Another beautiful day in the Mamanucas

We are sitting on the restaurant deck of the Fiji Princess for breakfast. Clear blue skys with some light clouds and breeze; it may be a real hot "stinker" today as our Aussie friends Peter and Julie would say. They are getting off the boat today as they only booked the 3 day voyage...we miss them already!

Yesterday, Sunday we went ashore to another small island village for Sunday church service. We did not understand a word of the service but we were entertained by all the small children staring at us and us staring at them. The islanders request that all visitors respect their dress code of no bare shoulders, no head covering and no bare knees. This means we all wore sarongs while on the island, this is the first time Bob has worn a skirt.

Later on we sailed to another island and set up on a beautiful but deserted beach for snorkeling with a cooking class to follow. The crew were using lime juice to "cook" the cubed raw fish as we did in Mexico to make Cerviche.

 Friend Peter and I had booked a fishing trip as well so left the wives on the beach and headed out. No rods on the tender, all fishing done using handlines. We had two crew with us, Witi and John and it was them and Peter who caught all the fish. I just fed them from my line. Apparently I don't have the "touch" to know when to yank hard to set the hook.

I really didn't mind. Just being out on the water among these islands with friend was worth it.

If ever there was a place where you could end up on a beautiful white beach with palm trees, these islands are that place. The bigger islands are sparsely populated and most are uninhabited. According to Witi, some of the islands do have a fresh water supply plus it does rain enough that you almost can rely on rainwater catchments for your drinking water.

The down side is that occasionally you can have too much rain with the resulting flooding.

That night Naomi was part of the entertainment! She and 5 ladies were given no choice but to participate in a fashion show and catwalk display. They were dressed in sarongs and strutted their stuff on the catwalk. Naomi did not win but she had a great time participating with the other ladies.  They were all told when selected that there was no option to decline...not sure of the selection process but both Julie and Naomi were game to become  "runway models" for the night.  Here are a few pics of the event.

This morning we were supposed to go snorkeling with the sharks out on the reef but it was too rough so now we are pulling up to another island with a beautiful white sandy beach! So this means more snorkeling and the other "activities" associated with beaching.

Now time for some pictures. This first one shows Naomi at the helm of the Fiji Princess. Apparently this when the boat took severe "collision avoidance" maneuvers, according to Aussies Peter and Julie.