#24 Cave swimming, crab racing and a gale – the Yassawas

Port Denerau

We arrived at Port Denerau marina after a very pleasant two day sail just in time for a hasty lunch (fresh food!) before packing Lynnie off to the airport for her flight back to Sydney. It was sad to say goodbye to such a valuable crew member but we were very fortunate to share our two favourite spots with her, Maupihaa and Falunga.

There was no time to feel glum however. This was the biggest yacht hub since Tahiti and you can’t visit a marina without tackling the more pressing jobs list. Lottio spent two frantic days “turning around” the boat between guests. Endless washing, provisioning and cleaning while I scrubbed the outside of the boat and converted the starboard bow storage area into a two person bunk. With my sister Celia, husband Jonathon and two teenage kids (Charlie and Oliver) coming, we had to somehow convert our boat into an eight person home for the next two weeks. We did manage to squeeze a trip to the local water park in which was great fun right up until I suffered major lacerations to my side and legs due to a particularly badly maintained and falling apart slide. So that was what the disclaimer was for!

After a busy couple of days, I found myself picking up our new guests from the airport at dawn, bringing them back to the boat and casting our lines off for our first venture into the Mamuca / Yassawa chain. These island chains are the most popular cruising grounds in Fiji and with good reason. They consist of an arc of islands and reefs stretching to the north and they include world class surfing breaks such as Cloud Break, beautiful villages, boutique resorts, fantastic diving and snorkeling and great sailing and fishing between the islands. We had two weeks and we were determined to hit as many of the best spots we could.

Musket Cove

Our first stop was also the most popular with other yachts, Musket Cove. It consists of a beautiful sheltered anchorage dotted with protective reefs and a small marina at Musket Cove Resort which is very friendly to yachties. In fact, our first task was to join the yacht club which gave us lifetime membership and access to all the resort’s facilities and activities for just $10 Fijian each (about $7AUD). And kids were free! The Seals jumped straight into the azure water to cleanse themselves of their 24 hour air journey whilst Jasmine and I were more interested in the pool, our first since Panama!

Monuriki

Next day we were up early for our morning sail to Monuriki made famous by the Tom Hanks movie Castaway that was filmed here. As this was a dodgy anchorage in the conditions we had and we didn’t want to wreck the boat and become castaways ourselves, we anchored off the nearby island of Yanuya to conduct the sevusevu ceremony at the local village. Its funny to think that half of Hollywood would have descended on this remote part of the world where now the local people frying their catch on the beach just as they would have done for generations.

The anchorage was stunning with a healthy reef for snorkeling and subwinging and a sparkling golden sandy beach. The subwing was becoming a real hit. You get towed behind the dinghy just below mask ripping off speed and there are two “wings” you can control much like flaps on an aeroplane that will send you down to the depths, bring you up again or allow you to barrel role under water. The great thing about it is that you can cover a lot of ground and see a lot of reef with very little effort. The downside is that when you do see something good you get dragged past it and don’t have time to stop and take it in. Plus, its hard not to feel like shark bait trolled behind a boat like a lure.

Over the course of our adventure we had a lot of guests come and visit and stay on board. The Seals personified what we loved about sharing our adventures. Celia was just super excited to be sharing this time with her little bro, Jonathon would get the fishing lines out at every opportunity and Charlie and Oliver loved nothing more than tearing around in the dinghy learning to wakeboard, subwing or foil board. It is so satisfying seeing your guests making the absolute most of their experience and it makes all the work in preparing the boat for them worthwhile. Most evenings we would have dinner accompanied by one of the crew’s desert island discs. a compilation of 8 songs that have a significant meaning to the crew member in question. My heart almost broke when Hugo opened his compilation with Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing because “it reminds me of Dad and this adventure and actually it’s a pretty good song!”. Education complete!

That evening, however, we had impromptu sundowners on the beach and, randomly, a javelin throwing competition before retiring to the boat for dinner and a Castaway movie night to get us in the mood for the next day.

We motored over to the famous island in the morning and dropped the anchor in a spot that was pretty deep, pretty exposed and pretty close to a boat crunching reef. I was right at the limit of being comfortable leaving the boat but consented to it as long as I could see it at all times. We had the island to ourselves and had great fun taking it in turns to crawl up the beach and yell “Winston!” at the top of our voices. We found a trail up the rock and was rewarded with fine views across the surrounding islands (and Kilauea which thankfully was still there). After getting lost on the way back (and for a short time wondering if we were going to get marooned there ourselves) we made it back to the beach and our trusty dinghy.

We hauled anchor and made the choppy trip up to the next island, Waya. This involved crossing a very exposed area of sea. Being perhaps a little insensitive to those less used to life on the waves as ourselves Charlotte started preparing fried cheese toasties and handing them out to our increasingly green looking guests who were trying to look grateful and not throw up at the same time. The final straw for poor old Celia was when we caught our first Yasawas fish, a fine looking tuna which I started dissecting in front of her. Out came the breakfast over the side. I did an oscar worthy performance appearing concerned whilst inwardly chuckling at her predicament. Well, if you can’t take pleasure out of your big sister’s misfortune then you’re not a proper little brother I reckon. Welcome to boatlife sis!!!!

Waya Island

We anchored of Yalobo village island which was one of our favourites in all Fiji. It was so neat and tidy in a beautiful valley set between two big rocky outcrops at the head of a deep bay and the people were lovely even by Fiji standards. Sevusevu was a much more fun affair than usual as we seemed to time it with a big gathering of the locals in their village hall who, by the jovial mood in the air, had been partaking in the delights of kava for some time already. After a particularly loud ceremony with lots of clapping we were invited to join the rowdy men and brimming cups of kava were shoved into our hands by grinning elders. “You look like a tsunami kind of guy, captain!” one winked at me. “And your children, they must have some, is low tide ok?”- “sure!” we replied much to their dismay. It’s not every day you get to give your young children dubious narcotics from an unknown source. Seize the moment I say!

We also met a lovely lady who offered to cook for us for a modest payment so we hot footed it back to the boat, had a quick scrub and change and it was back to Onnie’s for a classic Fijian feast of fish, cassava, coconut rice and other delicacies. In this tiny village, not only does Onnie run a pop up restaurant but also a tiny guest shack she advertises on Airbnb that you can book from anywhere in the world. Amazing! Not sure how you would get there though.

The next day we were guided around the school and in one of the classes we were asked to tell the kids about where we were from and in return the gorgeous wide eyed grinning kids sang some songs to us to wish us well. I’m sure I spotted a few moist eyes from my crew as the little school room came alive with song and laughter. If there are happier children in the world, I would love to meet them and I had to work hard to persuade Lottie not to take one home with us. After a quick hike to a look out point that would have been stunning had it not been teeming with rain, we returned to the boat just as the wind swung around and increased making the anchorage very choppy. In fact, it was so rough that getting from the dinghy onto the boat was a real challenge and nerves weren’t helped when poor old Hugo misjudged his jump, took a tumble into the water and narrowly missed being squashed between the dinghy and the boat.

Onwards to the Sawa-I-Lau caves

The blow that caused Hugo’s little spill was the beginning of a gale that would sweep through the islands over the next week. Sailing in the lee of the islands made travel possible and over the next couple of days we hopped up the coast first visiting Drawaqa Island, famous for the manta rays that like to feed there. We timed our visit for the perfect state of tide to maximise our chances but the large waves caused by the strong winds made snorkeling the pass more an exercise in survival than anything else and if there were mantas there, we certainly didn’t see them. Credit goes to the Seal family who bravely had a go despite the waves braking over their heads and snorkels.

Next stop was the Blue Lagoon named after the 80s movie of the same name that was shot here. It is a beautifully protected anchorage and we took the opportunity to practice wakeboarding and foil boarding as well as visiting the resort for a dinner and traditional dance show. The resort guests each had their own table whereas we were thrown on a long table in the corner with several other yachties. Suffice to say the quantities of rum that was drunk and ensuing raucous behavior from our table that, justified this decision by hotel management!

We also staged a beach fire and BBQ at Blue Lagoon. Now you would think given the plethora of beaches we have experienced, we would have had no end of beach fires by now. However, we had learned over the months that there is a real art in finding the right time and place for a fire and there are many things that can go wrong including rising tide washing the fire away and murderous biting insects to name just two. The perfect beach fire spot needs the following:

• Sandy beach (not sharp coral)
• Enough width of sand to enjoy at high tide
• Low level of biting insects be they “no-see-ums” (Bahamas) “No-no flys” (Marquesses), “sand flys” (Fiji) and mosquitos (everywhere!)
• Plentiful firewood
• Lack of (or at least friendly) locals
• Access by dinghy (not fun beaching onto a coral reef at night on the way home)
• No rain and not too much wind
• Within sight of the boat to find your way home
• Facing the sunset (not necessary but its pretty awesome when you do get it)

Fortunately, the beach we had selected ticked all the boxes and we enjoyed what was becomming our trademark Asian marinated mahi mahi with quinoa salad followed by marshmellows and washed down with rum cocktails. Yum!

Our next stop was the most northern anchorage we would visit in Fiji, Sawa-I-Lau, famous for its caves. The wind was howling through the anchorage but we managed a cool recce ashore to explore and climb the limestone rocks and also snorkel the fringing reef. The next morning we arrived at the cave entrance to find it barricaded by a big steel door concreted into the surrounding rocks. Hmm, not quite the natural experience we imagined. All thoughts of that were put aside, however, when we passed through the doors joining one of the tour groups from a nearby resort who by the looks of things had had an extremely wild ride in the gale conditions in their small boat.

The first cave was like a cathedral with high vaunted ceilings and the odd shaft of light streaming down from the heavens. We all floated around treading water wondering why we had left our fins back on the boat and then the guide told us about another cave we could get to if we swam underwater through a tunnel. The problem is that this cave was absolutely pitch black and so the guides would light the way with torches. What’s the worst that could happen apart from losing half the family eh? A few of the more adventurous tourists dived down and disappeared into the gloom presumably to surface in the other cave and not drown and sink into the depths. Half of the group (including Lottie) made it very clear that this dive into the unknown really wasn’t for them. The rest looked nervously at each other clearly torn between self-preservation and adventure. Sod it! As captain, it was my place to lead right? so down I dived, completely losing my bearings and then was generally manhandled in the right direction by the guides.

When I broke the surface I thought I was blinded before I realised there was a complete absence of any light. With no data coming from the eyes, sounds were massively enhanced and I guess it was like being blind. One by one, a new person would surface next to me and I was pleasantly surprised to find first Celia, Oliver, Charlie, Jonathon and finally Hugo join our merry band of frantically water treading group of explorers. We were taken deeper into the cave and had lots of fun shouting “bulla!” at ear splitting volume and hearing it echo back and forth for quite some time. We learnt that there was a labyrinth of underwater caves below us that were now closed to all but advanced groups due to the fact divers had been lost here in the past. The thought of skeletons somewhere below us in the darkness just added to the spookiness. Returning safely to the main cave we were just in time to see one of the guides climb to the highest point within the cave, about 20m up by my estimation and hurl himself into the water. Nutter!

Blue Lagoon and Octopus resorts

The gale was really blowing by now and our anchorage options were limited. We decided to head back to the protection of Blue Lagoon but on the way south we noticed our good friends on Far Out anchored off a small resort in a location that did not appear to be an “official” anchorage. We called them on the radio. “Mate! Great to hear you! Its windy here but super protected. We’re the only ones here and there’s room for one more boat in front of us”. “OK, let me discuss with the crew”. “Oh, yeah, there’s an inflatable climbing wall and slide anchored off the beach”. “We’re there!”. This is one of the things that is so cool about cruising. The freedom to change your plans and go wherever you like combined with randomly coming across old friends when you least expect them.

We spent the worst of “the blow” in this anchorage off a resort called Blue Lagoon. It was a great spot with a strenuous but rewarding hike up to the hills overlooking the bay, a great bar and pool area to hang out in during the day, the inflatables mentioned earlier, and surprisingly good snorkeling really close to the boat. In fact we came across an underwater art installation that combined coral regeneration with statues in a way that could have been a bit twee but was actually really fun to explore. On the second day the wind really got up. I was worried about our “snubber” (the stretchy ropes that go between the anchor chain and the two bows to keep the boat pointing into the wind and not jerking against the anchor), specifically the dyneema rope used to attach it to the chain as this was getting a bit old. I decided to rig up a second system that would come into play if the first failed and about 6 hours after doing this in a particularly vicious gust, the rope parted. The back-up system worked perfectly and it was hard not to feel a surge of pride. I generally beat myself up a bit in terms of my ability to fix things that go wrong but this was a demonstration of good seamanship I could be proud of. I identified a risk, put in the mitigation and avoided what could have been a challenging situation. Far Out were monitoring wind strengths that day and recorded a gust of 48 knots which is sneaking up to Storm Force 10, most of the way towards hurricane strength winds. I was particularly proud of our anchor which didn’t budge an inch and after that performance it joined the watermaker and autopilot in the “most valuable inanimate crew members” hall of fame.

The wind reduced slightly and we decided to brave the next passage back south targeting the Octopus Resort on Waya Island. I emailed ahead to ask if we could reserve a table at their restaurant. “Of course you can, we love having yachts visit but have you seen the weather? I’m worried for your safety if you try to make the passage today, please be careful if you decide to come!” Whilst the wind was still howling, both it and the waves were behind us and so the passage wasn’t too bad and everyone managed to keep their breakfasts down this time. We were rewarded with a beautiful Mahi Mahi, the Seal’s first edible fish that was to make great crispy fish tacos later in the week.

Octopus resort was lovely. When we went ashore we were welcomed like old friends. All we had to do was drop a credit card at reception and we had free reign of the resort and all the facilities as if we were paying guests. The kids were amazed that they could just walk up to the bar and ask for a smoothy seemingly without having to pay for it so after a couple of these the school lesson of the day was all about how credit worked. That being said we had a wonderful two days mostly off the boat and out of the wind lounging on the beach, drinking cocktails, playing the guests at vollyball and taking part in the evening entertainment which consisted of a quiz one night (not a patch on the Moldy Banana) and crab racing on the other. Despite clearly having the best named crabs (Lenny Crabitz and Leonardo de Pinchy) we did horrendously but it was a lot of fun and surprisingly good just being normal tourists rather than adventurers for a change. It was here that Charlie received notification of her A-Level exam results. Its hard to overstate how important these results are to an 18 year old starting out their further education, career or in this case bumming around the world for a while. She got the notification just as we were drunkenly launching the dinghy to head back to the boat after our shambolic crab racing. By the leaps of joy and cartwheels on the sand we figured out that, not only had she got the results she wanted, but this included the highest mark in Art that it’s possible to get. To celebrate my niece’s talent and achievements we mustered on the trampolines that night, opened some champagne and fired off some streamers.

Cloud Nine

By now the gale had eased right away but we had very little time left with the Seals. As a last Harrah we took them to The Cloud Nine floating bar. This was a two story luxury bar anchored miles from land just inside the reef in ridiculously clear water. It was famous for its tunes, its cocktails, the pizza oven and the turtles and fish that liked to circle around it. Everyone else had to get ferried out to it by tourist boats but we simply anchored alongside, dinghied the credit card and a small bag over for the barman to look after and then we all dived off the boat and swam across while all the other punters looked on with a mixture of jealousy and respect. We became mini celebrities on board when we explained how we had sailed the boat all the way to this bar from North America when they thought they had been very adventurous journeying to it from the main island. On paper, a fancy bar playing the latest dance tracks isn’t what you’d expect kids to enjoy but they loved leaping off the top roof into the sea, drinking mocktails, eating pizzas and generally lounging around. It ended up being an excellent last day for the Seals.

We had a berth in the marina and after a last night of dessert island discs and a lovely meal out we said our sad farewells but not to all of them! Charlie had elected to stay with us for a few months and act as a kind of Au Pair as part of her year off between school and Uni.

In the next installment, we get a visit from the Cheesemans, learn how to scuba dive and head off to the remote island chains of Kadavu and Beqa where we swim with massive tiger and bull sharks, have an incredible manta ray experience, reconnect with old friends and make new ones. I am writing this from the garden back at our home in Melbourne but I have plenty of notes and I’m determined to finish my blog and capture the best (and hopefully most entertaining) bits of the last couple of months of our adventure including the Musket Cove Regatta, Vanuatu and its incredible volcano, New Caledonia and our arrival in Australia.