Fiji was where it all started for me in September of last year. What a pleasant surprise to have unexpectedly found myself back here again 13 months later. A full circle…

Our sail from Wallis started off painfully as we sailed upwind head into waves and wind. It was bumpy, wet and uncomfortable and 15,000 miles at sea still doesn’t make you immune to seasickness! A loud ZING on the fishing line easily made us forget about all that for awhile… We couldn’t see what was at the end of the line, but the force on the line and the fight to reel it in definitely sparked my imagination. I couldn’t believe my eyes when a large green fin sailed out of the water followed by a huge body of a fish. We’d just landed a five-foot dorado (mahi mahi)! It was huge and bright green, blue and yellow and I still couldn’t believe that this enormous fish was actually flopping around in OUR cockpit. I’d just about given up on fishing altogether but it seems that Urios fishing luck had changed! We couldn’t even begin to make a dent in what was enough delicious fish for 20 people, but had a wonderful ceviche lunch and yummy fish curry for dinner as our reward! Excitement of the day, highlight of the trip. Our arrival into Fiji ended up being beautifully calm and sunny with dolphins greeting us as we passed Welangilala reef and sailed through Nanuku Passage to begin making our way through the maze of Fiji’s eastern islands.

Fiji is an enormous collection of 300 islands that would take years to really discover and we had just two weeks to see what we could before having to head off to New Caledonia before the hurricane season. We lost a day somewhere on the ocean en route to Wallis, but we “sailed into tomorrow” again when we passed Taveuni Island where the International Date Line officially passes through Fiji. Fiji’s scenery is dramatically different from the South Pacific islands to the east. The islands were dominated by mountains and scenery that sometimes was more Wyoming (except for the ocean) than Tahiti, complete with dense cloud cover over tops of the rocky peaks. The large islands of Vanua Levu and Viti Levu were vast in comparison to what we’d been used to for so long… you actually couldn’t see the ends of the islands or fit it all in one photo frame!

Savu Savu on Vanua Levu was our first stop and it was a wonderful introduction to Fiji. The protected anchorage was already chock full of sailboats that were starting their six-month wait through the hurricane season, and we were happy to see many of the friends we’d met along the way among them. You could feel that we had entered another part of the South Pacific from the wonderfully ethnic mix of Indian and Melanesian cultures. With the bonus of the Fijian dollar and we were in high heaven with cheap great Indian curry and a bountiful vegetable and fruit market every day! Dried brown kava, prickly pineapple, big lobsters, bright green and red hot peppers, juicy watermelon, textured okra, purple eggplant, leafy coriander… the colors and smells of the market were just incredible. It was “a dollar a heap” or less (50 cents US) for just about everything, so it wasn’t long before I had bags and bags of produce for what it cost for a Coke in Tahiti!

Fiji is a maze of islands and coral reef, turbulent acceleration zones between the islands, and a notorious gusty patch of ocean in Bligh Water. All this is best navigated in good light at and the right tides, so we had to pay close attention on these passages and plan our starts and stops carefully as we made our way to the other side of Fiji to the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands, the idyllic and touristy hub. We timed our 5am departure to arrive at Nasonisoni Straight just before high tide – it was a narrow pass with lots of water flowing in and out and reef all around so we wanted to be sure not to be fighting five knots of current going out against the wind as we were trying to go in. Tricky! It was another one of those wonderful scenes of me up at the bow of the boat scanning the water before us for lighter shades of blue and yellow that indicated coral reef. Me standing on the balcony using hand and arm signals to direct Gregory who was at the helm will always be a great memory of sailing in the South Pacific! Once we were successfully through, Urios had one of those perfect sailing days that I’ll never forget where the spinnaker was the ideal sail, the sun was bright, and the sea was flat. Smooth and fast. That’s what sailing is all about! Bright turquoise water and reef surrounded beautiful Cukuvou Bay with its white sand beach and rocky black cliffs and this bay was supposedly the best snorkelling in Fiji. There wasn’t another boat or body around us for miles so we had this paradise all to ourselves for two days! Yadua Island was a neat remote island experience to have along the way. Fijian tradition has it that guests are supposed to pay a visit to chief of the village as soon as they arrive to present him with a gift of kava (sevusevu) and ask for permission to visit/anchor. Urios had stocked up on kava before leaving Savu Savu and we were excited to have our first sevu sevu! Of course, having half of the island all to yourself means that it’s a long way to the only village on an island with no roads to anywhere. Denimanu Village was on the exact opposite side of the island and it was a good two hour hike to get there! We started off into the coconut forest from the beach and made our way up the rocky ridge, to the top of the pass where you could see ocean and all the bays and coves of the island for 360 degrees. The scenery changed from desert-like tall grass to lush rainforest to stark volcanic rock along the way. One minute you see nothing but ocean and forest and the next thing we knew we were entering a village on the edge of the water. The children came right up to us, saying Bula and staring at us curiously as the women crowded around, extending a hand and offering a kiss on the cheek. The sight of the village was extraordinary – clusters of traditional Fijian bures on the edge of the beach with ocean on one side and mountains on the other and bright flowers and trees all in between. This was an island onto itself where the Fijians lived in traditionally and seemed totally isolated from “civilization.” Just being able to see these straw bures was worth the blisters and two hours of hiking in the hot sun. What was a tourist photo opportunity in some park on the main island was so authentic in real Fijian life – these beautiful straw huts were their homes and to see them still used was wonderful! I am amazed at the architecture and the construction of these enormous dense straw structures. So complex and solid against wind and rain yet all made from leaves and tree trunks. We were the main attraction as a six-year-old girl led us through the village to see the Chief. The Chief’s bure was the largest in the village with a high ceiling, woven mats on the floor, and intricate Fijian tapa covering the walls. I’m sure in the olden days our arrival would have caused a proper sevu sevu ceremony with a Chief and his advisors in traditional clothing drinking kava at dusk, but in modern day, the Chief was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and it was pretty straightforward. We were invited in and once we placed the sevu sevu at the Chief’s feet, he clapped three times, said something in Fijian, and then gave us permission to anchor in the bay, visit the village, snorkel around the island and take pictures. The sun was just about to set, my favorite time of the day, which made for the perfect setting as we wandered around the village. Daily village life was going on – men were sitting in groups and talking under the shade of a tree, women were cooking or chatting in the yards, kids and dogs were running around – and everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at us and say Bula as we walked by. What a perfect tranquil place to end an adventurous day. As we left the village and headed back up the trail, the last thing I saw was a group of little kids peering out from the doorway of a bure, hanging onto each other shyly with huge grins on their faces, giggling at us… The quintessential image that I will take away from our brief visit to Yadua!

Lautoka is a place that’s never spoken too highly of, whether in Lonely Planet or by word of mouth. Lonely Planet claims it isn’t really that interesting and yachties hate it because the sugar cane factory in town leaves your boat covered in black ash. I loved Lautoka! It wasn’t a pretty city per se, but it had such character as an authentic Fijian city with all the hustle and bustle and noises and sights of daily life. And, its fruit, vegetable and fish market that was one of the most wonderful things to see on a Saturday morning. There were countless vendors selling everything you could imagine, some in proper fruit stands, others setting up on a tarp on the ground, some just spreading their wares out on the sidewalk. It wasn’t just the sight of all the produce and fish that was impressive, it was the number of people selling stuff, the number of people buying it, the way they were selling it that made you stop and stare. It was an assault on the senses in the best of ways – the sight of men dousing piles of mussels with water to keep them fresh and the groups of women picking the stems off of bright red and green hot peppers, the smell of the mangos and coriander, the heat of the sun and the textures of all the fruit and vegetables next to each other. The organized chaos was utterly impressive!

Somehow time got away from us, as it always seems to, and we realized we didn’t have time to properly island hop from the Yasawas all the way down to the Mamanucas as we had wanted to. We instead settled for staying at one island to enjoy it fully rather than rushing around trying to see everything and then end up not enjoying anything at all! The island of Malololailai and the Musket Cove Resort became our playground. I am now an official lifetime member of the Musket Cove Yacht Club where membership requires that you have sailed to Malololailai from a foreign port. Not a hard requirement to satisfy when you’re sailing on a yacht, but a cool qualification to have on a membership card! We were back to the kind of place we love where not only can you jump into blue waters for a swim and snorkel any time you want, but you also have all the fresh showers, cold beer and resort amenities that you could want. We usually avoid these kinds of places because they tend to be expensive and touristy, but I think that after all the sailing and remote island stuff we’d done already, we were both just ready to enjoy a mooring and indulge a little, especially at Fiji prices! Scuba diving was awesome and though we’ve already been spoiled by all that we’ve seen under water, great visibility on a good day with bright coral and lots of fish makes every dive new and exciting no matter how many times you’ve seen it! Gregory and I even took a small Hobie catamaran out for a spin in the lagoon one afternoon. It was such a strange sensation for the two of us to be sailing on such a little boat! Everything was suddenly so easy – being able to pull the sheets (ropes) manually, darting around and changing directions quickly, being inches from the water. While I love big boat sailing, I have to admit it was a pleasant change of pace – no winches, no electronics, no navigation, no worries about running into the reef. With all this, and lunches at the café, BBQs on the beach, and drinks by the pool, how could you not feel like we were on a vacation from our vacation?!

Before we knew it, the “official” possibility of hurricanes was upon us, and it was time to go. The strong wind warnings that were plaguing the waters of Fiji were finally lifted and there was a good window to sail west. We spent our last night having a nice dinner out, and then catching up with a wonderful young Turkish couple that is three years into their circumnavigation. Seeing them again was a great reminder of all the great people we’d met along the way. It really says something that when you say goodbye to new friends, you’re always wishing that you could have spent more time with them. Fiji was our last common port of call as most boats are heading to New Zealand for the hurricane season and we were peeling off from the mainstream flow of sailboats by going to New Caledonia. It’s sad to know that we wouldn’t see the boats we’ve met along the way again on this trip, but I believe that it’s a small world and you never know when and how paths will cross again!

So off we went on a Sunday afternoon. We were expected to have steady 20-25 knot southeast tradewinds accompanying us the whole way to New Caledonia which would mean for a quick if not challenging five days of sailing to Noumea. The last 700 miles of Urios’ 18,000 mile journey from France was ahead of us, and we were full of emotion as we sailed out of Fiji’s coral reef.