For Alex’s actually birthday on August 4th, we were back at Mana, and mom was with us. She brought both boys birthday presents… Alex got some noise cancelling headphones (since he fell in love with Andrew’s when he was here) and Brenden got, well, Legos of course! He may be almost 13, but he still loves to play with legos.
We took the day off from school and mom and I made the traditional homemade oreo cookies and the kids spent the afternoon dinghy surfing, one of Alex’s favorite things to do. In the evening we had Nautilus and Nirvana over for oreos, ice cream, and fun.
Gramma Nay frosting the home made oreos for Alex’s birthday
As the cruising season progressed, the kids figured out that several of them have September birthdays and that it was possible if not likely that we would not all be together for all of them. So, they got the idea to have a “September Birthday Party” in July. They ended up pulling it together while we were in Musket Cove (the second time), and they had the party on Nautilus. Victoria made a cake (of course!) and Alex and Brenden made snickerdoodle cookies to take over, and the kids all made presents for each other. The birthday kids were Brenden, Gigi (Nivana), Victoria (Fluenta), and Seppe (Nautilus). Since it was only a couple days before Alex’s August birthday, they decided it would be OK to include him to, so I guess technically it was an August/September birthday party. I wasn’t there for all of the fun and shenanigans, but luckily Nautilus shared some photos:
Yes, that’s my son grabbing the sharp end of the knife
During our second stop at Musket Cove, we were there with Fluenta, Nirvana, and a new kid boat called Honey. Julie from Nirvana had the California physical fitness standards, so we arranged a day for all the kids to participate in testing themselves against the standards. They were amazing! They ran a mile, did push ups, sit ups, and a few other things. Bottom line is that even without regular sports participation they are all well above the “healthy” threshold, and Brenden and Gigi (12 year old girl from Nirvana, she and Brenden were actually born on the same day) actually scored presidential level in all categories.
One of the most impressive things to see was how they all simultaneously competed with and encouraged each other. During the mile they each seemed to have their nemesis they were chasing… Brenden was chasing Alex, Jonathan was chasing Brenden, etc., but it was a healthy level of competition and they all tried their hardest without getting too wrapped up in the competition. During the pushups and situps they sat near each other, and cheered each other to “keep going!” and “you can do it!”
And of course, when they were all done they climbed a tree. They are cruising kids, after all.
(For posterity, I record the boys’ mile times here. Alex: 6:58. B: 7:04)
Lined up to run the mile (OK, this photo is actually a reenactment, we forgot to take the real photo)
Alex and Brenden catching their breath after running the mile
When we left the Mana lagoon, once again we weren’t sure where we’d end up for the night. Our first stop was a spot right at the barrier reef just to the northeast of Mana. Tim had scoped it out on the satellite imagery and thought it may be good for boogie boarding and spearfishing. It turned out to be not so good for boogie boarding, but they did come back with a coral trout. The conditions deteriorated while they were out there with 25+ kts of wind and a very lively swell. I had the binoculars out trying to find them and was very relieved when they made their way back to Exodus.
In these conditions we bashed back to the small island of Qalito. It was a very deep anchorage, and of course the wind died pretty much as soon as we dropped anchor. There wasn’t really anything special there at Qalito. The island has a resort called Castaway Resort, and I phoned them to see if we could come ashore for lunch, and surprisingly they told me no. They were booked full so they were not accepting any day visitors. That was disappointing, because I had read on another cruiser blog that they have good pizza there.
My only additional memory of Qalito is that I went out for a long paddle in the morning, and had my peace and tranquility interrupted by tourists on jet skis. Jet skis are not the cruiser’s friends.
Count them…1, 2, 3, 4, 5 jet skis coming to ruin my paddle board bliss
From the pile of sand, it was a quick excursion to The Mana Lagoon, so we headed that way. The pass wasn’t a straight one, and from our vantage point outside it was difficult to tell from the markers just where the turns were. And of course, our chart was worthless. Visibility was good, so we knew that once we were upon it, we’d be able to see well enough, but it would have been nice to have at least a rough idea going in. Well, luck smiled on us, and just as we were making an approach a ferry started on its way out, so we stood off and watched its path. After it was clear we made our move, and it was a narrow, crooked pass that got quite shallow near the end, but we didn’t have any trouble.
The Mana Lagoon with its curved pass
Almost immediately after we dropped anchor a boy in a kayak stopped by and asked us for fishing hooks and food, I remember that we obliged regarding the food and gave him a package of breakfast crackers, but I don’t recall about the fishhooks. Although we arrived on a Saturday, we didn’t go immediately to shore to do sevusevu. I think we were wavering as to whether it was really needed, given that the island had resorts on it. So, the next day being Sunday, we basically just spent the whole day on board Exodus doing projects.
By Monday morning we had resigned to go ahead and do sevusevu in the village. That’s what we had learned was the tradition, and we couldn’t convince ourselves that the presence of resorts *really* negated the need to follow the tradition.
Chillin after our sevusevu at Mana
Before we went to the village the boy in the kayak came back, and we learned that his name is Male and he’s 12 years old, although he was a very big boy for 12. He wanted to take Tim spearfishing, but we explained that we needed to go do our sevusevu first, so he said he would wait for us at the beach. He asked for some paper and a pencil so he could write us letters, and he wrote a letter to each one of us while we were gone. Here is what he wrote to Brenden: “The name of my best friend is Brenden every day we go to the school and listen to the teacher and after we go home back.Brenden is a very very good boy is the whole island take care my friend you a very very good boy.Have a nice day Brenden is 12 years old”
When we got back Tim, Brenden, and Male all went spearfishing, however it wasn’t a totally positive experience for Brenden because he was stuck in the dinghy most of the time. Tim had handed Male a mask to borrow while they were all still on Exodus but then Male forgot it when they piled in the dinghy. So, he shared with Brenden, but that mostly meant that Male used the mask while Brenden waited in the dinghy. Brenden could have been more assertive, but he decided not to be. He gets to spearfish with a good mask all the time, so he let Male use it this time. Later that evening Male came back on the kayak and asked Tim for a fishing hook to use, he even eyed the one he wanted, and at first Tim told him no, because it was a hook he needed for trolling behind Exodus, but Male insisted and Tim relented, telling Male he could borrow it, but he would need to bring it back. We never saw Male again.
One afternoon the boys and I went to the village to find some kids to play with after school. We went to the school and found out that the bigger kids were all in a study session because exams were coming up and the younger kids were doing chores, but soon the younger kids came around and they played some catch while I walked around the village.
The island next to Monu to the south is called Monuriki, and it was used for on location filming for the movie The Castaway. When we left Monu we did a drive by of Monuriki, but we didn’t see any great places to anchor out of the swell, and we had had our fill of rolling in the swell from our two nights at Monu. So, we snapped a few photos and were on our way.
Exodus selfie at the Castaway movie location.
On our way headed back south we really hadn’t decided yet where we would go for the night, but the wind calmed and we came upon a tiny island, not much more than a pile of sand, so we stopped for lunch and a swim. The funny thing was that while we were there, a tour boat actually stopped and people got off to snorkel around the pile of sand. The tour operator was named Eliza and he was Fijian, and he had never met cruisers before, and he was absolutely fascinated by our story. I was struck with surprise that with as many cruisers as there are in this area of Fiji that he hadn’t crossed paths with any yet. Anyway, he was a nice guy, but soon enough he rounded up his tourists and headed on to the next spot. We enjoyed our afternoon swimming and playing in the “surf” before moving on. By that point we had settled on heading to the island of Mana.
We anchored for the afternoon at this “pile of sand”
Sometimes you just have to marvel at how lucky you are. When arriving at the windy, bouncy anchorage at Yanuya we had one such lucky time. We had been fishing from the back of Exodus along the way, and in our haste and carelessness, we forgot to reel in the lines before firing up the engines, dropping the sails, and maneuvering for anchoring. This is really bad, because maneuvering to anchor inevitably involves putting engines in reverse, which is usually a sure way to foul your prop with any line trailing behind your boat. We didn’t even realize it until we were done anchoring and had shut down the engines. Amazingly, neither prop had been fouled! We were so lucky! If one, or worse both, engines had gotten fouled we would have had a hard time preventing Exodus from going up on the reef. It would have been a race to get a sail up into an orientation to move us in the right direction.
Anyway, that wasn’t the first time that has happened. I wouldn’t say often, but more than a few times we have forgotten the fishing lines when we are entering an anchorage. So, we decided we needed to alter our process in some way, because simply relying on one of us to remember surely isn’t working. So, mentally in our process I have tied checking the fishing lines to the moment in time when we need to start one or both engines in preparation of dropping sails or anchoring. Additionally, we have put the boys in charge of remembering. And finally, it’s happened more than once that I remember the lines too early, and Tim’s not ready to bring them in, and then we end up forgetting. So, now, even if I remember too early, we bring them in.
I’m happy to say that with the combination of these things, we have had zero occurrences of forgetting the fishing lines.
We left Musket cove on a blustery day, and en route we saw up to 28 kts. We wanted to go to the uninhabited island of Monu, and there was some confusion regarding if that was allowed, so we decided to stop at the village at the island of Yanuya to do sevusevu and ask permission to go to Monu. The anchorage at Yanuya was completely untenable as the only protection from the strong winds was a bit of reef and a lot of swell was coming through. We couldn’t take the dinghy to shore due to the reef and the tide level, so Tim and Alex hopped on paddle boards in the wind chop and took a bundle of Yaqona in a dry bag. They also took the head of the fish we caught on the way with them to give to the chief. According to Tim, they did sevusevu with a young guy who said he was the chief’s son. Or possibly we just gave the kava and the fish head to some kid in the village. Anyway, in return he gave us permission to anchor at Monu wherever we wanted, to go ashore, and to fish where we wanted. Hopefully his permission meant something, but we were never approached or challenged, so we’ll never know.
Tim and Alex paddling ashore to do sevusevu at Yanuya
The fish head? Well, it wasn’t just a head because we filleted the rest for ourselves, no… it was just a head because a shark took the rest of it before we reeled it in. It was pretty funny, the boys were reeling it in and I said, “what is it?” and Alex said, “It’s not a fish *pause for perfect comedic timing* It’s half a fish!” It was a smallish skipjack tuna that would have made a nice sushi afternoon snack, but instead it made a snack for a happy shark.
We caught half a fish! (You’re welcome, shark.)
So, we moved around to the north side of the island of Monu. It is an uninhabited island, but from what we’ve gathered it is owned or possibly just used by one of the resorts to bring honeymooners to a deserted island. The lady at the yacht club at Musket Cove said we couldn’t anchor here, which is why we went to the village to ask.
There was excellent protection from the wind chop but there were huge ocean swells coming in rocking us this way and that. Oh yeah, and we didn’t have internet. Oh well, at least we weren’t at musket cove!
We departed 20 July from Yanuca, the small island inside the Beqa lagoon southwest of Suva, and our plan was to stop for the day and night at the small island of Namotu just inside the barrier reef. We did a drive by of Namotu and it was way too bouncy, so we diverted to Musket Cove and kicked it resort style for a couple days. Tim was a bit annoyed that I “squashed his fun,” but seriously, if we had stayed it would have been possibly the worst anchorage we’ve ever stayed in. After saying good-bye to the Bellinis, our boat guests of two weeks, we went on a circuit of the Mamanuca islands to kill time before my mom arrived for a visit. We wanted to go to the uninhabited island of Monu, so we first did a quick stop at Yanuya for sevusevu and to ask permission to go to Monu. Permission granted, we went to Monu, and it was rolly but we stuck it out for 2 nights before heading inside the protection of the Mana Lagoon. Mana was a beautiful lagoon, and the anchorage was flat, so we stayed a few days until it was time to make our way back to Musket Cove. On the way back, we stayed the night at Qalito, a small island with a resort, and then we hung out back at Musket Cove to prep for mom’s visit and reunite with some of our buddy kid boats.
Once mom arrived, we headed back to Mana for a couple days and then up to the uninhabited island of Navadra, which was a wonderful island paradise. But all too soon it was time to head to Port Denarau for mom to catch her flight back home. We stayed at the marina in Port Denarau for two hectic days running errands, doing boat projects, and catching up with friends. Then on Sat 15 Aug we left for the island of Waya in the Yasawa Island group, for a much-anticipated reunion with Lumbaz!
(Yanuca) –> Musket Cove –> Yanuya –> Monu –> Mana –> Qalito –> Musket Cove –> Mana –> Navadra –> Port Denarau –> (Waya)
Our route around the Mamanucas. Musket Cove is at the bottom and Navadra is at teh top
Yanuca is a tiny island inside the Beqa lagoon, west of the larger island of Beqa. Our passage from Gau was a very nice, slow, downwind sail. On my watch our max speed was about 4 kts, but it was quiet, and no one was seasick, so there was certainly nothing to complain about. It was a clear, starry sky and I spent the first couple hours of my watch monitoring a large vessel visually and on radar. I’m not sure why they weren’t transmitting AIS. Anyway, they were stationary for a long time, and I was going to pass it about 2 miles away, but then, of course, it started moving right towards our track, probably on its way back to Suva. I changed course slightly to give it a little more room, and we passed about 0.75 miles away. They did not answer the radio.
The anchorage on the west side of Yanuca was beautiful, and we had a nice walk across the island to the village. We went up a hill through the woods, and as we came out of the woods were were at the school at the top of the hill overlooking the village and had a beautiful view of the Beqa lagoon. We talked to a couple of the teachers at the school, and they were pretty passionate in their support of our choices to homeschool. They didn’t have a very high opinion of government having so much control over education.
We made our way down through the village, one of the cleanest, and had a quick impersonal sevusevu and were sent on our way.
On our way sailing into the anchorage, we noticed a small islet nearby, and Tim decided to turn it into an adventure with the kids. He took them to the “deserted, desert island” for an afternoon, although Alex and I opted to stay behind for some peace and quiet on the boat.
A deserted island getaway
Robin is in her element
Fluenta and Nirvana arrived on our last day there, and the kids all had a great day together playing in the water. It was time for us to depart for the western side of Viti Levu in order for the Bellinis to catch their flight home. We departed Yanuca on Mon, 20 July for one last overnight passage with the Bellinis. This time we left before dark and enjoyed a lovely evening sail into the sunset.
How many cruising kids can fit on a kayak before it tips? Turns out to be 6.
Our last dinner aboard Exodus with The Bellinis (This photo was actually taken on passage from Yanuca to Musket Cove)
Gresham Family Exodus 