Hemispheric Travelers By MichaelVITI LEVU, FIJI

Looking back at Del Viento from ashore.

So we got our window and made our short passage north, from Savusavu, Fiji, to Futuna, the smaller of the main islands that comprise Wallis & Futuna, the simply-named French protectorate out in vast Pacific Ocean.

It was sort of like returning to the Marquesas. Granted, everything is in French (though the 4,500 people on the island speak their own Polynesian language, Futunan, at home—and just them! The 9,500 people on Wallis speak Wallisian, blows my mind.) and the small supermarchés were filled with duck pâtés and cheeses and bread (bread that was much better than anything we ever got in all of French Polynesia), but what I'm talking about is the dense, green, rugged hillsides punctuated with dramatic sheer cliffs. "It reminds me of the Marquesas," is what we kept saying to each other after dropping the anchor.

All of this was unexpected. I'd focused solely on the understandable admonitions about Futuna, same as the widespread advice offered to us before we sailed to Pago Pago, American Samoa: "get in and quickly get out." I didn't expect else but the roadstead anchorage and the dinghy-killing pier. Following is the soundtrack aboard Del Viento en route:

"Girls, you know we're seriously only going to be here for the time it takes to drop anchor, check in, and check out—maybe as short as a couple hours."

"Seriously?! But we can't be stuck on a passage for two days and then not even spend the night."

The only place we found to get internet
on-island, outside the closed Gendarmerie.

"Guys, this is the whole point of this trip, to check in and check out and get back to Fiji. Besides, the anchorage is a shallow indentation and our weather window is closing—we can't be in this anchorage when our weather window closes and the wind comes up."

We arrived on a Saturday, early morning. We hit the beach running.

The Gendarmerie gave us the bad news: "You can check in and check out in this office today, but you must also go see the port captain for your zarpe and he won't be in-office before Monday."

Crap. We were told in Fiji we could do our check in and check out on a Saturday.

Fortunately, a quick check of the GRIBs showed that our weather window had accommodated us, expanding to give us the two placid days we needed.

Life is like that sometimes.

We didn't rock and roll in the roadstead anchorage, instead we sat peacefully for two days in a lovely, lovely setting, enjoying an unexpected Futuna experience.

Life is also like that sometimes.

Our sail home was as pleasant as our sail there. Both ways we crossed the antimeridian, exactly halfway around the world from Greenwich, England, and meaning that in our short trip we traveled east from the Eastern Hemisphere to the Western Hemisphere and then back to the Eastern Hemisphere.

--MR

Arriving Futuna.

Futuna streets.

Could be a Marquesan street for sure.

This is what the sail back to Fiji looked like.

Del Viento back on a Waitui mooring in Savusavu.

First thing we did upon returning was get together
with our friends Robin and Fiona from MonArk.
The couple are Good Old Boat contributing editors who
also run a site that encourages younger folks to get into
sailing and cruising. Check it out: youngandsalty.com