Mana Island, Fiji: Making It Through the Reef Pass

Facing a Daunting Entry

At first glance this pass into the lagoon on Mana Island looks a little daunting.  And it is.  We’ve been sailing our Lagoon 380 from French Polynesia since 2019 and arrived in Fiji in 2025.  We’ve made many passages through some fairly alarming passes during that time and we thought we were well prepared to make this one.

Here’s a list of some of the precautions and considerations we take prior to entering a pass:

1. Get some advice and guidance on what to expect, from a reliable source.
2. Life jackets on for everyone.
3. Wait until the sun is up and ideally behind you so you can see clearly.
4. Post lookouts on the bow or high points – wearing polarised sunglasses.
5. No passages in low light or after dark unless you have a known good track to follow.
6. Don’t trust your electronic charts,
7. Check the wind direction for effect on the boat and effect on the water,
8. Take it slow.
9. Entering at slack water reduces the turbulence around obstacles,
10. Entering on an incoming tide will help you get off the reef if you go aground, but it can also push you further on.
11. Have the dinghy up on the davits in case you need to reverse urgently, but also have the dinghy ready to launch to recover a MOB, or place an anchor to hold the boat steady if you run aground,
12. Observe your position in real time on a google earth image.

Charts in Fiji are known to be unreliable so we were careful to be well prepared.  The pass is not straight as you can see in the google earth image.  In fact it is fairly tight, but apparently marked by a couple of buoys and some sticks.

A Reef Encounter

We had the sun slightly ahead of us, a 2kts outgoing tide, a 5kts head wind, three lookouts on the bow, Garmin charts, and our real-time position on a google earth image – and then we went up on the reef.  Luckily for us the water was still deep enough over the reef for us to bounce around over the coral and drift / reverse /  motor back into the channel.

The outgoing tide and headwind assisted as well.  There was a fair bit of yelling and screaming at Dad.  We removed a bit of anti-foul, added some gouges to the hull and gave ourselves one hell of a fright, but nothing serious.

Looking back there were a number of things that contributed to our reef encounter.

• I relaxed our precautions with regard to sun angle and wind effect,
• The curve in the pass was tighter than I expected,
• Using the google earth image in real time was not a good idea as the pass was very tight and the update rate was not fast enough to use for accurate navigation.  This was an unnecessary distraction,
• The buoys and sticks did not make any sense to me until we were right inside the pass,
• The two white buoys were on the Starboard side of the channel going in.  A previous pass in Fiji was marked differently,
• The lookouts were looking ahead without paying attention to the depth immediately below the boat,
• The sun angle was not ideal, and the wind effect on the water made depth perception hard to judge,
• The location of the channel on the chart plotter was out by about 80 metres.  We know to expect this, but still the chart plotter temps us to believe it.

Local knowledge helps

Just after we got inside the lagoon, a ferry came barreling through the pass. Without slowing down, it went through all the way at 23 kts.  Their AIS track left an accurate line for us to follow on the way out a few days later.  We now know to wait and watch the local tourist boats navigate their way through the unmarked and un-surveyed waters of Fiji.

Anchoring inside the lagoon was wonderful.  We spent a few days recovering from the Island Cruising activities at Musket Cove, and allowing me enough time to consider my strategy for exiting the pass.  We departed at low tide and the channel was much easier to navigate.  However, at low tide the channel would not have been wide enough to pass another catamaran.  The channel buoys and sticks made more sense on the way out and hopefully our pictures will assist other boats to enjoy a less stressful visit to Mana Island.

Some additional rules for passes.

Watch someone with prior experience make the pass first if you’re unsure, especially if you can record their track-line and later follow it.

Lookouts to be holding on and prepared for a sudden stop.  One of our crew nearly went overboard when the boat first struck the reef with a sudden jolt.  Had the crew member gone overboard, the outgoing tide would have flushed them out in to open water and with the possibility of the boat still stuck on the reef there would have been a long and difficult recovery.

Take care when using your real-time position on a google earth image as the update rate may not be fast enough for accurate navigation in tight situations.

Some notes from my wife, Meredith

The sun angle was terrible for visibility. No coral, then BAM!! Coral everywhere and shallow and highly alarming.  The markers made no sense at the angle we approached the pass.  It would have been better to go back and forth before entering the pass to see what the markers were trying to show.  However, once we saw the marked path, it was really obvious.

John Ahearn
SV Afaro

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