At lunchtime we went ashore to meet up with and say goodbye to Stuart and Sheila from Imagine. We met up at Big Mammas pizza with them and the Passages, Screams and Jarana’s who are all here in Denarau right now. There can’t be many more 2010 Puddle Jumpers left in Fiji. Like every family, we eventually go our separate ways.

For a quick flashback on our times with Imagine you can click on the ‘Imagine’ category in the left sidebar or at the top/bottom of this message. I try and keep these categories up to date so our encounters with particular boats can be viewed in one go. I just used the link to take a trip back down memory lane.

As ever the pizza at Mamas was good. We stayed some time and had a few lunchtime beers/wine. The goodbyes were said. Stuart and Sheila are flying back home today and will return next April. They intend to leave soon after needing to get to Darwin by July for the Indonesia Rally. That’s way ahead of the pace we’ll be setting so chances are this was our last goodbye. But somewhere in the backs of our minds we hold onto the hope we’ll run into them somewhere.

After the lunch time libations we were neither willing nor capable of engaging in any serious work in the afternoon.

Today we both get on in earnest. I have some maintenance projects to do while Helen will get on with the inside work. It feels a little cooler today so that may help.

We initially motored out of the north side of Naviti and first encountered the westerly winds. They did indeed turn out to be quite light – about 6-8 knots. It was enough for us to sail although when the boat speed dropped below 3 knots we gave extra pushes using battery power. Behind the reefs the water was indeed relatively calm and we had no obstruction from the wind so we were able to sail all the way with the help of our occasional pushes. On the way down we had line of sight to a cell phone tower and were able to access the internet briefly.

Once we reached Drawaqa we turned the boat into wind and sat there to see if we could cope with the light swell. We decided it was acceptable and dropped the hook backing down towards the reefs lining the shore. No other boats were in the previously crowded patch of good sand. We felt pretty ok where we were. If the wind picked up the anchor would have to be dragged up a sandy slope – next to impossible – to bring us closer to the shallows. If/when the wind shifted we’d have the protection of the island to the south. So even though it was a little bumpy and back to having no internet we were happy where we were.

PICS

After lunch and a rest we took the dinghy south to visit the Manta Ray Resort on the island of Nanuya Mbalavu. We wanted to see what it was like and if they would welcome yachties for dinner. They were welcoming but the thursday night dinner was Fiji food which was not enticing enough, for us, to make for a dinner out. We had a walk around the resort including going over to the west side of the island. It seemed quite nice, well looked after and with lots of polite staff.

I chatted with the dive shop and asked them about when the best time to view the manta would be. We already had an idea this would be in the two hours before high tide. They said they would call us on the VHF when they knew they were about which we thought was nice.

We didn’t have long to wait. We got the call soon after returning to Dignity. We had all our gear ready to go and piled into the dinghy. The entire resort also piled into their two boats and were ferried out to the pass where we all ended up drifting around looking for the mantas. One ended up popping up right by us but disappeared by the time we’d put our gear on. The resort had their spotters too in and out of the water. Soon they had one spotted on the west side of the bay. All the resort guests were now in the water beginning a marathon swim session chasing manta ray sightings. We dinghied a little closer before getting into the water. Before long we had an excellent sighting of one of the largest mantas I’ve ever seen. Unlike the last one we saw here, this one had a white underside and some white markings on top. I managed to take a couple of pretty pictures which I’ll upload when I can.

Helen had the dinghy this point so I took it off her and let her chase the manta through the pass. I zipped the dinghy wide around the pack of swimmers chasing Helen and the manta and managed to get back in the water ahead of it and take a few more pictures although there, the water was murkier.

We’d both now had good sightings so we retired to the dinghy. The Jaranas were now here. They’d anchored round the east side of Drawaqa along with a couple of other boats including Safari who’d been up in Gunu with us. They’d been in the water but missed the manta. We decided to hang around and help try and spot the mantas again. While doing so we ran into a couple on a kayak from another nearby resort, Mark and Dee. They were Brits who’d moved to Australia (Manly/Sidney) a few years ago. Dee turned out to have grown up in Islington where Helen had grown up and where I’d first moved when a went to live in London when I was in my teens. We had a lot in common and ended up inviting them over to Dignity for a beer or two.

We really enjoyed their company for the brief time they could stay. We had a beer each and Mark and I took a dent into the G&T supplies (which incidentally put the nail into the coffin of our plans to night snorkel the nearby reef). They had to return for their evening dinner by 6:30 so we parted company. Perhaps we’ll meet up when we get to Sidney next year.

By then the winds had shifted to the south. The slight westerly swell was now broadside to the boat making for a less pleasant motion but this soon died down. Overnight the winds have shifted more to the south east. We hope the boats on the east side of the island are ok.

We learned yesterday that Stuart and Sheila from Imaging are already out of the water and flying out of Fiji on the 15th. There’s a possibility of meeting up with them next Wednesday at Denarau. We’d like to be there to see them even if it means a few more days in Denarau than we first planned. We’re going to have to take a good look at the weather today to see how we might make it in time. It may mean motoring into wind at some point but if we can cut the distance between now and then then that will make it easier. We’ll see.

Apart from a brief stop to replace a flat tire we made it to Lautoka in good time. We’d asked to be dropped off at the customs office and be picked up in town later on. It turned out we needed to be in the customs office at the wharf (obvious really) rather than the one in town so we walked the approx mile between the two. We’d been advised by many to tell them our boat was nearby when asked where it was. I find it difficult to tell a bold lie so when it came down to it I said we were in Denaru. No problem. Soon we were out with coastal clearance for just about everywhere around here so we’re sorted on that front.

Next stop was immigration to extend our visas. It turned out it was in the unmarked building next to the first customs office we’d been to. So we walked back. It took a while and few Fiji dollars to get our extension. They required proof of our ability to sustain ourselves while here. In the end they were satisfied by taking copies of our credit cards and conceding on the need for copies of statements.

So now, unless we decide to go back to Suva or something like that, we have no more paperwork to do until we leave Fiji.

Next we walked around town. I bought a couple of shirts. The experience was a lot more pleasant than in Nadi where the shop keepers campaign heavily for your custom as you walk down the street. In Lautoka there was none of that. On the downside, the supermarkets with international produce were fewer and less well stocked than Nadi.

By the time we’d eaten lunch we were already a little late for our rendezvous. We didn’t lose our taxi as we’d bumped into him a couple of times already. We picked up a few more provisions before heading back to Denaru and the boat.

We didn’t do a great deal more in the afternoon. John from Sea Mist popped by having just arrived in the anchorage. He’d been invited to the evening out with the Leu Cats. That was great as this may be our last opportunity to see them for a while at best, if ever at worst.

The evening went well. We met up at Lulu’s having a round of cocktails together followed by dinner at Indigo’s – an Indian Restaurant – where we briefly bumped into the Jaranas who were just leaving. The evening was excellent and somehow we managed to stay out quite late, at least for us.

At the dinghy dock we said our emotional Au Revoirs. It’s never goodbye as one never knows how or when we’ll meet up again.

The answer to that is probably here and today as the weather has turned out crap and looks to stay that way today and tomorrow. We’re not moving on and when we do it looks like it’s out west.

In the afternoon, we had hoped to go diving. All the good spots are on the west coast of Ono. Siwa had gone out with the Osso Blancos and Jacksters in the morning. They’d had a rough time in the area where the winds had shifted to the SW. He had decided that an afternoon dive would be untenable so that idea was scratched too.

However, the day wasn’t a complete washout. The weather was definitely improving. Although we had a few patched of rain, we did have more than a few patches of sunshine which warmed us up. In the evening, a beach party with bonfires and dancing had been planned by the villagers. We all prepared some snacks for the villagers and headed ashore at 7pm. Due to increased winds, the bonfire idea had been abandoned. We were taken to one of the nearby huts where the villagers were all set up. As we approached they fired up their instruments and went into song. I was asked to share the message that when each song started we could select one of the locals to dance with. And that we did.

Grog (cava) was freely flowing. Somehow we decided we would sing them a song in return. However we could not find a song for which we all knew the words. In the end we picked Let It Be. I went back to the boat to pick up some beer to give to the villagers (for which they were very well chuffed) and to print out some lyrics. Our eventual rendition went pretty well I think.

The evening ended with the now familiar Isa Lei being sung. By the time we returned to the boat it was 11pm – very late for us cruisers.

Weather permitting we’re going to have another try for the mantas this morning. We need to make the trip to Musket Cove either this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon. The trade winds are beginning to reestablish themselves so either day should work well for us. The ocean swell is looking better, in terms of being lower, tomorrow and the direction should improve. With the winds also expected to be more easterly I’m expecting it to be warmer. So I’m plumping for a Sunday/Monday overnight passage. The only question now is whether to leave from here or to sail somewhere a little further west this afternoon to improve our wind angle and shorten the distance. We’ll see.

I next headed off to the Budget Car Rental place. On the way I spotted Peter from Troutbridge sitting in a cafe. Things are gradually turning around for him and he’s surprisingly upbeat about his misfortune arriving in Fiji. The really good news is that his children’s story book has been accepted for publication which should bring him some income to help him get back up onto his feet.

The car hire company didn’t have a lot of options. The best vehicle for our needs had been verbally booked. They have a 50/50 success rate with verbal bookings and they’ll know whether or not it is actually taken this afternoon.

Most of the morning had gone by the time I returned to the boat. I managed to upload the photos from Gau (active blog readers will need to go back a few entries to see them). We decided to get in our MacDonalds fix for the season so we walked back into town, casing out the remaining supermarkets that we’d failed to reconnoiter the prior day. I was disappointed they had no quarterpounders but two double cheeseburgers and fries went down very well as did Helen’s Big Mac.

Helen had selected the New World supermarket to visit so that we did pickup up our first round of provisions which we boxed and put into a taxi to return to the yacht club. At the club, before returning to the dinghy I asked about a berth for the weekend. It turns out they can shuffle some boats around and make us a space. I also talked to the fuel dock attendant to have the dock cleared of small boats so we could turn up in an hour.

After getting our provisions back to the boat we brought the boat into the fuel dock, spun it around and reversed in. All fueled up we headed back out to the anchorage where I changed the generator oil before quaffing a couple of well earned beers.

We met up with the Jaranas for our evening meal which we ate, quite deliciously, at a local cheapo Chinese cafe, the same one I bumped into Peter earlier in the morning.

We followed our tracks out of the bay we were in and headed for the pass. We raised the main in the lee of the land. Even so the wind was already in the teens. We jibed through the pass just as the GPS beeped dawn unfurling the headsail as we turned for Suva.

Soon we were flying along at around 9 knots in the calm waters in the lee of the outlying reef. The main was already reefed from the night before and running down wind in just over 20 knots of apparent wind we were close to having to reef the headsail too. Before long we were into the unprotected ocean in 3m swells. Unfortunately, the swell was approaching from the SSW and not from the SE which would have been much more comfortable. This felt like passage making as normally we avoid the big seas when doing inter-island hops like this. In these big seas our speed dropped a little but not by much. We were still averaging over 8 knots. It was bumpy but wild.

We reached the main island of Vitu Levu far earlier than planned. I was able to grab a vodafone signal and download the weather forecasts that I couldn’t get earlier via the SSB (too early for propagation). The marine forecast was now calling for ‘very rough seas’. We had ’em. The rough seas caused us to debate my earlier plot of an early entrance behind the reef. We decided against going into the pass just west of the Nukulau Islet, 7nm east of the main port entrance. The promise of calm seas behind the reef were overridden by the unknown complications of a possible following sea into the tight turn at the pass followed by sailing in strong winds in a constrained channel. We stayed out for another hour sailing at the angle the boat felt comfortable.

As we frequently do we jibed a little early requiring us to go wing on wing to find the right angle to sail into Suva on a reach. For the short period of time necessary we managed to put in the concentration to make this work in those rough seas. As the gap between the reefs narrowed the waters calmed and we shot into Suva harbour sailing to within half a mile of our intended anchorage before dropping the sails. By 1pm we were on the hook. 55nm in under 7 hours, including all the sail raises / drops & anchoring. Our fastest ever passage.

Now this may sound like we were beaten up badly. In fact, apart from Helen feeling a bit off colour early on, this was a fantastic ride. The swell did gradually clock round to be more in line with the wind. There may have been a time when seas like this would have scared the pants of us. But this one was totally manageable. We always had an easy entrance into Suva as an option so there really was nothing worrying about the passage.

Within an hour of arrival we were ashore to do our formalities and explore Suva. We first visited the Royal Suva Yacht Club office to declare our arrival before walking to the customs office at the wharf south of us. Once we’d cleared in we spent 2-3 hours wandering around town. There were a large number of supermarkets which, to Helen’s delight we visited most and to my delight we didn’t visit all.

We eventually ended up looking for somewhere to eat. I fancied somewhere a little more western. Avoid the temptation of MacDonald’s we ended up at the Bad Dog Cafe enjoying a decent meal and drinks for not a lot of $$$$.

After dinner we trekked back to the nearest, and one of the best, supermarkets and picked up a few essentials before picking up a suspensionless taxi back to the yacht club. There we bumped into Bill and Cathy from Jarana and stayed for a while sharing pitchers of beer and catching up. They’re stuck here waiting for a weather window to get down to the Astrolabe reef. This is our planned first stop when our friends arrive next week. We’ll need a plan B for this sort of weather as we’ll have limited time and won’t want to hang around here for too long.

That being said we’re now down to weather watching hoping for a near term improvement over the gray days we’ve been recently having and in the medium term some favourable weather for getting south. The skies this morning are certainly brighter and the 5 day forecast shows a period of low wind days early next week. Motoring all the way south is definitely an option we’d go for.