30 July – 6 August

The Bay of Islands is a coral and volcanic wonderland reminiscent of Halong Bay in Vietnam but without the crowds. There are steep undercut cliffs, picturesque pinnacles and spectacular anchorages.

The Bay of Islands are known as Qilaqula (“Ghee-lan-goo-la”) in Fijian. All visitors to Qilaqula must do sevusevu and have received permission from the village elders of Daliconi Village to visit, hence our trip south earlier in the day.

We attempted to anchor alongside Calista and Masterplan in Ships Cove, a totally enclosed anchorage surrounded by limestone pillars. Eventually we decided that there was not enough room and retraced our steps to anchor in front of Chez Nous (Donna and Jonathan) and Salsa (Elaine and Karl). We all met for drinks on Calista that evening. The cruising life is quite a social one at times!

Exploring caves

Peggy and Pat kayaked past us the next morning and raved about a cave they had just been to. So our mission for the day was to investigate.

It was amazing. The entrance was just visible at half tide but once inside the cave opened up to reveal stalagmites and stalagtites above and below the water.

A new anchorage

We took the dinghy through a maze of passages and lagoons near the location of the cave, frequently having to raise the outboard and paddle across coral ledges. Eventually, in a secluded lagoon, we came across SV Epiphany (Bill and Josie). They told us they were leaving the next day and invited us to anchor alongside. So we left the windy passage that had been our anchorage the night before and secured Taihoa in the most beautiful, sheltered cove imaginable.

Bill and Josie came aboard for drinks that evening and Bill eventually realised that he had been aboard several years ago possibly in the Caribbean or perhaps the Marquesas. Small world!

Snorkelling, bats and beaches

Epiphany left the next day and we remained in our private, secluded lagoon for several more days. We ventured out to find some lovely snorkelling sites, a deserted beach and a spectacular fruit bat colony. The bats flew over us every day at sunset and we discovered (on NoForeignLand) that the colony was nearby. An amazing sight with what seemed like hundreds of thousands of bats dripping from the trees. Jonathan even managed to fly the drone in for a closer look.

One difficulty with the Bay of Islands was finding somewhere, anywhere, to get ashore. Getting onto any of the islands required rock-climbing skills that none of us possessed (and nor had we any of the equipment to scale overhangs even if we had). A chart showed two possible tombolos – one we snorkelled over with at least a metre of water below us. Very pretty but it was never going to be a beach except perhaps in extreme equinox lows. The other was in the south. It turned out to be a very shallow bay (we had to leave the dinghy a long way out and wade in) but we were able to enjoy our lunch on the beach and stretch our legs (if very gently) for the only time since Bavatu Bay.

Just what we needed

At one stage we were the only boat in the Bay of Islands but others eventually appeared and we were very glad to meet Bryce and Fran on YinYang. After learning of our gooseneck issues, Bryce disappeared into his supply of spare parts and found a near perfect match for the 14mm bolt that we needed. We could sail safely again.

The timing of the bolt replacement was fortuitous. With strengthening southerlies, forecast our safe haven would no longer be safe. Early on the morning of the 5th, we left our lagoon before the wind picked up and re-anchored in deep but sheltered water ready for an overnight sail back towards Nawi Marina where the correct replacement bolt would be waiting for us (we assumed).

Overnight to Nawi Marina 5-6 August

We left the Bay of Islands at around 2pm so that we would have good light to cross the reef and intended to return to Taveuni. At around 5pm it became apparent that we would have favourable winds to take us all the way back to Savusavu so that was the new plan.

It was an interesting night’s sailing. The log at 22:00 reads “Eventful watch! First hour smooth sailing then wind picked up to >25 knots. Nigel came up to help add a second reef. We were making over 10 knots. Took us quite a while and accidentally ended up with 3 reefs. Had to avoid a boat ‘Sansibar’ in the process. Been making >7 knots since. Wind has now dropped of course.”

We eventually docked in Nawi Marina at 1250 hours after travelling 107nm. Much easier rounding Lesiatheva Point in daylight (this was where we first arrived in Fiji in the dark).

We had expected to collect our new gooseneck bolt on arrival in Nawi. Instead we learned that it was still at Auckland Airport. Since our temporary replacement was able to be made such a good fit (Jonathan spent some time scavenging the local hardware and chandlery stores looking for suitable washers) we saw no reason to hang around waiting. So after just two nights we were refuelled, repaired, reprovisioned and ready for our next adventure.