Hi All,
A very busy week!!!
Mana Island: We liked this island very much, a good anchorage, sheltered from the swells and somewhat from the winds. The day after we had our opening ceremonies with Bella Vita, we all went in to do our sevusevu. Even though there are several resorts on this island, there is a village and cruisers are expected to do a sevusevu. It was one of the more lame ceremonies we have had…..basically just taking the yaqona, saying thanks and you may now visit the island. Stacey, Jenn and I did a hike up the hill while Kathy walked along the beach collecting some “ok” shells. The view on top of the hill was spectacular and I included some of the pics in the last blog!! That night found us all back on Mystic where we had a lamb dinner. We cooked one of the butterflied leg of lamb but this cut was not as good as we have had before….I also had a hard time getting it cooked beyond rare but eventually go it to med-rare…..I think I just need a lot more practice with lamb!!!!
The next day Kathy, Brett and I did a dive on our own outside on the reef, while Stacey followed our bubbles in the dinghies. It was a good dive, very peaceful, the coral had some storm damage and there was a good variety of small fish!!
John and Brett at the start preparing the water balloons:))))
Bruce, Dyhna, Jenn, Brett, Stacey, Kathy and John enjoying Pirates Day……arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!
More Pirate Jocularity – Melody, Jenn, Kathy, and John
Our view from Beachcomber Island
Musket Cove and the Regatta: We normally do not participate in regattas…..I mean they usually do not allow a powerboat to enter….although a lot of these sailboats could easily beat MM in a good wind. But, we wanted to go to see many friends we had not seen in a while…..some we met in New Zealand but a lot of Puddlejumpers from last year. The first night was a raucous opening ceremony…..the girls all complained the next day of sore thigh muscles from all the dancing….hmmmm!!! The next day found us as crew on sv Margarita, Bruce and Dyhna, a very fast catamaran, for a 12 mile race to Beachcomber Island. It was pirate day and we all dressed and acted the part……arghhhhhhh!!!! And, plenty of water balloon fights…..yes, we felt and acted like kids….felt good to let the youth/party out!!!! The rest of the time was visiting although we did make it to Cloud Nine again with many friends!!!
Manta Ray feeding in Pass
Manta Bay Resort: We made the 40nm run from Musket Cove to Manta Bay Resort in pretty good conditions….it was blowing 15-22kts when we left but calmed to 10 kts by the time we arrived and all pretty much behind us so not too bad. We wanted to come here for several reasons, the main one being to see Seta, Tara’s son from Fulanga, our host family. We did meet Seta for several days, he is the dive master for the resort, a very delightful man. We learned he is to be married in October and is trying to get Tara to come for the wedding. A lot of logistics to work out, but we will try and see Tara if it can work…..what a small world Fiji is!!! We did several dives with Seta….actually very good dives….the coral was in good shape and we came across several walls of huge sea fans that were spectacular. The variety of fish was also one of the best….afterwards Kathy spent several hours looking up all the new fish we had seen!!! One of the passes is a manta ray feeding pass. One morning there must have been about 10 mantas feeding. It was a good show and I got some good GoPro shots. The current was really moving in the pass so the sightings were pretty quick as you passed by…..we had to do many runs!! Th only problem for this area was the anchorage itself. It was very rolly…..used the flopper stopper….the first night we had a west swell right on the beam…..ugh….but the other 3 nights we had north winds 10-20G25 kts which made for a very uncomfortable anchorage….plus many eddies/currents and many times we saw boats get very close. For us, we kept getting wrapped around a huge bommie…..not once, not twice, but 3 times…..arghhh…we finally got tired of unwrapping and moved further out into more current and wind…..ugh, ugh, and more ughs!!!! However, we hope to return here and spend a bit more time with Seta before we have to leave Fiji….we are hoping for much calmer conditions!!
Blue Lagoon: We wanted to stay longer in Manta Ray but we just got too tired of the wind and rolly anchorage. It was so rolly we could not lift the dinghy safely. So we motored about 5 miles, towing the dinghy and found a lovely calm bay which we almost stayed the night but…..the internet gods were against us earlier. We had been told that Vodafone was the cell carrier of choice but for this anchorage Digicel had the stronger signal. There was a very weak Vodafone signal and Kathy got in the habit of raising our mifi unit up the mast…..we could then get emails but not many websites. Kathy had placed the unit in a plastic bag but one morning while we had the charge cord attached, the weight was too much and the unit crashed on the flybridge deck, busted into pieces and the main guts went overboard…..no more Vodafone internet for us. Of course, this happened when I needed the internet….some tax forms and a boat survey all needed to be sent….arghhhhhhh!!!! So, we put an “x” on the chart for us to return to this nice, calm anchorage and off we went to Blue Lagoon after we had lifted the dinghy.
Blue Lagoon is where they filmed the movie….the one w/Brooke Shields in it……this is another very lovely anchorage, especially at sunset with the colors bouncing off all the hills!!! There are 4 or 5 islands surrounding the anchorage with several small resorts. We did find one w/internet so all the stuff has now been sent…yeah!!! We will stay here a few days, enjoying a flat calm anchorage and restful nights and await Bella Vita, who just happened to be in Denarau when we lost our mifi unit. God bless their souls, they were kind enough to go into Nadi to get us a new one!!! Needless to say, we’re planning a special thank you dinner for them when they get here!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
Blue Lagoon Fiji
A gorgeous sunset!