sv evi

Just returned from an incredible dive.  If you haven’t google Viani Bay Fiji and/or White Wall dive.  In the mix of best dives i’ve ever made…and i’ve been fortunate to visit many special dive locations.  Lite on large pelagic critters (sharks, mantas, turtles, etc.) but amazing corals…the wall was 100% coverage with a huge variety.  Water was 80 degrees at 110 ft deep.  Cloudy and even stormy last night the sun popped out this morning on the way and shone bright the entire day. Clear as visibility…  White Wall comes from the extensive coverage in a specific area of soft, white corals that shimmer and “blow in the breeze”.  Strong currents and depths make this an advanced dive tho we picked it right and the conditions were perfect!  Purple Wall is near and we saw quite a forest of large purple corals as well.

Thanks to sailing cat Veladare (Kiwis Kent and Amy and 2 lil ones Hanna and Madison) for the boat support and local Jack as the guide.  Tho he didn’t dive, Jack plopped us at the sweet spot to start the dive.  At 40ft is the start to the swim thru…a “throat” that descends at an angle exiting at 80 ft.  Continuing the descent into the abyss of Fijian waters Alene from Migration and I leveled there and watched as Kiwis Kent and Dave (Riada II) disappeared ahead.  Thanks to Alene for being the perfect dive buddy…same pace, consumption and appreciation as I have for these special places.  

As we were gently swept along the wall it was easy to stop and peek into cracks and crevices looking for new interesting creatures and corals.  We managed to find the often elusive second swim thru tunnel and Alene and I giggled as if we found some lost treasure.  

The dive was not without incident and tho it was a minor thing it is an important reminder to not be careless nor non-chalant about these adventures.  With a suspect valve on my steel tank i opted not to use it and borrowed a tank from Migration.  Well…it is aluminum and if you’re a diver you know the difference in buoyancy of the 2 metals.  About ½ way thru the dive I began “fighting” to stay down and the aluminum tank was becoming more buoyant as the air inside was consumed.  May have been able to get weight from Alene but instead loaded the pockets of my BC with old, dead and very light pieces of broken coral strewn about in this plateau.  Unfortunately there were no heavy rocks and the light chunks sufficed.  Simple fix…in the future wear more weight with aluminum tanks…duh.

While returning to the anchorage Kent landed a beautiful, perfect sized Waloo…sashimi for dinner again….woot!

ok…gearing up for another dive today.  We got our tanks filled from another cruiser who has a compressor on his boat.  otherwise we would have had to make a big trek across the Somosomo Strait to the resort dive shop.  I would have been fine “free diving” today (no tanks or gear..just holding breath) as i have embraced that method of late.  Need to keep up on those skills so I am ready in a pinch to solve problems quickly (free the tangled anchor chain, clear the prop from some line, rescue my tool or sunglasses that went overboard, etc.).  Sometimes by the time I don gear…it is too late.  Lately i have gotten down to about 60ft…..looking up at the surface from that depth is quite eerie…the way the sunrays shimmer and refract thru the surface, the ghost image of Guava, silence……love it.  

That silence…it’s deafening when present tho when interrupted the sound effects are amazing.  Sound travels much faster and louder thru the water than the air.  An approaching or passing boat motor appears to be right on top of you.  Or the music resonating down thru the hull of Guava and to the depths….me tapping my fin or humming to some Talking Heads.  Best is when zoning out in the silence and it is broken with whale songs.  That is why to free dive.  Times I have heard these songs go on as long as I can remain in the water.  Again..it sounds as the whales would be right behind me and tho I have seen them close-up in the water usually it is only the sweet song evident that we are in the same pool.

Anyway…the purple wall was spectacular.  The purple forest is present at a deeper depth than the White Wall.  Again at about 110ft the huge grove of soft purple corals clung to the wall that dropped into the abyss.  The start of the dive had less sun but the clouds soon parted as we rounded the reef and had incredible visibility.  The weather in the tropics can and does change quickly tho during the 72 minute dive with Alene was mostly bathed in sunlight and favorable conditions.  Many larger schools of fish, random single reef sharks, grouper, mingled in and around the endless varieties of corals.  Eagle-eyed Alene spotted 2 tiny nudibranchs, white with black dots and stripes, not bigger than a peanut.  Basically a sea snail, they are not exciting to look at but a treasure to find…check it off!  Unfortunately the fancy GOPRO camera takes amazing pix and vids above the surface but below the housing blurs images.  I have ordered the new and improved housing but it is in Seattle…and I am not.  So..sorry for the pix.  I have included the best of what I took so maybe you can get the idea.  Even with the best cameras it fails to capture the incredible life on the reef and the surrounding water.

Thinking the day would be dive free, Veladare fouled their anchor and chain on bommies (coralheads) this morning while weighing anchor.  I paddled over to offer assistance as it is a large cat with windage, they have 2 small girls aboard and I have experience with anchor clearing.  Free diving allowed me to identify the problem and work some chain free tho I was unable to finish as the wind was picking up and the bottom became a cloud from the chain stirring the sediment.  Kent quickly gave me his scuba tank and things were cleared in a nick minute.