Day four started with a repeat trip ashore to Yalobi Bay for more snorkelling. Today it was windier so the visibility close to the beach was poor but once out past the breakers, it was immaculate! More fish and coral and other sea life. Still no turtles unfortunately but there were lots of parrot fish. I really want to see a turtle while I’m in Fiji - one that’s swimming happily not one that’s being presented for dinner.

We had an invasion of our anchor space from the elusive cousin-ship Silver Fern. A fly by then anchoring upwind of us, their crew went to check out our snorkel spot. We managed to offload our rubbish bag onto her as she’s back in port tomorrow. A nice farewell radio call from Silver Fern as we mooched off into the distance set us on a happy mood to get north by 8 miles. Leaving Yalobi behind us, we weaved between the reefs and outcrops as the sails went up and down again (the wind played silly buggers with us) to Drawaqa Island. This is where the manta rays are!

Anchor down, the shore party went to check out the Manta Ray island and resort. Everyone enjoyed seeing a less fancy resort with a backpackers area and a homely feel. I stayed on board and studied the inside of my eyelids for half an hour keeping anchor watch. A swell came up and I had to shut the round portholes as the occasional wave timed it well to lap through into my bed and the heads! The more important mission for the shore party was to restock the much loved and sought-after tonic water. The three musketeers - John 9, John 11 and Simon - needed more tonic water for their precious gin so managed to buy several cans from the resort to bring back on board. Little did they know that Te Kaihōpara has liberal amounts of tonic and juice stowed away from the thirsty troopers. They should have asked me earlier! Their lack of poking around, though, fortunately meant they also didn’t know where the chippies were stowed. We managed to secure the inside goss (gossip/knowledge) on how to see the manta rays tomorrow morning. We all went to sleep with an excitement about what we might see in the morning.

Hannah - Chief Mate - Te Kaihōpara