September 24, 2013
Today’s trip would take us up and over the top of Vanua Balavu to a deep harbor on the east side of the island called Mbavatu Harbor. Normally this would take 2 hours or so, but today we decided to take advantage of the sunny and still weather to head out the north pass through the reef. By doing so today we could create a track to follow if the conditions were less favorable when we actually did leave. We’d heard of people hitting the reef going in through this somewhat complex pass and wanted to do all we could to avoid the same fate.
The trip up the west side of the island was beautiful, especially the mountainous little cove with a palm tree-lined beach I spotted. Soon after we arrived at the pass, and I headed forward to keep a bow watch as we made our way out. It turned out Rich’s waypoints were good and getting out was relatively easy.
After we headed back in though the pass and over the island we had some narrow channels to navigate so I stayed at the bow to keep an eye out for any surprises. It looked intimidating but turned out to be easy.
The ride took us along some very pretty coastline with green hills, craggy rocks, small coves, and the occasional beach. Below, a few photos of Vanua Balavu’s north coastal scenery (click to enlarge and scroll). –Cyndi
