Author: kerri

Dear F&F, September 13th – 15th, 2011

We motored up to Lautoka after a last marketing and fuel up. This is where Kate and I first anchored upon arrival. The check out with the boss was uneventful. They seem to be trying to smooth the paper work as well.

Instead of just leaving, the Northern Yasawa\’s were tempting and on our way. So we headed back to Manta Ray Bay Island and hoped to meet up with Joe Tui as a private dive guide. Joe is the guy with the blue \”camo\” wet suit petting \”Tiger Girl\” in our photo gallery.

We had a nice smooth uneventful trip and anchored in the pass. This is also the place where the geneker sail was torn to shreds and lost. The next morning I took Anja out to the Manta Ray site and she had about a 45 minute snorkeling experience with two mantas. She was jazzed. As I had done this many times with Cindy, I just did the spotting from the dinghy so she could geta nice experience. There was quite a bit of current in the pass, so someone really had to stay with the dinghy and be able to chase the other person drifting away. It\’s effortless for the Manta\’s of course; sleek and graceful. As they are plankton filter feeders, Anja got to see them with their large hula hoop size mouths open while filter feeding.

The tourist boats arrived and this was our cue to go home as once the overly excited jump in, the Manta\’s don\’t hang around very long or at least go deep.

We were supposed to meet Joe today, but he literally \”missed the boat\” (Ferry from Denarau) and we had to wait another night here to get him the next day.

The next morning, Anja got the same private experience with the Manta\’s again and even got to pet one! What a thrill…believe me. These Manta\’s are small compared to the ones Cindy and I experienced in Mexico, but this is a life experience. If you ever get the chance, don\’t miss it.

Scott and Anja

Dear F&F, August 29th…Happy Birthday Peter!

I\’ve heard forever about the shark feed dive near Beqa (Benga) Lagoon here in Fiji. This is where they get the \”bigs\”.

We loaded up all our gear on Aquatrek\’s dive boat for the 15 minute ride to the site. It turns out that the dive is actually at the entrance to the bay we were in and no longer out in Beqa Lagoon which would have been another half hour ride. The weather was NOT cooperating. Pretty bumpy. The range of divers was from near beginner to instructor so the dive guides would have their hands full.

An interesting treat. Peter and I watched a \”young lady\” (83 years young!) get some assistance walking down to the dive boat. We thought to ourselves, really? This dive? Anyway, it turns out that Joyce started diving when she was 65. She had 750 dives under her belt and had done this shark dive for YEARS 3 days/week during the prime 2 month season here in Fiji. She was sort of an honored celebrity (see photo gallery).

Joe, our dive guide gave a nice briefing and told us they were \”overdue\” for the tiger sighting. So I didn\’t get my hopes up. I had brought both the still and video cameras and decided to go with the still on the first dive. It turns out, the \”in house\” videographer from Aquatrek\’s camera wasn\’t working so he took my video camera on both dives. I have yet to watch….(soon!).

I went in first to get the camera out of the way of everyone else\’s entry and Joyce went in right behind me. She whacked her head on her tank but thankfully was just fine.

All the divers were set up behind a \”wall\”, but I got to get into a photo pit which they had set up for the crazy photographer\’s amongst us who like to get \”CLOSER\”…..

There were hundreds of fish, all very good sized and well fed from having two meals a day served by Aquatrek and Bega Adventure\’s the other \”Shark Feed\” company that does these trips. Between them, these animals are fed at least 6 days/week.

The 50 gallon drum full of fish parts was hung in mid water by one of our guides and the action began.

At first, a few white tip, gray reef and several very large (10 foot – 3.5 meter) Tawny Nurse sharks showed up. The Tawny\’s are very yellow in color, have very small mouths and look like they\’ve small barbs under their lower jaws like a catfish.

Next came the Silver Tips and the Bulls!

The Silver Tips look like big Gray Reef sharks with silver highlights on all their fin tips. A very cool looking shark. Friend Terry Kennedy in Baja California told us that he thought Silver Tips were a \”sharks…shark\”! They looked it.

Now the Bulls are an entirely different critter. They were BIG. Very girthy as a sign of how well fed they were. \”Big Mama\” was about 10 feet long and about half that wide. Fortunately, none of these animals are interested in \”us\”.

All the sudden, I saw Joe take Joyce by the hand and swim her right into the melee. I thought this was some sort of Fijian ritual sacrifice….LOL. However, Joe was taking Joyce first but in turn, all the rest of the brave into an area where they could \”pet\” some of the sharks. Mostly the Tawny Nurse sharks which you will be glad to know have no teeth.

I got some decent photos (see photo gallery), but lots of \”scatter\” in the water will make many of them a tough \”light room\” project.

Second Dive: So now, Joe and Joyce are convinced that the Tiger will make her appearance on the second dive.

We go to a slightly shallower site and the melee renews. Two minutes later, here she came! About 12-14 feet of pure Tiger Girl! (see photo gallery). She had a pretty good sized gash on her right side which may have been a mating bite? The males literally bite the females (who\’ve evolved a thick skin) when courting. She came right into the divers where yes indeed, I got to \”pet\” the Tiger Shark! Do not try this at home!

She was one of three tigers and the smallest that come to the feed on occasion. Joe told me that 10 years ago, they used to get up to 30 or so Tigers. Now only one and only \”sometimes\”. A wake up to the world that these magnificent predators are being fished out for their fins. Our Asian friends feel that their fertility is improved by such nonsense. When will the world wake up!?

The soon to be posted photo gallery is the story on this dive.

Enjoy!

Scott with Anja, diving with Peter and Diana of s/v \”Quickstar\”.

Dear F&F, August 22nd – 26th

Makongai (Makongneye) Island

The weather was predicted to get nasty while we were at Namena Island. The mooring/anchorage area on Namena was not particularly well protected so we decided to head the 20 miles to Makongai Island. With a reefed main, it was a pretty bumpy ride in the short beam sea. We arrived at the island and anchored next to s/v \”Casteele\” a family of four out of Canada.

We went ashore on our second day and did \”sevusevu\” with Ketselle, the local village chief. He and two young researchers explained that they go up a hill (heart attack hill) and sit shifts counting the humpbacks which are now returning to Fijian waters after they were mostly wiped out in the 18th – 20th Centuries by whaling operations.

They said they had counted 60 last year and had seen some as recently as the previous week when the weather was more settled. The whales are there in the rough weather of course, they just can\’t see them amongst the white caps. Ketselle gave us a tour of the village and the former Leper Colony facilities (see photo gallery).

We also received a tour of the Giant Clam nursery. This was very similar to the one Cindy and I had visited last year in Aitutaki. The memories were certainly mixed.

The next day, Ketselle took me out with the dinghy to show me the local dive sites inside the reef. There were a series of at least six widely spaced pinnacles which I locked in the GPS waypoints on so I could find them the next day. It was pretty rough, even inside the lagoon, but small Makondronga Island would give us and the dinghy enough shelter to make the dives. We\’d been told the liveaboard dive boats, \”Nai\’a\” and \”Island Dancer\” both came here once/week so we expected some nice diving.

The next day, a 120 foot charter sailing vessel came inside and was taking two divers out coincidentally as we were leaving \”Beach House\”. We noticed a large breach.

This turned out to be a Mom and Baby Humpback inside the lagoon. Anja\’s \”sixth sense\” was at it again! She predicted the snake to appear when we were at Cobia Island and she \”had a feeling\” about seeing a whale this entire trip. At first we got close and Mom wasn\’t ready to settle down, but when the other dinghy left, she did and Anja got her first swim with a humpback whale! About a one minute snorkel, but if you never had this experience, it\’s quite amazing. Imagine a \”bus\” swimming right up to you underwater with flukes! The mothers can weigh up to 40,000 lbs. (about 18 metric tons).

We then did the first pinnacle dive. It was nice, but not as nice as the Chimney at Namena. That afternoon we did a second pinnacle and realized that our time in Fiji was getting short. I\’d already stayed a month longer than I\’d planned.

The next day we would sail to Pacific Harbor and meet Peter and Diana of s/v \”Quickstar\” to do one of the premier shark feed dives in the world near Beqa (Benga) Lagoon, south west of Suva. Here we might get to see an elusive Tiger Shark, Bull Sharks, Silver Tips and more. Any of these would be a first for not only Anja, but me as too.

KIT, Scott with Anja and a couple of humpback whales!….