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Firefly - Cruising the Northern Lau Group



It is Tuesday 16th June 2015 and Firefly is making an 80 mile passage from the Lau Group to Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest Island. Unfortunately the wind has been below what was forecast, often below 10 knots and from directly behind so apart for a few hour long spells we have been motor sailing all of the way - plus it has been raining so not such a great day.



We are paired up with Brizo and we left Vanua Balavu together this morning and are heading for Port Vianni where we are being picked up at 0700 tomorrow morning for some scuba diving in the Somosomo straight, a world renowned location. Because we are, Brizo, being longer is faster and therefore Pat and Stuart have gone on ahead in order to enter the lagoon in the last of the daylight. Firefly will be going in when its dark but will be able to follow Brizo's track. Now that we are back in a more populated region our electronic charts are thankfully accurate again.



The week we have spent in the Northern Lau Group has been very enjoyable. Having been unable to visit these islands last year we were really looking forward to arriving and have not been disappointed. We spent the first 3 nights in Mbatava harbour and described that in the last posting. From there we went through the Bay of Islands on the north east coast up to anchor off Dalconi Village.



At Dalconi, the combined ICA and World ARC fleet were treated to a traditional evening of a Lomo and Meze arranged by the village. We arrived in our dinghies on the beach at 1630 and about 15 villagers came and sang us a welcome song. Although quite basic by our standards, the village was spotless and the people were so friendly and clearly very happy. After a series of Fijian dances we were given some really tasty traditional food.....fish, shellfish, chicken and pork with a variety of salads, rice and breadfruit some of which had been cooked underground. The atmosphere was excellent with visitors and hosts all having a great time up until we were given another song, this time for the farewell.



The following morning about 20 rally participants swelled the congregation at the village church. The experience started well with some brilliant harmonic singing by the choir. Most of the service was in Fijian with small sections in English when we were thanked over and over for attending. Geoff, from NZ boat Duetto then had the opportunity to thank the congregation for letting us join the service and to give thanks for the welcome we had received in the village and he did so with aplomb. However, we were all then expecting the service to end - it didn't and we were treated to some real 'fire and brimstone' preaching from the pastor in Fijian, with a few bits of English thrown in - we all breathed a sigh of relief when it finally finished about 45 minutes later.



The weather had remained unsettled since we had arrived in the Lau Group and again it was raining intermittently when we left Dalconi Village and followed our track back to the Bay of Islands. The northern part of Vanua Balavu is uplifted limestone and the islands, all varying in size are undercut by the sea making it a real spectacle. With such a large number of islands the number of potential anchoring spots was considerable and most of the 15 or so yachts that came here from Dalconi managed to find themselves a 'private' spot.



The following day it was still cloudy with a little sun trying to break through when the villagers from Dalconi bought down 3 of their longboats. These are large open GRP boats with outboards and we were collected from our yachts and taken off on a cave tour - some of which we swam in and other we just walked into. Once this was finished we dinghied back to the best spot where there was an enormous colony of fruit bats. From the small cove we could see the trees were littered with bats hanging upside down and when we made some noise several took to the air making. Known here as flying foxes, these bats, about the size of a crow, are seen in many places and are beautiful flyers and are not nocturnal.



So our time in the Lau Group had come to an end. We had wanted to visit the Southern Lau Group but with headwinds and a limited amount of time before we depart Fiji with the World ARC and we decided that that will have to wait until our next circumnavigation!



Paul and Susie

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