Gresham Family Exodus

By the time we made it up to the north end of Waya Island, our kid boat posse was briefly down to three: Exodus, Fluenta, and Honey. Nalauwaki Bay is a large, north facing bay with dramatic volcanic geography which was stunning in the rising or setting sunlight.

Shortly after arriving went to shore with Fluenta and Honey in order to do our Sevusevu. This one was one of the most impersonal ones we’ve had, but after we got a bit of a tour of the village. The Octopus Resort is just over the hill from here and many people of the village work at the resort, so it boosts their “local economy”, but it also means they have a lot of access to tourists. We were all quite interested in hiking to the top of the mountain (shown in the picture above) and the villagers were tripping over themselves volunteering to guide us. It seemed very nice, but after delving a little deeper and asking a few questions it turned out that they wanted us to pay $30 each for the hike. Of course, we recently had guided hikes in both Matuku and Gau without any price to pay, and while we did give our guides gifts afterwards, it didn’t have that feel of an impersonal transaction like this one was shaping out to be. In the end we passed on the hike, and we also passed on the coconuts they tried to sell us. When I mentioned I thought the price seemed very high, their response was that “this is what we get at the resort.” Our friends on s/v Honey were interested in trading for some local fruits, but it took a while to convince the villagers to trade rather than charge cash. To be honest, unlike some island countries, trading is not so prevalent in Fiji, because their infrastructure makes most of the basic staples accessible to most people. Even in the more remote villages of the Lau group they didn’t need to trade for food items and preferred to accept money over trading. Of course, if you have something they cannot easily get, like a mask and snorkel or some fishing hooks, they may very well be interested in trading. But breakfast crackers just aren’t going to get you much.

After the sevusevu and the village tour we hung out on the beach for a while. Tim and Max (Fluenta) made some friends and of course the kids found some village kids to play with. Truth be told, our boat kids all wanted to back to the boat right away and play amongst themselves, but we made them hang out for a while. I can always count on Alex to just make the most of it, and he started playing catch with some of the village kids, and pretty soon, there was all kinds of fun to be had.

We stayed in the bay for a few days before continuing on up the Yasawa chain. There is a tiny surf break on the coral in the middle of the bay and at the right tide conditions you can surf it. Most evenings Tim and Max spent an hour or two surfing the breaks on stand-up paddle boards. Before we left, we were happy to be joined by Field Trip again, so our kid boat fleet was back up to four.

Our friends on Lumbaz were the ones who introduced us to “special project days” where the kids research whatever they want and then give a presentation on it. Our four boats continued the legacy and we had a special project day when we were at Waya. The kids are usually pretty nervous, but when they all get through it they are relaxed and happy to have gone through it together. This time, even some of the moms got into the action and gave presentations.

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.