Position 16.53.497S 177.24.562E

Tuesday morning we were up with the larks and set off for Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest city on Viti Levu, the country’s largest island. It is only 165 miles but will take us 3 days as it is not possible to sail in darkness as the whole area is a maze of reefs. If we can’t find any anchorages then as Captain Ron would say, “We’ll just pull in somewhere and ask directions”.

We found the anchorages without difficulty and generally the trip went well.

We also caught 3 fish in one morning; Dogfish Tuna each weighing about 1Kg and tasting very nice indeed.

We finished in Vuda (pronounced Vunda) Point marina.

It is an unusual marina in that it is circular and all the boats connect stern lines to a mooring ball and bow lines to the wall. The guy in the boat waited at the spot to help us pick up the buoy but directed me straight over a submerged line that wrapped around the prop. They had to dive to remove it but luckily, it appears not to have done any damage.

Also, for cyclone season, they have dug out pits in the ground so that the yachts sit on tyres with their keel in the hole.

I then got a taxi to Lautoku to clear in at customs, get the cruising permit for the outer islands and clear out of Viti Levu. No charges involved, just paperwork. The only drawback was that I didn’t have Lynne’s (Darryl’s wife) passport details so had to go back again the next day.

I wasn’t very impressed by Lautoka and the surrounding area though again, the people were really friendly and helpful.

It is a major Sugar Cane, Mahogany and Pine growing area. The roads are littered with cane that has fallen off the trucks and black soot from when they burn the cane fields, gets everywhere.

Narrow gauge sugar cane train

The marina has trees all around its circumference and the leaves get everywhere too. Hatches have to be kept closed or they end up inside the boat.

Anyway, we had a really good work day on the boat ticking off lots of maintenance jobs, refuelling and filling the water tanks. Lynne arrived in the evening of the next day so we had a good evening at a hotel and the next morning we were off to an anchorage.

Here we met Franz and Lucia, a Dutch couple on “Dalwhinne”, a lovely steel dutch yacht. We had taken photos of them when we passed them a few days earlier so they invited us over for sundowners. They are a great couple and it would be good to meet up with them again sometime.

The next day we moved on to another anchorage which was not particularly remarkable. The next day, Monday, we left for the Yasawa Islands bright and early. The wind was very light at 7 knots and the skies were totally clear. We were very relaxed and anticipated a motoring day to our planned anchorageTwo hours later it was blowing a constant 32 knots often getting up to 38-42kn. We had one gust of 48kn.

 Here is the deeply reefed mainsail. It was a cracking good sail. 

This was to have been the first anchorage but there were wild zephyrs gusting every 2 or 3 minutes. it was untenable in the conditions so we continued on to plan B which turned out to be fine. That’s where we are now.

The winds are still very high so we stayed here today.

We went ashore so walk on the sandy beach and see the villiage. Malakati is a very small village, more of a hamlet really with no roads at all. Not even dirt roads.

We had the ceremony os SevuSevu with the 2^nd chief of the village, in which we are given permission to anchor, walk on the beach and around the village. It involves us sitting on the floor across from the chief, presenting the chief with some Kava plant and him speaking words in Fijian, the meaning of  which, I have no idea. We then chatted for 5 minutes and went walkabout.

The kitchen with wood fire

Darryl & Lynne soaking up the sun in Malakati, but the wind you cannot see.

We will leave very early in the morning as there is 65 miles to cover and I must be in Musket Cove by Thursday, in time for Janice who flies in for 2-1/2 weeks of “simple” island-hopping style cruising. Yaaaay!

Maybe she will do the next update and you will be interested in this blog again!