The 'No Come Back' boats

Stuck in Savusavu, Vanua levu, back in July.....crewing around the Soputh Pacific on 37' catamaran.....

We have parts! First the boom is reattached, with a $69 fitting that took 3 weeks to get here. I go for my first trip up in the Bosun’s Chair, easy peasy and oh! What a view! Luckily no great strength required for the task of running the sail bag lines through small pulleys; safely down I get a round of applause from a neighbouring boat. The sliders are put into the track on the mast, the old main sail hoisted and we are a sail boat again! Now to provision (chuck fresh food on board) and we can – at last – go cruising.

But other water craft don’t go far a field. Assorted bilibili – known as ‘the no come back boat’ because they could be blown away, or from the looks of them – just disintegrate – pass silently by. About 3 metre long and thick bamboo stems are strung together into a vague craft-shape, the really de-luxe versions have a small raised deck – an old piece of whatever was lying round. Paddles come in various designs, I quite like the ice-cream container lids nailed onto scraps of wood, although they do flex a lot; my Skipper offered one a tow and saved the crew a long slow trip. A costless way to move small amounts of cargo or go fishing – they slip quietly along the edge of the mangroves and at night reveal themselves to passing motor-powered dinghies with giggles and soft chatter rather than any form of lighting. Mid-morning and there’s a mini bilibili close to us now, four kids aboard, one to pole it along, the others to fall in.

Long, low and wide motor boats traverse the harbor regularly giving us a cheery wave as they pass, crew well protected from the wet and early morning ‘cold’ with waterproof clothing, they have been out attending to the many, many lines of oysters in the big bay behind the island that fronts Savusavu. The budding pearl industry is labor intensive and we stopped at the shelter where 65 villagers were working (voluntarily) to sort, size and reattach the growing oysters and get them back into the water before the heat became too much. Yachts are prohibited from sailing in this area.

Some boats go where they shouldn’t – last week the gravel barge made its way through the fleet anchored in this not-large harbor, causing many of us to watch open-mouthed as it reversed itself time and again to squeeze through. Skillful at the wheel the skipper may well have been but he got hauled over the coals and won’t be doing that again!

The assorted inter-island ferries come in regularly, unless they keep well to schedule the in-coming one has to hang around; we’re told not to think about going on ‘the Orange Vomit’ as it is only marginally cheaper than the newer and smarter black ones. Ferries to the ‘Garden Island’ of Taveuni leave from a small harbour in Vanua Levu a drive away from Savusavu, you must catch a local bus out to Buca (pronounced Butha) Bay. Supply ships also nip in and out, stock in the local supermarkets are regularly topped up and there seems more variety than two years ago.

But mostly Nakama Creek is peopled with cruising yachts and catamarans that come and go so rapidly that, in order to remember their names and destinations, we (and many others) keep a spread sheet. And, dear OT readers, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that there are MANY older couples still out sailing in their 70’s.