Island Dancer II Captain's Reports

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report April 27 – May 4, 2013

Air temp: 21-26 C (70-79 F)
Water temp: 27-28 C (82-83 F)
Recommended: 3mm wetsuit

On behalf of the Island Dancer II crew I would like to welcome our guests with a BIG BULA vinaka to Rob, Diana, Jana, Marc, William, Marianne, Terry, Jean, Maureen, and Dave. As soon as everyone got onboard the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before chef Ben served them a nice hot lunch. While they enjoyed their lunch, we did our official crew introductions and safety briefing.

Sunday - Makogai
Dive Sites: Clam Rock, Christine’s, Dusk dive at Half Pipe
This trip we had some very happy divers onboard and as it turns out they were all very experienced in diving as we discovered when we did our check out dive at Clam Rock. Our divers just couldn’t wait to get into the water. Today we also were favored with bright sunshine and a calm breeze of around 5 knots. During our dives today our dive master Moses was right on the spot with his finding of various marine creatures. Because they enjoyed the first dive so much our divers requested to do a second dive at Clam Rock. Spotted were various nudibranchs and flatworms, including a flabalina nudibranch and the unexpected mating chromodoris nudibranchs. Also seen were bi-color parrotfish, Harry’s ghost pipefish, singular banner fish, and lots of purple anthias fish.

Christine’s was our next site and was at its best with just a little current. Our divers saw yellow mask angelfish, bi-color parrotfish, fire dart fish, flag tail shrimp goby, whitecap shrimp goby and on top of the reef we again encountered lots of anthias. Here there is plentiful soft colorful coral and right at 19 feet is the home of a leaf scorpion fish. Not just one, today we saw 3 of them – wow! Not only that great find but our guests also spotted a juvenile octopus. The fourth dive today was at Half Pipe and was a dusk dive. With no current our divers really enjoyed this dive as they watched lots of creatures coming out in anticipation of the night. Seen were different types of flabalina nudibranchs, three unique scorpion fish, spider crab, skeleton crab, soft coral goby, Lyretail hogfish, strawberry grouper (that seemed to be everywhere), large spine glassfish, and of course the soft and the famous black coral was absolutely beautiful. We headed to the serene waters of the nearby bay right after the dive so our guests could relax and enjoy their dinner.

Monday – Vatu I Ra
Dive Sites: Hi-8, Moses Reef, Aquarium, E-6
At 3:30am the Island Dancer II departed Makogai Island headed for our first dive site of the day. We arrived at 6:45am and we tied up to the mooring. We saw little current on the surface and our divers just couldn’t wait to get into the water. They were such a happy bunch of divers as they plunged in at Hi-8 right on top of the wall that was covered with a soft yellow coral. The divers saw many different types of soft corals, which really amazed them with their various sizes and brilliant colors. Also spotted was a school of jacks along the wall, barracudas, and much more… Moses Reef was our next site and is always the best when it has little current. Today did not disappoint and we saw nudibranchs, unicorn fish, oriental sweetlips, school of jacks, and barracudas. Aquarium was our next dive spot and we had another spectacular dive as we drifted along the wall of purple soft corals and colorful reef fishes. We finished our day with a wonderful dive at E-6, which is always a favorite.

Tuesday – Namena Island
Dive Sites: South Save-A-Tack, Chimney’s, Black Forest, Namena
We began today with a drift dive at South Passage where we had very good visibility and just a little current flowing in. Chimney’s was next and the hard coral here is home to several species of reef fish including colorful hawkfish, flame hawkfish, blotched fairy basslet and anthias were everywhere on top of the pinnacle. There is just so much indescribable and simply unbelievable color on this reef that is full of lots of marine creatures including phylidia nudibranchs and different types of flabalina, along with an anemone hosting a family of anemone fish that was amazing. Ending our day with a night dive, our divers got to see the coral spawning, which really amazed them.

Wednesday – Makogai and Wakaya
Dive Sites: Makogai Passage, Manta Rock, Wakaya Passage – Village Visit at Makogai
What a wondrous morning with bright sunshine and a southeast wind of between 5 and 10 knts. We choose to do an early morning dive at Makogai Passage for a start to our day. We saw a stingray, Shen’s anthias, square spot anthias, bumphead wrasse, tilefish, and Pilette surgeonfish. After the dive the Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed to Wakaya Island for the 3^rd and 4^th dives. Along the way our guests enjoyed their time relaxing and spotting on the front bow expecting to see dolphins when a group of Milky Whales suddenly popped up with their baby just 20 meters away from the bow. Our guest enjoyed taking pictures and loved the way the whales surfed with the waves. It was quite an amazing and unbelievable morning for us.

Manta Rock was our next dive site and we enjoyed another spectacular dive because we saw a turtle and a hammerhead shark, along with lots of reef fishes. In the passage we saw white tip sharks and a grey reef shark, leaf fish and much more. As we were finishing the dive and drifting towards the boat, we spotted another grey reef shark lying on the sand resting amongst lots of triggerfish. The Island Dancer II then headed back to Makogai for a village tour. Our guests really enjoyed their time at the village where they were entertained with traditional Fijian dancing, a tug of war, and where they experienced the taste of the Fijian traditional drink called kava.

Thursday – Gau Island
Dive Sites – Jim’s Alley, Anthias, Nigali Passage
We started our diving adventures today at Jim’s Alley where we saw a sea snake, an extremely colorful red anemone and lots of reef fishes. We later ventured to Nigali Passage for a shark dive that was top class as the guests got to witness grey reef sharks in a feeding frenzy with white tip sharks, along with schools of barracudas, vampire fish and midnight snapper. Triggerfish, oriental sweetlips, and many more tropical fish joined the foray.

Friday – Gau Island
On Friday we all woke up early for a morning dive at 5:30am. In spite of the early hour our guests liked it very much and the visibility was great. For the 2^nd dive we did another shark dive and once again we met up with many grey reef sharks, white tip sharks and school of jacks and barracudas. Afterwards we began our journey back to Suva. Along the way Moses, our Divemaster, rinsed all the dive gear making it ready for our guests to pack (hopefully dry) once we arrived in port. We all met at 6:30 for a cocktail party on the back deck of the Island Dancer II where we celebrated both David and Maureen’s birthdays!

Saturday – Suva Port
A continental breakfast was served at 7:00 am before our guests disembarked at 8:00 am.

Thank you to everyone for joining us on board the Island Dancer II this past week and we look forward to diving with you again in the future.

The Crew:
Adam, Moses, Peni, Clinton, and Joji

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report May 4 – 11, 2013

Air temp: 21 - 27C / 70 – 81F
Water temp: 27- 28C / 80 – 82F
3mm wet suit recommended

On behalf of the Island Dancer crew I would like to welcome our guests with a big bula vinaka: Steve, Mary, Craig, Neil, Kristine, Marc, and Sean. All arrived onboard at 12 pm and the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before chef Ben served them a nice hot lunch. While they enjoyed their lunch we did our official crew introductions and safety briefing. We then departed the jetty and headed to Gau Island where we would commence our first day of diving.

Day 2 – Gau Island
Dive Sites: Nigali Passage, Jim’s Alley, Resort Bay
Our shark feeding at Nigali Passage was first class as our guests got see grey reef sharks in a feeding frenzy. Also in the passage there were different types of schools of fish - school of midnight snapper, school of horse-eyed jacks and barracudas and lots of vampire fish.

Day 3 - Wakaya
Dive Sites: Manta Rock, Wakaya Wall, Wakaya Passage
Awesome diving today and our guests got to see lots of marine creatures. We saw schools of unicorn fish and fusilier fish, dorid nudibranchs, emperor shrimp, and lots of cleaner shrimp. At Wakaya Passage we enjoyed another spectacular dive as we saw schools of barracudas and schools of jacks, white tip sharks, grey reef sharks, leaf fish and lots of dorid nudibranch along with the wonderful, colorful soft coral.

Day 4 – Namena Island
Dive Sites: North Passage, South Passage, Chimneys
Our first dive we had balmy 10 - 15 knots of wind. It was a beautiful day, with just a little current. We saw oriental sweet lips, triggerfish and tons of fusilier fish, along with banner fish, surgeonfish, lionfish, scorpion fish and stonefish. We headed down to the south for the 2nd and the 3rd dives. Our divers were able to prove to themselves that Fiji is truly “The Capital for Soft Coral” as the walls were overwhelmed with coral of any color that you could name. We also spotted a school of humphead wrasse and different types of nudibranchs. Our final site today at Chimneys we saw lots of reef fish and anemone fish, anthias, midnight snappers, surgeonfish, grey reef sharks and white tip sharks. Our dive master Moses was also able to spot a robust ghost pipefish and a pygmy sea horse. We ended today with a night dive that was absolutely amazing with the amount of creatures found.

Day 5 – Namena Island
Dive Sites: Black Forest, Chimneys, Schoolhouse, Namena, and Makogai Village Tour
We awoke to another spectacular day for diving. Our divers got to see the different sizes of the black coral and soft coral that Fiji is famous for along with the colorful anemones, arc eye and flame hawkish, freckled blennies, and swirling basslets.

We headed to Makogai Village late afternoon for a village visit and our guests got to learn about the origins of kava. Upon reaching the shore our guests were surprised to hear the davui, or conch shell, blown by the local young men as they alerted the village people that we had arrived. They then continued their greeting by entertaining us with a traditional Fijian welcome song. This followed with lots of Fijian dancing that we all joined in with.

Day 6 – Wakaya
We finished diving today with a dive at Wakaya Passage that was really great. Lots of small critters were spotted on this dive along with grey reef sharks and schools of barracudas and vampire fish. We also continued to see nudibranchs and triggerfish.

Day 7 – Suva Port
Continental breakfast was prepared for our guest before disembarking at 8 am.

Thank you to everyone for joining us on board the Island Dancer II and we look forward to diving with you in the future.

Your crew: Capt. Joji, Engineer Clinton, Divemaster Moses, Cook Peni, and Steward Adam















---------- Post added May 20th, 2013 at 04:02 PM ----------

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report May 11 – 18, 2013

Air temp – 21/26 C (70 / 79F)
Water temp – 26 – 28 C (80 / 82F)
3mm wet suit recommended

On behalf of the Island Dancer crew, I would like to welcome our guests with a big Bula Vinaka… Robert, Carol, Zack, Henry, Kerry, Ann, Mike, Scott, Todd, and Rhonda. As our guest arrived onboard the crew assisted each to their designated cabin before our chef served them a nice hot lunch. While they enjoyed their lunch, we did our official crew introductions and safety briefing. By 3 pm our final guests, Anita & Richard, arrived and after our welcome and a quick lunch we departed the jetty and headed to Makogai Island where we would begin our first day of diving. We arrived around 1am in this nice and calm bay while our guests were enjoying their sleep.

Sunday – Makogai Island
Dive Sites: Check-out dive @ Clam Rock, Christine’s, Dominoes, Half Pipe
Our first day of diving was beautiful with bright sunshine, flat calm seas, and good visibility. We began with our check out dive at Clam Rock. During our dives today we saw some very interesting creatures such as two ornate ghost pipefish, banner fish, chromodoris, flatworms, and scorpion fish. Christine’s and Dominoes, which are always covered with beautiful soft coral and lots of reef fish also today shared the underwater spotlight with a leaf fish, scorpionfish and lots of different types of shrimp.

Monday - Namena Island
Dive Sites: North Save A Tack, Chimneys, Chimneys, North Passage
The current was just right today as we saw black spotted sweetlips, red coral trout, lots of cowries and surgeonfish, spider and decorator crabs, slipper lobsters and schools of barracudas and jacks. The underworld of Chimney’s was particularly wonderful today and our divers even requested a second dive here. Sightings of pygmy ghost pipe fish, ornate ghost pipefish, scorpion fish and lots of aeolid nudibranchs made the dive site special.

Tuesday – Namena Island
Dive Sites: North Save A Tack, South Save A Tack, Black Forest, South Main Reef, Urau Reef
Our weather continued to be beautiful with nice and calm seas and a gentle sea breeze of 5 knots. Visibility continued to be good as we swam passed a school of jacks, school of barracudas, grey reef sharks, white tip sharks and golden mantis shrimp. The wall of purple soft coral was amazing and the soft coral here is like a flower garden filled with different colors. We also we saw a school of humphead wrasse and much more.

Wednesday – Makogai & Wakaya
Dive Sites: Pinball, Wakaya Wall, Wakaya Passage, Makogai Village Visit
The diving at Pinball this morning was great as we saw many marine creatures and reef fish. The hard coral here is also very healthy, and along with the brilliant soft corals makes a home for a wide variety of marine life. After this first dive the Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed to Wakaya for our next dives. Everyone really enjoyed these dives, as Wakaya Wall is a cleaning station for big fish. Our divers saw hammerhead shark, eagle ray, lots of reef fish, and much more. We then headed to Makogai for a village visit where our guests had a great time being entertained by the village people. Kava drinking and Fijian dancing was also part of the fun and the group elected Rob as the visiting chief for the traditional kava ceremony. After the Fijian farewell song we headed back to the Island Dancer II where Peni served a dinner of authentic Fijian food…. yummmmy.

Thursday – Gau
Dive Sites: Jim’s Alley, Nigali Passage
Another beautiful day greeted us with a slight easterly wind of 10knots and calm seas once again. We started our diving this morning at Jim’s. Though the visibility wasn’t the best our divers still enjoyed their dive with what they saw as this site hosts lots of red anemones and soft coral along with different types of nudibranch. Afterwards we heaved anchor and headed to Nigali Passage for our weekly shark dive. Our divers were pumped up on the concept of seeing these magnificent creatures close up and couldn’t wait to jump in and get wet on this dive and they were not disappointed!

Friday – Nigali Passage
We repeated our dive with grey reef sharks, vampire fish, red bass, moray eel, and schools of barracudas and jacks. As we drifted towards the outer passage what really surprised our divers was the beautiful area of purple soft coral that covers the entire wall. After the dive we began our journey back to Suva while Divemaster Moses started rinsing all dive gear and laying it out on the bow. With the beautiful weather we continued to have it was dry by the time we reached port.

Saturday – Suva Port
After a hot breakfast was served at 7am our guests disembarked at 8am.

Thank you to everyone for joining us on board the Island Dancer II and we look forward to diving with you in the future.

Your crew: Captain Joji, Adam, Moses, Peni and Clinton

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain's Report June 29 – July 6, 2013

Air temp: 21 - 27C (70 – 80F)
Water temp: 25- 27C (78 – 80F)
3mm wet suit recommended

On behalf of the Island Dancer II crew I would like to welcome our guests this week with a big ‘Bula Vinaka’. All arrived onboard at 12:00 pm and the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before Chef Ben served them a nice hot lunch. While everyone enjoyed lunch, we did our official crew introductions and safety briefing. We then departed the jetty and headed to Wakaya Island where we would commence our first day of diving.

Sunday - Wakaya Island
Dive sites: Manta Rock and Wakaya Wall
We did our check out dive at Manta Rock. This is an excellent site for a check out dive as there are various species of hard corals that are prevalent on top of the reef. Dense schools of orange anthias flit about in the sunlight shallow waters, as does hundreds of tiny purple baitfish. The vertical side of Manta Rock is a wall of living color decorated with an abundance of dendronephthya soft coral, scarlet sea fans, and black coral trees. The golden damselfish is common here and the boldly patterned long nosed hawkfish is also a common resident. Not only did we see these marine fish, but also we saw a hammerhead shark, ghost pipefish, and a manta ray. Wakaya Wall was our next site, and along the passage walls numerous reef fish spend their days feeding amid the soft corals. Emperor angelfish clown triggerfish, white stripe anemone fish, and the spectacular spot fin lionfish are all photogenic residents of this magnificent wall.

Monday - Vatu I Ra
Dive sites: Mellow Yellow, Hi 8 and E6
We encountered just a little current when we got in and that is the beauty of Mellow Yellow as the multitude of soft corals showed us their beauty, along with the many different types of reef fish we saw today. It was really amazing. We followed up here with dives at both Hi 8 and E6. There is so much indescribable and almost unbelievable color at both these sites that each truly is a photographic favorite site for one and all.

Tuesday - Namena Island
Dive sites: South Passage, North Passage and Namena Point
Today we started at South Save-A -Tack and saw oriental sweetlips, triggerfish and tons of fusilier fish along with banner fish, surgeonfish, lionfish, scorpion fish and so much more. We then headed to North Save-A-Tack for our second dive and our divers saw grey reef sharks and schools of barracudas and jacks. Also triggerfish and lots of reef fish were spotted. The third dive we tried for the same dive site, but we started encountering some bad weather in the area so we opted instead for a site called Chimneys. Here we saw beautiful anemones guarded by the resident anemone fish, anthias, midnight snapper, surgeonfish, grey reef and white tip sharks, and of course, Dive Master Moses is back in action with his unusual creature findings for our divers of both robust ghost pipefish and pygmy seahorse.

Wednesday - Namena Island
Dive sites: Chimneys, North Passage and Namena Point
Another spectacular day for diving. We saw many creatures on our dives and everyone got to see the different types and sizes of the soft corals and black coral as well as anemone fish, arc eye and flame hawkish, freckled blennies, and swirling basslets. Today North Passage was at its best with just a little current, but with an abundance of fish feeding.

Thursday - Makogai
Dive sites: Christine’s, Half Pipe, Dominoes and the Local Village Visit
Today the visibility wasn’t great, but diving was still good. We saw many aeolid, chromodoris, and flabellina nudibranchs, along with mantas shrimp and much more. Later in the afternoon we headed to Makogai Village for a village visit and our guests got to learn about the originality of kava. They also were surprised to hear the davui, or conch shell, blown by young men addressing the village people that our guests had reached their shores. We were greeted with a wonderful Fijian welcome song. Our guests really enjoyed the Fijian dancing but the highlight was a small boy, just 3 years old, who entertained our guests with both his ‘war dance’ and ‘dwarf dance’. Everyone was entranced watching him.

Friday - Gau
Dive sites: Jim’s Alley and Nigali Shark Passage
This morning we did a very early dawn dive at 5:00 am at Jim’s Alley, and the soft coral was totally amazing. This was followed by a shark dive at Nigali Passage. The shark dive was really great and we saw many grey reef sharks and white tip sharks. As we headed back to Suva, dive master Moses started rinsing all the dive gear while our guests relaxed and enjoyed their time on the sun deck. We ended our day at 6:00 pm with a cocktail in the salon before our guests headed ashore for dinner at one of the well-known seafood restaurants.

Saturday – Suva Port
A continental breakfast was prepared for our guests at 7:00 am before they disembarked at 8:00 am.

Thank you to everyone for joining us on board the Island Dancer II and we look forward to diving with you in the future.

The crew:
Capt. Joji, Engineer Sam, Dive Master Moses, Chef Peni, and Steward Bole

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report July 6 – 11, 2013

Air temp: 21-27C / 70-80F
Water temp: 27-28C / 78-80F
3mm wet suit recommended

On behalf of the Island Dancer II crew, I would like to welcome onboard the Mohr family – Bula. All arrived onboard a little after 12:30pm and the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before chef Ben served a delicious hot lunch. While they enjoyed their lunch, we did our official crew introductions and safety briefing. We then departed the jetty and headed to Gau Island where we would commence our first day of diving.

Sunday – Gau Island
We started our trip this week with a checkout dive at Nigali Reef. Since this was a private charter our guests requested to do only 3 dives a day, so we decided to do our check out dive close to the Shark Passage. It was a nice and easy dive and we had very good visibility. Our second dive was a shark dive at Shark Passage and it was totally amazing. Lots of grey reef sharks and white tip sharks surrounded us. It’s really fascinating to watch how the sharks moved in, with their smart looking eyes focused on the food at all times. After watching these beautiful creatures for a bit we slowly drifted towards the shallow area where our guests got to see the colorful garden of purple soft corals, school of midnight snapper, and much more.

Monday – Wakaya, Makogai Island and Village Tour
Manta Rock was our first dive site this morning since the weather was just spectacular. We hoped to see mantas, but luck wasn’t on our side. Still there was plenty more to see here with lots of reef fish scattered amongst different types of soft corals. Humphead banner fish seemed to be everywhere, along with red coral trout, unicorn fish, surgeonfish, lionfish, scorpionfish and camouflaged stonefish. After a second dive here the Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed to Makogai Island for the third dive followed by the village tour. Our guests really enjoyed their time at the village, as they were entertained by the school children presenting a traditional Fijian dance. They all even took turns to try the tug-of-war dance. Chosen trip chief Jay was leading the group, and he was really good at it. J Everyone also had a chance to the taste the Fijian traditional kava drink.

Tuesday – Namena Island
The weather continued to be beautiful. The sea was calm with a gentle sea breeze of 5-10knts. We started with another spectacular dive at Chimney’s where we saw some very interesting creatures like pygmy seahorse, ghost pipefish, mantas shrimp, and schools of jacks and triggerfish. Coral Corner and North Save A Tack dive sites followed, and these seem to always be the best dives. Here our guest saw brilliant anemones, arc eye and flame hawkfish, freckled blennies, swirling basslets, and of course, the cruising grey reef sharks along with a few white tip sharks.

Wednesday and Thursday - Taveuni
Our two days spent in Taveuni were absolutely unforgettable. Good weather continued to be on our side, along with some very good diving. We started our diving at Rainbow Reef, which is one of the reefs that has a combination of many dive site. Colorful soft coral and outstanding visibility led to our guests enjoying every moment of it. White Wall was next and is one of the most well known dive sites in Fiji. Many of our divers still rate it as the “best of the best”. The outstanding thing about this site is the combination of the hard corals, soft corals and fish; you name it and it’s all there including grey reef and white tip sharks.

Our trip ended way too quickly and it is so sad for us to leave our guests, as they became part of our family for this short trip. We hope that someday we will be diving again with this happy family.

Thank you to the Mohr family from the crew of the Island Dancer II:
Capt. Joji, Engineer Sam, Dive Master Moses, Chef Peni, and Steward Bole

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report July 13 – 20, 2013

Air temp – 21 - 27C (70 – 78F)
Water temp – 27 - 28C (78 - 80F)
Recommended suit – 3mm - 5mm

On behalf of the Island Dancer crew, I would like to welcome our guests this week with a big Bula Vinaka to James F, Cynthia, Brian, Scott, Arun, Dave, Robert, Rashid, James M, and Mark.

All arrived onboard a little after 10am and the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before Chef Peni served them a nice hot lunch. While the guests were having their lunch, we did our official crew introduction and safety briefing.
At 1pm the Island Dancer II departed the jetty and headed to Makogai Island where we would commence our first day of diving.

Sunday –Makogai Island
Dive Sites: Clam Rock, Christine’s, Rick’s Rock, Dominoes, Night dive
We did our checkout dive at Clam Rock this morning, as our guests were eager to jump in with their cameras. This site is usually home to nudibranchs like chromodoris and ornate ghost pipefish. This morning our divers saw two different chromodoris flabalina, flatworms, a school of long blue striped snapper mixed with lots of long jawed squirrelfish. The Island Dancer II heaved anchor and we headed to Christine’s for our 2^nd dive. Here we encountered just a little current. With good visibility some of our divers even managed to swim around the bommies. They ended up taking some very good pictures of manta shrimp, flabalina, leaf scorpionfish, lionfish and the many different types of anthias fish. Rick’s Rock was just amazing and the hard corals and the soft corals were absolutely beautiful. Some of our divers remained at 30ft for the entire dive, which has a wonderful combination of vivid colors and profuse marine life.

Monday – Namena Island
Dive Sites: Chimneys, Namena Island, Namena, Coral Haven, Night dive
Today we again had just a little current at our first dive site Chimneys. Here there are some large colorful soft corals that appear to be tumbling over one another in a blazing array of colors. Scattered along the side of the pinnacle are large colorful sea fans that provide cover for the brilliantly spotted sweet lips and lots of reef fishes. Chimneys is also a well-known site for photographers, and if the visibility and the weather cooperate, diving here in Namena can produce some of Fiji’s best five star diving. Following this dive the Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed back to Namena Island for shelter, as the wind picked up to 25/30knts. Our guests were briefed about the bad weather forecasted to come, as safety is our main priority. Coral Haven was the highlight dive site of the day, which has amazing colorful soft coral. I can tell you that if you want to dive only one site this would be it and you’ll want to spend the entire day here. Today we saw blue ribbon eels and the tiny pygmy sea horse…wow, really amazing!!!

Tuesday – Namena Island
Dive Sites: North Wall, Kansas, Window Of dreams, Namena Island
Though the wind remained brisk coming from the southeast at 15 - 20kts, underwater we had no current and the visibility was amazing. Diving at North Wall and Kansas was great and we saw grey reef sharks, white tip sharks, mantas shrimp, moray eel, school of fusilier fish, and a school of barracudas. Window Of Dreams was really shining this morning with the flowers of the soft corals open all around it. In the sandy area it is unbelievable the creatures you can see and today we saw pygmy seahorse and nudibranchs. Unfortunately, the bad weather was still around us and wind start to pick up again to close to 25 - 30knts, so we decided to go back to Namena Island for shelter. We did two dives on the island while waiting for the bad weather to clear up. But, we managed to see octopus, turtle, moray eel, and much more.

Wednesday – Namena Island
Dive Sites: Black Forest, Chimneys
The weather gods continued to not be in our favor and the bad weather that has been around us for the last couple of days today is still here. With the priority of our guests’ safety and popular choice, we attempted to dive Coral Haven again, but it was not to be as we encountered a heavy swell combined with the strong winds. So instead we ventured to Black Forest and Chimneys. Black Forest is the home of some giant black coral and large sea fans, and of course, the soft coral was really vibrant and amazing. After our last dive today our guests were briefed about the next day’s itinerary, which meant a rough crossing to Gau Island as our guests were all eager to do the shark dive. At 10pm we heaved the boat’s anchor and headed to Gau Island.

Thursday – Gau Island
Dive Sites: Shark Passage
Since we had a rough crossing last night and some of our guest were still tired only a few decided to do the first dive, but all opted to do the 2^nd dive, which was our shark dive. Our steward Bole dropped us midway through the Shark Passage. As we drifted towards the shark feeding point, the current took us down and our guests were happy to see the huge stingrays lying below us on the sand. A school of barracudas were spotted and several grey reef sharks began circling us as we drifted towards the feeding point. All along the wall in this passage there is beautiful purple soft coral and our divers really enjoyed this dive with sightings also of midnight snapper and schools of jack.

Friday - Herald Bay, Nigali Passage
Today began with a dawn dive at Herald Bay, and while the bad weather was still hanging around us, our divers saw some very interesting creatures like cuttlefish and turtles. Immediately after this dive, as soon as we the guests back onboard, we headed to Nigali Passage for another shark dive. In addition to the sharks we knew would soon be here, we saw a school of jacks, school of barracudas and midnight snapper along with lots of other colorful reef fish as we drifted towards the feeding point. The sharks arrived and continued following us into the feeding area. Our guests really enjoyed this and spent much of their time taking pictures during the controlled feeding. The grey reef sharks came in very close, just a mere 3 inches away above our divers’ heads. What a fantastic dive. As we headed back to port, Dive Master Moses rinsed everyone’s dive gear and as weather was getting better, left them to dry on the bow railings. We arrived into port a little after 3pm. Though we had our share of bad weather this week, we still had some very good diving, which our guest really enjoyed.

Saturday
A continental breakfast was prepared at 7am for our guest before they all disembarked at 8am.

Once again to our fellow friends, thank you very much for joining us this trip and it has been a great pleasure diving with you. We look forward to diving with you again in the near future.

Your crew: Captain Joji, Chief Engineer Sam, Dive Master Moses, Chef Peni and Steward Bole

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report July 27 – Aug 3, 2013

Air temp: 21-27C (70–80F)
Water temp: 27–28C (80–82F)
Recommended wetsuit: 3-5mm

On behalf of the Island Dancer II crew I would like to welcome our guests with a big Bula Vinaka to Louise, Stephanie, Peter, Carlos, Andrea, Alice, Umberto, Normand, and Marie. As our guests arrived onboard the crew assisted each to their designated cabin before Chef Peni served a wonderful hot lunch. As they enjoyed their meal we did our official crew introduction and yacht safety briefing. We then departed the jetty and headed to Wakaya Island where we would commence our first day of diving.

Sunday – Wakaya Island
Dive sites: Manta Rock, Wakaya Wall, Christine’s, Clam Rock
We did our check out dive at Manta Rock close to Wakaya Island where we encountered a beautiful day of diving with flat, calm seas. Our first dive was nice and easy with no current. Our guests seemed to be very relaxed and enjoyed watching all the reef fish amongst the colorful soft coral, but what turned out to be more interesting was the lone manta ray spotted cruising along the wall. We returned for a 2nd dive at Manta Rock, and just as the divers were on their way to do their safety stop we had 7 Manta Rays that swam very closed to us…oh my gosh, what a great dive! During our night dive off Makogai Island we saw ghost pipefish, lionfish, scorpionfish, tiger cowrie, chromodoris nudibranchs, and much more.

Monday – Namena Island
Dive sites: North Save A Tack, Chimneys
We anchored at North Save A Tack this morning. Our first dive site this morning is one of the most well-known and best sites in Fiji. During the dive we saw a school of barracudas, school of jacks, school of fusiliers, grey reef sharks, white tip shark, manta shrimp, the tiny pygmy seahorse, butterfly fish, and down in the sandy area were lots of Randall’s sailfin gobies. These gobies live in the sand where they burrow down to 5 inch deep and often share the burrow with the blind prawns. After two dives here we headed to South Save A Tack to dive at Chimneys, one of our favorites. The top of the pinnacle is well covered with anemone fish and lots and lots of anthias. Porcelain crabs are also among the permanent residents of this pinnacle that is spectacular with the amount of brilliant soft corals.

Tuesday – Namena Island
Dive sites: Schoolhouse, Black Forest, Coral Haven
Today was a beautiful day with brilliant sunshine, 5-10 knots of wind, and this morning as our divers geared up at the back deck we were surprised by a visit from a Whale Shark. It came right behind the dive platform of the Island Dancer II, but none of us were ready to jump in as he slowly cruising by us before diving to the deep. After we completed our dive, the Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed to our next dive site, Black Forest. This site is commonly known for the impressive sizes of the black coral and sea fans found here. In fact one of the magnificent sea fans we saw is bigger than the yacht’s dinner table! Our guests saw two beautiful ornate ghost pipefish, Flabalina nudibranchs, and different types of dorid nudibranchs.

Wednesday – Makogai Island
Dive sites: Rick’s Rock, Pinball, Dominoes
Another beautiful day with sunshine and Rick’s Rock was a wonderful choice this morning giving us amazing visibility. This is a very colorful dive site as the hard corals here are home to several species of beautiful hawkfish, regal angelfish, spot fin lionfish, and numerous ornate butterflyfish. Also, thousands of schooling fish that inhabit this reef are an irresistible calling card for the larger predators in the area.

Thursday – Gau Island
Dive sites: Nigali Passage, Anthias, Eddies, Nigali Passage
Our first attempt at a shark dive this morning wasn’t quite right as the current at Nigali Passage changed a little early, so we have to wait until the current changes again in the afternoon. While waiting we headed to Anthias to do our 2^nd dive. This site is well covered with purple soft corals. We saw lots of reef fish, grey reef sharks, a sea snake, oriental sweetlips, and lots of common nudibranchs and flatworms. After diving at Eddies in the afternoon, we headed back to Nigali Passage for another attempt at a shark dive. This time the current was just starting to flow into the passage, which makes the dive much easier and gives us good visibility. As we slowly descended towards the bottom, we saw a school of barracudas right below us and grey reef sharks started circling around us. Some of our divers couldn’t wait to reach the bottom and started taking pictures while drifting towards the feeding arena. Once situated, the feeding began and it was amazing watching grey reef sharks being fed at such a close range.

Friday – Gau Island
We did one early morning dive and our guest Carlos enjoyed diving alone with only Dive Master Moses, as no one else ventured in to join them. Afterwards the Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed back to Nigali Passage for our last dive of the week. Though we still we saw grey reef sharks, along with schools of jacks and barracudas, as we headed into the channel the current seemed to be going again in the wrong direction. So we headed back to the outside wall to enjoy viewing some very healthy hard coral. As soon as everyone was back onboard, Moses began rinsing our guests’ dive gear as we made the cruise back to port. Once we reached the dock, some of our guests ventured into town to do some shopping, while others just stayed onboard and relaxed with a drink before dinner.

Saturday – Suva Port
An early continental breakfast was prepared for our guest before they disembarked at 8 am.

Thanks to everyone for joining us onboard the Island Dancer II this week and we look forward to diving with you again in the future.

Your crew: Captain Joji, Chief Engineer Sam, Dive Master Moses, Chef Peni, and Steward Eddie

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report August 10 – 17, 2013

Air temp; 21/27C (70 – 80F)
Water temp; 27-28C (78 – 80F)
3mm wet suit recommended

On behalf of the Island Dancer crew I would like to welcome our guests with a big bula vinaka… Felix, George, Anne, Amario, Dario, Katika, Alvi, and Iwan. After our guests boarded the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before chef Ben served them a nice hot lunch. We then did our official crew introductions and safety briefing. We soon departed the jetty and headed to Wakaya Island where we would commence our first day of diving.

Sunday - Makogai
Dive sites: Clam Rock, Christine’s, Rick’s Rock, P&0
Another lovely day with beautiful, bright sunshine greeted us this morning. The Island Dancer II had anchored inside Makogai Bay last night. Today the weather was just great as our guests slowly geared up while Dive Master Moses started briefing them on what would they could expect to see. Once underwater they saw leopard chromodoris, kunies chromodoris, pleurobranch, blue dragon nudibranch, and scorpion leaf fish. Christine’s was our next dive site and it is a small pinnacle covered in colorful soft corals that has many anthias and reef fish. We next headed to Rick’s Rock that has multiple cleaning stations. It is quite amazing to watch the cleaner shrimps behavior as they wave their antennae energetically to attract clients to their stations; the fish literally line up to be cleaned.

Monday - Namena Island
Dive sites: North Save A Tack, Chimneys, Namena Point
Diving at Namena Island always makes our guests happy with the combination of big fish, soft coral, and creatures. Today our guests saw pygmy seahorse, manta shrimp, grey reef sharks, white tip sharks, school of barracudas, school of jacks, and lots of reef fish. After a second morning dive at North Save A Tack we headed south to Chimneys. This is one of our favorites, and with very little current this dive site will blow your mind. Our divers came up with one word after this dive, “Amazing”. During the dive we saw tons of fusilier fish, humphead wrasse, banner fish, red coral trout, unicorn fish, surgeonfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, stonefish, and on the bottom we spotted a few different types of garden eels. It is always so nice to watch them play ‘hide-and-seek’.

Tuesday - Namena Island
Dive sites: Schoolhouse, North Passage, Black Forest, Coral Haven
The weather was beautiful, and the sea stayed nice and calm with a slight sea breeze of 5-10 knots. Our first dive today we swam along the edge of the wall. The fantastic thing about this dive is as we were on the shallow side of the wall and looked to the deep we were able to watch grey reef sharks cruising along with white tip sharks. Schools of barracudas and jacks, banner fish, and a school of fusilier fish surrounded them. Some of our guests even saw three hammerhead sharks cruising along the wall…WOW…what a dive! Black Forest was our next site and today we saw anemones, arceye and flame hawkfish, freckled blennies, swirling basslets, schools of surgeonfish and unicorn fish, along with lots of nudibranchs. Our 4^th dive was at Coral Haven and our divers really enjoyed this dive as they proved it themselves why we named this site “Coral Haven”. There is a group of pinnacles here so we divided our divers into two groups. One group went with Dive Master Moses and the other group came with me, so we can lead them to all the places where we want them to see. As we arrived at the main pinnacle we saw Moses and his group at 50 feet watching something very interesting, so we all descending to the same depth. Wow…Moyer’s dragonets mating. They were making a different type of movement, almost like belly dancing!!!

Wednesday – Makogai Island, Wakaya Island
Dive sites: Half Pipe, Manta Rock, Wakaya Wall
This morning the weather continued to be beautiful with brilliant sunshine and underwater the current was just right for our guests to fully enjoy their dive. We then headed to Wakaya Island for our 2^nd dive at Manta Rock. This site is a cleaning station for big fish and today we saw manta ray, grey reef sharks, white tip sharks, lots of reef fish including the colorful parrotfish. After the 3^rd dive we heaved anchor and headed back to Makogai Island for our weekly village visit. We briefed our guests on the culture and costumes for men and woman (sula), and the traditional ways of drinking kava. The magnificent part is when we headed to the beach; all the village elders and their children were wearing the same colored sula. They greeted us with the Fijian ‘welcome song’ and then entertained our guests with the Fijian Meke, also known as the war dance. Our guests also had a chance to experience the taste of Fijian kava. Afterwards we headed back to the boat and our guest were really surprised to see on the dinner table traditionally prepared Fijian food of chicken, palusami, fish and pork that had all been cooked in a lovo (underneath oven). Delicious!!!!

Thursday – Gau Island
Dive sites: Anthias, Jim’s Alley, Nigali Wall, Nigali Passage
Another lovely day and the weather just gets better and better each day. Our divers seems to be enjoying every moment of it and this morning we did our first morning dive at Anthias and our second at Jim’s where some of our guests spend most of their time right at 15 feet in the soft purple garden of soft coral on top of the reef. Here there is also a brilliant red anemone filled with its usual residents. After the 2^nd dive we headed to Nigali Passage for the 3^rd and 4^th dives. We did a wall dive first and we saw some grey reef sharks, white tip sharks, and lots of reef fishers. Then the shark feeding where our guests were quite amazed in how the sharks moved in so close to everyone. Lots of great photos were taken. The giant grouper we have named Leroy was back in action with his usual strength and he is not even bothered that grey reef sharks are all around him. He just tugged and pulled, and of course he managed to get his fair share of the bait. Everyone really enjoyed this dive.

Friday – Gau Island
Dive sites: Waikama Point, Nigali Passage
We did one early morning dive this morning before repeating the shark dive at Nigali Passage. Today we had very little current and very good visibility. Some of our guests even said that our shark feeding is one of the best they have seen because of the really close encounters with the grey reef sharks. What a fantastic dive!!! As the divers got back onboard Dive Master Moses started rinsing everyone’s’ gear as they guest enjoyed their meal. The Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed back to Suva. We arrived in port at 3pm and our guests headed to town for their last minute shopping before the final cocktail party.

Saturday – Suva Port
A continental breakfast was prepared for our guest before disembarking at 8am.

Thank you to everyone for joining us on board the Island Dancer II and we look forward to diving with you in the future.

The crew: Captain Joji, Engineer Sam, Dive Master Moses, Chef Peni, and Steward Eddie

 

[Dancer Fleet]

Island Dancer II Captain’s Report Aug 31 – Sept 7, 2013

Air temp: 21 - 27C (70 – 78F)
Water temp: 27- 28C (78 - 80F)
Recommended suit: 3 - 5mm

On behalf of the Island Dancer crew I would like to welcome our guests with a big Bula Vinaka to Ritta, Johann, Connie, Edie, Philip and Georg. All arrived onboard a little after 10 am and the crew assisted each guest to their designated cabin before Chef Peni served them a nice hot lunch. While the guests were having their lunch, we did our official crew introduction and safety briefing. At 1 pm we departed the jetty and headed to Makogai Island where we commenced our first day of diving.

Sunday – Makogai Island
Dive sites: Clam Rock, Christine’s, Half Pipe, Rick’s Rock
It was a beautiful morning with calm seas as we did our checkout dive at Clam Rock this morning. This site is usually a home for nudibranchs like chromodoris and ornate ghost pipefish and this morning our divers saw some chromodoris flabalina and flatworms along with a school of long blue striped snapper intermixed with lots of long jawed squirrelfish. The Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed to Christine’s for our 2^nd dive where we encountered little current with good visibility. Some of our divers managed to swim all around the bommies and ended up taking some very good pictures of manta shrimp, flabalina, leaf scorpion fish, lionfish and different types of anthias fish. Rick’s Rock was our last site today and it was just amazing. The hard coral and the soft coral were absolutely beautiful and our divers were really amazed with the colors they saw.

Monday – Namena Island
Dive sites: Chimneys, North Save A Tack
This morning we did two dives at Chimneys and two dives at North Save A Tack. At Chimneys, which is one of the best sites. It has all types of colorful soft coral tumbling over one another in a blazing array of colors. Also large colorful sea fans scattered along the side of the pinnacle and we spied spotted sweetlips and lots of reef fishes. This is a well-known site for photographers and if the visibility and the weather cooperate, the diving here in Namena can produce some of Fiji’s five star diving. The Island Dancer II heaved anchor and headed next to North Save A Tack for our 3^rd and 4^th dives. The amazing part of diving in the North Passage is our divers get to see the big fish. Right from the start we saw gray reef sharks, white tip sharks, school of barracudas, school of jacks and of course the sight of giant grouper awaiting any passes by is a jackpot not to miss. Before the dive at north-save-attack one of our guest Eddy came to me and asked me if we had a chance to see a pigmy sea horse, to which I had promised her that she would and at the end she finally did, and she not only saw one but two pigmy sea horses. What a spectacular dive it was.

Tuesday – Namena
Dive sites: Black Forest, Fantasea, Schoolhouse, Namena Point
Today we woke to a moderate wind of 15 - 20kts, no current and amazing visibility. Our first dive at Black Forest was totally amazing and this site is known for the magnificent sizes of pristine black coral and sea fans, along with all types of corals. As we slowly descend to the bottom we found the different type of soft coral along with the reef fishes was quite mesmerizing and our Dive master Eddy was on spot with his usual findings of unique creatures. This dive we saw a lot of nudibranchs, a juvenile ribbon eel and much more. After this dive the Island Dancer heaved anchor and headed to our next site Fantasea. Our guests were all quite eager to dive on this site as they’ve heard stories from guest Georg that it should really be named the “Purple Heaven”. Diving at Fantasea was totally amazing, though we had a slight delay as we waited for the currents to calm, and the colors were unbelievable with all eight pinnacles being covered with purple soft corals along with swarms of colorful reef fish. We also saw oriental sweetlips, diagonal sweetlips, black spotted sweetlips, humphead wrasse, along with a school of barracudas, grey reef sharks, bi-colored parrotfish, long nose hawkfish, and lots of anthias fish.

Wednesday – Namena
Dive sites: Mushroom, North Wall, Namena Wreck Point
A continuation of bad weather that was around us for the last couple of days continued again today, but the priority of selecting our dive sites is based on the safety of our guests. Diving at Mushroom this morning we saw lots of reef fish and creatures. Of course the colorful soft corals were still really amazing despite the weather and we still got to see lots of nudibranch amongst the colorful soft corals, mixed in with the sea fans and black corals. It was quite amazing to see the long nose hawkfish hidden inside the sea fans. We also saw coral trout, scorpion fish, leaf scorpion fish, lionfish, black spotted sweetlips, barracudas, and jacks. After this dive we headed back to North Save A Tack where I briefed our guests, as this was our last chance of taking pictures of the many more wonderful creatures they may have missed out on earlier. As we slowly descend into the bottom we saw grey reef sharks, school of jacks, barracudas, school of emperor fish, golden mentor shrimp and again the pygmy seahorse…. wow!! Amazing!

Thursday – Gau Island
Dive sites: Jim’s Alley, Nigali Passage
Land tour: Sawaieke Village visit
A beautiful day dawned with nice and calm seas as we did our first dive this morning at Jim’s Alley. On top of this pinnacle is found the usual resident red anemone along with lots of fusilier fish, black surgeonfish, unicorn fish, and lots of nudibranch. We then headed to Nigali Passage for our shark dive. Our shark dive is actually rated the best, compared to some other shark dive around the world, as mentioned by many of our guests. We took a short boat ride and dropped from the outer passage side and drifted towards the designated feeding point. While descending to the bottom the amount of grey reef sharks and white tips circling us increased as we drifted towards the feeding arena. Along the way we also saw a school of barracudas, school of jacks, and a large school of vampire fish. During the feeding, which our guests enjoyed every moment of, the sharks moved in closer and closer. This is one of those dives that you can take a close up shot just inches away from your camera lens. It is quite amazing to see the red bass aggressively attacking the food, which makes the sharks come in closer still. I had briefed the guests that the feeding was going to last for 30 minutes before we would start ascending to the shallows for our safety stop. As we came back to the boat, all our divers were talking that this was one of the best dives they’ve ever come across and Edie, who was 70 years old and was the most experienced diver on this trip, said she had been to most of the shark diving sites in the world, yet she said this was her best so far. FYI she is still swimming like a 16 year old girl…. amazing.

After the shark dive we headed to Sawaieke for the village visit and our guests got to experience the Fijian way of living and the traditional way of drinking kava. The members of the village also entertained them by “makes”(Fijian dance) and “sigidrigis”(Fijian way of singing around the kava area). This made the guests quite jovial and they tuned in along with the villagers. At the end, as our guests made to leave, our famous farewell song “Isa Lei”, which made it so much more emotional for most of them, serenaded them. Once back on the boat we were greeted by Chef Peni’s feast of traditional Fijian food. While having their meal it was clearly seen how the guests had enjoyed their trip as they kept talking about it.

Friday - Gau Island
Dive sites: Herald Bay, Gau Main Reef
Today started with a dawn dive at Herald Bay, and while the bad weather was still around us our divers still saw some very interesting creatures like cuttlefish, a turtle, and much more. As soon as the guests got back onboard we started the engines and headed to Gau Main Reef to do our second dive. We saw lots of reef fish and some interesting creatures. As we ended our dive some of the guest still want to continue and did not want to believe that the trip was soon to end as they had a wonderful week of diving. On our journey back to Suva Dive master Eddie, along with the rest of the crew, rinse everyone’s dive gear while our guest continued talking about the good diving they had experienced.

Saturday
A continental breakfast was prepared before our quests disembarked at 8 am.

Once again to our fellow friends, thank you very much for joining us this trip and it’s been a great pleasure diving with you. We look forward to diving with you in the near future.

Captain Joji, Chief Engineer Sam, Dive Master Eddie, Chef Peni, Steward Bole, 2^nd Engineer Paul