Hi All,
We were blessed again today to have an ideal trawler weather for our 42nm passage to Viani Bay!!!!! Winds were <5 knots and the seas <2′ eventually calming to nothing when we got in the lee of Taveuni island. We were heading east into the tradewinds and thus had looked for an ideal trawler weather window…..AND, the crew on Mystic definitely needed a quiet day.
For the next several months we will be heading primarily into the tradewinds so picking our windows will be critical. The trades blow mainly in the South to Northeast quadrant (mostly E-SE). Today was most of our easting so it was very good we had a calm day. We will be going SE to the northern Lau group and then almost due south from there to the southern Lau Group. After the Lau group we will be heading almost due west to get to the west side of Fiji so that should mostly be all downwind!!!
Craig and Jeanette arrived into Savusavu on Saturday afternoon after traveling 33 hours from Fort Collins Colorado…..let the games begin!!! After a night of jocularity for opening ceremonies, we got up Sunday and made the arduous 4nm passage to the Cousteau resort. We went in for dinner and what a treat that was…..albeit a little pricey but well worth it!!!! The evening started with a cultural event….local dancers giving a fine performance of various Fijian dances. We had seen this group perform a few nights earlier at the Savusavu yacht club. They changed the performance slightly but we were once again thoroughly entertained and impressed with their dancing skills. The food was good but the highlight was drinking kava with the band boys after dinner…..great time and yes, we closed the place down! Thus, getting up early for the passage today was a bit of a challenge!!!
We have lined up a day of diving tomorrow with Dolphin Bay Resort where we will be diving the Rainbow Reef area…..and, we had a great conversation/time with the local “caretaker”….a fellow named Jack Fisher…..I’m sure we will get to know him more and probably do a few activities with him over the next few days!!!
AND, can you believe it….here we are in a remote area of east Vanua Levu with no road access to this bay, but sitting on the hill above us are 2 cell phone towers….we have 5 bars on our Vodafone phone and excellent internet on our Vodafone mifi unit…..sweet!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
PS: The SPOT tracking worked for a while: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?&glId=0zXvuE8PaMPz0iuWAOyOd3aI8eQF8JMGO
I’m not sure the SPOT OK worked??
PSS: We fished but nothing caught:((((……hamburgers on the grill tonight!!
