01.11.2014

Musket Cove

Palm trees, all kinds of different green trees, some with beautiful spring flowers, lovely scent in the air from flowers, tons of birds singing, 3 resorts, on manmade marina, brown sand beaches which dry out a lot during low tide, new stylish ferries, snorkeling where fish are being fed and thus come to you in thousands when you go snorkel around there, lots of sailing boats, a bar with happy hour + ultra comfortable lounge area + with grills to be used by sailors against a fee of 1US$ (includes silverware rental!), merky water. That's the experience being anchored in musket cove. People are all very friendly here. ON the main island of Maloolo island they are building a new Marina with services and probably hotel / shops around it (one resort is already there). It looks like an architect's dream comes true: sit on your laptop, design something of your dream (marine with waterways and nice layout), animate it and find someone and a place to build it. So they are working very hard here, with a bagger and lots of hands, to build this unreal-looking marina. I am sure in a cople of years it'll be a nice place. Only the white beaches here, that you see in the catalogues and of course in the image of the layout of the new marina will always be an illusion. The sand here is brown, that's just how it is. And it's very flat towards the shore, so the beach dries to way into the water. Good if you're looking for mud walking, like at the Watt in Germany. There are lots of activity offers here, most of them driving you out to reefs and little islands for surfing or snorkeling. 
One decadent contraction can be found here at the outer reef. It's called „Cloud 9" (like the german „Wolke 7"), so they named it after paradise. It's a floating double decker house construction which houses a bar and restaurant. You can jump off the roof of it into beautiful sandy water. The construction is situated on the only sandy part along this huge reef which supposedly offers very good snorkeling. You can have very expensive drinks and food there, but our friends say it's a great experience. We will pass by there with our crew, which is boarding on monday for two weeks, if possible. 
Tomorrow morning we're leaving this place here to sail to Denerau to pick up the crew and tuesday we'll be sailing out to the Yasawa islands. One of these days we'll also pass by „Castaway Island", the island where they filmed the movie "Cast away" („Verschollen") many years ago. 


picture on the very right: it is raining just over a sail boat! 

Musket cove anchorage

Two cool boat names in the anchorage with us: 

26.10.2014

Who would have thought....

… that this is the world famous Fiji? Would you have recognized it? Some part tell me I could be in Brazil, others let me think I am in New Zealand or Patagonia. Strange, but lovely. We're only about 50nm away from the paradise islands as known from those travel catalogues. At least I think they are there….