Category Archives: Daily Lime

Castaway Resort at Qalito Island

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Qalito Island is a small private island located in the Mamanuca group in Fiji.  The island is about 70 hectares (170 acres) even though most of it is uninhabited.  On the west side of the island lies the famous Castaway Resort.

Many visitors get Castaway Resort (located on Qalito Island) and Castaway Island (Monuriki Island) confused. 

The movie Castaway was filmed on the small, uninhabited island of Monuriki.  However, the locals refer to Qalito island as Castaway Island because of the Castaway Resort.

Qalito island is mostly lush rainforests with white sandy shores, and vivid coral reefs. 

The anchorage is very deep (18-20 meters) and can be a bit rolly.  However, we “weathered” the rolliness to enjoy the resort.

Castaway Resort

Yachties are very welcome at the Castaway Resort. 

We enjoyed several days of delicious food at two of their three restaurants. 

  • Restaurant 1808 is their main restaurant and it overlooks the bay. 
  • Sundowner Bar and Grill is located on a deck which offers spectacular sunset views.
  • Nuku Marau Pool Bar and Grill offers poolside cocktails and food.

The resort has 2 pools, tennis courts, ping pong tables, volleyball court, a bushwalk, and lots of water sports and activities.

Bushwalk across Qalito Island

Behind the resort is a short Bushwalk Trail up the tallest hill on Qalito. 

It took a whopping 30 minutes to scamper up the hill in flips. 

There are 2 beautiful lookouts.  The 1st looks out over the east and the 2nd looks over the west – the anchorage.

The locals put up lovely signage and have maintained bushwalk trail.  The signs share information on the plants, trees

On the way down we detoured toward Navutu Beach. 

This second trail was not as well maintained and had some slippery areas for sure.  

Navutu Beach is a beautiful, secluded beach.

Walk Around Qalito

During low tide, Matt and I walked around the entire island of Qalito.  It was a short 2.5 miles and took us about 2 hours.  The walk included lots of climbing up, over, and around rocks and boulders.

We rewarded ourselves with a nice lunch and frosty drink by the pool.

The main entrance to the resort.

Find Qalito Island on No Foreign Land.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events. 

We spent 1 week at Qalito Island during the first part of October 2025.

We fix a problem that was perplexing us for many years in our last blog post, “Reversing a Saildrive Problem.”

A Stay at Vuda Marina

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We never had the opportunity to stay at the lovely Vuda Marina during our first two visits in Fiji.

But, there is always a first for everything.

During our 3rd season in Fiji we had the pleasure of staying at Vuda Marina twice.  The first time was to fix our side-stays and the second time was to install a new furler and repair our saildrive.

Vuda boasts of two large basins: the East basin and the West basin.  We were berthed at the West basin, stern tied to the dock and bow tied to permanent moorings.

Surrounding the two basins is the Vuda Boatyard.  This marina is an official cyclone hole which means it is safe for boats to stay here during cyclone season.

At Vuda you can dine at three different restaurants.  There is a General Store with take away food and some light provisions, there is the The Boat Shed which offers a lovely sit down dining experience and then the Restaurant and Sunset Bar which overlooks the bay.

In addition, you can easily rent a car, hire a taxi, visit the Yacht Shop (chandlery) or make use of many other third party services.  Yacht Help

Amenities

There are lots of amenities for those staying at Vuda Marina and Vuda Boatyard.  Those include multiple laundry facilities, free ice (huge bonus), indoor and outdoor showers, trash and recycling and wifi.

Work Completed

We completed the following projects while in the marina:

  • Washed down boat
  • Filled water tanks
  • Fueled up with Diesel
  • Cleaned all exterior stainless steel
  • Cleaned teak sugar scoops and cockpit hatches
  • Made (8) wench covers
  • Outboard Cover
  • Repaired starboard engine (replaced cone clutch)
  • Replaced both port and starboard side-stays, pins, threads, and toggles
  • Replaced furler and (9) foils

New Outboard Cover for our Yamaha 25

It was a productive stay at Vuda Marina.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events.

We were in Vuda Marina from 23-30 September 2025.

Don’t miss our crazy antics and 1st place finishes during the 2025 Musket Cove Regatta posted in our last blog.

Musket Cove Regatta Week 2025

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It’s that time of year again – the Musket Cove Regatta Week!  We had so much fun in 2022 racing on “Wow” and again in 2023″ racing on “Wings.”  This year we will be racing on a beautiful SVD60 (Simons Voogd) designed 60′ catamaran called “Marcato”.

Matt and I both admired this boat in the earlier regattas.  It has stunning lines, clean look, and wicked fast reputation.  The owners Anthony (Ant) and Janine Robinson were kind enough to let Matt and I crew with on this year’s Musket Cove Regatta!

Be sure to read about our 2023 and 2022 adventures of the Musket Cove Regatta.  Simply type in “Musket Cove” in the search bar or click here.

Ant and Janine invited several of their friends to help manage this incredibly fast rocket.

But, mostly Ant was at the helm, Phil and Janine worked the main sheet and headsails, Chris, Matt and I (mostly Chris and Matt) were on deck handling the sail changes.

During the longest race, around the Malolo Island we had at least 8 sail changes!

The first day of the regatta is kicked off with hobie cat races.  Matt and Chris (from SeaGlub) join together to be team SugarGlub.

The easily win their first heat despite the light winds.

Unfortunately, they lost their second heat during single eliminations.  But they had great fun!

Beachcomber’s Pirate Day

Day 2 brings Beachcomber Island’s Pirate day!  

Anything goes during this race!  That means that boats can use their engines, sails, and whatever means necessary to get to the anchorage first.

Marcato started off slow (captain’s choice) and crossed the start in 11th place.  Never good when you take photos with boats in front of you. By the end of the race we were catching up to the 1st place boat.  Unfortunately, this boat displayed really poor sportsmanship and refused to let us pass and pushed off off the course. 

True that anything goes, but this was beyond rude. 

Beachcomber Island Resort really knows how to host an authentic pirate party.  Yachties are captured, and tied together as they step foot on shore.  The pirates then walk them across hot coals at knife point and into the vaccine tent for a retched shot of rum.

We did win 2nd place and I won sexiest pirate 🙂

Around the Island Race

There are 3 sailboat races during Musket Cove Regatta week.

  1. Beachcombers Pirate Day
  2. Around the Island
  3. Sandbank Race

The around the island is by far the most prestigious race.  Racers have to navigate around reefs, corals, and more as they sail around Malolo hitting almost every point of sail.

We had over 9 sail changes during this race (which is a LOT).

We had a great start and managed to stay in the top 3 for the majority of the race. During the last 1/4 of the race we edged in front of both the 1st and 2nd boats.  As we neared the finish line, with a mere 100 meters to go the wind died to zero (see photo).  The good news it died for everyone.  After a painstaking 45 minutes, it picked up and we crossed the finish line first doing a whopping 3kts!

Super Hero / Villain Party

Besides having an amazing boat, Ant and Janine are great party planners.  They went all out on the costume party.  We were Gru and his minions complete with a “moon” strategically placed in the rafters of the bar.

We won first place!

The Sandbank Race

This is an interesting race as the racers follow the committee boat with a marker. 

The committee boat does not drop the marker until it deems it prudent. The racers never know where the marker will be dropped.

Marcato came in 3rd during this race.

All in all the Marcato crew came away with lots of prizes and wins.

  • 2nd place Beachcomber Island Pirate Race
  • 1st place Around the Island race
  • 3rd place Sandbank race
  • 1st place Superhero costume contest
  • 1st place sexiest pirate

We sailed in the Musket Cove Regatta 2025 in mid-September.

Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind actual live events.

Don’t miss out on our bushwhack hike along the ridgeline of Malolo Island.