Day 45, Year 2: Snorkeling At Last
Date: Friday, June 8, 2007
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day
Water Temperature: 77 degrees F
Location: Namara Island, Astrolabe Reef, Fiji

Today started as a beautiful, clear day, so we agreed with Safina and Ranger to pull up anchor at 10 AM and make the move to Namara. We waited until 10:00 so we would have good light for watching for coral heads. These waters are charted, but it is sometimes very tricky to know exactly where each of the coral heads are really located. Mark stayed on the foredeck watching the water and I steered. We looked like a flotilla as we carefully picked our way to our new anchorage. By 11 AM we were here
at our new anchorage and Mark and I immediately hit the water. Namara is a beautiful little uninhabited island and we had read that there is good snorkeling on the northwest corner of the island. It is such a tiny island that the northwest corner is within swimming distance, so we just jumped in and headed for shore so we could work our way to the point in shallow water. What a wonderful sight. I think I had almost forgotten just how beautiful the coral and the fantastically colorful little fish
can be. What we found was literally a kalidoscope of color. The coral was mostly plate coral and not tremendously colorful, but there were dashes of purple, orange, yellow, pink, and neon green. Add to that the colorful little Christmas Tree worms and then the fish of every color and you really have quite a phenomenal picture. We saw Moorish Idols today, lots of butterfly and bannerfish, damselfish of every color, and the list goes on and on. I think my favorite find of the the day was an orange
and turquoise anemonefish. The colors were stunning and I think Nemo would have been jealous. We took a break and then snorkeled again in the afternoon.

If the weather is “just right” for continuing on into coral head country, we will be leaving here tomorrow at 10 AM for the southern side of Kadavu Island. Leaving at 10:00 will give us just enough time for one more early morning snorkel.

We ended our day with a communal dinner aboard Ranger. We all brought enough salad for two and enough spaghetti sauce for two. We then combined the salads and the spaghetti sauce and had a feast. I baked fresh bread and that was yummy as well.

070608 Day 45 Astrolabe Reef, Fiji–Dravuni Island Anchorage

070608 Day 45 Astrolabe Reef, Fiji–Dravuni Island Anchorage