Dingy stolen in the Lau Group (Fiji)

take-away

Our lessons:
1. Lock the fuel locker,
2. Lock the outboard,
3. Remove the kill-switch cord, and
4. Trust no one, even if the village and school have no doors.

Do not pre-arrange a time to meet a stranger anywhere, just show up unexpectedly for Sevusevu, even on a Sunday.

The jury is still out as to whether the thief was tipped off about our prearranged meeting time, we would like to think not.

The incident was reported to the Police on the mainland, but we have had no reply as of 18 Sept 2024. We were not holding much hope.

While it may appear to be a perfect island paradise in the Lau Group (FIJI), don’t be fooled.

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did they want fuel?

We suspect the thief was after fuel and was trying to quickly take the fuel tank and hose.

Realising the fuel tank was too hard to remove and the fuel line ran under the floor, he decided to take the whole dingy.

How he thought he was going to get away with it where there are no other islands, we are not sure. Our guide told us their total population of 100.

Was there more than one thief in on the action? We can only speculate again.

no school supplies for Komo Island

We both breathed a big sigh and pondered the aftermath of these shenanigans, questioning what lessons could be learnt.

We later found that the fuel hose clamp to the outboard was loosely in place (not clipped in as it normally is).

The fuel locker latch had been left open (normally closed securely), and the dingy anchor d-bolt was half unbolted. The motor was padlocked, so that was not going anywhere. The kill-switch cord had been left in place (lesson learnt).

We later found the outboard had been jimmied 20mm off its mount on one side. We think that the padlock saved us from losing the outboard.

were they all involved?

Relieved that we now had our car back, we all returned to our yacht for refreshments. Our spokesperson and his young nephew were heroes as far as we were concerned.

All they wanted was a cup of coffee (for the driver) and a cup of tea (for the 9-year-old nephew). We parted with a few dollars as we had no spare fuel, trying to show our sincere gratitude for their assistance.

Oddly, not a word of sympathy or concern from our onboard guests about the theft.

Were they involved? We will never know.

Could someone have tipped off the thief that we were going to leave our dingy on one side of the island to walk to the village on the other side at 2 pm?

We can only speculate.

they know the thief

It was onto the water and within two minutes… there it was, coming around the back of the island.

It appeared to have someone in it. Thinking the other person had found the dingy and was coming around to pick us up, big smiles returned.

It wasn't until one got closer, we soon realised that the person in the dingy was a young, local islander from the village who had stolen the dingy from the other side of the island.

We quickly approached our dingy (some 150 metres from the rocky beach). A verbal confrontation ensued between our spokesperson and the islander.

Our spokesperson quickly grasping a long paddle, was gesturing for the thief to jump or get hit. He chose to jump into the water and started swimming the 150 metres back to shore.

Given the island population, the thief would have been known to our spokesperson.

get help ASAP

5-minutes in, it was suggested that we should engage the Komo spokesperson to assist as it may have blown around the side of the island heading to the edge of the reef.

While one of us kept pace along the rugged beach edge, the other dashed back to Komo village.

A teacher at the school gestured to a young child to locate the spokesperson.

Soon the search was on, except, there was no fuel for their outboard motor. Offering to pay for any fuel, a villager kindly gave some fuel to our driver.

dingy stolen - Fiji

On reaching the beach on the other side (some 45 minutes later) I heard the shriek, "The dingy’s gone…"

Often playing practical jokes on each other, I muttered "Yeah right".

But it was nowhere to be seen.

The wind was still blowing easterly around 15knots.
So:
1. If the dingy had slipped anchor, AND for some reason,
2. The bowline came loose, AND
3. The three coils of rope around this huge boulder had somehow unwound,
...it should be downwind somewhere.

At pace, the downwind search started.

school supplies surprise coming!

We continued our guided meander before finally bidding farewell and being gifted local bread, which we returned with powdered milk and enough lollipops for all the school kids.

We thought we may return with items for the school as a surprise a bit later too.

We then started the hot ascent back up and over the hill, a walk of 20 minutes. We both commented on how the school had been left wide open and even the houses, had all doors and windows wide open.

Some houses didn’t even have doors. Quite obviously, the village has little to no theft, and a refreshing community spirit of trusting your neighbour.

sevusevu - Komo village

By 02:00 pm the next day, we had dinghied over to the beach, set a forward anchor in a metre of water and aft line to a huge boulder on the beach.

We marched up the hill to be met by the village spokesperson who kindly showed us down the other side into the Komo village. They appeared very proud of their school which catered for 30 students to Year 7.

We had other school provisions on the yacht that would suit this small school perfectly.

Komo’s population was around 100.

The village was deserted. Everyone was down for their afternoon nap (including all the kids and the Chief), we were told by the guide.

'Getting ready for the afternoon church service that started at 03:00 pm' he said.

"bula...you have fuel?"

A spokesperson and his young nephew arrived in the Komo Village School long boat.

They offered us a basket full of bananas, and while we took a few, we returned with some Kava root, reading glasses and lollies and arranged to meet the next day at 02:00 pm on top of the hill to go down to the village for Sevusevu at Komo Village.

Being very religious in this area, we were warned that Sundays were precious to these people.

Village dress codes were also a must, with no hats and shoulders covered.

dingy stolen, Komo Island, Fiji

not welcome to the Komo Island - Lau Group