Fully armed with village etiquette and kava, we departed Savusavu and motored 5 miles to inner eastern point of Savusavu Bay. We anchored just off from the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands resort. Reports of decent snorkeling in the vicinity of the resort left us anxious to get in the water. We enjoyed a decent snorkel in a couple of spots, but the visibility was not great.

Up early the next morning, we departed for Viani Bay. Upon reviewing the weather forecast for the next week showing a potential low pressure system packing up to 40 knot winds, we decided to consider other anchorages providing more protection for the various wind directions expected. Friends from New Zealand, Melva and Hilton, cruised in Fiji several times over a period of years. Hilton put together an electronic cruising guide of their favorite spots. We brought up Hilton's cruising guide. Based on their experiences, Nasasobu Bay sounded like a perfect spot to sit out a blow — good holding, protection from all directions and local's favorite cyclone hole. On top of being a good anchorage, the folks in the village sounded friendly. Sounds good to us.

The Dakinuba Boat Pass, a 100 yard wide pass, allows Whisper and crew to proceed inside the barrier reef and in to Nasasobu Bay. Always relieved to be through the pass, we inched our way in to the anchorage avoided the other obstacles, reefs and rocks noted on the charts. Duncan dropped the anchor is our chosen spot, we backed down and the anchor quickly grabbed into the thick mud. Yippee - good holding.

Now, our first dilemma arose. We did not learn in Fiji 101 whether you go in to give your sevusevu (gift of kava) on a Sunday. Sundays are reported to be Fijians day of church and family. Lonely Planet suggests you do not visit the villages on Sundays. Curly did not give any insights on this and we forgot to ask. We opted for waiting until tomorrow and asking forgiveness if we broke some rule by not coming in on the day we arrived.

Just getting comfortable with our decision, Robin spotted a boat of Fijian ladies and children rowing out to Whisper. "Bula!" "Bula!" Quick introductions and a bowl of fruit warmly introduced us to Bertha, Julia and the children Ernie and Evan. They then asked for kava which Duncan promptly delivered. We were slightly confused on what was going on. We asked whether we should go around to the next bay where the chief lived to give our sevusevu. They said either today or tomorrow was fine. Phew.

The next morning, we took the dinghy over to the next bay to visit the chief and the main village. The chief took us to his house. We removed our shoes, went inside, sat on the mat, presented the kava, listened to Fijian words which we assume meant he accepted our gift and asked a few questions. In general, Chief George seemed like this was all a bit of nuisance and he just wanted to get back to work. He offered to have someone give us a tour of the village. We suggested a return later in the day when work was done. He liked that idea.

We returned to Whisper and chatted on the VHF with our friends on Gosi in the next bay over. They were coming to join us in Nasasobu along with the boat Heretic. Excellent. Later in the afternoon, they arrived and we all went in to the village. Gosi and Heretic sevusevu'd with the chief and then we all went on a tour of the village. The "chief in waiting" gave us the tour.

We were quite impressed with how diligently everyone was working. Margaret wove baskets, men hauled bags of sand up from the beach to make concrete for the new community center outhouse, other men worked to haul up their boat on to the boat ramp. Four o'clock must be quitting time as a pick up game of rugby started on the village green.

With the tour complete, we returned to the muddy, muddy low-tide flats. Walking across the mud was a challenge. Thick, sticky mud — the same thick, sticky mud we wanted for the anchor — proves very difficult for walking. Wearing shoes made no sense as the mud would suck the shoe right off of the foot. Bare feet and mud. Back in California you pay good money to sit in mud baths up in Calistoga and in Fiji we were getting this for free. No complaining, right? Wrong. Little jelly fish hid in the puddles of water on the mud flat. Yikes. Be careful. Dragging the dinghy into water deep enough to float proved equally as challenging. Avoiding the small stingrays hiding in the shallows, we managed to get the dinghy in enough water that Robin invoked the princess clause and hopped in the dinghy while Duncan continued to push us out in to deeper water. After some pushing, pulling and rowing, we found water deep enough to start the outboard and off we went.

With formalities behind us and rainy weather forecast to arrive in a couple of days, we wanted to enjoy the good weather while it lasted.

The next day, the crews of Gosi, Whisper, and Heretic went out together in three dinghies to search for some decent snorkeling. The locals mentioned decent snorkeling near the pass, so off we went at high-tide and slack water. The snorkeling was okay and the currents were a bit strong. The amount of dead coral surprised us. The devastation caused by Cyclone Ami in 2003 is still quite evident.

Even so, being in the water is always a treat.

Systems Update

In general, the systems on Whisper are behaving nicely and we are reaping the benefits of the new generator, solar panels, and batteries. But what would Whisper cruising be without a genset issue? After just over 100 hours, the exhaust elbow on the new generator developed a pin-hole leak. The good news is that after only two drips of salty water, Duncan saw the problem. Then, it only took four minutes to get the old elbow off — and without one swear word uttered! Getting the exhaust elbow off and on the new generator is a piece-of-cake compared to the old generator.

Bret at Onsite Power sent a warranty replacement elbow AND a free-of-charge spare to Savusavu, Fiji (although we'll pay DHL shipping cost).

In the meantime, Duncan jury-rigged a "bandage" to get by until we receive the new part. Bret will look at the old elbow to see if there is anything they can do to improve the design. The weld seams on the stainless pipe-halves corrode aggressively in the heated saltwater and exhaust mixture. This is a third-generation elbow and the ideal solution has not yet been discovered. Can ceramic coatings be used? High-temp plastics? Extruded stainless without weld seams? I'm sure they'll come up with something. Of course, fellow-cruisers tell us about their 10-year-old cast iron genset exhaust elbows — still original equipment and working fine.

Another minor issue came up with our Sigmar hot water heater. The hot water over-pressure heater relief valve is starting to leak and fail. We ordered another valve from Hallberg-Rassy and it is waiting for us back in Savusavu. Until we get this part and replace it, the hot water slowly drips from the valve into the bilge. This is a bit of a vicious cycle — make water in the morning, heat the water with the generator, drip the hot water into the bilge. Repeat.

The broken boom vang is fixed, watermaker maintenance is complete, and Whisper and systems are doing well. Next in the plan: Robin will continue the clean-up and wax of the blue hull stripes and Duncan will clean the bottom and replace the zincs. Then, enough work, back to play.

Underwater

The rains ended and back into the water we went — ironic, is it not? Hilton's cruising guide indicates some decent snorkeling outside the reef. While the folks on Heretic and Waterdragon went for a dive, we decided to snorkel outside the reef. Outside the reef was decent in spots; however, Robin seemed to attract a white tipped reef shark who followed her around. While white-tipped reef sharks are not dangerous, being stalked by one is slightly disconcerting. Relentless in his pursuit, Robin foiled the shark by returning to the dinghy and waiting for Duncan to return as well.

From there, we decided to try snorkeling the other side of the pass which proved to be much more interesting than the previous attempt at snorkeling the pass. The following photos are some of the highlights of our hour-and-a-half of snorkeling. Enjoy.

On our first day in Nasasobu, David, one of our new Fijian friends, said " You now have three homes — your boat, the U.S. and our house. Welcome Home!" Knowing the famous Rainbow Reef was just around the corner, motivated us to leave our new home and head east to start doing some diving. Duncan hoisted the anchor and Robin motored us toward the exit while all the families in Nasasobu waved to us from their windows and porches. The warm, welcoming folks from Nasasobu certainly made us feel at home.