Fuluga - Isolated Paradise

On 3 July we arrived at Fuluga in the southern end of the Lau Group after an overnight sail from Vanua Balavu. A 120 Nm (220Km) trip on which we were rewarded with our first mahimahi caught just after dawn. A beautiful eating fish that we had many different ways plus we smoked about a third of it.

Fuluga is a large lagoon about 9km wide with a 50m wide entrance through fringing reef. It has one large island with 3 villages on it plus hundreds of small limestone islands and out crops. There are white sandy beaches and coconut palms. The typical picture of an island paradise. It was a bright sunny day with light winds when we arrived, perfect conditions to show the place off. It was seriously stunningly beautiful and isolated even with 18 rally boats arriving that morning.

The following morning all the rally participants headed to the main village to do sevusevu with the chief. The anchorage near the village isn't big enough for all the rally boats so 4 of the rally catamarans were used to take everyone to the village anchorage, Lettin Go being one of the ferrying cats. Sevusevu is a formal ceremony where as visitors we present the chief with a gift of kava and if accepted we are welcomed into the village with all the rights of the village residents. In Fiji traditional ownership of the land extends to the waters so visiting yachts need to do sevusevu to get permission to cruise, fish and dive in the local waters. The village at Fuluga is very organised to maximise the benefits from the small number of visiting yachts. A picnic was organised for last Friday with everyone bringing something to contribute to the communal meal. A small market was set up selling local produce, (bananas) and stunning carvings for which this island is famous. After lunch there were dances and songs from the children and we visitors dusted off the Ukeleles and sang a few Kiwi and nautical songs which our hosts enjoyed.

Every yacht crew is allocated to a local host family who provide an insight into the everyday life on these remote islands. Our hosts, David and his wife Mary and their four children lived in the school compound David is a teacher and looks after years 6 & 7. He and his wife were born in Suva where they met and married and lived there until he graduated. His family comes from the Fuluga islands. He has taught at three different islands over the past 9 years and will probably be transferred again in the future. We were invited to the Sunday church service, beautiful singing especially the children. Loud and proud! After the service we enjoyed a traditional Sunday Lunch with David and his extended family in their home.

There are a couple of boats from the USA in the rally so a sunset beach party was organised to celebrate the 4th of July complete with a bonfire and fireworks in the form of expired safety flares. The chief's permission was obtained for the "fireworks" display. A good night was had by all including friends from yachts that weren't part of the rally.

The best coral at Fuluga is on the edge of the pass into the lagoon where the walls of the pass are in parts vertical and others taper down to the bottom of the channel which is 6 to 8 metres deep. Due to the strong currents in the pass the best way to snorkle it is start on last of the out going tide and drift out along one side of the pass and when the tide turns cross over and drift back in on the other side. Sounds easy but the reality is you dealing with strong current so you are drifting very fast and the slack water when the tide changes is only 5 - 10 minutes. Start too early and you get washed out to the open sea which is breaking on the reef, start too late and it's a oneway trip only going in on the tide. We did 2 reef pass dives, the first we timed right and the second we were late due to commitments at the village and had an express ride in where the current was that strong it was difficult just to swim across it. But the experience was well worth the effort. The variety of coral types and colours was stunning. Heaps of fish and several reef sharks and the occasional larger shark at the bottom of the channel. A great experience...!

The rally fleet has started to break up into smaller groups here as people go off to explore different islands or have commitments with incoming visitors. The bulk of the fleet will meet up again next week in the Astrolabe Reef area. We left Fuluga yesterday in company with 2 other yachts to a lagoon 20km north, the Yasaba Cluster. A small hop but again a great location. More of this location in the next post.