Commodore
August 19, 2024

Tuesday 20 August – heading south to Octopus resort

We woke up to find we were the only boat in the bay, the small cruise liner and fishing motor boat had both left in the early hours. There wasn’t much to keep us here and as we have to be back in Vuda marina on Friday, we decided to head south again and see if we could see the mantas. We got Sporty Spice flying, (Code Zero) and had a very gentle sail back south, we passed the Manta Ray pass, there were so many boats that we decided to head further down to the Octopus Resort on Waya island. Another stunning resort on a magnificent beach. There were 3 other boats so plenty of space for us, and it did not look to rolly. We had to do a wiggly route in to avoid the various reefs and coral bommies. There was a gorgeous old wooden boat next to us, from Norway, with loads of kids on board. It is so low off the water, quite incredible to think it has crossed a couple of oceans.

We headed into the resort for a walk along the beach. Rowan had a couple of very good margaritas at the bar before supper. We were so looking forward to some fresh food and something a bit different. We were allowed to join in on their set meal, Rowan had a very good lamb shank and I had a very dried out fish dish, but the rest of the meal was very good. The staff as usual were lovely and engaging. When Rowan asked our waitress who the owner is, she was able to tell us that he is a NZ guy who bought this resort, it is his ‘mother’ resort, he has substantial shares in two other resorts. The deal with the island chief was that he had to employ local staff from the nearest village. Fifty staff walk over from the village on the other side of the island, it is 165 steps going up, our waitress said the ladies love it and all had a good gossip on the way home after dinner, it takes them about 20 minutes to walk home. The staff are all so cheerful, they must be very happy to be employed out here on these remote islands. It was quite fun people watching, a real mixed bag, and on shared tables, which is always interesting. There were two single girls, one was seated next to a couple and was obviously monopolising the man rather too enthusiastically. The other girl shared her meal with someone on her phone who she talked very loudly to, which looked very annoying for the other two people at her table. Strangely nobody was put on our table with us!