Snorkeling south of Nabouwalu

Chris rows into a sea cave.

After helping Isaak fix a leak in his long boat, we left Nabouwalu Bay and have spent the last two days anchored in a small coral filled bay a little over a mile south, but still on Ono island. The bay has a sand beach and the ruins of a house. There are coconut trees and the remains of a farm - cassava plants and even a tangerine tree - in the hills behind the beach. It is mostly overgrown with vines and appears to not have been cultivated in years. If you plan to visit here and anchor, be warned that there is very little sand between heavy coral formations. To avoid destroying these, we are on short scope with two anchors lodged under coral and a float to hold the chain up above the other corals.

Parrot fish - about 30 cms long.

We have had a couple of good snorkeling trips to the rock that blocks the middle of the bay and today along the cliffs running north to Nabouwalu. There are sea caves about three quarters of a mile north of the anchorage and we rowed the dinghy to them and swam most of the way back, pulling the dinghy. These pictures were taken on this swim.

Brilliant blue corals like this were spread across large areas of rock. This patch is a meter across.

Unicorn fish

There were areas in the rock where dozens of urchins filled every crevice.

Giant clam - love that wild lipstick! This is about 15-20 cms wide

Pink/purple corals are quite common throughout Fiji.

This area has a large number of green corals. I do not know why in one area, the algae can be so many different colours?!

Panorama of hard corals

There were a few large patches of soft corals. This one is several meters across.

This little flat worm has similar patterning to the giant clams. It is about 10 cms long

Box fish

Box fish - side profile