If I get too enthusiastic with my travel descriptions, Sailmail cuts us off and Mike and Rod get alarmed about their weather reports…so I need to keep it moderate! So you will receive this email in three installments over the next three days.

This morning we walked about half an hour across Naviti Island to a site where a World War II fighter plane had crashed into shallow water (the pilot walked away). It was a pretty walk through head high grass (luckily no rattlesnakes in Fiji). We came to property belonging to an elderly couple who were busy raking up the leaves and keeping their “plantation” in spotless order. They gave us permission to cross through to their beach from where we could snorkel out and sightsee the sunken plane wreck. They had decorated the entrance to the path from the beach with some driftwood and shell sculptures and had built a bench for sightseers to put their stuff on while snorkeling. They had also marked the plane with a buoy so visitors could locate it without asking for help!

On our way back we stopped to visit with the Fijian family again – while we were gone they had pulled out family photos, an article about World War II airplanes, and a guest book for us to sign. We had a little visit and chat and left with a gift of four big papayas from their tree.

That was the morning expedition; after lunch we jumped into the dinghy and went to visit a nearby village and perform the sevusevu ceremony, in which we offer a gift (of kava roots which we had bought previously from the market in Suva) to the chief and ask his permission to anchor in his bay.

Ceremony concluded, we were given a walking tour of the village, met the headmaster of the primary school (who told us about his recent visit to San Francisco), and when we returned to the dinghy the local ladies had whipped out their wares (shell jewelry, tapa cloth, carvings and so forth) and spread them out on the beach sand in case we wanted to shop.

Back to Raven again, this time to prepare for a night dive! Now that I have my open water diver certification, there are several specialty dives that can be added to my certification level, night scuba-diving being one. With all our gear assembled and ready, Anouk and I waited until sunset and then headed back out to the same coral wall (that we dived on yesterday) for our night dive. We had underwater torches (flashlights) to light the way and it really turned out to be interesting. The fish are asleep and hidden away into cracks and crevices, but the coral polyps open up to feed and there are lots of new sights not usually visible in the daytime. We did see a reef shark (I think we scared him).

At the end of the dive we turned off our underwater lights and watched the phosphorescence sparkle as we moved our arms and legs in the dark water. The dinghy ride back to Raven really stirred up the phosphorescence even more and we left a blazing trail of light behind us.

Hope all’s well with you!