Tag Archives: malolo island

Musket Cove Regatta Week 2025

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It’s that time of year again – the Musket Cove Regatta Week!  We had so much fun in 2022 racing on “Wow” and again in 2023″ racing on “Wings.”  This year we will be racing on a beautiful SVD60 (Simons Voogd) designed 60′ catamaran called “Marcato”.

Matt and I both admired this boat in the earlier regattas.  It has stunning lines, clean look, and wicked fast reputation.  The owners Anthony (Ant) and Janine Robinson were kind enough to let Matt and I crew with on this year’s Musket Cove Regatta!

Be sure to read about our 2023 and 2022 adventures of the Musket Cove Regatta.  Simply type in “Musket Cove” in the search bar or click here.

Ant and Janine invited several of their friends to help manage this incredibly fast rocket.

But, mostly Ant was at the helm, Phil and Janine worked the main sheet and headsails, Chris, Matt and I (mostly Chris and Matt) were on deck handling the sail changes.

During the longest race, around the Malolo Island we had at least 8 sail changes!

The first day of the regatta is kicked off with hobie cat races.  Matt and Chris (from SeaGlub) join together to be team SugarGlub.

The easily win their first heat despite the light winds.

Unfortunately, they lost their second heat during single eliminations.  But they had great fun!

Beachcomber’s Pirate Day

Day 2 brings Beachcomber Island’s Pirate day!  

Anything goes during this race!  That means that boats can use their engines, sails, and whatever means necessary to get to the anchorage first.

Marcato started off slow (captain’s choice) and crossed the start in 11th place.  Never good when you take photos with boats in front of you. By the end of the race we were catching up to the 1st place boat.  Unfortunately, this boat displayed really poor sportsmanship and refused to let us pass and pushed off off the course. 

True that anything goes, but this was beyond rude. 

Beachcomber Island Resort really knows how to host an authentic pirate party.  Yachties are captured, and tied together as they step foot on shore.  The pirates then walk them across hot coals at knife point and into the vaccine tent for a retched shot of rum.

We did win 2nd place and I won sexiest pirate 🙂

Around the Island Race

There are 3 sailboat races during Musket Cove Regatta week.

  1. Beachcombers Pirate Day
  2. Around the Island
  3. Sandbank Race

The around the island is by far the most prestigious race.  Racers have to navigate around reefs, corals, and more as they sail around Malolo hitting almost every point of sail.

We had over 9 sail changes during this race (which is a LOT).

We had a great start and managed to stay in the top 3 for the majority of the race. During the last 1/4 of the race we edged in front of both the 1st and 2nd boats.  As we neared the finish line, with a mere 100 meters to go the wind died to zero (see photo).  The good news it died for everyone.  After a painstaking 45 minutes, it picked up and we crossed the finish line first doing a whopping 3kts!

Super Hero / Villain Party

Besides having an amazing boat, Ant and Janine are great party planners.  They went all out on the costume party.  We were Gru and his minions complete with a “moon” strategically placed in the rafters of the bar.

We won first place!

The Sandbank Race

This is an interesting race as the racers follow the committee boat with a marker. 

The committee boat does not drop the marker until it deems it prudent. The racers never know where the marker will be dropped.

Marcato came in 3rd during this race.

All in all the Marcato crew came away with lots of prizes and wins.

  • 2nd place Beachcomber Island Pirate Race
  • 1st place Around the Island race
  • 3rd place Sandbank race
  • 1st place Superhero costume contest
  • 1st place sexiest pirate

We sailed in the Musket Cove Regatta 2025 in mid-September.

Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind actual live events.

Don’t miss out on our bushwhack hike along the ridgeline of Malolo Island.

Ridge Hike on Malolo Island

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What does a ridgeline hike look like?  Well, we start at the far left end of Malolo island (left end of the photo) and hike up several hills.  We cross over the reef at low tide (2nd arrow, middle) and make it to Malolo Lailai (3rd arrow far right).

Another view of the ridgeline hike.

The Start

Sarah dropped Matt, Chris, and I off at Funky Fish Resort. This is a really cool, easy-going, surf resort with a pool.  They are super cruiser friendly. 

You hike up a hill, behind the resort to the helicopter landing pad.  To our surprise there was a helicopter.  The resort has posted signs at the beginning of the path.

Mt. Silo Gun site and Lookout

The first part of the trail is really well maintained and fairly easy to navigate.  The only issue is that it is straight up hill. 

We enjoyed some beautiful views along the way.

The anchorage looks so small from the top of the tallest mountain peak.  There are roughly 100 boats in the anchorage.  Can you spot Sugar Shack?

We make it to the Mt. Silo Gun site and lookout after an hour of hiking.  The peak is roughly 750′ elevation.

2nd Half of the Hike

The second half of the hike was more challenging as the trail was not well-maintained and requires good shoes and a machete.

It was so darn hot as we were in the direct sunlight, at the peak heat of the day. 

We ended up sliding down several slopes as we continued down a make-shift path.

The second half of the hike took almost 2 hours and was much slower going.  In part because we had to create our own path and we had to go slow on the slippery parts.

We met a lovely friend on the way down the mountain.  This beautiful horse met us on the trail and was so very friendly.

I was so tired and overheated that I stopped taking photos. 

Unfortunately, I did not even get a photo of the reef crossing or Malolo Lailai.  I know, I suck!

The Results

  • Ascent 1200′ (up and down several mountains)
  • Tallest Peak 750′
  • 1200 calories burned
  • 4.5 miles walked
  • 2:53 hours
  • 1hr of resting time/breaks or stops

Matt and Chris were in much better shape than me. 

I required multiple stops along the way.  We also stopped at the 3 lookout points. 

Evidently, according to Matt’s Garmin we had 1 hour of resting time.  Eek gads.

No Foreign Land Malolo Ridgeline hike

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  We hiked Mt. Silo on Malolo Island on 5 September 2025.

Did you read about our adventures at the World Surf League Finals in our last blog?

So Many Islands and So Little Time

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We leave our beautiful little spot at Mana Island and head to Qalito Island, to the lovely resort called “Castaway Resort.”  The funny thing is that this resort is not actually located on the island called “Cast Away.”  But it is a super nice place to visit and they serve yachties which is an added bonus.  All of these islands are within 12nm of eachother. 

They are located on the corner of the island and have a beautiful white sandy beach.  They offer all sorts of activities for their guests including, SUP, kayaks, hobbie cats, multiple pools and restaurants, tennis, basketball, volleyball and I am sure a lot more.  We made our way to the restaurant for lunch and some colorful, tasty drinks.

I’m telling you the frothy drink on the left was so tasty, but what a pain in the you know what to drink!  It melted so fast that I had to guzzle it which is never good with an alcoholic drink.

These islands are pretty remote so it can be challenging for guests to get to and from the resorts.  So, what they do is ferry them close to the island and then long boats come out to collect guests and luggage.  It is really a spectacle to watch.

Malolo Island – Musket Cove

Our friend Sharron from Town Basin Marina (Whangarei, NZ) comes to visit us for a few days.  She was participating in the Tonga Blue Water Festival and stopped over in Fiji for a short stay on Sugar Shack.

Unfortunately we did not have the best weather.  It was a little cloudy and rainy a few days and super duper windy the entire time.  But we made the best of it and went snorkeling and hiking.

Our first walk was just around the Musket Cove Resort and the Plantation Resort.  But we saw loads of beautiful flowers. 

Sharron makes best attempts to emulate the local tree climbers.

On our second hike we walked the ridge line to an old bunker. We took the dinghy over to Funky Fish Resort which is on the end of the island.  Can you read their name on the hillside?

Super cute surf / backpacker resort. They have a swimming pool, heli-pad, restaurant, and bar.

And then the hike uphill begins.  They installed new signs which led the way to the mountain top.

After about an hour we arrived to the bunker.

The good news was that it was overcast so it was not terribly hot, but we still managed to work up a sweat.  Gorgeous views from a top.

Seventh Heaven

Not technically an “island” but it is a floating barge.  We visited Seventh Heaven 6/7 times last season because we had so much fun and the food was spectacular.  Last season they charged a $50F ($22 USD) per person to board, but that money went towards your food, bar, or shopping tab.  So, we had no problem paying that since we always spent way more than that!  This is for those who do not come by their ferry.  We came withour personal boat.

However, this season the were charging $50F landing fee per person and it was NOT applied to your tab.  We were oturaged and completely bummed out.  There was no way we would pay that on top of our bar/food tab.  I contacted them via email and facebook and was able to get the landing fee waived for 5 people so we went with an additional 2 guests for a total of 7.

When we arrived, at 12 the staff could not let us board because their ferry had not arrived yet.  For goodness sake!  Seriously?  So, we waited 15-minutes for the ferry to come.  After that initial snafu we had a great time.  

We enjoyed lots and lots of tasty and colorful drinks, amazing food, and super fun staff.

The barge is beautiful, especially around sunset.

Unfortunately this will be our last time at Seventh Heaven as they are pricing themselves out.  Cruisers or private boats just won’t pay a $50F landing fee.  Their competitor Cloud 9 does not charge this fee so we will have to go there.

You may ask what’s the difference?  Well Cloud 9 is a party barge for younger people.  It is loud dance music, no servers or wait staff, and nowhere to sit.  They serve food, but it is not nearly as good as Seventh Heaven but there is nowhere to eat it.  It is just a very different atmosphere.  Not bad, just different.

It was a great day and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset once we got back to the boat.

Matt is progressing really well on the foil board!

I am on a mission to try every fruity cocktail in Fiji!

 

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occured in late September and early October.  Did you read about our last blog Mana Island: A Refuge?