FIJI!

Fiji

We just love Fiji and all it has to offer. From the friendly locals to the beaches and clear waters, it is a place you can spend forever cruising. There is something for everyone here and a good balance of diversity. You can have the isolated areas such as the outer Lau Group where the traditional ways are still in place, the Yasawas where there are many resorts and Bars etc. Or if you desire, there is the Denerau Marina area which is very westernised with shopping areas and even a ‘Hard Rock Café’

We have spent a great deal of our time around the Mamamanucas and the Yasawas.

                       Friends Rob and Stu from NZ joined us for a week.

Musket Cove has an annual Regatta which we got involved in. I happened to walk into the marina office there at the appropriate time and got accosted by Sophie there into running the Childrens games and the best dressed dingy event which was hard work but really enjoyable. We had a blast that Regatta week with a great atmosphere and reduced food and bar prices. There was a great band on every night and we danced away till the small hours every night. The body is still trying to catch up! 
Below are photos of the various crazy activities. 

                                    

                                     

                      

                

           

                      

We entered in the various events and did really well in the ‘Round Malolo Classic’ race taking out line honours for Monohulls on Falshator. The prize for this blew us away being a great Trophy, bottles of wine(4), groceries, a cell phone and sim card with $50 credit, 2 nights Marina berthage at Denerau, a $50 gift card from a Chandlery and $150 worth of diesel for the boat!

We shared the wine with Allan and Steve off an Ozzie catamaran called ‘Cool Change’ who came on board for the day and gave the cell phone to one of the locals in the shop there who had helped us out with our Clothes washing

                       On our way to taking Line Honours for Monohulls

                                     Victorious Crew!

Due to El Nino, this has been a windy old season according to everyone up here and you do have to pay attention to the weather whilst planning your next move. The further you go up the Yasawas the more out of the lee of the main Island group you get and there is very little shelter from the strong South easterlies up there.

Another thing to watch out for is the lack of soundings and accurate chart work around these areas. Going cruising up to the Yasawas, I found two apps that I used(Pro charts and Google maps) as they have great Satellite imagery and you can see all the reefs and Bombies(coral heads) using these. Although they are pretty accurate, we always kept an eye out as well and Shelly was quite often up the Bow looking out when we were going into areas where we hadn’t been before. There have been 5 boats that have hit reefs in this area so far this season so it is problem you have to watch out for.

We spent some time anchored off the Nanuya Island resort which is close by to Blue Lagoon. The anchorage here is well sheltered and has good holding once you have your anchor in.

The resort has a great little bar with reasonable prices on Food and drinks and to top it off it has two big screen TVs where we watched the World Cup Rugby games and the NRL final.

                   Shelly outside the Bar

                                   Just stunning

                      Good times with Debbie & Steve off 'Simmer Down'

                The Trek over the Island to Lo's Tea House

             The one and only 'Lo', world famous on Nanuya Island

                  

We had a good bunch of Yachties around us here and there was always something going on, whether that be on shore or on someone’s boat. The management and staff at the resort are all friendly and the owner Ivan would bake us fresh bread every day. We could have stayed forever!

               Getting involved in the highly competitive games on Fiji Day

                  How to arrive in style- Fiji Style

                        The Caves at the bottom of Yasawa Island

We are now back at Denerau Marina taking up on the two nights free Berthage that we won and then we plan to go back out to Musket Cove to anchor for a few more days, (get our free diesel also) and then we are booked into Vuda Marina on the 25^th October.

There we will get the boat ready and plan for our leg down to New Zealand in early November weather pending.

Cyclone season is fast approaching and the Met service is predicting a busy season of them this year so the first decent weather window we get, we will take.

Just waiting till after the World Cup Final on the 31^st October-that’s if NZ makes it!! J