Footnotes from Water Music

Up early for our 50 mile sail to the Yasawa islands two fishing lines out by 7.30am we had a big mahi mahi on the end and a long fight ensured which resulted in the fish jumping off as he came on the transome, this is not just another one of those stories we have photographic evidence to back it up! With an air of disappointment we put the lines out again fortunately the gloom and despair didnt last long as we soon had another strike- this one albeit slightly smaller we landed! The gaff proved to be not mych use in Vasco de Watson's hands as he gaffed himself whildt the fish managed to snap off the end of the rod! Still 3 days of delicious fish dinners for the lucky crew!
We arrived in the stunningly beautiful Sawa-e-lau island just as the wind was getting up and sadly the snchorage wasnt as protected as we had hoped the two villages were too far to reach on our little dinghy with not very much fuel and a sleepless night was had by one of ths crew worrying that we were going to drag and hit the nearby reef, given how long it took us the following morning to unwrap the chain around the various bommied not to mention dighing out the anchor from undernesth a rock there was no danger of us dragging! We then made our way to the more protected anchorage at Malakati where presented our yangona and various items for the village. Alastair was spared the deliights of actually tasting the Kava but he still didnt enjoy the sitting cross legged on the floor in front of thd chief or being told to take his hat off! We were told that the afternoon church service would take place at 4pm so duly turned up at 3.55pm. Everyone in the village seemed to be asleep after what must have been vigorous independence day celebrations and drum calling the faithful to prayer was not beatened until 4.45pm. We were welcomed by an otherwise incoherent minister and endured a 40 minute tirade on the evils of something or other all in Fijian ! In any case it gave us a chance to meet the villagers and arrange to have tour and get some fruit and vegetables the following morning, we also managed to give some mefic6al assistance to the family who were suffering from conjunctivitis. .