Anchored at Namena marine reserve. Awesome diving here. Stayed here last year for three days and did lots of diving and the weather has allowed us to do the same again this year. There are so many dive sites and all wonderful diving - Tetons, Fantasy, The Mushsrooms, Rainbow, The Chimneys...... Lots of fish, large and small, soft corals, fan corals, christmas tree worms........ Great for photography, both macro and normal. Also a red footed booby bird colony. Lovely, cute fluffy chicks and birds flying over the boat all day and follow us in the dinghy. Here with Sea Bride and Vixen 7, so good company, good scenery and great diving.

The Eastern islands are on the barrier reef that protects Vava'u from the raging ocean waves. To get out there we had to negotiate our way through shallow water, between reefs, which are spectacular! It was worth the effort. From the protected side, we climbed up Lolo, a small island made of sharp lava rock, to see the blow hole. Amazing pounding surf on the outside comes shooting through the rocks giving us a great display. It is possible to walk between Kenutu and Lolo at low tide, which we did - but it was a little hair raising as the tide came in and the waves got deeper and deeper over the joining reef. Kenutu has a lovely walk through the tropical jungle to a look out from the top. The best of the three islands was Umumana, which has a very deep well of fresh water and a more extesnive walk to a high lookout point. The first part of the trail is very thoughtfully lined with coconuts, but it gets a little hazy after that. We had to use our bush survival skills to look fo r clues about where the track went next - we left a trail of coconut leaves tied to trees to make sure we could find our way back. We made it! Wow, what a view. The power of the ocean waves crashing against the eastern side of the island is incredible. At the northern tip of Umuna there is a sand spit. We walked out to the end and went snorkelling in a vast coral garden. Angelfish, butterfly fish, lemon peel fish, neon blues, parrot fish, colourful wrass, bright blue starfish, black spiny sea slugs and a myriad of other sea life. A very special place. On the way back through the pass we forgot that we had the fishing line trawling out the back - and just as we got to the most narrow bit with coral reefs all around - we got a strike! Karl wrestled the fish on board while Heather slowly steered through the rocky patches and into clear water. Phew! The Green Jobfish we caught is a member of the snapper family. We sat on a little sandy beach having a cold beer while the fish smo ked in our smoker. A great lunchtime treat! Last night we were back in the harbour again to help Wanda from "Vegas" celebrate her Birthday. A table of 13 of us had dinner at The Beach House - great food and good company. At the next table, the Crown Prince and his body guards were having dinner. After dinner the whole group went on the The Bounty Bar to continue celebrations and surprised Wanda with a Birthday cake. By the time we got back to the boat it was 1am! It will be a quiet day today :-)