What a Day! Nananu-I-Ra Island - 17 18.146S 178 12.966E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Fri 20 Jul 2012 10:01
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After the 'red sky at night' yesterday, we woke to blue
skies. If good weather, the plan was to leave Makogai early and head
for Nananu-I-Ra island on the north-eastern corner of Viti
Levu, the main island of Fiji, a passage of just over 50 miles. The
original intention had been to head for the Island of Naigani and then
go inside the barrier reef that surrounds a lot of Viti Levu
and follow the waypoints that many other boats have used going between
the fringing reef and barrier reef. Working our way through the reefs would
have probably been under motor and a slow process. However, another
yacht we met who had made the passage to Nananu-I-Ra the last 4
years had sailed the whole way outside the reef and came inside the
reef via the Nananu Passage, just to the north of Nananu-I-Ra. Not fancying
motoring all day, that's what we did and it was one of the best sails we
have had for a very long time. Although we changed our heading
to negotiate the outlying reefs, the wind allowed us to carry both
headsails fully out and poled out all the way. Apart from a few miles at
the end it was a 50 mile down wind passage, making between 5.5 and 7.5
knots the whole way, with an apparent wind of only 6 to 7kts. What made it
even better was that the reefs we passed sheltered us from the swell,
so the sea was virtually flat, so no rolling. It was a bit like going
downwind in light winds in the Solent for 50 miles. What's more the
sun shone and there was hardly a cloud in the sky the whole day. What a
difference a day makes!
Nananu-I-Ra, being on the corner, attracts a lot of wind
a lot of the time and the wind did come up to 20-25kts as we approached it and
came inside the reef. With this consistently strong onshore wind it's one
of the main centres in Fiji for kite surfing and windsurfing. There's
several backpacker resorts on the island together with some very flash
(expensive) holiday homes that well-to-do Kiwi's have had built.
 The red crosses to the right mark
Makogai, the red crosses bottom centre mark Naigani
and
the crosses to
the left mark the route
inside the reef that we didn't take. The chosen
route was
up through the centre between the 2 reefs,
between the 2 skull and crossbones, and in at
the
top left (shown in more detail
below).
 At anchor on the west side of Nananu-I-Ra
island, showing the route through the reef at
the top. The other crosses (waypoints) are
for other anchorages in the same area, should
the wind change and we need to us them, and
the originally planned route from the south.
 The main kite surfing
beach.
 The lovely beach we're anchored off. It runs
in front of the holiday homes, but
there's
lots of
coral a little way out, so
it's not so easy to find a route ashore in the
dinghy
and it's not
a swimming
beach.
 The closest backpacker
resort!
 Looking across the bay from one of the
holiday home verandahs. (Another Kiwi couple
we met knew the owners so we had a look.
Unfortunately they are not on the island
at the moment so we could only look on the
outside.)
 A little way further along the beach we came
across this. Not a bad holiday home!
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