November 4

 We had a lovely time at Yanutha, the small island inside the reef of Mbennga. Some nice dives particularly enjoyed the wreck dive I did with Jordan. The other two dives were ok – the first one I did with Darwin from Dragon Lady was nice but he sucked his air so quick, we didn’t stay long. I did see an octopus on that dive which was very cool. Pretty corals and interesting small things if you looked hard. The reef around there is very damaged by storms so it was a bit disappointing. The other dive I did with Jordan in the same location sucked because the current had picked up and it was really exhausting. We had tied the dingy to a dive mooring and we were swept away from the dingy. It was my second dive of the day and I was wiped. Jordan told me to stay hanging on to a coral head while he got the dingy. I did my safety stop and then surfaced to watch Jordan make a heroic dash for the dingy. I was supposed to wait at the surface but to stay in place I had to swim hard. Jordan was wiped from the hard swim and we both decided that a person in the dingy was a good safety. Another realization which seems obvious now was that he should have tied his weights to his BC and left it floating. If the current had been a bit stronger, he would not have made it to the dingy. Its really hard to swim effectively with a tank and weights!  

Jonah had a lovely time playing with his little friends from Dragon Lady. Tristan, the older boy, and Jonah have the same high energy, crazy little boy thing which was good because they would wear each other out with sword fights and make believe battles against evil. The smaller boy, Collin, is a more gentle kid who enjoys the boy stuff but has a hard time keeping up. Jonah discovered the regular Lego at their boat and spent hours (really!) building intricate stuff. I guess its time to move up from the toddler big Lego to the real thing. All those little pieces! Yikes.  

We are currently at Musket Cove getting ready to leave for New Zealand. It is really nice as Yachties are allowed to use all the facilities (POOL!) and are very welcome. We had a pool day yesterday and Jonah had a blast. I forgot what a madman he is in a pool. He is much more cautious swimming off the boat. He worked on his diving which is getting respectable and some crazy flip maneuver which amazed me. There is a little but well stocked grocery store here and we should be able to get everything we need. Jordan has to take the ferry into Lautoka to check out of Fiji – an all day event but it is easier than taking the boat all the way there.