Commodore
August 7, 2025

Friday 8 August – great snorkel on a massive coral wall drop off

The little village was right in front of us. The mute guy came visiting very early, he did some good sign language to show he needed glasses. Poor guy we told him to come back later. The dive company whose mooring ball we were on said we must visit the chief to pay our respects as they look after the mooring ball and pay our snorkelling fee. We headed into the village to find the chief. A very neat, orderly, friendly village. We walked a little way down the main road and found the chief, we gave him some clothes, rice, tinned meat and a bag to keep it all in, he seemed very happy with that. We got permission to snorkel their reef which cost us 60 SBD (about £5.25).

We went back to the boat and waited until midday for the tide to come in a bit before snorkelling. It was a dramatic snorkel on a 30-40m drop off, the fish life was amazing, better condition than a lot of the coral, although there were some stunning areas. I was a little put off by seeing a reef shark soon after getting in. We took a turtle by surprise, it didn’t see us until the last minute and then sped away. The highlight was seeing a family of huge Napoleon Wrasse, they are the fish with a big blob on their forehead. There looked like two adults and a youngster, than swam nearly the whole way with us, we were drifting with the dinghy for at least a mile I would think. We saw some amazing murmurations of blue and yellow fish, and a couple of times hundreds of angel fish catching the light like stars twinkling through the sunlight. It was very impressive, and so nice that the village don’t fish here, amazing what a difference it makes. We did see another shark, Rowan assures me it was small but at those depths I am not so sure!

We tried to have a relax in the afternoon as we had a very energetic time this morning getting all 5 sails out of the forward lockers, so that we could look for our new reel of halyard rope. Typically it was the very last place we got to that we found the reel, but at least we have it. We landed up doing a massive clear out, finally getting sails back into their sail bags. Our afternoon was a constant visit from canoes with kids and adults. We have said we will only trade, which sent some girls from a village the other side of the bay scampering off to get coconuts. They made it back a few hours later. We got potatoes and beans too. After our debacle yesterday with the guys capsizing their canoes, Rowan had told the chief in the morning that he had proper glue to fix holes in canoes, they must dry their boats and at 5pm we would be back. All the canoes seem to have enormous leaks, with one person constantly baling water. They were all waiting for us in eager anticipation at 5pm. Sadly the mute guy who we really wanted to help lives in a far away village. It appeared as if most of the village turned out, I handed out loads of biscuits while the canoe repairs took place. Rowan got covered in his black glue which stuck to everything. He finally gave the remains of the tube to an older responsible guy, fingers crossed it does some good. They all came to see us off, the kids as usual were so cheerful. No begging.

The weather got really stormy in the evening, rain poured down and there was lots of thunder and lightening about, luckily it did not come too close. In between downpours Rowan cooked a big fillet from Luganville, he is looking forward to a meat feast, this week end! It was delicious.

The village in front of us

The young lad who helped us yesterday came to visit with his young nephew who was very cute

Looking for the chief

The huge clam shells they have feasted on!

Walking through the neat village

This is where we are, we snorkelled from just in front of the village all the way to the point, you can see the drop off, it just goes from light blue to deep blue no gradient