May 16, 2015 Saweni Bay

May 16, 2015 Saweni

We are going sailing, just around the corner to Saweni Beach where there is supposed to be a party tonight.  I am determined to become more self-reliant this season, rather than let Alan do everything.  So the night before we are going to leave, I get out the chart and figure out a course and put the headings into the iPad.  The one thing that I am still not very good about is understanding which direction the boat can go with a particular wind direction and given that we have not been sailing here very much we have no “local knowledge” of wind patterns.  So of course, once we are out of the channel entrance with the sails up, Rhapsody will not go the direction I had plotted.  However, we have all day.  It is just 5 miles to Saweni so I take advantage of the chance to try different points of sail and actually do fairly well.  We don’t actually follow my course but we do ultimately end up at the entrance to the bay at which point Alan has had enough of my wanderings around and takes the helm to get us in.

Saweni is known for its very narrow entrance with hidden reefs.  There is an outer  anchorage with 30 foot depths and beyond the reefs an inner anchorage with about 10 feet depth.  Ideally you come in at low tide when you can see the reefs and anchor in the inner anchorage.  and, in fact, there were 4-5 other boats in there.  However, it was high tide, late in the day and a brisk wind was blowing so we opted to stay in the outer anchorage. 

Once we were settled we headed ashore to see what was happening.  It was just getting dark when we pulled George up onto the beach.  The water was calm and we could see several other dinghies pulled up on the beach.  There was a bonfire with a gaggle of children running around, gathering sticks to toss on it, poking it with sticks and then shrieking when the sparks flew.  We found out later that it was the first time these kids had had a bonfire.  The adults were seated on blankets, eating, drinking and talking.  We were feeling slightly embarrassed at being party crashers, but we were quickly welcomed.  It turned out that most of the group belonged to one large family that worked in the marina.  They all knew Rhapsody and Alan and knew me as the garden lady.  We were treated warmly, invited to sit and offered food. There was grilled tuna, caught that afternoon by one of the yachties, curry, cassava, all eaten with the hands.  And kava.   Conversation was quiet and low key.  There was some beer shared among the yachts but not much. 

There is a whole different atmosphere at Fijian parties.  The kava leaves people quiet and relaxed.  Very different from  American parties where the alcohol causes people to become loud and obnoxious.   Anyway, it was a perfectly lovely Fijian evening.