We are currently back at Musket Cove where we plan to stay until we head back into Vuda Marina later this week to start preparations for our departure and passage to Port Vila in Vanuatu.

 

One of our old cruising mates, Bruce Garmston (aka Bruiser), is flying in on the 20th to do the 4 day trip to Vanuatu with us which is fantastic. 

This will be our first time we have had an extra crew member on passage since we first headed out to Lord Howe and New Caledonia back in 2013.  We are looking forward to enjoying some extra sleep on passage this time around.  As with all things like this they never seem quite as easy as you first think.  To get anyone into Fiji on a one way ticket requires you to present several pieces of documentation to Immigration (including a letter of request to Immigration, passport photo page and proof that our yacht is in Fiji) who in turn provides a Facilitation Letter which gets presented when flying out of Australia and similarly when arriving into Fiji.  Luckily the girls at Vuda are able to help us with these formalities which is much appreciated. 

So far it doesn’t look like Bruce will need to bring any boat spares as everything seems to behaving itself however, he is kindly bringing out a new Kindle for me as my old one has died probably from overuse although Mark did confess to kneeling on it the other day so that may have had some impact on its performance.  Since it died have had to resort to reading books on my phone which is not so great especially as you are not able to read the screen with sun glasses on but afraid life would be a bit sad these days if I couldn’t get in a bit of reading time so have had to make do.

 

Following on from our previous Blog, Miss Amanda made a successful departure from Mustang Sally on the 25th aboard the Yasawa Flyer.  Unfortunately she was unable to get a flight on one of the sea planes but apparently had a comfortable trip back to Denarau on the flyer.  The back of the flyer gets a little manic when it stops for departures and arrivals....

 

 

                            Yasawa Flyer at Blue Lagoon

 

The morning of Amanda’s departure we were lucky enough to spot one of the long boats moving through the anchored yachts sporting a couple of very nice painted cray’s so Mark could not resist and called them over.  After a bit of negotiating we ended up with two lovely painted crayfish for dinner.  As you can imagine Amanda was bitterly disappointed as Crayfish is one of her favourites.

 

 

 

We stayed on at the Blue Lagoon for a few more nights and enjoyed some great kiting with the Fusio’s off the sand spit on Tavewa – about a 1NM dinghy trip across from the anchorage.

We also got to get dusted with some volcanic ash from the volcanic eruptions in Vanuatu some 500 miles away.  It made a big mess on deck which we are looking forward to getting off the boat when we can.  We will also need to keep a close eye on this volcanic activity as it is likely to have an impact on our cruising plans for Vanuatu.

 

You see all types of cruising yachts in Fiji – one that definitely made an impression was Argo which is the French way of going cruising. The only thing that looks cruisey about it is the solar panels and wind generator!!

 

 

We finally departed from Nanuya Boathouse and the Blue Lagoon on the 1st August and motored our way down to Manta Ray Pass to enjoy some lovely calm weather that was forecasted.

There are plenty of great things to do at this anchorage.  Our first night was spent in at the resort enjoying beer and pizza’s.  The following morning we went and checked out the Manta Ray Pass and were not disappointed.  After most of the tourist boats has disappeared three Manta Rays came back into the pass and put on a wonderful show of loop de loops  - one of them was so close we could have touched it. 

 

 

 

The current through the pass flows quite quickly so we also enjoyed the many fishies and corals as we did a couple of drift snorkels through the pass while hanging onto the dinghy!

 

That afternoon took the dinghy over to the reef in front of the resort and enjoyed some amazing snorkelling in crystal clear water with an amazing assortment of coral and fish.

 

 

 

After a few nights with the Manta’s we took the opportunity of some North Easterly breezes on the 3rd August to have a lovely sail back down to Musket Cove. 

We did very well as the 42NM passage took just over 6hours.

 

We spent a few days at Musket enjoying the routine of a daily walk and a coffee and if the wind is up a kite board in the afternoon.  You have to manage the tides when kiting at Musket so have been heading down to the other end of the air strip which is a great spot to kite despite the weed which inevitably seems to end up covering your lines either on launch or at the end of the day.

 

We went into Denarau Marina on the 6th August for a night to give the boat a clean, fill up with water and do some provisioning as well as enjoy a yummy meal at the Indian Restaurant!!

 

As mentioned we are now out at Musket Cove. 

At the moment the weather is calm so have been doing lots of walking, kayaking and some swimming.  It looks like we have a bit of wind for this week so we are hoping to get in some more kiting on the sand bar before we make our final departure in to Vuda Marina.