Holiday with Mum and Dad

I am writing this back in Denarau after having a fabulous time with Mum and Dad aboard.
We had an uneventful trip back from Venua Levu to Viti Levu at the end of August, with a unplanned night sail across the Bligh Waters. We had been waiting all day for the forecast wind to arrive from the direction it was supposed to, and it didn’t so we anchored for a few hours, and just on sunset low and behold it came in, so we figured we could get through the last pass in the reef before dark and get to the reef at the other end after dawn so away we went. We had to slow ourselves down a bit to start with, then of course the wind died during the early hours but we got to where we needed to be safe and sound.
After picking up Mum and Dad from the airport and subjecting them to local taxi drivers we had a night in Denarau checking out how the other half cruise in their mini ships before heading North West to the Yasawa Island group. Dad managed to get the hang of the wheel pretty quick and clocked the fastest speed for the day at 13.5 knots. We also managed to catch a fish on the replacement luers they had bought for us.







We spent the night on the Western side of Waya, then heading further North to the top of Naviti Island the following day. Our first plan was to stop at Manta Ray resort but there were already a couple of boats in there and the wind was quite strong so we wouldn’t have been able to get our dingy into the pass anyway, so Naviti it was. We introduced Dad to coconut hunting and all enjoyed relaxing in the warm water and tried out the snorkelling. The next morning people from the local village had come around the corner to collect seaweed, but the extra people in the boat had used up all their fuel so they brought us prepared coconuts and pawpaw in exchange for a few litres of fuel. After another snorkel on another reef we again moved on North in the afternoon with no set plan and ended up on the North Western side of Yaqeta for a couple of nights, again chilling on the beach, exploring around the rocks and swimming. On the Thursday we met a local family who were tending their plantation at the end of the bay we had anchored and they were so welcoming, sharing their lunch of yams with us and showing us their plantation and collecting more pawpaw for us. On their recommendation we moved further up the bay into a gap in the reef, which was slightly more settled, and they came out to the boat for a visit to see what life for us was like. They couldn’t believe you could fit all the things in a house onto the boat! We arranged to meet them on shore the following morning to do Sevusevu and have a tour of the village. This had to be one of the highlights of the week for us with a tour of the school, watching the parents helping with clean up for the new school term and having a group of the children sing for us. I think we all left very touched by experience.







We had already planned a trip up to Blue Lagoon for that afternoon, but due to anchoring restrictions, both from reefs and private “No Landing” beaches we didn’t see much of this area before again moving on back south to Manta Ray resort again. Unfortunately the Manta Rays didn’t come to play for the two days we were there, but four dolphins did and we had a great time watching them seemingly waiting for the fast ferry to arrive and take off with it leaping high out of the water in front of it. They came back later in the afternoon, just on sunset as and the three kids paddled out with them on the paddle board and had a great time waiting for them to surface around them.

We enjoyed snorkelling at Manta Ray last year and again had a good time looking at all the coral and fish on the edge of the reef there. Father’s Day was during our stay there, so we had a day of food, bacon and eggs for breakfast, fruit salad cake during the day, and a full silverside, mashed potato, carrot, pea and mustard sauce dinner!
Monday we headed south and again anchored on the West side of Waya, with a small time in the afternoon for a trip to the beach and a snorkel before a long day on the Tuesday getting to Malolo Lai Lai and Musket Cove for a couple of nights. We tried flying the spinnaker on the way, but every time we got it up and out the wind would die away completely, so even it wouldn’t fill. We went between some of the Islands to show off some of the resort accommodation available, and how the majority of tourists experience Fiji.
The aim for Muskett Cove was to snorkel and feed the fish off of the sandy cay there, a marine reserve where they feed the fish bread. This was another great highlight for us and the fish are really plentiful and literally swim all around you so it is like being in an aquarium. There were also fish there that we haven’t seen anywhere else. We took great advantage of the facilities Musket Cove has to offer and swam in the pool, shopped in the Gallery and boutique, sampled the cocktails and used the free BBQs to have tea.


















Then alas the last day so back to the Main Land in shifty wind conditions and squally rain showers. For a while there we were sailing downwind towards a boat which was also sailing downwind! In the end Dan, Dad and I were all soaked, trying to keep look out, watch out for local speed boats, big and small who like to play chicken with the sailing vessels, trying to see the reefs and where the wind was coming from. I ended up coming into Denarau with a dive mask on and a towel over my head just so I could see, and being overtaken with not much room to spare by two local fast ferries!

Our holiday with them finished all too soon, with a great meal out to celebrate Dad’s birthday on the last night, and a special morning tea before they left for Paige and Pop with all the party favourites! Some of the local food we made them try was Casava – made into chips, pawpaw, pineapple, local bananas, fish (Mahimahi, and Waloo), yams and coconut in varying stages of growth/age. We also made pawpaw cocktails and discovered Midori and Coconut Juice is really good! Dan’s home brew went down well after a hard day at the beach as well!





We are now once again in deciding mode, but think we will head south east for a bit and explore some of the Coral Coast before starting to look for a weather window to home, so once again will keep you posted.

Recent Photos.

Many Tack passage, on the way North between Viti Levu and Reef!



Our first fish in Fiji!



Our favourtie Anchorage, we had to stay an extra night!



One of the reasons it was so fun, four little play mates.



For my Grandparents, Kay and Roy




Our Mahimahi, one mighty fish, is still feeding us, fed our friends and the local villagers!



Dolphin playtime.



Triplets for the day, playing in the boom.



One hot night I found two little boys asleep in the saloon...



A Lizard found on an island adventure.



Playing with some local school kids.



A paddling adventure into the mangroves.



Dan and Rylee try out the local method of travel!



Forest trees under water.



Soft Coral



Pink Puffy Starfish, like Patrick on Sponge Bob!



We call these ones Zebra fish.



The Coral is ALIVE....

Heading North

As you can see I have been very remiss about not keeping up to date AGAIN!

So since the last post we have headed North to Venua Levu, and surrounding Northern Islands.

It took us several days to make our way up the coast as we were in no hurry and often we had changeable conditions that lead us to start the day with plan A but ultimately ending in around plan C or D! Some notable experiences was tacking several times into head winds to get between the main island and reef, catching our first tuna, being boarded by some friendly Fiji Navy folk and finding our ideal anchorage.

After staying there an extra night we then headed across Bligh Water for on the of the most perfect days yet. Great sail with fair winds from behind. We were privaledged to catch a Mahi Mahi (also known as Dorado or Dolphin Fish) our first real big fish ever. We had a pod of whales swim close by, one of them even surfed a wave towards us, maybe for a closer look! Then a pod of bottle nose dolphins, with two babies came and played for a while. And to top it all off, the bay before our planned anchorage had some friends anchored there, so we were able to share our fish with them and have an enjoyable couple of hours catching up over a beer.

Since then we have been bay hopping as weather permits with some interesting happenings along the way and new friends met, but I will write that up at another time.

I would just like to say that today started out with a family swim before 7am as the sun was just touching the tops of the surrounding hills, we then had a "Good" coffee and hot muffins for breakfast and now the kids and Dan are off for a snorkel so I can have some peace and quiet to write this....BLISS.

Cruising in the Mamanucas

While we have been waiting for the tides to come round to low tide over midday so that we can fix the prop shafts we have been out to a few Islands that we didn’t get to see when we were here last year.
We headed off to Mana Island on a Friday and the25 nm trip took us all day. On arriving there the entry to the reef looked rather intimidating but we drifted outside for a bit sorting out sails etc and watched a couple of local boats go through then followed them in. Once in there it was quite obvious which way the markers were leading us. We did have a wee scare though as sun was in front of us, the way you don’t want it when surrounded by reef and next thing we know we have managed to go right over an isolated piece of reef. We could see the coral really clearly, but obviously it was a bit deeper than it looked as we didn’t hit anything. Once again very thankful for a shallow draft!
On the Saturday we had a wander around the island, managed to walk up a hill, and on the way back do a bit of long grass bashing. The kids and I also went for a swim and then snorkel, but this didn’t last long as the little jellyfish were stinging and making it pretty uncomfortable to be in the water. We spent the remainder of that afternoon watching the resort guests parapont off the back of a boat, sail hobiecats, and enjoy the beach.




Dan multitasking at Mana Island.



Reef around Mana Island.






The "Hill" we climbed.

On the Sunday we headed out again, in the view to anchoring at further North at Yanuya Island, which our cruising guide said was an anchorage that they had stayed at. But on arrival there the roll heading into the beach put us right off. We were on lunch time and getting hungry and a little short with each other as we needed some food, so we hove too a little off of the Island, had a cuppa and some muffins and relooked at the chart. The West side looked slightly promising, so we decided to check that out, but again could see no calm spots for anchoring as the SE wind and waves were competing against a SW swell that made the whole area look like a washing machine! Another look at the chart and we again decided to head further North up to Navadra and Venua Levu Islands, where it looked quite sheltered behind a reef there. On the way we saw several groups of birds “fishing” and headed towards them. We even saw the fish jumping but none wanted any of the lines we had out!
After another full days sail and getting on for sunset we arrived at Navadra and headed in around the reef. This was VERY nerve racking as there wasn’t a lot of room between the Island and the reef in the middle of the small bay the islands created and again we ended going right over top. We always had a minimum depth of 5 meters but the magnification of the water made the coral heads appear very close!! Unfortunately this anchorage too was subject to the SW swell, which we found out on our last day was larger than normal due to the big low pressure system slowly moving across NZ at the time. The setting was beautiful though and we had a lovely day despite an uncomfortable night. We caught our first fish of the trip and it tasted great! Then we headed for the only beach we could get to, as all the others had reef right up to them and we didn’t think out little two horse outboard would be able to get us back off. We swam, snorkelled, Mum read, Dad hunted coconuts, we harassed the hermit crabs and collected wood to light fires for our NZ sausages and marshmallows.




The rollers created by the reef we went over.








The View from our rolly anchorage.


On the Tuesday we decided to start heading back to the main land so that we would be back in plenty of time for the Friday midday low tide. Thank goodness we did as it took us three days! One night spent on the North Eastern side of Vomo Island, getting there near on sunset again after another bit of reef dodging and leaving first thing in the morning. It then took another full day to get to Saweni Bay and again up anchored first thing in the morning to head towards Denarau. We stopped at Vuda Point and anchored outside so that we could get our gas bottle refilled and catch up with some friends from last year that were there. By the time we got back to Division II just after 1300 we had more wind than we had had in the last 3 days and managed to go faster than we had in that time with just the genoa! This enabled us to do as we had planned and take Division II up on the mud on the evening high tide ready to start work on the Friday morning.




Portraits on a slow sailing day. Out on the tramps enjoying the sun.







Vomo Island lots of hours after we left it!



Cheif reef spotter in action!



On the chart this is a sandy cay. Didn't know you could build on them!

The work to remove the cutlass bearings was not so easy on the Friday, and poor Dan was using some rather choice words while trying to get the rudder down so he could get the prop shaft out. He mentioned something about changing things by small degrees next time making all the difference and changing angles of shafts so that we wouldn’t have to remove rudders to pull the shafts. All stuff he admits talking about during the build but deciding it wouldn’t make too much difference! After rolling around in the sand and mud and the heat for several hours I think he changed his mind. But the job was done with about half an hour before the sea started creeping back up around the boat again. For the port side lessons were learned and Dan had the job done in around half the time. The biggest thing is that he didn’t realise how much the boat would sink, so on the Saturday he put some plywood under the skegg to stop the boat sinking as much which made getting the rudder out that much easier, and the port side cutlass bearing wasn’t as damaged so that also helped.

While all this was going on the kids were having a great time in the mud. After about an hour I thought they were muddy but as you can see from the photos they did get a lot worse!









Another Great Sunset to end the day. Last night at Denarau.

So today means a day on the dock, new water in the tanks, a recharge of the batteries, and a day to decide where to next. We will keep you posted