And we’re off to explore Fiji! We bailed on the marina after getting the rig fixed: too hot! So we took off to Malolo Lailai and picked up an anchor spot there. It’s home to the Musket Cove Yacht Club, which offers a lifetime membership for $25. What’s not to like? Well, a 4 oz. lemonade for $15 for starters-we won’t make that mistake again! We hung out there for 3 days and then took off again for Mana Island.

Yep-they have bats. Large fruit bats, in fact.

Mana was a short passage away-just a couple of hours to make the trip and it’s really lovely. The entry through the reef is a bit nerve-wracking. It’s a narrow S-curve. Happily, it’s also deep. We passed through without incident-Hooray! Mana is an island you may have seen! This is the island where Survivor: Mamanuca has been filmed since 2016. Having never seen an episode of Survivor, that means nothing to me. But since they run tours to the various filming sites and have a lot of signs related to Survivor, evidently it’s a thing. In any case, we went ashore and the first thing one encounters is a resort. At this place, cruisers can use the resort facilities at no charge, so that sort of makes up for the $15 lemonade. We hiked around the resort side of the island, which is where most of the Survivor filming is done. Having never seen the show, I can’t say for sure, but if it gives the impression that the contestants are on a deserted island somewhere, that’s not the case. Twenty minute walk to the bar, tops. There’s an airstrip on the island, but it’s clearly not used because it’s filled with shipping containers. I’m guessing that’s also for Survivor-the stuff they leave there between filming sessions. Evidently it takes a LOT of stuff to film this show because there are a LOT of containers. Filming happens twice a year-usually the month of May and the month of July. During that time, the island is closed to visitors. Happily, it’s August.

That right there? That’s the channel.
Something Survivor-ish. I have no idea.

As we hiked around the resort, we noticed that one entire side of it is fenced off. The native village is on the other side of the fence. Which seems-weird. We wanted to hike to the highest point on the island, which is on the village side. So we asked at the resort how to get there. “Oh, I’m sorry. We’re not allowed to talk about the village.” Huh?! So we figured it out ourselves. We walked along the beach until we got to the village. We met the chief and participated in our first sevusevu ceremony. We presented him with a gift of kava root and he welcomed us to the island and gave us permission to explore. Off we went! It was a short hike to the highest point, but the views are fantastic.

We then hung at the resort pool before returning on board Meraviglia. We have made it about a third of the way around the world at this point and I can report that the influence of American culture remains strong. 1980s pop music remains the standard. We also heard the melodic strains of “Baby Shark“. If Barney shows up. we’re leaving.

Tomorrow, we’ll take off for Kadavu, which is about a 24-hour trip. It’s more remote, so it will be interesting to see what that is like. Off we go!