Fiji, 17th February

Beachcomber Island

After the empty Pacific Ocean on most of the journey from San Francisco it was great to see so many islands and reefs in the last 24 hours of the voyage – and amazing to think that they were all charted accurately over 100 years ago, it is really a minefield for navigation with lots of hidden reefs and small rocks pointing out all over the place!  This is Mutiny on the Bounty country and our captain had great admiration for  Captain Bligh who, having been put in a longboat with his loyal officers navigated 1000 miles through dangerous waters (both because of the rocks and the existence of cannibals on some of the islands) AND managed to produce a chart of the area whilst he went – apparently the Admiralty charts used today still quote him as the chartist!  I should have loved to visit Pitcairn Island where the mutineers settled but it is far too small for 2000 cruise ship passengers – also quite a way from Fiji.

We anchored outside Port Denarau which is a purpose-built resort on the end of Viti Levu, Fiji’s largest island.  It didn’t sound very interesting so we opted to take a day trip on a catamaran to Beachcomber Island which is a classic coral island about an hour’s sail away.  We spent the day on the beach swimming and snorkelling and also got taken out in a small boat so we could snorkel over the coral – we saw lots of colourful fish such as parrot fish and angel fish  but nothing large and luckily no sharks!  The day included a really good buffet lunch and local entertainment with singers and dancers – the best was the fire dancer who was able to put the flames on his bare feet and also seemed to set light to his clothes on occasion!

p.s.  We heard that one of our party nearly drowned on the island yesterday – he had his flippers on and  stood in some sort of quicksand in the sea – it came over his flippers and sucked him underwater and he couldn’t get out as the sand came up to his knees and the water over his head - luckily for him his wife saw it and called for help and apparently some people managed to pull him out.  He wasn’t breathing but someone must have known what to do and he recovered and was rushed back to our ship!  Makes me shudder to think of it!

pps - have just met the man in question and he said it is all true except it happened two years ago when he was on the Queen Victoria!