Moving right along.
18 June 2012 | Navadra Island
Bill Hudson
The skies finally let up late yesterday morning and we got out of Mana Island and made our way for Navadra Island. A nice island that's deserted--no natives. Yeah!!! a place to ourselves. Nope, two boat already here when we got here. OK, fine it's a nice big anchorage and we found a place to drop our pretty new anchor(88 pound Rochna) in about 66 feet of water. I think it's the deepest place we have ever anchored. It took all of our old chain and into the new that I spliced in back in Mexico. We have about 225 feet of chain out.
We got all nice and settled for the night. The kids liked it as they had free range of the decks after sundown. Yesterday, we awoke to the sounds of a big anchor being dropped nearby. A cruise ship had shown up from Captain Cooks Cruises(deserted island?). Launch boats came forth and some went scuba diving and other snorkeled and other just walked the beach. We launched Puff and got to shore after they did. Most snorkeled along the reef just off the sandy beach. We did it yesterday and it is a great snorkel reef with lots of good coral and fish for them to see. Better than most reefs these tour boat take you too. The upped their anchor about 1300 and took off. During the afternoon, 5 more boats showed up and everyone tried to get the best anchor spot. We were ashore when one dropped their anchor about 60 feet from us. They were close--too close for our comfort. As we swam back to Zephyr, I knocked on his stern and found out he had put out just 180 feet of chain. He seemed shocked that I had put out 225 feet. If we swung at all, there was a good chance we would hit each other. Tracy and I stayed on deck through out the evening just watching. I finally put out our fenders before we went to sleep. Early this morning, they upped their anchor and took off. No lose, except the sleep that we both lost last night. So far, no new boats but it's time for them to show up if they are coming. It's 1420 and perfect weather for traveling. Sunny to see the reefs. We're taking it easy right now, reading and snoozing the day away. Probably go in swimming later to cool off. It's 86 outside. The Generator is humming away and the water maker is making us 8 gallons per hour to keep our tanks filled. All is well. We have to be back in Lautoka by Friday as our cruising permit expires so we will have to get out of here Thursday just to be safe on getting back in time. Don't want to upset the government people. Bill