( August 2023)
For the first 9 days of August, Shawn was alone on Imagination with Ally being at home in the UK. The weather continued to be unsettled with lots of rain and cloud which made doing maintenance and laundry difficult and so he had plenty of time to relax and do tasks inside before being forced into cleaning and running the generator in order to get laundry and other jobs done in time for the arrival of Phyllis and Maria on the 10th and then Ally early on the 11th ( Friday). Once Ally was back onboard and partially unpacked, the rest of the day was spent provisioning and putting things away before we all went ashore to the Marina for dinner. Saturday morning, we left the marina for the last time and revisited the Jean Michel Cousteau Resort area where Phyllis and Maria took the dinghy and went snorkelling and the next morning, we were all up at 5am for a full day of sailing. We had been having issues with the windlass over the last month or so and this morning was just the same, even though Shawn had done some work on it. Whilst pulling up the 140ft of chain that was out, it stopped working and the remainder had to be pulled up manually by Shawn with Ally at the helm, which was quite stressful under cover of darkness when other boats on anchor are not clearly visible as we started drifting. Finally the anchor was up and we were on our way.
The sail to Tulani Harbour on Koro Island took us 10 hours, and as had become the norm over the last couple of months, it was an overcast, windy day which meant choppy seas, but we did manage to dodge the rain. We all went snorkelling on Monday morning and finally had a little bit of sunshine breaking through the clouds periodically. We found a healthy, pretty reef with lots of the usual reef fish and creatures including an area of many Christmas Tree worms in a variety of colours. There were only 2 other yachts in the bay and earlier in the day a guy from one of them, Blessed, made contact on VHF radio to ask if we were interested in eating out at the small resort that evening. We declined dinner, but said we would go across for a sundowner. He said he and his wife would join us so we picked them up from their yacht at 5pm to go ashore. The tiny resort is really lovely, but there were no guests when we visited. The owners were happy to serve us drinks and we sat and chatted with Lyndon and Rachel for an hour or so before returning back to our respective boats for dinner.
On Tuesday 15th, we had even better weather…..much more sunshine, but we still had regular showers throughout the morning which gradually diminished over the afternoon. Phyllis, Maria and Shawn spent time snorkelling and swimming but mostly it was a very relaxed day on board which gave Ally the perfect opportunity to get up to date with the blog, having been away for 3 weeks!
We were up very early again on the 16th with the anchor up by 05.25. The good weather didn’t last and we had yet another wet, windy and overcast 11 hour sail to Nairai Island. We anchored off of a tiny village, but couldn’t find a name for it on the charts. Almost as soon as the anchor was down, we were approached by a local boat with 3 very excited young men on board who were very excited to see us and they welcomed us enthusiastically. We told them we would come ashore the next day to do sevusevu and they told us high tide would be at 3pm, so to come around that time. Going ashore in these islands can be tricky as the beaches are mostly fringed by rock and/or reef and at low tide there is a risk of devastating precious ecosystems and damaging the dinghy. Also, with the large tidal changes, it wouldn’t be difficult to get stranded ashore for 6 hours waiting for the tide to come in again. Once again the weather the next day was terrible so it was another day on board before we left to visit the village at around 4.30pm during a break in the rain. It was a very short and sweet visit with the children greeting us with smiles and waves. We were shown to the chiefs house and were welcomed in by him and his wife and a rather mischievous little boy. We sat cross legged and introduced ourselves and Shawn thanked the chief for allowing us to stay in the anchorage as he handed over the kava package. The chief accepted the gift with a smile and words of thanks, but did not perform the sevusevu ceremony as we knew it. After a few short minutes of chatting, we departed and stopped to talk to the 3 lads who had come across in the boat the day before. They were playing football, two barefooted on the rain sodden grass and the other in wellies. They told us they only see one yacht here every year and so we are that yacht for this year! We were waved off as we set off in the dinghy back to Imagination. Friday 18th….and….we finally had a gorgeously warm, sunny day!! Some went snorkelling, some basked in the sun, but all relaxed and enjoyed the warmth of the day. Going ashore for beach combing wasn’t possible due to the low tides at the wrong time of day for us. We were off again after lunch on the 19th, this time on a comfortable overnight sail despite overcast conditions on departure. As we were approaching the pass through the reef system to leave the anchorage, we had a brief but close encounter with a humpback whale who initially disappeared, then came up to have a look at us before swimming off in the opposite direction. Such gorgeous creatures. Overnight, we had mostly clear skies with zillions of stars above us which is always and incredible sight, and daybreak brought sunshine and calm seas as we came in behind the massive Astrolabe Reef. This area is very pretty and we anchored at 11.05 next to Vuro Levu Island. After a quick coffee and lunch, we all got ourselves ready to go to the point where there is known to be a Manta cleaning station. Almost as soon as we left the yacht, crew on a neighbouring yacht were calling and pointing to a Manta just off the bow of their boat! We headed to the point and quickly spotted the cleaning station and dark shadows in the water, so the anchor was put out and we all got in. There was a large Manta not too far away, but after hanging around for a minute, he swam off. We waited, snorkelling and looking at other reef creatures and eventually we got to spend more time watching the Mantas come and go. These ones were much more timid than on previous encounters, but beautiful nonetheless and being Maria’s first time swimming with them, she was blown away by them. We then enjoyed a nice gentle walk along the gorgeous white sandy beach in the warmth of the sunshine before returning to Imagination.
The next morning started overcast, but that soon turned into a variable day. We returned to the Manta cleaning station, walked the beach again and explored other areas of reef and late in the afternoon, we had a pod of tiny dolphins swimming across the anchorage behind the boat. Tuesday 22nd, the weather was rainy again. We did a short 2nm hop across to Ono Island, anchoring in Naqara Bay. We immediately went into the village there to give Kava to the chief and were cheerily greeted by a couple of men on the beach with two children who were dehusking coconuts to send to Suva ( the Capital). We were taken through the beautiful small village where there were humble homes of different colours with little, well kept gardens with pine tree laden steep hills as a backdrop. Many of the younger generations are away at school or working in Suva so it was quiet but it’s one of the prettiest villages we have been to. We were welcomed into the chief’s home where our Kava was presented by the village Elder ( the guy who had escorted us) and accepted by the chief. He said some words and then a prayer and then, in English, welcomed us to Naqara and told us that we were welcome to freely move around the village and do any activities we wished. We talked for some time with him, his wife and the elder (we did get names, but memories are poor!) and we asked about any hikes to the top of the peaks behind the village. With that, the chief said he would accompany us and so, even in the drizzle and us wearing flipflops ( again!!) we went on a great “walk” along a well trodden path that was often muddy and slippery. The scenery was gorgeous as we went – the island is very green and lush, with waterfalls, pine trees and ferns that were reminiscent of home ( except even in the drizzle, it’s much warmer!). The chief owns the land we walked on and from his many Papaya trees, he knocked some fruit down for us to take back to the boat with us.
The 26 hour sail to the Mamanuka Islands was a very pleasant one with clear skies and calm seas with much of it being behind the main island of Viti Levu. We arrived at the pretty and very busy anchorage of Musket Cove on Lailai Island at 11.30am on Thursday 24th in blazing sunshine. We were all feeling a little weary, but decided we’d go ashore for a beer and choose somewhere to eat dinner that evening. The island was lovely with lots of people around, a yacht club, 2 resorts and several bars/restaurants. We walked between resorts looking for a good place to eat and had to cross an airstrip that divided them – love that everything “Health and Safety” is left to personal discretion rather than having to be told to be careful!! In the end, we sat in the the first place we had come across and had lunch, and Phyllis offered to help other boat people who needed some medical advice. After returning to Imagination for a rest, we revisited the same place again for dinner and enjoyed a relaxed evening together. The following morning, we moved to uninhabited and tiny Mociu Island ( aka Paradise Island or Honeymoon Island), taking in the very pretty scenery as we went. This area is in stark contrast to the other “natural” islands we have visited – it is well kept/manicured, with many residences and high end resorts. It seems the weather has finally changed for the better and the sun was shining on us again as we did a long snorkel on some very healthy and pretty reef and we even got to see a striking sea snake that came casually swimming towards Imagination as we were all getting out of the dinghy. We couldn’t go ashore on this island as it is for the exclusive use of guests of various resorts on other islands. The following day, 26th, was a wonderful day spent at Monuriki Island, also known as Castaway Beach Island. It’s a small uninhabited island with a white sandy beach and tall, green peaks and this is where the Tom Hanks movie, Castaway, was filmed and where his friend, Wilson, was born. Because of this, it is busy with daytrip boats full of people, but we timed it so we went ashore late morning/lunchtime as the tourists where sat under a shelter being served lunch. We took photos and found a trail that led up to a viewpoint. As you would expect from us by now, we decided to go for it but this time none of us had any footwear, not even flipflops!! It started off ok, but then the higher we went, the rockier and more painful it became underfoot. Maria and Shawn saw it through and made it to the top, but Ally and Phyllis went back down after getting 3/4 of the way up. We spent a couple of hours walking the shore line and enjoying beer in the water and then we saw a group of people on a daytrip standing on the beach…… having their picture taken with Wilson!! Ally asked if it would be possible for us to have our picture taken with him too and we were super excited when we were given him and the tour operator offered to take pictures for us. It actually was a Wilson volleyball too! Perfect.
On the morning of the 27th, we moved along to Nukumana Reef next to a tiny spit of sand that appears, disappears and changes shape according to the tides and currents. Ally took her book and towel to sit on the sand and relax while the others snorkelled, but after half an hour or so, she was almost washed away as a wave swept across the top of the island….time to get back in the dinghy and wait for the others to finish snorkelling! We moved across to our final anchorage this month on the 28th, arriving in Wailoaloa on the mainland Viti Levu at 14.15 on the 28th. It’s not the prettiest of anchorages and the water is a muddy colour much of the time, but it is close to the airport, accommodation and a cheap taxi ride away from Nadi centre. We all went into town on the 29th, with Maria and Phyllis going off to do what they wanted/needed to do whilst Shawn and Ally unsuccessfully tried to source various oil and fuel filters and other bits and pieces. We did, however, manage to locate and get to the UPS agent office to pick up our brand new head sail that was ordered 3 months ago and arrived from Hong Kong last week. It’ll be good to have our manta rays flying again! That evening, we all went across to The Beach Club and had several 2 for 1 cocktails before walking along the beach to another place for dinner….don’t ask me what it was called! 😀 It was a fun filled final evening before refilling fuel jerry cans by taxi and lots of cleaning the following day and then we had to say a sad farewell to our 2 awesome crew. We wish you both safe onward travels and fun times in your new adventures and hope to see you both again some time. For us, the 31st was a day of laundry and then another mission of finding oil/fuel filters and refilling cooking gas bottles. Thankfully, we found a very helpful taxi driver who helped massively by making several phone calls etc before taking us to where we needed to go to get things done and we enjoyed sitting in the back of the car looking at the sights as we travelled.
Agreed – Glorious Sunset.