December 2024

Date: Dec 2024

Position: Swindon, UK

Captain Bonzo here with an update from Ari B!  For those of you who don’t know me, I am the Captain of Ari B, a multitalented stuffed dog, that speaks 5 languages, has sailed half way round the world and barks orders. I also write the newsletters for Alex and Carla.

When I last wrote to you in March from the Marshall Islands we were getting ready for the end of the cyclone season and the long trip south to Fiji, via Tuvalu. It’s a tricky passage, with strong trade winds at the beginning and often instable weather with lots of squalls and the associated winds, but we managed to pick a decent window and stormed south with 25 knots of wind just forward of the beam. After a couple of lively days we entered the doldrums and things calmed right down. We encountered a strong 2.5 to 3 knot equatorial current roughly 150 miles each side of the equator, sweeping us west at a rate of 60 to 70 miles a day and resulting in the entire trip being upwind more or less. We arrived in Tuvalu after 9 days and met up with our friends on Amarylis II, who had come up from New Zealand and had been waiting for us for a few days. After a rest, a catch up and some good fun snorkelling the pass with dolphins we parted company, Ari B going south towards Fiji and Amarylis going north to the Marshall Islands and onto Alaska shortly after.

The 4 days it took to get to Fiji through the South Pacific Convergence zone continued with squally variable weather and our arrival in Fiji was much anticipated, complete with more settled weather, lovely people and great food – the crew loves Fiji – so much so that they decided to spend the entire season in Fiji and lay the boat up in a cyclone pit end of October.

We spent a couple of blissful weeks in Savusavu, awaiting the arrival of friends Graham and Joan on “Karma”, who were sailing from NZ to spend some cruising time together. Our target was the southern Lao group, famous for excellent snorkelling, wood carving and hospitality of the locals. As it’s quite hard to get to (SE course against prevailing SE winds) one needs to seize the opportunity if it arrives (in the guise of NE or Northerly winds), so after only 4 days in port we dragged Karma back out into the high seas!

36 hours later after a decent passage, we arrived in Ogea and after checking out a couple of anchorages found a blissful and beautiful place, surrounded by tiny little islands and anchored in just 4 meters of water in sand. Gorgeous!

The next morning the crew set off with the dingies to the main island in the atoll to pay their respect and do Sevusevu. This is a traditional ceremony with the chief of the village who welcomes you into the community and accepts your gift of kava (dried kava root, which will be ground into powder and then turned into a mildly intoxicating drink). The village then allows you to fish, collect fruits etc and has a responsibility to look after you in case of any issues. Sevusevu is deeply engrained in Fijian culture and a very important part of life – it applies to everybody, including Fijians – and not going to the village to do it is one of the rudest things one can do in Fiji. Unfortunately, not all sailors observe this important tradition and are giving us cruisers a bad name.

After they completed Sevusevu (in traditional clothing) they were given a tour of the village and received an invite to church on Sunday and lunch afterwards. The singing in the church was lovely and Alex commented that in the 40 years since he’s been to church last not much has changed – even though we couldn’t understand a word of course. Dogs not welcome in church, so I stayed on board.

Lunch reportedly was spectacular – Fijian food is very good – fresh fish, a variety of root vegetables, coconut cream, all served on a matt on the floor and eaten with fingers – the Fijian way.

We spent a blissful week in the anchorage, the crew snorkelling, hunting and interacting with the locals, who were super friendly and always stopped by to say hi.

It was then time to do the short hop to Fulaga, probably the most well-known atoll in the southern Lao group, not only because of its amazing scenery and super well protected anchorages, but also due to the unique way in which the locals interact with the visiting sailors. After the traditional sevusevu and a donation to the village, you get assigned a host family, whose responsibility it is to show you around, invite you to lunch, go fishing with or do pretty much anything you fancy. It’s a great way to gain a deeper understanding of Fijian culture while contributing to the village. Our host Sukeli was quite a character, who had chosen to return to the village after life as a builder in the capital Suva – so his view and outlook was a little more balanced than some of the more traditional villagers who had spent most of their life on the island, plus he was a great cook!

The crew spent quite a bit of time with Sukeli, hiking to look out points, tracking through the bush in the search of landcrabs and spending an afternoon bbq on Karma, anchored in a secret spot recommended by Sukeli. They had a blissful time. And the scenery is unbelievable!

Fulaga is also famous for their hardwood carvings, and is one of the only two places in Fiji where the traditional kava bowls are produced, which adorn pretty much every household in the country. The crew took advantage of being at the source of amazing carving skills and commissioned a made to measure piece for Ari B as well as presents for friends and family.

The weather forecast then showed an extended period of strong winds so it was either leave now or stay put for two weeks and our plans to visit other areas of Fiji forced us to make a move back north to Taveuni, the garden island, where we bumped into our friends on Alia Vita. We enjoyed an impromptu one evening birthday party for Rob and Alex, who share a birthday. One evening only, as they departed the next morning to go where we just came from.

Graham on Karma, in the meantime managed to hook and land a 60kg yellowfin tuna, which not only resulted in tuna for the entire anchorage but also a comprehensive lead for him in the ongoing Carla/Graham fishing competition!!

The following day the crew rented a car for a scenic tour and access to the Lavena coastal walk on the East side of the island, complete with guide and swimming at the waterfalls. The car had a little collision with a stone wall the day before, so frequent use of the tire inflator was required to keep them going. They also visited the 180degree marker (geographical date line), proving we were pretty much direct opposite the UK – and of course did the “time warp” and “back to the future” jump from one day to the next, or previous……. Confusing. Meantime I looked after the boat.

With more wind on the way, we took refuge in “Eddy’s bay”, a favourite hideout just a few miles away, where the crew had made friends with the locals and are always welcomed with open arms. One the way, Carla managed to hook and land a good size tuna, only to be outdone by Graham, who landed 3 yellowfin tuna!!! Fishing competition over!

Since all our freezers were full already we only fished as the locals will love you forever if you bring fresh fish, so we did  😊

As the crew knows the area pretty well, they took friends Joan and Graham from Karma on a hike through the bush to Viani Bay, over the hill and through what is now forever designated the “dismal swamp”, a section of shin deep smelly mud –  apparently Joan wasn’t a fan!!

On the way they dropped in at Solo’s and Litia’s house  - a family they made friends with a few years ago and who were excited to see them and immediately took to Graham & Joan. What a pleasure to see them again, and they were promptly invited to a double birthday party the next week. This is by no means a frequent occasion, and I don’t know of many other cruisers who have these kind of relationships – we were all honoured! Although I don’t go to the house, they have a bunch of mean looking dogs.

Alex took a boat trip to Taveuni with some members of the family to get some presents and contribute to the feast.

The party was reported lovely and since it had been Carla’s birthday a week earlier, she was promptly included in the festivities, cake and all!

But we sometimes forget we are in a remote area, in what is probably still a third world country, with limited facilities and poor health knowledge of the locals.

Alex was asked to have a look at an injury on Litia’s sister’s foot and he was alarmed to find a puffy foot with a nasty cut on the toe, covered in some green herbal gunk and a clear case of blood poisoning underneath. He urged them to attend the hospital on the next island the very next morning, making it clear her life was in danger and left a mark on the foot where the poison line was. They duly attended the hospital the next day and we moved on, as we had to start our way to meet Alex’s niece.

We later heard that the hospital wanted to amputate the leg at the knee due to complications with diabetes and she did not agree to the operation, went home and passed away 4 days later. Completely avoidable and treatable in a first world health care system. Most annoyingly, Alex remembered that he sat with her on the beach 3 days earlier, only 10km from the local hospital, and she never said a word…… an immediate trip to the hospital on that day would probably have saved her life! Sobering.

In the meantime, we had started making our way west to rendezvous with Alex’s niece, the first visitor from his side of the family in the 10 years we have been at sea, so he was very exited to welcome her for a couple of weeks of “firsts”.

First time in the southern hemisphere, first time on a sailing boat, first time snorkelling, first time sea fishing and the list goes on, so the crew chose to spend the time in the Yasawa islands, west Fiji, an area we had not been to before, where the distances are a little shorter and we hoped we would have more protected waters. Luckily it turned out that Elisabeth had a cast iron stomach and even the fresh conditions on day 4 did not make her feel seasick at all. We had a great 16 days, visiting over half of the Yasawa chain, complete with a visit to a local village, daily snorkelling, sometimes with sharks (have you ever seen someone walking on water? Elisabeth was close to it…😊), other times with mantas or thousands of tiny colourful reef fish. The fish loved her so much that one of them even took a little bite out of her (at a spot where endless tourists have been feeding the fish for years, so their behaviour had changed completely). Didn’t help that Alex , just the previous afternoon, had assured her that the fish were not interested in her at all and would never mistake her for food……..

All too quickly it was time to return Elisabeth to the airport for the long journey home, and for us to head east again to pick up our next visitors, Kieran and Sharon – no visitors for years and then two in a row!!

We chose to spend the time with them around Taveuni and Viani Bay where we had our local friends for an authentic Fijian experience, complete with a traditional “lovo” (meal cooked in a ground oven) with fresh tuna (courtesy master fisherman Graham), local fresh water prawns cooked in bamboo, chicken, mud crabs and root vegetables.

Between local hikes, beach walks, snorkelling, paddleboarding and swimming, reminiscing and putting the world to rights the crew had a great couple of weeks before returning them to Savusavu for their flight home.

Amazingly, October was upon us, with the haul out and preparations for leaving Ari B for the cyclone season looming at the end of the month. Once again re-united with Karma, we headed south to explore another area that was new to us, on the east coast of the big island, starting with Makogai, a former lepra colony.

The island was privately owned by an arms dealer, who in the 1800s had piece by piece traded land for arms, used by the local chiefs to wage war on each other and then sold it to the British government, which turned the island into a leper colony for the entire pacific, with some patients from as far as India and China. With a maximum occupation of around 700 at a time, the island recorded several thousand patients over the years until it finally closed in 1960 and sent the remaining (now healed) patients home. The crew was fortunate to meet the chief, who was the only remaining eye witness of these times – he spent an hour with them telling his island’s story – an amazing experience. Makogai is also the site for the Fijian giant clam project, where this endangered species is being farmed at the rate of thousands a year and shipped out to marine protection zones across Fiji.

Next stop was Leleuvia, a tiny resort situated close to the outer reef, with a beautiful white sandy beach and glorious turquoise water. It felt like another country. Fiji is so incredibly diverse and a short sail makes you feel as if you have arrived in another ecosystem. In this case, we also encountered some lovely squid, adding another dimension to the onboard diet.

The diversity continued as we arrived in Wainaloka bay on Ovalau, a muddy bay, surrounded by mangroves and hills, totally different from our last stop, yet only 5 miles away. After doing sevusevu with the village elder, we talked about how the people in this village were “different” to what we normally encounter – not unfriendly, but more reserved maybe. It turned out that they were from Tonga originally.

The next day, the crew took a trip on the local bus (lorry) to Levuka, the town on the east side, which served as Fiji’s capital from 1874 to 1882 and is a UNESCO world heritage site. In 1874 Fiji was annexed by the Brits upon request from Fiji to protect the country against numerous local enemies and returned to gain independence status again in October 1970.

From the eastern most point of the big island, we continued to the northernmost point Nananu-I-Thake, a picturesque private island owned by a Swiss entity with a superb anchorage. We were lucky to have a couple of days without wind to take advantage of the excellent diving in the area. Carla did a couple of dives with the local dive school and then joined Karma for a dive on the outer reef from our dinghies while Alex looked after the boats on the surface.

The island also boasts a number of well maintained trails to walk on and marvel at the horses that live on the island.

All too soon it was time to head west towards the boatyard we had booked our cyclone pit in – well, actually it’s the only yard you can leave your boat in during cyclone season and still manage to get insurance. A cyclone pit is essentially a (expensive) hole in the ground that accommodates the keel of the boat and ensures that the boat cannot fall over if a cyclone hits.

So after a few days of in water preparations it was time to haul out and put Ari to sleep in the pit, removing everything from deck that could catch the wind in case of a cyclone, remove all food, clean and debug interior etc etc. – which reads very easily, but is a LOT of work.

In early November the crew boarded a flight to NZ to spend a little time with their friend Christine and get their car on the road,which they purchased from their friends on Karma. It’s a little campercar with a tailgate tent, which will be their home for an extended NZ tour in early 2025.

As I am writing this update, Carla and Alex are in the UK visiting family and I am in Fiji looking after the boat. They expect to be back with me in May – so until then from me in Fiji and them in the UK, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

Ari B out

Ogea, Fiji

Fulaga, Fiji

Taveuni and Viani Bay

Makogi, Leleuvia and Levuka