The following journal is kindly shared by crew member Fiona Mitchell from Sydney.

And on we went..

So many different wonderful experiences over the past few days. Lots of snorkelling and swimming off the boat, seeing different coloured fish and corals. Nemo was at home at the reef at the Blue Lagoon Resort but I haven’t seen Dory! We swam with Manta Rays, such glorious creatures, so graceful and so close. Having seen a silvery grey Manta Ray pass by underneath me, I turned to watch it go and turned back to see an enormous black Manta Ray coming towards me! Their size is intimidating but they are gentle, feeding on plankton. They move a whole body length in a second, which explains how they so quickly disappear into the murky distance. A never to be forgotten experience.

That evening we headed off on Captain Amos’s long boat to Gunu village where we had a feast with Ili in a typical house on an island. The house had four rooms, one for a family from Brazil/Spain/England having a home stay, there was another room to the side and a kitchen out the back, and the large room we were in had two long tables which accommodated the many dishes we were going to eat - eggplant, plantain, cassava, fish, octopus, chicken, sea grapes (a delicacy with the consistency of bubble tea) and fresh pineapple. We all sat on the floor to present the chief of the village with Kava before we began our meal. He gave a speech, presumably thanking us, and then we ate. There were children in the room behind, sitting on the floor playing clapping games and keeping themselves entertained. The little ones yawning as we left, they had waited to have their dinner after us.

In the morning we made our way back to the village for a visit to the school. We went into the assembly hall, which was packed with all the students, from Kindy to year 8. I think there were around 180 students from the three neighbouring villages. Before the school was built the students had had to walk 3kms and over the hill to the school on the other side of the island. It would have been a long walk.

We sat at the front of the assembly hall, a bit like Kings and Queens looking out at their subjects! We were made to feel very welcome with a special welcome song, each year group then sang to us, with great enthusiasm and gusto. We had a question and answer session with the students asking us our favourite food and sport, followed by a tour of the classrooms, shown around by some students bursting with pride at showing us. We left them to their lunch hour and they left us with a feeling of pure joy!

We had our lunch as we headed towards Oarsman’s Bay, snorkelling in the afternoon.

Another first for me, cave diving, slipping across rocks to a stair case, up and down into the first cave, huge and cavernous with a hole open to the sky in the roof, through a narrow tunnel underwater into the second cave. Which could have been equally cavernous but I couldn’t tell since it was pitch black. Once we’d got through we snorkelled/swam to the far end of the cave where there was a smattering of light from a hole far above us. There the guide told us there were freshwater eels and snapper in the water - so glad I didn’t see one. Then I got to hold the torch whilst our guide smacked his hands underwater which made an enormous boom which reverberated through the cave. We squeezed back out of the tunnel and into the first cave where one of our guides climbed to a great height and dived into the water, twice!

A little market run by the local island we bought a few momentous.

Back to the boat and a lazy afternoon at the Blue Lagoon resort. Snorkelling, walking up to the view point from where you can see the colours of the sea and nearby islands. A beer and a cocktail before returning to the boat and yet another delicious dinner cooked by the crew - us!

`Dodging reef under the watchful eye of Silver Fern`

And since we are on a sailing holiday it was good to have had the right wind to put up the main as well as unfurling the head sail! Heading towards Oarsman’s Bay we saw about ten dolphins - spinners- playing alongside the boat, they seem shy as they don’t stay long.

And now we are heading north, having snorkelled this morning and walked along the beach in the Blue Lagoon.

Pure Joy

Deep reefed and fancy free.

Walk the plank!