June 19, 2013
As easy as it would have been to linger in Savusavu, we had incentive get going. The trade winds had died, giving us a weather window to get to Viani Bay, about a 46-mile trip yet still on the island of Vanua Levu.
Viani Bay is one of the most popular anchorages in Fiji, often the first place cruisers go after clearing in. But you have to go against the prevailing southeasterly trade winds to get there; so it’s best to wait for a very light wind period, fire up the engine, and motor sail all the way there.
Our new friends Kari and Helena on Merilelu were going, and I planned to take the Padi dive course with Helena in Viani Bay. Our friends Craig and Bruce on Gato Go were also headed that way. After attending Curly’s terrors-of-Fiji seminar, Rich and I were intimated about cruising here, and it was nice to head out among friends.
We all ended up leaving about the same time and kept in contact as we motored along the south coast of Vanua Levu. It’s a day-long long trip to Viani Bay, but there’s a convenient bay to stop in on the way: Fawn Harbor, about 35 miles out of Savusavu.
Generally cruising boats try to get to Viani Bay in one day, but if the easterly breezes pick up in the afternoon, it’s nice to duck into Fawn Harbor for the night. And that’s what happened: the southeasterly breeze picked up and we all decided to head into Fawn.
Around this time our fishing pole made it’s zzzzzzz noise. Rich sprung into action, and it wasn’t long before we had a really large mahi mahi on board. Excited, we called our friends: we caught a big fish and intended to share it! That’s when one of those magic moments of cruising happened. Craig and Bruce kindly offered to host everyone on Gato Go for dinner and cook the fish. Helena from Merilielu would make her chocolate cake. It turned out the boat Champagne, with Clark his young crew, were behind us and stopping at Fawn, and they would be happy to join us and bring a dish. Suddenly our old friends Ronnie and Chris from Lady Bug came up on the radio! They were coming from another island and stopping at Fawn, and they, too, would love to come and bring a dish. And then come to find out Caps Tres, whom we’d met last year, were already in Fawn spending a second night, and they could bring a dish, too. Within minutes our fish had created a party!
The conditions were calm, the sky partly cloudy, as we approached Fawn Harbor. We watched our friends on Merilelu and Gato Go head in through the pass with no problem. Since we were all using the same waypoints, we felt confident when it was our turn. As it turned out it was really easy, the reef clearly visible and marked. We wound our way into the anchorage area, which had plenty of room for everyone, and picked a spot.
We thought this place was beautiful, surrounded by high mountains and thick with palm trees. Mangroves lined most of the shore, blocking the view of any beach there might be but still making a lovely shoreline. The water was dark, and the increasingly gray clouds around us made the scene more dramatic and cooled the air. Two frigate birds hung in the sky above us. The whole thing was absolutely magical. We were surprised this was not considered a destination anchorage, just a place to stop if convenient. If this is merely a place to pull in for a night, we couldn’t wait to see the real anchorages!
This evening as we prepared for the dinner gathering, we noticed the sunset getting more and more beautiful.
We arrived at Gato Go with bags of fresh mahi-mahi filets, letting Craig perform his culinary magic on them. People began to arriving bringing plates of food to share. Soon we were all having a fabulous fish dinner and enjoying the libations we’d each brought. We had 13 people on the boat, and it was a fun, spontaneous party.
Nights like this are one of the things that make putting up with the difficulties of cruising worthwhile. You can have this sort of coincidence anywhere, but when you have an unexpected convergence of friends in an out-of-the-way anchorage, coming together in one particular place on one particular night, everyone far from home, it feels like a special moment. Tomorrow we’d all be heading on, but we enjoyed our dinner together that night. –Cyndi
