Nina arrived back in Fiji, and once collected from the airport - we dealt with the obligatory arrival covid test and immigration (to add her to the crew list - a mandatory list of people signed onto the boat). Then recovering from jet lag took over which meant she had to put up with my catering (a quick egg fried rice)!

The next day we shopped ts the supermarket and fresh fruit and veg market to top up supplies. We’re generally waiting for the trade winds to calm down so we can make our way east to the Lau group. However there does not appear to be a window for a while, so we’ll make the most of it in the Mamanuca and Yasawa groups.

Once provisioned, we quickly left Denarau as its an ok anchorage but not pleasant to swim at, and we sometimes end up pointing the wrong way to get a good charge out of the solar panels. So it was back to Musket Cove - a well worn track for Duplicat, she can almost get there on her own. At Musket Cove, jet lag again took over, and once again we resorted to my catering (aubergine and tomato curry).

We’ve made use of the facilities at Musket - had a nice walk through parts of the island, a nice drink at their cafe and in the evening had a beer or two whilst our take-away pizzas were made, when we headed back to the boat to enjoy them.

Today has been the first day of nice steady wind and sun for a while. We’re making use of it to catch up on laundry, make water, charge batteries etc. I’m also doing a bit of computer work too, so been fitting that in. However, by early afternoon we were on top of most things - so opted to head to the little sandbank that emerges nearby at low tide. Its also far enough away from the airport here that we can finally fly the drone!

And looking back towards Musket Cove (Malolo Lailai island)

We had a nice swim - Nina’s first since arriving back in Fiji. Tomorrow we’ll start heading up the chain of islands on this NW corner of Fiji.