamp 3.0. They spent several nights camping on the beach, and it didn’t take long for them to really go native. They were totally dirty, they stopped answering the radio, and once when Brenden came back to Exodus for something he told me they didn’t need any more food at that moment because Alex had gotten them all coconuts. They also tried to scare the cruise ship tourists who were snorkeling on the beach. They didn’t do much school, but it’s fun to hear what the kids think of to do on shore for days without iPads or computers (oh the horror!) For example, they played a game they called “simple Brenden,” which was basically a game of “would you rather…” and they had to justify and defend their choices to each other. They are such a good group of kids!

The anchorage at Navadra is formed by two islands: Navadra and Vanua Levu. All the boats actually anchor off of Vanua Levu, and the ground swell forms some small waves on the shore near high tide, so while dinghy landings can be adventurous, the kids all enjoyed boogie boarding and even a little surfing. We soon noticed that the other island of Navadra didn’t get much surf, so we opted to have our beach happy hours over there. The only trick was getting to shore among all the coral heads, so Tim took some weights and floats and marked the channel for all of us. The kids liked that we were having our happy hours WAY over on the other island, so that way we weren’t intruding on any of their “no grownups allowed” fun.

The northwest end of the island of Vanua Levu has a steep hill that just must be climbed. None of the kids were interested so one day we made it a grown-up mission to do some exploring. There’s not much of an obvious trail, so you just have to persevere and keep moving in what seems to be the right direction. We first went up to the right, and then switchbacked over to the left and the steepest part was more on the backside. I didn’t go all the way to the top, but the views from my vantage point were still quite spectacular. I also learned later that the kids climbed it on their own the next day.

One of the bad things about Navadra is that it is frequently visited by small cruise ships. During our first stay there, one came in and dropped anchor, ferried all the passengers over to the far island for a beach day, and then left a few hours later. This time, however, when a cruise ship came in, they arrived like they owned the place and flexed their muscle in the crowded anchorage. There is actually plenty of room, but I guess their motivation was to get in close, so it was easy to get their snorkelers to the reef (the same snorkelers our native island kids tried to scare away). So, they sent a boat around to a couple of the sailboats at anchor telling them they had to move to make room, the only trouble being one of the boats was unattended since they were on shore and some of the others, well, didn’t want the hassle of trying to move. Fluenta was having none of it, and they radioed and requested to speak to the captain to get the request directly from him, and the traffic was classic. I loved it when Max told him he didn’t see a no anchor zone on the chart. The captain’s response was that they pay a lot of money to use this spot, and the sailboats have to move. In the end Fluenta moved anchor but they didn’t exactly hurry, and they were sure to have Liz at the bow with Benjamin in the front carrier to make a display of it. The cruise ship didn’t mind that they were slow about moving they just barreled on in and dropped anchor at a close distance. There was more radio traffic and Fluenta had to move again, because after they moved to where they were directed, they ended up still in the swing radius of the cruise ship. Max was intending to contact the cruise line company about the incident, but I don’t actually know if he ever did.

In addition to avoiding cruise ships, spearfishing, and climbing big rocks, most of our captains kept busy at Navadra with all the various boat projects. I just love how all the guys support each other and help each other out when something needs to get done. Of course, it could be that a boat project is a good excuse to hang out and drink beer, or it could be selfish motivation in that if you help someone with something you add it to your own knowledge base for future use, but mostly we have a community with a helping spirit, so boat projects often become team efforts.

Regardless of what land life was like for each of us, division of responsibility seems to fall along traditional blue/pink roles. For example, most boat maintenance things are blue jobs while cooking and teaching are pink jobs. Of course, there are exceptions, which are fun to note, for example on most boats weather and navigation are blue jobs, but on some of the boats they are pink, and on most boats sewing is a pink job, but not in all cases. In my opinion there is nothing manlier than a man who can spear a big walu in the morning and then work the sewing machine in the afternoon.

Navadra 2.0 brought a lot of fun and good times, but in the end, we knew it would come down to having to say our last good-byes to our dear friends on Lumbaz. This family is really one of the special families out here and we are fortunate to have gotten to know them and we can’t wait to visit them in Spain or wherever the next chapter of their life takes them.

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.

Can you believe Alex got yet another birthday celebration? Since Lumbaz missed both the “September birthdays + Alex birthday party” at Musket Cove and Alex’s actual birthday at Mana, they gave him yet another party. The girls baked him a cake and sang happy birthday to him, and he even got a Lumbaz T-shirt to remember them by. Needless to say, he wears the shirt all the time.

The Yasawas are the northwest most island group in Fiji. They are a long skinny chain of volcanic islands running from southwest to northeast. Like the mamanucas, they are mostly dry and sunny being somewhat in the lee of Viti Levu, but the resorts are lower key and more remote given their slightly further distance from the international airport. There is a shortage of really good anchorages, so most of the time we were either rolling around, wrapping our anchor chain around coral heads, or setting an anchor alarm due to poor holding. The map below shows the islands, but what it doesn’t show is the fringing reef that goes mostly up and down both sides, so moving around requires daylight and good visibility. We’ve heard that The Moorings ran a charter operation here for a while, but the cruising isn’t super easy and apparently, they had issues and shut down.

Our original thought was to go all the way up to the top of the chain before turning the corner back to the east, but as often happens when you’re cruising, we altered our plan due to changing priorities. And the number one priority at this point was to hang out with our other kid boat friends for as long as we could.

The Yasawa Island Chain

15 August – 6 September, 2015

After a couple of very hectic days at Port Denarau provisioning and doing boat projects, we were happy to shove off and head for the Yasawa island chain to the northwest. We were even happier because we were going to meet back up with our very good friends on Lumbaz. They were waiting for us up near Manta Ray resort where the Lumbaz girls were taking a scuba course. Unfortunately, we left Denarau a little too late to make it there in one day, so after motorsailing all day in light conditions we stopped for the night at a little bay called Waikoka Bay on the east side of the island of Waya. It was not a very good anchorage for the prevailing trade winds, and we were on a lee shore, but since conditions were light, it was OK. The next day we rolled into the Manta Ray anchorage to reunite with not only Lumbaz, but also our friends on Field Trip and Breeze. After a couple days of swimming with the mantas, all four of us (Exodus, Lumbaz, Breeze, Field Trip) headed over to the island of Viwa, which is a less popular cruising destination due to the fact that it lies 15 miles west of the rest of the Yasawa chain. Viwa turned out to be a surprise gem, but we couldn’t stay long due to the poor anchorage combined with winds forecast to pick up, so after a couple days we headed back down to Navadra, which is an island between the Mananuca and Yasawa island groups. We had previously spent several days there when mom was visiting. At Navadra, the kid boat party only got bigger, but all good things do come to an end and after 5 fun filled days the larger group dispersed and a few of us headed back up north to the Yasawas, first stopping at Nalauwaki Bay, the large north facing bay on the island of Waya. The second stop was back at the Manta Ray resort and then on up to The Blue Lagoon, with a brief stop at Natuvalu Bay (Naviti Island) on the way. Eventually, our kid boat posse was down to 2 as we departed the Yasawas with Fluenta in the early morning of Sunday, 6 Sept bound for the island of Yadua.

(Port Denarau) –> Waikika Bay (Waya Island) –> Manta Ray Resort –> Viwa à Navadra –> Nalauwaki Bay (Waya Island) –> Manta Ray Resort –> Natuvalu Bay (Naviti Island) –> Blue Lagoon –> (Yadua)

Mi amiga Española and the Lumbaz family were not too far off at this point. We had parted ways with them in Gau when we went south and they went north. In the meantime, while we had been bouncing around the Mamanucas they had gone back up to Vanua Levu and Taveuni, got stuck waiting for weather in Savusavu, made a stop in Yadua, and were making their way down the Yasawa chain. We had been in email contact trying to figure out where we would meet up and it looked like the stars were going to align for us to converge somewhere in the Southern Yasawas. All of us on Exodus were excited to see them again, but one crew member in particular was the most excited, although he’s not the type to show it.

Field Trip and Breeze would join us for the reunion, and we would be a kid boat posse of four boats for a while, but those adventures will come in the next Chapter where I’ll cover all of our stops in the Yasawas as well as another visit to Nevadra where Kid Village 3.0 will be constructed.

Reunions at Denarau

We had a long to-do list for the day and a half we were at Denarau, but at the very top of the list was catching up with cruising friends we hadn’t seen in a while. As we were pulling into the marina one of the first boats we spotted on a mooring was True Blue V and just like when we arrived in Savusavu a couple months before, pulling into the Denarau basin and seening True Blue V there felt a little like coming home.

Another very familiar boat on a mooring there was Field Trip. This was one of the kid boats we spent a lot of time with in New Zealand and we had parted ways with them earlier in Savusavu when they came here to Denarau to leave the boat to fly home for a few weeks. Sarah had been worried that they’d never catch up again with us and the other kid boats, but our timing was perfect, because they arrived back in Fiji while we were there, and we were able to head off out of Denareau together to catch up with some of the others.

There was also the catamaran Koa, who we hadn’t seen since Minerva Reef on they way south from Tonga to New Zealand! As we were heading into Denarau I spotted them on AIS and seriously our timing had us racing for the basin entrance and arriving within minutes of each other.

Field Trip organized a “tower of power” happy hour and we all got together to catch up, swap stories, and also meet a few other people. In case you are wondering, tower of power is a big plastic beer dispenser they bring to your table. The part that holds the beer is donut shaped and there’s ice in the middle to keep the beer cool. Brilliant. Anyway, Lochmarin was there, hadn’t seen them since New Zealand. Outsider was there, well at least ½ of them, and I finally met Ian, someone I’d talked to on SSB many times but never met. I would have to wait until returning to Savusavu to meet Wendy. And then as we were all hanging out and refilling our mugs from the tower of power, Per and Sabina from Breeze walk up and surprise everyone! What a great evening, and we were reminded of how lucky we are to be a part of such a fantastic cruising community.

We really enjoyed having mom on board cruising with us. Her two previous visits to see us were at a marina in Mexico as we were preparing for the puddle jump and then more recently in New Zealand where we did land travel and stayed in vacation rentals. So, this was the first time for her to cruise with us on Exodus. And the Mamanucas were a great place to hang out because islands are close together and we had reasonable conditions at both Mana and Navadra.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so great during her visit, though. It rained some and we had some gusty wind conditions, but mom was coming from hot, hot El Centro, so she didn’t mind the weather too much.

Truth be told, Mom’s about that easiest guest to have on board that you can imagine. And I’m not just saying that because she’s one of the two people who actually read all this stuff. Seriously, she’s relaxed, doesn’t have an agenda, doesn’t mind all of the water and power conserving we have to do, she helps out, and she goes with the flow. For example, she was such a good sport over having to swim ashore since landing the dinghy in the surf was a little challenging. We’d dinghy close in, and then mom would get out with a boogie board and one of the boys would go with her and they’d swim in to shore together while I took the dinghy back to Exodus and then paddled in. The boys liked having grandma around to play games with and share in some of the dishes duties, of course. Alex liked showing off climbing to get her coconuts, and Brenden tried so hard to shoot her a fish.

Speaking of fish, it was pretty funny that after these years of reading about and seeing pictures of all the fish we eat, that we didn’t really get too many fish while she was with us. The spear fishing on this western side of Fiji just wasn’t so great. But Tim did manage to get a couple small coral trout, which luckily are safe to eat in Fiji, so mom was at least able to taste our favorite beer batter recipe!

Mom’s days on board went by fast, and before we knew it we were heading from Navadra back to the mainland of Viti Levu in order for mom to catch her flight home.

Fun with Grandma

Navadra is the northern-most island in the Mamanucas, or maybe it’s the southern-most in the Yasawas, I was never quite sure. Anyway, it was right in between the two island groups, and it’s not really just one island, but two islands close together forming a large bay. The other island, which is actually larger than Nevadra, is called Vanua Levu, but that can be confusing since that’s also the name of the second largest island in Fiji where Savusavu is located, so most cruisers just refer to this spot as simply “Navadra.” Neither island is inhabited, and there didn’t seem to be a village or any nearby island to do sevusevu with, so we just enjoyed ourselves in this peaceful, remote place.

It’s an absolutely beautiful anchorage. The weather wasn’t great while we were there with strong gusty winds, but at least the sun was shining. The water was a few degrees warmer here, so even mom and I did some swimming. There was some swell that comes through the anchorage, but it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable or anything. The boys loved it because it made some small waves on the beach at high tide, and they could surf on the stand-up paddle boards. Brenden is even small enough he could ride the small waves on a surfboard. Being fun size has its advantages sometimes! I tried to boogie board, but no success. Later, when I saw that Brenden couldn’t even catch a wave on the boogie board, I didn’t feel so bad. The surf made the dinghy landings a bit of a challenge and mom and I got in the habit of swimming into shore, so it was manageable.

Two boys on a paddle board

Tim and Brenden spearfished a couple times but didn’t have any luck. Although that didn’t mean we went without fish…Tim put his good neighbor skills to work and helped some people on a fishing boat try to find their paddle board paddle that had fallen overboard. They didn’t find the paddle, but for his efforts, Tim was rewarded with a small bag of fresh caught Mahi Mahi, so we savored that for dinner, and we were at least able to have a little bit of fish while Mom was visiting.

While Tim and Brenden spearfished Alex did his part in providing for the crew by getting coconuts. Grandma was admittedly a bit nervous when she first saw Alex scamper up a coconut tree and then wield a machete to get to the nut inside the husk, but we sure did appreciate his efforts.

Alex collecting coconuts for Grandma

We returned to Mana a second time when mom was with us (read about the first time here). We enjoyed walks on the beach and even a lunch out at the restaurant. The restaurant was nothing special, but it was right on the beach, so obviously had a great view (no better than the view from Exodus though, I might add.) As we were eating one of the groups of tourists from the backpacker resort were gathering for their ride back to the mainland, and they were serenaded with some Fijian singing, so that was something to be enjoyed. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the people who were ending their vacations and heading back to work or wherever.

Nautilus was with us this second time in Mana, and one afternoon Tim, Hans, and Brenden went out spearfishing, but they weren’t having any luck finding any fish, but Brenden was determined to get a fish for Grandma, and he didn’t want to come back empty handed, so he shot a little fish for her. I don’t remember if we ate it or not.

Brenden couldn’t home empty handed, he just needed to bring Grandma a fish

The boys with their Grandma at Mana

Enjoying lunch at Mana

It was here at Mana where we said the first of a string of very painful good-byes to our fleet of kid boats we had been so fortunate to cruise Fiji with. Nautilus left us to head west to Vanuatu, The Solomons, and eventually Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. We tried and tried to convince them to come with us to Marshalls. Even after they left, and they were in Vanatu Tim was still sending them emails trying to convince them. But their path was to be different than ours, although I know we will visit them again someday; maybe they will come see us in California or maybe we will go see them in Belgium (spoiler alert: they will come to California).

After Nautilus left us, we had that empty feeling that we would be alone again for some time. But that very afternoon we were reunited with two of our other long-lost friends… Novae and Et Voila, both of whom we hadn’t seen since Savusavu.

So sad saying good-bye to this dear family, our friends on Nautilus

Cat corner at Mana: Novae, Et Voila, and Exodus