A different perspective

Photographers and landscape artists love perspectives - the way distant hillside fade into light tones and how differing sizes of objects can fool the eye.

Take this simple photo, for example:

It was taken in the early evening light from our anchorage in Blue Lagoon (where the Brooke Shields film was made, apparently) and you can see the hillsides to the right fading off into the distance. A couple of catamarans in the foreground are of similar size, you might think. But no, Margarita to the right is about 13m long whilst Hemisphere is the world's largest sailing catamaran at a whopping 44m long. 

A cozy saloon

under way

Read more at http://www.boatinternational.com/yacht-features/hemisphere-the-worlds-top-cat/ 

A very different perspective on sailing! We've come across Hemisphere a few times now (including the time they had to anchor outside Port Denarau as they are too big to fit into the marina) and we've got used to the admiring stares as Maunie sails past.

More wind - but some great kite-boarding

Our hopes for quieter conditions today were dashed so we've remained at anchor with the wind whistling around our ears. The upside of this enforced was the chance to do some boat maintenance, cleaning and tidying before heading out to a sandbank emerging at low tide to watch some amazing kite-boarding.

Our friends Lionel and Irene on the catamaran Kiapa are keen boarders and have more or less made Musket Cove their Fiji home. When the wind is light they go out to the reefs for surfing and when it's blowing they get the kites out. Today it was blowing about 25 knots so we motored out in the dinghy (getting soaked in the process) then anchored to take photos and video of Lionel in action.

Pumping up the wing

Preparing the lines

Launch

Take-off

We were hugely impressed with Lionel's skill - there's a short video here which we think you'll enjoy.

Hopefully the conditions will calm down a little in the morning though the forecast isn't optimistic. More servicing of the winches might be on the cards!

May your bows always face the swell (Irish proverb, probably)

Well, Amy is safely back in mid-Wales after a great 10 days with us. We dropped her at the airport in Nadi (after a brilliant teppanyaki meal at the Fiji version of the Daikoku Japanese restaurant where we celebrated Graham's 50th in Auckland) on Saturday evening and she arrived in Heathrow at about 3.00pm on Sunday, having lost 11 hours in the time zone changes en route.

We stayed in Port Denarau for an extra night so rushed around to get two loads of washing done in the launderette, restock beer and wine, travel to the Nadi market for veg and meat and we even fitted in a rum tasting as well. All very successful but we were pleased to escape to fresher air by late morning today.

As it turned out, we found plenty of fresher air on the 2 hour passage across to Musket Cove. In spite of a benign forecast, the wind piped up to 28 knots (about 33mph) and we had to reef down to keep Maunie from cantering about like a wayward pony. After very gentle sailing over the past couple of weeks, it came as a bit of a shock and the water was streaked with white foam and breaking waves as we approached the entrance to the reef - thankfully we could follow our 'breadcrumb trail' of our previous entrance on the chart plotter but, even so, it was slightly unnerving to be sailing at 7.5 knots towards unseen reefs.

The anchorage here is exposed to the wind but the encircling reef means that the waves are relatively small - any underlying ocean swell is flattened out as it hits the reef at a couple of internationally-famous surfing spots about a couple of miles away. So we're lying in 20m of water, with our anchor firmly dug into the sandy sea floor at the end of about 70m of heavy chain. The wind's whistling in the rigging but otherwise we're in a good spot - we chose to be to windward of other anchored boats, having previously seen yachts suddenly dragging their anchors in windy conditions.

Wind-driven waves 

The anchorage is pretty busy here at the moment and conditions would make a dinghy-ride ashore a very wet experience so we cooked supper on board and hope it'll be a bit calmer in the morning.

Neighbouring boats (plus plane to the right)

Actually, we've discovered that getting a decent night's sleep at anchor in the islands around here needs some careful planning. In several spots we realised that the wind and the sea swell came from different directions so we found ourselves rolling uncomfortably until we deployed a second anchor, from the stern, to pull the boat around to point at the waves rather than the wind. This all added time and effort but was definitely worth it for a quite night!

We now plan to explore more of the Yasawa Islands which we didn't have time to visit with Amy aboard but we're watching the forecast with care as there is a period of squally weather heading our way towards the end of the week. More careful anchoring will be required we think.

The red blobs are heavy rains squalls in what's known as a Convection Zone (right over us!) - expect sudden changes in wind direction an torrential downpours so the choice of anchorage will be important!

Another video - dancers in Fulaga

In the remote Lau island of Fulaga, the traditional dances are kept alive through practice and Mekes (dance and song parties put on to entertain locals and visitors alike). We were present at a party organised by the women of the main village to raise funds for community projects. The dance in this film was taught by a housebound 80 year old women to her younger neighbours and it represents the women's job of fishing in the island's lagoon. Of course, it ended up with the visiting yachties being roped in (so you'll see Dianne in action)!

Watch it here 

Video of the Manta Rays

There's a short video of us swimming with the Manta Rays in Naviti Island here

Hope that you like it!

Avoiding sunburn

Sorry, that's not the kind of blog title you want to hear as autumn approaches in the northern hemisphere but the west side of Fiji has certainly lived up to its reputation for delivering hot, dry weather.

We had some good coastal and inter-island sailing over the past couple of days so have had a nice beat to windward followed by enjoyable downwind legs where both the 'Irish Flag' and the 'Blue Monster' spinnakers have been flown.

Amy helming upwind...

..and downwind

We were recommended an anchorage in the north-east corner of Naviti Island by Jimmy and Carol who sail a catamaran called 20:20 Vision. We first met them in Fulaga and, as the boat name suggests, Jimmy is a retired ophthalmologist so they carry supplies of used reading spectacles to give to people in remote villages. They told us of a lovely walk across to the eastern coast of the island where there were an elderly couple living in a very traditional Fijian house known as a bure. They gave us a set of glasses to give to the lady, Claira, and she was absolutely delighted that she could suddenly read small print again; a wonderful moment.

The traditional bure

Claira,very happy with her new glasses

Last night we returned to Navadra anchorage which was a lot busier that on our last visit. We had neighbouring boats of very different character - Legacy and Bonne Femme.

Legacy - 150 ft with a professional crew

Bonne Femme, 26 ft with a Canadian single-hander we first met in Tonga. Phil's chat-up line of 'come and see my yacht' seems to have paid off, however, as he now has a very bonne femme abaord.  

Swimming with Manta Rays

Our patience paid off yesterday afternoon. Having anchored Maunie near Manta Ray Resort, we'd snorkelled the reef before lunch and then took the dinghy across to the pass where the Manta Rays are said to drift through, feeding on the plankton-rich waters. A couple of other yacht dinghies had been there for a while with no sightings and they eventually gave up but we stayed, drifting with the current then motoring back up-tide to repeat the drift. The light afternoon light was beginning to fade when we spotted a Manta, quite deep, and Graham & Amy managed to get a good view of him. Better still, 15 minutes later, we had two of these majestic and huge (about a 10ft wingspan) beasts close to the surface and they were very happy to swim in lazy circles around us as we snorkelled. Wow!

 

We've taken some video which we'll post on the blog as soon as we get stronger internet connections.