Position: 18 degrees 42 minutes south, 176 degrees 51 minutes east

We left the calm, peaceful anchorage of Momi at 0900. We are currently averaging about 6 kts with a triple-reefed main and the stays’l. We were making 7 -8 kts before the third reef went in but it feels like the winds are increasing a bit. The wind in the lulls is about 25 kts but gusts into the low 30’s. Before the third reef we were burying the rail pretty often. Now it only happens every once in a while. We have two meter seas. Everything is from ESE.

So while it’s not the quiet, idyllic cove, it is not horrible either. We think is should calm down in a day or two. Short but sweet and we are getting’ her done!

We are currently anchored in Momi Bay for a quick passage out of the reef around Viti Levu and the beginning of our trip to New Zealand. Two other boats that we know checked out right in front of us but did not stop for the night in Momi Bay. We decided we wanted to start fresh. There is a lot of stress that goes with moving in and out of docks to check out. Do you have the right paperwork? Is the Customs Dock clear? Where is the wind coming from? Turning around in tight locations. Lots to be stressed about.

At least our voyage checklist is complete!

Add to this stress add the heartbreak of leaving our best cruising friends,
Orcinius, John and Lisa. Rumor had it that Lisa cried as she woke up. I only cried when I allowed myself to think about the pending separation which was from my first opening thoughts of the day. We did not think we would cross paths with Orcinius as we waved good-bye to them in early June but we were blessed with a fabulous month-plus as we left Fulanga. We have had a blast with John and Lisa. So lucky we are.

And then add to that the fact that Lisa made a double batch of her wonderful chicken curry and John made a double batch of his famous spaghetti sauce to stock our freezer and you might understand how wonderful our friendship has been. Oh, and did I tell you that as we tearfully pulled away Lisa remembered the chocolate chip cookies she made for us? Yep, two cookies per day for the whole trip plus a few to cheat with. Oops, she forgot to give them to us on the dock. So after we pulled away Bob pulled one of his famous “Spin Charisma on a dime moves” and got us close enough to a dock for John to toss the cookies aboard. And we just had one and they are fabulous!

So tomorrow morning, after a restful night’s sleep and relaxing breakfast we head to New Zealand again. While we can’t wait to get there we first must pay the piper and make the crossing. Please offer prayers, cross fingers and a send good vibes our way. We will be out of Internet touch other than posting the blog for the next ten or eleven days.

See you in New Zealand! Happy Halloween!

We’re winding down the season in Fiji just anchored out in the western archipelago.  Couple days ago, we were at Waya.  Here’s a few pictures.

The view from one of our anchorages at Waya.

Sunset at Liku Liku Bay on Waya.

We went diving while Ann snorkeled above.

The coral's pretty healthy here.

A nice coral fan.

Diving with John and Lisa.

...and when there's nothing else to do, there's always a beer and John and Lisa's "floaties"!

We spent many hours during the first three months of this cruising season on the east side of Fiji documenting the beautiful, strong faces of our friends in Fulunga. These faces have so much character and speak to a life most of us have never dreamed of. Their faces tell of the hard work that subsistence living is. And they tell of the fun and laughter that can be shared by all ages. We love these faces.

Now, as the season winds down, we’ve been in a different kind of place. We have spent the last few weeks enjoying the Yasawas on the west side of Fiji.. The Yasawas are the tourist destination that most people experience when they visit Fiji. There are soft sand beaches lined with coconut palms in beautiful cool lagoons. And there are resorts. That’s a face of Fiji we had not really encountered this year. But an evening on a sand beach with fancy cocktails as we watch the sun slip into the ocean behind Charisma has some charm to it also. Just very different.

And today we encountered another face of Fiji. This one is the face that gets the tourists to and from Fiji. We motored back from the Yasawas starting bright and early this morning with anchors up at 6 AM. Ouch. But the timing was perfect in retrospect. As we left Liku Liku Bay, dark rain clouds were rolling that way. They missed us. As we got in sight of the big island of Viti Levu rain clouds headed toward us and veered off. Spared again. A giant sea turtle floated by unbothered by our engine noise. And we dropped anchor at noon in a bay just off the airport.

The airport is very busy. International jets, small island hoppers, helicopters and seaplanes are buzzing over head. I guess the tourists that don’t sail have to get here somehow. And to get into this bay we passed by several large freighters waiting to pull into Lautoka to offload their cargo. Yep, it’s the transportation face of Fiji.

Rumor has it that there is a pub in the two story building on shore. With Orcinius we are going to brave a whole new world and check it out for dinner. I bet we will meet some friendly faces.

Today marks our last “pure” day of cruising in Fiji. Tomorrow we leave Liku Liku Bay on Waya (also known as Octopus Resort) for Denarau, where we’ll start to prepare for departure to New Zealand.

This has been a pretty fun place even though we’ve had to go back and forth from this side of the island to the other about four times in the last five days as the wind has changed back and forth and left us each time on an uncomfortable lee shore. But…in the mean time we’ve been able to dive some of the great coral reefs here four times, including one last dive today. Fantastic, clear water and healthy coral. Just beautiful.

So…tomorrow we wake up at 0530 for “anchors up” at 0600. We’ll be heading back to Denarau with our friends Orcinius. Actually we’re still going to “wind down” a bit by anchoring at a little village they know of that’s two miles from Denarau for the weekend. John says it has a pub so maybe not so “little” nor “village” but anyway, it sounds nice and it will give us a last day or two to savor the weather and friendship before entering the marina environment at Denarau where Orcinius will work on decommissioning for the cyclone season, since they are staying here, and Charisma will be doing boatwork and shopping/provisioning to prepare for the 1200 mile trip back to New Zealand where we’ll spend the cyclone season. Why the difference in strategies? Orcinius might be going further west into Indonesia and Charisma will be going east back to the west coast of the US. So they want to be closer to Indonesia and we need the option to either go due east from NZ down in the southern hemisphere or possibly head back up this way and then work our way east. We’re still doing more research on which route we would rather take. Basically we’re looking for favorable winds, current and seas. None of our choices are as easy as coming down here. We’ll be very weather dependent the whole way back. More about that later.

In the mean time, we should have internet again in a day or so and will try to post some more pictures. Then stay tuned in the next few weeks for blogs on our voyage back down to NZ. It’s always somewhat of an adventure although we try for it not to be. 😉

With one exception. We got blown out of our nice anchorage on the north side at Vawa Bay and are back at Liku Liku (Octopus Resort).

This shows our "tracks" on the GPS - back and forth over a couple days.

We were comfortably anchored in a sweet spot and hoping to dive off the boats in the great coral, but this morning we awoke to rain. Then a bit of a break – Ann and Lisa went ashore for a little walk about. While there the wind started picking up and they (smartly) called for a ride back. A quick discussion ensued. The weather was looking like it was switching to the NE and we were major exposed. We decided to move. The only problem – John had some bread in the oven and couldn’t. OK, so we’ll wait. Not five minutes later a squall started moving down on us. OOPS, time to move out NOW.

Together we made one of the fastest exits ever, except that Charisma was short-chained. We got our anchor chain wrapped around a large rock. Some quick maneuvering and we got lucky, it came off just before the even bigger wind gusts and waves hit. Wow, did we get out of there in the nick of time!

So, back around the point into Liku Liku. It’s barely a couple miles, but the difference between exposed to the north to east or (where we are now) exposed southwest to northwest. We’re in a better place. It’s calm here and nice. The only other difference is we had some internet over “there” since it faced north to the bigger island. On this side, no internet, so just our shortwave radio. Alas no Facebook :-}

Phew! We left just in time.

The plan is to stay here another day or two if the wind/weather cooperates then head for Denarau and prepare for our passage later this month to NZ.

Just easin’ down the west coast of the Yasawa Island Group in northwestern Fiji waters.

We’re roughly at 17 degrees 16 minutes and 177 degrees 07 minutes. We’re just off a little beach on the northwest side of the bay here on the north side of Waya Island. We were at Octopus Resort yesterday/last night ’round the other side, but the wind came up and forced us around to this side. Lucky us because it’s much nicer over here. Besides flat water instead of two foot waves, there’s no resort, just some stunning mountains that surround the little bay we’re in.

We’ve been day hopping with our friends John and Lisa on Orcinius. It’s also been nice that we’ve caught up with folks who we left Mexico with back in 2012. We had some nice catch up time with Don and Deb on Buena Vista and John and Pat on The Rose. We first met these guys in La Cruz, Mexico. Fun to catch up so many miles “down the road”.

OK, we just heard a whistle: it’s John and Lisa on Orcinius who are anchored about 60 feet away. “What!?” “Look at the moon rise”. WOW. It’s blood red rising out of the sea and reflecting off the still water. What a beautiful night after a couple days of rain and some lightning. Tonight there’s not a cloud to be seen and this amazing moon that is now 10 degrees above the horizon and has turned from red to orange.

We went snorkeling yesterday and today. Great coral, lots of fish. I think tomorrow we’re going to dive this area. It’s really surprisingly healthy looking coral.

Internet is not so good here, so no pics for a few days. We’ll try and post some when we can. At this point we’re looking to get into Denarau on the 20th, then resupply and look for a weather window to go back down to NZ.

That’s today’s plan.