Vuda Marina, 17:40.846S, 177:23.205E

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Mon 30 Sep 2019 08:28
First a photo from a few days ago.
image1.jpeg
Returning from a days fishing in Vunaniu Bay. Three women in a boat slowly making their way home. Going backwards, the back of the boat is out of the water and acting like a sail to augment the power of a bamboo pole and a small paddle!

We left Momi Bay on Saturday morning after a very peaceful night, Viti Levu is now giving a bit of shelter from the trade winds. We sailed up between Denarau and Denarau Island taking the opportunity to look at the anchorage, very open. We then continued N to Saweni Bay, this is very close to Lautoka, the second largest city in Fiji. We wanted to do some shopping and this bay is a short bus ride from the city with its shops and markets. There is a lot of sugar cane burning being done at the moment, apparently this makes it easier to harvest but, is not good for the quality (or the environment) and is discouraged. It can be quite alarming to see. There was cane being burned close to the anchorage and our decks were covered in smuts and ash by morning. It was a peaceful night but on Sunday morning the wind swung round to the NE and picked to blow straight into the bay and set up quite a chop. We were both agreed that even if the wind dropped again this was not somewhere we would like to leave Serenity unattended while we went shopping so we made a quick phone call to Vuda Point marina, up anchored and moved the five miles to excellent shelter. Unfortunately without a breeze the temperature here is amazing. Phil has been able to put the batteries on a maintenance charge from our ‘smart’ charger to hopefully recondition them and make them last out until we can replace in New Zealand. The laundry has been done, we’ve had showers and been shopping to stock up for a visit to the Yasawa islands before we head back down to New Zealand.

Sent from my iPad