Hammer Bait

Bula vinaka everyone!

Wow this group came in with sooo much energy… or was it just Lindley?

Welcome aboard our returning Mark and Alicia; small Jen and very tall Aymeric; honeymooners Lindley and Richie; sweet Debbie; our french couple Michele and Gilles; sunny Sharon and Tony; Walter and Birgit from Austria; and last but not least, Sam and Ed. They actually tried to get onboard TWO times before this one, so the third time was the charm!

Let me explain the title very quickly as WE DON'T use shark bait.... but Jen had 4 encounters with hammerhead sharks during this charter so we referred to her as our personal hammerhead shark bait!

Let's set the scene and the vibe of the charter ~ with an incredible shot by Birgit

Fan shot by Walter

Anyone spot the turtle? ~ Walter

Temperature hasn’t gone down from 27 degrees Celsius/ 80 Fahrenheit, yet visibility seems to keep improving!

It is still astonishing to me how divers can still go down in vest and shorts or plain shorty with this temperature… kind of very jealous.

Hunting scene at Grand Central Station ~ shot by Gilles

Photo by Mark ~ White tip shark

Shark mating season seems near ~ a big female surrounded by smaller males was observed at Maytag, and the female had a huge fresh mating scar ~ shot by Gilles

Hammerhead, a beauty, was seen seemingly hunting together with a grey reef shark at GCS and later it went to see if it could find Jen at Schoolhouse! 

Kansas- “Another A M A Z I N G dive! I could spend all day down there.” - Mark

Treasure hunt at Kansas alone:

Fire dartfish
Twotone dartfish
Spottail dartfish
Monofin dartfish
Bluestreak goby
Lemon coralgoby
Piano fangblenny
Bicolor fangblenny
Bluestripped fangblenny
Fiji clown blenny
So many midas blennys
Clown triggerfish
Spotted toby
Blue blanquillo
Flagtail blanquillo
Nice remora searching for a big fish
Brown banded pipefish
Flabillina
Black red headed Pontoh’s pygmy sea horse
Sarasvasti anemone shrimp
2 squat shrimp moving their hips to the sound of fish music
Banded coral shrimp
Cleaner shrimp

Author Birgit ~ 

Author Birgit ~ Nudibranch

Author Birgit ~ banded coral shrimp

Shouts of delight all the way from the diving platform to the dive deck from divers!

Pygmy sea horses were constantly jumping from hydroid to hydroid, making it so much easier for divers to actually realize what they were.

Octopus sighting which made Debbie super happy at Schoolhouse. She actually saw one on the night dive as well, very happy night diver this one!

All in all, Namena dives just kept on giving! 

Birgit has been named the official scorpion girl as she found SO many scorpionfish this trip! The next amazing shots are hers! 

Wakaya lacked flappy-flappies this trip, but it was extremely fishy and sharky! 

Divers were gathered at different spa points down the cleaning station area getting manicures by our friendly cleaner shrimp.

Last minute divers did have a lovely female barreling in the blue, M469, who is now known as Okiwi (a.k.a. Blotchy, as she had a big blotch on t her tummy - diagnosis made by veterinarian expert Birgit.)

Big eyed trevally ~ author Gilles

Grey reef shark in the blue ~ Mark

Schools of short nose unicornfish ~ Gilles

The village visit at Makogai had such energy!

We had the Sevu-Sevu ceremony outside as they are doing construction on the island ~ new lighthouse and road, so that is exciting!

The kids' performance was fueled but so much cheering from our guests; you could see it in their dancing and smiles that they were motivated to give their all.

Shot of the amazing kiddie performance ~ Chris

And once Alicia opened her magic bag of goodies, believe me, it was the exact image of 15 sharks surrounding a bait box... but kids surrounding her and the bag! They couldn't get enough of fun toothbrushes, squishy balls and (African) bracelets. 

Beautiful coral ~ photo by Birgit

Long nose hawkfish ~ author Walter

This cute moray snake eel shot by Walter

Clam ~ Walter

Walter caught a Blue Dragon hitchhiking a ride on a Pineapple Sea Cucumber 

Sea Mounts, especially E6, were aquariums ~ clear waters and so many fish! 

Lucky Walter and Birgit found a cuttlefish in Cathedral; and other divers got to see the taser clam (fire file clam) in action!

Pixie hawkfish ~ Birgit

Orangutan crab in bubble coral ~ Gilles

File clam ~ Gilles

Incredibly fishy first dives back in Vatu-I-Ra: "Scorpionfish are amazing, they bring so many different fish into focus!"- Lindley

Vinaka vakalevu everyone! 

I know you will keep in touch! Amazing time together!