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Mischief - Up to Mischief Log 52 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Thursday, 21st June 2018 - Maya to Navadra Island, Mamanuca Group, Fiji

Gary went off for a swim first thing whilst I planned a route on the chart plotter to take us to the island of Navadra in the Mamanuca group of islands some 12 miles to the south west. As with many of these islands it was a tricky exit but there was a recommended route displayed on the electronic chart so set a course to follow that. Eileen, our 50m superyacht regular companion on this cruise came passed our anchorage and made her way slowly south, no doubt heading towards where we are off to. As it happened, the Navionics proved entirely useless; Gary was steering to the course set yet it was going to put us far too close to the reefs a little way off the shore and so relied instead on Trevor on the bow and the paper chart which proved to be priceless - the Navionics course would have had us on top of the reef as it was simply miles out! So, we motored slowly over the big green patch (reefs) on the electronic chart, much to Gary's consternation, in 30 m of water with me doing manual pilotage with the GPS position and paper chart every 10-15 minutes to give an accurate position and course. Good fun, but it ought not to be necessary!

When we arrived early afternoon, we were met by Eileen in the middle of the small horse shoe shaped bay, so we went into shallower water and dropped the anchor over sand in 9 m of crystal clear water. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling around the reefs on this beautiful island which is uninhabited and is said to be the pearl of the Mamanuca group, and a "great place to enjoy a bit of peace and serenity" - what, with Trevor on board? The island is split into two with a beautiful reef and sand bar linking the them together and is the epitome to my mind of the perfect desert island upon which to be marooned and play your favourite desert island discs, maybe. A perfect spot, missing only one Irish bar behind the tree line.

The bay is surrounded by coral reefs and rocks. Gary and I snorkeled around much of it to check our distance off primarily, and it is different again: the rock formations are huge with deep ravines and crevices with multi-coloured rock sculptures rising to near the surface, giant flat corals like massive leaves, huge purple brain coral, and fish aplenty. It is all very rugged, not as delicate and colourful as we have seen before but quite spectacular all the same.
And what is more, we have steak for tea together with a potato salad I have knocked up. Plus, we shared a rum and coke. Bliss.

Friday, 22nd June 2018 - Navadra Island

I was awoken for some reason at 0315, a bit of wind from the SE had sprung up but we were well protected as it was as forecast for a change and went on deck to have a look. There was a small motor launch coming into the bay headed for the beach where the previous evening a small group had gathered for a beach bonfire. They were shining powerful torches along the shore obviously looking for something, but they were not from Eileen who still had her tenders (note plural) tied up and who was lit up like Blackpool illuminations. A mystery.

And at just before 8 am there came a loud aircraft noise when a seaplane touched down in our little bay right next to Eileen and her tender came out to collect someone. He was deposited on board whilst the plane took off again, did a circuit of the bay and headed back to the mainland. It was so cool! I'm given to thinking that Wendy and Dave could do the same and we would wait for them to be dropped off in similar fashion rather than us pick them up on Monday from Port Denarau marina! Maybe not.

We had decided to stay put today instead of moving off to Monuriki island, about 10 miles to the south again and is where they filmed Tom Hank's film 'Castaway', as here we are sheltered from the SE wind which is blowing 20 knots gusting a lot more. Monuriki is open to the SE swell so we will look again tomorrow, but it's not a bad spot to be right here for now!

Around noon I was cooking a chilli, as you do when all else to do is read a Jeffery Archer novel, when I noticed that our relative position to Eileen and to the cruising cat in the anchorage had changed significantly and we definitely appeared further out. Indeed, Gary who had been snorkeling off the reef made mention of the fact that we were further out as he had to swim a lot further back. In fact, we were now sat in 22m depth as opposed to 10m this morning - the very gusty wind had straightened our chain out and in do doing had tripped the anchor, so we raised it and motored back to where we had been and re-set it. It just goes to show you can never take these things for granted and have to continually monitor your position.

The wind was very gusty all afternoon and several other yachts came into the anchorage to shelter - even Eileen has stayed, and this evening it has actually felt a bit chilly would you believe. I was monitoring our position from the galley as I served tea and looking into the heads I could see out of the window and noted that a small Dutch boat who had anchored directly ahead of us now looked as if she was off our port stern, until I realized I was looking at the mirror on the wall - oh dear, its been a long day reading Jeffrey Archer.

Let's hope the wind drops a bit for tomorrow, but it's forecast for much of the same.

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