OCC report on a season in Fiji

Monocake Village, Fulaga © Sarah & Phil Tad

We spent the whole of last season in Fiji, particularly enjoying the remoter islands of the Lau Group, despite the difficulty of re-provisioning.

It's surprising how much you can do with pak-choi and pumpkin, and we could usually find villagers willing to sell produce from their plantations. People everywhere were welcoming, from the family who sold us diesel from drums in their garden and gave us breadfruit in exchange for a tarpaulin, to those who gave us Sunday lunch after church. The services were in Fijian but we were always welcomed in English.

We found waypoints from Savu Savu's guru, Curly Carswell, a good aid in reef navigation, and we frequently used satellite images as electronic charts are unreliable here.

We are now back in New Zealand. It was a bumpy windward passage, eased by having contact with other OCC boats via the SOPAC net. This is organised by Andrew, OCC member, on Eye Candy. Two other OCC boats we were in contact with on passage were Water Music and Into the Blue and we were able to put names to faces in the sailing club in Opua. The two port officers in Northland, Nina and Mary, are always welcoming and helpful and we were pleased to be able to attend Nina's potluck while in Opua.

We are now cruising North Island and are surprised how few other visiting boats are taking the opportunity to do the same, but increasingly strict biosecurity rules regarding antifouling and scrubbing could be making use of marinas more difficult. We were refused entry to one marina.

We had an enjoyable meeting with OCC members Charles and Fung, on Wilderness, at Great Mercury Island at Christmas. Next season's plan is to continue west, but plans are made to be changed!

This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.