The wind blew all night long and there was quite a swell, but we had a much better night than we had anticipated. The gentle rolling meant we wanted to continue north seeking better protection, even though looking south we had bright blue skies, and looking north the way we were heading was dark clouds and rain!
The clouds and rain evaporated incredibly quickly. We went about 5 miles up the Jasawa island and found a stunning deserted bay that was definitely less rolly. A local guy on a long boat came and visited us from the very upmarket resort that we had passed a little while before. He was dropping people off at the beach for a walk, I’m not sure if his english wasn’t very good or what but his manner was rather awkward. Otherwise we had the place all to ourselves, it was idyllic.
Rowan had spotted it was good snorkelling so we went and did a very long drift dive with JeldiJeldi. There were amazing huge coral structures that were at least 10-12m deep. Huge canyons running between them that we explored, with sandy bottoms, with the sunlight it was so picturesque. Some of the coral was a bit damaged but it looked like new growth was doing well. We were excited to see a huge blue fin tuna and two turtles. The one turtle didn’t see us for ages and came straight towards us, until it spotted us and dashed off in a panic. Sadly they still eat turtles here which is why we haven’t seen that many here in Fiji. We saw quite a few balls of fish and one particularly beautiful one of yellow fish, which exploded in the sunlight when the turtle dashed by. I rate it one of the prettiest snorkelling experiences I’ve had so far. It was a really long snorkel going all the way around the headland until we could go no further.
In the afternoon our guy in the longboat returned, seemingly for a chat, I think he was just bored and enjoying racing the resort boat about. Rowan was a bit suspicious of him and wanted to move up to Champagne Bay, the place we are aiming for. Unusually I said I thought we were really safe here and nobody was going to come out in this wind anyway! Late afternoon we headed to the beach in JeldiJeldi for a walk. It was only when we were really close to the sand that we realised it was quite a steep bank with a breaking wave. We managed to jump out and set JeldiJeldi adrift on our trustworthy little anchor, always a bit nerve wracking for me in these kind of winds. It was a stunning beach but we hadn’t got that far when we realised JeldiJeldi was going to get swamped, so we headed back to PolePole to another supper of Rowan’s beans!
Looking south from our anchorage ……
……. looking north to the dark clouds and rain, in the direction we were heading
Clouds departed in no time and we found a perfect bay all to ourselves to anchor
Moved from the south to the northern end of the Yasawa island
Amazing white beach and blue water
The fancy resort on the very far right, guests arrived all day long by plane and helicopter
Dry island covered in acacia, just a few trees and lots of palms on the beach
The beach where we tried to walk
Gorgeous beach but not easy for us to leave JeldiJeldi safely , especially in this wind
Gorgeous late afternoon light
Trying to set JeldiJeldi adrift
The pesky little wave
Wonderful sunset again, with plenty of clouds about
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