.: The Halldo's are here!

QuickStar at anchorage

Our very good friends Don and Martha Hall from Ottawa have arrived for their Fiji adventure. Their plane landed at 5:30 a.m. and as soon as they made it to QuickStar, we took a quick look around super-yacht alley and then we cast off to the Yasawa Island group. It was about a 7 hour sail, so we threw out the fishing line, as Don is a big trout fisherman at home.

He had quite the successful day – within a couple of hours he caught his first tuna. Peter said “too small – not the right kind” so we threw it back. Don joked that he has NEVER caught a fish that big before.

First fish Don caught

An hour later, he had his second tuna (while Martha was napping, so he was able to say it was a much bigger fish!). The third catch of the day was a yellow fin tuna, so we had a great dinner!

Yellow fin

On the first morning at anchorage we had a typical fruit breakfast

We spent two nights at Manta Ray Island. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to snorkel with the manta rays as the wind was howling and the seas were high, which discourages the rays from coming to the pass, and makes snorkeling a little too dangerous.

We did some beach walking

and also an island hike, where we overlooked QuickStar at anchor

We had checked the weather reports before leaving, which so far this year have been far from accurate. We headed towards Narcula Island which is a picture perfect anchorage. The weather though was unusually brisk. We had up to 36 knot winds and 6 foot seas.

Di and Martha holding on while the sea water came in to the cockpit

Halldo at the helm

What kind of great friend would I be if I didn’t take a picture of Martha almost getting sea sick!

Now we had both gale force winds and rain

When we neared our anchorage we maintained bow watch as these islands aren’t charted properly (very limited info on the Fiji islands. If anyone wrote a great guidebook they’d make a fortune).

Halldo on lookout

Anyway, long story short, we miscalculated the entrance and hit a reef. It was a very serious situation as the waves were banging us around; however, it was thanks to the waves that Peter managed to maneuver us out of there. Very scary few minutes, as the tide was going out and the situation would only have gotten worse. We were basically trapped by coral. There were also no boats within miles of us. Once we got in a deeper spot, we threw out the hook and lifted the dinghy up on deck as it was being bashed around.

We then all calmed down, as we were very grateful that only the boat sustained damage and no one was hurt. We sailed for another two hours to Mana Island, which is a protected anchorage and where we are now. Yesterday morning Don and Martha went out for a 3 hour snorkel, where they saw sting rays and Don’s first ever shark sighting.

A snorkeling we will go…

Peter & I stayed behind to discuss our situation. In addition to our rudder problem – we took 15 inches off the rudder (yikes), which will require us to put QuickStar back on the hard for about a week to get it fixed, we have to figure out how and when we will do this, as we were planning on sailing to Vanuatu with Don next Saturday after Martha goes home.

Peter & I were also discussing the situation at home. We are feeling useless being so far away. Peter’s Dad was discharged from the hospital and is getting settled at home with his mechanical bed, stair chair, wheel chair, etc. It is going to be a tough transition for Erich as he has always been active. It will also be hard on Lisa, although she is one strong, brave lady. My brother-in-law Joe in Ontario remains in hospital and my sister and niece are coping with that. These things are all part of cruising and you have to be flexible and make changes every day. We will make a decision this weekend as to what Plan B will look like.

The weather has been very unsettled and overcast so we were unable to go to Musket Cove yesterday. We made the most of it though and went on a walk through the village.

Kids coming home from school

The kids loved to take pictures with our cameras and then look at themselves.

Kids helping with dinner

Natural beauty and unusual flora

Flying Fox (bats are everywhere)

Village Elder

We met up with our cruising friends Marios and Ara from Bubas. We were planning on just having some drinks with them, but we were having so much fun we stayed for dinner and a show.

Floor Show

As soon as the floor show ladies started moving through the audience, Peter was like a bat out of hell and disappeared. He knows that he is not getting up on stage, but Marios and Don were good sports and participated in the event.