Sawa I Lau 22nd August

Mustang Sally Cruising
Mark Lawrence & Dianne Jackson
Sun 21 Aug 2016 21:17

Current position anchored off Sawa I Lau is 16:50.858S 177:28.029E

 

We ended up spending about 5nights at the Blue Lagoon as we had quite a bit of unseasonal rainy weather however, it is a pretty good place to hang out so couldn’t complain too much.  We weren’t the only ones with the same idea as we had plenty of company in at the anchorage.  The last night we were there apparently the Aussies got thrashed by the Kiwi’s in the first of the Bledisloe Cup games – we certainly heard about it from the Kiwi boats in the anchorage.

 

Yesterday the weather fined up so we headed up to the island of Sawa I Lau which is just off the bottom of Yasawa Island – the most northern island in the Yasawa Group.  It is quite famous for limestone uplifts and also the limestone caves.  It is a very pretty anchorage and we took advantage of the calm weather yesterday afternoon to take the kayak out for a paddle to explore which was great and were back on board in time to listen to the footie and very pleased that Carlton won their seventh game for the season.  Normally not something to be too excited about however, any win is a good won for a Carlton supporter although do feel a bit sad that we knocked Melbourne out of any contention of making the finals.

 

 

                                                    Sawa I Lau

 

 

Looks like we might have to go into the village this morning to meet the chief and partake in the first of our first sevu sevu ceremony’s – or in plain terms handing over the kava!!!  This is a  custom when you anchor off a village.  Even though we have been in Fiji for around 6 weeks we have managed to avoid this bit, apart from the kava ceremony in Nadi that we kind of got roped into by a local being selling genuine Fiji crafts.   Mark seems to hate the stuff but it is not really that bad if you drink it down quickly!!  Not sure if we will get to the caves on this visit but will definitely aim to get back up here and check them out when Lynda is on board.

 

At this stage think the plans will be to head down south a bit tomorrow as there is some pretty windy weather forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday so will be looking for a good place to anchor up but the good news is it looks like some calm weather is forecast for later in the week so hopefully that might stick around for a bit.