Let There Be Wind; Let There Be Sun; Let There Be Fish

Bula vinaka everyone! 

Welcome back to Mr. Chiloso (Ralph), who basically flew out of the transfer bus to get in hugs with all known crew and even some nice bonus ones for both Chris and I! 

Jean Anne is also visiting again after 15 years, bringing on her faithful fuzzy buzzy suzzy (Suzanne). They were the least bubbly guest we’ve had yet! (Rebreathers… get it? Insert laugh here.)

The ultimate trio Jim (I dive shirtless), Marcelo, and Bob; very enthusiastic photographers and lovely to hang around with! 

Feisty French intensive care doctor, Flo! “Don’t call me to show me small things, I'm getting old, I need glasses!” You could always find him enjoying the schools and schools of fish. 

And then all our delightful couples: Stephanie and Brett (finding joy in every fish find) ; Mike and Apryl (who dove 1 week with previous guests of ours at Tavueni <3); Craig and Susan (coming directly from the Solomons): Glen and Anne (our South African couple living in Australia)! 

We always love to see how complete strangers complement each other soooo well on these types of trips.. Such amazing chemistry and interaction between these divers, both under and over water.

Water is down to 79 Fahrenheit /26 Celsius everyone! 

The trip started and continued with so much color and fish; welcome to Vuya and Vatu-I-Ra!

Colorful amazing shot ~ Ralph

“Visibility was very poor, I could only see fish.” ~ Jim

Ralph Ross Ramirez everyone!

“That was absolutely amazing!” ~ Mike&Apryl (after an incredible Humann Nature) We felt like VIPs getting invited to a fish party!

Juvenile parrotfish shot by Jim on the first dive of the charter!

Go Mo was sooo much fun and sharky… though the safety stop did kind of kick our ass. Divers were helping each other with reef hooks, holding on for dear life not to blow away.

“It was so hard to find dead coral for the reef hook!” ~ Stephanie (actually a compliment to Fiji reefs, not complaint)

Soft corals ~ Ralph

Leopard blenny ~ Jim

Porcelain crab ~ Glen

By jolly gosh, we got hit by beautiful 30 knots on our way to Gau… all guests and crew took it as champions but let’s be honest… Most of us were destroyed that first diving day. Yet, we made it!

“I have to compliment the crew; no matter when, there are always two of them waiting to get us safely back on Nai’a from the skiffs.” ~ Mike

At least one dive at Nigali Passage on the first day; flying by big eyed trevally, barracudas, and sharks; big, small and pregnant! More of that on the second day. 

Pick handle barracudas ~ Jim

“That was one of the best dives yet!” ~ Stephen

Amazing sea krait shot ~ Jim

We were even surprised on the outside reef (after finishing off at Jungle Jig) with pick handle barracudas just swimming among us, grey reefs and white tips following a school of big eyed jacks; everyone giving such a show!

Gau village visit was exciting; even with half of the villagers present (most of them had a funeral to go to, unfortunately), but the audience participation and enthusiasm made up for it! And Ralph making children cry with his shenanigans… but the grandmas LOVED him. 

Ralph and his shenanigans.. And little Moses 

Grandma at Somo Somo village playing along with King Tutu's show (Ralph)

Small dilemma: GPS on board broke down… oh no. That meant we had to do a little pit stop at Ovalau (originally the first capital city of Fiji before Suva became the official capital). 

Time to improvise! 

Our first dive outside the Natubari passage was actually really nice and relaxing, as well as an eagle ray in the blue, a juvenile one, a turtle and some sharkies. Apart from many fish we had not seen around, such as the ominous spadefish. 

At the RIP Bommies (1+2) [named that because they are close to a cemetery on Ovalau and Stephanie described them as Diving In Peace] divers had very peaceful dives, not amazing visibility, but special finds: pink eyed gobies and the beautiful goby, which we had only found before in the mangroves.

 Incredible shot of a pink anemonefish ~ Jim

“I love these types of dives; just so relaxing.” ~ Stephanie 

Zebra lionfish ~ Jim

Different tastes, different divers; all a pleasure to have around. 

"A dive with no current is like a bar with no beer." ~ Stephen

Once GPS was fixed we sped towards Wakaya to have a dusk dive over at the outer reef. Fish were settling down for night time and a group had such a close encounter with a huge scalloped hammer head shark. Will not lie, in the pre darkness that was sooo spooky! 

Jim titled this: Green Fish BS ~ Jim

Marble shrimp ~ Jim

Squid at nighttime ~ Jim

Wakaya was a complete success! Sun all day; mantas, hammerheads on almost every dive, turtles and fish fish fish. 

Biscuit ~ Jim

Big Shirley was getting cleaned on two whole dives; Mickey manta came around to say hi and twirl around; and Chili. We also had a fly by, Biscuit, who we had not seen before.

Lost shark suckers looking for bigger fish than us ~ Jim

"That was a highlight dive!"~ Apryl

Florian finally had his much desired encounters with the hammers, after pestering Mo for 3 days...

Scalloped hammerhead ~ Jim

All in all, it was well worth the delay to get to Wakaya!

Wow Namena.

At grand central station, the perfect amount of current; sharks hunting, so many hammerheads around, turtle, scads, barracudas, dogtooth tuna, Spanish mackerel, grey reefs, white tips, napoleon wrasse, Dorys… I mean.. Common!

Smiling hammer ~ Jim

Square spotted anthias ~ Jim

Turtle ~ Ralph

The day kept on getting fishier and fishier!

"After that dive, I don't have to dive anymore." ~Florian [After seeing about 10 hammerheads, hunting with grey reef sharks, happy as a clam]

We enjoyed so much more; two tone dartfish, zebra dartfish; octopus; huge napoleon wrasse, and more. 

Emperor shrimp ~ Jim

Baby scorpionfish ~ Jim

Our stay at Namena concluded with two very relaxing dives, everyone looking all around for creatures such as whip coral gobies, golden mantis shrimp, cleaner shrimp, different blennies and so on!

Several octopus spotted by Apryl ~ Jim

Finished off this charter at the Sea Mounts; Cathedral, always spectacular and both Rainbow Wall and Hard coral Wall! [Silver tippppp]

Vinaka vakalevu divers, amazing time together!

"Sea" you soon!