New Friends, Old New Friends and Back to Vuda

We have been in the Yasawa Islands now for two weeks.  Most of that time has been in the Blue Lagoon, Nanuya Sewa Anchorage.  The natural beauty of these islands is spellbinding and the friendships we have made here are very precious.  It has been difficult to say goodbye.

We are now headed back toward Vuda Marina where we may make a brief stop to do some re-provisioning before heading out to the Mamanuca Islands, Musket Cove. It depends if we can pick up some fresh vegetables somehwere along the way.    Our plan will be to stay in Musket Cove a few days before checking out of Fiji in the port city of Lautoka and heading off to Vanuatu.


Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - Baked Brownies

In anticipation of our dinner with  Tui's family in Matakawa Levu Village on the opposite island from our anchorage, I decided to bake some brownies to bring over for dessert.  I spent most of the morning on Skype with Adobe Software talking to a very nice man in India who led me through some pretty complicated procedures to get my licensing to work again with my design suite software.  When my old Mac crashed and I migrated all my software and documents from my clone drive to the new Mac, the Adobe stuff didn't work right anymore.  It's taken several weeks to fix this particular aspect of the migration.  Anyway, it was all a success.  It's quite amazing that while I am in Fiji, a man from India can take remote control of my desktop through a Skype call, and get the computer fixed up.

After brownie making and computer fixing, we decided to go for a dive on the reef shelf at the end of the island.  It was our second dive without an instructor.  There was a gentle downward slope that dropped down to 18 meters.  We saw some beautiful soft corals, huge clams, puffy stars, purple stars, parrot fish, lion fish, and powder blue damsels.  At the end of our dive, we were feeling more confident with our skills and our equipment.  As we were leaving the dive site, a man was waving us down on the shore.  His name was Sosi.  He had heard that we had reading glasses and was wondering if he could have a pair.  Dr. Russ and his eyeglasses are a big hit.  We told him, we would come back the following day and bring him a pair.

After our dive, we scooted around the anchorage to welcome a couple of new boats, Verite and Pickles.  We haven't seen Pickles since we all went to the Nuapapa School in Tonga together.  It's nice to see familiar faces.  We returned to the boat, took showers, gathered our gear, turned on the anchor lights and headed toward the opposite shore.  It would be dark when we returned in our dinghy.  Fortunately, the wind was almost non-existent our ride was very smooth across the lagoon.  Tui and his niece Kuna met us as we pulled our dinghy on the shore.  He welcomed us and reminded Russ as we headed toward the village to remove his hat.

Tui introduced to a few of his neighbors as we walked toward his home.  When we reached his home, we met his family, his parents Ralulu and Livia, and his wife Kelera.  We took off our shoes, or I did, Russ has gone so native he doesn't wear shoes anymore.  We walked through the kitchen to the living room where we sat with Ralulu and Tui and learned about their village and Tui's school days.  He had once attended the Somo Levu Catholic Mission School that we had visited a few days earlier.  From his home to the school was a daily walk and swim.  It would take him over an hour to get to school, 20 minutes of it was swimming across the bay with his school uniform held high over his head.   While we waited for dinner, we brought out a few gifts for the family.  We gave Kuna a balloon and a wind up music box,

 reading glasses for Ralulu and Livia, brownies, and some fishing hooks for Tui.

We enjoyed a lovely meal prepared by Kelera and Livia.  We had snapper in a coconut sauce, skip jack wrapped in Taro leaves in a coconut cream, breadfruit, and kasava root.  Everything was delicious.   The family and people in the village grow all that they need.   After dinner, we returned to the living room where Kelera spread a cloth on the floor mats and set up after dinner tea with fresh sliced bread and brownies.

Kelera, Tui, Tui's cousin, and Kuna (the young people) sat up while we were instructed by Ralulu that the older people lay down on their stomachs.  We were given some pillows to make this easier.   It is a little challenging to drink tea from this position, but we got used to it and had a great time.

Livia presented Russ and me with some jewelry that she had made.  Russ's necklace is made from shark's bone and mine is made from hematite.  Tui said he, Kelera, and Kuna would bring us some fresh scone bread in the morning before our shark dive.  We said our goodbyes and headed back to our boat.  The water was calm, the moon was shining and the sky was filled with stars.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - Shark Dive
We were up by seven and the tea kettle was boiling just as Tui, Kelera, and Kuna arrived at 7:30.  They brought a basket filled with papaya "popo", limes, and the brownie container filled with a moist scone bread.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast with them before we said our goodbyes.  The Ralulu's headed back across the lagoon and we headed toward shore and the dive boat.

The Wednesday morning boat was filled with divers.  A university class, organized by the University of Utah, was aboard the dive boat.  About 15 students had taken the open water diving course and were earning credits in sustainable, ecologically friendly tourism.  The shark dive was the grand finale to a weeks worth of learning and diving.

Everyone was just a bit nervous about this dive, who wouldn't be, diving with sharks?  When we got to the dive site, we were instructed to descend down the buoy line, then swim to a horizontal line stretched between two coral heads.   We all wore enough weights to sink us to the bottom so that we could stand easily and not drift away.  We formed a wall of human bodies behind the line.

Once everyone was settled, the dive masters started bringing down big garbage cans of fish parts, chum, which they emptied out about 15 feet from where we were all standing.  Before they even emptied the cans, thousands of fish were gathered for the feed.  We saw wrasse, bass, snapper, and lots of little fish.  After the chum hit the ground, a frenzy of feeding began.  Pretty soon the sharks started to circle.  First the black tipped and white tipped reef sharks appeared.

We could tell when the big boys were coming because the smaller fish would split off and away from the chum like a synchronized swim team.  The  lemon sharks were huge. I'm guessing they were at least six feet long and weighing 250-350 lbs.  Some of the other divers with under water cameras have promised to send us copies of their photos or links to their photos, but in the meantime, here is a photo from Wikipedia:

There were a couple of times when I nearly swallowed my whole regulator.  The big guys would pickup a large piece of fish they couldn't quite get with a single swallow, and toss it about a bit until their jaws could get it positioned for a gulp.  As they would do this twitchy little dance with their teeth flashing, they would swim right towards the human body line and would get within a couple of feet of us before turning.

Fortunately, the sharks really do prefer fish, and if there wasn't enough dead fish for them, there were plenty of nearby appetizers with fins, dorsal not swim fins.

Our dive and shark show lasted for about 40 minutes and then we headed back up to the dive boat.  All in all it was very exciting, and the best part....we lived to tell about it.  We returned to the boat, ate lunch, and did some reading.  Russ took the dinghy to shore to deliver a pair of eyeglasses and to drop off some garbage.  We returned later in the evening for a glass of wine and dinner with new friends, Denise and Thomas.   We had lovely last evening at Blue Lagoon.

Thursday, June 9, 2011 - Goodbye Blue Lagoon, Hello Soso
We got up early and started to stow things away for our departure.  Our plan was to hang around until at least 10:00 in the morning when the sun was higher in the sky, better to see reefs.  We heard a boat approaching around 8:00 a.m. and thought it might be Tui, but it was Sosi and several other men from the resort.  They were bearing departure gifts from Va and her family.  She sent out a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a coconut bowl and woven stand that she had made the night before, a bag of limes, and lemon leaves for tea.  I think she thought that we would be leaving without coming to shore again.

Once we had almost everything ready to go, we went into shore one last time.  We needed to pickup our dive gear at the dive shop, pay our dinner bill from the previous night, and say our thank yous and goodbyes to all of the lovely people at Nanuya.  And of course, we wanted to stop and say good bye and vinaka  to Va and her family.  Va was delighted to see us, and we both had tears in our eyes as we gave each other parting hugs.  Yes, we would definitely come back to see her if we come back to Fiji.  As we left, she wanted to give us one last gift, a beautiful snail sogasoga shell.

We lifted the dinghy up on the davits, weighed anchor at 10:20, and headed south towards Naviti Island and Soso Bay.  We had met some other cruisers in Blue Lagoon, Ernesto and Vera on Libertee, who had given us some good waypoints for the eastern side of the island.  Worrall Wind spent the rest of the morning and early part of the afternoon playing connect the dots until we threaded our way through the reefs to Soso Bay on Naviti Islands.

This bay is not as protected as Blue Lagoon and the wind has picked up a bit blowing in some clouds.  As I write this blog this evening, we are getting gusts up to 20 knots and we are bucking about a bit.  We were planning on just spending on one night here, and heading out early tomorrow for an all day motor sail to Musket Cove, but it looks like that won't happen now until Saturday morning.  We went into shore this afternoon to  bring kava to the chief and do a sevusevu with him, and were invited to come back tomorrow to visit the village and school.  Somehow, we can't pass by a school without a visit.

The Chief and his family were thrilled to receive the kava as well as several pairs of reading glasses for the elders.  As we were leaving the village today, a man came up to the shore in a boat and called us by name.  "Do you remember me?" he asked.  Of course, we did.  It was Leve, the man who called his ancestors the Manta Rays and made it possible for us to see at least one.  He is now an old, new friend.

Friday, June 10, 2011 - Naviti School, Village, and Popo Scones

This morning we motored over to the village in our dinghy so that we could visit the school. Taru, one of the chief's granddaughters escorted us to the school.   Two of the teachers were either ill or out of town, so classes 3 & 4, 5 & 6, had no school.  Class 1/2 was in session as was class 7/8.  We spent an hour at the school visiting the two classes.  The school in Naviti is one of the best equipped schools we have been in.

The children in class 7/8 ranged in age from 12-14.  They were working on geometry and coordinates.  Talking latitude and longitude with them fit right into their studies.  And as usual the globe was a big hit as they found their island.  Just like American tweens, the boys were pulling their pens apart, poking one another, and were balls of energy confined to a classroom.  The girls claimed that they worked harder than the boys and from the looks of it they were much more attentive to their studies.

Class 7/8 in Naviti

The children in class 1/2 were very sweet.  They too loved the globe and sang several songs to us.

After our visit to the school, we walked around the village with Taru taking photos of the church and buying some bananas and papaya (popo).

Taru and Russ in the Methodist Church

 A larger group of visitors was expected after 2:00, and we were invited to return to the village in the afternoon as the ladies would have their handcrafts on display for sale and the village entertainers would provide some entertainment.  Russ and I returned to WW for lunch.  I took a short nap as the southeast tradewinds blew through the boat.

Preparing for Lunch Party in Community Hall

We returned to the village around 2:30 and tagged with a group of 10 or so other visitors from a touring schooner who had paid for a sevusevu ceremony with kava and some entertainment.  We passed on the kava ceremony, but did enjoy the singing and dancing provided by the local entertainers.

After our entertainment and the large tour group left, Russ and I hung around and got a lesson from Taru and her Aunt Aggie on how to make papaya scones (cake).  After you husk a coconut, you grind up the white meat, mix in a bowl with soft papaya, add water and squeeze out the milk.  Pour the wet coconut/papaya through a strainer to separate out just the milk.

The coconut/papaya milk is mixed into a dry mixture of 4 cups flour and 8 teaspoons of baking soda until a sticky batter is made then spooned into a buttered pan.  We were given a pan full of batter to take back to the boat and bake. Taru had been such a gracious guide to us all day, we were happy to give her a ride out to our boat as she had expressed an interest in a visit.

Taru and Roz

Before I baked the papaya scones, I still had one very ripe papaya that I wasn't sure what to do with.  I don't particularly like the taste of ripe papaya.  I cleaned out the seeds and scooped the soft papaya flesh into a sauce pan, added some sugar, butter, cinnamon, and vanilla.  I used half of the hot papaya mixture as a chunky sauce over the cake mix.  The other half, I added some potato flakes and made a mashed potato papaya mixture to serve with our bar-b-qued chicken kabobs.  It was delicious and so was the cake.

Tomorrow morning we will take bake the cake pan with half of the cake for Taru and her family along with some photos we have taken of them.  We were planning on heading to Musket Cove but are now planning a return to Vuda Point tomorrow.  Apparently the buoys are booked for an incoming NZ race group.

Saturday, June 11, 2011 - Goodbye Naviti - Back to Vuda
We got up this morning and prepped the boat for a long day back to Vuda Point.  The sky was clear and we had a nice breeze.  Before we hauled up the dinghy, we motored to shore to say goodbye to the people in the village and to return the cake pan.  We had printed off some nice photos of some of our new friends and wanted to give them as parting gifts.

After our goodbyes, we made our way back to the boat, raised the dinghy and weighed anchor by 9:20.  We were on our way back to Vuda.  We motored, we sailed, and we motor sailed all the way back, following our waypoints like a faithful dog with his nose to the track.

Have you got a Big Mac to go?

It was a beautfiul day. Our only surprise was the little man in a homemade corrigated metal canoe who paddled like crazy to intercept us a couple of miles off shore.   We were undersail moving about 6 knots, but his intent was to catch us.  We slowed the boat and pulled into the wind so that he could paddle along side.  Had Russ and his eyeglasses traveled this far?  No, but did we have any food he asked?  He had been out fishing all morning, hadn't caught anything, and we looked like the drive through window of a fast food restaurant.  We happily handed over some crackers, cheese, cookies, bananas, and water.  He was very cute and most appreciative.

We returned to Vuda about 4:00.  The marina office was closed, but our friends on Trim said there was a space open next to them, so we glided in, tied off, hooked up the water, plugged in the electricty, took showers, and headed to the bar!  Nice to be back in port for a few days.

That's it for now.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Busy Having Fun!

Since our last update, we've been busy having a lot of fun and doing nothing!  Tomorrow we have been invited to dine with a Fijian family in a neighboring village.  Wednesday, we are finally getting to do our shark dive.  We plan to leave on Thursday and head back to Latouka and Vuda Marina.

Monday, June 6, 2011 - Cave Diving
We visited Sawa-i-lau Island about an hour's boat trip from where we are anchored.  Our boat captain, Tui, skimmed over shallow reefs with the greatest of confidence.  We would have had a heart attack in our dinghy.  When we got to the Island, we descended into the caves for a swim.

There was the main cave, and another one that we had to dive under a rock to get to.  Yipes!  Can't say we enjoyed that.  We had our snorkels and masks on, but no fins.   The tide was high so there was absolutely no air space under the rock.   I am so buoyant that I hit the top of the rocks, and our guide had to pull me through.  It was very claustrophobic, and I thought my lungs were going to burst.

It was pitch black in the second chamber, and we couldn't see a thing, except for when one of the other people in our group took a flash photo with their underwater cameras.  We followed our guide's light into a smaller chamber that had an open chimney to the sky.  Interesting, but I think I could have done without that second chamber.

The main cave was quite lovely.  It was colder water than the sea as it was a mixture of fresh and salt.

Our boat captain Tui has invited Russ and me over to his village tomorrow night to have supper with his family.   The Fijian people are incredibly friendly and generous.

Sunday, June 5, 2011 - Diving at the Zoo
We signed up for a a dive to a place called the Zoo.  It's a reef and deep shelf where huge fish hang out.  Saw some Spanish Mackerel, Walou, Shark, and Lion Fish.  Our dive master also pointed out some soft coral that changed colors when we touched it.  Very fascinating.

We bar-b-qued chicken marinated in fresh lime juice given to us by Va and her family.  Also made a wonderful cucumber, onion, pepper salad with green coconut shavings, coconut juice, and limes.

Last night the moon was gorgeous.  It looked as if it were smiling down on us.

The Blue Lagoon cruise ship was anchored further down the beach from us.  The combination of the moon, tiki lights, star light, and Fiian music being sung on the beach, and a gentle sea breeze was magical.

Saturday, June 4, 2011 - Climbing the mountain at Nacula Island


Russ and I took our dinghy to a neighboring island about 2 miles across an open pass to a place called Oarsman Resort.  Manase, Va's brother, is the village chief and operational manager for the resort that the clan owns here.

Laite, Russ, and Chief Manase

We gave him kava for sevusevu and climbed the mountain behind the resort.

Turns out there was yet another higher mountain to climb, but since we had started late in the day, we were satisfied with our hike and the photos we took from the tops of the lower mountain.

Grass was 7-8 feet tall

Later in the day, we snorkeled around the reefs close to the boat and had a wonderful dinner at the Nanuya Resort.

Friday, June 3, 2011 - Fresh Produce at the Farm


As we were getting low on vegetables, it was time to go shopping Yasawa style at the local farm owned by Toki and Meri.

We used the waypoints we had established on our first trip to the school with some modifications.  It was low tide when we arrived, so we anchored in the middle of a muddy bay and walked to the Bay of Plenty Resort, where one of the employees took us on the trail to the farm.

We picked peppers, onions, eggplants, corn, and cucumbers.  We also packed home some fresh bananas.  Yum!

Thursday, June 4, 2011 - Boat Chores

We hung around the boat most of the day, catching up on reading, doing laundry, baking cookies, working on the computer.  I made up some new fliers for Va and her family.  And of course, we enjoyed a lovely sunset.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

It's a Small World After All

Wouldn't you love to give them the world?

Thursday, June 2, 2011 - The weather for the last three days has been overcast and the lagoon has been an unwelcoming slate grey.  Last night we had quite a thunder and lightning storm with strong winds from the north that turned the boat on its anchor 180 degrees toward shore.  Fortunately, our anchor held well and we didn't drift beyond our safety perimeter.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 was a day of firsts for us.
We made our first dive without an instructor.  Basically, we descended down our anchor chain and explored the area around our boat.  We followed the chain to the anchor which was nestled deeply in white sand.  We dove to 14 meters for about 25 minutes.  We tested our new equipment, saw a few fish, examined the bottom of our boat, and felt pretty exhilirated by our first dive.


We experienced our first sevusevu.  Sevusevu is the ritualized greeting of visitors to a village.  Visitors present local village, in this case it is a family whose beach we are anchored off of a large bouquet of Kava root wrapped in newspaper.  We had purchased three bundles before leaving Latouka for occasions such as this.  We had purchased the highest grade of kava root which happily accepted with three claps of their hands.  Sevusevu is a respect gift brought to the village chief who in return upon acceptance offers his friendship and help to the visitor.  Sometimes, if the visit is late enough in the day, the kava drink is offered.    

Va preparing coconut leaves to make a floor mat.

Our new friends, the Naivalu family and their friend Bill welcomed us to their beach and for a small fee offered to bake us fresh bread, dispose of our garbage, serve us tea, do our laundry.  We were welcomed to walk on their beach and visit them any time.  We are the first yacht of the season to make sevusevu.  

From L to R:  Lai, 2 yr old Ane, Big Semi, Little Semi 5, Va, and Peter 6

Va, the matriarch of the family has books for every year since 2003.  She shared the books with us and asked if we would make a page to put in the book.  Since we were the first yacht this year, we offered to start a new book for 2011.  Va looks after her two grandsons Semi and Peter while they attend the school at Nosomo Levu, which is a catholic boarding school about a 30 minute boat ride down the bay.   Peter and Semi are in class 1 (equivalent to kindergarten).  They were excited to learn that we wanted to visit their school the following day.  We left with 2 coconuts, 4 limes, and leaves from their lemon tree which were to pour boiling water over and steep for tea.  It was delicious!

Wednesday,  June 1, 2011 -  School and Family Visits.
School
We had intended on visiting the school and the farm in Nosomo Bay, but spent so much time at the school that we postponed the farm for another day.  The Nosomo Levu school is a Catholic boarding school.  Children from several islands come and stay at the school or are boarded with friends and family in nearby villages.  Peter and Semi attend this school, but come home every night to their grandmother Va's home.  Russ and I arrived with a bag of school supplies (pencils, notepads, binder paper, stickers, shampoos, hand soap, nose tissues) at the school shortly after lunch and were able to visit several classrooms.

We started off in class 3 (grade 2) where the head teacher met us and invited us in.  The children were copying addition problems off of the chalk board for their homework. They were working on  adding columns of three digit numbers, very similar to what second graders would be doing at home. As usual our inflatable globe with our marked sail route from San Francisco to our current destination was a big hit!  The kids love that globe, and can't believe how little their "world" is in comparison to the rest of the land masses.          

                                                                                                                                                                              In one class room, we tossed the globe from one child to the next and they each told us their names.  In another class, Semi and Peter's class, I taught the children a song, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands."

In every class, the children were excited to show us what they were working on whether it was adding sums, telling time, writing in their journals, or making arts and crafts.            

                                      

As the school wrapped up for the day, the children in all classes were busy cleaning and sweeping.     

Hanging on the Outhouse Door!

Outside of the school there were several outhouses.  The children had branches that they were batting against the walls.  We couldn't quite figure out what that was intended to accomplish, but outhouse cleaning looked like quite a sport!                                                                                                            

The school is better off than the ones we saw in Tonga, but not by much.  Makes me feel very appreciative for all that I had to work with as a teacher.  I admire the teaching that goes on in these little South Pacific schools with so few supplies.  We had an opportunity to visit the boarding village side of the school to see the church, dormitories, dining hall and kitchen.                                            

School Kitchen - Large wood stove accommodates 3 big pots

Dining Hall

Girls' Dorm with Mosquito Netting

Lovely Setting for a School

 he children eat a lot of rice and dahl, split peas.  The head master said they would really like more fish to serve, but depend on local people to donate fish.  Sometimes it happens, but most often it does not. When school was out, we followed the school boat back to Nanuya.  It was much faster than we were.  Just as we reached the anchorage, the rain came down in buckets.  Fortunately, we had taken our ponchos with us.

We arrived at the Naivalu Family's Bure where we were invited in for tea.

Lemon tea with sugar and crackers

We brought some color crayons and paper for the children and eyeglasses for Va. She was delighted to be able to read her Bible again.

 Before we left for the day, we took photos of their family so we could use these as the cover for the new book and fliers we were making for them. If the sun would just come out it would be perfect!  Maybe tomorrow.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Blue Lagoon

UTC/Local Time:  0600/1800 Fiji

Latitude:       16 56.570 S
Longitude:  177 22.080 E

Update: Monday, May 30, 2011

We spent a lazy day relaxing in paradise and going over our new dive equipment.  Talked to Ted and Marian on Skype, took the dinghy to shore, had a cola at the resort bar, walked along the beach, and met a few local folks.  Came back, watched the sun set, posted some photos on the slideshow above, and now it's time to make some pizza.  Phew!  What a day!

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Safely in Blue Lagoon

 UTC/Local Time:  0600/1800 Fiji

Latitude:       16 56.570 S
Longitude:  177 22.080 E

Update: Sunday, May 29, 2011

The beautiful red sky last night brought a downpour of rain throughout the night and a strong east wind.  We woke to an increasingly overcast sky.  We were planning on leaving this morning, but Russ detected some engine coolant at the bottom of the engine room.  We weren't going anywhere until, he figured out and fixed the problem.  We certainly didn't want to have our engine go down while threading our way through the reefs.

After a couple of hours, Worrall Wind was back in order.  The leaking coolant and Russ's keen eye was a good omen because we were able to prevent a catastrophe that would have happened when we needed our engine most.  The coolant was coming from the hose near the clamp.  While examining the clamp, the camp broke in Russ's hand.

Rusted

This is where sweating the small stuff is worth the sweat!

By the time we pulled up the anchor at 11:00 a.m., the wind was blowing about 10-15 knots and a high overcast was forming.  It looked like it was clear in the east (direction of the wind), so we decided to take off.  Russ had set 45 way points into the GPS.  The overcast, 1 meter wind waves, and gusts up to 20 knots, and sea spray over the bow,  added to our tension as we snaked our way up the island chain to Blue Lagoon.    There were breaking reefs on the right, on the left, and in front of us.  We motored the entire way.....and didn't hit anything!  Yeah!

I am so thankful that we took our reconnaissance mission three weeks ago on the ferry to chart the trail.  Every point was spot on!  And we were both grateful that we caught the hose clamp breakage, before it became a huge problem.

We reached Blue Lagoon around 3:30, dropped anchor in 43 feet of water, let out 160 feet of chain, and are catching up on things.  Yes!  Our data stick works here!  Internet feast!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update-Swam With Giant Manta Ray Today

UTC/Local Time: 0600Z


Latitude: 17 10.309 S
Longitude: 177 11.233 E

Glorious Sunset

Update: Saturday, May 28, 2011
We may have refreshed our memories yesterday with why we love to sail, but last night was not an idyllic memory. Fortunately, the anchor alarm only went off once when the boat drifted beyond the perimeter we had set. But what kept us from a good night sleep was the constant rock and roll of the swells coming in from the west. After being in the flat waters of a safe harbor, we had forgotten about the constant movement of the boat while at anchor.

The stars last night, however, were fantastic and the sea was calm enough even with the swells to see the reflection of the stars twinkling in the water. We woke up with a beautiful apricot dawn,

enjoyed a leisurely morning on the Lido deck (fan tail of the boat), sipping coffee, eating our cornflakes, and reading our books.

After lunch, we lowered the dinghy and followed one of the work boats from Manta Ray resort through the Manta pass.  We left WorrallWind and Rubber Ducky floating in the anchorage.  Ducky let us know the water was 89 degrees F.  Awww!

We caught up with the boat driver Leve. He was looking for the Mantas so that he could bring some divers and snorklers out. We searched with him for awhile. He showed us where the pass was and suggested we drift through with our dinghy as the current was fairly swift. We spent the afternoon, doing three drift snorkels through the Manta pass.

The fish and coral were beautiful, but we didn't see a manta ray and were pretty disappointed. We caught up with Leve at the Manta Ray resort about 3:30. We were just getting a glass of cold white wine and a beer. He called us by name and told us that he was taking a group of snorkelers out and would we like to follow him. He was going to call his ancestors to appear...the ray! Well, okay!

We left our wine and beer with bartender and told him we would be back later. We hopped in the dinghy and made our way out to Manta Ray pass one more time. Leve and the snorkelers jetted in front of us and we followed in their wake. We tied our boat off to the dive boat as Leve called the rays. Manhoney, head manta finder slithered into the water and snorkeled around while we all waited in silence. Then he gave us the sign to get in.

Sure enough, a huge black manta was only 10 feet below us. His fin/wing span had to be twelve feet across and his eyes stuck out in front of him like head lamps. It was thrilling! We swam along with him until he went too deep for us to see. Mahoney, born in Manta, can hold his breath up to five minutes underwater, and we saw him dive easily to thirty feet. He was almost as amazing as the ray. We gave Mahoney a ride back to the resort as the snorkeling guests were still in the water, and Mahoney needed to get back and help unload the supply ship that was coming in. We asked if they were able to see rays everyday? No, and today's ray was the first and only they had spotted. We felt very lucky, but obviously Manta Ray Bay is named for it's home team.

When we dropped off Mahoney, we sat in the remainder of the sunlight, sipping our beer and wine. We watched as seven young men formed a "bucket brigade" to unload the supply skiff. From the boat to the beach, they tossed boxes, sacks, and bundles of goods with practiced synchronization from one man to the next.

Everything is Imported to these Outlying Islands & Garbage is Exported

 One of the men Naka from the village of Soso on the next island over, wanted to know if we had a lightbulb and socket that he could have so he could demonstrate to the children at the school. We said we would look and see what we had. We told him we might have an extra light bulb, but a socket wasn't something we usually carried with us. If any of you cruisers are coming to Soso, maybe you can help out with this electrical science experiment.

The clouds are developing over the island this evening. It's been a beautiful day and the sunset was magnificent.

Red Skies At Night, Sailors' Delight!   Not Always True.

 We'll leave for Blue Lagoon tomorrow.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.