Anchoring off a Reef

Hello All,
Today Alex and I took the dingy across the bay to look for the Fisher family that owns all of the property here. I read about them in one of my guide books so we thought we would go to shore to say hello. We landed the boat at a beautiful home that I thought belonged to the Fisher's but turns out it belongs to an American guy. He was not there but we were told by a gal that looks after the place that he was helping someone at a place close by. We asked her about the Fisher's and she told us where to go. We took a 10 minute walk via the beach and came across a home and we heard them yelling at us, come up here! We went up to say hello and they introduced them selves as Jack and Sophie Fisher. They fed us lunch and Jack told us about himself and we had a nice visit. He is Fijian and was born and raised right here in Viani Bay. He is a well educated man and has toured all through the Fijian Islands, has a Captains License and knows the waters very well. He has moorings for yachts to use by his place and welcomes them with open arms. He also helps yachts with what ever they need, guided tours of the Island or diving the waters. This bay has some very famous dive spots and Jack knows where they are. As a young man he did diving for a living.
We asked him about snorkeling and he said no problem, get your boat over here at my place and I will meet you at the mooring with my row boat and I will take you there on Freestyle. So Alex and I took the dingy back to the boat, which was anchored the next bay over. We got the anchor up and motored over to his moorings which was a mile from where we were. He joined the boat and we took Freestyle to the outer reef 2 miles from here. Jack has done this with heaps of other boats so he told me to relax, I know what I am doing. Basically we were taking my boat to a fringing reef where the depth goes from 100 feet to 2 feet in a distance of 30 feet. He had a special sandy spot on a slope in 10 feet of water, then you loop out to the deep and let the chain grab onto a few coral heads and if you put out just enough chain the boat will stay off of the reef. I questioned his technique but it worked out beautifully. We had a very good time snorkeling the reef and Jack followed us around with the dingy. We returned right before dark and he gave us bananas and a few other things. We thanked him for the tour and we said good bye. They are both wonderful people and I hope to see them again someday.
We will head for Taveuni Island tomorrow about 6 miles from here. Taveuni is the place that I was talking about in the last blog. It is a high Island with water falls and is a very popular destination by yachties and tourists alike so we will go check that out.
That's all for now, talk to you soon.

PEACE