Manta Ray Bay and Somosomo Bay

Here's a recap of the past four days: On Tuesday we motored to Manta Ray Bay (in the rain) with Baraka. We anchored in the channel in front of Manta Ray Bay Resort. Unfortunately the weather stayed crummy and we didn't go ashore. Also, as darkness approached the wind picked up and it was too late to move the boat, so we stood anchor watch all night long - 3 hours on, 3 hours off. No fun but we were just fine. Early Wednesday morning we took off for Somosomo Bay and were settled in our new anchorage by 11am. Jan and Dave stayed another day at Manta Ray so we spent the day just hanging out. We swam around the boat during sun breaks then napped to try to catch up on some of the sleep that we lost the night before. On Thursday we installed wheels on our dinghy. You put the wheels down as you land on the beach and use them to help pull the boat up onto the beach - much easier than carrying the dinghy up the beach. Mid-morning found us reunited with our friends on s/v Destiny, s/v The Dorothy Marie and s/v Baraka. We had happy hour aboard Warm Rain and got caught up on the latest news all around. On Friday we all jumped into our dinghys, went ashore and hiked across the isthmus to the east side of the island to snorkel on a World War II spitfire plane that's sitting in about 15 ft. of water. It was very cool to be able to see a wreck in such shallow water. There's an elderly couple that live on property near the beach on the east side and we spent time visiting with them. We all took them food - tea bags, sugar, canned meat, etc. and they were very thankful. In return they gave us lemons from their orchard and spent a good amount of time visiting with us. They told us the story of the sunken Spitfire plane. They said that in 1943 a US airman was flying stunts low over the island, hit a coconut tree with the wing of the plane and crashed into the water! So, no horrible war story - it's actually kind of funny. This morning (Saturday) we're motor-sailing to Blue Lagoon. Stay tuned...

Comments

[Ann Lange]

Happy July 4 guys. Sounds like you Yanks celebrated by exploring. I think Americans have been doing that for years. Hope you continue to enjoy Fiji. Ann(no e) Cat's-Paw IV

[Babs]

Why were you only wearing one sock?

Babs