SV Roam

Fiji's Ringgold Isles

Spending time in the seldom visited Ringgold Isles of Fiji.

Willy and Alex guide us on Cobia Island, in the Ringgold Isles.

How do you catch a wild rooster? With another rooster. You take your favorite rooster, tie a length of fishing line around his foot, and send him after your target rooster. Soon, they'll be tangled up with each other, and you'll have two roosters.

Alex with "Eagle," his prize rooster. Note the fishing line on Eagle's foot. When we return a few hours later, Eagle has captured another rooster.

I learned this from Alex. He is the son of Willy, our guide here in the Ringgold Isles. Alex keeps roosters for sport. I'll let you imagine what sport that might be. Hint: he's not racing them.

Fiji's Ringgold Isles lie in the extreme northeastern part of the country. They don't get a lot of traffic from visiting yachts. That seemed like a good reason to sail there. We had good weather and went.

Fiji's Ringgold Isles lie in the northeast corner of the country. Two days sailing from Savusavu.

Fiji (like most of the South Pacific) is poorly charted. We have to rely on our eyes and satellite images to work through the reefs and into the islands. We had good overhead sunlight and fabulous sailing conditions. Getting inside the reefs was easy.

Finding a path through the reefs. We rely mainly on visual navigation (and overhead sunlight) with help from satellite images.

For what chart data we have here, we can thank Charles Wilkes ¹. Wilkes was an American explorer who charted some 280 Pacific islands on behalf of the US Navy. He named the islands in 1840 after one of his lieutenants, Cadwalader Ringgold. Maybe back in the 1800s, instead of a bonus or stock options, you got an island chain named after you.

Yanuca [ya-NEW-thuh] is the main island in the Ringgolds. The island is home to about 70 people. The rest of the nearby islands are uninhabited.

The view from Cobia Island. Roam lies at anchor in the distance off Yanuca Island.

As is the tradition, we get ourselves settled at anchor and then head into the local village to meet the chief for his permission to visit. The village headman sees us coming and arranges sevusevu with the chief. Sevusevu is a simple ceremony whereby we present the chief with a gift of kava roots. The chief blesses us and our boat and grants permission to visit the island, the village, and the surrounding lagoon.

L-R: Willy and Chief Eminone. Willy hopes to serve as chief one day.

Willy is an enterprising figure on the island. He's built a guiding business here. He'll take you fishing. Or, in our case, out to Cobia Island [THOM-bee-uh] for a hike to the top of the crater rim and a swim in the lagoon.

Willy wants to be the next chief. He's ready. He's been ready for many years. But only if the village is onboard with his ideas. He'd like to see the island develop economically. A store. Better enforcement of its fishing rights. Tourism.

He's leading by example. In addition to his guide business, he has a homestay available. If visiting a remote island in Fiji is in your travel plans, he is an enthusiastic host.

L-R James (*Scout*), Willy, Pam. Hiking on the crater rim of Cobia Island. Willy's machete is key to getting through the jungle. The wall of the crater in the background collapsed, forming an entrance to a pristine lagoon.

After our visit to Cobia, he came back to the boat to hang out. He and Pam worked on getting his homestay listed on Vrbo. We played guitar – Willy is an accomplished player. And our friend James replaced his watch battery.

A brief stop on Taveuni Island

We needed to get the boat back to Savusavu, where we could park it for a few weeks. I had a work trip back to the US. Nawi Island Marina is one of our favorite marinas and a great place to leave the boat.

On the sail back, we called on Taveuni Island to dive with some friends. Hazel, the youngest member of the crew of the Catana 47, Hudson, had just earned her PADI Open Water certification at Paradise Taveuni Dive Resort. We all celebrated her achievement with a dive on Fiji's famous Rainbow Reef. A nice way to end this phase of the season.

Young Hazel dives the "Cabbage Patch" on Fiji's Rainbow Reef. She'll be forever spoiled by the amazing diving in Fiji.

Pam and Jeunesse. We say goodbye to our good friends aboard *Hudson*. We head back to the States, and they sail west looking for good surfing and wing foiling.

¹ Charles Wilkes was an interesting figure in 19th-century seafaring and exploration. He was a surveyor and hydrographer and ran the US Navy's Depot of Charts and Instruments. He got into a dispute with the Fijians over a stolen boat on Malolo Island in the Mamanucas. It ended with two of his officers killed. In retaliation, he burned two villages and killed dozens of Fijians. Upon his return to the US, he was court-martialed for illegally flogging his crew. A charge on which he was convicted. He was autocratic and abrasive, and some say he influenced Melville's character Captain Ahab. See Nathaniel Philbrick,Sea of Glory (2003), and David Jaffé, The Stormy Petrel and the Whale (1976).