We had a remarkably good night’s sleep, even with the wind howling in the trees around us, and us swooshing from side to side. The anchor was rock solid which was a huge relief. These winds are called Bogi Walu in Fiji, literally meaning 8 (Bogi) nights (Walu). It describes a weather event when the trade winds are forced closer together by a weather systems on either side, forming a squash-zone. Once this zone forms it does not relax until the high pressure system responsible moves away, which usually takes 8 nights!
You can see the red of the squash zone over Fiji…. we are the red dot
We deserved a good breakfast, and celebrated opening a huge bottle of delicious chunky marmalade made by my godfather’s wife Jane in NZ. Rowan commented that it was particularly good….high praise indeed! We have an international assortment of marmalades on board, notably the hand made ones from my sister in South Africa and a number from English friends. I try and buy some in each country we visit. Toasted home made bread with home made marmalade is our ultimate morning treat with a good cup of coffee.
In between showers we went exploring in between all the little islands. We also dropped off a bottle of wine to the couple who helped us in our time of need yesterday, plus a bottle to Chez Nous as they had tried to help us get anchored near them. We are extremely happy with our final spot in the Swimming Pool (it’s name on the charts). We have the whole place to ourselves, and can’t see any other boats from inside the pool. We had a great explore into a cave, there were a few nice bits of coral on the outside. Otherwise we pootled around the waterways which were wonderfully protected from the wind.
Exploring
The entrance to the cave, we were able to snorkel through the small gap and into a big cave.
Inside the cave
Me swimming into the cave
Inside the cave, we could see some light in the roof. Interesting green formations on the rocks
Amazing colour water, lots of coral to be avoided.
Stunning pools and waterways between the carved out limestone, covered in untouched bush.
These mushroom sculptures look top heavy with vegetation
The other boats in the bay, so glad to have the Swimming pool all to ourselves
Rowan spotted hundreds of bats as sunset arrived. We had been told they were about, but hadn’t expected quite so many, or that they would be so big
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