Tuesday 4 October Asanvari bay, Maewo island

Anchorage at Asanvari

Asanvari is another pretty anchorage with crystal clear water. We're here with one other boat, Kestrel from Vancouver. Last night we went to sleep to the sound of falling water and when we woke this morning we saw the wonderful waterfall that drops through the rocks into the bay.
We took the dinghy ashore to meet Chief Nelson. He's an older man who runs what is euphemistically called the Asanvari Yacht Club; a nice new, large building with kitchen facilities and an office, yacht flags hanging from the beams above the dusty floor. There are two plastic tables and half a dozen chairs, an outboard motor lying on it's side, some woven baskets for sale and two broken hydro-electric motors. Next to the kitchen was stacked four 25kg sacks of rice and the only dinner guest – a rat. Chief Nelson offered us one of his three mooring balls, only 500vt, or free if we booked dinner at the club. Rats, rice, Weills disease and a mooring ball of uncertain strength? Our anchor and dinner aboard was suddenly far more attractive. And healthy.
The Asanvari people are all friendly, many partially clad and naked children happily laughing and playing on the beach, a few dogs mooching around and a couple of small fishing / ferry boats. The village is a short dinghy ride away from the waterfall where we left it sitting in the pool while we climbed and explored. Maewo is in the direct line of rain bearing clouds and is known as the island of waterfalls. Steep hills of uplifted limestone and coral makes an excellent filter and the water coming down was pure and sweet, not too cold for a dip. We said are ohs and ahs and went on to our next exploration. A pinnacle 100m from the boat in the south of the anchorage.
One of our guides suggested this is a dive site but when we checked it with the solar fish finder aka glass bottom bucket it looked like a lump of dead coral. We still decided to have a dive. It was a hot afternoon and getting wet seemed a good idea. It turned out to be an excellent idea as the dive unfolded. The pinnacle had far more to offer than could be seen from the surface; a channel between it and the main island with a pair of eagle rays flying through, a large napoleon wrasse and a super size tuna hanging out, clouds of small fishes and bigger fish on the sides of the wall and some beautiful soft corals. Today there wasn't any current but on the deeper, underside there were large fan corals which thrive in current. It was a wonderful, leisurely poking our noses into holes dive, at shallower depths some gorgeous anemones and clown fish which are always fun to watch. And when we surfaced an hour later the dinghy was languidly waiting in no wind and no current.
The cherry atop the cake was a beautiful sunset, perfect to sit and watch while sipping our G&Ts. We're the Jacksters. What else would we be drinking?