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Exody - Days 166-176 : Bula Bula, Moce ,Vinaka



The last ten days in Fiji have seen Exody relaunched after just one night on the hard at Vuda marina, Petter departed after five months crewing, and second daughter plus two of our old friends boarded for Leg 6 from Fiji to Vanuatu.

Today Sunday 5th July we are averaging over 7 knots in 20 knot winds and have covered 190 miles of this 450 leg. It's 30 hours since the start yesterday morning and we have five other World ARC boats in sight. We are on schedule to arrive at Port Resolution on the island of Tanna lunchtime Tuesday 8th. 

Determined to launch before Tessa's arrival, since she last left us in January from Exody on the hard in Carriacou, and with the impetus of a Fiji public holiday on Friday 26th,I painted into the evening on the first night out the water and from first light Thursday. We were finally relaunched at very last light Thursday, the eve of Petter's departure (one item ticked off his bucket list after 7100 miles of Pacific sailing!) and Tessa's arrival from London. The ever-present taxi driver 'Abdul2' - he had taken our ropes when we first arrived - took us to the airport and Petter to his hotel early afternoon after a busy morning of spring cleaning. 

The Yasawa group is billed as 'not to be missed' - mountainous, remote villages, glorious beaches plus quite a few resorts - so we took the weekend off with Tessa visiting the southernmost islands. Wayalailai - a brief 'sevusevu' with the chief of Namara village on the Sunday morning followed by a tour of the village where the primary school has dormitories for pupils who board by the week from the other side of this tiny island group. Onward to adjoining Waya where we avoided some uncharted reefs to anchor off the busy Octopus resort for classic sunset cocktails. Good snorkelling around a striking coral structure in the morning before we left the rather rolly anchorage for the 30 miles back to Vuda, finding more uncharted reefs!

Our old friends Stewart and Catherine were soon installed for their two nights in the adjacent First Landing resort where we cocktail-ed and dinner-ed with local musicians in the background. Several World ARC crews have boarded here whilst their boats were being worked on at Vuda - great atmosphere, aspect and style to greet our own new crew.

Abdul2 and his brother were there again to taxi us for the provisioning run to nearby Lautoka on Tuesday 30th - excellent market, reasonable supermarkets and good pharmacy - we got most of our list ticked and the boat stocked up. 

Timing it for the tides at Musket Cove, we left Vuda 13.00 on 1st July after fuelling. The 15 mile genoa-only reach on a bright sunny day was a gentle shakedown for our new crew. The reefs on entry to the busy resort island of Malolo Lailai were all easily eyeballed and negotiated and Exody was soon anchored and tied stern-to the marina dock with all facilities very near at hand.

World ARC activities, spa treatments for all on board except me, and a touristy snorkel trip to a nearby coral 'garden' filled the next couple of days. It was good to connect with the other crews again after the Fiji free cruising and to meet the crews of joining yachts Brizo, Firefly and Starblazer. We bade farewell to Afar VI who are leaving the rally along with Exocet Strike, still in Savusavu - both taking a spell out before continuing.

So Bula Bula(hello hello) new crew, Moce (goodbye) old crew and Vinaka (thank you) Fiji.

Peter (Skipper)

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