Out and about cruising. We went for a shakedown sail to test everything on sailboat Mylady after her long cyclone laid-up. I was testing the extremes of seasickness in no time at all and skipper turned the boat around to be kind to me. We will sail many miles this year. Comfortably we tucked in a big bay just a stones throw from smoke covered Savusavu and its stinking creek. Fortunately that anchorage is tooooo far for the international yachts to cruise to.
We enjoyed the plenty-plenty fish, birds singing and fishing canoes on the reefs who always greet 'Bula!' And on shore we were treated as specialty.
After a few days, the wind turned favourable and we sailed out again. This time to the Namena Reef. And with good strong wind and choppy seas, we continued to Nairai the next day. Our return to Nairai was greeted with great excitement and tears. Nobody ever returns... We gifted plenty good books, some supplied by Curly in Savusavu, to the chief and Ana and we shared the Balolo Rising in the school and village. Even thouh the reefworm is something from here, it is not experienced by many. Everybody appreciated and enjoyed.
Our sail back was a perfect trail of what the Indian Ocean will be. The conclusion of our shakedown cruise - sailboat Mylady is a worthy ocean going craft. As soon as the visa is in, we'll set sail.
Where on earth is NAIRAI ISLAND? Well we didn't know until now. It happens to be in the vicinity of Koro Island, in Fiji. One can see the lights of Suva from there. Yet only one ferry in the month services the island and pretty expensive to ride. When the ferry arrives, the people of Tovulailai village jump in their longboats and take merchandise for transport to Suva and bring back shop supplies. We had a great time at Tovulailai. The dolphins guided us into the good sheltered bay. And the flying stingrays, slapped the water in a special welcome. I spread my maternal wings around Ana and in the process got skipper involved to do magic. Making one working sewing machine out of two old,
broken and useless machines. I gave her a crash course on sewing and she's full of smiles. More machines appeared from no-where, asking some attention please. We'll return to Tovulailai frequently in our memories.
OVALAU
We finally made it to Ovalau Island during our fourth visit to Fiji and thoroughly enjoyed the island and its people. The first capital of Fiji - Levuka - is now a world heritage site. The wind caught us
on the wrong side of the fish factory and made our first day a memorable stinking one. Apart from that the few old shops give an interesting atmosphere to the town. There is only a handful of people yet the town has a distinctive buzz.
