June 15, 2015 Musket Cove again

June 15, 2015   Musket Cove again

Third time is a charm, I hope.  Once again we are ready to leave for our cruise up through the Yasawas.  Almost all of our friends have left the marina, either cruising Fiji or headed off to other places.  It is the middle of June.  Time to get going.  This time we made it into Musket Cove without any mishaps.  Our friends on Jean Marie had run off several other boats and managed to save a mooring ball for us. We were really glad they had done so because that night the wind started to blow and blew for several days.  Although we did not know it at the time, our entire trip was to be plagued by strong wind and cool weather.

Fiji is full of reefs and there is a belief among cruisers that the charts, including the electronic charts,  are not accurate.  There are numerous sets of waypoints and tracks from previous cruisers but even those are treated lithesome suspicion.  The resort at Musket Cove has a breakfast buffet with good coffee and excellent pastries.  This proved to be a great place to meet with our buddy boat, Jean Marie, to discuss our travel plans and to try to guess what the weather is going to be.   Again, there are several different weather services that people are using.  By and large, it looks like there will be a lot of wind coming mostly from the east.  

We could wait here in Musket Cove for a long time, waiting for the perfect weather.  And in fact we do spend several days hiking around the island but finally Alan says it is time to go.  There is a party at the island bar/yacht club to mark the opening of sailing season and the next morning we are finally on our way to explore the Yasawa Islands of Fiji. 

There are two main large islands in Fiji and over 100 smaller islands.  The Yasawas are a chain of small islands and reefs curving along up the west side.  They are sparsely settled, with occasional small villages, although more and more resorts are being built.   It is an interesting combination of the new with the old.  The villagers live a traditional lifestyle.  There is little electricity. although there are a few solar installations.  There is great hope that the government or some rich foreigner will give everyone free solar but so far that is a dream.  Water comes from rain collected into large tanks and there are frequent shortages.  There is no real concerted effort to catch, store and manage all of the water.  There are no desalinization plants.   Cooking is often over an open fire in outdoor kitchens.  But everyone has a cell phone and there are towers all through the islands.  each village has several small runabouts with outboard engines and there are frequent trips to the mainland or other islands. Traditional occupations are fishing and farming but these days much of the population works in the resorts, which are often located just a short distance from the village.  It must be interesting and disconcerting to work surrounded by all the acoutremonts of a luxury resort, hot showers, fine restaurants, beautiful rooms, and then come home to a traditional village.

There is an excellent system of schools but they are sadly lacking in books and computers and many basic supplies.  Of course I think that is true of schools all over the world, even Los Angeles.  Those villages that are on the cruise ship itinerary set up tables to sell “native” handcrafts and give tours of the school, always ending in a plea for donations.  Unfortunately, the handcrafts are seldom made by the villagers.  Instead they are shipped in from the mainland.  Occasionally there are wonderful shells from the local waters, or locally made mats but mostly everything looks much the same and you seldom see anything more than the standard tourist trinkets.