Silhouetted under a luminous late afternoon sky, the NAI'A cruises toward her home-port near Nadi. Drawn together on the top deck by the warmth of a tropical sunset and a camaraderie that sailing divers know so well, passengers swap sea stories, sip cold beer and soak up the fresh air and sunshine while it lasts. The wind is behind us and so is a week of outstanding diving. Soon this fantastic voyage will finish: existing only in our memories and on the pages of a photo album.
I can remember every one of my live-aboard scuba diving trips as clearly as any of my favourite childhood expeditions. Since my first live-aboard trip more than 10 years ago, each seaward journey is etched like a new calendar year in my mind. Each is an introduction to new friends, exotic cultures and an extraordinary world bubbling beneath the surface of the sea, hidden from all but the most adventurous travellers. Those journeys had such an impact that I made them my career. I now work as a dive instructor aboard NAI'A, returning briefly each year to a bustling metropolis just long enough for my regular dental check-up and other shore-bound duties.
The realm of ship-based scuba diving has changed dramatically during the past decade, inspiring divers of all sizes, ages and levels of experience to give the sport a go. Fiji has helped pioneer a major shift in international diving-travel consciousness.
My first live-aboard trip, a quaint wooden boat boasting two heads and a nifty dining table that converted into a double bed, was a far cry from the spacious salon, private ensuite bathrooms and easy drift-diving from inflatables which I am used to, today.
Live-aboard dive boats are no longer only for the hardy, courageous, been-there-seen-it-all types. These days, the focus is on comfort and a cultural experience, and the combination attracts all kinds of divers - young, old, demanding veterans, absolute beginners, macho guys and mild-mannered gals The infinitely better diving found a safe distinct from civilisation is still the major reason advanced divers choose a ship over shore-based resort diving. But a flexible operation can cater just as well to less-experienced spouses and friends. More and more people are learning to dive from live-aboards where they can benefit from personalised tuition and that invaluable rush of early experience.
Reaching the best dive sites is, of course, the absolute priority of a live-aboard. What could be more important? The great advantage of diving from a ship is the variety of creatures, terrain and conditions available during a single voyage. A few years back, live-aboard diving was synonymous with 'unlimited diving' which proved to be little more than sharp marketing and quite often a swift pull of the proverbial leg.
The more realistic concept is that a live-aboard will plan its itinerary to enable the maximum number of good dives. The quality of diving offered is far more important than quantity. Physically fitting in more than four day dives plus a night dive is rare, not to mention dangerous, and only the outrageously dedicated or simply mad would do that many every day.
A dive holiday is supposed to be a holiday, after all! At sea you are somewhat at the mercy of the weather. A well-planned itinerary will include top-class dive sites as well as places the ship and her passengers can take refuge from wind and waves. A moveable base provides the freedom to change itineraries according to guest desires or ocean life whims. If manta rays are mating or sunken treasure is discovered, chances are you'll want to stay exactly where you are
On her regular seven and 10-day charters, NAI'A departs from Nadi but travels to the barrier and fringing reefs off islands as disparate as Gau, Wakaya, Namena, Koro and Yadua. Her owner and cruise director, Rob Barrel, discovered two sea mounts in Bligh Water that have become famous as E-6 and Mount Mutiny (named, not after Captain Bligh, but after a group of divers so enamoured of the dive site that they mutinied when it was time to leave!)
Contrary to popular belief, live-aboard diving is actually easier than shore based diving. The ship will either moor right on the site or anchor nearby in less fragile territory. These days there is no excuse to anchor large or small boats on fragile coral reef. While some people prefer to dive directly from the ship, the advantages of using skiffs (inflatables) are many. You and your gear are loaded into the skiff and dropped in precisely at the point you want to dive. Better still, skiffs will pick you up wherever and whenever you happen to end your dive. There is no need for long swims, backtracking, navigating a return path to the boat, fighting currents or cutting short your dive to stay with others who have dived deeper or used their air more quickly. Individual diving needs are catered for in every possible safe way. The aim is to maximise bottom time in the very best spots without wasting a breath of precious air.
Our dive team includes Rob Barrel, Rusi Balenagasau and myself. Rob's 20 years sailing yachts throughout the South Pacific is complemented by extensive diving experience in locations as diverse as Palau and Coco Island in Costa Rica. Rusi spent many years as a professional fish collector before seeing the light and translating his extraordinary critter-spotting skills to sport and conservation. After learning to dive in Papua New Guinea at 17, I've been lucky enough to travel to many of Asia-Pacific's best diving destinations as a journalist and underwater photographer.
Creature-comforts like air conditioning and private 'heads' (bathrooms) for each stateroom are standard fare these days in the top live-aboards. Although living on a ship invariably means space is at a premium, a well-designed passenger vessel will have cabins large enough to hang clothing and store extras. Some vessels will also have clothes washing and drying facilities. A water-maker to back up a supply of fresh water means you can shower to your heart's content. Multi-media equipment on live-aboards can encompass everything from a CD player to video editing rooms and satellite television.
We're fortunate that our ship has video and slide editing and presentation equipment plus a stereo sound sys- tem. Essential additions are good marine and local reference books as well as books and videos for fun. Sunny and shaded deck areas and a comfortable lounge/salon are a must to save you from cabin claustrophobia and bring you together with other divers - especially at dawn and dusk, the most wonderful times to be at sea. Photographers have a dedicated camera room where they can spread out and fuss over their equipment between dives, with professional E6 film processing on board as an extra service.
A backache after a dive trip means you had to work too hard for it. Live-aboards recognise the desire to dive fast and relax. Apart from setting up your gear at the beginning and rinsing it at the end of the trip, you shouldn't have to lift your scuba unit at all. Good crew will be on hand to help you on and off with your gear, load and unload it from skiffs and fill the tank immediately upon your return from a dive. A competent crew is the key to your comfort on board in the same way friendly local crew is a cultural link for visitors. Live-aboard dive boats cater perfectly for sophisticated travellers in search of some unique cultural insight into the country that they have come so far to experience.
In small, traditional island countries such as Fiji, a ship and crew who establish respectful relationships with the people in remote villages are invaluable. Shore visits to such off-the-beaten-track places are invariably fascinating and an extra dimension to a journey that other travellers could only dream of. A popular event on many voyages is a visit to one of the villages whose chiefs have allowed our divers on nearby reefs. This is a wonderful change for cultural exchange and an insight into the daily use of many traditional rituals. Don't be surprised if the ceremony turns to revelry as the guitars are tuned, the kava bowl is filled, children begin to sing and the women adorn themselves to dance a meke. In all travel, even dive travel, it's the people you meet and the company you keep that sets one journey apart from another.
Some people call this Eco-tourism, but the word is often over-used. What it really means is that conservation minded travellers can contribute to the environment as well as learn about it.
It is impossible for us to visit places, especially fragile natural places, and not have some impact. So, the future or tourism is in activities that involve us in both minimising change and making changes for the better. Live-aboards and their divers are in a unique position at the frontline of marine research and ocean conservation.
Despite it covering 70% of the planet, little is known about the sea and yet it is our most abused resource. Many live-aboards take advantage of being out in the field daily at places that most scientists do not have the time or money to reach. Some vessels offer special scientific expeditions or simply the chance to join ongoing projects. NAI'A has a close relationship with the University of the South Pacific.
Our database of species, behaviours, patterns and conditions documents life on and around Fiji's coral reefs. Our divers collect samples for analysis and use high-tech equipment to measure important variables like current flow, water temperature and salinity. During turtle nesting season in summer, the ship travels to Namena, Taveuni and Northern Lau to search for nesting sites, count and photograph turtles and tag them for the fisheries monitoring programme.
The best science is often not quite so glamorous. Wrestling aside voracious nudibranchs to capture a Ziplock bag full of sponge may not be everyone's idea of adventure. But fighting cancer is what this adventure is all about. The latest encouraging bio-medical research has discovered that the sea may indeed hold the secret to combating this disease. And now our divers are a part of the quest to unravel the secret by collecting samples of a sponge that contains the highest known yield of a key chemical proven to act against breast tumours. Who knows, Fiji's next big industry may be farming and harvesting life-saving sponges.
Rob Barrel's personal interest in dolphins and whales coupled with his academic qualifications in cetacean anthropology led to NAI'A's design specifically as a platform for studying whales. Each winter the vessel takes scientists and whale lovers to cruise and dive throughout the Kingdom of Tonga where humpback whales from Antarctica travel to give birth and mate. The trips are an extraordinary opportunity to observe and photograph these enormous creatures and swim alongside them in clear warm water, as well as to help the science of identification, counting, tracking and even skin sampling for genetic analysis. Coming eye to eye and hand to fin with a 40-foot, 40-ton whale is something you will never forget.
I spend so much time at sea that people invariably ask me what it is that I find so attractive. Well, apart from sweet fresh pineapple when I wake up and sweet Fijian harmonies as I fall asleep, I love a deep morning dive at E-6 among giant blooming soft coral trees. Dancing parrotfish frantically courting and spawning in the after- noon. Kayaking along a shore at sunset. Flashlight fish in a cave at night. Swarms of tiny orange and purple fish that tumble over reef tops. A weird crusty creature hiding in the sand that we can't find in any book. The blazing clear-water current at Nigali Passage that pulls me inside a swirling school of 200 barracuda. Clusters of female grey reef sharks and their young that cruise in close to check me out. The patterns that sunlight makes on a manta ray's wings as it flies under me. And the way everyone scrambles for the bow when dolphins come to play in the bow wave.