SERENITY NOW

  I’m writing this one as we leave the location I’m about to describe: Nawi Island Marina. Having arrived there on the 23rd August, planning to stay just a few days, we are now tearing ourselves away some 10 days later. I’ve taken a break from the diary - this coinciding with me getting a cheap sim for the phone with 250G of data and gorging myself on all the delights the internet has to offer! Let’s rewind a bit though. One of the reasons we’d chosen this marina was that the ‘Pacific Posse’ rally were having a party here. That turned out to be a great evening: the free rum cocktails helped! Nice to catch up with a few of the boats we’d missed along the way over a couple of excellent mojitos. The Salty Gingers arrived, always good to see those two, and we enjoyed a couple of sundowner sessions with them. A notable one being atop the hill that overlooks the bay here. We were joined by (among others) Ellie and Omar from a Cinnamon and Zoe and Angus from Mowzer - both couples I wish we’d

  Day 1. 12 Aug ‘23 Started the day the right way: with a rainbow and a short dolphin visit as we exited the pass at Suwarrow. It’s been pretty special here.. the usual melancholy feeling at leaving an anchorage is magnified for this particular departure. Suwarrow is a truly wonderful place which we’re leaving with very fond memories and we count ourselves very lucky to have been able to visit. …but move on we must. Once through the pass, we turned Westish (260 degrees) set up a wing on wing config, and as I write this we’re heading along nicely just shy of 5 knots. Chez’s back (coccyx) isn’t too good today - we went from: “This is actually alright” as we exited the pass, to: “I can’t f**king stand this! It’s physical and mental torture!” within the space of a few short hours. The side on swell, plus the usual whip crack of the sails in light wind is, I have to agree, somewhat torturous.. and my back doesn’t even hurt! Hopefully she can get some relief over the next few days. The wind

  As the title suggests; we are indeed in Paradise... However, on arrival, what should have been an easy drop and flop end to a longish passage, felt more like being in hell! Both very tired, we unsuccessfully tried to anchor six times before we eventually set. Shallow coral heads, chain wrapped around rocks and an anchor that just could not get a grip in the thin layer of occasional sand. This didn’t make for a good first impression. Both of us swam to check below during this long process - lots of good sized fish and a number of sharks (black tipped reef sharks, and a plumper green one as big as me that I couldn’t identify). They minded their own business, and so did I. I was strangely unfazed by their presence: being more awed by their graceful sleek bodies than the slim possibly of an attack. With a well received anchoring suggestion on the VHF from Graham (Salty Gingers) we eventually found our spot. As Chez filled in the log, we cracked a couple of beers, these were rapidly downe