This morning we powered out of the lagoon surrounding Namena Island through South Save A Tack Pass, a mile from our snug anchorage last night. This pass was a lot easier to negotiate than North Save A Tack Pass, which we sailed through getting to Namena yesterday. The North pass has some shallow coral heads in it that we dodged just to be safe. It gets the blood pumping...
Once outside the reef we made a right turn and headed North back toward Vanua Levu. With the wind right behind us, we unrolled the genoa and had a quick sail up to Nadi pass and into the protected waters of Vanua Levu's southern barrier reef.
Fiji is the land of coral reefs. They are everywhere. The prudent mariner unfamiliar with these waters moves only when the sun is high and a lookout is posted. GPS helps, but nearly all the aids to navigation shown on the charts are missing. They were all likely victims of Hurricane Winston.
We stuck our nose into Nadi Bay, which was supposed to be a good anchorage, but it looked too bumpy, so we headed 12 miles west to Mabuwalu where we found a smooth spot to moor for the evening. There are 3 other cruising boats here, and it is a commercial port. When the 200 foot long ferry makes one of its thrice daily calls, it spins on a dime and backs in to the pier right next to us. It was quite a show.
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