December 2018
During the 2018 cruising season, we made quite a few trips to Beqa (pronounced Benga, or even mBenga with a slight “m” before the B). Some of what we learned is here and on the map below.
Here is the typical scenario: People on a cruising yacht decide to cruise the Kadavu area. They provision in Suva and wait for a weather window to get down there. They then spend some time in Kadavu and enjoy it but tire of the frequently strong winds. Thus, when the weather is right, they decide to head on to the west side of Fiji (generally the direction they were headed) and make a stop at Beqa on the way. Short on provisions and time, and likely not in ideal conditions, they make a quick stop at one anchorage in Beqa then head on, thinking it was pretty but been there, done that.
Our opinion: Beqa deserves far more time and attention than it usually gets and thus has become one of the most underrated cruising areas of Fiji. We cruised Kadavu then returned to Suva to re-provision before heading to Beqa. Like Kadavu, we waited for a good (not too windy) period of weather. Thus we enjoyed three fantastic anchorages (Malumu Bay, Vaga Bay, and the Lawaki Beach House mooring), and an interesting anchorage off the Beqa Lagoon Resort.
We also anchored off the nearby island of Yanuca, very beautiful with some great diving nearby. We were invited by a dive shop to pick up one of the moorings when they weren’t using them (Tues., Thurs., and Sunday are the days the moorings aren’t used). We managed to locate one by watching the dive boats when they were using them, then headed over the next day and managed to locate one at a site they call Fantasea.
In all, we think Beqa is one of the most beautiful islands in Fiji, and there’s a new development that has just made it easier to visit: Pacific Harbour, about 6 miles away. It has a small marina at the Pearl Resort where you can rent a slip. This is a handy place to sit out bad weather, re-provision, get laundry done, enjoy a good market and some great eateries, and see a very attractive area of Fiji. There’s also access to a great dive operator (Aqua Trek) that does dives in Beqa, including the famous shark dive. (Yes, there’s a dive resort on Beqa Island, but they’re so busy with their own customers that it’s frankly easier to go with Aqua Trek.) Rivers Fiji is also located here, and they do an amazing rafting trip on the upper Navua River.
In a nutshell, Pacific Harbour is a spot that makes it easy to spend quality time in Beqa without having to tack it on to the end of a long cruising period or worry about grabbing the next weather window to the west side. And it’s so close to Beqa that it’s easy to go back and forth.
BEQA ANCHORAGE AND CRUISING GUIDE
On the map, the black line is our multiple tracks from the season. Waypoints, tracks and routes are in a GPX file that can be downloaded from this link: beqa.
(I’d recommend adding this as a “temporary layer” to openCPN and create your own routes and waypoints from this information. To do that unzip the file, go to Route and Mark Manager, layers tab and select Temporary Layer. It’ll go away the next time you restart openCPN and won’t clutter up your screen. You can always add it again when you need it. Alternatively, you can use import GPX at the bottom of the Route and Mark Manager screens.)