A few season ending stats are always fun!
Miles Traveled: 1024.1nm
Days aboard: 60
Days paddleboarding 50+
Days snorkeling: 20+
Days wing foiling: 10+
Number of anchorages: 26
Number of 4:00am departures: 7
Number of nights on passage: 4
Number of marinas: 2
There are three gallery options:
1. 30 photos
2. 50 photos
3. Unabridged (scroll down)
The unabridged gallery:
Route for the 2023 Season
Taking on a local boy, who guided us to a nearby village
Walking through the village in Somosomo
A wonderful family we met who invited us for tea and conversation
Leles cooked us a fabulous dinner
Look at all that food she prepared, she cooked all day
With cruising boats in the anchorage with kids a village program was organized
Roxy showing off her beautiful artwork on the Sky Pond gallery opening gala
Sun setting in Somosomo
Sunrise over the spit of land we cross to dive the P-39 plane crash
To the day!
Cooking some dinner for everyone
The incredible "champagne" beach
View from Lea lea's tea shop
Sun setting from the Blue Lagoon anchorage
Up at 3:00am for the Fiji v England quarterfinal match
A windy day on the beach
Check out the Kava demonstration 😀
Enjoying the sunset from the resort
Happy hour on Jean's last night in Fiji
What an aplenglow!
The ladies starting their travels back to the US via dinghy, a ferry, and an airplane
Sun rising on what would be a long, busy, productive day
Glass water on our 300+ nm passage to Ongea
Using the paddleboards at high tide to explore all of the tiny islands
Paddleboarding route
Able, our local fisherman and cigarette rolling aficionado
My hiking route, around the area we paddled yesterday, this time at low tide
Colorful clouds left us wondering if rain was coming soon
Low tide the islands we paddled exposed the white sand for exploring by foot
The colors and contrast from ocean to islands
Calf deep water to cross even at low tide
Photo Credit Carl Podlogar
Photo Credit Carl Podlogar
The "waterfalls", where at low tide the water continues to pour into the atoll making a mile long waterfall
Our south anchorage spot, watching the anchor set
This white tip reef shark took a bit too much interest in us, so we moved along
We timed the pass incorrectly and had to battle some large waves entering the atoll
Entering the atoll at Fulaga
Our village hosts, Alfred and Bali
Sunday church service, we didn't understand much but the singing was a highlight
Lunch of pumpkin and casava in a roti with lemon grass tea
What a view, so peaceful
We snorkeled this blue pool and the connected one a number of times with the incoming tide pushing us along
A half mile sand spit that forms at low tide was fun to explore
Wandering out to the end of the spit
Another sunrise poking over the palm trees
We spent many days working on our wing foiling skills, 4.5 hours one of the days
Homemade pizza involved a lot of preparation but was completely worth the effort
A panorama of our last anchorage in Fulaga
Squalls on the horizon as the sunsets
The clarity and ruggedness was unbelievable
I always wondered how the trees would grow out of nothing but volcanic rock
Nice opening for drinking coconut water
Sky Pond nestled nicely in a tiny spot surrounded by tiny islands
Vanua Balavu shopping was limited but the conversations were great
A deep bay was our home near the plantation on Lomolomo
Lots and lots of steps up to the former planation
Former plantation now has lots of grazing for sheep, cows, horses, pigs, and chickens
This guy found a message in a bottle that was toss in the ocean in Puerto Vallarta. Carl helped him locate the boat that sent the bottle on the way
View of the Bay of Islands from the plantation hike
This picture reminds me of the sound the lapping waves make at high tide against the volcanic islands
Wowza, what a sunset!
Early morning passage out of the Bay of Islands and through the pass required lots of mapping tools for safety reasons
A bit rough, we sailed along at a good clip
You can just make out Sky Pond from viewpoint on our hike around Matagi
Now we see the sign about stinging nettles after we bushwhacked up the hill to get to the trail
Hard to fathom how the trees grow like this naturally, but they do
The private beach cabana for the guests at the resort on the other side of the island
Panorama of the bay holding the private beach
Rain off and on obscured the land around us
The way this cloud hugged the mountain was interesting
Our view for a few games of Schock at the Paradise resort
Being Diwali we had a fabulous Indian meal, but it was way too much food
Sky Pond tucked into the new Nawi marina for protection from Cyclone Mal (weather was mild in our location)
They are still building the marina, this is the spot to pick up the water taxi into town
Back to the marina just time to catch this view
The city market in Savusavu
Our haul of fresh veggies for the next three weeks
While it was nice to have a shower and easy access it was still better to be back on the water
Exploring the south beach on Namera island
Looking for papayas I stumbled on this Krait snake, yes it is poisonous
Coming back up from the depths on the Rainbow wall
So much colorful soft corals
Thousands of tiny fish
An underwater aquarium
Working my way down to look into a cavern
Barracuda, lots and lots of barracuda
Curious fish
Yes, this is real
Some Angel fish hugging a cool field of purple coral
Moving NW as we make our way back to the Yasawas
Starting my daily two hour hike
Looking back from where I started my hike
White beach, volcanic rock outcropping, repat, endlessly
Thanksgiving dinner on Sky Pond, we have so much to be thankful for!
Fiji loves to burn things, we woke up to the boat covered, absolutely covered in ash. So our day started washing the boat.
Yet another early morning departure
Snorkeling off the boat to the blue hole in Somosomo
One last sunrise as we head for Navandra
The mountains have gotten more rugged
We were welcomed into the anchorage by four black tip reef sharks, thankfully they were gone by the time we slid into the water to snorkel
Wild clouds and colors reflecting off the ocean to start our day
Bare poles, clearly it is getting close to haul out time so off came the mail sail
And there goes the jib
Enjoying resort life in Musket Cove with a salt water pool swim
My breakfast came from these papaya trees where I had to go caveman style to tear into them
The grass strip runway, quiet right now but busy in high season
Looking down at the Musket Cove anchorage
Our last morning on the water, next stop Vuda marina
All the masts tell us we are nearing the end of our season
One night on the marina was enough, due to bugs we had to close up early resulting in 95+ degree temps to sleep in overnight
The trailer supports being positioned for hauling out Sky Pond
And away she goes...
All blocked, stripped, and ready for cyclone season
One final sunset from the top deck of Sky Pond
Peni knocking down rose apples on our private hike in Koroyanitu national park
A view from the tabletop view point
Headed for the waterfall brought more breathtaking views
A cool swim was just what we needed to refresh our bodies for the final push back to the village
Our village host Margaret with her grandchildren
A huge spread of food was prepared following our 8 mile hike; Fish, Taro, Casava, Rice, Papaya, and noodles with caned fish, plus some super hot peppers
Amazing adventure!! Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.
You truly living a beautiful life. I love the pictures. Thank you for sharing.