Soon on our way again

Our stay in beautiful Fiji is coming to an end. Back to Lautoka to do our clearance out and buy fresh fruits and bread. We will head off to Tana (Vanuatu) when the wind will come up again. In the mean time we met up with our friends from Puerto Seguro (after chassinh each other for the last 2 months) and had an excellent - and very late - evening eating a "Boeuf Bourgignon" made from Mamouss in Panama.

We are trying to empty our freezer before arriving to Australia!!

Belle journee pour celebrer

Victor a 10 ans! Ca s'active dans la cuisine et le four marche a fond malgre les 30deg a l'exterieur. Une petite fete est prevue sur la plage cet apres midi avec 4 autres copains. Greg a prepare une chasse au tresor "sous marine".

Nous sommes toujours aux Fidji (17deg 04S 177deg 16E), a decouvrir l'archipel des Yasawa, a naviguer entre les tres nombreux recifs et a apprecier les belles plages de sable fin. Soleil et vent en journee et nuits etoilees.

Time to give some news again

We are hoping from island to island and are enjoying our time in Fiji very much, so much that we are forgetting our readers!

We did a very short stop in Lautoka, the 2nd main city of Viti Levu. Always great to stock up on fresh produce from the market. We treated ourselves with a simple dinner out as it is quite cheap here. However, there were far too many mosquitos in that bay and we had the bad surprise to see Merlin's deck full of dark ashes the next morning.

We had a good sail to Navadra (17deg27S - 177deg02E). What a magnificient place.

Two small islands uninhabited with pristine beaches, clear water and beautiful coral life. The kids spent hours by themselves on the beach building some more elaborated "cabanas".

We hoped again a little further North (10nm) and anchored in another scenic spot. However, there was a big reef just behind us. We didn't sleep much last night as our GPS was incorrectly telling us we were drifting too much.

Early start this morning to find a safer anchorage and we found it at  lunch time (17deg10S - 177deg11E). We are tucked between two islands, quite protected from the wind...and there are manta rays on our door step! We went swimming with them this afternoon. What a experience!!!

They were huge and beautiful, dancing for us (dixit Victor) and came back again and again. We will stay another day to go and visit them again. We ended up that special day with a colourful sunset and a good beer with our friends Bicoque.

Simple & so good

We crossed to Musket Cove last night. No wind and too much motor (not what was forcasted!). We are on a mooring buoy in a fancy resort with a few luxuries. We used the showers of the “marina”: it was sooooo good to use warm water without restrictions (last time it was in Panama! ). We are all clean and happy.

A "l'Astrolabe Reef"

Nous avons quitte la ville, ses magasins (pas, peu, moins chers), son marche magnifique et sa baie aux nombreuses epaves. Depuis 4 jours nous sommes a l'Astrolabe Reef. Seuls au mouillage, avec autour de nous des petites iles inhabitees qui n'attendent que nos visites-explorations. Les enfants passent de nombreuses heures sur la plage a essayer de construire un radeau de survie. Ils viennent juste de reussir l'etape "flottaison" (il vaut mieux compter sur notre survie officielle pour le moment). Superbe plongee pour tout le monde sur le recif : des poissons et des coraux qui declinent toutes les asociations de couleurs imaginables. Un peu de bricolage (que de pompes a bord), d'ecole et beaucoup de balancoire avec les drisses. Nous attendons le retour du vent pour poursuivre nos decouvertes plus a l'Ouest.