Sunday 14 August Kavala village, Kadavu

Over the last few days we've been watching the weather looking for an opportunity to sail back north to Beqa (with addition of the invisible letters this is pronounced Mbengga) island. Yesterday light winds from the right direction allowed us to motor sail up the east coast from Galoa Harbour to Kavala bay on the north of Kadavu. Yet again we're the only yacht here in the bay. We dropped the hook in front of one of the two villages, Kavala, and went in to do sevusevu with the chief. This is a modern village with plyboard houses, tin outhouses and a raised cement pathway running through like a main road. The chief was away at his garden in the surrounding wood so we arranged to come back early tomorrow if the wind wasn't right for us to sail away.
Sunday dawned and with it wind from the south as shown in the forecast. A stiff breeze waits for no yacht and a trip ashore for a kava donation. It would be like taking coals to Newcastle anyway as kava growing is the main income in the island. There was time to make a phone call home to my parents before we left – the mobile company has a promotion where it is only 30p for 30 minutes to call UK. It would be rude not to call as many people as possible. I spoke with my parents, it was their Saturday night to our Sunday morning and to my pals Chris and Peter.
It was a good day to sail and a good day to catch fish; two doradoes succumbed to David's new lure. We came in through the reef fringing Beqa at Sulphur pass on the east side – David climbed the mast using his newly fitted mast steps and I was on helm. It's an easy pass wide and deep. Inside we turned and headed into Maluma bay which is long and half a mile wide – the breached crater of an extinct volcano. On either side of us the valley sides are a profusion of growth, untouched by human hand for many years, if ever. The big trees are draped with creepers and making it look like a missing set from the lost world and we've got it all to ourselves apart from the native pigeons barking in the forest and the occasional fruit bat flying overhead. Once the wind dropped there's not a ripple of the water. Tomorrow we intend to take the dinghy and explore the mangrove swamps and shallower areas to see if there's a way through to t he southern side of the island.

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