Sheer Tenacity: Yasawa's Waya and Blue Lagoon

26/8/2015

We set off for Waya, hoping that the Fiji weather gods would at last play ball, and allow us to see the side everyone raves about!

Certainly the first 28 mile leg to Waya South, was an idyllic cruise. We had intended to spend the first night off Yalobi Village, but we had arrived earlier than planned, so decided to go on up to the northern bay.

Barracuda

Approaching Waya South

We spent a very pleasant afternoon in this attractive bay, which was a little reminiscent of Fatu Hiva (Bay of Virgins, Marqueses), but instead of the towering phallic rocks, this bay sported Madonna’s pointy boobs!

We donated a big Barracuda to the village, and asked their permission to spend the night in their beautiful bay. “Our pleasure”, they said!

Clearly, the Barracuda did not please the weather gods, for, just as the sun went down, the wind swung to the north, and quickly built to 25+Knots, putting us on a rocky lee shore. We quickly hauled anchor while there was still some daylight left, and dropped on the other side of the bay, hoping to get a little more protection, and distance from the reef.

It was a wild, sleepless, and horrid night! The short sharp fetch, and huge gusts made the boat snatch and jerk badly, despite having 50+mts of chain out in 8mts depth. At 3.00am, Mary heard the anchor break loose, and we started dragging!

The drag and re-set captured on the anchor watch

Fortunately, we still had room behind us, so elected to unhook the bridle, and lay out another 20mts of chain, in order to get the Rocna to re-set, which it did. We still spent another 4 hours thrashing about until dawn, when the wind dropped, and the sea calmed. Nevertheless, we could not wait to get away, and find a quiet and sheltered anchorage to drop the hook, and catch up on some sleep!

This we found 12 miles further up on the west of Naviti Island, (Natuvalo Bay), where we chilled out for 2 days, and were joined by Rod & Brenda (State of Mind), who had come up from Navadra.

Once rested , we took a gap in the weather to do the next 15 miles up to the Blue Lagoon, where we intended to park off for a couple of weeks, and to await the arrival of our cruising mates, Scott Free, and Beez Neez.

We again got lucky with our fishing, and caught a nice Queenfish, plus a very nice big Spanish Mackerel (or,King Mackerel, Waloo, or Narrow banded Mackerel) These are particularly good eating, and are highly prized!

"Sheer's" cockpit suffers when we get lucky

Blue Lagoon has been super… a safe anchorage, with lots of reefs, crystal clear water, a small new resort, with a yachtie friendly Happy Hour, lovely white beaches, some walks, and plenty of turnover of yachts, planes, ferries and cruise boats.

Let the pictures tell the rest!