This morning we woke around 7am. Our plan was to go diving with Paul from "Boreal". Kate wasn't diving due to sinus trouble. She took Jonah over to "Boreal" and dropped him off and left our dinghy there. Then she came back with Paul in his dinghy which has a rigid hull (fiberglass) and a 15hp motor. We were on the reef by 8:30am and tied up to one of the mooring balls used by the local dive operators. I had been here last year and remembered there was a wreck nearby with some nice coral pinnacles near it. We found it easily, the water was so clear we could see the wreck in 75ft of water under us right next to the second mooring buoy we came to.

The dive was wonderful, the water clarity was much better then last year when we were here. The soft corals were amazing and there were plenty of fish. After the dive we went back to the boat and put up our sun awning and then got out the compressor to refill the scuba tanks. Meanwhile Jonah stayed on "Boreal" playing with Quinten and Gabriel. At 1pm Kate and I swam over to them and swam back with Jonah.

We met them again at the beach at 3:30pm to walk to the village to deliver the Sevusevu. This is a traditional gift of Kava root given to the village chief as a way of asking for permission to stay in the village (and its environs which are owned by the village, including surrounding coral reefs and fish). The practice of Sevusevu has been going on in Fiji for centuries and is a nice way to meet the people and show them you are interested in respecting their customs and traditions. Today, however, we did not get to make the Sevusevu as planned.

Knowing it was Sunday we were not sure if we should go to give the Sevusevu, but Paul and Cecille spoke with a man on the beach who said it would be fine to go between 3 and 4pm. However, when we arrived at the village (just above the village on a plateau which overlooks it) we met a man who told us everyone was in church, the afternoon service had just begun. We sat for a while looking down on the village while the kids played with 2 or 3 stray kids who for some reason were not in church. We could even hear them singing. We decided to come back tomorrow so we hiked back to the beach and to our boats.

Tomorrow we plan to dive again in the morning, weather permitting. We hope to leave the following day for Vatulele, the next step in our journey to Lautoka where we hope to get our shaft/whatever-the-hell-is-wrong fixed. Since we cannot use our engine we must plan to leave only when wind is good and arrive at the next stop before it fails or darkness falls. This forces us to make small hops of 20-30 miles and no more. With luck we will make it to Lautoka without incident. We shall see.