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Mischief - Up to Mischief Log 53 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Saturday, 23rd June 2018 - Navadra

I was awoken around 4 am this morning by the handheld radio in the cockpit with Gary speaking to someone so went on deck to see one of the other yachts moving around with a search light on trying to re-anchor without much luck, as he was too close to the little Dutch boat as they veered around in the gusts. He was at it ages and eventually dropped it roughly where he was before so cant see what he gained, but that's Kiwi's for you.

The wind at 8 am was still blowing 20 knots from the SE unfortunately as that is the direction we want to go to Manauiki island where Tom Hanks filmed 'Castaway'. But regardless, we upped anchor and headed out of the bay and into the choppy seas dodging the reefs as we went. Then we motored slap bang into the wind and waves which reduced the boat speed to 2-3 knots. It was only about 10 miles away but at this rate we would be 4-5 hours of slamming into waves. Besides, I was not at all happy that the Navionics charts had no detail of these islands at all, not even their names let alone charted depths and rocks! We have the paper chart but it is too small scale to show up sufficient detail we need.

Accordingly, I decided to head off back towards the mainland and once off the wind we motor sailed at 7-8 knots across to our initial track on day one of our islands cruise, then rolled the genoa and continued to Port Denarau marina. At least the waves were far less in the lee of the land, so we made much better progress. We did get to have a look at Tom Hank's Castaway island but from a few miles away - very rugged and rocky, rising steeply out of the sea.

We motored into the marina to see if there were any mooring balls to be had and there were indeed a couple free. Gary gave the marina office a call on chl 14 and was told in no uncertain terms that all were booked. We saw Paul standing on the bow of Spirit of Catherine hanging on one of the mooring balls so said a quick 'Bula!' to him and motored back down the channel to the anchorage just outside. We were doing the regulation 5 knots yet I had a big ferry cat only yards behind so I made him wait.

We dropped anchor in 3m of water with a 1m fall of tide so plenty of water under us and perfectly calm. The anchor bit straight away in mud so it was never going to move. However, we were a little too far out to take the dinghy in to shore as we would have had to pump it up several times en route given that the leaks are getting worse by the day almost. Then the wind dropped, and we had a very pleasant evening with spaghetti carbonara and a bottle of red wine.

Sunday, 24th June 2018 - Port Denarau marina

And it was such a quite and calm night I didn't wake up until 8.30 - unheard of.

We had a place booked in the marina against the dock, wherever that is, and motored back into the marina passed one of the mooring balls that was free yesterday as well still unoccupied, so we could have hung on that last night after all as was my suspicion. But not a problem as we had a very comfortable night regardless, and it didn't cost anything!

We filled up with fuel during which time Gary went to the marina office to enquire where the dock was and came back with the good news that they had a marina space now available for the night - happy days! So, we went to our berth, connected water and electric and set about spring cleaning the boat and doing the washing. When we'd finished that Steve and Paul from Spirit of Catherine came passed and came on board for a cold beer then we went ashore to find a few more. To be honest, I don't remember getting back to the boat!

Big excitment on the pontoon though. Apparently, yesterday the catamaran on the end of the pontoon was raided by Customs and armed police. They found 15kg of cocaine on board together with loads of Ecstasy tablets,$20,000 and guns with ammunition. The Skipper had realised he was rumbled and downed a massive overdose of the Ecstasy but I understand from the local paper today that he recovered and was now in jail!

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