Waya 17:16.585S 177:06.222E

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Fri 13 Aug 2010 12:46
We spent three lovely days in Navadra,and the passage to Waya was calm allthough negotiating all the coral reefs in the Yasawa group is demanding.Charts from Admiralty,Fiji and electronic charts are all inconsistent with each other,and the only reasonable cruisingguide for the area(Nigel Calder from the 90íes),is impossible to find.Nevertheless we anchored in Nalauwaki Bay on the northern side ,well protected from SE strong tradewinds forecasted on our gribfiles and Fiji Met. Office SSB-weather.We all went ashore and were brought for SevuSevu with chief Boutoli.It was a serious process where I was told twice not to carry hat in the village(strict dresscode),but our Kawa root was accepted as a gift,and we were allowed to stay in the village.The whole family took the path over the mountain to Octopus resort,and I went onboard to arrange some things on Tarita.After one hour the wind had picked up considerably(around 25-30Kts)but not from SE as predicted,but from NE!! Nalauwaki Bay was turning in to a dangerous anchorage,and it was only 45mins to darkness.The dinghyride ashore was a wet ride on surfwaves through the coralreef.I ran the path over the hill to Octopus resort and found Bertha and the children.Felix and Samuel ran back with me to Nalauwaki Bay and we managed to get out with the dinghy to Tarita,raised the anchor and set off to manage the worst coralreefpassage before darkness.When we passed the northern peninsula of Waya,the sun had just dissapeared below the horizon,but I had a reasonably good feeling of where to go since our daylightpassage a couple of hours earlier.We passed without problems,and when reaching the protected bay in front of the resort,Bertha was there in the darkness together with one of the locals who guided us through the reefs  before we could anchor(without local knowledge it´s very difficult to pass through the reefs in darkness).The beer and the dinner that followed in Octopus resort was "one of these highlights".