July 2022
Natewa Bay, Vanua Levu
It's so good to be able to move around freely again. We spent some time diving and swimming with mantas with Viani Bay Dive Academy, visited with George at Naqaiqai Creek and sailed up to Rabi to see if the little family was still there at the fish camp at Albert Bay. They had returned to the village for school unfortunately; but we enjoyed a good anchorage and excellent snorkelling.

The past two years we have sailed past and considered visiting Natewa Bay, the largest bay in Fiji. David and Susan spent some at the tip of the bay and loved it. Charts show massive amounts of reef at the Savusavu end and super deep at the north entry. We could find no information in the guides and online so John called the dive shop on the Savusavu side to ask for anchorage options. They said yachts did not come there since it is pretty far and had no suggestions. With a severe wind advisory due any day we decided to use the deep bay as a hideout. It was a trick getting around the semicircle of reef protecting the entry then worked our way back up to the east side for wind protection. The only anchorage noted on Navionics by the entry turned out to be too deep so we spent about four more hours deeper inspecting any coves or creeks for shallow space sufficient to anchor for a night. The intense deep blue of this massive bay indicated the depth but it was too deep for our instruments to register; just the three dashes.

The second day some young men on a bamboo raft came over to tell us about the village ahead but very politely advised me I would need to cover up more to visit the village. I thought I was pretty respectable wearing a huge coverup over my swimsuit.
We headed deeper into Natewa Bay toward a village which showed a road that had bus service to Savusavu. A fibreglass local boat hailed us asking what we were looking for and I told him we wanted to get close to the reefs. His father and Headman Luke said they would show us the closest anchorage to the reef and by their Lea Village. As they ran alongside the depth meter suddenly went to less that 12 feet and John freaked out but the water was still deep dark blue??? In an instant we were surrounded by a huge pod of pilot whales playing alongside the boat. They stayed with us for almost an hour. Ran came aboard Tabu Soro to give anchorage directions and we towed the fibre boat to save them fuel as recent price hikes have hit hard.

The anchorage by Lea Village is probably only big enough for two to three mid size boats but the water clarity was almost frightening as it seemed like we could see the bottom too well in 10 plus meters. We went ashore with kava and met the most friendly folks ever and everyone in the village came down to see us. Headman Luke said the pilot whales were a sign or blessing on us. We ended up spending a week with them getting shown around the sights of the bay and trying to answer their questions as to why the yachts did not come to visit this place. Mere and I set up a FaceBook group page for Lea Village so they can share some of their love and very special bay.

Sadly, we had to get moving back towards Nadi to pick up Deirdre and said our farewells for now. Totally intend to return and explore some more of the reefs.