A few miles out of Port Deneau lie the Malolo islands, a gorgeous complex of reefs and islands surrounded by stunning green and blue waters. On the smaller Malolo island, Malolo Lailai (or “Little Malolo”), hosts several resorts and the famous Musket Cove Yacht Club.
Joining a New Yacht Club
The requirements to join the Musket Cove Yacht Club are stringent – to be eligible one must have sailed to Musket Cove (and Fiji) from a foreign port and pay the onerous $5.00 FJD membership does. This grants the skipper a lifetime membership in the yacht club. Crew memberships are an additional $10 FJD; apparently even a few years ago these charges were $1 and $5 FJD respectively…inflation runs rampant!
As has been pointed out elsewhere joining is both really easy and really hard – easy because all you do is fill out a form and give over your $5.00 (about $2.50 US). Hard because before you do that you have to sail your yacht to Fiji which is out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean so its kind of like getting a merit badge to get your lifetime membership card.
But this could be the deal of the century, because the yacht club is located on the grounds of the Musket Cove Resort. This is a full featured resort with pools, restaurants, a store and water sports. Yacht club members can use many of the facilities for free, and may join in other activities where appropriate for a modest charge so long as we don’t annoy the marina guests. The yacht club itself sits on its own little sandy island and offers reasonably priced drinks, coin operated grills, and an atmosphere that is tough to beat.
Snorkeling and More
By cocktail hour last night pretty much all of us were both starving and about ready to drop off where we were sitting. It had been a busy day.
We started with breakfast on the boat then went in to check out the facilities. When we arrived the day before it was blowing 30 knots in the harbor, not only was it difficult to anchor in those conditions but no one wanted to take the dinghy in for a wet, bumpy ride.
After walking around a bit and finding out where we had to conduct our exhaustive yacht club application process we stopped by Dick’s restaurant in the marina for a well-earned cool drink. After returning to the boat we decided to do some swimming and snorkeling, after dropping the Pudgy in the water for Will.
On the horizon we could see a structure – Cloud9 bar – a two level floating bar and pizza grill anchored a couple of miles off shore on Rooroo Reef. Will set his sights on sailing there for a cold one, and we decided to meet him later by dinghy.
After a couple of false starts we found a nice reef to snorkel on. The challenge is that the water is deep – 50-60 feet around most of the cove, except in close to the reef patches where the water shallows out. Sometimes it gets too shallow, and we didn’t want to anchor the dinghy someplace then come back to find it sitting high and dry on the reefs if the wind changed.
Snorkeling was a success. The huge and complex coral structures were a delight to see. The fish life was varied and plentiful, though we didn’t see any really big fish or sharks there were hundreds and hundreds of colorful reef fish all around. The highlight was a brightly colored Banded Sea Snake that Danielle spotted as we were almost done for the day. Although these are some of the most venomous snakes in the world they do not have a reputation for being aggressive, and are considered quite docile. We kept our distance and took pictures.
Off to Cloud9
A few weeks ago a friend sent me a link to a floating bar in Fiji that looked…enticing. After checking the reviews and the location I realized that we’d be passing in sight of it with our plans to come to Musket Cove. So how can you not stop in for a cold one?
Will started our earlier in the day intending to sail out in the Pudgy. The winds turned out to be light and variable and he did a lot of rowing along with the sailing. It was slow enough so he hadn’t arrived yet by the time we returned from snorkeling and raised him on the radio. After taking a few minutes to clean up and make some way points in the GPS Kathy and I headed out to join him. Danielle declined this time, snorkeling was pretty tiring and I suspect that she preferred some quiet time to visiting another bar with us.
It took Will several hours of sailing and rowing to get out to Cloud9. It took us about twenty minutes to zip out there in the dinghy with just the two of us on board.
We arrived to find the place slowly emptying out, and to find Will enjoying a cold Fiji Bitter beer and chatting with one of the local boat crews.
What can you say about a place like this? Lovely in its simpleness – you are on a floating platform anchored two miles from land. Surrounded by coral reefs, you can spend the day swimming, snorkeling, jumping in from the upper decks, or enjoying the various drinks and pizzas offered at the bar. A few day beds for relaxing, along with chaise lounges and swing chairs complement a few tables on both levels. Crystal clear light blue water surrounds you as gentle music swells and the breezes cool you off.
Are the drinks cheap? Its a floating bar, off a resort island, several miles from the mainland. Of course its not a cheap place to have a beer – but it’s not that expensive either. Its no more expensive than some of the places we walked past in Port Denerau and many other places we’ve visited. But you aren’t buying the beer, you are buying the location. And the atmosphere – that is pretty tough to put a price on.
