 Volume V, Issue 2 ..................................................................September, 1998Bula from Fiji! Whale Tales - tall but trueThe year has already inspired a medley of miraculous all-new dinner 'n' wine tales to tell in our newly refurbished salon - jazzed up with the latest stereo and DVD equipment plus a new TV. Water temperatures rose back to normal and we've enjoyed more than our fare share of perfect sunny weather and calm seas. Newly discovered dive sites are even more vibrant and lavish than the old favorites. Just wait 'till you ride the NAI'A Flyer! A bumper season of bizarre and weird critters included several rufus pipefish, and as yet unidentified garden eels, nudibranchs and fish. Hammerheads schooled at Namena, silvertips spooked us at E6, mantas gathered at Wakaya and Nigali's gang of grey reefies remain among the most photographed sharks in the Pacific. So, when we arrived in Tonga in July to seek out humpback whales, we wondered if our luck would hold.... The first week, a special Whaleman Foundation charter with prolific marine artist and charismatic whale-lover, Wyland, saw numerous remarkable snorkeling and surface encounters with humpbacks. (Look out for a television piece on the group's adventures next year.) Then, in our second week, late one balmy afternoon near Lofanga Island, we decided to leave a humpback mother and calf alone to go diving on some pinnacles instead. It was only a mediocre dive without the usual terraced gardens of perfect hard coral that is Tonga's underwater trademark. What a pity, we pondered, that we opted against following the pod of adult whales we'd spotted blowing at the surface near our site. But then...three giant forms loomed into view...oh my God...HUMPBACK WHALES! Proving untrue all the theories about SCUBA bubbles and humpbacks being mutually exclusive, three whales danced and cavorted and tumbled and played among nine (heavy breathing!) divers for 25 minutes! They also posed for the cameras and taunted us close enough to reach out and touch - had we not been either paralyzed with awe and surprise or busy shooting the images and video of a lifetime! It fulfilled wildest dreams. It brought some to tears. For others, it was better than sex! As ecstatic California diver Derry Kabcenell described it, "Watching whales on snorkel or from the surface is like reading only page 7, 17 and 70 of a great novel. But now I feel like I've read the whole book!" Two days later, in what appeared an impossible stroke of more fortune, it happened again! We scuba dived with two more humpbacks whales! For the full story of this year's NAI'A Humpback Whale Expeditions in Tonga as well as 1999 dates in Tonga, see www.naia.com.fj NAI'A in Vanuatu Vanuatu's mammoth and magnificent President Coolidge shipwreck will be just one of several unique attractions that NAI'A will visit in March and April 1999 during two special Vanuatu expeditions. In conjunction with Kevin & Mayumi Green of Vanuatu's Aquamarine Diving, NAI'A will host two rare voyages between Port Vila and Santo. The itinerary will include the stupendous President Coolidge, Million Dollar Point, Bokissa Island Shark Dive and various offshore reefs, pinnacles, passages and shipwrecks spread over the 300 miles the voyages will cover.But the diving is not the only reason for NAI'A to sail throughout Vanuatu's pristine islands. The raw Melanesian culture and traditions in this country's more remote locales cannot be experienced anywhere else in the world. With special permission from the staunchly protective chiefs, we'll visit a "custom" village. And if a hike up an active volcano doesn't thrill you, then try Vanuatu's extremely thick and potent version of 'kava' - known to send even fierce Fijian warriors running for cover. The waterlogged will hold their breath during the annual Land Diving or 'Nagol' ritual at Pentecost where young, healthy and otherwise sane men tie jungle vines around their ankles and jump from ever taller makeshift scaffolding. The aim is to have used exactly the right length of vine so as to 'land' merely inches from the ground - thereby ensuring an annual harvest of great wealth. It may be the original bungee jump. But you can be sure that these guys don't lie about their weight! For more details about NAI'A in Vanuatu, contact us immediately to avoid disappointment. Northern Fiji Discovery Tours NAI'A has explored the remote Northern Lau region three times this year with great success. During January's expedition we traveled via Taveuni's Somosomo Straits to pay homage to the Great White Wall before exploring Rabi Island on the 180th meridian. As part of a Pacific-wide monitoring and research project, we sought out and caught nesting green and hawksbill turtles to watch, photograph, tag and release them. In August our return voyage from Tonga brought a charter of genuine explorers to Fiji via the breathtaking island of Vanuabalavu. And this month, Crystal Divers' Dan Grenier (formerly of Loma Loma Resort) joined us as special guest dive guide to reveal his favorite and most famous dive sites like Never Ending Story, Tongan Passage and Trigger Rock. Watch our website or e-mail us for special Northern Fiji & Lau dates in 1999.Fiji's Finest Dining According to surveys, the pastime other than subaquatic exploration that intrepid high-adventure divers most enjoy on vacation is eating! So, we lured Austrian gourmet genius, Christian Gruden, aboard NAI'A this month to revolutionize our menu. Some of you may know Christian from his days managing the culinary castille of Marlin Bay Resort. If you thought Manasa's meals were delicious before, you'll drool over the flavors now! In the interest of worldwide health and the right-to-life of indulgent desserts, Sereana now hosts dawn aerobics on the top deck...NAI'A does NITROX Once dubbed 'devil gas', Nitrox has become de rigeur and saving grace for today's repetitive live-aboard divers seeking extra bottom time, extra safety or extra energy. NAI'A now offers Nitrox to certified users as well as on-board training and PADI, ANDI or TDI certification.Muck Diving Grand tours of the NAI'A engine room are now a popular part of our itinerary thanks to the installation of a brand new 500hp Cummins diesel K19A engine. After a distressing and entirely unscheduled engine failure in July, Rob, Todd and a bevy of dedicated friends, crew and colleagues worked 'round the clock and at the limit of their ability to get NAI'A out to sea again with a new engine. Thanks to invaluable support from Fiji businesses, QANTAS and Air Pacific freight and Cummins Australia we resurrected our engine room in record time. Special gratitude must go to our patient and understanding customers whose vacations were sadly caught up in the midst of the drama. We're looking forward to having you back on NAI'A as soon as you can make it. And our Chief Engineer, Samu, might just let you autograph his new toy...Crew News After a lifetime of diving - usually with a spear in hand - Rusi "singer" Vulakoro recently passed both PADI Open Water and Advanced Scuba Diver courses on board with Cat as instructor. He's currently on his way to earning Rescue Diver level and spending more time guiding dives on NAI'A. His dedication, irreverent humor and unbridled enthusiasm, as well as a knack for "talking to tuna" and spotting macro critters, will make him an invaluable addition to the dive team. But come 1999 we may have to share him with our engineering department. Rusi will also be sitting for a G5 ships engineer license with the Fiji marine board. Good luck and good on ya!The "Boys" now include another girl! Judge Brain, Fiji born and raised, a PADI Instructor and former manager of Aqua Trek Nadi with thousands of dives under her weight belt, has joined NAI'A as Divemaster. For the next six months we also have the pleasure of Andreas Ragnarsson's company. A Swedish scuba diver and now our Nitrox & Technical Diving Co-ordinator, Andreas is in Fiji as part of an international work experience scholarship he won aboard NAI'A as a temporary reprieve from his psychology studies. High Art on the High Seas Look on our letterhead or website and you'll notice a new logo? Workaholic and perfectionist marine artist, Wyland, was supposed to be on holidays aboard NAI'A during our recent Tonga Humpback Whale season. But the temptation to improve our logo was too great! Within a few frantic minutes one night at dinner, Wyland not only re-drew our dolphin logo but also sacrificed one of our fine linen table napkins and whipped up an original Wyland scene of humpback mother and calf - totally freehand and using only a black Sharpie! Asked whether his tremendous artistic skills were practice or God-given, he replied: " You gotta be born with it." We treasure his impromptu gift and had it framed for NAI'A's growing gallery.Cold'n'alone in Cologne Visit Germany's premier photofair in September and take in the magnificent underwater images by Austria's Peter & Beate Lange in their acclaimed exhibition of shots from NAI'A, titled "Fiji with Fuji". Catchy, huh?Winners Take All Many NAI'A divers are winning photography awards throughout the world with images shot while on board. The latest to celebrate is New Zealand's Darryl Torckler who won five medals at the OCEANZ competition this month - including Grand Prize. And what does he win? A trip on NAI'A! Other NAI'A winners in the same competition were Pete Atkinson, Andy Belcher and Ken Yeung. At the Houston Seaspace Photo Competition, NAI'A images earned prizes for France's Jean Claude Tarle and Michigan's Michael Kennedy. In support of the stellar standards being sought in underwater photography, NAI'A has offered a 7-day Fiji dive trip as Grand Prize in the Ford Seahorses underwater photography competition as well as first prize for the Video section in the Los Angeles Underwater Photography Society competition. Congratulations to all the successes and please do contact us to let us know of any other wins for NAI'A divers throughout the world. We'd be proud to draw special attention to your achievements in our newsletters and on our website.Virtual NAI'A Adventures Check out our many changes and updates at www.naia.com.fj. Graphic artist and mad keen diver, Bonnie Pelnar of Under Watercolours in LA has taken on the job of redesigning and adding all the great web ideas we've only got around to taking about for the past year. Vowing to make the NAI'A site the best diving site in the world, she has set up a guest book online. Please feel free to post a message there to tell us what you think. We've also expanded our passengers' photo portfolio section and now have many spectacular photographs shot from NAI'A by both amateur and professional photographers who have experienced NAI'A's Fiji. We welcome your contributions and would love to have more of our passengers' images up online. Contact us if you'd like to exhibit in our online gallery.
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