We’ve spent a good week cruising around the northern islands of Tonga and now it’s time to go off to Fiji. The wind has blown very hard for the last few days and is just starting to drop for our passage to Savusavu in the northern island of Vanua Levu, part of the Fiji group.

 

It’s 460 miles to our destination where we’ll start our cruise down to Suva and then onto Port Denarau and Musket Cove on the west coast of the larger island of Viti Levu. We have to sail through the Lau group of islands to get to Fiji, which consist of hundreds of little islands and reefs right in our track so it’s a bit of a dog leg to get through them.

 

We had the most fantastic evening 3 nights ago when a group of us ended up in a bay that is home to the Spanish restaurant La Paella. I booked a table and we all took whatever we wanted to drink and dinghied ashore. Tapas were served and the paella was all very good, but the highlight of the evening was the stage show. The owner, a musician resembling Ben Gunn, who we later found out had a strong dislike for the Spanish authorities having fled here in the 80’s drew back the shower curtains of the stage and started to play guitar. His repertoire consisted of classical Spanish and Blues although the lyrics were mumbled through a carpet of beard – especially the blues which apart from a few ‘babies’ and a couple of ‘ne nah ne naahs’ was mostly harmonica which appeared to be strapped far too tightly to his face, making breathing all but impossible. As all of this was happening the restaurant goat sat next to the stage, chewing the cud, with a seen it all before look in it’s devil’s eyes! It was one of the best evenings we’ve had in a while.