A few pictures from Fiji

Everything is going well in New Zealand.  I stayed in Opua for a little over a week and then left for a visit back to some of my favorite anchorages in the Bay of Islands.  What a beautiful area!  I'm enjoying the easy access to such nice walking trails and have started to work on my fitness again.

As is often the case lately, I had a little computer-related project while I was at anchor.  This time, the project was to make a web-site for my Mac app, LuckGrib.  Check it out:
      luckgrib.com

Aside from working on that, now that I have easy access to having parcels delivered again, I have been ordering items online, which have started to arrive.  As a result, I've switched my diet to that food I mentioned briefly earlier - the food that I'm hoping will become my new sole source of nutrition while on passages, and from time to time when I'm not on passage as well.  I started 'eating' some today, and will come back to this in a month or so, after a little experimentation...

Part of all the online deliveries was a mis-delivery, and part of resolving that involved taking some photos, and part of that was that I downloaded my camera's memory card for the first time in months - I found a few pics of Fiji I thought I would pass along.

At anchor, Viani Bay

Vain Bay was quite nice - a pretty place to stop.  However...it was around 80' deep with the bottom being a mix of sand and coral.  Dropping your anchor into sand/coral when the depth is 20 or 30 feet deep is completely different than when it is 80'.  At 20 or 30', when the water is clear, you can place your anchor with some accuracy into sand.  At 80 feet I was basically dropping my anchor and hoping for the best.  I ended up staying here twice, as from here Savusavu is a long day sail away which makes it convenient.  Both times, when I left the anchorage there was some negotiation with the coral below about who was going to keep my anchor and chain.  I've learned to hate anchoring this deeply when the bottom is so mixed.

A random sail between anchorages.  Beautiful blue water

The anchorage above is more like it, although it was quite rare, in my very limited experience.  Anchoring in a wide sandy area with clear water with the depth being around 15'.  Sweet!

Enjoying this tropical living!

As part of the same photo download were some photos from my passage from Fiji to NZ, but nothing worth posting.  I also took some video, but again, its very underwhelming.  I've had a hard time capturing the conditions while on passage.  I'll try to work on that next year, when I should have a lot of practice as I plan to sail back to Seattle, roughly 8000nm.

So far the areas I've been to in New Zealand are the same as last year - so no photos worth posting yet.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of  you!