On July 20, after a great 5 days at Nawi Island Marina, we headed out. About 5 miles southwest, we dropped the anchor in front of the Cousteau Resort Fiji.
This part of the trip is the first small segment (on the left) of the yellow line below.
The Cousteau is a high-end resort with divers from all over the world.
We had a nice (but expensive!) drink in the lounge. The staff was very friendly.
We spent the night on-hook, just off the Cousteau Resort. In the morning, we headed around the point and then east about 45nm miles to Viani Bay.
The bay was wide and calm, and we met a number of our friends from Tonga and Nawi. We were all there for scuba diving.
The Viani Bay Resort and Dive Academy Fiji are run by two women who have been here over 20 years and they have a devoted following. Some of the sailors had gotten their first scuba certification there when they were kids. The resort has a number of bungalows but they also cater to cruisers and have a nice Happy Hour every night that makes you immediately feel right at home. We joined the Happy Hour all 3 days we were there!
The second day in Viani Bay, we joined a group that has been rebuilding a coral reef. About 10 of us went out and planted small corals on the rocky reef. Each piece needed to be fixed to the reef using a small ball of cement, after brushing the area to make sure the cement adheres to solid rock, not an unstable layer of sediment. That was a bit of a challenge with us snorkeling, having to hold our breath to first find and brush the area, then go up, get the coral and cement, back down, find the same spot, and stick the cement and coral to the rock. Not easy, but a a lot of fun!
Day 3 was dive day! In the morning we dove Cabbage Patch.
Pretty obvious how it gets its name!
There was an abundance of colorful fish.
In the afternoon, we dove The Great White Wall – a world famous dive site. It is a sheer wall starting at about 20m and going nearly straight down as far as you can see.
It is covered with soft white coral. Never seen anything like it!
There were other colorful corals as well.
On July 24 we pulled the anchor and headed across the channel to the town of Somosomo on Taveuni for provisioning and to hit an ATM. After a quick stop, we were off to Qamea (see the red line in the map at the top).
On the way to Qamea, we were treated to about 20 minutes of breaching humpback whales pretty close to the boat. There were at least 3, probably adolescent males, showing off for the females. Not unlike people in some ways! 😉
Qamea has a long, narrow bay that is well sheltered. Eaton, on Sierra Wind, who we knew from Mexico, was already anchored when we arrived. According to the charts, the area he was anchored in should have been mud at low tide, but he assured us he was in 8 ft of water. As mentioned earlier, the charts in Fiji are not always accurate. Eaton and Becks (his crew) came over to Calista for happy hour along with Todd and Susan from Freya. A very nice evening!