Malau port is next to the sugar cane processing plant, and there must have been a 2km line of little trucks, tractors and trailers piled high with sugarcane waiting for processing.
Our Route.
Fully stocked up, we headed on round the north coast of Vanua Levu, tucking ourselves into the mangroves for the night. As we had discovered in Labasa, we were in the heart of sugar cane country - the cultivation method is to literally set fire to the fields, burning away the outer dry leaves and leaving the hard central stem. The cane is then cut, often manually, and loaded onto the trucks for processing, with 10kg raw sugar cane producing 1kg sugar.
Sailing along the north coast, the air is thick with smoke, little particles of blackened sugar cane covered the boat - at times you could hardly see the land.
Burning sugar cane prior to harvest, North coast, Vanua Levu.
We headed on round Vanua Levu, taking the inner route between hundreds of coral bommies - with the sun on the water they were very hard to see. Occasionally they were marked with posts, as in the photo above. It’s hard to believe the reef extends a couple of miles out to see here.
Our final stop on the north coast was the most interesting - the conventional chartplotter had practically no detail of the reefs and we had been using satellite imagery as well as simply keeping a good lookout. The tip of Vanua Levu crosses the East / West meridian, it’s literally the edge of all the charts ... and the software couldn’t cope. Eventually the system caught up, having had to work it’s way round to the other side of the world to find us. We anchored in a very shallow ‘indent’ in the coral reef.
Our anchorage - right at the tip of Vanua Levu. Much of the surrounding reef was awash at low tide, we’re the blue dot in the screen shot above.
We launched the dinghy and made our way ashore. There was a little track across the island - we walked across and found a lone fisherman on the other side. He had been catching Herring, which he cleaned, salted and then spread out to dry in the sun. The whole process took about 4 days of sunshine, involving salting, washing and laying out the fish daily and packing it away at night. He explained it was a popular dish amongst the Indian Fijians.
Herring, laid out to dry in the sun.
We headed on round the coast of Vanua Levu, our next stop was a bay called Albert Cove. We had been told that we needed to do Sevusevu here, so we went ashore with our gift of Cava to find only one man lived there with his son, they collected coconuts and grew cava ... despite that he accepted our gift with due grace, and granted us permission to walk round the bay!
Albert Cove, Rabi Island. Huge trees as well as coconut palm fringed the waterline - a lovely spot.
Our next destination was Viani Bay, tucked on the South Eastern tip of Vanua Levu, it is the location of the Rainbow Reef, another prime dive destination. The reef was a fair distance from the anchorage so we went with a local dive operator - they had just had a cancellation due to the weather - the unseasonably early cyclone in the Solomon Islands has had a knock on effect here. Lots of rain, despite it being the dry season.
Jonas, the Dive Master drawing out the dive plan - starting with a descending swim-through down to the Great White Wall, a 50m long wall of coral, starting at about 30m below sea level, that literally blooms white at certain states of tide. Unfortunately for us, that was at about 4pm, and by then the light was poor and it was raining heavily - despite that, it was one of the most impressive sights we’ve seen, compete with turtles, colourful nudibranchs and anemone. No photos though, it was way too dark!
The forecast at this stage was looking ominous, strong winds and yet more rain promised so we opted for proper shelter in the form of Copra Shed Marina, Savusavu. A wise move - we were able to take the last available buoy in the tiny marina, and not only was there a market and several supermarkets, but there was also a hot spring - boiling water just bubbling up out of the ground.
Apparently the locals frequently use the heat for cooking, but not when we were there.
The spring passed under the local Doctor’s house, he had created a row of hot spring fed pools, like a hot tub but without the bubbles. FJ$15 bought you unlimited time in the pool - a good way to spend a rainy day in Fiji.
Once the weather cleared up we set off South again, heading for Namena Island Marine Reserve. The area seems to have been badly hit by a cyclone, the dive resort was closed for refurbishment, and the surge coupled with the damaged wharf meant we were unable to land the dinghy. The snorkelling around the boat was not particularly impressive, we tried to dive the reef itself but a squall came through and we couldn’t hold the dinghy so we abandoned and headed for an overnight passage of 90 Nm to the Great Astrolabe Reef, off Suva.
We arrived inside the reef in the morning, after a bit of a sleep we went for a dive on the outer reef then headed for an anchorage. On the way across the lagoon we saw a humpback and calf, they treated us to a display of breaching and spy hopping We liked the look of Namara Island, it seemed uninhabited, we dropped the anchor and swum ashore for a look around.
Low tide at Namara Island, the coral reef is exposed, even swimming ashore was quite challenging!
Namara Island is tiny, about half a mile long and a few hundred metres wide so we were surprised to find a new and well maintained path across the island and along the ridge.
The view from the top, Nautilus at anchor in the bay.
We continued down to the other beach, and found an empty camp and some workers repairing a metal jetty - we learned that the island has been used for the last 3 years as the setting for the French and Swedish ‘Survivor’ TV series, with the next contestants due to arrive in a couple of days.
The ‘Survivor’s’ Camp, Namara Island.
Apart from coconuts and a few cassava plants there is very little that looks edible on the island, they will have to collect rainwater and hope that some of them are good at fishing!
Namara Island belongs to a local clan, the head of the Clan, Vuate Taletawa was supervising the workers on the island and came aboard to charge his mobile phone. Whilst on board the conversation turned to Cava - we admitted to not having tried it, although we had some on board - he then prepared some, and we drank it with as much traditional ceremony as we could manage. It had a bitter but not unpleasant taste, and definitely made your mouth go numb. It may have had further reaching effects because unfortunately Vuate dropped his now charged phone in the water as he got off the boat!
The Cava Ceremony!
We are now anchored off Ono Island, still in the Great Astrolabe Reef, waiting for a weather window to sail back to New Zealand. We have to go back to Suva (about 45Nm from here) in order to check out of Fiji, but once we have done that we have to leave Fiji waters within 24 hours. Our insurance requires us to be in New Zealand by 1st November - the season, which started very late for us, has absolutely flown by and we are really looking forward to returning to these cruising grounds again next year.
