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Mischief - Up to Mischief Log 49 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Wednesday, 13th June 2018 - En route to Viti Levu island, Fiji

A really comfortable night at anchor other than having a heavy rain squall requiring all the hatches to be shut pronto! But up at first light to prepare the boat for an early departure for one of the main islands in Fiji, Viti Levu and Port Denarau marina.

The anchor came up at 7am covered in mud (good holding but had to scrub the decks) and headed for a nearby exit from the lagoon purported to be 100 meters wide. It was difficult to see the opening at all through the breaking surf even though it was fairly calm waters as the gap was at an angle to our course. I was on the bow calling the course as the chart plotter had us actually on the reef on solid ground - they can't be trusted as I've said before and need a healthy bit of sceptisism in confined waters. And confined these waters were! The gap was no wider than two boat lengths and required us almost steering back on ourselves to stay in deeper water with surf on either side - all exciting stuff for so early in the morning! It was fortunate that it was high tide giving us an extra 1.6 meters and the sun was up and behind us so the shallow bits showed up nicely. But as Confucius he say and I quote: "Tighter than a duck's arse in a gale".

We then set the Code 0 and are presently heading north west-ish to Viti Levu only 28 miles away from our position but we have to make out way along the coast passed the rather large reef, some 150 miles in total. Our ETA Port Denarau marina is lunchtime tomorrow, Thursday.

It was a really pleasant day's sailing in 10-15 knots of wind from the south giving us a fast beam reach most of the day until dusk when we came within two miles of the reef off the south of Viti Levu doing 7/8 knots with a lee shore, so we rolled away the Code 0 and set the genoa and sat down to a potato hash I had made earlier.

Then straight into Trevor and my first watch - 6-9 pm meaning we will be back on duty again at 3 'til 6 am. Yuk! The loom of the lights off the stern suggest that Suva, the main city on the island, is huge……civilization!

Thursday, 14th June 2018 - Arrival Port Denarau marina, Viti Levu, Fiji

Quite a peaceful night all told, and luckily the 3am watch avoided the monsoon rain Gary and Marian endured and the four hours motoring just before we came on deck - so it was not so bad after all! As soon as we were on deck we had enough wind to re-set the sails, turn the engine off and had a really nice sail following the coastline around. There were some really weird lights on shore - there were lights on the chart that weren't on at all and several on the shore that were on but not on the chart. A little disconcerting! Accordingly, I stayed a little further off the shore than the planned track just to be sure. It was great though sitting in the cockpit sailing with a full phone signal, so I was able to catch up on some text messages from and to friends which were long overdue.

We entered the main lagoon at around 7.30 am in brilliant sunshine and flat water under engine as our watch had used all the wind up. Besides, there were still 12 miles to go to the marina. Port Denarau marina is only 20 minutes from the international airport which is why we have come here to allow Wendy and Dave to fly out for their family funeral. It consists of 56 visitors berths for vessels up to 85 meters (so we should fit in) and with a full service boat yard, chandlers etc. In fact the blurb suggests on site there are shops, a Yacht Club, many restaurants, 9 renowned hotels and an 18 hole golf course - all in one marina! I still bet there isn't an Irish bar though…….

The contrast to the eastern islands though is stark: they are as poor as church mice whilst here the place reeks wealth. Nice to have cold beer and a shower though even so! We even went ashore for a Hard Rock Café burger at lunchtime and a proper curry in the evening - I have a feeling I may just be up early in the morning to pay a visit to the loos!!! We even had the air con on last night - there is luxury for you.




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