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Firefly - Castaways



After spending a few days anchored off the North Bay of Waya in the Yasawa Group of islands we made an early start to head south back to the west coast of Viti Levu, in order to start our preparations for laying Firefly up and going home for a month. We planned a stop at Monuriki Island where the movie 'Castaway' was filmed, before going onto Malolo and Sunday 27th July ended up being an eventful day.



Whilst Rosy has been with us we have increased our efforts to catch fish. Susie bought some new lures and line recently and before we left Waya, Paul assembled the new array of equipment. 2 lines were deployed as soon as we left and within an hour, to our surprise, the 'elastic indicator' was fully stretched out and we managed to land a 4kg tuna. Dealing with the fish once on board was a little haphazard due to our inexperience - we have only caught one fish previously, a tuna when leaving Panama. However, once despatched menu plans were discussed and the fillets would be BBQ'd later on that day.



Lying off Monuriki was a small cruise ship and this was a dissapointing discovery although, being low tide they were unable to unload their guests due to the coral around the beach. With our small dinghy we managed to get ashore and wandered around the beautiful island alone and then snorkeled with a large number of fish off the nearby reef - and if you didn't look at the ship you could imagine Tom Hanks and Wilson being there. Retreating to Firefly for lunch just in time, the cruise ship then disgorged about 50 people onto the beach and it no longer looked quite so idyllic.



Moving off we set the sails and were sailing at full tilt close hauled in flat water inside the reefs off Viti Levu when there was a loud splash and 5 bottlenosed dolphins appeared nearby. On this trip dolphin encounters have been quite numerous - this was however the best yet as the pod moved to the bow of the boat and proceeded to jump out of the water and then demonstrate their upside down swimming skills as we stood on the bow and the autopliot steered Firefly. One of the youngsters may have had some kind of 'itch' as he or she kept making contact with the bow of the boat and was hooking its dorsal fin right on the knuckle of the bow in order to catch a ride from Firefly - the mother or father then pushing up from beneath seeming intent on making sure the younger one was definately in contact.



Anchoring behind Qalito Island we picked what we thought would be a very protected anchorage, right in the lee of the island and sheltered from the relatively strong southerly breeze. The tuna was BBQ'd and was even better than expected - washed down with a Sauvignon Blanc as the sun set and a 'green flash' was witnessed. However, the day was not yet complete as the wind then went easterly and although it never got bad enough to move it was a bumpy night at anchor.



Up early again today (Monday 28th), we motored back to Tavarua so that Rosy can have a final couple of days surfing at Cloudbreak. On Wednesday Firefly will be hauled out at Vuda Point Marina and is in need of a jetwash, antifoul and polish. We all then fly back to the UK and Susie and Paul are looking forward to a bit of 'Blighty' and catching up with family and friends during August. We return for some more Fiji cruising in early September (and will restart our blogs on this site at that time) and will then make passages to Vanuatu, New Caledonia and New Zealand - reaching Opua in the North Island by mid November.



Paul, Susie and Rosy

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