Eric navigated the pass into the lagoon this morning at 0400. It is a somewhat narrow pass and it was pitch black outside, so he couldn’t see anything other than a reef marker and two small flashing direction markers in the distance. If the direction lights are lined up from top to bottom, then you are supposed to be on course through the narrow channel through the coral. So it was a careful steering job to stay lined up in the moderate seas, which where swaying the boat a bit. Also the charts are not very high resolution, so the whole experience was a bit disconcerting for him. Thankfully radar, depth measurements, lights, and chart all lined up and everything went smoothly.
We pulled into Nadi this morning at 0630, ushered in by a lovely sunrise.
The mainland area looks like Southern California, with rolling, dry mountains. There is quite a bit of construction on the flat land along the shore and virtually no buildings along the mountains. There are several islands dotting the horizon all around the main land. We pulled up in front of the hotel that is the rendezvous point for meeting Christi’s dad, located on an island called Denaru. Like Coronado Island in San Diego, Denaru is right off the coast of Nadi and is connected by a bridge. Our plan was to anchor the boat and take a bus into Lautoka to notify the officials we had arrived. It seemed to us that there was no need to take Kosmos to Lautoka since we had already had an onboard inspection in Suva. Continue reading →
