No wind today so we are taking advantage of the fact that the Trade Winds are not blowing and heading east to Yadua island. We have heard a lot of rave reports about it, and as there are few weather windows to head east we are taking it. It means motoring the whole 40 odd miles to Yadua island, in flat seas that is not a problem. Rowan had seen a narrow passage just north of us through a maze of reefs that would save us a couple of hours of motoring. He put out a message on the NZ/Fiji sailing WhatsApp, asking if it was doable, thankfully we got one response from Dirk Kruger (must be South African) saying he had done it a couple of weeks ago and it was fine, deeper waters than the charts make out. With that we headed off, the water was flat but very cloudy, not ideal for reef spotting. It all went well after a slightly tricky start when Rowan asked me to take over the helm while he went to the loo, we were on auto pilot, I suddenly realised we were heading for shallower water. The charts show the difference of 18m and 1.8m by just dropping the 8 on the 1.8m, no point, so easily misread. Luckily Rowan was not long on the loo and we narrowly avoided the reef!
We made it through the pass, I sat up front, while Rowan was checking both Apple and Google satellite images, plus about 3 other bits of software charting the area. There are warnings that the charting is not accurate here, one reef we saw sticking out was not even recorded on some of the charts. We usually motor between 6-7 knots, the current through the pass meant we were averaging 9 knots. It was a relief to get out the other side safely. The rest of the way was straight forward, we never saw another boat. The trip took us about 4 hours, less than we expected as we were able to keep up a good speed in these flat seas.
We made it into the caldera of Yadua island just after 2pm, not a soul about, there is a village the other side of the island but that is quite far away. We wiggled our way through the reefs into the bay and were happy to be easily anchored. After our reasonably early start it was lovely to just relax, with a mizzle of rain keeping us cool, as without the wind it has felt incredibly hot.
We went to bed feeling we were alone in the world, no sign of anything anywhere!
Leaving the village in calm waters, avoiding reefs, and passing stunning white beaches
We had to round this headland and enter a maze of reefs
Two islands but a maze of reefs under the water
Rain in the distance, not good for reef spotting
We are through!
Pink line is our passage through the dark blue deep water, green is reef, land is yellow and light blue is shallow water. The red blobs are the radar overlay, which only shows things above water
You can see our pink hopping journey up the Yasawas, and our passage through the top reefs, saving us a couple of hours
Out in the ocean between the two islands
Arrived on Yadua island, a map showing us in relation to the main Fiji island. We have nearly completed a full circle as we checked into Fiji in Savusavu, top right.
Arriving into the Yadua, a caldera of an old volcano
The caldera all to ourselves
Dramatic black lava cliffs
Evening light on the beach
No sunset because of the low clouds, but the twilight colours caught the high clouds
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