Sailing the other side of Fiji (part 2)

 The tradewinds are often enhanced between Viti Levu in the south and Vanua Levu in the north. What would be 15-20 knots on the open ocean, often becomes 25-30 knots of wind here, which isn't a problem sailing downwind, but just sitting at anchor during the high winds in the Yasawa Islands isn't fun. We had 2 days of low wind in the forecast and Pirlouit left Ya(n)dua  at 4am in the morning to motor to the northern Yasawa, then had a couple of days there in not too high winds, then retreated south to less windy places.

We will get to the Yasawas another time, and instead, we used the little wind (<=10knots) there was to sail south from Ya(n)dua with full sails and pointing as high as we could to make a little of our own wind with boat speed. It worked out great, and we ended up sailing to the Nananu passage all the way to the anchorage behind an island called Nananu-I-Ra. The landscape in the north of Viti Levu is hilly, but pretty barren. Fijians seem to believe in burning the brush, that leaves the hillsides with little vegetation. At night we often saw some larger fires, likely started with gasoline causing a bigger fire at first and the next day we can still see the brush smoldering.

The shore is dotted with lavish houses and some resorts / hotels.

 We spent an extra night behind Nananu-I-Ra for the trade-winds to pick up again (remember Bogi Walu?).

The passage along the north shore of Viti Levu behind the reefs was reasonably marked in the past. Few of the day marks are left, which is not a big problem traveling at good light.

 

 Finding shelter after a day of sailing isn't hard either, there are plenty of islands and bays that protect from the wind.

A couple of sandy islands were not charted and we gave them a wide birth. We later found out, an Australian company is mining the magnetite rich sands of the (M)Ba river. A dredge sucks up the sand, and pipes it to a floating processing plant, from where barges are filled and shipped to Lautoka. I am sure they take care about all the living creatures, crabs, worms, mussels and all. 🙁

The next day we passed Lautoka, the second largest port in Fiji after Suva and we had to take care to stay out of way of ships, barges, and pilot boats. Sadly some of the bigger barges, or ferries, do not transmit an AIS signal, so one sometimes is a bit surprised coming around a bend. So far we have been sailing all the way, and we made it to Saweni bay, south of Lautoka, where we sailed in to drop anchor. 

From here on, we have to learn about some different weather patterns: The large island Viti Levu heats up every day and draws in air from the surrounding area, which then rises up. On the west side of the island that causes a wind reversal in the afternoons, with the wind coming from the west towards the shore. It can get quite blustery, while the weather models mostly show no wind, one can easily have 15-20 knots every afternoon, blowing into the anchorage. That causes a bit of discomfort with the wind waves, but it all calms down with sunset.

 

Saweni Bay