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We are finally easing back into the cruising lifestyle, and honestly, it feels amazing to be back in Fiji! Our journey kicked off at Vuda Marina, where we decided to hole up and wait out a passing weather front. It was the perfect excuse to reconnect with old friends, swap sea stories, and get the boat reprovisioned, cleaned, and caught up on laundry.

But cruising life always keeps you on your toes. Just as the front moved through, the wind shifted into a land breeze and brought an absolute army of FLIES with it! It was so intense that sitting in the cockpit to enjoy a meal or just relaxing outside was completely out of the question.

So, on Wednesday morning, we threw off the lines and made a break for it!

📍 Making Tracks to Malolo Island

We decided to head a short way over to Malolo Island and the iconic Musket Cove Marina. Unfortunately, the wind wasn’t in a cooperative mood, forcing us to motor the entire way directly into the wind. The silver lining? It was beautifully sunny and incredibly calm compared to some of our recent high-seas adventures. We’ll take a calm motor over a fly invasion any day!

Upon pulling into Musket Cove, we were pleasantly surprised to find way fewer boats than we ran into last year.

Cruiser Intelligence: This peace and quiet is only temporary! There is an entire fleet of cruising boats currently en route from New Zealand to Fiji. For once in our lives, we actually arrived ahead of the crowd!

Usually, finding an anchor spot at Musket Cove is a high-stakes game of musical chairs. The water is deep, the reefs are tricky to navigate, and scoring a coveted mooring ball next to the marina is next to impossible.

Because of that, we decided to try our luck a little further out at an anchorage colorfully known as “The Snake Pit.”

🐍 Surviving “The Snake Pit” Anchorage

Why is it called the Snake Pit, you ask? Well, it turns out there are two very distinct reasons:

• The Navigation: The layout of the anchorage is shaped like a giant ‘S’. Getting into it requires weaving behind a series of sandbars and shallow reefs, forcing your vessel into a careful, slithering motion.
• The Locals: It is a known hangout for Banded Sea Kraits (sea snakes) that love to swim through the lagoon or sunbathe on the reefs.
  Now, before anyone panics—yes, these snakes are highly venomous. But they are also incredibly docile and completely ignore people if you give them space. They are truly beautiful, graceful creatures to watch. While we haven’t spotted any at Musket yet on this trip, we saw some during our visits to Niue and other Fijian anchorages last year!
  
  
  
  ⛵ Father’s Day: Hanging on for Dear Life on a Hobie Cat!
  Once we were safely tucked into the Snake Pit, Bob decided that Father’s Day was the absolute perfect time to initiate me onto a Hobie Cat.
  For the uninitiated, a Hobie Cat is a lightweight beach catamaran—essentially just two hulls, a trampoline stretched between them, a tiller, a main sail, and a jib. Oh, and there are absolutely no walls to keep you from sliding into the ocean!
    THE HOBIE CAT EXPERIENCE:
     [Wind Fills Sails] ➔ [Lean Outboard Over Open Water] ➔ [Panic] ➔ [Repeat]
  
  
  The theory is simple: sit on the upwind side, lean your weight outboard to balance the wind, and when you tack, quickly switch sides and retrim.
  Spoiler alert: It is way harder than it looks, especially when you sail straight into a crowded mooring field! While sailing the open lagoon was pure joy, dodging anchored yachts was an adrenaline rush I didn’t ask for. There was a definitive moment where I screamed “BOAT!” at the top of my lungs. Everyone and everything survived completely unscathed, though Bob’s eardrums might need a few days to recover.
  
  
  
  📊 The Verdict: Cruiser vs. Catamaran
• The Cruising Life (Our Boat)
  Relaxed cockpit dining (when flies allow!)
  Smooth navigating through deep channels
  Steady, predictable wheel steering
• The Hobie Cat Experience
  Ultra-responsive, wild tiller action
  Hanging onto a trampoline for dear life
  Weaving through reefs with zero margin for error
  
  
  
  🌅 What’s Next on the Horizon?
  While the Hobie Cat might not become my daily driver, I’d definitely give it another shot now that I know what to expect (though the resort has paddleboards, which sound a lot more my speed right now!).
  We have a massive milestone coming up this week that we need to get ready for:
  Thursday: Heading back to the marina for final boat prep and one last provisioning run.
  Saturday: Kat arrives at 5:00 AM! We are crossing every single finger and toe for perfect Fiji weather so we can pull up the anchor the moment she steps on board and kick off her island adventure.
  Stay tuned for more updates from the lagoon, keep an eye out for sea snakes, and wish us luck with the weather! 🌴✨