Hi All,
Our marvelous and easy cruising adventure continues in very lovely western Fiji. Maybe our expectations were lowered by others telling us we would like eastern Fiji more, but we have been very much surprised at how lovely this area has been…..especially the Yasawa’s which are more remote and less developed than the Mamanuca islands to the south. The cruising again reminds us of the Bahamas or BVI…..nice easy island hops, some to remote areas, some to a resort/restaurant/bar. We have found some brilliant spots to dive and snorkel as well as just some average sites. Probably overall, the diving in eastern Fiji is better.
Blue Lagoon: This area was most gorgeous at sunset with the colors exploding on the surrounding hills. We did enjoy some ok snorkeling and did 2 days of hiking around the island…..lovely beaches, ok shelling and spectacular views from the top of the island. Then we learned that there was a farmer selling local vegetables across the lagoon and you could access his farm only at high tide amongst the mangroves. So, one morning Margret from Reine Margarite, Kathy and I took the dinghy over and had a great time, and scored on the fresh stuff…..lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, limes, bok choy, spinach, spring onions……we have been away from a store for several weeks so an unexpected treat to stock up on the fresh stuff!!
Yasawa Island: Namataya Bay, Lovers Beach and Champagne Beach – Kathy and I have had the good fortune to be on many of the supposedly “Top Ten World Beaches”……Grand Cayman, Turks & Caicos, Anguilla…..and the beaches on the western side of Yasawa island rank right up there with the best…..this was unexpected and what a treat. We first went to Namataya Bay, about 13 nm from Blue Lagoon. This is at the southern end of Yasawa Island and you anchor in little coral surrounded coves. There was a series of 3 beaches which we explored and found good shelling. Unfortunately, the hills had been hit by a fire a month prior and the area just lacked the “cute” factor, as well as we woke up to a lot of ash on the boat….arghhhhh!!!! So, we took off for Lovers Beach about 7 nm north. Wow o wow…..this was a DDG beach….just to die for. The Yasawa Island Resort is located about a mile south of where we anchored and were very accommodating. We both were desperate for a massage so we had a day of indulgence…..80 min couple massage, leisurely time laying around the pool with people bringing you drinks, a lovely sunset at the bar and then a nice dinner…..just a very lovely and much needed relaxing day!!!!
We were also joined at the Lovers Beach by Brett and Stacey on sv Bella Vita. We owed them a dinner on Mystic…..they have had several guests and each set has been kind to bring us various boat parts, as well as Stacey was the one who went into Nadi to get our Vodafone mifi unit. So, on a perfect sunset and night, we had steak and lobster with some very good wine, then ice cream for dessert…..yummers!!!!!
From Lovers beach we went 2.5 nm around the corner to Champagne Beach…..a mile long beach of pure white sand….DDGx2….whoa!!!! There was a good snorkel spot and some pretty good shelling. We started to go into the village of Yasawa-i-Rara but found a fisherman who directed us to the “old” village where we found Sonny, the owner of Champagne Beach. We did the sevusevu with him and his family and had a nice chat about their history as well as the village and Champagne beach!!!
Caves: Well, in every paradise there is a fly in the ointment and that as been Mr. Weather. The winds have picked up to 15-25G30 and while our anchorages have been on the lee side and protected, we eventually got tired of the wind so we decided to end our beach walking days and head south. We stopped at the Sawa-i-lau caves. And, on our 13 nm trip south, we caught a nice big, fat mackerel….we had Brett and Stacey over for a yummy grilled fish dinner….Kathy made coconut rice and cole slaw and Stacey brought some eggplant to go with that and some chocolate for desert…..then Kathy brought out this hot/sweet chili sauce she had bought in New Zealand and wow….did that spice things up…..one of our better fresh fish dinners in quite a while!!! And of course, the company was excellent! 🙂
The caves were interesting…..about like Tonga but not as spectacular as Niue. This is one of the first commercialized spots we have been to…..the owner of the land the caves are on has opened up the caves for tourists…..cruise ships and various resorts in the area. We waited until all the crowd was gone then went over and had the caves to ourselves.
Our plans are to continue to head back south along the Yasawa’s and hopefully get out of this blowing-stink wind. We have made contact with MetBob, the weather router and he will start to help us look for a good weather window in October for the passage to NZ. However, the forecast is not the best as he states: “There now seems to be an El Nino pattern kicking in for this spring, and this usually encourages strong and squally SW winds across the Tasman Sea and NZ area during October. SO we shall look hard for an opportunity for comfortable weather.”……ugh!!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
“The Caves” Yasawa, Fiji
Near the Caves, Yasawa Island
The Caves, Yasawas, with Stacey:)))))
Mystic Moon anchored in Blue Lagoon
Blue Lagoon
The Farmer’s Garden in Blue Lagoon
Dolphins playing on Mystic’s bow!!
John relaxing at the Yasawa Beach Resort
Mystic anchored off Champagne Beach
Champagne Beach
My husband and I worked at the Folger New Orleans plant from 1984-1994 where we met Arnie Kruse who shared your tales with us. We will begin our cruising life in the Caribbean in about another year aboard our Jeanneau 53 sloop. Interested in your information hardware and software for daily weather forecasts. We have an Iridium vs an SSB for hardware and were planning to get NWS/NOAA forecasts and information in this manner. Would also love any other advice for us as we make final preparations!