Mamanuca and Yassawa Island Groups

We left Vuda Marina for Mana Island Resort after spending 3 days there catching up with provisioning and the washing. We went to Lautoka the largest town in this part of Fiji and Roger paid another visit to the dentist! Yes, the Tongan temporary filling was very temporary and fell out after 3 weeks! This time a very helpful and so far competent dentist inserted a permanent filling which to this date remains in place! The market was vibrant with a huge selection of vegetables and fruit as well as spices for Fijis large Indian population. Very unlike Tonga where eating anything other than canned corned beef and taro is unheard of!

Mana Island in the Mamanuca Island group gave another example of how in accurate the chart plotters are or at least the implanted charts of this area on them. We approached a narrow pass as depicted on the charts only to observe magnificent coral reefs rapidly appearing beneath the bows. Cries of Back! Back! Back! Reverse! have almost become our catch words for this part of Fiji. All was ok and we were escorted into a very picturesque anchorage with magnificent beaches and corals by a local sight seeing under water viewing boat! He seemed to know the way without passing over the reefs thankfully! We remained here for 3 days enjoying the beaches and the resort facilities before sailing to Musket Cove where we were to meet up with Jonathan and Sarah.

Musket Cove proved to be a great setting for yachts with many spending several weeks at a time either on a mooring or at anchor. It’s great value and for $30 Fijian we moored to the marina pontoon and enjoyed a lovely location, a yacht club bar, resort and pool. It would have been very easy to while away the weeks but time passes and we had much to fit in so with the two of them arriving on the first boat from Denarau we departed for Navandra Island.

Navandra Island this is the quintessential Pacific Island and was stunning. It was un- populated and had in fact been chosen as the location for survivor Fiji should you happen to have seen this! The snorkeling and diving was great with all 4 of us managing to use the hooker for ‘diving’ on the reefs. We gathered on the beach with other yachties to have a fire, enjoy sundowners and thought this is defiantly the cruising lifestyle we all search for!

Following 2 great days on Navadra we departed and set sail Waya Island and Octopus Resort. Roger and Jonathan snorkeled on the coral cliffs at the base of Kuata Island whilst I remained on the yacht making circles away from the reef as they looked for good coral sites. Jonathan was hoisted up the mast on several occasions whilst sailing through the Yassawas trying to locate the best passage through the reefs reminiscent of those earlier passage makers up in the crows nests of past sailing ships or so it seemed to us!

Waya Island is scenically stunning with the tallest peaks of any of the islands in the chain. We all elected to have a go at walking to the top of one of these; we hadn’t appreciated quite how steep a climb this would prove to be! Two locals guided us up to the top, steep and at times rocky which required a bit of rock climbing. I thought I would delay the more athletic younger members of the group but the guides just kept saying; “now we rest, we’re on Fiji time!” The views were breath taking that’s if I had any left! It was certainly worth every bead of sweat to get to the top! On our decent we swam in some beautiful rock pools the water cool and clear fed from the hills above. It was a great experience and one to remember, a must for anyone who visits this island. The resort is yachtie friendly and has a good pool and beach.

It was a short motor from Waya to Nanuya Balavu Island and Tokatokaunu Pass. Here we hoped to swim and see Manta Rays! This was an experience and a half! Having anchored not far from Manta Ray Resort we realized that the rays visit the pass at high tide to feast on the small plankton etc that flow through the narrow passage at this time. There was quite a current running through the passage as we took it in turns to dive out of the tender into the water as the shout went up that the rays were passing through. We floated above them as the current took us from one end of the passage to the other. There was no way that you could swim against it! They were graceful, majestic and very beautiful “flying” it seemed effortlessly with the flow of water. We all witnessed the spectacle with wonder. Roger says, it was fantastic!

We departed from here heading northwards to the famous “Blue Lagoon” our final destination in the Yassawas with Jonathan and Sarah. This was famous for Brooke Shields swimming naked in the film of the same name! Unfortunately for the guys there was no look a like to be seen!! Anyhow it was a great location, blue water and great reef for snorkeling on.

The Yassawa Flyer returned Jonathan and Sarah to the mainland and we decided to head back ourselves. We would have liked to have journeyed further north in the Yassawa chain of islands but with the south easterly trades increasing and the need to head back down to Vuda Point beckoning we retraced our passage and have now begun to prepare for our on going passage to Vanuatu in the next few days.

Vuda Point

Vuda Point Marina

Our passage across Bligh Water (named after Captain Bligh of mutiny fame) was an easy passage despite its reputation as a squash zone for strong south easterly trade winds which are funneled between the two major Fiji islands. The seas were no more than 2.5 m and the wind only 15 to 20 knots. At one stage I thought we were really whizzing along but then we noticed that the log had changed from knots to kilometers so we weren’t breaking any records after all!

We weaved through the reef passages religiously following the given waypoints with no problems. We stopped in two places on route to Vuda Marina, Nananui- Ra and Vatia Wharf. Both were picturesque and safe anchorages but it was obvious that the climate was much drier here on Viti Levu, gone were the lush rain forests with the hanging vegetation and large trees. Here the landscape was dominated by soaring limestone mountains thrown up to precipitous heights during past volcanic times. The cliff faces over a thousand meters above the flat coastal plains below. It made for a very dramatic back drop to the turquoise waters of the inner reef passages.

Vuda Point marina is an unusual experience especially if like us you enter it at low tide! We began to realize that the information on the chart plotter was very inadequate. Despite being in operation for longer than 15 years the marina only shows an inland lake with no access across the coastal fringing reef. At low tide you face a narrow access passage hacked through the fringing reef to a circular marina housing over 100 yachts! When we crossed we had exposed reef on either side! Not for the faint hearted! All was well and with the help of friendly staff we tied up to the wall and left for a sundowner at the yacht club bar situated above the entrance and its accompanying reefs!

The marina is rated cyclone proof and many yachts cruising the Pacific wait out the summer here many in prepared cyclone holes. These are exactly this with the hull buried in a hole and wedged in with old car tires.