Category: 2011 Sept Blog

Dear F&F, September 8th – 12th, 2011

After our arrival from Natodola Harbor, we soon discovered the \”noise\” in the washing machine was getting worse. It finally tripped the circuit breaker and I had our friends at \”Baobab Marine\” investigate. They found a huge aluminum metal piece on the back of the machine that spins the drum had literally dissolved in the salt air over the last 7 years. (See photos, not yet posted). I called the US Manufacturer to order the part, but they no longer carried it! As such, Baobab agreed to try and make a custom one. While they were doing this, we used the opportunity to make one last visit to Musket Cove.

In addition to Anja, we brought Barrie along with us. Barrie is from the UK and he works on one of the super yachts. He and Anja had hit it off and as he had a few days off, came along for the festivities.

We motored to Musket in overcast an rain, dodging the one rocky obstruction about half way to the cove (see photos on gallery, not posted yet).

It was Musket Cove Race Week . Peter and Diana of s/v \”Quickstar\” would be there too with friends visiting from Canada. I also was able to get a care package from Mike Lonnes sent with Geoff Deutschman of s/v \”Flashback\” just as we left the dock. Thank you both!

Barrie, Anja and I dove the next morning at Plantation Pinnacle. It was the best dive site in the area and the dive was fabulous, the weather very cooperative. The next day, crew off a yacht we met offered to take us surfing in their high speed tender. Barrie and I did the surfing and Anja did some snorkeling at \”Wilkes Pass\” and \”Namotu Lefts\”. It was nice, except the current was ripping and 90% of our efforts were staying in place at each break.

The parties began the next day. Barrie and Anja went aboard another catamaran, s/v \”Kia Kai\” which was a true party boat. I enjoyed a little time to myself aboard \”Beach House\”. That night, we watched Rugby World Cup games at the local resort on their big screen with about 150 people in attendance.

As we were feeling short on time and our part was to be ready, we headed back to Denarau Marina early Monday morning where the guys took much of the day re-assembling and testing the unit. It\’s still noisy, but works just fine. A luxury item to be sure, but I\’ve grown spoiled and am quite happy it\’s back in action.

Tomorrow we\’ll fuel up and head to Lautoka to do our final check out in Fiji Stay tuned, Scott with Anja

Dear F&F, August 29th – September 4th……

After the shark dive, we had birthday cake and wine with Peter and Diana for Peter\’s birthday. Then we had a lovely dinner at The Pearl Resort (Don\’t tell….Anja had a date after dinner with the Brazilian Marine Biologist! shhh! LOL).

The next morning, we thanked Charlie for his hospitality and got some dive waypoints from Joe (our dive guide from yesterday) as Peter helped us off the dock. The exit was less dramatic as we planned our departure on the rising tide. The day turned gorgeous and we had a magical sail for 40 miles. The wind was right behind us, we had Beqa Island to our left and Viti Levu to our right. We paralleled the coast the whole way going 9-11 knots with a full main and the genoa \”poled out\” to our starboard side. It was so lovely, I took video. I may even get around to posting it!…ha! (Right after the shark video that is!).

Late that afternoon we pulled in to Natadola Bay where the new Intercontinental Hotel is located. We met up with s/v \”Dreamtime\” (Claudia and Joerg) who I\’d not seen since last season in Tonga. They invited us for a lovely spaghetti dinner and we did some catching up too. Claudia and Joerg are divers and we were swapping stories and locations. We\’d meet them again in Port Denerau Marina.

The next morning, we headed off to Port Denerau which is Fiji\’s premier marina. Very \”first world\”, all facilities and shopping. There\’s even a \”Hard Rock Cafe\” here. The day was lovely, the wind was gone. We pulled into Port Denerau where Peter helped us to get into the dock.

I had to take a one hour each way taxi ride to go to customs in Lautoka (where Kate and I originally arrived) and \”re-check in\” to keep all the rules and paper work in order. Fortunately, the Customs official likes me and made some of the details easier than they might have been. We\’ll still have to take the boat the two hours up the coast to Lautoka to do our \”check out\” when we leave the country, but hey, it\’s their country; they get to have it their way.

A bit of maintenance, shopping and relaxing before we finally check out of Fiji (Officially) and head to Vanuatu, two days to our west. It was great to get the outside washed and the inside housekeeping done.

A few more surprise adventures are planned before we (actually) leave Fiji, but we\’ll see!

KIT, Scott with Anja – Port Denerau Marina, Viti Levu – Fiji

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 27th – 28th

We set \”sail\” for Pacific Harbor, but as it was a 90 mile journey, we weren\’t sure we\’d make it by dark, so left staying over one night in Suva Harbor, Fiji\’s Capital a possibility. It was a pretty bumpy and long ride. When we were finally able to turn and run before the wind at Nasilia Point, we realized the stop at Suva would be our best option for the night.

Fiji is \”technically\” under Military/Marshal Law and as such, the government here wants to know everything that foreigners are doing while \”in country\”. As such, we were supposed to clear into and out of Suva if we stopped there. As we\’d planned on only staying one night, we felt that asking for forgiveness instead of permission would be the best use of our time instead of a half a day to clear in and back out of a place we\’d be for less than 15 hours! Imagine being in Los Angeles and told that you had to \”check out\”. Then upon arrival in Santa Barbara or San Diego, you had to \”check in\”. The Fijian\’s blame the British for their bureaucratic background, but I suspect keeping a paycheck in more hands is the actual reason behind the bureaucracy\’s continuation.

The anchorage at Suva was a bit industrial, the holding very good, the wind blew, the rain came. We saw Sam and Shaz from s/v \”Yanti Parzi\” and did some quick catching up. Shaz would be leaving soon for \”OZ\”. Something about having to get back to \”life\”. Sam was trying to get some crew using \”findacrew.net\” which is how I\’d found Sandrine.

We took the dinghy for the short ride to the Royal Suva Yacht Club where we had a few drinks, mediocre food and hoot watching old Ed Sullivan shows and a Queen concert on their big screen.

The next morning, we made the quick trip (20 miles) to Pacific Harbor in preparation for our shark dive the next day with Peter and Diana. It would be Peter\’s birthday and Anja made him a cheesecake. YUM! We ended up sailing most of the way but to our surprise upon arrival, we discovered that Pacific Harbor was anything but….a harbor!

Pacific Harbor as it turns out is a river, about 60 feet wide and 7 feet deep at the entrance! This was a major surprise. No facilities and the dive shop said, \”no worries\” you can anchor off our dock. Problem is, they didn\’t take into account that there was a bridge which made getting our 78 feet of mast (off the water) more than an impossibility to get there. We were going to literally tie off in the mangroves on the side of the river as it was blowing a gale out in the bay and there was no close anchoring option.

In the nick of time, \”Charlie\”, a local live aboard diver operator, saw our plight and invited us to tie up to his dock for the two nights we\’d be there. This was a gift, as Charlie had the only dock there that could handle \”Beach House\”. The river had a current which switched with the tide and we would have to have anchored bow and stern or tied off to trees to prevent swinging.

That night we had dinner with Peter and Diana at a lovely restaurant a short walk from the hotel that they were staying in. They took a taxi from Port Denerau (about a two hour drive) which would be our next and soon to be last stop on the island of Viti Levu.

Tomorrow…..Sharks!

Scott with Anja

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!….

Dear F&F, August 18th – August 21st

Namena Island and Dive Reserve

Namena Island is 20 miles southwest of Savusavu and en-route to Suva, Fiji\’s Capital City. The Moody\’s who own Namena, collect an annual $25.00 Fijian per person to use the islands dive sites and two moorings. This fee is given to the few islanders who used to live here from what we understand. When we arrived at Namena, another boat was on the mooring that we could use (the second one was too close to the reef for our length), so we anchored. At first, we just relaxed and caught up from our whirlwind tour of North Fiji and chilled out. The anchoring conditions were not ideal and we were getting into less than 7 feet of water occasionally. As such, we were happy to pick up the mooring on our second full day at Namena.

The next day we went ashore where we met Nigel. Nigel is primary dive guide and confirmed that the Moody\’s do not allow outside visitors to go with their dive operation. Apparently, The Moody\’s owned a resort in the San Blas Islands of Panama and were burned out by drug smugglers and hence have a bit of bias about outsiders. We did not meet Mr. Moody, but Nigel told us the story and apparently he will only take his own guests from his resort. Most days their dive boat isn\’t close to full, but it\’s just another of those stories from the South Pacific.

Nigel was very helpful and said if necessary we could follow the dive boat to any of the sites. As we had very good GPS coordinates provided by Collin of \”Koro Sun Divers\” in Savusavu, we went it alone. The current can be quite strong at \”North Save-A-Tack Pass\”, home to the dive site, \”Grand Central Station\”.

We hit the site just before slack high tide and found it to be a winner – as advertised. It even had a bit of a \”train station\” feel to it, but that\’s not why it\’s called Grand Central Station. A large sand flat about 65-90 feet deep goes right to the square edge of the reef. There, the drop off is straight down to around 300+ feet. The edge of this cliff was amazing. Gray Reef sharks, schools of barracuda with 400+ animals, large jack schools, cleaner station pinnacles and more. We saw small schools of yellow fin tuna too.

It was pretty rough out there, but the dive was well worth it.

That afternoon, we did the other main entrance to the reef, \”South Save-A-Tack Pass\”. Here we dove \”The Chiminey\’s\”. This was a classic \”Cindy Dive\” and of course I could think of little else while swimming around the five pinnacles all within sight of each other. There we swim through\’s, schools of 10,000+ bright orange Anthias, Square Spot Anthias, Lion Fish, Clowns and many species of anemones. Schools of Unicorn Fish (yes they have horns like unicorns!), COLOR, COLOR, COLOR and….it was easy diving.

Anja and I were even able to \”school\” inside the barracuda school here and watch endlessly while large Jacks came in to have their gills cleaned by the small cleaner wrasse. These wrasse are the sea going equivalent of a dental hygienist.

We were able to hit the tides right again the next day and did both dives a second time. Both sites, just as good the second time. On our second day, Sally and Dave from s/v \”Sidewinder\” out of Laguna Beach, California did the dive out of their dinghy as well. They had a guide from the Cousteau resort with them and it was even rougher. We all had an adventure and a good time doing Grand Central Station again.

Tomorrow we head off to our next island, \”Makongai\” (Makongneye), home to one of the South Pacific\’s former Leper Colonies and now a Marine Research Station…. KIT, Scott with Anja