July 1, 2015 Waya south to Waya north

July 1, 2015   Yalobi Bay, Waya to Rurugu Bay, Waya

The decision was made to move from the south end of Waya to the top of the island.  The weather reports predict strong winds and large swells and that looks like a more protected anchorage on the charts.  So we are up and underway by 8:30 again.  It is a beautiful day with almost no wind.  Good thing, because our route takes us through and over numerous reefs.  We take the lead with Alan at the helm and me on the bow as lookout.  We are also keeping a close eye on the water gage after the fan belt disaster.  It is running a little hot, but within an acceptable range.  Jacqui and Walter follow in Jean Marie and WindCutter with Carol and Craig bring up the rear.  Alan says he feels like an the Admiral leading the fleet.  There is lots of radio chatter about depths, speed, wind , possible shallow spots,  etc.  We are getting used to working as a team.  As usual, our Navionics program on the  iPad works perfectly.  At some point, while I am on the bow, a decision is made to alter course and go straight across a patch marked in green on the iPad.  We have no idea how shallow it is going to be but at one point it is marked as 10 feet so I intensify my lookout.  The water is a glorious deep blue, lightening to aqua, then green, then brown as it gets more and more shallow.  Finally we are through and the depth drops back to 150 feet, just as the chart says it should.  Jean Marie stays with us and come through OK too, but Wind Cutter decides to take an alternate route much closer to the shore.  Before long however, we see them turn around and head back this way.  What ever track they had been following was not going to work.

The trip was only 15 miles and we arrive at the anchorage by noon.  Just as we turn into the bay there is a shout on the radio.  Walter on Jean Marie has caught a fish and apparently it is a monster.  He wrestles with  it for about 15 minutes until he finally lands it.   This is even more of a feat than normal because he apparently cracked some ribs this morning and is in great pain.  But you can’t keep a real fisherman down when there is a fighting fish on the line.  As we move into the bay to anchor  both the wind and swell pick up, not too much but a little.  We had originally talked about possibly going on if we did not like this anchorage but now that we are here we really don’t want to keep going so every one drops anchors.

We are anchored next to green cliff with little village at the head of the bay in crystal clear blue water.  It is low tide and there is reef all along the shore that calls for exploring so we unfold the dingy, dig out a bundle of kava root and head in .  There is a brief detour to pick up 4 enormous fish steaks from Jean Marie and leave them on the boat and again to invite Wind Cutter to join us.  They provided the kava at the last village so we figure it is our turn this time.  However, when we land and tie up the dingy they have disappeared so we make our way to the chief without them.  There are apparently six sous-chief on this village.  the one on duty today is Captain Ame and we learn that he used to be the captain of an ocean going tugboat.  He once towed an oil tanker from Indonesia to Panama for repairs.  Even he was not quite sure why they did not just fix it in Indonesia.  We were given the usual tour of the village and left the obligatory donation for the school but his real interest was in charts, real charts with latitude and longitude and compass rose showing variations.  He wanted to teach the young men of the village navigation so that they could pass their captains exam.  We actually had some duplicate charts that we could give him so we invited him out to Rhapsody for a visit while I dug them out.  He was quite taken with Rhapsody and pronounced her a very fine, well fitted boat.  I found several charts that we were not using or could replace back in Lautoka.  Then we showed him our iPad navigation charts.  He was amazed and delighted.  A whole new world since he had been captaining.
 That night we had fish for dinner, far more than we could eat but wonderful.  The left overs were mixed with mayo and spices and rolled in roti for lunch the next day

There was a fairly strong swell running and the boats were rocking and rolling, but Rhapsody has such an easy motion that it was like being in a hammock.   Apparently those on the other boats had a harder time of it because we heard in the morning that they did not get any sleep.  Maybe we are just more use to putting up with stuff and making the best of it  Anyway, the decision was made once more to leave at dawn, even though I had promised myself that we would stay here several days.