Teased by humpbacks

Water Temperature: 77-78F/25-26C and dropping

“Whale, whale, whale outside!” This is something we don’t get to shout much in general, but during our last charter we found ourselves saying that A LOT! Over the last 3 winters we have seen an increase on the number of humpbacks we see in Fiji during our charters, and this year they are also getting friendlier. We didn’t get a swim with them like we did on our previous charter, but boy did we see them spouting, breaching, flipper slapping and tail slapping! If that wasn’t enough, we saw schooling hammerheads, courting manta rays and a giant guitarfish!

Photo by Mike: First sunset 

It all started pretty soon into the trip, as before Lucky Lefty descended on their very first dive at E6, a humpback spouted very close to the skiff. Mighty Righty watched from across the sea mount as the whale then breached next to the skiff and dived down deep, waving us goodbye with its tail. The dives at E6 set the bar high with the atmosphere at the Cathedral and the stunning corals at the Bay, all to the sound of humpbacks. We saw scorpionfish, blue dragon nudis, flame angelfish and crown jellies. We saw humpies again breaching on the surface from NAI’A right after the second dive and decided to skip a dive to try to swim with one that looked very playful. Our efforts were not compensated this time, so we headed over to Mount Mutiny where, while we waited for the 3rd dive, we saw yet another 3 humpbacks playing, surrounded by about seven pilot whales. The dive at the Rainbow Wall was superb. The soft corals were just what our Israeli guests were looking for when they decided on coming to Fiji. After the last dive, bottlenosed dolphins approached NAI’A and right before we anchored for the night, another humpback was tail slapping for us to watch. What a way to start the trip!

The wind picked up a little for our second day, but it did not keep us from diving the best Vatu-i-ra has to offer. Mellow Yellow had the soft corals open but only a gentle current that allowed divers to enjoy the fish dramatically dance on top of the bommie. Maytag and Coral Corner enchanted with their abundance of hard and soft coral, as well as schooling fusiliers and surgeonfish. A few barracudas and shy trevallies made quick appearances. At Shebang, our guests flew through the drift then explored the coral heads and GoMo delivered a fantastic dive the way only GoMo can. Schooling trevallies, barracudas, surgeonfish, bigeyes and bannerfish at the start of the dive, passing through mesmerizing soft corals and finishing with hard coral arenas and thousands upon thousands of chromis, anthias, damsels and majors leading the frantic fish drama on top of the bommie. What a dive!

Photo by Samuel: Crown jelly

Photo by Ilan: Fan

Photo by Ilan: Fiji soft corals

Photo by Ilan: Team Israel came here for the soft corals!

A long crossing brought us to the island of Gau and we started the day with easy dives at Jim’s and Anthias. The clear visibility allowed us to enjoy the stunning reef tops and Sarita found a type of thecacera nudibranch. We moved to Nigali Passage, passing 2 humpbacks on the way there, and arrived to a current that was reluctant to start coming in. Our first dive there had very little current but a huge amount of snappers, a good number of bigeye barracudas and a good number of sharks, unfortunately a bit too shy. Still, watching 30 juvenile grey reefs is always fun, even if brief. For the second dive there, the current picked up, despite looking extremely mild from the surface, and the dive was much sharkier. Inside the lagoon Mike found a ringed pipefish and we all marvelled at the cabbage patch. We finished the day with a heartwarming village visit to Somosomo and a mini kava and music session with the crew.

We crossed during the night to Wakaya, where we started the day with sightings of five mantas by both skiffs. Rusty hung around the longest, and Mantanomi showed up last minute, as if just to see Bill, who was with us in 2022 when we first saw (and named) her. But the highlight goes to Django being courted by Gaeta and Johnny. We saw them on dives 1, 3 and 5, throughout all dive sites. She’s making the boys work for it! Lucky Lefty still saw M435 on dive 4, a close, intimate encounter they will never forget. We also saw turtles, barracudas, a halimeda ghost pipefish(!!!), juvenile rockmover wrasse, leaf scorpionfish, a spanish dancer egg ribbon and a small glimpse of the great hammerhead. Yaron bravely opted for a night dive and saw a white tip shark, mantis shrimp, flatworm, funky jellyfish and a slipper lobster.

Photo by Samuel: Cabbage patch

Photo by Aviad: They're crazy for anemones too!

Photo by Mike: Bay at Somosomo village

Photo by Mike: Gau island

Photo by Ilan: Django, courted by Johnny and Gaeta

Photo by Ilan: Sea whips

Photo by Robert: Sea fans

Our crossing to Namena was bouncy and the wind remained moderate for our whole time there, but that didn’t stop our guests from enjoying the marine reserve to its fullest. Aviva certainly didn’t mind celebrating her birthday there.  We saw an adult ribbon eel, multiple juvenile rockmover wrasses, a juvenile leopard wrasse, flatworms, special nudibranchs (including a pair of mating phylodesmiums), leaf scorpionfish, pygmy seahorses, whitecap shrimpgoby and a giant guitarfish!!!! Those are extremely rare around Fiji, so it caused a lot of excitement.

The winner for favorite dive site, however, was Schoolhouse, undoubtedly. And both skiffs choosing to go there a second time. Righty saw 13 hammerheads on their first dive there, with a huge scout coming to check the divers out VERY closely (so close everyone froze and nobody got a picture). Schooling oceanic and redtooth triggers as well as surgeonfish were all around, the black and midnight snappers watched us from the reef top, bigeye trevallies encircled us and blackfin barracudas checked us out. The grey reefs circled from the blue and from the top of the reef, and we all just enjoyed the best show nature has to offer. Our kava party was great fun with lots of dancing for Aviva’s birthday.

Photo by Robert: The Arch

Photo by Ilan: Grey reef shark

Photo by Ilan: Ribbon eel

Unsure if we would be able to stay there all day due to the weather, we started our day at Vuya diving the iconic Cat’s Meow and Humman Nature. The dives were absolutely incredible with enough hard coral and soft coral to ensure our guests won’t soon forget Fiji’s reefs. We saw nudibranchs, longnosed filefish, scorpionfish and again a ballet of fish on top of the bommies, all to the sound of humpbacks again. A juvenile breached repeatedly on the surface, from right next to Cat’s all the way to NAI’A. With calmer conditions, we would have tried for a swim with it. The humpback got curious, and swam shallow right next to the boat, as guests and crew watched excitedly until it surfaced and spouted right next to us. It was our goodbye from Bligh as we had to head over to Nananu-i-ra for shelter.

Photo by Ilan: Sweetlips at Cat's Meow

Photo by Ilan: Surgeonfish at Cat's

Photo by Mike: Humpback says hello!

We dived Wedding Chapel and Maze  in the morning, both sites have an interesting topography with cool swim-throughs. Mike found an ornate ghost pipefish and Semi spotted the biggest gloomy tambja he’s ever seen. For the 3rd dive, we did a muck dive at Volivoli and saw a few longtail sacoglossas, headshield slugs, anemone shrimps and three gorgeous seahorses, the last one a big pregnant one! We don’t get muck dive much (what with all the gorgeous reefs usually accessible to us), but this one was great!

The next day we sheltered further into Nukurauvula and dived the area around the passage with beautiful hard corals, a little bit of hard corals and good visibility. Semi found an octopus, and Bel found an enormous flatworm. The dives were beautiful, tranquil and full of sea fans and hard corals, as well as schooling fusiliers and longjaw mackerels. A few Spanish mackerels made short appearances and we surfaced with a satisfactory smile, ready to head back to Lautoka. Upon our early arrival, the crew played and sang for us and provided some kava for a last good night aboard NAI’A.

Photo by Ilan: More anemones

Photo by Aviad: Fiji from below

Photo by Samuel: Nukurauvula fans

Our intrepid group!