We left our anchorage in the Bay of Islands shortly after first light. We swung by Da Capo and threw them some lemons before motoring north through the bay and then out to Qilaqila pass. We hoisted the main in the lee of the island and put out the fishing line as we traversed the pass.
Upon clearing the reef we turned towards Welangilala and put out the head sail. At this point, feeling hungry, I put on some toast. No sooner had I put the bread on the heating tray did something hit the fishing line. I rushed out but whatever it was got off the hook before I got there. Vowing to check the lure when I finished breakfast I went back to my toast. However, before I’d finished toasting the bread we had a second hit on the line and this time I was able to bring in a perfectly sized 4ft mahi. Helen looked after my breakfast while I brought the fish in, clipped it to a line then bled it.
After finally eating my toast I went back to cleaning and filleting the fish. We had enough meat for 4 big meals.
The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful. We had to jibe to avoid Williamson Reef and went wing on wing for a while to give us a better sailing angle onto the pass into Welangilala. We sailed on into the cut and right up to the island where we dropped the sails and anchored. With the wind from the south east we could not find clear sand that was in the shelter of the island so we had to settle for a rolly anchorage.
We rested a while and around 3pm we went ashore to explore the island. There is some work going on here as a small resort, we understand, is being built. We first visited the old light house which is essentially a rusty iron tube standing on it’s end, held up by steel wires with a treacherous looking rusty spiral staircase running up inside. We then followed a track through the center of the island which was surrounded by countless papayas. We came upon some workman’s huts and could hear some activity in the distance so we turned around and returned to the beach. We then walked around the circumference of the island. Of much interest were the nesting booby’s. The chicks looked bigger than the parents and the parents were flying around squawking their annoyance sounding like dinosaurs.
When we returned to the dinghy we were caught up by the two maintenance men on the island. We had a brief chat. They offered us papaya which we thanked them for but declined as we had enough aboard.
Back aboard the boat Helen cooked up an excellent chilied mahi dinner which I couldn’t eat enough of. We watched a movie before retiring.
We’ve decided not to stay here any longer so we’ll be heading off west today. Taveuni is 45nm to our west. We may make it that far. The wind seems to have shifted towards the east a little more overnight so that may require us putting in a few more miles.
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