Bula and welcome to what was geared up to be another great trip aboard the S/Y Fiji Siren. We had on board this week divers from New Zealand, United States, England, Thailand and Heather Sutton who was on her 6th trip with us! Welcome back! We are so happy to have onboard again! We started off this trip with a nice easy going dive in Volivoli at Amazing Maze. This helped everyone check their weighting and get comfortable with the cool 24 degree waters we have at the moment. We stayed anchored overnight just off shore and had an early morning departure for Vatu-I-Ra where we experienced some of the amazing dives the Bligh Waters had to offer. The first dive of the day was Mellow Yellow which stunned everyone with the amount of color that was around the site. Of course there was an abundance of yellow soft corals giving the site its name. We followed this dive up with Maytag and then Coral Corner which were equally as good wanting the guest to stay to photograph more of the area. We encountered leaf fish, barracuda and a few small grey reef sharks just to name a couple of things.
Upon discussing with Captain Julian we decided to leave early for Makogai where we got some great diving with everyone getting to see the small electric fileclam and lots of different nudi’s. We even had a little white tip swim by one of the bommies to say hello.
We departed the island in the afternoon and were spoiled with having Humpback whales breaching along with Dolphins and Manta Rays all playing around on the surface. It was a great crossing to the island of Wakaya where everyone was super excited about the dive on Lions’ Den that night. Everybody was up the day after to dive Vatu Vai. Everyone managed to get at least one Manta Ray swim by with some being lucky enough to have two near the end of their dive.
At the end of the fourth dive that night the boat pulled anchor and made its way down to the Island of Gau so we could all have the pleasure of diving with the sharks….The first dive at the Nigali Passage was so good that even after the second dive we stayed and had a third on it! Lots of Grey Reef and white tip reef sharks, a big sting ray, schooling big eye and chevron barracuda plus many more things to keep us entertained. We didn’t want to leave but the captains eyes were on the horizon and set for Taveuni.
The diving started off spectacular with Annie’s bommies then on to the world famous Great White Wall for a look at that wondrous white coral that spans the entire rock face of the wall. That night thinking it was someone else here was to be a big surprise for all including one particular crew member who though he could get away with celebrating his birthday. With Julies thinking it was someone else’s birthday we managed to sit him in a chair and sing to him with the chefs baking a special cake just for him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY from everyone Ju!!!
With the halfway point of the trip passing we thought it was about time for a quick excursion to the island of Taveuni for a day trip to the Bouma National Park to look at the waterfalls and most importantly cross the meridian line from today to yesterday multiple times with the obligatory photos taken standing in between the signs. After such a big day of travelling around all were in bed early to get ready for the crossing to Namenawhere we would be spending a few days diving the Marine Park and all its wonders.
As there were a couple of days spent in the Namena Marine Park we got to have a look around the many sites it has to offer. There were many things seen from sharks to mantis shrimp with everything in between. Finally on the last day we invited the group to go down to Kansas and check out the little Pygmy Seahorses!
Sadly as the trip came to an end we approached our last diving day at Vatu-I-Ra on the infamous E-6. We opened the site up for two dives with the second dive not being time restricted. After a great last night barbeque where the Fijian Rubber Band had an impressive show we woke early Friday morning to finish packing and have that one last group breakfast before heading back to Volivoli resort to wish everybody safe travels. Thank you to all who made this a great trip! We would like to congratulate Jane on achieving her 600th dive and Andrew W on his milestone dive. And of course we would like to Wish Anna a Happy Birthday for next week.
Moce Mada and Vinaka Vaka Levu!!
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