I Need A Cigarette After That Penis Fencing

We love having return guests on the boat, especially if they are led by our favorite return group leader! Michelle Courrington - star of “I need a cigarette after that” and group leader to One World Dive – returned for one last hurrah with us before our contract is up. She dragged back with her Nancy and Chakib, and managed to get Brian and Dachelle for this round of outstanding Fiji diving. These Colorado kids brought great luck with the weather, sunsets and amazing sightings. Hammerheads, manta madness, massive mackerels, schools and schools of everything, plus a bonus sighting of two humpback whales right before we dived with the mantas! And let’s now forget the penis fencing scene between two flatworms. We all needed a cigarette after that.

We started our expedition diving the Sea Mounts and introducing our guests to some of the healthiest corals in Fiji. Mesmerized by the reef, some divers got overwhelmed and just stared in awe around them, while other searched for the small critters. We saw a shy octopus, several nudibranchs, scorpionfish, a few sharks and a hammerhead. On the last dive, Lefty hung out with a turtle for ages, and he looked SO HIGH! We “delivered” him to Righty at the end of our dive, and fed him a half dead jellyfish. After such a day, all night divers bailed and we just had a nice warm evening on the boat.

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Rainbow wall

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Bligh beauty

Photo by Zoe Singleton: More rainbow wall

Photo by Mike: And a double rainbow!

The following day Bel had a debt to pay, bringing the divers to Mellow Yellow. Everyone loved it so much, we did it twice, despite the complaints that they couldn’t see the reef through all the fish! Most of Lefty did 70+ minutes and we started to worry we wouldn’t get them back at all. Our other two sites were Maytag and Coral Corner, both absolutely gorgeous and full of activity. Throughout the day we saw more nudis, a few sharks, barracudas, trevallies, a leaf scorpionfish, a friendly clown triggerfish and some lionfish feeding action. Once again, we tired everyone out so much they skipped the night dive.

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Michelle at Mellow Yellow, her happy place

Photo by Zoe Singleton: It was actually both mellow and yellow

Photo by Mike: Amazing sunsets

Our move to Wakaya was gentle and our guests were ready for manta action, especially after the Manta Talk the previous day. Our first dive got slightly delayed by the sighting of two humpback whales right by the channel! We got a close sight, but they took off and left us to just hear them a little on our dive. We saw five mantas throughout the morning, with two of our favorites putting on a special show (Flaps and Shirley) and our Mantacam caught Nathan while we were out. Lefty also saw three hammerheads and we all saw the friendly cleaner shrimp (which Scott preferred to the mantas) and the leaf scorpionfish. Those were Tim’s and Kelli’s 100th dive, and we think they may be too spoiled now!

We moved to Makogai and had an amazing macro dive with nudis, a sea krait, pygmy squid, whitecap shrimpgobies, wirecoral shrimps and nudi sex. The only right way to end this day was our heartwarming village visit, and we had 100% attendance. Chakib won the kids over quickly and Michelle represented us brilliantly.

Photo by the Mantacam: Flapuccino

Photo by the Mantacam: The Distinguished manta

Photo by Bill: 100% attendance on our village visit

Photo by Mike: Makogai sunsets

Then we crossed over to Namena, a place we were excited to show the group. Dachelle celebrated her birthday and 600th dive there on the same day. South Save-a-tack had a few shark and barracuda sightings, amazing soft corals, plenty of different nudibranchs, orangutan crabs, deco the octo and more varieties of nudis. The North supplies the shark overloads, huge tunas and mackerels, and schools of just about everything. Pinjalos, black snappers, ocean and redtooth triggers, bigeye trevallies, blackfin and pickhandle barracudas, rainbow runners, milkfish and tones of small fish. We even saw a pygmy seahorse and several pipefish there. On the first night, we had our kava party with lots of dancing. The afterparty included a 2nd round of the animal song with the crew. And on our 2nd night there, we actually had a night dive, where Zoe saw aaaaaaaaall the small things, and everyone else saw a few sharks.

Photo by Mike: Namena

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Kansas

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Grand Central Station

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Not one, but TWO orangutan crabs

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Schoolhouse trevallies and bannerfish

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Blenny

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Crinoid shrimp on night dive

We spent our last day at Vuya and UndeNAI’Able, and what a way to finish this great adventure! The fish were everywhere, the critters were abundant and both hard and soft corals took everyone’s breath away. At Humann Nature we were all visited by a little friendly turtle and Zoe found two flatworms “penis fencing”. She even saw the final stab! So, other than Shari’s molamola, we pretty much saw everything else! One World Dive remains one of our favorite groups and every guest remains dear in our hearts. We’re sure to come visit Colorado one day!

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Scorpionfish

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Cuthona

Photo by Zoe Singleton: Flatworm penis fencing!!!!!

One World Dive, always a pleasure to have on board, and SO MUCH FUN!!! Sota tale.