Viani Bay to Navolau Point

We woke up on Sunday, September 25 to a beautifully calm anchorage in Viani Bay. The tall green mountains reflected across the bay that was as smooth as glass. We went ashore in the dinghy and had to carefully navigate our way through coral heads to get there. The shore was quite muddy but we had a leisurely walk in our dive booties. We went back to Faraway and had breakfast then decided to motor around the corner to a smaller anchorage off Navolau Point. This was a small but beautiful anchorage nestled in between 2 coral reefs. I had to stand on the bow to make sure we didn’t hit any coral bommies and then choose a suitable place to drop the anchor. It’s a relatively easy task when the tide is low and the sun high to see the reefs but when the tide is high and the sky is cloudy you really can’t make good judgement on where to drop the anchor. We anchored safely then went snorkelling. Our location was about a mile behind the rainbow reef and we weren’t disappointed with the snorkelling. It was beautiful and teaming with fish life. We found 3 lobsters in fairly shallow water but left them to live another day. The variety and colours of the coral and fish life were stunning. I found a couple of crown of thorns starfish but these creatures were the only signs of destruction to the corals that were obvious. The water was quite chilly but Ian managed to find a warm patch close to shore to bathe in. We went for a walk along the sandy white beach and retired to Faraway for lunch. It then started to pour down with rain so we waited for an hour or so then took a dinghy ride back to the beach to go fossicking. The sun had disappeared for the day but it was so peaceful and quiet on the beach that we spent a couple of hours just wandering. In the evening we had a BBQ and an early night after all the activity.