Next stop… Castaway Island!

After breakfast all the guests were instructed to bring their luggage to the dive deck so that the crew could off-load it to the shuttle bus when it finally arrived. Well, the shuttle bus was almost an hour late which was going to put Julie and myself in a bind because we had pre-paid tickets for the ‘Tiger IV Shuttle’ to take us from Nadi to Castaway Island. The ‘Tiger IV’ is a high-speed catamaran that serves as a shuttle service to all the out-lying islands in the Mamanuca Group. Our boarding tickets were for the 12:15 pm shuttle to Castaway Island and if we missed it we would have to wait until 3:30 pm for the next one. Remember now, the bus ride from Suva to Nadi takes three and a half hours with no traffic… are you doing the math yet!!
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Wakaya to Suva…

This morning we awoke to a fantastic sunrise anchored just off of Wakaya Island. We would only get one dive today before pulling anchor and starting on our journey back to port in Suva. As a result of the perfect conditions at ‘Wakaya Pass’ we found ourselves back on the dive site that we started the week on, ‘Blue Ribbon Eel Wall’. Without going into a whole lot of detail I can tell you that we were all no less impressed this time around! We didn’t run into any big critters, but the awesome visibility and tons of macro stuff more that made up for the lack of Sharks and other large animals one might normally see here.
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More from Makogai Island…

Here are a couple more photos from our visit to the village on Makogai Island… Enjoy!
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The Village on Makogai Island…

The village on Makogai Island, Fiji…

After getting cleaned up from our last dive, we relaxed with a glass of wine as we waited for Marnie to brief us on what we could expect during the Village visit this evening. I had already removed my camera from my underwater housing, changed lenses and prepped it for the land excursion, so I was pretty much all set when Marnie called us all to the skiff for the ride over.
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Makogai Island…

This morning we awoke to the sound of the Fiji Aggressor’s twin diesel engines warming up to move us out of the lagoon and take us just off-shore of Makogai Island. It was a truly beautiful sunrise and the waters were as clam and flat as a sheet of glass. The crossing last night had gone smoothly and with any luck we would finish out our week of diving with the same excellent weather we’ve experienced so far. We would have to make our bottom times shorter today, on our third and fourth dives, so as to have enough time to prepare for our shore visit to the village on Makogai Island this evening. More on the village visit later!

Diving at Rick’s Place just off Makogai Island…

Our first dive was on ‘Rick’s Place’ and it was an Awesome Dive! The word “WOW” comes to mind, but just doesn’t seem to do it the justice it deserves! It must have been the early morning lighting that made it so special for me. The way it shimmered on the surface and made the soft corals just come alive with color was truly amazing. The beautiful sea fans were also a treat as they swayed in the slight surge of the oceans current. This is what a healthy coral reef should look like… a true underwater photographer’s dream site! The top 30 feet of these two pinnacles are covered by the most incredible coral gardens which are home to Lion Fish, Leaf Scorpion Fish, White Tips, Painted Cray Fish, Hump Head Cleaner Shrimp and a vast amount of bubble coral. Nice Dive!!
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Our last two dives in Namena!

Our first dive of the afternoon was on ‘Chimneys’. This is a big dive site with way too much to see on just one dive! The bommies on this site are kind of spread out, but with the good visibility one could just make out all the other pinnacles and ridges on the site. This allowed for easy navigation from pinnacle to pinnacle during the course of the dive. On this dive we saw Dancing Durban’s, Humpback Cleaner Shrimp, Spotted Sweetlips, Oreo Groupers, schools of Hump Head Snappers, Pipe Fish, Anemones and millions of other small reef fish.

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More From ‘North Save-a-Tack’

Here are a couple more photos from our morning dive on ‘North Save-a-Tack’ in the Namena Marine Reserve… Enjoy!
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North Save-a-Tack… Revisited!

After breakfast it was off to ‘North Save-a-Tack’ once again for another fantastic drift dive! On this dive I decided to follow James, who said he knew of a good place to hangout and wait to get some nice shark photos (if we were so lucky to be graced by their presence.) After dropping in on the wall and drifting to the first turn at the sand flat, we swam slowly up the sandy bottom to the left side of the first bommie. It didn’t take long before we spotted them; Several White Tips and a large Gray Reef Shark! WOW… what a sight!
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Diving on ‘North Wall’

Marnie shooting video of Schooling Jacks – ‘North Wall’

This morning started out much the same as the others so far this week… Perfect! With a fresh cup of coffee in hand, I made my way down to the dive deck to be briefed on our first dive of the day; Another of Fiji’s fantastic dive sites, this time it would be ‘North Wall’! The visibility on the wall was outstanding and even though we didn’t see any large sharks, there was more than enough small stuff to keep our camera shutters going for the entire dive.

Marnie shooting video on ‘North Wall’

Stay tuned… there is still more to come!

And a Couple More Photos…

A shy ‘Nemo’ fish hiding in an Anemone

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