Taking the sea-nic route!

I rang in my birthday last weekend and if you know me and my friends, then best believe we like to celebrate by doing something memorable.

After back and forth with what we will get up to, we settled on booking a yacht and spending time out at sea. We secured the Gipsea through Sail in Fiji exclusive sailing charters. Luc Delhumeau is at the helm of these charters and was super communicative and once we were settled with the details, we confirmed our bookings. As it usually happens for group activities, our group of 8 dwindled to 4 and soon the weekend was upon us and the 4 were ready to set sail.

We were ready for 2 nights and 3 days out sailing the Mamanucas. Our trip and costs were inclusive of meals, snacks, non-alcoholic beverages, snorkelling gear and so forth. The 3-member crew met us at Wailoloa and after a short briefing, we were ready to set sail. Our first stop was at the Malolo sand bar for snorkelling. We snorkelled around the reef, and it was sad to see mostly dead coral but heaps of colourful fish. We got back to the yacht and then anchored beside Malolo Lailai island. Malolo Lailai Island is a busy marina, and it provides seafarers with access to toilet, and shower facilities as well as BBQ cooking facilities and the bar for a standard landing fee. We anchored and headed to access the Island bar and chill before heading back to the yacht for the night.

Seini was the wonderful lady behind all our meals, extremely generous with the servings and platting of the meals. We thoroughly enjoyed the meals.

Sleeping on board a yacht was interesting given the space and we were glad that it was just 4 of us. Overall, it was very comfortable, and we slept well for the 2 nights on board. We woke up the next morning, and of course my birthday!

It was pretty cool to spot dolphins and after a nice breakfast on board, we set sail to Monuriki Island where the movie Castaway was shot. We reached the Island and after mucking around decided to do the short hike. We were laughing at how we thought we would give hiking a break, especially after hiking Mount Tomaivini last month for Shane’s birthday. But no, we did this short hike, and the views were worth it. This Island was pretty nice, and it was cool to see where the famous movie was shot. And yes, we did re-watch the movie a week ahead of our yacht trip. We spent the day on the Island, celebrated my birthday and then set sail again towards the sandbank near Mana. We decided to head back to Malolo Lailai since we wanted to shower and enjoyed the rest of the evening there.

The weather was absolutely stunning the entire time we were out sailing and Captain Poni and the other crew Epa were super nice and fun and we enjoyed our time with them. They really took good care of us and they were so accommodating and chill.

We sailed back to the mainland and felt that 2 nights was too short and wished we had planned for 3-5 nights, but ah well, there is always a next time!

I highly recommend booking with Sail in Fiji for an incredible experience and they even tailor packages according to your needs. Thank you to the fabulous crew and Luc for taking care of us and we look forward to our next trip with you.

To my friends, thank you for always taking the adventurous route and living life to the fullest, albeit sometimes dangerously! Big love! Thank you to those who sent me birthday cheers and wishes , I appreciate you all.

I have turned 37 years young and I am so so content with being able to do life with love, a touch of madness and chaos, adventure and a bit of drama here and there! Life is too short to live it any other way! Cheers! x