Going to bed last night we smelled a bit of smoke, but it isn’t that unusual in the Yasawa’s as they burn land before planting crops. This morning however, as the sun came up, it was shocking how much ash was covering the boat. And I mean covering. First order of business was washing the outside of the boat. What a mess and what a waste of water. Blerg. With that checked off, the engine was fired up, the anchor was raised, and we were on our way to Somosomo. A bit of a head wind brought waves and made for a slight hobby horse ride, but it was fine. By 10:00am we had the anchor down and could almost relax, worked was calling first. Carl started vacuuming his berth (he was lucky and only had his hatch cracked while mine was wide open). While he did that, I removed my window screen which caught a lot of the larger ash, next was removing the sheets and pillows to give a big shake outside. Putting the sheets back on I noticed mold on the ceiling, so next up was spraying vinegar on the walls and ceiling and giving them a good wipe down. Finally, I gave a vacuum to my berth and the galley. Whelp, that had not been on the agenda but now my half of the boat was nice and clean again.
After lunch we paddled to shore and started the hike to the beach on the other side, with plans to dive the P-39 plane wreck (a few months ago we search but only found the propellor). The hike was more challenging this time as there had been a lot growth of plants and bushes following Cyclone Mal. But we found our way and reaching the beach headed to a waypoint we created to help in locating the plane. Once there we used the compass app to find a spot to swim towards and we were on our way. It is probably 250 meters off shore and while on similar tracks, mine was slightly north of Carl’s and sure enough I missed it. Thankfully Carl spotted it and I sawm back to him and we spent some time diving down to check it out. Along with a lot of clown fish and one lion fish (boo, they are an invasive species). Oh and I almost forgot, I swam over a Krait snake on the way, so the first one in the water I have seen. Back to the beach it was much easier following our tracks backwards and we even scored a papaya. So in a couple days we will have a nice breakfast addition!
No Comments