Fawn Harbor and Viani Bay

Saturday May 15, with wagon in tow we did a bit of provisioning. Found this nice store on the north end of Savusavu selling fruits and vegetables.

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We departed the marina early afternoon and anchored by the reef at entrance to the bay, snorkeled in the shallow water. Mike and Sue are divers so they were along the wall of the reef.

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Sunday May 16, departed the reef for Fawn Harbor, it is a very protected bay surrounded with mangroves. Sundowners with Mike and Sue after we arrived.

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Monday May 17, we snorkeled in morning by noon we were off to Viani Bay, arrived just before sunset. For dinner I made Ground Beef with chopped cabbage.

Viani Bay is home to the Rainbow Reef it is one of the most famous dive sites in the South Pacific. Also here is The Great White Wall, a popular scuba diving site. It is named because of the white coral that lives between 50 and about 200ft.

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Tuesday May 18, did some snorkeling, best coral we’ve ever seen.

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There are 7 boats here in Viani Bay. Last night 5 of us, boats, gathered on s/v Pogeyan, Rich and Michelle from Kansas, for sundowners.

Wednesday May 19, boat projects today plus we checked out the error code my camera is flashing Err. The code indicates the camera body is not communicating with the lenses. We cleaned the contacts, still has an error 😞.

Dan and Mike dove down to our anchor checking on it.

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Sundowners gathering on s/v Ocean Sapphire.

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Thursday May 20, rainy morning. Several of the divers went out early to dive the White Wall. Dan went along too. He kept the guide company and also snorkeled a bit. 5 of 7 boats here are divers. Michelle took some awesome photos of the dive, you can see them here and here. The other 2 boats, we snorkel.

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Dive Academy Fiji here in the bay, prepared a Lovo for all of us. A lovo is an underground oven used as a traditional Fijian method of cooking food in large quantities. A Fijian version of a barbeque or grilling, with smoky flavors. A variety of meats and vegetables are wrapped in foil and banana leaves and placed on hot rocks lining a shallow pit dug into the earth. The food is covered and left to slow-cook in the steamy oven to produce a traditional Fijian feast.

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On the menu, Watercress salad, Tubua with miti (that’s the Fijian spinach, with the coconut sauce), Dalo (tarot) and Kasava (tavioka) served with a pesto from basil with Kotta (coconut cheese) and peanuts. Pumpkin in coconut, Ika (fish) wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with lemon before going in the lovo, served with miti. Bull makau (beef) kovu (a hot pot with beef, also cooked in banana leaves in an iron pot), Toa (chicken). And we finished with a pudding crumble, Also on the tables were Basil water, mint water, Fiji Sea Salt. All the food was spiced with differently flavored sea salts. Everything was delicious!

We purchased 2 different bags of flavored sea salts, Pesto and Lime.

Friday May 21, it rained pretty much all day, in the afternoon we streamed “News of the Day” staring Tom Hanks, on Netflix.

*Sourdough Notes* started a Belle loaf today to bake Saturday morning.

Saturday May 22, in the bay here there is a coral farm run by the Dive Shop. It is a forbidden area to fish or be in. This morning along with 3 others and 2 paid guides, we snorkeled the area as they explained about the growth on the farm.

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