Nov 1 2017 Savusavu to Bay of Islands

Savusavu to Taneuni

The weather has cleared and predictions are for several days of very light winds.  Time to leave Savusavu and head for Taveuni and the Law group.  Friends of ours have been raving about Paradise resort and we have never gotten there so it is time.  The light wind is a god send because our route is due east and typically the trade winds blow east to west so this is a great chance to avoid sailing directly into the wind.  It is an uneventful motor sail and we arrive at Paradise Resort on Taveuni in the afternoon.  Sure enough there are several mooring balls in front of the resort and we are greated by hotel staff with “Welcome to Paradise” and told where to tie up.  The waterfront is volcanic rocks  drooping off into deep, clear water.  Good thing there are moorings because I do not think we would want to anchor here.    Paradise was directly in the path of Cyclone Winston a couple of years ago and almost completely destroyed but the owners have rebuild better than before.  Often resorts are somewhat hostile to yachts but This one bends over backwards to welcome us.  They have an organic farm where you cam stalk up on fresh herbs and vegetables.  We could have happily spent a week or two here but we want to take advantage of the light winds to go to Vanua Balava, further east so after a couple of days, we take off.
Taveuni to Vanua Balava

Our trip to Vanua Balava was one of the most pleasant in a long time, a lovely change from the dreaded Futuna Run. Unfortunately, you could not really call it a sail. As is usually with Fiji, the wind was on the nose. We wanted to go east and the wind was coming from the east. Luckily, it was a very light wind, about10 kn. We rounded the bottom of Taveuni about noon and hoisted the sails. If all goes well we should active at the island at dawn. It is about 80 miles and we are expecting to tack quite a bit. With the light wind we will not go very fast but that is OK.
The sea is flat calm with long, low, lazy swells coming from the south east. The air is warm but not hot. There is a breeze. The sails are up, the engine is off. The sea is scattered with islands looking black in the late afternoon sun against the blue sea. There is a gibbous moon already up. It is just lovely. Off in the distance we can see clouds and rain over the island. Once again, we crossed the 180 line. We have decided that there is not reason to keep the iPad on all the time on this trip since we are having battery issues. It is actually starting to look like it is the cables and plugs and not the house battery. We will set a compass course and just check our position once an hour.
Alan had the first watch while I just read and lounged in the sun. Then it was his turn to go below for a nap. It always takes me a while to get settled into my watch and remember which way to turn the tiller to correct the compass course. Everything is backwards, especially if the iPad is on too. We are tacking south, just 30 degrees off of the rhum line, a very hard course to hold in such light winds even with the engine on but I was actually managing until the wind got even lighter and started shifting all over the place. After just under an hour of sails flapping and and back winding, I called it quits. If we are going to have the motor on anyway, we might as well take the sails down so we can go in a straight line.
About sundown we caught a fish and I spent the next several hours dealing with that, gutting it, cutting it, cooking it, eating it and cleaning up the mess. That adventure is in a separate story. Eventually I turned in for a short sleep.
When I came back up on deck it was midnight, still flat calm and we were almost there. It would have been smarted to go more slowly. We had planned to heave to but all the reefs and islands around made us nervous so we slowed way down andI took the helm to drive around in circles while Alan had a nap. Several hours later we decided that we were reasonably clear of obstacles, tied the tiller and turned off the engine. Alan went back to bed. I stayed in the cockpit for a couple of hours but we were not moving so eventually I went to bed to.
Next morning we were up early to get inside the reef before low tide. It was another beautiful day. Our Navionix showed the entrance to be a little over 6’ deep but well marked so I went up onto the bow to watch while Alan steered us ever so carefully. As it turned out the depth was never less that 50’. Inside the lagoon, we turned left and headed for Tony’s Place which is supposed to be a wonderfully protected anchorage. The entrance was well marked and led us into a stunningly beautiful fjord cut deep into the island, cliffs going straight up, festooned with greenery. There was not a soul around. Unfortunately, when we tried to anchor we discovered that the bottom was lave rock, not sand and we could not get the anchor to catch. Eventually we gave up and motored back out and around to the other side of the island where we found an anchorage in sand. It was not quite as dramatic but equally beautiful, sheet cliffs going down into crystal clear turquoise water. The rest of the day was spent swimming, sleeping and eating the rest of the fish.