I could answer that if I had been there, Just wondering if he was too warm or just right...
I also did Nai'a first week of October this year, 10 day trip. Left Nadi on a Saturday, returned Sunday. Hit Bligh Waters, Namena, Gau and Wakaya. It's my first trip to Fiji, but if you do a trip that skips the Bligh you are missing out. We did it first day and last day (had to divert due to wind but I wasn't complaining), and it is absolutely mind blowing. I've been diving for 20 years around the world, and Maytag / Mellow Yellow are about the best I've ever done. If you do land based out of Raki Raki area you can get to the Bligh waters but it's a looooong trip in a small boat.
Nai'a is a very nice boat, and looking at upcoming prices, you pay for it. Just saying. The crew is absolutely fantastic and the cruise directors (that's what they call them) are currently Vanessa and Chad, diving with Vanessa is amazing. GReat DM. As noted, there's a left and right panga, group is broken up and you dive with the same group over the week. They alternate sites so you see the same things but different times (meaning the other panga might see 12 mantas feeding... which they did and we didn't
). But it's also nice to get a "scouting report" of cool things to look for.
My panga only saw other divers in the water once at a place called Humann Nature on the second to last day. the other panga though had a bit of a run in with the Siren folks at Nigali Passage, they were at the ledge watching the sharks, when a Siren boat basically dropped the divers on top of them (Nai'a starts its dive further out and drifts to the ledge). This is the "shark dive" where we saw naturally congregating sharks.... but the Siren folks apparently brought food, and our divers reported that the shark behavior changed dramatically from the other two dives we had done...
I think they all do village visits of some sort.
Water temps - consistent 77-78. I wore a 5 mm for a couple days, felt the cold after a while added a 1mm hooded vest and was fine. My wife wore a 3 mm all 10 days and was fine. Depends.
Jet lag - Fiji Air leaves LAX at 11 ish gets in two days later at 6 am. We spent a week before the boat (Toberua Island Resort - no diving but fantastic place to rest up; and Beqa Lagoon Resort - I'd never go there again....) so jet lag wasn't an issue getting on the boat. You would fly to LAX in the am and leave in the PM two days before whatever day you want to be there. We had friends from all over the country, their trips were verrrrrry long. Ours was relatively short at 11 hours.
Sharks - we saw lots of white tips and black tips, one leopard at Nigali, no bulls off the boat. I think the other panga (again) saw a hammerhead swim by, Did see tigers and bulls at Beqa.
Typhoon damage - There is damage at the top of many pinnacles, but deeper is still very healthy. I hear E6 was totally destroyed so they don't go there any more.
Currents - Variable, but because it's 80% pinnacle diving, can stay in the lee (although most all of the action is on the current side of the bommie, if you can get there). On some sites we sort of zig zagged up the pinnacle staying in the lee the whole time.
One thing Nai'a does that is great (and others may as well) is the dive sites are close to the boat for the most part, so when you come up, many times they will take you back to the boat, then go back out to collect others. Better than sitting on a boat waiting for people with tiny lungs
All of our dives were over an hour
