Seaspray sailing adventure

This morning we have a cruise to take around some more of the Mamanuca Islands including the island of Modriki, which is where castaway was filmed, and also the island of Yanuya, where we'll visit a traditional Fijian village and have a cava ceremony.

We caught a catamaran to the island of Mana first, then we transferred on to the Seaspray. It's a magnificent classic schooner (like a sail boat), which originated from Scotland in the 1930s, do she's an old girl. It did look very pretty when we first saw it on the shimmering waters. When we boarded, we were greeted by the captain and crew saying Bula, and then they played us some welcome songs and clapped too. We got given some champagne. Throughout the day, we get unlimited free drinks, including alcohol, which is pretty cool. There are a couple of guys from our accommodation there, a Spaniard and a Hungarian one, so we hung about with them.

Modriki Island- castaway

After sailing past many of the beautiful islands in the Mamanucas, we anchored up to Modriki Island. This is the island where Castaway, with Tom Hanks was filmed. We used snorkelling equipment provided and went snorkelling around the island. There was lots of beautiful pastel shades of coral on the sea bed, lilacs, pastel pink, yellow, turquoise, orange. I really wish we had an underwater camera to capture it, but even that would not do it justice. There weren't as many different fish here, but we saw loads of squid swimming along, so that was pretty cool. After snorkelling, we didn't really have time to explore the island, which was a shame, as I would have liked to, even tho I haven't yet seen the film. Our guide said that they are filming another film in the Islands, not sure which one tho.

Yanuya Island- Fijian village and Cava Ceremony

Once we'd finished snorkeling, we had to leave Modriki Island. Luckily I took a few quick snaps and we had to go back to the boat again. It's now lunchtime, they provided us with a BBQ, including some local fish. I don't really like much fish, but the fish in Fiji is a lot more meaty than fishy taste, so I actually like it here. It was a nice lunch, but it's so hot, so I didn't feel like eating too much. We carried on sailing to our next island destination, Yanuya Island. It's the biggest one we've visited so far. It's inhabited by 7 different tribes of local Fijian people. We're invited to join them for a 'Cava Ceremony' in their village.

We docked up to the village and our guide gave us a briefing about how to conduct ourselves. As a mark of respect, nobody can wear hats, shoes or sunglasses inside the hall where they will provide us with the cava ceremony. He told us that there are approximately 500 people living there, and children go to school here until they are about 8, then go to the mainland for secondary schools.

We walked through the village and the houses were basic little wooden shacks. They have electricity by using solar panels to generate it. Most of the doors of the houses were open when we walked past, there were people napping all around the village, inside and outside the houses.

We took off our shoes on entering the hall for the cava ceremony and all had to sit on the floor. We were greeted by the chief and 3 ladies presenting cava to us. Cava is from the roots of a plant which they grow. It takes 3 years to harvest it, and when it's ready it becomes alcohol. They clapped and sang a song, then asked people to come up and have cava with them. John was one of the first volunteers, so I went to try it too. They poured it in a bowl, where we had to drink it from there. It's a light brown texture like mud. It didn't taste too good, but you have to be polite and drink it, so I downed it. You go one by one and then move around so the next person can drink it, then they clap to you. It was nice to finally know what a cava ceremony was. We also got told that it makes you sleepy, so that's why we saw all the villagers sleeping everywhere!

Afterwards we were invited to look around at what the local ladies were selling, as they hand make jewellery and handcraft items for sale. We didn't bother with this as we didn't take any money with us, and they probably want you to buy something. We left and went back to boat. It was a good experience, but sometimes I do wonder if these things have been set up purely for tourism or if that's how it really is. Back on the boat, people were allowed to dive in the sea so plenty of people were jumping overboard. There were a Chinese family on board who must have taken 1000 pictures, they were trying to re-create scenes from titanic. The girl was doing loads of modelling photo-shoot type pictures too. They were our entertainment for the afternoon while sailing back. Just before we got off the boat, the crew sang another song, while a few of them played musical instruments. It's been a fantastic day out, but we're really sunburnt, so just gonna chill later on.