We raised the anchor at 4 a.m. while the kids slept, and motored through calm waters as the sun slowly came up.

Twenty years ago I was screaming, jumping, and waving my arms in order to make a trade in the soybean pits of Chicago. Today I trade while peacefully motoring across Fiji. While I very much miss the battle of the trading pits, it’d be hard to complain about the way things have turned out with this new reality.

The winds promised to fill in a little bit throughout the morning, and we were eventually able to fly the new Code C sail. This sail is similar to the Code Zero that we blew out a while back, but the Zero is designed more for upwind, while the Code C (Cruiser) is cut more for off the wind from about 70 to 140 degrees. I’d say this is our most common point of sail, and in winds under 15 knots this will likely be our go-to sail. At least until the wind slips a little further behind, at which point we switch out for the Parasailor.

We left the island of Vanua Levu in the morning, and sailed about fifty-five miles throughout the day, mostly inside reef, to the main island of Viti Levu. Our destination was an area known as the Sunshine Coast. A nice change from the daily rains in Savusavu.

We dropped anchor around five o’clock, in sixty feet of water next to a bunch of resort dive boats, and immediately jumped in to cool off.

There isn’t anything else out at the point other than a resort and dive shop. The resort caters to divers, and is super cruiser friendly, which isn’t always the case. We just pulled up, went into the office and checked in with them and they gave us a number to use to charge food and drinks, use the pool, hang out on their beach, etc.. It was a nice spot and we enjoyed the Fijian Barbeque night with them.

The next day we were on the dive boat for an hour long trip right back the way we had just come from to the famous Bligh Waters. Somewhere in between the two big islands they grabbed a mooring ball and we dropped over the side into the pristine waters.

Both of the day’s dives were on coral pinnacles with tops at about thirty feet and bottoms around ninety feet. We dropped down to the bottom and circled our way back to the top, where the best of each dive was. Some really beautiful and healthy soft corals covered the tops. Still none of the big predators that I like, but it was some really nice diving.

Frogfish, masters of camouflage and stealth hunting.