The world tour with an inflatable catamaran has been going on for 2 years. Currently, most of the route has already been crossed. Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Berezkin want to set three sports world records. The first record is the fact of circumnavigating the world on an inflatable sailing trimaran – a ship with only three inflatable balloons, not equipped for long voyages, completely devoid of amenities. The second record is the longest trip in an inflatable boat. The third record is a winding road around Cape Horn on an inflatable sailing ship. This has already been done. Before the day of the geographer, the travelers were on the island of Fiji in the Pacific Ocean from where they went to Vanuatu.
on the island of Fiji
An excerpt from Evgeny Kovalevsky’s diary dated August 4, 2023 (punctuation and style preserved))
Fiji, Vanua Levu, Savusavu
We have been on the island of Vanua Levu, which is in the Fiji archipelago, for about a week.
After passing through Samoa, we rested, repairing a hole in the Tuamotu Islands area caused by the attack of the cookie cutter shark (a cookiecutter shark – a small shark that emits light in the shape of a cigar). Russian sailors in the 19th century, the islands of the Russians.
We got to know the island and its inhabitants a little. A green island immersed in wild vegetation, through which it is impossible to pass due to its density. Many places are completely untouched by human hands. The highest mountain is Nosuralevu – 1032 meters.
Two regions separated by mountain ranges, two cities Savusavu and Labasa. Hot springs where you can boil fish.
We visited the sacred stone lying under the ground. 30 years ago the stone was half a meter high, now it rises 4-5 meters from the ground. Fijian Baba, who took us to the stone, claims that 30 years ago, when he was 10 years old, he and his father came to this stone and bent down to caress its top.
“The stone has grown and continues to grow,” says Dad.
At first we doubted, then we argued and decided that the stone could actually grow, not just literally but figuratively.
The stone is pyramid shaped, some processes below the ground surface compress it upwards. The stone becomes longer and larger in size. Fijians, half of whom are ethnic Hindus, formed the belief that the stone grows. Therefore, it became a Temple, an object of worship. The stone is decorated with figurines of gods and various sacred objects. Among the gods I recognized the elephant-headed Indian god Ganesh. The stone was concreted and surrounded by a fence.
The people of Fiji are friendly and smiling. Many say “Bula” to everyone they meet – hello. Thank you – “vinaka”. Goodbye – Moze.
We toured the copra production where coconut is used. There are many coconut plantations on the island. Copra is the inner flesh of the coconut. Coconut is brought to the factory. There is an area where the coconut is cut in half. There is a zone where the inner part of the coconut is separated, the grinding chamber. drying area. There are two ways to break the pieces: the first is with dry air to create clean copra from which coconut oil is made for the kitchen, and the second is to set it on fire. After drying in the fire, a semi-finished product is obtained, from which various cosmetic and food products are prepared.
The indigenous people who settled on the island more than 3000 years ago belong to the Lapita culture. Aborigines are an intermediate people in composition between Melanesians and Polynesians. Once, even before our era, oceanic migrations were going eastward from Malaysia. Micronesia was formed in the North Pacific Ocean, closer to the center in the region of Fiji and the Samoan archipelago – Melanesia. Further west, on the islands of French Polynesia and Easter Island – Polynesia.
The island attracts sailors and tourists from Australia, New Zealand, USA, France, Canada and other countries. We are staying at the Marina Kopra Shed (the marina) where we were warmly welcomed by Jeff the Australian owner of the Marina. He is a geologist, he studies the underwater resources of the Pacific Ocean, minerals, oil. Conducts scientific research and research, writes books.
The Manager – Fijian Dolly – handles the entire process at the Marina. Jeff laughs and says that Dolly is the boss here and says, “I’m sitting in the office.” In the meantime, with Jeff’s permission, I can sit in his office and make reports.
The sailors greeted us with surprise and admiration. We held a meeting with the Fijian maritime community at the Marina Kopra Shed on Friday 4th August. All the sailors, whose yachts were in the port of Savusavu, arrived – the French, Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians. The Americans approached from the University of Massachusetts’ research vessel. They study the ecology of the world’s oceans.
Stanislav and I talked in detail about the discoveries of Krusenstern, Bellingshausen, Kotzebue, Litke and other Russian sailors of the 19th century. They told us about our expedition, our aims and objectives. They showed videos and photos. On the map they showed our route and the routes of our predecessors.
Our story about Siberia, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, universities and students, science and education, nature, snow, wildlife was of great interest.
The video about New Year’s Tomsk was met with enthusiasm. Our story was accompanied by applause many times.
There were three of us at the meeting: our crew from Tahiti to Australia – Evgeny Kovalevsky, Stanislav Berezkin, French Vincent Boe. After the meeting, another Frenchman expressed his desire to drive to Vanuatu.
For the remaining few days we want to repair the necessary, visit the city of Labasa, where we are interested in the Temple of the Serpent and the floating Island.
We plan to go to Viti Levu, Fiji on Tuesday, August 8th, get a permit from there and go to Vanuatu.
On the way to Vanuatu
An excerpt from Evgeny Kovalevsky’s diary dated August 13, 2023 (punctuation and style preserved))
Viti Levu, Fiji – Port Vila, Vanuatu, Russian Ocean Road
After spending three blessed days at Vouda Marina on Viti Levu Island, Fiji, we depart for Vanuatu at 11:00.
We did a lot in three days: we rested, we did rigging work on the mast, we fixed additional covers (cables to fix the mast), we hung two covers to fix the parapets (tightly stretched cables, both ends fixed on ship structures), took water, 260 liters of gasoline took.
I bought extra food: canned food, apples, nuts, spices. We sent 100GB of video to headquarters and our creative partners. We took high-quality photos of the catamaran for supplies. We recorded several video syncs about Fiji for movies, commercials, Lessons from the Ocean. We visited two temples: Sri Shiva Subramanya and Sri Krishna Kali. We took photos and videos for the press center.
Agreed on a schedule for further movement with Headquarters: Fiji – Vanuatu in August, Vanuatu – Cairns, Australia August-September, across Australia from Cairns to Darwin September – October, Australia – Bali, Indonesia – October.
In the new year, the plan is to arrive in Phuket, Thailand.
Julia will fly to Australia, bring a debit card of the Kyrgyz Bank for staghpir (pipe for the mast), other important spare parts, the possibility of payment in stores and other services.
We held a meeting with 80 sailors at Vuda marina.
He made 116 catamaran cruises for more than 300 people.
They left a good reputation on Russian sailors.
They amazed everyone, everyone, with a new circumnavigation experience.
He wrote an article for a famous Dutch sailing magazine.
We met the Russian sailor Anatoly, who provided us with important support – God bless him.
Until communication in Vanuatu in a week, but for now we’re sailing, teaching the French to sing Russian loves.