We left Likuri with a forecast of not much wind, and indeed there as not much wind at all. So it was on with the donkeys and we trundled north making water as we went. With such a calm forecast, I started looking for new spots to anchor. Musket Cove was incredibly busy because their regatta has just ended. What was 20 boats when we were last there is now closer to 60! Not my idea of fun.I had seen some sand patches on the satellite photos of the barrier reef a little way off from Malolo island (

We left Vatulele and had a very pleasant sail to Likuri island, also known as Robinson Crusoe island. The resort is yacht friendly though despite anchoring there before, I’ve never been ashore.It can be quite windy, but the breeze was actually nice after the lack of breeze at Vatulele. Because you’re tucked in behind the reef, it can be blowing quite hard and still be very flat onboard. They charge a FJ$10 landing fee per person (as a one off), but that gets you access to all the resort faci

Clambering around in the resort, we found a number of images of a face carved into things. It was used everywhere as the resort logo.It turns out that there is some 3000 year old rock art painted on the cliffs at the end of the beach where the island resort was built and they took that as their logo.This is panel 3, with a tropic bird, jungle fowls and some faces This section is known as panel 6 and shows a number of hands in negative form, as well as a breadfruit leaf, at least 2 faces, a seal

Vatulele Island Resort was, in its heyday, one of the most exclusive resorts in Fiji. Its A$800/night is roughly A$1800 in todays money, and the quality matched the price. There were a number of bures (some with their own pool outside), and a couple of villas.However, the story between then and now is quite convoluted and hard to follow (and what follows may well be wrong as well!). It passed through a couple of owners before it was bought by a Sydney-based property developer in February 2012. I

It was quite windy at Beqa, and so we thought we’d take the wind and sail over to Vatulele. Its a bit off the beaten track but a nice spot. We had snorkeled the bit of reef near the private island which was suprisingly nice but didn’t fancy moving elsewhere. So this morning we left at 8am.The first part was motorsailing until the wind kicked in, but once clear of the reef at the western side of the Beqa lagoon, we found plenty of wind. Headsail alone had us doing 4-6 knots, occasionally in t

We spent a bit longer in Suva than planned as I had the generator in bits on Sunday. Lip seals on the water pump need replacing, and I couldn’t bodge them. Hopefully Bryan can bring some when they come to visit in 12 days time - we don’t need the generator until then.So the task of the morning was to do our fresh fruit provisioning, so off to the market we went - though we did have to watch the Rugby 7s world cup final where Fiji beat NZ. Rugby is a religion in Fiji, so there was no point go

On with the jobs. It was nice to see the yacht club taking appropriate measures given today’s sad news.We headed out first thing to get some shopping done (the dry goods run) and then back to the boat, before heading out again for lunch, collecting a gas bottle on the way back. The supermarket was surprisingly good with lots of things I hadn’t expected to see in Fiji at pretty reasonable prices. We didn’t bother with butter at FJ$20/0.5kg though!It is a working harbour here and despite som

We had a great sail overnight. As predicted the winds eased but we continued sailing at 3-4 knots, occasionally slower. Then at 3:30am, the wind switched off so we motored the last 12nm into Suva arriving just after dawn.The same old wrecks are still here, with a few new ones. Anchored up close to the yacht club where I’ve anchored before - with the submerged hulk of one wreck just behind us. Close to us is a raft of old fishing boats that don’t look like they move much - indeed, the raft ha

We dropped the mooring at 6am and headed out of the creek. There was no wind (as expected) and we motored down the peninsula and headed south at the end. Within the hour we were sailing under full main and screecher.The wind eased and went aft, then picked up a bit and came forward. Never more than about 11 knots though. The sea was flat, it really was champagne sailing conditions (so we risked the drone!).As we passed Koro Island, the wind increased and started to turn SE. This was expected - w

We’ve been knocking off the jobs here in Savusavu with a couple of minor hiccups. Yesterday we did some provisioning but the queues at the 2 ATMs in town were insane. We didn’t fancy queuing in the hot sun for what looked like an hour or so. Instead we had a pleasant lunch at the Coprashed Marina.Today we started early and got some fuel. At least we filled the jerry cans at the servo across the road from the dinghy dock. However, though they had a card machine, they claimed it was just for P

We had an amazing time in Viani Bay. It was so nice anchored off the village and we got to know many people there. We’d go in each afternoon to watch the volleyball (far too competitive for us to join in though they did offer many times), and chat with them. There were a few kava sessions though it seems to have little effect on us. We only tried a couple of shells (they offer low-tide and high-tide fills to the half-coconut shell).We heard many stories about the area. The story about the c

Whilst in Ogea, we had this manta ray swimming around the boat. Thought it was time to upload a little video of it as it swam along the shoreline.

I’ve been doing a bit of work on the blog software. Updating it, fixing it, adding features. It was down for a bit whilst this happened, and it took me a while to sort the final SSL bugs - but I think we’re there now.One of the new features I’ve added is the ability to upload the panorama images I can take, and have them display inline. Hopefully this works now!Enjoy!

We’ve had a few boat jobs to do, some socialising and some diving - so here’s a quick update.First up was fixing a toilet problem. The usual issue of limescale build up in the pipes, which required the pipe to be removed and cleaned with acid and plenty of water. Sounds simple but turned into quite a saga. The pipe runs through 3 compartments, with holes cut to allow that - but of course, once fitted onto the seacock and toilet, the ends of the pipe flare which makes removal and re-installat

Had a good dive today at The Corner, just around from Anne’s Bommie. More diving to come.

The resort was a wonderful stop, but we were let down on the veggies - and we definitely needed some as we ran out yesterday. So this morning we headed up to Somosomo. Back across the dateline and anchored in a rather sketchy anchorage. We decided that I’d stay with the boat as even beaching the dinghy was impossible on the rocky shore. Nina hit the supermarket and the veggie stalls and came back well provisioned.From Somosomo we headed back across the dateline (honestly, we do know what day i

Tried the drone here, and it worked fine! I did have an idea that it may have been a login issue, because the reboot loop started when the controller connected to the drone and the controller was giving a login error (because we had no internet, duh!). So perhaps the brainiacs at DJI have an error where after 30 days it fails (or I was unlucky and hit a certificate expiry or something). Anyway, the little drone flies again! Happy bunny…

We rounded the southern tip of Taveuni whilst eating the first of our mahi-mahi meals - a rather delicious asian fish soup thing. Our plan is to do some diving in the Somosomo strait, but first, a stop at Paradise Resort…As we approached, we were hailed on the VHF and directed to a mooring. We’ll go ashore later for drinks and a meal. A rather nice way to end our time in the remote Lau group. The resort here is very yacht friendly, so its a nice spot to stop. The fact they have serviced moor

After a windy week at Namuka-i-Lau, we decided we’d get underway north. It was a strange place - a beautiful bay with our private beaches and plenty of coconuts to drink - but we did not see the villages at all. Well, we saw them in their boats visiting the ship, and we saw them fishing or hunting one night with torches - coming past us in their boats - but no interaction. I’m afraid it was just too windy for us to make it around to the village again.So at 8am this morning, we picked up the

Our anchorage is very pretty. Slowly shelving, shallow so we have about 60cm below the keel at low tide, but we’re still far enough off the beach that bugs aren’t an issue. We have 4 beaches to chose from, and plenty of coconut trees. We got a few drinking nuts yesterday and had a nice swim from the beach.We tried to make it to the village as yesterday was supposed to be calmest day of the week. Alas its was just too rough. We got soaked before we’d even turned into the weather and started