Deja vu

0800 position 17-46S 177-12E. On a mooring in Musket Cove, Malolo lailai Island, Fiji

We had a great day yesterday. Shortly after breakfast we pulled the hook and powered south through the Mamanucas. I thought the Yasawas were nice, but they don't hold a candle to the Mamanucas, a couple of dozen scattered islands, which are much higher and more spectacular. None of our charts are very good for this area, so either Eric or I or both of us stand on the bow with the radio in hand while we are underway to watch for unexpected shoals. Shortly after departing Navandra Eric and I saw what we both believed were dolphin darting away from Van Diemen's bow underwater. The animals were about five feet long and gray. Eric saw two, I saw three. We kept watching and they never surfaced for air though so they must have been sharks.

Seven miles south of Navandra we powered between two unbelievably beautiful uninhabited islands with white sand beaches. The water was mirror flat and it looked like a good anchorage to me but Rob decided not to stop. As we powered past them the perspective changed and I clearly recognized the island I wanted to stop at, Monuriki, as the one where "Castaway" was filmed. It was an ideal location for shooting the movie because there was a second beach just over the point and out of sight from the one where filming took place. It was the second beach that initially attracted me and it was perfect for landing all the equipment and personnel required to film. Even better was the resort on the next island a half a mile away where all of the crew could stay during production.

We had a close call while powering past the resort. The air was so still that the surface of the water was glassy which is not good for visibility. We nearly hit a coral head off of the resort, missing it by just a few feet. Better lucky than good. We continued past the resort zigging and zagging through the shoals and past Malolo Island to a resort on Malamala Island Rene had heard about. They advertised a special smoothie that sounded good to her. When we got there we found an unattractive and small motu that didn't look inviting. We picked up one of their moorings (it was too deep to anchor) but the mooring was too close to the reef. A wind shift would have put us aground. We decided to give up and head to Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai, six miles away.

Musket Cove is a fully developed group of resorts, moorings, a marina with another under construction, airstrip, yacht club, many bars and restaurants, and a bunch of yachts. I counted at least forty boats on moorings and at anchor with a bunch more in the marina. We were lucky enough to find an empty mooring close in when we arrived and shortly after picking it up a rowing dinghy approached to speak to us. It was deja vu all over again. I immediately recognized Don, the unofficial harbor master, who welcomed us in exactly the same manner a year ago when Lori and I arrived here on Puanani, Mark and Blossom Logan's Beneteau 39. Don lives on his boat in the mooring field here and wanted to make sure we weren't too heavy for the mooring.

After completing SOP1 we cracked a beer and over lunch I asked Rob why he didn't want to stop at Castaway Island (Monuriki). "Didn't you see the big 'No Trespassing' sign just above the beach?" he asked me. My nearly ripe cataracts had prevented me from seeing the sign. I suppose the island's owner controls access and charges a fee to visit the now famous island.

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