Monthly Archives: September 2022

Fiji Welcomes the Konis Family

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So excited to spend some time with my family in Fiji. We meet Kimberly, Troy, Cameron, and Cole (the Konis family) in Port Denarau on Viti Levu (the mainland) where we secured a mooring.

They arrive before sunrise and enjoy the beauty of nature all around me. 

We do the required covid tests and a little shopping in the Port Denarau Marina mall.  A quick cocktail stop at the “Sails” restaurant before we leave with a fun photo op.

It is a short 2-hour motor to Musket Cove Marina on Malolo Island.  On the way, we stopped off at a little sandy spit with a few other tourist boats.  The boys swam to shore while Kimberly and I took the SUPs to shore.  There were tons and tons of tiny sea stars (I call them star fish but was corrected by the Konis family).  Unfortunately, I did not get any photos so close your eyes and imagine us walking on this white sandy spit that disappears during high tide.

A few hours later, we grabbed a mooring for the night at Musket Cove Marina.  Being on a mooring places us closer to the marina, eateries, and activities. 

A quick stop in to see Patrick, the Musket Cove Yacht Club manager who gives the Konis family “Lifetime memberships to the Musket Cove Marina” for $10F ($5 US).  Matt and I sign up for the Musket Cove Regatta as well so that we can participate in the crazy fun.

We head to shore for dinner at Dick’s Place where we celebrate Kimberly and Troy’s wedding anniversary.  Perfect to be together with the Konis’s.

Dick’s Place offers a buffet dinner so there was something for everyone.  We enjoyed a beautiful sunset at this exquisite setting.

I was able to capture this crazy beautiful photo with the sun setting over the lit pool. 

Day 2: Musket Cove & Seventh Heaven

The next morning, Cole has an appointment with Fiji Surf Co. so we move Sugar Shack out to Namotu Island which is about 2-hours away near the reef and the famous Cloud break surf break.  We anchor just as his surf team pulls up in their boat (they came from Port Denarau).  Cole jumps in their boat and off they go to enjoy a morning of surf at Wilks Pass and Namotu Lefts.  It wasn’t a terribly great surf with 1.5-2m seas, but Cole had a great time meeting new people and surfing in Fiji.   The resort is called Namotu Island Resort and caters to the extreme sports enthusiasts.  It is all inclusive of surfing, kiting, foiling, and more.

Kimberly, who is not an overly zealous snorkeler decided she would jump in the water first to enjoy some private time with the fishies.

Once Cole returns, we head to Seventh Heaven, our new favorite eatery in Fiji!  We run into Glen who is one of four owners of the bar.  The last time we were at Seventh Heaven we met Glen the last time we were here with Wayne.

We order delicious cocktails and super tasty food!

And of course, Cameron shows off his mad skills on the Leap of Faith doing back flips and artsy dives.

Exploding Bean Bag

We headed back to the boat to enjoy some R&R.  Around 4:30pm we hear “oh no” and all of the sudden we see tons of white floating balls fly by us.  We quickly run up to the bow where we find Cameron desperately trying to close the exploded bean bag.  The bags are old, have been baking in the sun, and have taken a lot of abuse by young ones.  It was bound to happen.  One of the seams tore open and a lot of the bean bag filling literally went flying out of the bag.  It took all 6 of us over an hour to try to clean them up. I am sure Matt and I will be finding them floating around for years.  It was truly funny and not funny at the same time.

The boys decided they’d like to try sleeping outside, but I don’t think it turned out like they expected.  The sleeping bags cocooned them and Cole’s bottom was hitting the SUP (so he moved to the trampoline).

Day 3: Waya & Octopus Resort

We started off day 3 early as we had a 45nm motor/sail to Waya island.  We could have pushed the motors a little more to compensate for the lack of wind, but we made it in about 5 hours.

Waya island is a new island for Matt and I so we had to rely on feedback from other cruisers.  It turned out to be one of our favorite spots.  We pulled up next to the Octopus Resort and dropped the hook.

Matt dropped us off ashore to explore the beautiful sandy beach.  After asking the resort for permission, we headed over to a more secluded area where we could beach comb, play bocchi and enjoy the cool waters.

Matt made his famous eggplant parmesan which unsurprisingly got devoured in short order!

Events from this blog occurred in the first two week of August.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events.   In our last blog, we explain why a stick on a hill can be extraordinary for us.

Internet Connectivity

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What makes you jump up with joy?  As silly as this may seem, the stick on the hill makes us ecstatic.  Why you ask?  Because it means internet connectivity!

If someone asked you if you could disconnect from the World Wide Web could you do it?  If so, for how long?  An hour?  A day?  A week?  How about months on end with no access to anything.  

Sure you can do without “web browsing” or surfing for several days and probably not miss it.  Maybe you can even shut off Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok without much heartache.  But, can you be without contact from your family and friends (no emails, texts, chats, or messages) and no phone calls?  

It is a lot harder than you think.  Sure, it is the price we pay for being in paradise.  However, when we see that stick on the mountaintop we jump for joy!

That stick may mean we only get WhatsApp and Messenger (the low bandwidth sources), but sometimes that is enough.  Sometimes we don’t need the other connectivity.  But other times, we just want to see what’s happening in the news or social media.

So, the next time you see a stick on a hill – think of us and how happy we are to jump for joy!

Maybe Starlink will change our world with 24/7 access while at sea.  But at what cost?  So the question is to be or not to be (with internet connectivity)?

This has been our life for the past 4 years as we move across the remote islands of the Pacific.  We will continue to scream for joy when we see these wonderful sticks!

Port Denarau: Viti Levu

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We motored 2-hours from Musket Cove to Port Denarau where we had lots to do.  First, we had to drop off Wayne so he could catch his flight.  His 3-week visit went by fast and we are so grateful he came!

Port Denarau is not nearly as “pretty” as Savusavu or even Papeete.  The hillsides are brownish green, the water is brownish green, and the traffic is unbelievable.  There are tons of cruising boats, fishing boats, tour boats, cruise ships and mega yachts.  It is a big city on the mainland of Viti Levu.

As you enter the anchorage, you see rows and rows of condos and resorts on the seaside.

Like, Papeete, this is not our favorite place.  But, it is a necessary evil to have to come here to provision and run errands.

We have to be careful here as they have a 1.5. tide which makes the marina look odd against the sand dunes.

First things first, we need to dump 3 weeks of trash and recycling off.

Truth be told we were rather surprised at our waste amount.

Next we had to go shopping.  The Konis’s are coming in a few days and the boat is desperately in need of food, beverages, produce, and staples.  We hire at taxi driver to take us to multiple stores, the butcher, the liquor store, the baker, and the farmers market.

The farmers market was incredible and was housed in an enormous warehouse!

Almost everything you could imagine in produce, vegetables, fruit, spices, eggs, and kava!

As you can see, we loaded up until we ran out of time, energy and money!

We were not able to get everything that we wanted, but we certainly got most of it.

In addition to shopping we had to do a massive cleaning of the boat, bake some tasty treats, and prepare the boat for 4 more people.

We love having guests, but the preparation and the after math can be tiring.

Events from this blog occurred in the last two weeks of July.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events.   In our last blog, we enjoy a fabulous snorkel and then party it up at Musket Cove and Seventh Heaven.