OK, we’re sitting here just finishing dinner after another great day in this incredible place, waiting for the full moon to rise over the island. Anticipation runs high tonight as there’s hardly a cloud in the sky. The stars are amazing. There are no lights (other than ones we may turn on) within 60 miles (Taveuni)-which means they are waaay over the horizon and we can’t see them. Pitch darkness, which interestingly is not so dark. Turns out the stars provide far more light than we think. When there’s no competing light, the stars make it pretty easy to see.

Moonrise over Nagelelelu

By the way, I'm getting pretty good at cutting coconuts with my machete.

But-a full moon rising over an almost deserted island? It doesn’t get much better than that. There are no lights on the island, so this should be good.

By the way, I saw the green flash on today’s sunset. It was so clear on the horizon there was a very clear bright fluorescent green flash the moment the sun went below the horizon. Very cool.

So-there was very little wind today and even fewer clouds (finally). The colors in the lagoon were the stuff dreams are made of. Hard to adequately describe the teal, turquoise, cerulean and other blues in the water. I can’t wait until we can post some pictures which unfortunately won’t be for some weeks yet since we’re a ways off the grid (other than the shortwave radio which lets us post this text file).

Anyway, we made good use of the day by breaking out the paddleboards. Wow, paddling along in the ice blue over sand. Charisma is a mile off the island and we made it half way in and were still in less than 20 feet of depth over sand and occasional coral. When over sand, the water lights up like an aquamarine gem. It’s just amazing and you are floating as if weightless over it all on the paddleboard.

After lunch, we made a quick trip in to see our new friends Matea and Mo. We had a nice time sitting under their banyon tree on the beach drinking coconut milk during the heat of the day. When they saw us heading in to the beach, they very kindly knocked a bunch of coconuts to the ground and had cut the ends off by the time we walked down the beach to their camp and we all enjoyed the cool coconut milk.

We also (making the most out of a great day) went snorkeling at low tide on some of the bommies that emerge. (Break, Break! Moonrise. As I’m writing this the moon is coming up and backlighting a cumulous cloud in the distance. It’s just plain surreal). OK, back to the blog-snorkeling. Fun.

OK, that’s about it for today. There’s a five knot breeze and it’s about 80 degrees and stars 360 degrees around. I think we’ll be sleeping on the cabin top for a while tonight. See ya!

(Note: Probably one more day here and the wind will fill in and we’ll look to head out on Sunday (our time, which is two days from now). Not sure exactly where yet so we’ll let your know!