{"id":4619,"date":"2016-10-24T01:49:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=4619"},"modified":"2017-01-16T01:50:12","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T01:50:12","slug":"west-side-story-pt-2-the-yasawas-fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=4619","title":{"rendered":"West Side Story Pt 2 – The Yasawas, Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"sister
aye aye Cap’n Maureen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the two weeks Maureen\u2019s been with us, we\u2019ve experienced the full spectrum of Fiji weather (bar a cyclone!). Thunderstorms and torrential rain, no wind, wind from the \u2018wrong\u2019 direction (which is always where we\u2019re planning on going) or too much wind. But it hasn\u2019t spoilt the wonderful time we\u2019re having, we\u2019ve learnt to be flexible and adjust our plans accordingly.<\/p>\n

After a beautiful few days anchored off the Blue Lagoon Resort on Nacula Island the wind started to really pick up from the north-east, so we decided to go a little further north to Makalati Bay which looked like it might offer more protection and was also touted by other cruisers as the most beautiful beach in Fiji. Now that\u2019s a big claim so we had to go and check it out\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Makalati
Makalati Bay, Yasawas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was indeed pretty but it offered no better protection from the wind, and the swell prevented us from going ashore the first afternoon. Tomorrow we thought\u2026but tomorrow brought no relief and then we read that the local village, while welcoming, requested a significant monetary contribution if we wanted to go ashore. So instead we got to work on a few boat jobs\u2026.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d noticed a bit of condensation on the inside of the hatch in our starboard forward hull \u2013 ostensibly it\u2019s a crew berth, but we use it to store our spinnaker and other odds and ends. Thinking maybe the hatch was leaking Bruce went to investigate. Horror of horrors, the spinnaker was swimming in water! What the..? It didn\u2019t take long to figure out how the water had got in \u2013 when we were hauled out in Whangarei the guys had been fixing some gelcoat repairs inside that compartment and had opened the small porthole on the inside of the hull. You can\u2019t see it very well from above as the trampoline hides it, and as we rarely access that part of the boat we hadn\u2019t checked it. Jeepers creepers, it had been open all that time during our rough passage from New Zealand!! Thank god we have a sealed bulkhead otherwise the boat would have flooded. So we spent the best part of a day drying out the spinnaker and pumping the compartment dry \u2013 an extra pair of hands was very useful, no such thing as a free boat holiday Sis!!<\/p>\n

\"our
our able mopper-upper!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"another
sisters popping up out of holes all over the boat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We now had perfect breeze to get south, so we had a fabulous sail back down the west side of the Yasawas, stopping briefly at Navadra Island along with several other boats trying to find shelter from the strong winds.<\/p>\n

\"Enjoying
Enjoying some good sailing for a change!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Here
Here comes the rain again, off Navadra Island with the cruise boats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Navadra
Navadra proved to be less than ideal, very rocky and rolly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next stop was Musket Cove where we introduced Maureen to the snorkeling, island sights and of course the cruisers bar!<\/p>\n

\"Gorgeous
Gorgeous Musket Cove<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"hmmm...a
hmmm…a low-flying ferry taking up space on the airstrip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"the
the stunning colours of the reefs surrounding Musket cove<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Getting
Getting in some music practice in the cockpit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sundowners
Sundowners at the cruisers’ bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All too soon her visit was coming to an end, and the clock was ticking for us to leave Fiji if we were to get home before the cyclone season. We\u2019d seriously considered staying and maybe putting the boat into charter to earn some money, but in the end there was too much red tape and no guarantee of regular income. And our bank manager\u2019s patience is wearing thin \u2026.so back home we go for a couple of years to restock the cruising kitty.<\/p>\n

We had a final visit to Vuda Point Marina to drop Maureen off and check out of Fiji \u2013 it was Sunday, so we took the last available booking on the fuel dock so we could stay there overnight, ready for an early getaway on Monday morning. We had a lovely last afternoon enjoying the live music at the bar, and then only one challenge remained for our guest \u00a0\u2013 walking the plank to get off the boat. Never a dull moment on the good ship Toucan! It was very hard to say goodbye to my gorgeous sister, but at least it won\u2019t be long before we can catch up again in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"love
love my sister!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"But
But we still made her walk the plank!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So all that remained for us was to check out. The Marina office told us they\u2019d asked the customs officials to come an hour early because of the number of boats wanting to leave (at least 10) so we rocked up to the customs office at 9am sharp only to find the queue had already formed. We wait. And wait. And wait some more. No sign of the customs officer and it\u2019s now 11am. I walk back to the marina office to enquire and spot the customs officer having a leisurely snack at the caf\u00e9 outside. She obviously isn\u2019t going to be hurried, no sir, not one little bit. It\u2019s our last reminder of good old \u201cFiji time\u201d. Finally, at midday, we get our clearance and we\u2019re off on the next passage\u2013 heading to Vanuatu 620NM away to catch up with our buddies on Rehua. See you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the two weeks Maureen\u2019s been with us, we\u2019ve experienced the full spectrum of Fiji weather (bar a cyclone!). Thunderstorms and torrential rain, no wind, wind from the \u2018wrong\u2019 direction (which is always where we\u2019re planning on going) or too much wind. But it hasn\u2019t spoilt the wonderful time we\u2019re having, we\u2019ve learnt to be … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “West Side Story Pt 2 – The Yasawas, Fiji”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-1cv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4619"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4632,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619\/revisions\/4632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}