After a week of civilisation of sorts in Suva, we set sail for Likuri Lagoon or Robinson Crusoe Island as the resort is known. This island lies on the southwest corner of Viti Levu about 75nm west of Suva. The trip was rather boisterous and, on the second day, with 36 knots of wind directly behind us, dear George our autopilot, decided to go on strike. Fun and games. We were exhausted from hours of trying every sail configuration we could think of to cope with the severe downwind winds and now we had to hand steer in very very lumpy seas. Don’t anyone dare say that’s character building!
When we arrived outside the reef Cariad called the resort to ask for assistance as it was impossible to see the narrow opening in the breaking reef. They were fabulous and sent a boat out to escort us in which was a real saving grace but Cariad had sailed past the entrance and couldn’t get back against the winds. They ended up having to carry on another 8nm to the next bay while we comfortably dropped anchor just outside the island resort in much calmer conditions.
The resort was a simple island holiday stopover that offers day trips from the mainland with traditional Fijian meals and entertainment in the form of dancing and music. We had had fellow cruisers highly recommend it so decided that it would be our one touristy stop - we’d avoided anything commercial up to this point sticking rather to the real Fiji which we’d found in and around Vanua Levu.
Well, it was an excellent show, we were glad we’d made the effort but it wasn’t exactly the smartest decision we’ve ever made. We can’t get back to Suva as planned and time is running out on our visa.
The entertainment was colourful and professional with the dancers looking as though they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. The artists are actually the staff of the resort so, during the day, they are bartenders, cleaners, kitchen staff, skippers on dive boats, etc, etc. However, come dance time, they come alive with the music and really put on something special. The nightime show was far more spectacular especially with the fire dancing but I wasn't close enough to take decent photos.
After an enjoyable few days there, we chose to come further west to an even more touristy venue in the form of Musket Cove where there are more yachts than we have seen in the whole of Fiji to date. This is obviously the other Fiji, the one that most tourists see. It looks really pretty but we are glad we did what we did spending most of our time in the remote islands and villages further east.
Hubby spent quite a time on scraping tons of crud from the hull prior to leaving so we literally flew the 28nm with our nice smooth bottom. While working in the water, he had a close encounter with a black & white ringed sea snake of the poisonous persuasion. It's curiousity earned it a smack on the tail but that didn't convince it to leave. Paul felt that it may have thought the floating line he was using to hang onto was a buddy of his but it must have eventually realised it wasn't, got bored and disappeared.
Now, our only problem is to sort out officialdom as we did not check out of Suva to come here. The customs authorities are quite strict when it comes to moving from one region to another and we’re now in the Lautoka region where, simply, we should not be. It may mean catching a bus back to Suva to do the formalities but we are currently looking into other alternatives. Let’s hope it ends up a simple task.
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