TIME TO MOVE ON, 5 August 2016

A week before in Sola

It has been said that the two constants in this cruising life are that you’re always lost, and you’re always leaving.  You’re always lost because by the time you know your way around, you leave.  A corollary to that saying is that you know it’s time to leave when you start running into familar faces.

Well, it’s hard not to run into familiar faces in a little village, but this was too much.  When we left Sola, we wanted to stop briefly at the Reef Islands.  These are a small group of uninhabited islands surrounded by a fringing reef.  The anchorage is on the outside of the reef on scattered sandy patches between the coral bommies.  It’s on the lee side of the reef,  but the wind was quite strong that day, causing a vicious wind chop.  Even though there was no ocean swell on the lee side, that wind chop made it difficult to see under the water to find a good spot to drop the hook.  It also made it hard to judge the water depth over the bommies, making me very nervous.  Anyway, we bailed and went on to the next island, Ureparapara.  We had a great time there for almost a week, as I hope you’ve read in the previous post.

We left Ureparapara this morning in company with friends Mark and Susan, bound for a second try at the Reef Islands.  The wind being much less today, and forecast for even less tomorrow, we thought we’d try again.  Found a great spot to anchor, went snorkeling around the bommies — saw two huge, spotted eagle rays, a turtle, one shark and lots of fish — and were enjoying “sundowners” on Erie Spirit in this wild and very remote place.

It’s pitch black out now, but we see a light approaching.  Now, no sane yachtie would be wandering around these coral waters at night, so we are floored when a small island boat pulls alongside with a crew of men to spend the night fishing here.  We all exchange greetings.  One of the men asks if we like pamplemousse — to which I heartily reply yes — and then hands up several bags of them.  In the process, one of the men looks up at Robyn and says, “I met you in Sola last week.”  Must be time to move on.