Images and Ideas: Sailing the Lau Islands

George's brother Ken very kindly invited us to sail with him through the Lau Islands of Fiji in his Atlantic 48 catamaran 'Resolute II', known to all as 'Ressie'.

We flew to Nadi and then on to Savusavu on the northern Fiji island of Vanua Levu.

Savusavu harbour

The cruise was in the company of a 'buddy-boat' Cabana, a 45' Lagoon belonging to a delightful couple: George and Bobbie.

Cabana

Fawn Harbour at dawn

To get from Savusavu to the southeastern end of the Lau Island chain involves a challenge when the SE Tradewind is blowing. We struck lucky with a window of opportunity, gentle winds and mild seas. So we spent a night at Fawn Harbour and then made a dash for it and got to Fulaga in about 30 hours.

Ressie and Cabana arrive at Fulaga

Ressie among the motus, limestone islets

Alfreti, a Fulaga fisherman

Alfreti with a big trevally

Setting off at Fulaga to do sevusevu

Pacific kingfisher (Todiramphus sacer)

The main village Moana-i-Cake

Carvers shed

Fulaga and Ogea are two of the southern Lau islands that are famous for woodcarving and canoe-building. We took hand tools for them.

George negotiating with carvers.

Some of the tools we gave them

We were taken to the chief where we did sevusevu, a Fijian ritual in which we present the chief with bundles of kava root. We also gave them some hand tools, which went down very well.

Sevusevu. Chief on the right with kava bundles beside him.

We were allocated a 'host family' to look after us. This is their house.

Ken and George having a cup of tea in our host's house.

The huge lagoon contains hundreds of 'motus', limestone islets that have been eroded around their base. They are very beautiful.

Buying a tool from Amazon for Seta, one of our hosts

Kids decided to pick the burrs off my shoes.

Visiting a school. The kids loved it. The teachers probably found us a bit disruptive!

Mum (Tima), daughter (Lucia), and granny.

Cabana and Ressie among the motus near the Sandpit at Fulaga

Ken working on his mast. (Photo from a drone).

Green crabs

After Fulaga, we sailed to the Ogea lagoon. One of the breakthroughs of this trip has been the improvement in satellite image navigation. A huge advance. Read how to do it here: OpenCPN with satellite imagery