Fire Dancing at Robinson Crusoe Resort
Hi All,
It has been a while since I have updated the blog so here goes:
Likuri: We last left off the blog we were just arriving in Likuri and meeting up with our friends Brett and Stacy on s/v Bella Vita. This place is a little lacking on the cute factor and while protected from the nasty seas it is not protected from the winds so poor Mystic got coated w/salt. The winds blew 20-25G30-35 kts the whole 2+ days we were there.
The first night we had a fun and raucous opening ceremony with Bella Vita…..we both had plenty of stories to tell of our Fiji adventures….of course, the wine, Rye (all gone now; thanks Josh!!!) and a bottle of Bullit Bourbon helped the cause:))) The second day Brett and I ventured in to the Robinson Crusoe resort and got totally soaked in the dinghy….1-2′ wind chop…ugh. But we did arrange a water taxi to pick us up later that night to take us to/from the dance show later that evening. The show…..well, it was fun, but I guess, for us, it had mixed reviews. First off, the dancing was pretty much Polynesian, and not Melanisian. We had the opportunity to see a
LOT of Polynesian dancing throughout French Polynesia, and of course the Heiva was going on the entire time we were stuck in Bora Bora, so we got to see some *very good* Polynesian dancing. These guys were pretty good, but just not up to par with the folks who train for years to compete in the Heiva. That said, they also did some fire dancing, which we haven’t seen much of and that was pretty cool and the dancers very good. Other than that, the island was nice, the people were friendly, the price was extremely reasonable, the food was okay, the Kava ceremony was a little lame, but maybe we are jaded on that!
Entering Musket Cove
The day after the Show we said enough of the rowdy wind and left for Musket Cove…..a 23nm run, 8nm of it in open waters but all the winds and seas were behind us so not too bad; once inside the barrier reef it was very calm waters:)))) This island is inside the barrier reef on the southwest side of Viti Levu and the harbor is completely protected from seas and most winds….oh what a relief, a calm anchorage at last…..we slept very well for the few nights we were there!! This place reminds us a little of Georgetown Bahamas…..several resorts and a big cruiser hangout. After many months of being in remote Fiji it was sensory overload to be amongst 40+ boats. We did venture in amongst all the boats to find a place to anchor but both of us felt claustrophobic so we went way out to anchor with several superyachts in about 55′ of water…..sweet!!!! The first thing we did was dinghy in and had a cheeseburger in paradise with many Fiji babies (they call the Fiji Bitter beer stubby bottles “babies”). What a treat, especially for Kathy as she has been the galley queen for many months!!!
Brett, Stacey, Kathy and John enjoying Cloud Nine
The next day we went to Cloud 9 with Brett and Stacy…..this place is a very remote bar (about 3nm by dinghy) in the middle of a gorgeous reef surrounded by turquoise waters. They serve very cold beers and wine, a pretty good wood fired pizza and we spent a wonderful afternoon listening to music and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. And, we topped it all of with a round of Mudslides, very reminiscent of our time with Freddy in Grand Cayman one afternoon at many remote bars in search of the perfect Mudslide!!!
Port Denarau Marina: After many months on the hook, Mystic, as well as her crew got a much needed marina break. We are probably 65% through the life of our house batteries (>1000 cycles now since Martinique; we are hoping for 1500) so it was very good to plug in and let the batteries complete a full absorb cycle and get good and topped up!!! AND, the galley queen was on a break so we had the opportunity to try many of the restaurants in this marina:)))))
Enjoying Mudslides at Cloud Nine
The first night in the marina we had closing ceremonies with Andy and Sue on s/v Spruce. We had met them in the Galapagos almost 18 months ago and have shared what seems like a lifetime of events…..many passages, anchorages, many, many dives and hikes and they were part of our very, very special time in Fulaga. They are moving on to Vanuatu, New Caledonia and then Australia…..what we will most likely do next year. So they will be a year ahead of us and we hope to catchup with them somewhere in SE Asia. It was very, very sad to see them go but that is the life of a cruiser….
As you may recall, we had targeted this marina to fly Steve in from New Zealand to replace our leaking stabilizer cylinders. Steve arrived as scheduled and the next morning we went right to work and had a STELLAR day….we went 5/5 on Mystic, may be a record…..stabilizers fixed, check, dive compressor fixed (it was a bad o-ring and a leaking air connection), check, Yamaha outboard anode replaced (it had fallen off) and intermittent start diagnosed (need a new starter motor, but learned a trick to use in the meantime) check, and GEN oil leak diagnosed (will require some work done in NZ) and we got fuel with no runs, errors and none left over:))))) Also got wine, beer, some fresh food and other provisions, a glorious boat wash, AND Kathy got a haircut! Life was very good in the marina!!!
Mystic Moon anchored off Mana Island
Yesterday as we escaped the marina we came to Mana island and found Brett and Stacy and their good friend Jenn here as well (Jenn had brought us the dive compressor parts….Thanks, Jenn!!!!). So, another opening ceremony….we had played some in the marina…..closing ceremonies with Spruce and time with Steve but not much else so it seemed we were ready for a good time….all work and no play in the marina…..you get the pic!!!
There are several resorts on this island….from a very exclusive one to several backpackers…..after an afternoon on the Flybridge with Brett, Stacy, and Jenn with many beers/wine consumed we made it to the local restaurant. The place was packed, we were seated next to the local band playing a mix of Fijian songs and “western oldies”, they put on a local dance show complete with fire dancing…..whoa a good time indeed!!
People have asked us how we like western Fiji compared to eastern Fiji…..well, it is
View from top of Mana Island looking towards Musket Cove
too early for us to really tell. Certainly the western side is more developed with lots of happy tourists/vacationers….reminds us somewhat of the Bahamas and BVI’s…..the islands are close together and you just island hop from one to the other and find small resorts/bars/restaurants. It is much calmer with some very calm protected anchorages. But, the one area we really do not like is the horrible air quality. They grow a lot of sugar cane here and they are pre-harvest burning many of the fields and the air is just filled with smoke and ash…..yuck!!!! I still have this irritable hack/cough from Fulaga…post nasal drip and slight upper respitory congestion and this smoky/hazy air has greatly irritated my cough/hacking…..arghhhhh…..we will be in search for much cleaner air soon!!!!
So, now the blog is caught up. What is next…..we will stay here a few days, then go back to Musket Cove for the sail regatta…..no, Mystic is not entered, but it will be a good time to catchup with a lot of people we have not seen in a while…..from there we will start to head north to explore the Yasawa’s…..another chain of islands on the west and northwest side of Viti Levu….these islands are not as remote as eastern Fiji but somewhat developed with many small, boutique resorts. We will be in the area for 4-6 weeks and early October we will start to look for the weather window to go back to New Zealand. Ideally we would like to leave late October but we will go when the weather gods say go!!! We have now made our reservations to come back to USA….we arrive SFO on 11/19 and return to NZ on 1/21!!!
We hope all is well and if you get a chance please let us know how you are doing!!
John
Mystic Moon
Mana Island Fiji