There was a lot of action here in our sleepy little anchorage today. This morning we walked on the beach and talked about how nice it is to have such a lovely spot all to ourselves. But just after finishing lunch we looked out the pass to the west to see a tugboat towing something strange behind it coming around the point. After some debate with Puanani on the VHF radio, we determined that the strange tow was in fact an overturned barge.
The next topic of debate was their destination. "They'd be crazy to try to pull that thing into the lagoon" was the consensus. Perhaps they were crazy because they did try to pull it into the lagoon and they ended up putting the barge on the reef right at the narrowest part of the entrance channel. Fiji apparently doesn't have government agencies that care about folks damaging their reefs. This kind of thing would result in huge fines in Hawaii.
To add to the intrigue, a couple of hours after the barge went aground a small sailboat arrived outside the pass. Clay spoke to him on the VHF to fill him in on the barge situation. Good thing, as the Irish skipper's initial come back included bewilderment about "not seeing that thing on the the chart". They managed to make it into the lagoon without incident and anchored next to Puanani. Clay and Mark recognized the boat as one they had seen in Savusavu.
I don't know if I can handle any more excitement. We are supposed to be relaxing here.
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