Left Yadua Island for Viti Levu

We left Yadua Island this morning at first light using the track feature on our GPS and chartplotter to miss the reefs at the entrance to the bay. We were glad not to be getting up at 4:30am to get ready to go out in dinghies and look for the missing crew from the yacht "Miami" who had gone out yesterday afternoon in their dink and did not come back by dark (really, really dark). So Jerry on Scot Free II was organizing a search and rescue to go find them, hopefully on a beach with a conked out motor, out of fuel, etc. We all decided that going out in the dark over reefs with our own dinks was not a safe nor prudent thing to do. Ironically, they had been warning others to be sure and take a portable VHF radio in each dink when you go out just in case something happened. The winds have been blowing steady away from the island on to Vanuatu which would be a 400nm drift in open ocean. We all were thinking of that and charging up our own portable radios so they would be ready in the morning at 5:30. Georg and Uta finally showed up at 9pm and were surprised we were all concerned and looking for them. We all took turns calling them on the radio, looking for light signals, shining searchlights around the little bay, etc. Dave on La Vie really chewed them out when they got back and they apologized.

In any case, we were all happy for the happy ending, and glad we did not have to get up to go search. We got up any way at 5:30 to get ready to go, which we did at 7am. The sail today to the north coast of Viti Levy, the biggest island in Fiji, was another fantastic sail. The wind started slow but got up to perfect conditions, again with relatively flat seas. We are either getting to be better sailors all the time, or Maggie Drum is doing better. We led the pack of four boats the whole way and we had expected to be passed by two of them. I think they were distracted by fishing though.

Yesterday on Yadua we went for a long hike though in the morning, up the three mile trail that crosses the island over the hills to the one village on the other side. We did not plan to go to the village so I only wore my flipflop sandals, which was a bad idea, as the trail was steep and sharp, lousy lava rock for most of the way. We did get to the highest point on the island though and got some great pictures of the boats at anchor down below. I will post some later. On the way back we bushwhacked over to another little bay next to ours and went beachcombing and shelling. We found two excellent Nautilus shells which are described as "helmut-shaped". I will take a picture and post as well. Gorgeous shells though and fairly rare among cruisers. The walk wore us out and when we finally got back to our beach, the tide had gone way, way out and our dink was firmly beached and coral rock went out for about 100 yards. We dragged the heavy boat and motor to the little water but it took us about an hour to get it across the rocks until the tide finally came in some and we got it where it would float and we could motor. It was a late lunch.

The night before that we all went to shore at sunset and had a little party with a bonfire, drinks and appetizers. It was a great time, good weather and good conversations. Georg and Uta on Miami are from Switzerland and Germany so had lots of good stories to tell and lies to pass around to everyone about their cruising. Fun times.

Tomorrow we go on to the port of Lautoka where we have to do a formal checkin, again. We meet up with our friends on White Swan and then head out to the Mamanucas and Yasawas after reprovisioning in the stores there.

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