Stealing Hearts

It is definitely hard to find a good dive buddy… sometimes, even harder than finding a life partner. 

On this trip we had pairs of couples that met diving and kept on diving together. 

We all heard the concept of “work wife / husband”; enter the “diving wife” and “diving husband”.

Roomies also became quite close; inside jokes and making sure toothbrushes didn't fly away.

Welcome to my office! “And my office as well for the next ten days!”  - states a very happy and excited Jen. 

First rough passages of the season… yet that did not deter us from amazing diving!

Our adventure started at Vatu-i-Ra for a couple of days. 

Hard coral and soft coral ~ Ken

That means… lots and lots of soft corals, hard corals, and sea fans e v e r y w h e r e. 

Sparring with fangblennies. 

False cleaner fish ~ Ken

Creeping up on innocent bulldozer shrimps and their shrimp gobies as they are hard at work.

Hearting leopard blennies and recognizing zombie crabs are also quite lovely to see inside the corals. 

Leopard blenny ~ Ken

Miniature hinge beak shrimps on clams and R2D2 shrimps attempting capture of your soul. 

Flabellinas waving in the current while positioned on hydroids. 

Hawksbill turtles munching on corals. 

Crinoid cling fish aka puppy ~ Don W

Dominic found a huge cuttlefish in a sea fan alley. Pam was ready to call the trip; she was so ecstatic. “Done, I’ve seen all there is to be seen!” - Pam

Resident (yet barely seen) tiger shark spotted! Four very lucky divers had a n encounter with the huge resident tiger shark while at Mellow Yellow!

“There was a blue dragon conference down there.” - Linda

Sea fans ~ Ken

JL finally got to see a zombie crab’s ass; exciting! 

Anthias are stealing hearts. 

Blennies are stealing hearts. 

Shrimps are stealing hearts. 

Mobulas are stealing hearts. 

Mantas feeding ~ JL

We had fierce loyal night divers; so many shrimps, so many crabs, and even a big friendly (Adrian’s words, not mine) white tip. 

Mickey Manta made an appearance; just a fly by, but we hadn't seen the little guy this year, so always a welcome sight. 

Two lovely dark green leafy scorpionfish, one on each bommie. 

Leafy scorpionfish ~ Don W

Divers got shrimp manicures, or videos of the shrimps dealing with people’s nails and dead skin. 

A giant remora joined our group, floating from diver to diver, quite intimately and persistent. That was definitely a fun highlight. 

Ghost goby on coral ~ Don W

So many sexy shrimp around a bubble anemone with very feisty anemonefish. 

The elusive sharpnose pygmy wrasse and its little baby inside a crevice! 

Lori's anthias ~ Ken

Some major different anthias in the area that divers realized: purple queen anthias look dark blue with no light on it; hawkanthias have almost the same face tattoo as Mike Tyson; and square spotted anthias in the deep, alongside blue headed tilefish. 

“I looked in so many crevaces, with so many fish asses.” - Yes, Adrian is a poet in the making. 

Golden damselfish ~ Ken

Juvenile solar box fish alongside squirrelfish, soldierfish, cardinal fish, and juvenile regal butterflyfish: all fluttering in and out of the darkness. 

What a dive….

Clear cut visibility, eagle rays, so many grey reef sharks (pregnant ones as well!), and a sea of big eyed barracudas. 

School of big eyed trevally ~ Ken

Red snappers courting. 

Elusive flame hawkfish. 

On top of all that, a baby eagle ray soaring in front of us for the whole time we were at the bleachers. She made the dive all the more special!

Even crossed paths with a stunned turtle who took a bit of time to realize; ai ai ai, those are not fish!

Golden damselfish eggs ~ Don W

Found a “new” dive site we baptized as Fishilicious; schools of unicornfish, fusiliers, curious white tips and sinularia coverage, and the uncommon (for us at least) black butterflyfish. Could have been the full moon.. Or a brand new find. 

Pink anemonefish and lovely anemone ~ Ken

Happy birthday Karen! We know you wanted to be invisible on this day, but the mantas had other plans in mind. 

Dropped in, received by 3 mantas, joined by 2 more and even an extra 2 more; seven mantas barrel rolling for food for a good 20 minutes of our dive. 

S p e c t a c u l a r. 

At some point they were just showing off, for sure!

Expected? No. Welcomed? Hell yeah! 

Virginia, Chelly, Lo and Flappucino.

Pipefish ~ Ken

“I found another pipefish!” - Karen, who loves to head and torch together searching. 

Two white whip coral shrimps ~ Ken

“I have never seen so many fish in one place!” - Dominic (Schoolhouse) while his dear friend Annik just stood there on the dive deck, mouth open. 

Harlequin shrimp ~ Don W

So… Don comes up, shows us a photo of a H A R L E Q U I N shrimp… That was such an amazing find! Somewhere in the reef along Seven Sisters… 

Namena is just the place for everything… sharks, barracudas, trevallies, napoleon wrasses, crouchers, dartfish, blennies, coral gobies, crabs, shrimps, and tiny tiny pygmy sea horses! 

Pontoh's pygmy sea horse ~ Don W

Pontoh's pygmy sea horse ~ Don W

Baby sharks drifting in the current as a big shark carried out his appointment at the dentist.

Small school of hammerheads once we dropped in the water: “I never saw Clau move that fast!” - Karen, who saw them as well. 

Raggy scorpionfish ~ Don

Baby raggy scorpionfish on sea fan, letting himself fall to hide from us: SO adorable. 

Miniscule baby mimic filefish (or shy toby)

Blue streaked goby ~ Ken

Two types of juvenile snappers: midnight and black. 

Frowning decorated dartfishes. 

Enough pipefish to make a noodle bowl. 

Midnight juvenile snapper ~ Don W

Man… naming mantas is no easy business… Too many creative minds on board.

Our big female chevron was voted Piper and our male chevron Finn Zephyr (in honor of JL’s son Finn and Zephyr means light breeze in Ancient Greek, as well as being a Red Hot Chili Peppers song).

Soft coral and sea fan wonderland ~ Don

“I said already you guys were keeping the best for last!” - Eric A (Cat’s Meow) We dove the meow!

Electric clam ~ Ken

These divers became experts in their own right; you tell them where to look for what and they come out of the water "I found a comet! I found a dragonet! I found all those small miniature shrimp outside of the anemones!" 

Morrison's dragonet ~ Ken

Makes us feel like proud parents! 

Vinaka vakalevu little fishies!

It was a real pleasure!

Hope to see you all soon!