22 – 31 August

It was a busy day in and around Denarau. Claire and Jonathan took the bus to Nadi to visit the markets for fresh produce. Sue spent several hours in the marina laundry. Nigel cleaned the boat. Margaret arrived around midday after a three hour flight from New Zealand and was put straight to work polishing the stainless steel (or brightwork as she called it) on the boat!

As a well earned reward, we had drinks and pizza at one of the many restaurants in Port Denarau before a relaxing night on a mooring ball.

If Margaret came to go sailing she was disappointed the next day. In very light winds we had to motor all the way to Mana island – via a quick stop at “The Sandbar” for some wonderful snorkelling. Although a relatively fleeting glimpse of a turtle (which proved very camera shy) got everyone excited, it was the behaviour of the zebra fish that kept us in the water. They seemed very interested in Sue, Claire and Margaret, literally swarming around the ladies. They didn’t seem to like Jonathan or Nigel much though – who knew how perceptive they could be!

A quick trip ‘around the corner’ saw us arrive at Mana Island in time for a refreshing swim – and sundowners of course.

Diving and sundowners – life is tough

The next day was made for diving. Flat calm sea allowed us to take the dinghy outside of the reef and dive the outer wall. Fantastic coral and beautiful clear water. Our interest in Nemos – indeed any clown (anemone) fish – was rapidly becoming an obsession – and was further fuelled by numerous sightings on this reef. Clown fish and their symbiotic relationship with the anemones in which they live are simply wonderful to observe. Their ducks and dives into the protection of the anemone after fleeting “aggressive” posturing forays towards us (the intruders) are captivating.

The only downside to such wonderful diving was the two long, slow dinghy rides required for all of us to dive. Our little dinghy with its 15 HP engine simply cannot plane with 3 people and two sets of dive gear. An upgrade at some point in the future is predicted (essential infrastructure, obviously). A more immediate solution was hatched for the next day, however.

We had guests for sundowners. Rowan and Jenny from PolePole. We had been in contact with them as we were due to leave New Zealand. We had thought PolePole would make a good sailing buddies for Taihoa. That was not to be, our generator issues meant we missed that window and we watched them sail out of the Whangarei Harbour without us. Jenny is from Kenya and PolePole is a Swahili term honouring her early years. For the four of us, the term was fondly and permanently etched into our memories by the guides when we climbed Kilimanjaro ten years earlier. It basically exhorted us to slow down, to take it easy – pretty much the meaning of Taihoa. It was wonderful to actually meet them after being in regular communication for so long ahead of the passage.

Rinse and repeat – almost

Another day for diving on Mana reef. This time, we were diving close to high tide and so took the chance to cross the reef directly instead of motoring all the way back through the entrance as we had yesterday. Five of us, two sets of dive gear and four dive bottles wallowed, albeit safely, across the coral. Margaret was able to snorkel while we took turns to dive in pairs. Another fabulous dive.

That night, we were supposed to be repeating the sundowner experience by joining Rowan and Jenny on their boat. Instead, we literally battened all the hatches and sheltered from the first significant rain we had seen for a long time.

Shark encounter

There was no sign of the rain the next day as we headed north to the start of the Yasawa Islands. We ended up following PolePole to Vanua Levu Island which offered protection from the rapidly strengthening southerly wind.

On arrival we were greeted by more than a dozen, quite large (1.5 – 2m) blacktip reef sharks. We found out later that some tourist operators are feeding them here so they greet every new arrival in the hope of being fed.

We ‘knew’ that black tip reef sharks were basically harmless and were all keen to snorkel with them. Very sensibly we let Jonathan go first just in case we had gleaned the wrong information or perhaps misidentified the sharks. Jonathan remained intact after several minutes so the rest of us deemed it safe to join him and enjoyed several minutes swimming with these sleek creatures.

The people you meet

We had quite a windy night with gusts of over 30 knots. Fortunately, we were well anchored in around 20 metres of water. The extra 30m (of chain) we had added to our anchor chain before we left was proving to be a good investment. We could not otherwise have safely anchored in such deep water – and especially not in those winds!

Another typical day was spent snorkelling and exploring the island. There were signs on this uninhabited, private island saying ‘No Trespassing’ but they seemed to be ignored by everyone.

We belatedly got to have those drinks on PolePole. It nearly didn’t happen though – we were running a little late and Rowan and Jenny stopped by in their tender to say that they didn’t think it was safe to land on the beach as the surf was too high. Instead we should come over to their boat. We had to confess that we had not properly read the message about meeting on the beach and were just getting ready to go to their boat!

We learned that he is South African and that the couple now live in England (when not sailing the world). Rowan was the founder of Naked Wines, the online wine retailer. Jordan (Claire & Jonathan’s son) is a big fan (and major supporter!) of the company and was very jealous to learn that we had met Rowan. Sadly, even though a significant proportion of their wine is sourced from New Zealand, the company does not have an online presence there – they certainly would have added new customers!

PolePole had (perhaps not surprisingly) quite the wine cellar aboard – and Rowan and Jenny were generous, offering a wonderful ‘tasting’ evening. It turns out that New Zealand is producing some very good Alberiño grapes (a bit like Riesling) as well as the more well known Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays – and plenty of Pinot Noirs of course. We left them somewhat better educated about NZ wine and with promises of further meetings in Whangarei over summer as they were about to head to the UK for a family wedding.

Waya Island revisited after 36 years

Sue and Nigel’s second holiday after emigrating to New Zealand was a diving trip to Fiji, staying on Waya Island. They were keen to see if they recognised any of it. So after another windy night at anchor we left Vanua Levu in light winds for gentle sail (under the Code 0) to Waya Island.

We intended to anchor in Yalobi Bay, where we would need to do sevusevu. We anchored but while we ate lunch the wind swung around and the swell built up to such an extent that we decided to move on.

Moving on meant retracing our steps slightly and moving around the southern tip of the island to seek shelter in Waikoke Bay. The swell did manage to follow us round slightly, and give us a gently rolling night, but it was a lovely spot and we managed a pleasant evening snorkel on some interesting coral formations before the light faded too much.

As for Sue and Nigel recognising their holiday location, not a chance. It all looked somewhat familiar. The impressive volcanic peaks that dominated the skyline had formed the logo on T-shirts that they had worn for many years but they could not identify the resort they had stayed at. In a conversation with a local, several weeks later, they learned that it was probably close to the village where we had attempted to anchor in Yalobi Bay but it had closed many years ago.

We pass by Castaway Island

After a morning snorkel we took a scenic route back to Mana. A slight deviation meant that we passed close to Monuriki Island the setting for the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away.

We opted not to go ashore but continued our passage south with fishing lines out as always. Just before the entrance to Mana Island we hooked a fish. To the call of ‘fish-on’, Margaret was handed the rod and managed to pull in a good size king mackerel. The night’s dinner, sorted!

Return to the sandbar island

We thought that we were well ahead of the game with an 8am departure from Mana to get to the nearby sandbar before anyone else. Wrong. The charter/tourist boat that had anchored next to us overnight had left at 6 am and taken the prime spot in the centre of the sandy anchorage beside the sandbar. Nigel was concerned that there would not be room for us but we eventually squeezed in alongside.

It’s funny how different people have different perceptions of just how much personal space is required. Within 30 minutes another yacht managed to snuggle in alongside and then just a few minutes later another pulled in alongside them. Then the tourist boats started to arrive. Fortunately by now we were done snorkelling. Sadly there was to be no repeat of our previous turtle encounter but at least Margaret got to enjoy one last snorkel outing.

Slow trip to Denarau

In glassy conditions we began a motor sailing trip back to Denarau. Eventually, with just the hint of a breeze from our beam, Nigel persuaded everyone that flying the Code O would be a good idea. The sail was duly raised, the engines killed and we found ourselves doing 2 knots in a 5 knot breeze! We persevered and eventually the wind behaved as forecasted and we managed a respectable 5-6 knots in a 9 knot breeze.

Obviously this was just the right speed for trolling. We pulled in two bluefin trevally. So the remains of the previous night’s king mackerel went into the freezer and the trevally onto the night’s menu.

Hasty goodbyes

After a peaceful night on the mooring in Port Denarau (the shore music seems to stop well before midnight), we had a busy day. Claire and Margaret went shopping in Nadi, Sue returned to the marina laundry, Jonathan managed the local shopping, Nigel did an oil change on the generator and used our spare fuel to top up the starboard tank. Then it was over to the fuel dock to complete the refuelling. We dragged out the refuelling process as long as possible as we could not return to the mooring ball and Margaret and Claire had not returned from Nadi.

They got back as we were being pressured to leave. So it was horribly hasty goodbyes to Margaret who barely had time for a quick change of clothing before we abandoned her on the dock and sailed away.

We did not sail far. After the oil change the generator was refusing to run, giving the same error code as it had previously. We anchored just outside the entrance to Port Denarau and performed the same procedure that had worked last time – remove the oil sensor, clean with WD40 and replace. It did the trick.

Another motor sail back to Mana Island – we seem to like it there.