THIS Will Make You Want to SAIL FIJI

This will make you want to sail Fiji. Dramatic coastlines, countless islands that make for beautiful day sails hopping from one island to the next, protected bays with flat water, and incredible marine life and arms length from the anchorage. Definitely an awesome experience, super lucky. The sleepless nights, rough waters, lightning at sea sailing over 8,000 nautical miles have brought us here but the challenges made the reward even sweeter. We're gonna try and take Yoda into shore. I don't know how it's gonna go. We scoped it out yesterday and there was too much swell and it was close to low tide so the coral was like almost to the beach. Hopefully for her sake we can get in. Swell is coming right into it. I know. Yeah, yeah we're gonna back out I think. Right there's coral just everywhere. I think maybe that way. We're going over to the other side because the swell is coming directly in here and even though it looks like a little bit we've been flipped before and that's all it takes. Looks like maybe we found a path. We'll probably have to lift the engine right? There's a lot of them. Look at this little guy. Oh look at the crabs. There's lots of nice little shells. Oh that's a nice stick huh? Yoda doesn't know the concept of bringing it back. Oh there she goes. Come here. There's a ton of rope here like big thick rope mushed up. Where do you think this is from? It's probably a big ship line. Dinghy ended up on the beach. This won't be easy. Rude Yoda. You got sand all in the dinghy. We got the dinghy in and we're on our way. Yoda, did you have a good time at the beach? Yeah. We have seen tons of coral from the dinghy when we've been trying to get to shore so now I'm gonna jump in and check it out. Fabio is very kindly gonna take me in the dinghy even though you can hear he's still pretty sick. Hopefully he gets better soon. I dive beneath the surface. This is my happy place. Here time moves differently. The coral grows slowly layer by layer building a reef over decades, centuries maybe. It doesn't rush, it just keeps going. Then there's the fish darting, flashing, living their lives in seconds, in moments. A lifetime for them is a blink to the coral. I think about us, me, Fabio and Yoda. We fall somewhere in between, always watching the clock, always chasing something. But out here none of that matters. Coral doesn't care about how fast it grows. It cares about absorbing carbon and building little houses for tiny pollocks. It takes its time and leaves behind a better world. Maybe we can too. Not by rushing but by choosing what matters. Because time isn't ours to own, it's only ours to spend wisely. If you're enjoying this video be sure to give it a thumbs up, drop us a comment down below and subscribe to the channel. It really does help us grow. Thank you. Today was such a great day except of course minus the fact that Fabio is sick. Snorkeling, it was great to see such an abundance of coral and most of it looked really healthy. There was some staghorn that was blue which I've never seen before. So I'm gonna have to do a little bit of research to see what was going on there. But the coral is really super beautiful and abundant. Being in the water like that, swimming through all the fish and being a part of that beauty, it just makes me so happy. How about you Yodi? Are you feeling grateful for your little beach jaunt? We are on the move again. This anchorage was really beautiful for the sharks and coral but it has become quite bumpy. So we are gonna try and head up to an anchorage where where some mantas supposedly go quite often. But it's gonna be upwind today so we're gonna see how it goes. We may pull into another anchorage nearby if it's not working out. But we're on the move and today is Fabio's birthday. Happy birthday! The apparent wind is 21-22. We have 18-19 knots of wind. We're doing 7.5 and the apparent wind angle is 53. So theoretically we could have put out the switch but then the apparent wind is too high. So this is just one reef and we're doing 6-7 knots. Hey guys! I'm quickly interrupting the episode to share some exciting news with you. We are going to be opening up a merch shop on our website. We released our first merch at the Annapolis Boat Show. Soon we'll have it available to order online. I don't know exactly when it will be up but please just go to our website harborsunknown.com and subscribe to our newsletter and once it's live we will send you an email. Thank you so much for your support. Now back to the show. This is nice huh? Yeah. Happy birthday! Thank you. Fabio's favorite thing, sailing. Happy place. This is my happy place. We're taking a second reef because the apparent wind got to 26. Yeah. I'm not a big fan of birthdays but here they feel different. No noise, no candles, no rush, just the sound of the wind in the sails and the water. Maybe it's because the ocean doesn't know what day it is and maybe that's the point. It knows it's my birthday and it knows what I like. The rhythm of the waves is enough for me. Right now we're on the lee of this beautiful island we're passing Waia so we're gonna shake the reefs, follow Maine because it's only like between eight and ten knots of wind. All right we're back in business going about six and a half knots. I feel small under this sky, wide open, blue, small but alive. Not a place for thinking about the years behind, the ones ahead, no time for plans, just this moment. This birthday the sea didn't offer me anything random. It was quiet, simple, exactly what I like. Time to breathe, to think, to feel grateful. Another year, another sail, that's enough and for me enough is everything. It's really pretty cruising grounds here. There are so many islands really close together and a lot of anchorages but I think what we've learned is it seems this swell comes from the north and the anchorages are on the western side to be protected from the westerlies but they're exposed to the northern swell. The anchorage we're going to today looks like it's protected from the and the east so it should be pretty comfortable. It happens every time. We spot another boat, we trim the sails and start racing. We don't care if they don't know but we're pretty sure that they're doing the same thing. A strange kind of race, no start line, no finish line but clear winners. We're going to go another mile or so this direction which is the east, southeast, then back towards the harbor, towards the anchorage, five miles. Such a beautiful rainbow. I'm taking it as a good omen that we'll see mantas tomorrow. Every anchorage feels like a fresh start. This is the place we say but after a while it isn't. The itch to move comes back. We check the weather, we plan the next jump, we crave the next horizon. Are we chasing the place or that glorious feeling of arriving? Not the idea that what waits just over the edge is better but the desire to see what it is. The truth is the perfect anchorage doesn't exist. The wind will shift, the swell will creep in, the season will change, so we move not looking for the perfect spot but learning to be content wherever we are. That was impressive. We're here. This anchorage looks amazing. The water is so flat and I think the mantas supposedly run through the pass just right over there. I didn't think we would be so close. Yoda, are you looking for the sharks? Shark, shark, where are they? How was your birthday sail? Beautiful. We had a great sail today. One of the things I like to do the most which is sail. The wind was nice, stiff in the nose but some some places we had not a lot of waves so we did some good timing. We did a bunch of tacks, reefs, practiced our skills. It was great. Great day. Tonight I'm making tom kakai. It's Thai chicken coconut soup. It's one of Fabio's favorites. It's pretty simple but delicious. We start out with broth from the whole chicken we already cooked. Light the fire, add lemongrass, ginger, bring it to a boil, add coconut milk, the potatoes and bring it back to a boil. Then add lime juice, fish sauce, chili tamarind paste, the chicken and boil until the chicken is cooked. Put a little bit of rice in the bowl. Now our delicious soup. You excited? I'm very excited. This is one of my favorite things. I'll try and open the beer one-handed. Good catch though. What happened? I don't know. Can you get a cup? Is it coming? Oh my god. It won't stop. I think it froze. Oh it was in the freezer? No. Ah. Let me take care of this. Whoops. Okay. Cheers. Cheers. Happy birthday. Thank you. The taste test. Taste test. Taste test. Wow. This is like an explosion of flavors man. Yeah that lime juice. Oh my god. And the ginger. The ginger, the lime juice, the chicken is delicious, the broth was delicious. This is like man perfection on Tonkakai. You did it. Man coming to my belly. Simple and delicious. Can win. Can not lose. This anchorage is so calm. It is absolutely amazing. It's just like a pool almost. It's beautiful. And now we're gonna go over to the pass and see if there are any manta. So what I heard was you should go at closest to high tide. So that's what we're doing. There were a lot of boats over there earlier today. Big dinghies. So I don't know if there's tours that go over there in the morning and we'll be really lucky right now or if that's when the mantas were there. So we're gonna go and check it out. Unfortunately Fabio is still not feeling well but he is insisting that it takes me to go and see if there are manta. So sweet. How you feeling Fabio? Still a little bit under the weather but getting better. Ladies I advise you to get a visor because the only thing that keeps your hair from getting super tangled or at least my hair is bun like this but then you can't wear a hat. So visor. Looks like there's a couple of tour boats here so we may be in luck. Oh people are jumping in the water now. Oh boy I gotta get ready. Manta rays are some of the ocean's most graceful giants and the Mamanuka Islands of Fiji are one of the best places to witness the reef mantas mesmerizing behavior. These gentle filter feeders spanning up to five and a half meters from wingtip to wingtip glide effortlessly through the waters circling the same areas of reef in search of plankton, the tiny organisms that form their primary diet. The circular motion isn't random. It's a highly efficient feeding strategy. By swimming in loops they can concentrate the plankton in one area allowing them to feed with minimal effort. If you notice the smaller fish swimming just in front of their gaping mouths it's not a random occurrence. These are often cleaner fish and they play a crucial symbiotic role removing parasites from the manta ray's skin and even picking off small particles from its mouth. It's a win-win for both species. Many think manta tails are dangerous but unlike stingrays their tails are completely harmless. Mantas move letting the ocean carry them adjusting with the smallest flick of a wing. They don't fight the current, push against the wind. They don't force things to go their way. They've figured it out. No wasted energy. We can learn a thing or two from mantas. How to handle things with grace and trust the flow around us. Sometimes it's not about pushing harder. It's about gliding with what's already carrying us. The secret is to be in the right current. That was amazing. There were two manta. One was huge with the wingspan probably the size of the dinghy so I guess like 12 feet and the other one was like half to three quarter the size and they just kept swimming back and forth and they even stopped at one point like over a big coral bommie and there were so many fish there and then he had like cleaner fish that were traveling with him. What I think are cleaner fish but it was incredible. I mean when I first got in they were right there below me so yeah definitely definitely an awesome experience. Super lucky. So far cruising Fiji has exceeded our expectations and we can't wait to share the rest of our time here in this beautiful island nation.