The oddest thing happened today.  Ann and I were on our stand-up paddleboards coming back from a little sandy atoll about 3/4 mile away from Charisma, when all of a sudden both of us at the same time fell off our boards.  It felt like someone just grabbed my board and pulled it back.  We were separated by a good 30 meters, so it couldn’t have been a wave.  That would have taken at least 10 seconds to get from me to Ann so we wouldn’t have fallen at exactly the same time.  Also, neither of us has fallen in the six months we have had the boards.  I was suspicious of an earthquake and when we got back to Charisma I checked online.  Yup, 4.2 in Fiji right at the time we fell.

Sitting out by the atoll just before the quake.

Waterquake.  That’s a new one for us.

Pretty lazy days here.  Today we had a couple hours of paddleboarding including landing on a small sand “island” that only shows up at low tide.  I of course claimed it for Charisma!  We named it “Almost Island”.  It shows up twice per day.

Paddleboarding over the reef.

Claiming "Almost Island" for the good yacht Charisma.

Visiting our neighbors Bob and Linda on Bright Angel.

Not exactly a tough day.  It’s going to rain later today, so other tough chores include maybe taking a nap or reading a book, then tonight a bbq on shore.  One of the nice perks of staying here is they fire up a couple bbq’s each night and you just bring in whatever you want to cook or buy something at the little store and throw it on the grill.  Tonight we’re going to do grilled polenta with eggplant and maybe some melted cheese.  Most of the other boats anchored near us come in as well, so it’s a nice party.  Even though we enjoyed the solitude of the “other” side of Fiji (i.e. the east side) more, this is a nice way of winding down the season.

We have about two or three more weeks to cruise around this (west) side and then we need to start watching for a “weather window” to head back.  After two “boisterous” trips to New Zealand and back, we’re hoping for a nice, gentle voyage this time.  But it’s about 1,000 miles and at least 9 days, so hard to predict the weather over that whole period.  You watch, leave and cross fingers.  Ah, but that’s for another day.  For now-onto my nap!

Ann and I have been sick with colds we caught in Suva.  But the good news is they are finally starting to get better, so today we went for a hike around Malolo Lailai Island (where Musket Cove is) with our good friends Chris and Rani from Ladybug who just pulled in yesterday.

Great to see Chris and Rani again!

The island is called Malolo Leilei.

It was a lovely day, nothing but blue sky.  We ended up walking around the whole island as well as up to the two (small) peaks.  Took about three hours and I don’t think any of us stopped talking the whole way.  We haven’t seen each other for a couple months and had a lot of catching up to do.

Tidepooling on the windward side.

Tonight, we’ll meet up with a bunch of other friends as well at the nightly BBQ.  The Musket Cove Marina lights up their BBQs and everyone brings something to throw on.  Good times.

We’re looking to stay here through the weekend to let our colds get better, wait out some weather that’s coming this way and most importantly meet up with Bright Angel who should be in soon.

So, some boat projects, more walks and some sitting on the beach.  Easy days.

Wow, talk about your culture shock.

We’ve gone from being on islands for the last four months where we “might” see another boat or two, to here, where we’re tucked into moorings with about 30 other boats!

Musket Cove. We haven't seen this kind of developed area all season.

The good news is we’re catching up with some old friends (Eagles’s Wings, Light Speed, and based on a radio chat this morning, Bright Angel, Kahia, Ladybug and maybe GatoGo who we haven’t seen since June).

This really is a fun place. Lots to do and this evening, we went in to the beach with the dinghy for a BBQ. Fun! And the staff here couldn’t be nicer or more accommodating. More on that in future posts.

The sail down here was in 20 plus knots and 2 meter seas. As we passed through the reef into this area known as the Manamucas, we metaphysically also passed from the “untamed” side of Fiji (on the eastern side) to the
Resort side where we are now. We’re seeing motorboats, airplanes, helicopters…not in huge abundance like on a weekend in SF Bay, but compared to the previous months of isolation, it’s, well, different.

It’s also almost October. Wow, how the time has flown by! Seems like only yesterday I was swearing at the bad luck to have gotten contaminated fuel in the storm coming north from NZ. Besides being the month (October) for that good German Brew, it’s also time to begin planning our voyage back out of the tropics to New Zealand. Cyclone season starts here in December and to keep our insurance company happy (as well as for our personal safety) we have to go south of 30 degrees south, which for our purposes is Enzed.

So-we have about two more weeks or so of exploring here and then we’ll need to resupply and start watching for a weather window that gives us favorable winds and seas for the 1000 mile voyage back to Kiwi Land. After the last two very rough, tough ones, we’re hoping to get a break this time (knock on wood!)

As we say here in Fiji-“Stay Tuned”. 😉

P.S. to my good friend JHam: love the idea about storming the beach with our newly developed explosive devices. Two problems keep us from doing that at this point. One, these devices now further evolved and perfected, taste too good to lob over the wall in support of an invasion and Two, the folks who work here are just waaay to darn nice! Call us sissies, but we’re going to “Make Charismas, not war!”

Yep, that was the end of our day. We had some wonderful music going in the cabin after dinner (I think it was Etta James) and a candle. What else do we need? We even managed a couple swing moves in Charisma’s very limited interior!

A nice end to a very pleasant day.

Earlier in the day, we went in to Likuri Island, AKA Robinson Crusoe Resort, and explored a little. Little being the operative word since we walked the perimeter of the island at low tide in about 25 minutes!

Likuri Island in the background.

We stayed for the lovo baked lunch (fish, ham, chicken, kokoda, rice and pasta) and were pleasantly surprised by the hula dancing entertainment. Back to Charisma in the afternoon for a nap (we both still are recuperating from colds caught in Suva) and then the best part of the day (well, best part other than dancing with my Sweetie!), a Charisma while watching yet another wondrous sunset.

Mañana we head for Musket Cove (weather permitting). For now, it’s a peaceful night and time for some star gazing.

James Brown use to be billed as “The Hardest Working Man In Show Business”, and he did break a sweat, but the folks here at the Robinsone Crusoe Resort did that and then some tonight.

We had another 40 mile plus day today. Another 7 hours at the helm because we stayed so close to the coastal reefs I didn’t want to use the wind vane. It’s accurate on long distances-amazingly so-but in the short run, it can wander. Anyway, we left Vananui at 0800. Put up the main sail inside and sailed out the reef in about 15 knots. It was a gorgeous “blue water” kind of day, but the wind kept building. Around 1100 I put in the first reef and sometime after lunch, it was getting too hard to hold our course so I put in the second reef. We were still doing 7 knots by this time with the second reef. As we closed with the southern most tip of the island, I didn’t want to gybe, so we furled the jib and went DDW (direct down wind) and even a bit by the lee and were still hitting sevens with 6-8 foot waves about 1/2 mile off the barrier reef. Pretty exciting sailing! I even had Ann put the companionway boards in as I was concerned one of the waves might break down into the hatch.

Finally we got around the point and were able to ease up a bit toward Likuri Island. But, there’s not a lot of protection and at the entrance to the pass we still had some sizable waves making taking the sail down a bit of a chore. All managed though and through the pass in the reef, although we had a few anxious moments trying to determine the correct course to take. It was fairly cloudy and we couldn’t see the inner reef until we were almost upon it.

Finally inside, dropped the hook in 20 feet over sand. Thanks for that; it grabbed hard and is set well while we’re sitting in mid twenty knot wind a couple hundred yards in the lee of the island. Windy, but at least flat water.

So, the show…it turned out to be great. Lovo cooked dinner (delicious) and an hour long Fijian dancing show for only $25 Fijian (about $12 US). There were about 6 woman and 8 men and they really worked up a sweat. It ended with an amazing fire dance where each performer had a turn twirling batons with the ends lit and several also did “fire-breathing”. Spectacular! They even had a guy stationed at the side of the “stage” (really it was just in the sand in front of the tables) with a fire extinguisher!

...just in case...

Hula and fire. Don't try this at home.

A nice show...

These guys really worked it.

We have now seen the hardest working Fijians in show business. It was a great show.

We’ll go ashore tomorrow to see what else there is to see, then in a day or so head to Musket Cove, a very famous gathering spot on the western side of Fiji (you’ll have to Google it, I’m too tired to write more for now).

It was 0630, I was just settling in with my morning cup of coffee when-blabooom! YIKES, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!

Ginger beer in a screw top wine bottle. We put it upside down in the sink. When it blew, the bottle hit the ceiling and came back down in the other sink. Tasty ginger beer everywhere within 12 foot radius.

I guess, those screw tops aren’t made to take much pressure. 😉

This was the bottle we added more yeast to last night as a test, since they were not carbonating as much as we hoped. Hmmm. Test successful, sort of.

We have now gone from a batch that tastes good but is a little flat to a batch that may be possible to use as a defense against maurading cannibals, if we can perfect the fuse mechanism. I think we’re making progress.

Vananui Bay is about 30 miles around the sw from Suva. We left this morning around 0730 and arrived about 7 hours later. The 2nd half of the trip was the best part. The sun, blue sky and blue water came out, we squared away about 150 degrees to the wind and were doing a solid 7 plus knots touching 8 from time to time. Inspiring sailing. The waves were good size too, so I choose to sail through the pass into the small bay instead of wrestling with the sails in 5-7 foot waves offshore. It’s often a toss up which is more terrifying. ;-). Sailing into a fairly small pass sure gets your attention. There ended up being plenty of room but the wind gusts, round ups and big waves breaking on the coral reefs on both sides of us what seems like only a few yards away is invigorating to say the least!

The reward: we’re sitting here, the only boat in the bay, watching the sun set and the stars come out and listening to the roar of the surf on the coral of the outer reef. Wow.

Ann is kindly making dinner tonight, so while sitting here writing this and sipping some wine (we already had our Charismas with homemade ginger beer!) I can smell the fragrant aromas of dinner wafting up out of the hatch (and I hear fish jumping out of the water all around us).

Tomorrow, another 30 something mile leg and we’ll be at Likuri Harbor and Robinson Crusoe resort. We’re looking forward to the island hospitality and Fijian dance show. We’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from friends who stopped over.

As always, stay tuned to see where we actually end up. 😉

Yup, we’re still sitting here.  It rained last night and was still rainy this morning and I was kind of tired and the combination with a grey, windy day made it seem like the best choice is just to stay here one more day.  Not good to take a fairly long ocean leg past reefs and such when you’re not sharp.

It should be nicer tomorrow.  Forecast is for clearing, so now we just need to decide WHERE to go.  We know we’re heading west around the south end of Viti Levu (the southern most of the larger Fiji islands) but we have choices to make.  Visit the island of Bega just south of here and stay for a couple days, or make more haste around to Likuri Harbor and Robinson Crusoe resort for the Saturday show?  Hmmm.

Stay tuned to find out.

But only for another day or so.

We’re just waiting for the winds to become more favorable, which should happen maybe Thursday, at which point we’ll head west around the south end of the island.

We're anchored in a nice little spot about five miles away from the industrial port of Suva.

Ann and I are now official cruising members of Royal Suva Yacht Club

Our next destination is Robinson Crusoe Resort. We’ve heard fom others who have gone there that there is a great show including fire walking. I’m not doing that (I don’t think) but I’ll watch. The only issue is its about seventy miles away, so we’re trying to plan a halfway point to stop and spend the night. Two legs of 35 miles (7 hour days at 5 knots) are part of the plan.

So, tomorrow back to Suva for final vegetable supplies and ready to leave Thursday. OK, I admit it, we’re stocking up on rum too as we’re precariously low. OK! OK, beer and wine too! We’re fine on spaghetti sauce though. 😉

P.S. we had a delightful evening catching up with Bob and Linda fom Bright Angel who are anchored about 50 yards away. Had them over for dinner. How fun to catch up and compare stories with folks who we first met in Mexico almost two years ago! Really great to see them and catch up. Two of our favorite people.