Fiji

 Yeah I haven’t been keeping this up to date sorry, but in the mad rush to clear out of the so called winterless North, and sail for Fiji things got a little hectic, I can confirm that the winterless north is a load of bullshit after arriving in Fiji.

We set sail from Opua with 3 hours left on our 72 hour window from being COVID tested, labs don’t work on weekend if your paying them, seems to some up the state of the country at the moment.

I wasn’t that keen to sail with the forecast we had but after hoop jumping through the CAT1 nanny state crap and looking at another $500 for COVID tests the Scotsman in me said let’s go.

I got Bob McDavit to do some weather for us and we set sail, the first couple of days went well until we hit a front which knocked Bella down to her bunk and took out the auto pilot, three days later of 20-25 knot westerlies finished the job, Bob had promised us 15 knot SE from 28 south (oh to be a weather man or and economist) so we had a few hours of 15 knots but soon it was 25-30 knots and never let up for three to four days 😩

Anyway on the 13 day we made Denarau, we were heading for SavuSavu but glad we came here, we need a little enginering done and things aren’t nearly as bad as you’re think, Denarau has everything we need and after sitting on the anchor out front for two days waiting for the COVID test results we went in for the customs clearance, piece of cake.

The next day we out of there for the world famous Musket cove, a cruising yachts paradise, the resort is closed but the cafe is open, dinner last night was $20 Fijian 15 Nz $ each and they have a great shop and laundry, we are anchored up and will stay here till I can sort out an engineer in Latoka to meet us in Venda Point or Denarau to sort a couple of minor things out before we start cruising the Yasawas and up to Savusavu and maybe around and down the Lau group.

At the moment I’m just pretty happy to be a warm climate 26deg down to a chilly 23 deg at night, swimming, paddle boarding, snorkeling and sitting around eating and drinking, eat your heart out.

                                   Bella sailing north
                               Bella’s new paddle board Musket Cove
                             Arriving at Musket after leaving Denarau
                                       Me with coffee and toast after a long passage
                              Musket cove , looking at Plantation island
                                            Beach bar Musket
                                              Bella smiling at last after a long rough trip
                                             Foot steering which we did a lot of
First diner after the Passage, steak, eggs and chips                         

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