Saturday  May 25th , Northwest  Coast of Waya island in the Yasawas , Fiji  17:16S  177 06E 

Today’s Blog by Daryl  (Time zone BST +11; UTC +12.00)

Well we have fallen behind with the blog…maybe it was the shortage of wind! We  have been flogging the iron topsail a bit. We left our pleasant anchorage at Yanuca and motored along the south coast of Viti Levu. Those of you following our progress on yellowbrick will have noticed a vague southerly squiggle at one point where we tried sailing with little success, although we did catch 2 small tuna. This has added substantially to our cooked meals in the freezer. We anchored at Momi Bay, off a mangrove swamp for the night…no volunteers for swimming !

The next morning the wind showed promise so we managed a pleasant sail across to Malolo island where we anchored at the Musket Cove resort. Here we found Kevin (an ancient and hirsute Kiwi and old friend of Richard and Daryl) and sampled David’s favourite Fijian speciality ,kolkoda, while the sunset at Musket Cove was pretty spectacular

The following morning dawned windless again as we motored north to Nanuya Island (aka Turtle Island) in the Yasawa islands. Google Earth became an increasingly important navigational tool since a lot of the reefs are uncharted and many routes through between the coral heads quite narrow. Some of our track must look quite bizarre , but the coral looked real enough! Kevin put himself to good use by catching a larger tuna which Richard nobly filleted

Our arrival at Turtle Island was swamped by a disdainful resort speedboat so we anchored at the next inlet in the company of a few other yachts and 2 pleasure cruisers out of Denarau with the odd hundred or so on board. We anchored as far away as possible and enjoyed the rest of the view. A jolly evening ensued as we feasted on Kevin’s tuna. The highlight was David finally allowing his feminine side to come to the fore

And join in with the crew!!

Richard was so carried away he went shopping the next day…and I am not sure it was for Lynn!

Next morning we set off on a very short 2 mile journey which took 2 hours to accomplish…David was very keen on the shortcut through the reefs as opposed to the long journey  of 6  miles through clear water around Tavewa Island. Mission accomplished we anchored off the Blue Lagoon Resort with help from Google and their dive boat. David and I then went diving leaving Kevin and Richard to check out the resort. They established that we could join in the Fijian feast night complete with local dances etc.

So tastefully spruced up we set off in the dinghy for dinner. Anchoring the dinghy on a falling tide requires planting one anchor in the water and a grapnel just around the water level; an essential prerequisite is tying the dinghy painter to the grapnel rope. No fear then, we had Sir Bowline Norton on hand , so properly tied up we set off for a very pleasant evening with show , dinner and wine.

Imagine our dismay when it came time to leave:  we strolled down the beach to see the dinghy some 25 meters off shore , the grapnel still on the beach , but somehow disconnected from the dinghy painter. To say Sir Bowline was discountenanced is to understate his dismay!! Nothing daunted the well known ( and previously reported on  ) grey knickers were given a further outing

So despairing was Richard we worried he might be doing a John Stonehouse as he waded off into the dark night

()

Enough adventures for one night!

The next morning we had to return to the beach to collect Richard’s  credit card. Must have been a good night!!

Then we had a great sail to Waya , where with the usual google help we anchored off the octopus resort