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Fiji by land Aug 16, 2015 Janet I was still feeling elated about our rugby win as we set sail for Viti Levu from Musket Cove. We anchored at Sawene Bay, close to Nadi, in order to deliver Richard to catch his flight back to New Zealand. After our goodbyes we walked an hour to Vuda Point to check out the marina. There we met Raghu Reddy. Raghu is brother of Jai Ram Reddy, former leader of the Fijian opposition party for over 20 years, before and after first coup in 1987, and father-in-law of a lovely former student of mine, Kerry Reddy. We met Jai in Auckland back in January and he gave us his brother Raghu's contact details. Turns out Raghu runs one of Fiji's major gas plants and is based right next to Vuda Point Marina. You never know what you are going to get when you call up complete strangers. Well Raghu was just lovely. He seemed to be expecting to hear from us and immediately offered to show us around. After investigating the fuel jetty for our visit by boat the next day (its nice to have a visual on where we are going to be maneuvering in close quarters) we walked back along the sugar cane railway line to Sawene Bay. This area of Fiji is dominated by the sugar cane industry, one of Fiji's biggest exports, which has shaped Fiji's history for the last century or so. The British colonized Fiji in the 1870's. In 1879 they brought 160'000, if I remember correctly, indentured labourers (virtually slaves) in from India to work in the cane fields. At one stage the Indian population was grew to be larger than the Fijian, but is now less than half.
*** The next day we navigated the very tight channel into Vuda Point (we saw two boats run aground in the channel while we were there). I was very excited about being in a marina, with all the usual amenities, meeting other sailors, and the prospect of touring Western Viti Levu. But I immediately went down with a viciously painful strep throat. It laid me low for six days although I did drug myself up for the outing with Raghu. *** David Raghu collected us early Sunday morning and we drove to a resort at Volivoli Point, past Rakiraki, at the top of Viti Levu. On the way we stopped at Raghu's nephew's duck farm where Janet bought two frozen ducks, yum, and had tea with Bahkt, Tiani, and their two daughters. Then onto another brother's spread followed by morning tea at Raghu's home, overlooking the sea north of Lautoka. Raghu's wife, Kamla, joined us for a long drive inland to visit a Fijian village at Navala, retained in its original thatched state. Lunch was a spread of Indian foods, at a restaurant in Ba, for which he refused to let us pay. Then a quick drive past the Fiji Water plant, said to be the second most popular brand in the US. Lastly, afternoon tea at Volivoli Resort. All accompanied by Kamla and Raghu's take on life in Fiji. They are more optimistic under Bainimarama than at any time since the first coup in 1987, and approve of most of this government's policies. These include the abolition of the Great Council of Chiefs, which we learned was a creation of the colonial administration. Elsewhere, especially rural villages, this has been a divisive policy where we heard comments such as "I would give my life for our chief," and "the Council was created by God. Bainimarama has no jurisdiction there." Raghu and Kamla approved of the 'free education policy' replacing local community funding, which appears to have disadvantaged the Indian population. It seems local funding resulted in racially segregated schools. This, among many other social structures, has severely limited association between the two cultures, which in turn fosters suspicion and ignorance. Support also for the teaching of Hindi as a regular part of the curriculum. Our observations, limited of course, suggest a significant increase in cross-cultural contact and a sharp reduction in suspicion and hostility. Raghu and Kamla appear pleased with the language "We are all Fijians", and the dropping of the term Indo-Fijians. However, the term 'i Taukae' has been resurrected to refer to indigenous Fijians. We learned that the Indo-Fijian business acumen stems primarily from a second wave of migration referred to as Gujerati. Raghu argued that the descendants of the indentured labourers, of which he is one, are mostly an impoverished rural population who have no traditional background in small business. I got the impression that there is an undercurrent of resentment toward the Gujerati who dominate much of Fiji business ownership and constitute a kind of upper class.
There is also a deep suspicion of the increasing Chinese influence spearheaded by large aid projects such as hospitals and infrastructure. The facilities are appreciated but the Chinese presence is not. Many people we've spoken with perceive American presence as well intentioned and Chinese as not. Personally, and with just my own prejudices to go on, I doubt there's much difference. We were home at about 9pm. A long, rich day.
PS. The above is my record of what we gleaned from Raghu and Kamla. All misrepresentations and inaccuracies are mine.
*** Janet 'Cooking classes. 5pm. Wednesdays. Free,' was written up on the board outside the marina office. This was me all over. By Wednesday I'd recovered enough to walk around to the restaurant and join four other sailing women for a lesson in Fijian cuisine.
The chef, Nicholas Steven, ably demonstrated how to make Lumi Aspic with seaweed that you can buy at the markets here or gather at low tide on the reef. It's boiled in coconut cream and finished with tuna. It sets in a firm jelly. At the end of the demonstration he whipped out one already set, just like on TV. We savoured its sea flavours with crisply fried taro chips.

http://cypraea-tdm.blogspot.fr/

Image Kat and Seiorse Acrux Robinson Crusoe Island to Malolo Island, Fiji Note: Its six months later. We are in Majuro in January 2016. Back in Fiji I made the fatal mistake of getting behind in with a blog post or two then it was all over.
While we are settled in one place for a while I'm going to continue the story of our journey here for our own record. Feel free to read along or not.
Aug 28, 2015 Janet "Margarita Janet?" Need the man ask? This has been our evening ritual since Richard arrived in Fiji two weeks ago. To be honest my liver is struggling but I can't say no to tequila and fresh lime juice. There will be time to dry out once Richard gets on a plane back to Wellington.
*** Another day on the road found us rounding the coast to western Fiji. Through yet another reef we entered the Mamanucas (pronounced Mamanuthas). Finally, I thought, we would get the reputed lighter winds in this much vaunted yachting mecca. Not. We anchored in Musket Cove, home of marina, yacht club and resort, and bounced around all night in howling winds.
In the morning Richard and I bravely (or foolishly) took the dinghy to shore to shop and do laundry. Landing on the island was like being transported to another world. Gently waiving coconut palms greeted us as did friendly staff dressed in red and black. People wandered around in holiday mode and sipped on ice-cold beers at beach bars under thatched roofs.
First I tracked down the laundry. Having access to a washing machine for a halfway reasonable price is a rare treat in the tropics. We loaded up the machine and wandered off to the shop. It was surprisingly cheap for a resort and I stocked up on pawpaws, bananas and salad stuff including fresh basil and mint which is grown behind the resort. Bring on lunch I said to Richard.
Back in the dinghy the tropical mirage evaporated and we were at the mercy of the sea and her bad mood. The waves were huge for our tiny, now very laden, boat. The sea sloshed into the dinghy soaking us and our shopping. Back on board we quickly hauled anchor and began navigating the coral around to the lee side of Malolo.
As we rounded to corner to Likuliku Bay we breathed a sigh of relief. It was calm. And almost empty. We'd expected it to be full of other boats escaping the wind but no, there was only one other boat anchored there. A kiwi boat. A boat we'd heard on passage on our radio net. We became instant friends with Kat and Seiorse, two gorgeous 30 somethings off Acrux, sharing drinks, meals and computer files within moments of acquaintance. They were foodies too so we delighted in swapping recipes and ideas. Our boats were of a similar vintage and they were on a similar budget to us, although we were old enough to be their parents and at the other end of our economic lifetime with a few assets behind us. I love Kiwis, they are so down to earth, especially these two, and I enjoying speaking in a common lingo.
We'd anchored off a very exclusive resort and about three times a day a helicopter came in, plus ferries, runabouts, and sea-planes. We weren't allowed to go to shore, they didn't want yachtie riff-raff spoiling the place for their exclusive guests who were paying $3000 FJD a night for their over the water bungalows. We swam, we read, and we swam. What an indolent time. David and the Acrux crew went exploring a bay nearby finding local eggs and meeting a people who were making fibreglass longboats right there on the beach.
Many Fijians are entrepreneurial and are good at making do with what they have at hand.
*** Now we are back on the road and I'm glad of it. Heading back to the mainland to drop Richard off and restock, we stopped at Musket Cove to watch the Bledisloe Cup. This time anchoring in idyllic conditions.
The Navire crew had spent several days practicing the New Zealand national anthem in Maori. As the room seemed to fill with people with Australian accents I started worrying about the prospect of being lynched when we sang. On the big screen the teams ran on to the field. To our surprise the Aussies sat mutely through their anthem. Then most of the 50 strong crowd erupted into the New Zealand national anthem, in Maori. I was so proud to be a kiwi. To top it all off we thrashed the Aussies this time.

Many of you have followed our journey over the last 6 months. Some of you followed us last year as well. This blog is not about our trip, it is about how the whole thing works with YIT and Gulf Harbour Radio, as many of you will not know this.
Patricia and David get up early every morning (well, 6 days per week) and analyse the weather situation over the south pacific. They spend an hour on the SSB radio, talking to all of us yachties and finding out where we are and what help we might need to weather advice. David gives a detailed weather bulletin, helps to educate us on how to read the weather and lets us know if our plans for passages are good or if we should wait for better weather. Then, during the day, they answer numerous email enquiries from yachties, seeking weather advice. All of this is done in their own time, for free. What they do actually costs them money. They need specialised equipment to tramsit their radio signal to Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia etc from NZ. They are currently investing in more gear, that will be able to clearly transmit their service to more places, so they can cover us better. They need all sorts of software to interpret the weather data they get and this costs more money. Much of the weather data they get every day is by paid subscription - meaning they pay large sums each month just to get the right info that will help us yachties. But they do not charge anything for their services.
When yachts call in by radio, or email Gulf Harbour radio, Patricia and David plug in all the relevant info onto the YIT website, so that friends and family have the reassurance of knowing where their loved ones are.
The YIT (Yachts In Transit) website, is run by a very knowledgeable and kind computer man, Mike. This clever guy has built the YIT website, specifically for us yachties, again, at no charge. Mike is constantly building new and useful features into the site which allows us yachties to plug in our position and send updates and blogs even while we are at sea. Mike is also very patient with us all, teaching us how to use this new technology! For you at home, this means you can see exactly where we are on the satellite maps, follow our progress and know we are OK. The website is a great tool for Patrica and David too, as it helps them keep track of all the yachts whereabouts and therefore cover the weather for each area the yachts are in.
If a yacht gets in to any trouble, or has not been heard from for a while, Patricia and David use the information on YIT to help Rescue Coordination in NZ to find the yacht and they put the word out to yachts they know are nearby, to help with the search.
Again, all of this is done, just because they love to help.
So this is a tribute to David, Patrica and Mike. Wonderful people who give freely of their time to help others. Thank you so much! If you at home are grateful to have these people providing this service and would like to support their efforts, please go to the website www.yit.co.nz and click on the Donate Now button. These people are truly wonderful.