June 30 Thursday
Left Yalobi Bay at 0730 after a very rolly night.. motored out
turned north and up past the reef , past Octopus Is resort to anchor in
Nalawauki Bay at 0920…breakfast !
Went ashore to do sevusevu with the chief..brief ceremony with
the one-eyed chief and then taken on a tour by a young man whose name I don’t
know. He took us to the kindergarten first where the children were putting on a
show for the tourists from the resort…singing songs, most with a religious bent.
Noticed signs hanging in the classroom stating god made the rain, god made the
animals, god made the snow etc etc..Hannah made the observation that a lot of
the children didn’t look that healthy..runny noses, scabby faces etc and one
can’t help feeling that if they put the effort and money into heath care rather
than into religious indoctrination they would be a lot better off. But simple
people have always been the fodder for religion so nothing much changes I
suppose.
Our guide took us on to the waterfall which was actually running
today and showed us the “bath tub” holes where one could have a bath in the
fresh running water – they don’t of course –used to, but now with pumps,
generators and taps they have no use for
it.
The resort folk were on their way back to the resort so we
thought we would go and have a look..quite a trek..10 minutes they said..well
more like 20 and some quite steep parts…on the way encountered the village pig
farm with lots of pigs in cages and lots of little ones running
around.
Eventually go to the resort..beach is nice …bar restaurant looks
OK..accommodation pretty ordinary and a lot of young people, so it’s probably
fairly “affordable”…goat a free galss of water and sat in the shade for a while
to recuperate and then off back to the
village.
Noticed that everywhere here there
are small “rubbish dumps” ie the villagers juist toss all their rubbish
into the bush beside the path…in about 10 different places within 100
metres..also old tin cans in the sand at low tide..one has to be careful coming
ashore !
When we arrived on the beach a man in a red shirt called us in
and invited us to come to his house and have tea and yams..he was Tom and his
wife was slaving over a hot fire in the cooking shed while his daughter played
with her niece on a sort of large table arrangement which is where we all sat
while we had tea and sampled the yam …nice conversation with Tom about the
village, his family etc ,We were then invited to view his daughters
handicrafts…Hannah ended up buying a necklace and a table cover thing, Gunilla
a necklace…we haven’t paid yet as we had no money, so I’ll have to go back
tomorrow morning and hand over some
cash..
Back to the boat for a swim..its very hot…and now
4pm the woind has turned and its getting rolly on here
!! hell just can’t get away from it ! Its Hannah that it upsets the most,
but hopefully she’s over the sickness side of things and it won’t bother her too
much…
A better night but still
rolly
So…that’s it from Nalauwaki Bay Nth Waya
Is..
Friday July 1
Motored out of Nalauwaki Bay heading for Naviti Is. Looked in at
Manta Ray Is but no activity there…when the manta rays are feeding in the pass
you can swim with them apparently and they are big…up to 20ft wingspan
!
So on to Soso Bay where we didn’t get a great reception last
year. At least its calm in here…no rolling
!
Everybody slept well !
Saturday July 2
Scrambled eggs for breakfast and into the village to do Sevusevu.
The village is very tidy, the chief has lost weight and overall its much
friendlier than last year…our guide Taro tells us there is a rugby match this
afternoon at the school, so we’ll go and have a look at
that.
The church here, I wrote about last year, has intricate carvings
in the ceiling and around the pulpit all done so long ago by previous
generations of villagers that the current generation doesn’t know when it was
done !....Got the tour of the church and the school and the community hall
which has seen better days, but overall the village is very neat and clean..it
doesn’t smell and there’s not much rubbish around..they have concrete footpaths
and even street lamps; most of the houses have little gardens and all the paths
are lined with nice bushes and trees.
Back to the village for the rugby match..met a man snorkelling
near the beach who told us that the match was at the next village,…about 1 hour
walk away…well so much for that..went for a stroll on the beach collecting
shells.
Back on the boat..just had dinner and suddenly the fishing rod
goes clunk and the line runs out…(we had a small piece of steak on a hook over
the side and just left it there)…a fish !! Hannah reeled it in and it’s a flat
fish about 30cm long and about the same across…hmm..what is it ?...Hannah looked
it up Scott Bannerot’s Fishing handbook….its a spadefish or batfish …he says the
eating quality is good..so off with its head and out with the viscerae and into
a bag in the freezer for tomorrow . What a triumph !.
Sunday July 3
Up early and off to the pass near Drawaka Is where the manta rays
feed at high tide (17 09.8’S, 177 11.9’E). Anchored in a bay nearby and dinghied
over to the pass where there’s already a boat from Manta Ray Is resort with 4
snorkelers looking for manta rays…Gunilla is in the water with her camera
(unfortunately the pics didn’t turn out too well, but we saw them swimming
around with their huge mouths wide open filtering plankton. The ones we saw were
probably about 2 metres wing span..they can be up to about 6 metres
!..completely harmless to humans…no teeth, no sting in the tail…beautiful
creatures.
Still having trouble with the header tank cap…it lets water out
into the expansion tank but the water doesn’t come back…so every few days I have
to open up the engine compartment, remove the cap, lift up the expansion tank
and run the water back into the header tank…I need a new cap
!!
Having sorted that, we motored off heading for the north of
Naviti Is..Somosomo bay..after an interesting motor sail (Hannah at the
helm)tacking between reefs, we are anchored in Gunu Bay 17 05.24’S, 177
14.85’E
Monday July
4
Raining..raining raining…started to clear about
12 so we set off round the corner to Somosomo..and its raining again !..anchored
next to a Swiss flagged Allure44 and
then it cleared up. A couple of guys came up in a kayak and gave us some
convoluted story about having a fundraising and #1 and #2 and they need our help
and they will make tea and…”what time you come”..I don’t understand I said and
they just said what time you come 5 o’clock?...OK , I said, we have to go ashore
and visit my friends Viny and Jack so after
that.
Went ashore to do sevusevu with the lady
chief..and she’s not there..just like last time ! So, off to Viny’s house and
she is surprised but pleased to
see me..very pleased to see Hannah and gave here a shell necklace…we have
tea…and rice..always something to eat. Vuny and Jim arrive back from school,
Jack and his father come in from the plantation and are very pleased to see us.
Lots of questions about what has happened in the last year. I explain that we
have to go this fundraising thing at 5 o’clock….Viny knows nothing about it and
then a young man arrives…right on 5 o’clock to take us to the other end of the
village for the fundraising….we’ll be back tomorrow
!
We walk though the village and out the back..never been here
before…wormy looking dogs everywhere, past a dirty lake of stagnant water
running between houses…Viny’s end of the village is definitely the eastern
suburbs of somosomo !
Anyway, we are at Seru’s house…and there laid out on the floor is
a coloured mat with tea cups and plates of roti (pancakes) and
pancake(doughnuts)…all very nice…and of course what they are expecting is that
we give them money !...they are fundraising to buy a solar panel so they can
have lights in the church at night…I have about $2-85…Seru is not impressed but
graceful. The Swiss group arrive and sit down and its all on…we talk about the
sailing for a bit…no-one is quite sure what is supposed to happen…Pia, one of
the Swiss asks them if they would sing..they do and then there’s great
donations of money from the Swiss..and grins all around..I feel a bit mean and
promise Seru I’ll be back in the
morning.
Still can’t help feeling they would be much better off raising
money to clean up the cesspit which would benefit the health of the citizens
much more than being able to go to church at night…still church is the centre of
their community, now that they’ve given up cannibalism
!
Back to the boat and spaghetti for
dinner….
Tuesday July 5
Back into shore to see Seru and give a bit more cash…he’s very
grateful !
Down to see Viny and she and Jack’s father have gathered a pile
of papaya, lemons, yams, kasava for us to take….no, you don’t buy it, this is
just friends as Viny said last year.
Viny has made roti for us and lemon tea…the
roti is a bit oily but the lemon
tea is delicious. I asked if she got the photos from last year from Chrissy..she
did and she mentions some of the funny ones..like the one of me, Vuny and the
pig. She and Jack have just bought a small generator..the village generator
doesn’t work..and they also have acquired an LCD TV and a DVD player…she has
very few DVDs and asked if we had any…sorry no, but I will get you
some.
Her smallest child Asee sings us a song or two…Viny bribes her by
saying, if you want to go to the boat, you have to sing a song. We take our
leave and take all the goodies back to the boat. I bring the bags bag and
collect Asee and bring her to the boat…she’s only 4 and of course doesn’t speak
any of our languages,,and we don’t speak hers, but Gunilla takes pictures and
shows her on the computer which she finds fascinating….Hannah gives her a piece
of chocolate..she seems unsure but eventually eats it…..I take her back to
Viny…and goodbyes to her and Jack’s father…we have decided to go north to the
blue lagoon this afternoon, now that its
fine.
Wind is almost nil, we motor sail up the side of Yaqeta Is to the
blue lagoon…anchor…Hannah makes thin chips from some kasava, and they are really
good ! Hannah and Gunilla are off snorkelling on the nearby reef while I’m
writing this in the cockpit, anchored next to a French cat with a really
bizarrely painted sail cover and canopy. Plan is to go ashore to the wee resort
later for a drink and dinner..hope they have a
table….
16 56.55’S 177 22.07’E
Wednesday July 6
Well..no dinner at the resort last night…fully booked, so we had
a drink in the bar, reserved for tonight and went back to the boat and had
stirfry garlic prawns, vegetables and rice in 30 minutes
!
Went for a walk on the beautiful beach in the morning and added
to the shell collection a little. On the way back there were 4 whitey tourists
on the beach and Fijian man with a small boat…from another resort. Bula he
said…bula we said..where you from, how long you stay…where you going..and so
on..very friendly..good luck he says …we walk two steps towards the whiteys and
they are looking the other way, down, out to sea..I say hello and we get a
muffled hello from one woman and a bula from the other..bula bula, vinaka waka
levu I say…but I’m sure if I hadn’t said hello they would have said nothing at
all and just ignored us….folk are funny
!
Coffee at 11, (2 cappucinos and a long black please) with
Hannah’s super- size Toblerone
chocolate….
A blue Nordia 55 Bella Blanca flying a NZ flag
comes in from outside the reef and anchors in the lagoon. We see them buzz
ashore in their inflatable and on the way back we here them talking and the man
shouts out DIVA !...turns and comes over and introduces himself ..Roberto, wife
Phillippa (in a black bikini with
gold chains and a cowboy hat!)..Spanish ..and their 3 boys. We have seen your
boat in Auckland he says..we are from Auckland… only just arrived in Fiji..left
late…a bit of chat about the weather and the sailing, and they’re off back to
Bella Blanca…beautiful boat…you can have one for around 1.5 million euros !!
look up Nordia 55 on the internet.
Off in the dinghy to go snorkelling..there’s a reef out further,
but it doesn’t look like much…back to the beach and float around on the small
coral reef inshore…lots of nice little fish and some interesting corals…lots of
staghorn here.
There’s a launch in here from Tauranga…the skipper paddles over
to have a yarn…they did Tauranga to Lautoka in 7 days and burnt 2800 litres of
diesel !...he carries 4000 !! He’s been coming here since the early‘90S and just
loves it.
The Antiguan yacht we saw sailing in Musket Cove pulls in and
anchors…there’s now 5 of us here.
Hannah is making chips from some of Viny’s kasava..she made some
last night as an experiment and they were really good…very thinly sliced kasava,
fried in canola oil…delicious.
A big (20m) ugly power boat flying the NZ flag pulls in…Regal
Flyer…with about 10 to 12 kiwi blokes on board. They haven’t even anchored and
they’re all over the boat each one holding a beer can…hmm that looks like
trouble.
We go ashore to go to the restaurant, they are in the bar along
with the couple form the Antiguan yacht, who turn out to be Scottish ! There’s
one juvenile 50yr old boasting that they have 14 bottles of rum to get through
in 3 days! They all leave the bar about 1900..there’s no dinner for
them.
We have a lovely dinner…ate too much but it was so
nice..
Back on Diva, the party on Regal Flyer is warming up…and up…at
about 0200 they’re singing and shouting and carrying on like the typical
antipodean male morons we used to see in Bon Accord
harbour….
Thursday July 7
0600 and it is all VERY quiet, Hannah wants to go over and blast
them with the fog horn and throw lemons at their boat !...they’d probably attack
us if we did something like that !
A man paddles up in a canoe; he has lobsters for sale !..We buy a
small one for F$30..we’ll cook it
later…
One of the goons gets on a jet ski sort of thing and comes
cruising over towards us…we thought maybe he’s coming to apologise…but no…he
just cruises slowly past with a stupid grin on his face…he doesn’t say anything
as he comes quite close, so I call out “have a good time last night ?”…no
response…”we didn’t, you kept us all a wake with all that noise”…he doesn’t
look at me just continue on slowly with his stupid grin..”don’t care about
anybody but your self !”…but I’m taking to the wind as he cruises off…. Oxygen
thieves as Hannah’s boyfriend Kyle calls them
!
OK…off out of the Blue Lagoon, south and we’re
sailing in an ESE breeze of about
10-12 knots…unfortunately it dies after 3 hours and we’re back to the iron
spinnaker. 1430 and we’re anchored outside octopus Is resort west side of the
north tip of Waya Is 17 16.54’S, 177
06.25’E
Friday July 8
We dinghy in to go for a walk on the beach….there’s a couple of
houses at the north end of the beach…one of them has a “handcraft shop”..the
usual shells and stuff..BUT on the beach there is a large yacht keel buried in
the sand with 12 x 1 ¼ “ stainless studs sticking out of it !...further on
outside the second house is a radar arch with a Furuno scanner on it…there’s a
story here, but don’t know what it is.
After the walk, we weigh anchor and head out of the bay down the
west side of Waya Is towards Nevadra. There’s a few reefs that need to be
avoided but with the sun behind us the navigation is easy . 1200 sees us
anchored between the reef and the beach at Navadra Is..beautiful beach..one of
the landfalls of paradise. We go into walk on the beach and swim…getting the
dinghy off the beach is an interesting exercise as the small surf breaking
makes it almost impossible to get moving. I get in and row and Hannah and
Gunilla push from behind with swim fins
on…
Back on the boat and a yacht pulls in…they row
over and he (name forgotten
already) starts telling me that he saw us in Opua…he’s from Kerikeri, been
sailing on Ragtime ..had to come and say gidday to another Spencer owner…well I
didn’t think his boat was a Spencer, but there you
go…
BBQ steak and sausages with beans for dinner…. 17 27.51S, 177
02.65
Left Yalobi Bay at 0730 after a very rolly night.. motored out
turned north and up past the reef , past Octopus Is resort to anchor in
Nalawauki Bay at 0920…breakfast !
Went ashore to do sevusevu with the chief..brief ceremony with
the one-eyed chief and then taken on a tour by a young man whose name I don’t
know. He took us to the kindergarten first where the children were putting on a
show for the tourists from the resort…singing songs, most with a religious bent.
Noticed signs hanging in the classroom stating god made the rain, god made the
animals, god made the snow etc etc..Hannah made the observation that a lot of
the children didn’t look that healthy..runny noses, scabby faces etc and one
can’t help feeling that if they put the effort and money into heath care rather
than into religious indoctrination they would be a lot better off. But simple
people have always been the fodder for religion so nothing much changes I
suppose.
Our guide took us on to the waterfall which was actually running
today and showed us the “bath tub” holes where one could have a bath in the
fresh running water – they don’t of course –used to, but now with pumps,
generators and taps they have no use for
it.
The resort folk were on their way back to the resort so we
thought we would go and have a look..quite a trek..10 minutes they said..well
more like 20 and some quite steep parts…on the way encountered the village pig
farm with lots of pigs in cages and lots of little ones running
around.
Eventually go to the resort..beach is nice …bar restaurant looks
OK..accommodation pretty ordinary and a lot of young people, so it’s probably
fairly “affordable”…goat a free galss of water and sat in the shade for a while
to recuperate and then off back to the
village.
Noticed that everywhere here there
are small “rubbish dumps” ie the villagers juist toss all their rubbish
into the bush beside the path…in about 10 different places within 100
metres..also old tin cans in the sand at low tide..one has to be careful coming
ashore !
When we arrived on the beach a man in a red shirt called us in
and invited us to come to his house and have tea and yams..he was Tom and his
wife was slaving over a hot fire in the cooking shed while his daughter played
with her niece on a sort of large table arrangement which is where we all sat
while we had tea and sampled the yam …nice conversation with Tom about the
village, his family etc ,We were then invited to view his daughters
handicrafts…Hannah ended up buying a necklace and a table cover thing, Gunilla
a necklace…we haven’t paid yet as we had no money, so I’ll have to go back
tomorrow morning and hand over some
cash..
Back to the boat for a swim..its very hot…and now
4pm the woind has turned and its getting rolly on here
!! hell just can’t get away from it ! Its Hannah that it upsets the most,
but hopefully she’s over the sickness side of things and it won’t bother her too
much…
A better night but still
rolly
So…that’s it from Nalauwaki Bay Nth Waya
Is..
Friday July 1
Motored out of Nalauwaki Bay heading for Naviti Is. Looked in at
Manta Ray Is but no activity there…when the manta rays are feeding in the pass
you can swim with them apparently and they are big…up to 20ft wingspan
!
So on to Soso Bay where we didn’t get a great reception last
year. At least its calm in here…no rolling
!
Everybody slept well !
Saturday July 2
Scrambled eggs for breakfast and into the village to do Sevusevu.
The village is very tidy, the chief has lost weight and overall its much
friendlier than last year…our guide Taro tells us there is a rugby match this
afternoon at the school, so we’ll go and have a look at
that.
The church here, I wrote about last year, has intricate carvings
in the ceiling and around the pulpit all done so long ago by previous
generations of villagers that the current generation doesn’t know when it was
done !....Got the tour of the church and the school and the community hall
which has seen better days, but overall the village is very neat and clean..it
doesn’t smell and there’s not much rubbish around..they have concrete footpaths
and even street lamps; most of the houses have little gardens and all the paths
are lined with nice bushes and trees.
Back to the village for the rugby match..met a man snorkelling
near the beach who told us that the match was at the next village,…about 1 hour
walk away…well so much for that..went for a stroll on the beach collecting
shells.
Back on the boat..just had dinner and suddenly the fishing rod
goes clunk and the line runs out…(we had a small piece of steak on a hook over
the side and just left it there)…a fish !! Hannah reeled it in and it’s a flat
fish about 30cm long and about the same across…hmm..what is it ?...Hannah looked
it up Scott Bannerot’s Fishing handbook….its a spadefish or batfish …he says the
eating quality is good..so off with its head and out with the viscerae and into
a bag in the freezer for tomorrow . What a triumph !.
Sunday July 3
Up early and off to the pass near Drawaka Is where the manta rays
feed at high tide (17 09.8’S, 177 11.9’E). Anchored in a bay nearby and dinghied
over to the pass where there’s already a boat from Manta Ray Is resort with 4
snorkelers looking for manta rays…Gunilla is in the water with her camera
(unfortunately the pics didn’t turn out too well, but we saw them swimming
around with their huge mouths wide open filtering plankton. The ones we saw were
probably about 2 metres wing span..they can be up to about 6 metres
!..completely harmless to humans…no teeth, no sting in the tail…beautiful
creatures.
Still having trouble with the header tank cap…it lets water out
into the expansion tank but the water doesn’t come back…so every few days I have
to open up the engine compartment, remove the cap, lift up the expansion tank
and run the water back into the header tank…I need a new cap
!!
Having sorted that, we motored off heading for the north of
Naviti Is..Somosomo bay..after an interesting motor sail (Hannah at the
helm)tacking between reefs, we are anchored in Gunu Bay 17 05.24’S, 177
14.85’E
Monday July
4
Raining..raining raining…started to clear about
12 so we set off round the corner to Somosomo..and its raining again !..anchored
next to a Swiss flagged Allure44 and
then it cleared up. A couple of guys came up in a kayak and gave us some
convoluted story about having a fundraising and #1 and #2 and they need our help
and they will make tea and…”what time you come”..I don’t understand I said and
they just said what time you come 5 o’clock?...OK , I said, we have to go ashore
and visit my friends Viny and Jack so after
that.
Went ashore to do sevusevu with the lady
chief..and she’s not there..just like last time ! So, off to Viny’s house and
she is surprised but pleased to
see me..very pleased to see Hannah and gave here a shell necklace…we have
tea…and rice..always something to eat. Vuny and Jim arrive back from school,
Jack and his father come in from the plantation and are very pleased to see us.
Lots of questions about what has happened in the last year. I explain that we
have to go this fundraising thing at 5 o’clock….Viny knows nothing about it and
then a young man arrives…right on 5 o’clock to take us to the other end of the
village for the fundraising….we’ll be back tomorrow
!
We walk though the village and out the back..never been here
before…wormy looking dogs everywhere, past a dirty lake of stagnant water
running between houses…Viny’s end of the village is definitely the eastern
suburbs of somosomo !
Anyway, we are at Seru’s house…and there laid out on the floor is
a coloured mat with tea cups and plates of roti (pancakes) and
pancake(doughnuts)…all very nice…and of course what they are expecting is that
we give them money !...they are fundraising to buy a solar panel so they can
have lights in the church at night…I have about $2-85…Seru is not impressed but
graceful. The Swiss group arrive and sit down and its all on…we talk about the
sailing for a bit…no-one is quite sure what is supposed to happen…Pia, one of
the Swiss asks them if they would sing..they do and then there’s great
donations of money from the Swiss..and grins all around..I feel a bit mean and
promise Seru I’ll be back in the
morning.
Still can’t help feeling they would be much better off raising
money to clean up the cesspit which would benefit the health of the citizens
much more than being able to go to church at night…still church is the centre of
their community, now that they’ve given up cannibalism
!
Back to the boat and spaghetti for
dinner….
Tuesday July 5
Back into shore to see Seru and give a bit more cash…he’s very
grateful !
Down to see Viny and she and Jack’s father have gathered a pile
of papaya, lemons, yams, kasava for us to take….no, you don’t buy it, this is
just friends as Viny said last year.
Viny has made roti for us and lemon tea…the
roti is a bit oily but the lemon
tea is delicious. I asked if she got the photos from last year from Chrissy..she
did and she mentions some of the funny ones..like the one of me, Vuny and the
pig. She and Jack have just bought a small generator..the village generator
doesn’t work..and they also have acquired an LCD TV and a DVD player…she has
very few DVDs and asked if we had any…sorry no, but I will get you
some.
Her smallest child Asee sings us a song or two…Viny bribes her by
saying, if you want to go to the boat, you have to sing a song. We take our
leave and take all the goodies back to the boat. I bring the bags bag and
collect Asee and bring her to the boat…she’s only 4 and of course doesn’t speak
any of our languages,,and we don’t speak hers, but Gunilla takes pictures and
shows her on the computer which she finds fascinating….Hannah gives her a piece
of chocolate..she seems unsure but eventually eats it…..I take her back to
Viny…and goodbyes to her and Jack’s father…we have decided to go north to the
blue lagoon this afternoon, now that its
fine.
Wind is almost nil, we motor sail up the side of Yaqeta Is to the
blue lagoon…anchor…Hannah makes thin chips from some kasava, and they are really
good ! Hannah and Gunilla are off snorkelling on the nearby reef while I’m
writing this in the cockpit, anchored next to a French cat with a really
bizarrely painted sail cover and canopy. Plan is to go ashore to the wee resort
later for a drink and dinner..hope they have a
table….
16 56.55’S 177 22.07’E
Wednesday July 6
Well..no dinner at the resort last night…fully booked, so we had
a drink in the bar, reserved for tonight and went back to the boat and had
stirfry garlic prawns, vegetables and rice in 30 minutes
!
Went for a walk on the beautiful beach in the morning and added
to the shell collection a little. On the way back there were 4 whitey tourists
on the beach and Fijian man with a small boat…from another resort. Bula he
said…bula we said..where you from, how long you stay…where you going..and so
on..very friendly..good luck he says …we walk two steps towards the whiteys and
they are looking the other way, down, out to sea..I say hello and we get a
muffled hello from one woman and a bula from the other..bula bula, vinaka waka
levu I say…but I’m sure if I hadn’t said hello they would have said nothing at
all and just ignored us….folk are funny
!
Coffee at 11, (2 cappucinos and a long black please) with
Hannah’s super- size Toblerone
chocolate….
A blue Nordia 55 Bella Blanca flying a NZ flag
comes in from outside the reef and anchors in the lagoon. We see them buzz
ashore in their inflatable and on the way back we here them talking and the man
shouts out DIVA !...turns and comes over and introduces himself ..Roberto, wife
Phillippa (in a black bikini with
gold chains and a cowboy hat!)..Spanish ..and their 3 boys. We have seen your
boat in Auckland he says..we are from Auckland… only just arrived in Fiji..left
late…a bit of chat about the weather and the sailing, and they’re off back to
Bella Blanca…beautiful boat…you can have one for around 1.5 million euros !!
look up Nordia 55 on the internet.
Off in the dinghy to go snorkelling..there’s a reef out further,
but it doesn’t look like much…back to the beach and float around on the small
coral reef inshore…lots of nice little fish and some interesting corals…lots of
staghorn here.
There’s a launch in here from Tauranga…the skipper paddles over
to have a yarn…they did Tauranga to Lautoka in 7 days and burnt 2800 litres of
diesel !...he carries 4000 !! He’s been coming here since the early‘90S and just
loves it.
The Antiguan yacht we saw sailing in Musket Cove pulls in and
anchors…there’s now 5 of us here.
Hannah is making chips from some of Viny’s kasava..she made some
last night as an experiment and they were really good…very thinly sliced kasava,
fried in canola oil…delicious.
A big (20m) ugly power boat flying the NZ flag pulls in…Regal
Flyer…with about 10 to 12 kiwi blokes on board. They haven’t even anchored and
they’re all over the boat each one holding a beer can…hmm that looks like
trouble.
We go ashore to go to the restaurant, they are in the bar along
with the couple form the Antiguan yacht, who turn out to be Scottish ! There’s
one juvenile 50yr old boasting that they have 14 bottles of rum to get through
in 3 days! They all leave the bar about 1900..there’s no dinner for
them.
We have a lovely dinner…ate too much but it was so
nice..
Back on Diva, the party on Regal Flyer is warming up…and up…at
about 0200 they’re singing and shouting and carrying on like the typical
antipodean male morons we used to see in Bon Accord
harbour….
Thursday July 7
0600 and it is all VERY quiet, Hannah wants to go over and blast
them with the fog horn and throw lemons at their boat !...they’d probably attack
us if we did something like that !
A man paddles up in a canoe; he has lobsters for sale !..We buy a
small one for F$30..we’ll cook it
later…
One of the goons gets on a jet ski sort of thing and comes
cruising over towards us…we thought maybe he’s coming to apologise…but no…he
just cruises slowly past with a stupid grin on his face…he doesn’t say anything
as he comes quite close, so I call out “have a good time last night ?”…no
response…”we didn’t, you kept us all a wake with all that noise”…he doesn’t
look at me just continue on slowly with his stupid grin..”don’t care about
anybody but your self !”…but I’m taking to the wind as he cruises off…. Oxygen
thieves as Hannah’s boyfriend Kyle calls them
!
OK…off out of the Blue Lagoon, south and we’re
sailing in an ESE breeze of about
10-12 knots…unfortunately it dies after 3 hours and we’re back to the iron
spinnaker. 1430 and we’re anchored outside octopus Is resort west side of the
north tip of Waya Is 17 16.54’S, 177
06.25’E
Friday July 8
We dinghy in to go for a walk on the beach….there’s a couple of
houses at the north end of the beach…one of them has a “handcraft shop”..the
usual shells and stuff..BUT on the beach there is a large yacht keel buried in
the sand with 12 x 1 ¼ “ stainless studs sticking out of it !...further on
outside the second house is a radar arch with a Furuno scanner on it…there’s a
story here, but don’t know what it is.
After the walk, we weigh anchor and head out of the bay down the
west side of Waya Is towards Nevadra. There’s a few reefs that need to be
avoided but with the sun behind us the navigation is easy . 1200 sees us
anchored between the reef and the beach at Navadra Is..beautiful beach..one of
the landfalls of paradise. We go into walk on the beach and swim…getting the
dinghy off the beach is an interesting exercise as the small surf breaking
makes it almost impossible to get moving. I get in and row and Hannah and
Gunilla push from behind with swim fins
on…
Back on the boat and a yacht pulls in…they row
over and he (name forgotten
already) starts telling me that he saw us in Opua…he’s from Kerikeri, been
sailing on Ragtime ..had to come and say gidday to another Spencer owner…well I
didn’t think his boat was a Spencer, but there you
go…
BBQ steak and sausages with beans for dinner…. 17 27.51S, 177
02.65