1/7/2019: At sea en-route to the Yasawas!

After a fab trip out on Saturday morning we returned the hire car and hit the market, wine store and supermarket to stock up for the remaining 5 weeks before we arrive in Australia. The market was a colourful and noisy affair with a good selection of local produce and we were lucky enough to find a lettuce and some tomatoes. That sounds pretty dull but it's a big deal out here!

It started raining on our way back to Tumi and basically continued for over 24 hours as the storm system approached and so we battened down the hatches and spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching movies, a pleasant change after the non-stop partying of late, and applying for our Australian visas (granted!). Fortunately the forecast high winds didn't materialise in our location and so we managed to get a good night's sleep.

Sunday morning dawned and it was still raining (no wonder the island is so lush!) so we dodged the worst of it to dinghy over to  to see Peter and Nicky on Chanto to discuss onward plans. It's particularly tricky navigating in the Fijian islands with all the reefs and so timing the passage to be able to tackle reefs in daylight is essential. Two hours and three G&TS later we headed back to Tumi for a late lunch and another movie before returning to Chanto for sundowners (a bit of a misnomer as we didn't see any sun all day!) and a traditional roast dinner, chicken and all the works, our first one since last October and very enjoyable it was too!

And so now we are on our way to the Yasawas (or Wasabis as Paul is calling them), the sun is shining, seas are calm and there is little if no wind so we're having to motor! It certainly has been famine or feast.l on the wind front recently. Still the calm seas make it easy to undertake a few 'boat jobs' so Paul has been sticking sail repair tape on the sacrificial sun strip on the jib and checking fittings to make sure they aren't coming loose, I've washed down the cockpit and laundry is drying nicely in the breeze. We have to have these domestic days, it's not all partying after all!

And as the end of the day approaches, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.