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Today we made our early morning departure from the Blue Lagoon as planned and enjoyed a very brisk sail to Yalobi Bay at the southern end of Waya Island, where we're spending the night.

Navigating the Mamanuca and Yassawa Island chain has been an interesting experience and we've come to a few conclusions after nearly three months of doing so.

For starters, we've never had to consult so many different sources of information, all of which have conflicting, missing and inaccurate navigational information and, never before, have we had so many devices at the helm station in order to navigate safely.  Besides our usual paper charts, our navionics charts and our usual cruising guides, of which we have four that cover this area, we have also had to consult Sasplanet, Google Earth, Fiji's Atlas for Mariners, our sonar charts, the Sail Fiji Guide and a Yachtsman's Fiji Guide. And, after all that,  we came across two huge reefs today that were unchartered or not mentioned.  In fact, we watched a yacht in front of us make a sharp turn to starboard to avoid one of the reefs.

The other odd aspect is that all of these sources direct sailors through the myriad of reefs when there is perfectly safe, deep water on either side of the island chain.

Couple that with the relatively few good, protected anchorages and the rest marginal, where you have to deal with swell or exposure to winds and / or seas and sailing can become precarious indeed.  Even a simple task like leaving an anchorage had one yacht hit a reef yesterday morning. Fortunately the handful of good anchorages are spread around so that there is at least one in any given area, which is where you'll find most of the yachts congregated.

The highlight of our day, however, was having a pod of dolphins frolicking in Paw Paw's bows. It's been a while since we've enjoyed that spectacle.

Tonight though, while anchored in this very picturesque bay, we're hoping for a good night's rest before another early start.

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