[password]waiknot
[position]19 8.950S 178 34.018W

[status]
Still in Fulaga and the wind is still blowing! It has been very breezy here for the past 3 days, so we have been mainly sitting inside rather than enjoying our surroundings. There are about 50 islands in the Lau group, but only around 15 of these have good anchorages. Fulaga, in the southern Lau, offers more shelter than most anchorages, although the best shelter is found in the northern Lau at the Vanua Balavu group of islands. Most of the islands in the Lau seem to have at least one village. Fulaga has 3 villages. In other parts of the Lau, the villagers go fishing and sell lobsters and other fish to Suva, or they make decorative twine from coconut husks, or they do wood carving, or make tapa, a decorative mat for the wall or table. These villages sell their crafts and their produce to the market in Suva and that is how they earn their money. Some islands offer tourism services for a small fee to yachts, such as land tours or guiding you to a cave or snorkel spot. In Fulaga they have discovered an easy way of making money. They charge each yacht $50 for anchoring in the lagoon! They do not provide any services for yachts, there is no marina or yacht club, there is no water or fuel available, they do not offer snorkelling or diving trips, they do not put on a dance or show or even sing for their money, they just demand it for anchoring. This $50 cash is addition to the $25 bundle of kava that is traditional for sevusevu, the traditional gifting ceremony. We gave them kava, but instead of doing the sevusevu ceremony to welcome us into the village they demanded $50. They said once we gave them the $50, then they would perform the sevusevu ceremony. In other words, they would not welcome us in to the village without the $50. This did not make us feel very welcome at all! If you leave Fulaga to visit another island and come back, they expect you to do sevusevu again, with more kava and another $50! Other villages in Fiji, once you have been welcomed in the first time, you are welcome to come back again in the same season without doing sevusevu again.
Fulaga is a pretty place with turquoise water and little mushroom-shaped islets dotted about. It has a sandy bottom, so easy to anchor, but the snorkelling is non existent, unless you like looking at sand. There is a beautiful coral reef around the edge and through the pass, but we need calm weather to venture out of the lagoon to see this coral. Once the weather improves for moving about again, we will visit some of the other islands of the Lau, but it is unlikely we will return here.

[weather] 10-18 knots NE, 60% cloud, 1018 baro

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