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Exody - Days 148 -156 : Flotilla to a Fiji Feast



Since Tonga we have been embraced by the ICA Pacific Circuit rally with joint clearances out of Tonga last Monday 8th and then in to Vanua Balavu at the north of the Lau Group of Fiji. We were the 36th boat cleared of about 38 in total on Friday 12th. The four officials who are visiting these remote islands especially for us, and who are joining in our activities, agreed to clear the last few of us after we had moved around the island from Lomaloma to the perfect anchorage of Mbavatu harbour on Friday 12th - they sailed on one of the boats.

The 280 mile two day passage from Tonga had been an uncomfortable one with rather too much wind (up to 30 knots), requiring us to slow the boat from the first night out and latterly with a confused sea which gave a particularly uncomfortable corkscrew motion. We had left Port Maurelle at about 08.00 on Tuesday 9th and paced Makena (62 foot Cat) for the first twenty four hours at about 5.5/6 knots. Several others of both the ICA and ARC fleet were within a few miles, all converging on the Tongan Passage and onward into the anchorage at Lomaloma on the Thursday morning.

The pilotage here is tricky with many reefs and few markers so we played follow the leader two days in a row- initially on Friday 12th for the 14 miles to our evening welcome venue of the Exploring Isles Yacht Squadron in Mbavatu - a fine building and jetty in the middle of nowhere on private land where you bring your own drinks for the bar and lighting is by torch! Twenty plus dinghies came ashore for a formal sevusevu ceremony - a welcome by village elders and shared drinking of kava - definitely an acquired taste! Our 'leader' is the ebullient John of Windflower - he and wife Lyn are islandcruising.nz, he is the honorary Commodore of the above Squadron and has also written the definitive iPad App for cruising these parts. We are now tuned into their morning broadcasts at 08.00.

The following day Saturday 13th, thirty plus boats formed a procession following very closely in each other's wakes for the 12 miles to Daleconi village where the villagers had a feast for us. This 'flotilla' was a truly impressive sight - the intricate course through the phenomenally beautiful Bay of Islands took us at all angles, over shallow patches and between reefs but mainly between perfectly formed and mostly steep-to rocky volcanic islets, undercut neatly all around by the erosion of the sea, interesting textures and cave-lets to their lower parts, their uppers clad with a rich variety of trees and shrubs. Large fruit bats abound in the late afternoon. The backdrop of the main island of Vanua Balavu looks quite like home on the Scottish west coast- a much richer and varied geography than the flat-topped uniformly green Tonga -with many hills, not all tropically clad but with cleared parts looking from a distance like grass,bracken and heather. This similarity emphasised by the low cloud and rain that shrouds our arrival at Daleconi and persists through the feast. We are housed under a large galvanized shelter amidst an impeccably trimmed grassy field that forms the centrepoint of the village. Dancers and musicians entertain us before about one hundred of us tuck in to pork, lobster and other local delicacies.

We have now backtracked on Sunday afternoon and found a secluded spot amongst the Bay of Islands - there are more than 20 boats within half a mile but we can only see one hull and one mast. We are joining many others on local longboats to visit caves this morning, Monday 15th, before setting off for the 100 mile crossing to Savusavu on the neighbouring island of Vanua Levu.

Peter (Skipper)



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