Our next lot of visitors arrived (Jonathan and Jo) and we set off for the Yasawa Islands. These are a group of islands to the northwest of Viti Levu and are reported to be idyllic cruising, especially for those not used to sailing or who have never sailed before.
The weather however did not play fair to our guests and our first nights anchorage at Waya Island was very windy and roly so we pushed on the next morning to get further north and find a more protected spot. We ended up at an area called the Blue Lagoon in which the movie of the same name was filmed. The anchorage was a lot less roly although still quite windy. We were in good company as a couple of other rally boats were also hiding from the weather there. Cindy and Alan from Pleiades invited us over for sundowners and gave us a chance to have a tour of a Seawind catamaran. Great looking boat.
From the back of Pleiades 
Us in the background, from Pleiades
On Saturday it was still too windy to do any kind of water based activities so we walked to Lo’s Tea House on the other side of the island. We drank fresh lemon leaf tea (fresh lemon leaves dunked in hot water) and ate banana cake with runny chocolate icing. After walking back, we had a late lunch at the Nanuya resort. Still windy.
We decided to brave the winds the next day and head further north. On Sawa-I-Lau there is a cave/cave dive that we hoped to visit but the weather was still not cooperating (the wind here was ferocious) so we anchored for lunch to appreciate the view (Sawa-I-Lau is a really pretty anchorage) before continuing on to anchor off Yasawa Island for the night. On the way through the passage between the islands I saw a manta ray swimming past. Yay!
The bay we selected was much better protected from the swell and wind which allowed us to get out and explore the beaches by tender, paddle board and sit-on-top. Getting ashore was tricky with the tender due to the fringing reefs but we found a spot some way down. Thank goodness we have a tough little tender. Paul met a couple on the beach a bit further along that had been dropped off for a “private beach experience” from a nearby exclusive resort. Oops!