Sailing, Sailing, over the Deep Blue Sea

Path to island pub

Beach at the Blue Lagoon

BJ guides Slow Dance around the many treacherous reefs.

Small island in the Yasawa's

Breakfast Aboard

 The Yasawa Islands are an extraordinarily beautiful chain of volcanic islands, stretching north of the big island, Vita Levu.  Isolated white sand beaches, mountains with cliffs, blue lagoons, palm forest and awesome reefs make up the islands. The Yasawa's are dry and sunny, far north, away from the daily rains of Port Denarue.

 Ron arrived with Arlen, Don, and Emily at 6AM Fiji time, and much of the first day was spent provisioning for the trip. Breakfast consisted of fresh tropical fruits, omelets, scrambled tofu, bacon, and fresh baked carrot pineapple muffins (no sugar or fat)

The days were spent exploring islands, snorkeling,  kayaking, swimming, and just plain relaxing with a good book and a nap!

North of the Yasawa's, in 1789 William Bligh and his 18 companions from the famous mutiny, fled for their lives from canoe loads of cannibals. Today the Fijian island folk are gentle souls, much like an adult 7 year old; Curious and innocent. I visited the Blue lagoon in 2007, and always longed to return to further explore these many beautiful islands;  a dream come true and with such good company. The sailing was gentle, the water so blue and the food delicious. Enjoy the pix.

Don and Emily

Arlen

Fresh Wahoo, grilled Cajun, served with fruit salsa, wild rice pilaf, and green salad.

 The Wahoo was delicious. We also caught a small tuna and enjoyed Sushimi with very hot wasabi. The next day, we enjoyed the tuna; grilled rare, in a Nichoise salad. Ahhh, this is the life!

Emily in route to one of the many resorts on the islands.

BJ reels in a Whaoo

Sean holds up the catch

Fresh Wahoo

Ron and Arlen, taken at sea

Sheik Mohammad Don

Dinner on the Blue Lagoon

Fresh Basil, local tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella from the Italian import store. Topped with balsamic, olive oil, and fresh garlic.

Tuscany in Fiji ;baked garlic Eggplant (obergene in Fijian) with fresh rocotti cheese, angel hair, grilled spicy Italian sausage, marinara sauce, tomato and cucumber salad with garlic toast.

Roasted Eggplant with Rocotti

 There are many resorts throughout the Yasawa's, but we never found the food to be as good as on Slow Dance. When looking for the Blue lagoon which is located near Turtle Island, we chanced upon a very picturesque resort. We decided to go explore and loaded everyone in the tender. Once at the dock we were greeted by a friendly German fellow who informed us we were at the very exclusive Turtle Bay Resort. The minimum stay is 7 nights and the cost is $3000.00 per night. We wondered what the interior of the palm forest held? What must the rooms be like? The spa? All meals, water adventures, and private island luxury is included in the price. Ron and Arlen, of course tried their best to get a tour based on them booking a week. Watching them in action was a treat, but in the end they were not permitted ashore. Our German greeter told us the x vise president of the United States had just been a guest, at which point Arlen asked if he had shot anyone in the face during his stay. Ha ha!

Group doddle on a napkin

Giant spider in tree at the Blue Lagoon. They are harmless but I still would not one of these guys to crawl on me

Emily and Cookie in the wheel house.

Happy sailors

Don and Emily relax on a secluded beach

Slow Dance

Ron, Arlen and Sooz, share the captains chair.

The weather was perfect; fresh salt air to read and nap to....

Emily enjoys her book

Don and Emily kayack

We went for ice cream at Fanny's backpacker place, but they were out; we had beer instead

The wind favored us and we finally got to sail.

Palm Forest, Blue lagoon

Arlen and Trini head for shore

Emily finally got her coconut!

Don and Emily play with Lucky, the local island dog. Lucky loved Trini!

Lucky, Va's dog

Arlen at the Manta Ray Resort, Yasawa's. We opted for lunch there, which was very disappointing.

Va and Bill live on the Blue Lagoon and remember Brook Shields! Va invited us all to her back yard for a traditional dinner of fish, chicken, taro, and pumpkin, all roasted in the ground. I went to her place early so I could capture the age old process. Bill made a fire and burned it down to hot coals. The food is wrapped in palm leaves made into a kind of basket. The hard palm branch is cut and placed over the coals as a grate. The food basket is laid on-top and then covered with banana leaves. Bill then covered the leaves with burlap and shoveled sand on top and left the food to cook for several hours

Va and Bill's place with the grandson's playing outside.

When I visited the Blue Lagoon in 

The front yard

2007, Va and her son Sammy prepared such a feast for all the yachts anchored in the Blue Lagoon. There were 12 of us and Va's daughter in law helped out. The Kava ceremony was performed after dinner, but sadly, there was no kava this time.

Pumpkin with tuna prepared for the fire

Ready for the food baskets

Parrot Fish and Chicken

Strange looking Parrot Fish

Bill covers the food with Banana leaves

Banana leaves

Bill uncovers dinner

The finished product. I added some stir fry vegetables

What's dinner without the wine!

Sunset over the island

 We were lucky to be in the southern hemisphere for the lunar eclipse.

It all started at 2AM

Nothing like a cat nap at sea

Bula Bula

Nachos for snack time

Captain Ron

Eat, Drink, and be Merry

Emily relaxes after a swim

Blue Lagoon

Perfect Pineapple

 The fruit on the islands is spectacular. Saturday is the big day for the open market. You can buy fresh  cucumber for $2.00 (Fijian) a "HEAP" that's 3 cucumbers to a heap. Fruits and vegetables are  sold by the heap. A huge head of cabbage is $1.00. The Phalanges (Thats white people) supermarket called New World, sells produce at 10X the price. Although, they do have some items that the market does not, such as beets.  Farmer Boy is a service that would deliver produce to the boat but they charge a large fee for the service and besides, I love to go to the market myself and pick out the goods.

Lunch menu's for the sail included; Chicken Burger with grilled pineapple and sweet chili sauce, Tofu Burger with grilled red onion, peppers, and chili sauce, Lean Beef Burger with grilled onion and garlic, Homemade Pizza, Cashew Chicken stir fry, Tofu stir fry, Tuna Melt, Nicoise salad with fresh tuna, and much more.

Sooz enjoys an on shore umbrella drink.

Garlic bread

Ron steadies the tender

Emily learns to tie a sailors knot

Captain Sean

Final meal on the boat was an Curry feast; Chicken curry, vegetable curry, Thai beef in red curry with coconut milk, basmatti rice, Dal, yogurt, raisins, coconut, roti, and cashews.

Dons plate

Don and Emily dinner at Cardos

Fruit Bowl

Sunscreen was necessary on all areas exposed!

Tuna

 Arlen enjoyed his book

Emily Snoozes.  There are so many great photo's taken by the group. The only photo's I have not received were from Emily before she left us. I do hope she emails them as there were some good food shots as well as people, places, and things!Thanks Emily!