Musket Cove Regatta Week : Party, Party,Party.

13th –18th September 2019

The hole punched right through the port hull into the bow locker

Having spent a week in the Port Denarau marina where the final repairs to the hole in our port hull were completed, it was time to head back over to Musket Cove for the annual race week.






Below are a few pics of the superyachts that were docked in Port Denarau marina during our stay. There were plenty more including Dragonfly 73m, Legacy 50m, Pursuit tender to Legacy aka the toy boat or fast support vessel 51m. she also has a chopper,, Deniki 52m, Drumbeat 53m , Clan V111 45m and the list goes on.

'Senses" owned by Google complete with chopper is 60 m  long

Superyacht Sportsfisher  "Lanakai  "  is 39 m long

Ashanti, above & below is having her bow sprit removed for varnishing, she's 34 m long

Musket Cove Regatta  is a highlight for most sailors regardless of whether you are a full on racer or just a cruiser.

 It’s the premier event on Fiji’s sailing calendar. Actually to be honest it’s probably the only thing on Fiji’s sailing calendar. With non stop events day and night the place turns into party central.

The regatta is sponsored by various businesses from  Fiji, Australia and New Zealand which gives the event a bit of an international flair, so to speak. When it comes down to the participants well, that’s truly international. You won’t find any of the big boys who follow all the high end racing circuits  here, it’s pretty much just our kinda people, cruising boats.

As GWTW hung up her racing shoes many moons ago we, along with 13 other friends were invited to be part of the crew on Rewa. Rewa as you’d know from reading previous posts belongs to our American friend Dave. She is a 64ft ketch and weighs in at around 50 ton. So once she gets moving it takes a long while to slow her down, something that paid off during one of the lighter air races.

There were jam sessions on GWTW

Followed by a performance in the island bar during Happy Hour

As I mentioned earlier, during race week there were all sorts of events happening. Breakfast, lunches and dinners were provided by the sponsors most days.

Happy hour at the island bar was a big hit each evening and activities such as hobbie cat racing, coconut husking, island fun run, or walk if that was more your style,  it drew a big crowd as did the golf challenge. 

There were also lots of fun things  to keep the cruising kids occupied as well. But the main event was the yacht racing.

There were three races, the first being to Beachcomber Island,a two hour downwind race from the start line.

 It was ear marked with a pirate theme so water cannons, water balloons, pistols, deck wash hoses and anything that involved the wet stuff  was fair game in close quarters from the start line to the finish line.

 Once at the island a buffet lunch was served followed by the prize giving, then it was a casual sail back to Musket Cove and get ready for the evening activates.

Water toys at the ready

Dave with daughter Tessa

What a cute couple

The girls of Rewa : Tessa, Judy, Laurie, Heike, Me & Vandy

From Left: Eric, Heike, Liam, Dave  Me & Vandy

The crew of Impi having fun

Race two was a 20 mile triangle course. The weather was extremely sporty and even had Rewa on her ear. Those of us with previous racing experience took it in our stride, however we all felt for Dave’s sister who had just flown in from the States. She had never been on board a yacht before and now she was resembling a pigeon in a loft that had uninvited guests sizing her up as a meal. There were a few close calls during the race when a couple of boats came within spitting distance. Not a good thing in such boisterous conditions.

A bit too close for comfort

A smidge overpowered to say the least

Heike ready on the mizzen sail

Liam takes the helm

The final race was around the island and the fleet left in extremely light airs. Rewa got a good start and her 50 ton momentum paid off well as we ghosted past the lighter weight boats and just kept on rolling.


That was until the forces of nature intervened and we eventually slowed to a full stop. We had every sail up that we could but without a good breeze she was hard to get going again.

So the bar staff, Dave's daughter Tess and hubby Nick were relieved from deck duties and put to work in the galley making Bloody Mary's for everyone. Man were they tasty.

We rolled this boat even with his spinnaker was up

Post race drinkies

Sadly Rewa did not win any race prizes but had there been trophy’s for the best onboard music,  in house adult beverages, jokes and humor or nibbles then we would have  definitely cleaned up.

The race week concluded with an amazing sunset followed by another huge and tasty buffet. 




Fireworks lit up the sky and late night dancing went till you could dance no more. 

Sensational sunset

The Rewa  2019 Musket Cove Regatta crew

The whole thing from go to woe had been a real hoot and the most fun regatta we’d partaken in in years.

Would we recommend it, you bet we would.

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Moving on to Western Viti Levu
Fireworks, Parties & Altercations with Fishermen .

 13th – 28th August 2019

Leaving Beqa and the sharks behind we headed back over to mainland Fiji and on to Robinson Crusoe Island for their weekly dinner and fireworks show. As much as we are not resort hounds it is nice to have a meal ashore and experience a tad of Fijian culture.

The resort is run by an aussie lady who makes a real effort to welcome yachties to come in and enjoy the island. 
The dinner was terrific and there was an over abundance of food. The food was spectacular with dance troops, singing, fire juggling, kava drinking and a fabulous finale of fire power on the beach at 9pm. All in all a great night ashore in a well protected anchorage.

The Kava drinking was really not my bag

Dancing above and the finale fireworks below

Next stop was Musket Cove on Mololo Li Island about a three hour run west of the Viti Levu in the Mamanuca Group of islands.  Musket Cove is home to all sorts of events and is a very popular spot for yachts and superyachts to lay at anchor for extended periods of time. The resort here is another yacht friendly place and for $20 FJ you can become a lifetime member of the yacht club and have full use of all the resort amenties and restaurants, It’s a great deal, probably the best we’ve ever heard of. So of course we joined.

As I said its quite the gathering place for people like us. Catching up with friends whom we’d not seen for a while was great . Among those  from New Zealand were Mark and Jennifer from the motor yacht Starlet. Jennifer was celebrating her 60th birthday and they’d booked a villa on the island for the event which was  followed by a fully paid dinner on the cruisers island bar & BBQ. 

Our group of cruisers at Jennifer's birthday party

Roughly thirty of us were invited to the event and believe  me they put on a great party. Starting with an open bar and nibbles in the villa followed by dinner on the island where the yachtie musicians rocked the dance floor for a few hours. Another fun night out.

While here we also caught up Eric and Vandy from Scoots and their visiting family from the USA. The weekly Pig roast dinner  was highly recommended was being held one night so we all signed up. Well worth the money and the fun, laughs and jokes with our favourite friends went on all evening.

L-R team Rewa, Scoots and Us

Next up it was time to move on the the rest of the island chain so off we hoped along with a couple of other yachts and headed over to Mana island just a stones throw away for a day of diving and snorkeling. 

We stayed an extra day while the others went back into the Mana lagoon which is not a favorite spot of ours. Next morning we pulled up the anchor and decided on  stopping at Navandra but enroute we had a not so slight hiccup .

Just after tacking the jib sail from one side to the other in rather boisterous conditions we were both inside studying the charts to avoid any lurking reefs, which there are plenty of in these parts.

Suddenly we felt solid impact and heard a loud bang, and just as we stuck our heads up a moderate size fishing boat slid down our port side. Shit, we’d hit him!

His bow punched right through our port hull

In that couple of minutes of not being stationed at the helm disaster had struck us. The fishermen, three of them were all asleep and anchored right on our track. How dare they.  Ten feet either side and we’d have missed their boat completely.  The fishing boat's bow had put a thru and thru hole in our port bow. All he had lost was his anchor rope.

He very excitedly began his pursuit of us, loudly yelling and waving his arms. We  dropped our sails and pulled over into a small cove, where another cat was anchored, and the fishing boat,  definatly not by invitation rafted alongside as we hastily deployed our fenders to ward off more damage to our hull..

Ron, the main man, attempted to jump aboard but we fended him off, he was in an incredibly agitated state and we sure didn't want him on our boat.

We were glad we anchored in company with the charter boat Big Blue who were very helpful in giving us police phone numbers etc as well as sound advice on how to handle this mishap and interacting with this excitable fellow.

The skipper, Ron,  was beyond hysterical, claiming serious damage to his vessel, though that was difficult  to really tell as it was  really a piece of floating crap. Anyway, we were totally at fault and after much negotiation he finally agreed that we'd compensate him to the tune of FJ $1500  around AUD $1000. 

For sure it was probably double what he was entitled to but we simply wanted the matter and him to go away. From the shake of hands he was our new best buddy. He called us daily on the phone to ascertain when we would be back to pay him and even started calling Liam mate!

Fortunately repairs to GWTW were arranged to be completed in Port Denarau a few weeks later at a very reasonable cost.  In the meantime Liam and a fellow cruiser  Hank from S/V Harlequin did some interim fiberglass repairs once we arrived at the protected anchorage of Blue Lagoon further up the  island chain.

Hank & Liam fibrerglassing the hole

Overall, we were very lucky. Had Ron's boat collided with the centre of our boat, rather than the port hull, who knows what the outcome would have been. Possibly sinking the fishing boat, certainly dismasting  GWTW and prematurely ending our cruising. Worst case scenario would be people overboard, and many of these folk don’t swim too well. Doesn’t bear thinking about, really. Lesson learnt… keep a good lookout for reefs and fishing boats!

After the incident we continued on to Blue Lagoon, where parts of the original movie of the same name were filmed.  And yea we all showed up to watch the movie  the resort put on for us. My WE were young  when we watched it for the first time . While we were here we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary with a whole bunch of friends at the Natalya Resort and even had the resort band sing us happy anniversary during dinner.

Happy 34th to us

Our days were spent chilling out, playing music jam sessions ashore, taking walks to the windward side of the island and snorkeling the nearby reefs . It was a great few days in a beautiful place.

Cruiser music at happy hour in the resort

Anniversary dinner with our friends

Walk ashore with best friends Vandy & Eric from S/V Scoots

Great organic veggie gardens at the resort and you can order a box of assorted fruit and veg

Lo with her tea house.. great teas and cakes well worth the walk

Blue Lagoon anchorage

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