The Bula Boys
- labadiemichael
- Jul 10
- 2 min read
Crusing the Yasawas
We sailed from Yadua Island to the Yasawas, a 50-mile-long island chain in western Fiji. We planned for about two weeks to explore the islands of the archipelago one by one. As Tony mentioned in the last post, when anchoring near remote villages in Fiji, you must do a Sevusevu, a traditional welcoming ceremony, with the local chief. In the first village we visited in the Yassawas, multiple people claimed to be the chief! It turned out several locals try to trick cruisers to get free kava. It was confusing, but after talking to many people in the village, we finally found the right chief (at least, we believe so!).
In our last post, we mentioned that our anchor winless broke and we had to order a new one from Australia. Hauling the heavy chain up by hand was a massive workout. Fortunately, after a week of doing so, Tony managed to fix the old winch, saving us a lot of effort over the last two weeks. However, we still decided to replace it with the new one for safety and peace of mind.
At one of our next stops, we found a beautiful reef full of underwater tunnels and swim-throughs. The water was crystal clear and the coral looked incredibly healthy. We did four amazing dives there and had a blast. Overall we went diving a lot during our time in the Yasawas. At one place, we got to swim with huge manta rays, which were drifting majestically through a pass next to a resort. We dived on two different Chinese long line-fishing vessels, which were sunk as artificial reefs a decade ago and, while stopping at Kuata Island, Tony grabbed his chance to do the world-famous bull shark dives that are possible here.
The scenery in the Yasawas changed incredibly from island to island. One anchorage had rolling green hills that looked more like Ireland than a tropical Pacific island. Next, we arrived at a massive limestone rock which houses the famous Sawa-I-Lau caves. We woke up early to beat the tourist crowds and swam through the spectacular main cave. We even dived under a rock wall to reach a hidden second cavern in the dark.
After 10 days of absolute solitude, we started seeing other sailboats again. Also, the further south we went, the more resorts we encountered. This was perfect timing to restock our food and – more importantly – our perennially low beer supplies. We met great fellow cruisers along the way. During a dinner ashore at one resort, Mike started a conga line, and soon half the resort was dancing along with us.
Now, we have been at a marina in Nadi (Fiji’s third-largest city) for about a week. We are fully enjoying the simple comforts of shore life: good restaurants, a washing machine, and hot freshwater showers. Our new anchor winch arrived right on time and was fully installed today. Next week, we have some work to do on the rig because our forestay broke. Once that is repaired, we will set sail for Vanuatu.
Stay tuned!
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