And a little bit of misadventure. We came up after 45 minutes along the reef and…no pick up boat! Oh, oh.

A great dive, but we made a bit of a wrong turn.

But the coral was nice.

It started back when we went in. Four of us dove from two dinghies outside the reef. It was windy and the waves were up, so it was challenging to keep the dinghies close together and the two pairs of divers dropped a ways apart. OK, no problem, each pair still had a buddy.

We had a gorgeous cruise along the wall at about 75 feet, going toward the pass. The plan was to go to the pass then take it inside the lagoon – going with the incoming tide. Well, we missed the pass and kept going – as it turned out – along the reef on the other side of the pass. After about 100 meters, we were running our air down and came up for a safety stop (three minutes at 15 feet) and then surfaced for a look around. No boat. Just ocean and waves breaking on the reef about 20 meters away. We went back down a bit and swam away from the reef, then back up. Ah, there was our boat; they saw us. With the wind pushing us down on the reef we had to have the dinghy drag us a bit out to sea before we could safely climb in without worrying that it would get blown onto the reef while we were fumbling out of our tanks and gear and hauling it all in the boat.

Ah, adventure. Beer tastes much better after a good adventure, don’t you think?

So, a beautiful day, a stunningly gorgeous dive, a great tasting beer. Ann got a lot done on a quilt she’s making for the ladies who have taught her to weave. We finished the day over on Quixotic playing Whist over cocktails and one of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve seen here in Fiji. And the best part? I’m winning even though (it turns out) I don’t even know how to score. Now THAT’S a great day!