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Mischief - Up to Mischief Log 50 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Friday, 15th June 2018 - start of Yasawa Island Group cruise

I was up really early this morning. Not only because Dave and Wendy needed to be in a taxi for the airport at 6.30 am but that curry last night was having its usual 'morning after' effect!

So, having said cheerio and good luck, I was immediately promoted to acting Skipper……the responsibility! So now we have just the four of us on board me, Trevor, Gary and Marian. But first things first: provisioning for ten days. We all jumped in a taxi to the Nadi Town central market and the taxi driver said he would then take us on to the supermarket and then the butchers. Nadi town is about ten minutes away. When asked how much it would cost he shrugged and said "We'll see", which is always a worry. We went to the most amazing fresh produce market then to the supermarket as planned but skipped the butchers as we got our meat from the supermarket, and returned to the marina. He then eyed us up deciding whether we looked wealthy or not then said $100 (£33)! A bit steep so we must look wealthy even though we're not!
Whilst Marian and I packed the provisions away Gary and Trevor went to the bottle store to buy the most important provisions - beer!

We then went up to the marina office to ask advice on the places to go and see in the Yasawa Group and the tea lady there told us where her Mum lived, which was helpful and I promised we would drop in for tea, but it wasn't what we were really after. So, as Gary and I like paper charts we set off in search of one for the area and eventually found it in the offices of the agency who did the World Arc immigration paperwork, Yacht Help. Dave there, the manager was more than helpful. He showed us all the places of interest and marked them on the chart which I then bought, plus he allowed us his closely guarded itinerary he sells to superyachts which had everything on it. Brilliant. He said he was aware of our boat, if not our reputation!

We headed off just after noon under engine and with the genoa out as it was downwind, and we sailed the 30 odd miles to our planned anchorage at Waya Island. We were passed as we were approaching by a large motor yacht who clearly wanted to get in before us and nick the best spot slap bang on the anchor symbol on the chart. So, once we had dropped our anchor in 10 meters necessarily close to him we played loud music for a while to get our own back!

But apart from the adjacent 'stink pot', what a beautiful anchorage this is. We are tucked into a sandy cove in a small bay sheltered on all sides but to the east, with sandy beaches and palm trees all around and steep tree covered cliffs to the north, with a 100 meter anismos joining the islands of Waya and Wayasewa. If you had a pair of wellies you could walk between the islands without getting your feet wet. The only thing was it was raining here when we arrived with dark clouds; as Trevor commented after such a lovely sunny day, "We have found the only rain in 100 miles!" and he would be right. But it soon cleared up into a starry evening and Trevor made a lovely Thai green chicken curry for tea and we spent the rest of the evening listening to music competing with the local crickets making a racket ashore.

Saturday, 16th June 2018 - Waya to the Tokatokaunu Pass

The little bay we were in was perfectly protected from all directions other than the east and when we went to bed it was perfectly calm. However, by 11 pm a bit of a SE wind blew up and caused a bit of a swell in the anchorage which was a little uncomfortable for a couple of hours but not too bad after it settled. As Gary and Marian now have the master cabin I at last have a cabin too, and very comfortable it was too. Other than a couple of early anchor watches I didn't wake 'til 7.30. We had a quick fried egg roll and a quick snorkel (well Gary went for an hour anyway) and we were off again under genoa downwind towards the Tokatokaunu Pass between the islands of Naviti and Nanuya Balava where Manta Rays are reportedly present. This is again a recognized anchorage so should be fine.

On the way we were passed by the 50-meter super yacht Eileen which we had been drooling over in Denarau marina. We had desperately wanted to go aboard singing "Come on Eileen" by Dexies Midnight Runners but thought better of it. Even her tender showed up on AIS! She showed us the way through the Qaracuva Passage as she followed her tender around the shallow bits, but we then got a call on channel 16 from a fast cat cruise ship the Fiji Princess who was coming up fast behind also wanting to go through the pass and we were in the way. We compromised, and I went through first and hove too in shallower water and through she came and promptly dropped anchor! So, I was back on the radio to ask her intentions as sarcastically as possible, but we only had another half mile to go anyway and the sun was shining so what did it matter?

The anchorage is really deep, and we have dropped in 15 meters of water. The shore looks close, but having then swum to check swinging room there is plenty as it is really deep close in.

There was a beach resort ashore through the narrow channel between the islands so we took the dinghy over to ask if we were able to pop ashore later to have a drink. It turns out that it was a 'backpacker's' as opposed to a 5 Star resort and we were made very welcome, so we went for a swim on the beach opposite. Trevor made friends with the local kids on the beach and stayed with the dinghy as he didn't trust them not to nick everything off the boat and when I returned (only 5 minutes later) they were all in the boat chanting "Charlie, Charlie", as I did my best Daniel Craig impression coming out of the water in my Speedos.

And back we came to the beach resort, the Manta Bay Resort, and had a pizza and a few rum and cokes - very pleasant whilst the young people resident played volleyball on the beach in front of us. We went back to the boat at 7pm whilst they all headed off along the beach for a bonfire party. We were almost asleep already. As Gary said, "These people make you feel your age". Too true….zzzzzzzz.

Sunday, 17th June 2018 - Naviti Island to Blue Lagoon, Yasawa Group, Fiji

What can you say? What a day that was!

Started off with the generator cutting out whilst making water at anchor off Naviti Island - the indicator suggested a blocked inflow pipe or, in the worst case, a broken impellor, so I switched it all off and left it for a while before trying it again with the same result. Oh well……no showers maybe.

But we had planned to go snorkeling first thing in the Takatokaunu Passage better known as 'Manta passage' where the manta rays have been spotted for the last few days early morning. They frequent the passage due to excellent feeding for them plus there is a cleaning area they go to where other fish give them a scrub with a fishy loofah. So, at 9 am we took the dinghy into the passage and did a 'dinghy drift' along with a few commercial dive boats and their hoards of swimmers paying a fortune for the experience; the tide runs at a knot and a half, so we really shifted over the ground. The corals are great, not the best we have seen but lovely all the same as were the large shoals of fish, but no mantas on the first drift so we jumped back in the dinghy and had another go. I had the dinghy tied around my waist so couldn't swim much but both Gary and Trevor saw a couple which Marian and I missed so back we went again this time Gary with the dinghy. One of the guides from a tourist boat was calling to all to look down so I swam over to where they were and hey presto, two giant manta rays swimming towards me as if I wasn't there and I almost had to leap out of the way as they glided passed then went into a number of back somersaults as they were feeding. They were within touching distance, not in the slightest concerned with me being there in fact the opposite as it was me trying to move out of the way as their huge wide-open mouths came close, very close! They are real leviathans, 2-3 meters wide at their wing tips, beautiful and graceful creatures with black skins and a brilliant white underside. A real privilege to be in the water with them for at least ten minutes. Marian had seen them too from the dinghy so on the way back to the boat we were all a bit hyper.

We weighed anchor around 1030 and headed off towards our next destination, the Blue Lagoon on the east side of Matacawa Levu island. This is the location where Brooke Shields movie of the same name was filmed back in the '80s. Apparently, the lagoon is supposed to shimmer in turquoise blue water plus there is a beach resort that sells cold beer which we will no doubt have to check out for sundowners.

However, the trip due north of around 20 miles was far from straight forwards - the electronic charts are miles out, and much of it is uncharted anyway. For instance the paper Admiralty chart I bought shows a distinct passage marked by a beacon into the lagoon from the eastern approach which we wanted to take, whilst the electronic chart shows no beacon and solid reef. So, discretion being the greater part of valour we went up the west side and followed our old friend Eileen the 50 m superyacht. It is very disconcerting though motoring along in clear water when you can clearly see a reef some 30 m off your starboard side not marked at all on the chart; and when the depth goes from 35 m to 4 m in a blink in the middle of open water - it really gets the adrenaline running and makes you concentrate 100 % of the time, with someone on the bow when it looked shallower (lighter blue is shallow).

We navigated carefully into the lagoon as it was nearing low water at 2.30 pm so there were rocks everywhere, but at least we could see them. I knew there was a narrow passage through here as Eileen had come through a few hours before. We found a spot to anchor and breathed a sigh of relief. Once again this is a stunning location with palm tree lined beaches on all sides, but the water doesn't look turquoise to me. There is the Nanuya beach resort right there on the beach (where else) so we went there for sundowners as planned and back on board for tea of Cassoulet that I had made earlier. Bliss…..

I even tried the generator again and it worked! The sun shines on the righteous, even though it's dark.

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