M/Y Iron Lady

Steve and I were chatting a day or so ago covering preparations for when we rejoin Iron Lady on July 22nd. Seems that little has changed since the “Interesting Times” post.

A fellow in a cat anchored up 15 meters away and dropped just enough chain for the anchor to hit bottom (about 15 meters). Our close neighbor next appeared on the his back deck with cocktail in hand. Disgusted, Steve lit up the main and moved. Predictably, our ex neighbor dragged on to another cat in the middle of the night. Several times now, the Pilot has come by to ask Steve to move due to large container ships coming in – once with only 10 minutes notice despite the fact that Steve was far from the fairway.

All of the above has prompted a few waggish comments at the Royal Suva Yacht Club bar.

One bloke suggested that Steve should write a book entitled “The Best 100 Places to Anchor in Suva Harbor”. Very short book – there aren’t any.

Another suggested we rename Iron Lady the Wandering Trollop. Maybe we should just stay anchored in one place and let a few of those plastic boats with puny anchors have an encounter of the metal kind 😉

Anyway, after bunkering on Monday, Steve will be off to Denerau and Iron Lady will be happily showing Suva harbor her stern at 10 knots.

As we were leaving the village toward evening, Jack announced that they were going to throw a great feast the next day and we were invited! He asked that we bring along whatever chicken we could afford. Little did we know just how elaborate the feast and the preparations for it were going to be.

While we slept comfortably aboard Iron Lady, many of the villagers were hard at work most of the night preparing things. Several boats went out to catch fish, another went out to harvest lobster, and a third with the some of the women went out to harvest sea weed for a salad and crustaceans to make something like conch ceviche.

When we came ashore the next morning with our chicken, the village was already hard at work on the feast. Some women were cleaning the seaweed to make a salad. They told us it really wasn’t the season, but they wanted us to try it.

Other women were cleaning the crustaceans – a very laborious task. Deb decided to help out.

This was only the beginning of the process as it further had to be ground and “cooked” in lime juice and other spices.

Jack was busy cooking the lobster which would be made in to a delicious lobster salad.

The women didn’t waste event he smallest portions of meat from the lobster.

Meanwhile, the men of the village prepared the lovo – an earth oven.

A pit is dug and is lined with rocks which looked to be much like lava rock. A huge fire is built over the rocks and the fire was kept going all morning heating the rocks to tremendous temperatures. When it is time to cook, the wood is removed and the food is placed directly on the rocks and is then covered. The heat from the rocks actually cooks the food.

The other main course was still on the hoof. A 150 pound pig was destined for the lovo as well. For the sensitive among you, I won’t show the process, but it was very humane and quick.

The process of removing the hair was very interesting. Burlap was laid over the hair and boiling water was poured over the burlap. After this treatment, the hair was easily scraped off with a knife.

Virtually no part of the pig was wasted. Even the entrails and internal organs were cleaned thoroughly and boiled in lemon water to purge them. They were then cut up and made in to a VERY spicy curry. This fellow is making up the spices and those tiny, tiny peppers are so hot that they will burn your skin if you handle them.

The result was devoured by the men of the village right down to the pot. Fortunately Jack told us he never touched the stuff and advised us not to either. Fine by us.

The pig was butchered and select cuts were marinated in spices and the were woven in to palm leaves like a caccoon for cooking in the lovo.

In similar manner, the fish they had caught and the chicken we had provided were also marinated and woven in to caccoons.

Those potato like affairs under the chicken and fish are taro root – a starchy root vege that was also cooked in the lovo.

Once all the food was ready for the lovo, the wood was scraped away and a metal mesh was placed over the rocks. First in was a heaping mound of taro.

This was followed by the pig, chicken and fish braided in palm leaves.

Finally, the whole affair is covered in large leaves and palm branches followed by a tarp and sand.

Everything is left for about two hours to slowly cook in the lovo.

Meanwhile, Jack and others are preparing desert. Kasava (or tapioca) is boiled in sacks. After it is cooked, it is necessary to beat it severely to obtain the correct consistency. Not even desert comes easy out here.

The sauce for the tapioca is boiled down mixture of fresh coconut milk and brown sugar.

You have to have a real sweet tooth for this one.

Meanwhile, Deb is getting her baby fix.

With everything complete, the lovo is opened and everything is removed.

The women are busty preparing the table right down to nice china.

While it made us terribly uncomfortable, tradition here is that the honored guests eat their fill before the rest of the village has a thing.

While we are eating, however, the women are busy preparing plates for everyone else.

While we ate to the point of bursting, we were put to shame by the villagers. The shear quantities of food that they consumed was simply amazing.

After a very long and special day we headed back to the boat with little more then sleep on our minds. The village, however, was just getting cranked up and the kava bowl was being dragged out as we left.

We are going back to this very special little place in the world with 2 of our children in August and Jack has promised to throw another feast. We have some very special presents for them as well to return their kindness.

Yanutha – here we come!

The Chinese have a saying about living in “interesting times”. Well Capt Steve has been there the last 3 or 4 days.

We were talking on the cell the other day and Steve informed me that he was moving the boat as a Blighwater freighter had anchored within about 40 meters of Iron Lady. Bad enough, but a salvage crew had been raising a sunken fishing vessel near us and then proceeded to bracket Iron Lady between it and the freighter. As a good Captain, Steve picked up and moved, but you have to wonder where the heads of the other “professionals” were?

Good thing our good Captain Steve moved, because the winds came up to 35 knots – fortunately, despite erronius forecasts, he had the dink aboard and was prepared for the worst. The system arrived 24 hours earlier then forecast.

As the heavy winds moved in, Steve reported that the Japanese fishing boats arrived en mass just before the blow and proceeded to anchor just upwind of Iron Lady. Steve put on the radar with a lock on the boats (3 rafted up on one anchor) and predictably – in the middle of our cell conversation and 35 knots of wind they began to drag. We promptly ended the cell conversation and Steve dealt with the issue at hand.

By the time our anchor was up, the Japanese boats were within one boat length of Iron lady – the crew were standing on the back deck of one of the boats – they were still not underway and were not responding to hails on the VHF and their radars were off.

One has to wonder where they got their ticket.

As the evening wore on, there were frantic and vitriolic calls on the VHF as 9 out of 10 Yachties who had moved closer to a lee shore dragged – no disastrous consequences but a nasty evening for all and some scrapes, bumps and bruises.

Here are the lessons learned – get a good Capt like Capt Steve. Stay away form the pack. Never trust the qualifications of another vessel’s Capt.

Finally – get a GREAT BIG anchor that everybody else laughs at. Nine times out of ten they are wrong and the price can be high when things go bump in the night.

Our next stop was the delightful Yanutha Island. As we entered the natural little harbor between two islands, the folks in the village hailed us on the VHF and suggested we anchor off the beach on the island across from the village.

There was a narrow gap between the islands with shallow reef across it so we had protection from the surge but a nice breeze to keep us cool.

Here are a few more shots taken around the harbor.

It was an absolutely charming village of around 150 people.

We launched the dink and headed for shore with our Sevu Sevu (Kava), and we were greeted by Jack, the Chief of the village.

Jack is standing next to a sea wall that they are currently building to protect the village from storm surge. Jack thought they would be finished when we return in August. It is hard work as all the excavation, forming, mixing and pouring of the concrete is done by hand. Then there is the backfilling behind the wall as the work is completed. All the bags of concrete have to be hauled in their open panga style boats from Taveuni – roughly an hour away over open water. It is a major undertaking.

We were invited to tour the village – here are a few pictures.

The satellite dish in the last picture is for phone communications. Cell phone service and sat phone service are revolutionizing communication in these remote islands. Cell has yet to reach here so solar powered satellite phone is the device of choice. I am really not sure how it works, but villagers have cellphones which interface with the satellite system.

This is in odd contrast to the other services available to the village. They have no running water. Most of their water is supplied from cisterns which catch rain water from the roofs of the houses. There is a small 5 KW generator which supplies power for lighting from 6 in the evening to around 10 PM at night. There is no refrigeration.

Thus what is eaten by the villagers is very much a day to day affair. It consists of what they can catch or harvest from the sea. What they harvest from their small gardens and or pick in the bush. They also raise pigs and chickens which are slaughtered. Occasional trips to Taveuni and its markets add other staples.

Despite its simple life style and remoteness, Yanuca seems to be a prosperous place. Some villages prosper from symbiotic relationships with nearby resorts which provide employment for the villagers and labor for the resorts. No nearby resorts here, but they do have a very valuable commodity which they harvest and sell – sea cucumbers. Nasty looking things that Jack told us bring as much as $100 a piece in the Asian markets. Villagers harvest them from the sea and Jack pays them $10 a piece for them. The difference between that and the end price that Jack sells them for goes to improve village life in general as well as the nearby school.

Before taking a look at the school, here are a few more pictures of village life.

These fellows are repairing one of the Pangas.

This little one has found a way to keep cool on a hot day.

These little ones are telling us how old they are.

As the afternoon went by, Deb asked to see the local school so one of the villagers went with us in the dink around the point to the school. It was quite the place as can be seen from the following pictures.

In addition to the school building, there is a large field for outdoor activities and sports.

These shots are form inside the classroom. The school teaches the children up to grade 6 or so and from there, some go on to school on the larger islands.

The school lost its roof and much of their teaching material in a cyclone a year or two ago. We promised to bring back paper, crayons, markers and beginning readers when we return in August.

This is the route the children travel to get back to the village.

After a long day, Debby’s new found friend invited her to have a suki (I think that is how it is spelled), and – no – it is not whacky tabacky. It seems that Fiji grows its own tobacco, which, in the more remote areas, is rolled in news print to form a very thin cigarette. Deb should be ashamed of herself!

We were also invited to stay on to have some Kava. Kava is a member of the pepper family and when the root is pounded in to a fine powder and mixed with water and compressed thru cheese cloth, it makes a muddy looking potion that makes your face numb and relaxes you. We were told that the resulting solution has some of the precursors of Xanax in it. Frankly, I’ll stick to wine and beer, but once invited to sit around the Kava bowl, you would offend folks if you didn’t have at least one.

After a long but very nice day, our “tinny” (Kiwi or Aussie for a small aluminum boat) waits for us as the kids play in and around her.

As we are leaving, Jack informs us that he has decided to have a great feast and a lovo the next day and we are invited.

More on that in the next post.

Cheers

While we were moving more quickly then we wanted, we were on a mission to scope out places and things are kids would like when we come back in August. So it was off to Savu Savu, the biggest town on the north island of Venua Levu. There are pearl beds here and I am quite certain that Kim and Debby will be back to see the women divers harvest the pearls (and probably harvest a few with their credit cards as well). If you get to Savu Savu, a visit to the Surf and Turf restaurant is worth your time.

Then it was on to Taveuni – must stop when we go back. Great waterfalls, trekking and a natural water slide as well as great diving and snorkeling around the Rainbow Reef.

Once we had scoped it out, we moved on to Qamea – a wonderful resort that normally doesn’t cater to us “Yachties”. Deb did her usual schmooze job and we went in for dinner and entertainment. It was wonderful and the local Dive Master pointed us to all the great reefs. The one just off the resort was one of the best we had seen.

The highlight of the trip was yet to come so we moved on sooner then we would have liked. More on that in the next post, but here are a few more pictures of Qamea to entice you.

Here is another local resident – ubiquitous in the islands and they start crowing at 3 AM.

A nice place to spend the afternoon lounging.

And our gal.

Cheers

We are sitting in Nadi Airport waiting for our flight to LAX then SFO for our son’s graduation from Stanford with his Masters in Electrical Computer Engineering. Then it is on to Pittsburgh and home.

I am still well behind on my posts so I will try to catch up over the next few weeks.

We return to join our gal in 6 weeks or so and 2 of our children will be aboard for 3 weeks or so (son George and our daughter Kim).

In the meantime, Iron Lady will sit in Suva harbor in the capable hands of Cap. Steve.

Thanks to all who are following our adventure -it has been very gratifying. Until our next post

Cheers

As we headed north out of Lefuka, the winds and seas continued to drop and fall further aft of the beam. Life was good. New Shabby was out and we caught a nice Mahi Mahi. Life was getting even better.

We arrived at our anchorage off Namena around 1400. The island is totally private with a very nice eco resort (Moody’s Namena) which is open only to guests, but Deb charmed her way in to see the island and the resort. All power is provided by solar and wind generators and all food is grown organically. The island and all surrounding waters are protected and no take zones. Nigel, the manager, was very kind and took us on a tour of the island.

The next morning, Deb and Steve went snorkeling (I couldn’t – seems I ripped off my big toe nail and I was afraid of infection – but that is another story – and you won’t here it from me).

The reef was spectacular and the bird life and plant life were equally awesome. Enjoy the pics.

This is a red footed booby chick still in the nest.

Finally, no such thing as too many sunsets.

Cheers