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Mischief - Up to Mischief Log 51 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Monday, 18th June 2018 - Blue Lagoon to Sawa-i-Lau Island

We wanted to make an early start today as we were heading further north to the southern tip of Yasawa. Just below Yasawa is a narrow channel separating Sawa-i-lau where the 'chandelier cave formations' exist which you are able to swim into apparently with the sun shining through holes in the roof.

We upped anchor again at 8.15 am as there didn't seem much of particular interest in the Blue Lagoon; even the water wasn't blue. Gary took the helm today and we headed very gingerly out of the anchorage to follow a deeper recommended track out. But we had to get to it first - there were two marker beacons close to us with only one showing on the chart and we looked at may be going between them. Er, no way through there - the beacons were both on the same reef with very shallow water in between. Trevor was on the bow calling the shallow water and we went down to 1 m depth before slowly backing out again and trying somewhere else further to the left, outside of the marks. We then followed the recommended route out from the chart very carefully as it looked shallow all round and it was nearing high tide! We were at one point in open water according to the chart but I was standing on the bow telling Gary to back up as the depth came down to 2 m again, so is very disconcerting. The chart seems to indicate the rough vicinity of reefs on the west side of these islands so you know there is deeper water somewhere to be found, its just a matter of finding it and following it - Swallows and Amazons!

We came into Sawa-i-Lau late morning after spending half and hour or so in the company of a large pod of dolphins playing in our bow wave and dropped anchor right in the lee of the island on the anchor symbol on the chart in 13 m water next to a large motor yacht who promptly left. We had the place to ourselves.

At least we did live in splendid isolation until late afternoon when another ARC yacht Alora hove into view and anchored beside us followed soon after by a cruising catamaran. Steve came over later from Alora to compare notes on where we had been and going to - he had come north via the Bligh Waters way off to the east and it seems that although there was patches of deeper water there were really tricky bits to negotiate too, as for ourselves.

We went for a snorkel to the reef on the shoreline where it drops down sharply to deep water. The coral and reef fish are really interesting and different again - I saw a pencil thin snake like creature about six inches long on a rock with a tiny sea-horse head; it was a sea-horse just not one I'd seen before.

Trevor was making a bacon something or other for tea and was sitting in the cockpit as it was going dark awaiting the ideal time to put the pasta on, bearing in mind that it goes dark at six and dinner he had announced was at six. His watch had stopped a half hour ago!

It is blowing quite hard from the NE at 20 knots. The grib files are lying again! Hopefully, it will do as forecast and will drop off later on now the sun is down, but it doesn't look like it. We have flat water though as we are well tucked in and protected from the SE swell.

Tuesday, 19th June 2018 - Sawa-i-Lau island

Well it blew hard all night and I got up a couple of times to check on the anchor. The weather here must be localized as it is very gusty, and the wind may be accelerating through the channel and over the hills, or it may be that the forecast is wrong? Surely not!

And we have been joined by our superyacht friends in Eileen again this morning. It is now getting slightly crowded in our little anchorage especially as although the small cruising cat has gone it has been replaced by one of over 80 feet - it is simply huge!

At 9.30 Gary and I took the dinghy over to the rocky beach around the corner where the day before the tourist boats had been, thinking, correctly, that here was the entrance to the caves. We met a local chap, Tony, ashore who asked if straight off whether we had done 'Sevusevu' the presenting of Kava to the local chief; we said not yet so he asked us how much of the stuff we which had was one root and some powder. "Bring it all", he told us and he will present it to the chief for us plus it would be F$55 a head to visit the caves! 'Bula' to you too! So, we went back to the boat via Alora who wanted to join us and we all took our snorkel gear back to the beach to go into the underwater caves. We handed over our Kava plant and some of our powered stuff and one of the chaps on the beach rubbed his hands and clapped twice with cupped hands (part of the ceremony of sevusevu) and laughed. Call me a cynic but I don't reckon that any of this stuff will make its way back to the chief - it costs F$100 per kilo so its not cheap! There were a load of tourists coming over the horizon too, so it was going to be a bit crowded.

After a brief briefing we climbed stairs up then down into a cave pool bathed in sunlight from above, a very high vaulted limestone roof and a deep pool - I was first in and encountered an eel of all things. Then the hordes piled in, many wearing lifejackets. We were then shown the entrance to the hidden cave, under a mantle of rock about five feet long requiring a short duck dive under it to get into the caverns beyond. It was dark in there, so they shone torches but at least it wasn't crowded as those with lifejackets were not allowed to come in because of the risk of getting stuck. We were shown the 'Spitting Hole', a vertical cylindrical chimney in the rock leading to daylight where should you choose to spit from the top when it hits the water the sound echoes, FYI just in case you do. We had a group 'Bula' and swam out again. Very interesting and worthwhile, especially when we became aware that the cost went essentially to local schools rather than to the guides.

Steve invited us over to Alora for dinner and so armed with a couple of bottles of wine and some crisps we made our way over and had a brilliant evening with his wife Lynda and daughter Julie.

The wind was forecast to reduce yesterday but it didn't and neither did it during the night, quite the opposite as it howled through the rigging. Lets see what it does in the morning as we are off back south to Waya Island - so it's bound to drop and go south just out of spite!

Wednesday, 20th June 2018 - Sawa-i-Lau to Waya

Up early again as we wanted to make an early start for Waya Island. We said a quick cheerio to Alora and motored off.
Our planned route takes us down the east side of the islands about 40 miles inside the various reefs but halfway down I had second thoughts after overlaying the details from our paper chart and went due south outside of the reefs in deep water - much less concerning than dodging in and out of shallows on the inside. It left us with one narrow crossing between reefs which we took very slowly and carefully and found the deeper water passage before motoring across to the anchorage on the north coast of the island.

The trouble was the wind which was supposed to be SE remained NE blowing straight into the bay which would have made it uncomfortable at anchor rolling about, besides there was nothing much there. Alternatively, we motored around the top of the island and into the next bay the other side of the peninsula which was sheltered from the NE wind, and found not only flat water and a sandy bottom gently shelving but a beach club to boot!! A different world with sandy palm lined beaches with straw parasols against a green backdrop; our own little paradise. And the sun came out on cue.

Something had to go wrong. And it did - the water maker would not switch on after it had worked perfectly yesterday. We have half a tank of water still but need it to last another 5 days so no showers in prospect!

So we went ashore at 5pm for a sundowner. As we neared the shore it became apparent that the beach shelved steeply as it was quite near low water and just off the shoreline was a reef running the entire length of the beach. I had to signal to a local boatman to indicate the entrance through the reef as it was not obvious, and he pointed towards a red buoy off to the left. So we made landing albeit with wet trousers to watch the most amazing sunset. Looking over the boat the sky changed from blue to yellow, through various oranges to deep red in the matter of half an hour or so, whilst we sipped a cold beer (expensive but worth it). Apparently, this place costs F$999 per night to stay!

The journey back was always going to be difficult in the dark through the reef, and it didn't disappoint. Although there was no wind and no current there was a small swell breaking on the reef and it was too shallow to drop the engine down so had to wade the dinghy out a bit to the red buoy. The rocks underfoot were a bit sharp and Trev cut his foot and Gary tripped over a rock and fell in, but managed to save his hearing aids thankfully. He ended up having to swim out to the dinghy as we had made it to deeper water. An interesting journey - the things we do for a beer!

However, I had had a text message back from Dave in the UK to advise where the trip switches for the water maker may be so I had a go with those and lo-and-behold we now have a working water maker again, and with a chicken curry for tea all is well on the good yacht Mischief - other than Trev's foot!

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