Wks 105-107: Mamanucas & Yasawas (94nm)

Three weeks divided between preparing Serenity First for sale and doing a second tour of the Mamanucas and Yasawas to check out spots we missed the first time around. Weeks 1 and 3 were mostly work on the former while in the middle we made time to sail around some lovely new spots with our friends Will, Dottie and Grace on Amari.

First Mate’s Log

Note: These last few weeks have been in some ways very slow and in some ways jam packed… but one thing that didn’t work as well for this period was our captain’s log format. We’ve written about each week as a whole instead.

Week 1 (14th – 20th September)

Spent the week at Musket Cove cleaning and beautifying Serenity. On Thursday, our broker, Anna, came around to take tons of pictures as well as shoot a video tour. See Story of the Week(s) below!

After the whirlwind of prepping the boat for the photos and getting all of the info to our broker for Serenity’s impending sale, we took a couple of days to just relax. Our friends on Influencer, Matt and Sydney, had returned to Musket Cove for a few last days with us before they would head home to Australia, and Amari (Will, Dottie and Grace) had come out too. We enjoyed days by the pool and the resort’s rather delicious rose along with games and movie nights. It was a really nice way to say goodbye to Matt and Syd and to reward ourselves for the hard work of the week!

Week 2 (21st – 27th September)

With Influencer departed for Australia and us rejuvenated from our work week, we decided to take some time to travel around the Mamanucas and Yasawas with Amari to check out spots we missed the last time around.

I Will Survive Mana Island

First up was a short hop within the Mamanucas. We made a lunch stop at Honeymoon Island for a great snorkel and then a short hop to Mana Island, which is long and thin with a fully enclosed lagoon (bar a tiny, thin pass – which was certainly a bit hair raising to navigate!). Mana is famous as the place where the last 12 seasons of Survivor have been filmed. We’d heard that when they aren’t filming you can go explore the set, so were excited to check it out. As soon as we arrived through the pass, the Survivor myth was busted – this is absolutely not a deserted island! The bottom 1/3 of it is left mostly natural for the show’s filming, but the rest is packed with hotels, backpacker lodges and a village.

Most of the island was shuttered due to Covid, but we were still allowed to check out the Survivor set, so we all dinghied over to the beach to see what we could find. Driving in, there was no sign of the infamous pillars that contestants used to have to stand on in the water (do they do that anymore? We have LONG since stopped watching). We did find a strange metal walkway that was partially submerged, but it was unclear what that was for. So, we pulled our dinghies onto the beach and set off to explore. The first challenge area was supposed to be just behind the beach, and we found a little cut through to it. There was… nothing there. Well, thats not fair, there was a stack of bits of set (platforms with colourful paint jobs and trap doors in the middle) but everything had clearly been taken down. Alas. And the field had not been mown in recent memory, such that it had been taken over by the most vicious little weeds with razor sharp hitchhiker seeds. We made it about 10 metres across the field before we had to turn back to the beach because of the onslaught. We concluded we wouldn’t have lasted long on Survivor! After a solid 20 minutes picking the horrible spikey seeds off our clothes and shoes, we decided to go for a long walk on the beach instead. This was a much better idea in the end, and we enjoyed a fun couple of hours. We even found a little path through the island (that was thankfully free of aggressive plants) to explore and some excellent shells on the beach.

Rockin’ and Rollin’ in Waya

Our next stop was supposed to be the island where Tom Hanks’ Castaway was filmed, but an unexpected N wind made the anchorage completely untenable, so we continued on towards Waya. This is one of the larger islands in the Yasawas chain and has several good anchorages (we’d heard), but we’d not stopped there at all on our last tour. Based on the wind, we figured the central anchorage would be perfect. With two nearby villages and reported great hiking and snorkelling, we hoped to spend a few days here. But, importantly, we need internet access in case of questions from potential buyers. We were surprised to discover, as we made our way into the bay, that despite the relatively abundant population there was zero phone service! The first place we’ve not had internet in Fiji! It was getting late so we had no choice but to anchore for the night, and then it was back to the drawing board to figure out where to go next.

We decided to next try the anchorage on the N of the island, which looked to have reasonable wind protection and we knew had phone signal since our friends on Influencer had been there before. We’d heard it could be pretty rolly in there, but hoped that current wind direction would mean it was calm. Of course, the land does funny things to the wind around here and what we thought was going to be a protected spot was, well, not. We decided to give it a try anyway, especially as we wanted to visit the local village, and it wasn’t too windy or wavey when we dropped anchor. Plus, on the way up we finally completed our ocean fish bingo / Pokemon collection by hooking a sizeable Wahoo (gotta catch ’em all) – yummy!

We went in to visit the village, and importantly to offer Sevusevu. This is a gift of kava root that visitors are expected to present to the village chief in return for permission to anchor in the bay and explore the land. Way back in Denerau when I’d gone out to buy bundles of kava for this purpose, the vendor explained to me that its like taking a bottle of wine when you go for dinner at a friend’s house. Makes sense! It was also a nice way for us to be introduced to the village. We met Nathan on the beach, and his son Ben, who would be our hosts for our stay. Nathan first took us to see the chief, to whom we presented our kava bundles, and then gave us a tour of the village. Back on the beach, his son Ben harvested some coconuts for us before we headed back to the boats for an afternoon of swimming.

The swell in the bay built and built and built through the day, to the point where it was more than uncomfortable by evening. None of us got much sleep that night, but it was unclear where else nearby would be any better. Determined to still make the most of our time here, we headed into shore the next morning for a walk. Ben guided us over the hill to a little resort on the NW side of the island. It was closed due to Covid, but the owner was happy for us to walk on the beach. The beautiful sandy bay beckoned, and we watched it hard noticing that there did not seem to be any swell at all here! Plans were instantly hatched to move the boats over here later in the afternoon.

But first, Nathan had agreed to drive us in his long boat up to the area where manta rays normally hang out for a snorkel (we’d anchored there with Serenity on two previous occasions, but both times the anchorage had been so crap that we’d abandoned without a chance to see the rays). We hoped this would give us an opportunity to snorkel with them but without risking the crap anchorage with our boats. The swell meant the ride over was… bumpy. But we arrived intact and got straight in the water. There were more fish than I think I’ve seen anywhere, but no mantas! We snorkelled for about an hour, hoping that they would show up, but no dice. Oh well. We stopped at the nearby beach for a rest and to eat the snacks we’d brought with us, and then headed back to Waya. The swell had only gotten worse since we’d been gone, and I think within 30 minutes of getting back aboard we had anchors up and were driving away!

A short motor around the headland and we entered the bay of the Octopus Resort – just as we’d seen that morning it was beautifully flat!! And the most gorgeous clear water. Happy days!! A relaxed afternoon of swimming with Amari and a movie night ensued, before we all passed out early to catch up on sleep. Alec and I stayed an extra night at this lovely spot, while Amari headed back to Musket a day early for Will and Dottie’s birthdays. We had a lovely quiet day punctuated by a relaxing walk on the beach.

Aaaand We’re Back

On Saturday we headed back to Musket Cove, so we’d be in time for their famous monthly Sunday brunch the following day. And, we’re glad we did! It reminded me very much of the brunches in the hotels in Dubai – four hours long and so many dishes you can’t even try all the food! We also felt very lucky to be in a place that can still host a buffet; I think such things are a distant memory in much of the world right now. Our friends Aaron and Nat from Catherine Estelle had finally been freed to leave Denerau (they’d been there around 5 weeks dealing with Covid quarantine and then a rabies test requirement for their dog, Malvo), and they made the trip over – it was so nice to finally see them again! While we were here, we also made time for a walk around the island to finally see more than just the pool and bar.

Week 3 (28th September – 4th October)

We are still working our way to the bottom of the boat jobs list, and really, really want to make sure we finish it before the boat sells and/or we leave it for the cyclone season. Given the Musket Cove Regatta was coming up, we decided to focus on jobs this week, to try to get as far ahead as possible so we could really enjoy the regatta. We headed back to Denerau, where we finished the work to add rubrails at the bow and did a second round of gel coat repairs. It was a good week to pick for jobs, as the weather was grey and raining for most of it! But we got our work done, plus lots of laundry and a big food shop (maybe our last ever big food shop on the boat?). Now we’re ready to enjoy the famous Musket Cove Regatta next week!

Story of the Week(s): Boat for Sale

Serenity First is up for sale. Its rather surreal. In many ways this last three years has gone slowly, but then now that we’re here its rather hard to believe we’re about to move back on to land.

You can tell we’ve been on board a while given just how huge a job it was to both clean / tidy / tart up the boat and to “de-cruiser” it to look its best self in the photos for our sales advert. The former included removing rust and mould stains inside and out, scrubbing the walls and ceilings, patching little nicks and holes, organising every shelf (aka removing a lot), and frankly hiding 50% of our stuff in one of the aft cabins. The latter meant saying goodbye to our fruit hammocks in the kitchen (RIP) and all of our various bits of bungee that had accumulated around the boat over the years. It made Serenity look swanky, but we will miss the convenience of those little things during our last weeks on the boat. On the plus side, the new sealant in the aft bathroom looks fire.

We spent the better part of a week on the above (or at least Alec did; I was (in)conveniently ill for the first half) alongside inventorying, finding any and all documentation, and writing about our lovely boat’s many features and highlights (hi, we’re biased). We also scripted a video tour to shoot with our broker. It was a busy time! But, when the appointed day came we were ready for our broker, Anna, to see the boat in all its glory, and she was duly impressed and very complimentary – made it all feel more worthwhile! I had fun leading the video tour, and the photos came out great, so we are feeling pretty pleased with the advertisement – check out all the photos and the ad HERE, and the video below!

Anna impressively turned this ad and video around in literally four days. She is a machine. We were very lucky to find her in Fiji this year, as she covers really the whole of the South Pacific, but Covid kept her here and we were introduced at the famous (infamous?) Island Bar in Musket Cove on a particularly lovely Sunday afternoon back in September. I don’t normally like sales people, but Anna straight up tells it like it is and man does she work hard. She also has a nicely flexible model that allows us to keep cruising while the boat is listed, provided we just remain available for calls and are willing to do video tours ourselves as needed. So we were very happy to sign on with her when it became clear that Australia was going to stay shuttered for foreigners for the foreseeable future.

Selling a boat in the current climate is… interesting. On the one hand, the market is booming because sailing is relatively Covid-friendly. But on the other, its tricky because borders are either shut or very restricted, making it hard for buyers and boats to move around. But, we’ll figure it out. Despite the constraints, we are hopeful that the boat will either sell or be in negotiations by the time we fly home, but, if not, we’ve booked a cyclone pit (a special storage option for boats staying in Fiji through cyclone season) and we’re accepting that things might go on hold until borders reopen.

So, anybody want a boat?