Download PDF - Oyster News 66 - Oyster Yachts

We had our first experience drinking kava shortly after arriving in Fiji. We joined a
local man sitting on a woven pandama mat, crossed our legs yoga style in front of
a four legged wooden kava bowl and threw back a coconut shell filled with a muddy
looking mixture that immediately numbed our tongues and throat.
Not many years ago the kava would have
been drunk from the skull of an enemy
and the roots of the kava pepper plant
chewed by young women who spat the
grounded root into a wooden bowl for the
consumption of male village elders.
We had arrived in Fiji a few days before
with the Blue Water Rally whom we had
joined in Panama. We tied to a mooring
at the Copra Shed Marina on the island
of Vanu Levu, the more remote of the two
larger Fijian islands. There are fewer
tourists on Vanua Levu than on Viti Levu
and the streets of Savu Savu were busy
with local activity. Indo Fijians are the
foundation of the country’s economy,
operating small businesses and stores,
growing produce and offering it for sale
in a large covered market where we
purchased the customary gift of kava root
to offer to the chiefs of villages that we
planned to visit.
Fijian natives on the other hand prefer
to live in villages along the coast
independent of others except for the
purchase of basic staples and every day
the sidewalk outside the bus stop would
include an array of colourful ankle length
dresses as native women waited to be
transported back to their villages.
A former secluded village located 20 km
outside Suva Suva had recently decided to
experiment in the tourist trade with guided
tours to one of their most sacred of sacred
commodities, the Red Prawns. Red Prawns
are one of Fiji’s endemic species, a rare
shrimp that appear pink in colour before
cooking. They are found in two locations in
Fiji and have probably survived throughout
the centuries due to the fact that native
Fijians declare them sacred and claim
those who attempt to remove them will fall
prey to the evils of the sea.
A hike over aging bridges, through mango
swamps, salt water pools, overgrown
vegetation and a 500 metre salt water
channel, mid calf deep with low tide, lead
us to an islet. We lowered ourselves down
a shallow rock face to a small cave where
the red prawns often take refuse until a
gifted member of the Narwani clan sings a
solemn calling song summoning them into
the open lava rock pool. Traditionally,
gifted natives call for sea turtles, sharks
and other sea life during practiced rituals.
We left Suva Suva to join our Blue Water
Rally friends on Malolo Leilei Island located
in the Mamanuca Islands about 15 km
west of the large island of Viti Levu.
The group of twenty islands, mostly of
volcanic origin and now blanketed in
greenery amidst crystal turquoise waters,
sit on the North Western limit of Fiji and
are exposed to open sea allowing a north
swell to ruin a night’s sleep if you do not
tuck into a protected bay.
Musket Cove, located inside the barrier reef,
is one of the safest and most sheltered bays
in the Mamanuca’s and sits amongst several
smaller reefs lying incognito like land mines
in an unsuspecting field.
In the approach to Malolo Island, we sailed
within close proximity of several
surrounding islands watching waves break
over an assortment of reefs while our
charts indicated there were far more coral
impediments than what we could visualize.
Amongst the small islands there are few
international navigational markers and we
found only current mangled, windblown
naked sticks lying at an assortment of
angles, some adorned with bundles of
upright branches with a sort of army
brush-cut appearance. We learned later,
the upside down bristle broom look were
taboo markers erected by natives
indicating areas of native fishing rights.
There’s not much chance anyone would
try to approach Musket Cove after sunset,
not even the Malolo ferry runs after dark,
but if you did attempt it, using the present
navigational leading lights you would find
yourself high and dry on the sandy
extremity of Malolo Leilei Island, as the
lights were reportedly never installed in
proper alignment. Well I guess all would
not be for lost, as you would be beached
only metres from the Four Dollar Bar.
Moorings are available outside Musket
Cove as an alternative to tying to dock
inside the cove or hanging out for the
arrival of high tide in order to navigate >
LEFT: Anchored alongside a fellow Oyster in Musket Cove
ABOVE: One of the village children, Namara
OWNER REPORT
www.oystermarine.com 47