Two At Sea

September 14, 2013

This would be our final evening in Fulaga, but it looked like we’d be treated to a beautiful sunset. We brought our chairs outside, setting them up to face the motus while finishing the wine we’d opened. Sure enough, the sky turned golden and pink, and we watched the little rock islands darken as a blue dusk settled over the scene.

A bright half moon was up as night came on, and the water started to glow white around the little rock islands, the moon lighting up the sandy bottom through the clear shallow water. The horizon still had some light, but the sky above us was dark enough for bright stars to dot the sky. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before or since, one of those enchanted evenings where I think, “it’s all real.” It was so magical I didn’t want to go in to make dinner, so we stayed outside with our wine and continued to watch the scene. After I finally did make dinner, we brought it outside to eat and watch the motus in the moonlight.

When we went to bed, the half moon was high and unbelievably bright, lighting up the boat so much it was almost hard to sleep. Our enchanted day had continued into an enchanted evening; so much so we decided to get up early to see what dawn’s light might look like on the little islands. It would be more direct than the sunset light and probably worth getting up for. –Cyndi

September 14, 2013

From our new anchorage, it was a only a short dinghy ride to the pass into Fulaga’s lagoon; so we decided to check out the snorkeling in that area. It turned out to be pretty nice, but it was what came next that was really special. We’d noticed an intriguing beach on the arm of the atoll dividing this area from the outer ocean. Now after snorkeling, we decided to go and explore it.

To get to the beach, we needed to weave our dinghy through shallow water amid numerous small rock islands, a magical experience. (Click to enlarge and scroll through any of the galleries below.)

We soon landed on a white sand beach, maybe 100 feet long and 6 feet wide in the current tide, backed by a tall limestone cliff. Bushes and small trees clung to its sides, and we could hear the calls of the birds that lived within them plus the distant rumble of surf hitting the reef outside the atoll.

We beached our dinghy and the first thing we noticed was the sand! It was so soft as to be almost mud-like in places, but white and lovely. The shallow pale blue water here was so warm and inviting that I felt compelled to plunge into it, swimming amidst motus. This was about as beautiful place as I’d ever seen. Rich and I don’t always agree on the merits of beaches, but we both agreed that here we’d found the perfect Fulaga beach.

After spending some time here, we both thought the same thing: “Bob and Linda have to see this!” They still had their boat at the sandspit anchorage but would have no problem getting out here in their dinghy. We headed back to our boat to call them and soon discovered they were already on their way! We turned around and followed them back, anxious to give a tour of our beach (is it really a tour if you’ve only just seen it yourself?)

Soon everyone was into their own exploration and discovery. Linda found the sea snake coiled and resting in the rocks, sort of a scary and exciting thing to find. I was into playing in the warm shallow water, discovering a motu with a hole up through the middle. The last picture is of me sitting inside my motu “cave” and watching everyone else on the beach. Who was having the best time? Each of us in our own way.

After awhile, we headed back to our boat to shower and do some boat cleanup as we’d invited our friends over for drinks in our new neighborhood. High on wine and the beauty of this place, we had a great time. Tomorrow we’d be heading our separate ways, but we knew we’d be seeing each other down the road.

Here, a quote from Rich that evening:

“Not every day is like this out here and even my ‘perfect day’ could have been improved if I had a couple of oil-change elves to do the engine work for me. But there are a lot of days like this and more than enough to color the average days and even the bad days with the hope of more perfect days to come.”

Nicely said! For now, with sunset soon to arrive, we’d have more of this day to enjoy. –Cyndi

September 14, 2013

After some wavering, we decided to go try a final “anchorage” before leaving Fulaga. I put that in quotes because it’s not really an anchorage. Instead it’s an area amidst a group of motus not far from the pass. We’d seen a boat in there and wondered about it. When we ran into the owner at the beach party and asked him about it, he urged us to go try it; it’s “really nice.” Of course all of Fulaga is pretty spectacular; so when someone says a place here is “really nice,” it must be extra special!

At the time, Rich thought to grab the guy’s waypoint using the AIS in case we ever wanted to go over there. It would come in handy today.

It was a beautiful morning as we motored down to the area, following the track we’d used to get to the Sandspit anchorage. The sky was clear and the water was glowing bright blue. When it came time to leave our track and head into uncharted territory, I headed up to the bow to keep an eye out for bommies. The water was clear, and it was easy to see the numerous coral heads and make our way through them.

We ended up finding a spot with the motus just off our left side, then another group a bit further off on our right. Feeling brave, we actually motored in among the bigger group, but between all the islets and the coral bommies, it was a little too tight for comfort. We went back to the first spot and dropped our anchor in about 15 feet of water over a sand bottom.

Once anchored, we got to take a good look around. This place was gorgeous! The colors of the water were beautiful, and all these little palm-covered rock islands around us were an amazing sight! We both agreed later that this was one of the best three anchorages of our cruise. Below a few photos (click to enlarge/scroll) and a video of the view from our boat. –Cyndi

Here’s where we anchored: 19 deg 08.177 S, 178 deg 32.207 W (Don’t trust us completely. Use your own judgement.)

September 2013 in Fulaga (Fulanga), Fiji

Too beautiful for words…

The type of gallery used above is a new addition to our website.  Our website (blog) is made using WordPress.  There are a lot of free plugins available for WordPress that change the way things look and work.  This gallery plugin, called AlpinePhotoTile, creates a gallery from photos in one of our online Google+ albums.  I love the way it looks and works and it gives us a way to share a lot more photos, easily.

This is just an overview of Fulaga and a small sample of the 3,285 pictures we took there.   Click on any of the pictures above to enlarge.  We’ll post a lot more in the days/weeks/months to come.  -Rich

September 13, 2013

Our weather window would soon arrive; so we decided to check out one more “anchorage” closer to the pass into the atoll. This would be our final night by the sandbar.

We went and joined our friends on the beach that evening for a final trash-burn fire and some champagne. It was a nice farewell to one of our favorite spots ever. –Cyndi (Click to enlarge/scroll through gallery below.)