Nai'a September 14-24 Day 3,4,5

Tuesday, September 17 First dive, Lion's Den Wekiya Wall, post retirement dive 790. Below: a loved seeing this very large, 60 - 80 lb, Brown Marbled Grouper

Above: Longnose Butterflyfish Fire Dart Gobies, below:

Beautiful Sea Fan, below:

Orange Finned Anemone Fish and Three Spot Damselfish sharing a sea anemone, below:

Two large Reef Mantas briefly visited us, below:

After second breakfast, Blue Ridge Wekiya, post retirement dive #791 Cleaner Shrimp, below:

Gloria getting some Tomato Anemonefish pictures, below:

Guy Foster getting some pictures, below:

Wekaya Vatuvai, post retirement dive 792 I was shooting wide angle but I managed to get a decent picture of a 2-3 inch nudibranch, below:

Beautiful Pink Anemonefish, below:

I always watch for cleaning stations because if you approach them slowly and carefully you can get closer to usually shy subjects. I spotted this beautiful Slender Grouper on a cleaner station and I'm very pleased with these shots, in the first, you can see the cleaner wrasse looking for parasites, below:

An upward flowing "fishfall" of Fusiliers instead of a waterfall, below:

Guy photographing a Lionfish, followed by my favorite photo of it, below:

Pictures of the crew and of the guests are posted to help us all learn whom everyone is, below:

Here's a couple of shots of the room Guy and I shared. I took the upper bunk. Below:

Wednesday , September 18, 2024 First dive, Jim's Alley, post retirement dive #793 A beautiful Leopard Coral Grouper, below:

Hawkfish, below:

Coral Grouper, below:

After second breakfast, our second dive was Nagali Passage, a high speed drift dive through the passage with Gray Sharks and schools of fish. A large Spanish Mackeral, below:

School of Blackfin Barracuda, below:

The usual suspects, below:

I soon took a split off the main passage at "The Bleachers" as recommended, proceeded down it with the current a little way, then stop and clung on to watch the action as fish and divers soared past. Soon, I was amazed and thrilled to see a large Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) come past actively hunting. I quickly managed to take a few pictures as the octopus moved along, actively hunting. The octopus was soon joined by other divers eager to photo and video him and I was excited when a very large, 80 lb plus Malabar Grouper briefly appeared to see what all the activity was about. Below:

Our third dive of the day, following lunch, was again in Nagali Passage where the current was beginning to slacken, my post retirement dive 795. There were once again, schools of barracuda but this time the Gray Reef Sharks were better lit and came closer for pictures, below:

A large black Triggerfish with a remora attached, below:

I always enjoy seeing Garden Eels but they are very shy and it takes a lot of patience and some luck to get close enough for decent pictures. Below:

More Orange Fin Anemonefish, below:

A Longnose Butterflyfish is attended by a Cleaner Wrasse, below:

Below: A large Brown Moray had me singing "It's a Moray" by Barefoot Man

The next thing on our day's agenda was a visit to Somosomo village on the island of Gau (pronounced now) which included a tour of the village, a formal welcoming ceremony, and kava drinking. We loaded up in our skiffs, Mighty Righty and Lefty Left and cruised into the village to a warm welcome, below:

The tour included looking at the several Breadfruit Trees that supply the village, below:

Harvested Kava being dried, below:

We sat in the Village meeting center for the formal welcome.

Thursday, September 19 First dive was Becky's, my 796th post retirement dive. It was recommended as a macro dive so I converted by camera from its usual wide angle 10 - 17 mm Tokina to my Canon 60 mm. One of my first subjects were Christmas Tree Worms and the tiny hermit crabs that like to occupy the abandoned tubes of Chrismas Tree Worms. Below:

Beautiful, species TBD, Damselfish, below:

A couple of different kinds of nudebranchs, species TBD, below:

Beautiful small Honeycomb Grouper, below:

A very picture-esque, cooperative Arc-eye Hawkfish, below:

Leaf Scorpionfish, below:

Our second dive of the day, after second breakfast, was "Pinball", my 797th post retirement dive. By vary slowly, cautiously approaching it after spotting it some distance away, I was very pleased to get a series of photographs of this Spotted Shrimpgoby and his Pistol Snapping Shrimp burrow companion. A wonderful example of mutualism in the animal kingdom. Below:

I also enjoyed capturing this Randall's Shrimpgoby saifin display, though his companion shrimp was nowhere in evidence, below:

I like this cool "looking down" picture of this beautiful fish, specied tbd, below:

Another abandoned Christmas Tree tube occupier hermit crab, below:

Beautiful Anthias (I think), below:

And another, final beauty, for this dive, species tbd, below:

After lunch, we dived a site called "Randy's Rocks", my 798th post retirement dive. Once again shooting macro, I was pleased to capture this passing jack, below:

Below: A juvenile damselfish with a shrimp.

Beautiful Dwarf Hawkfish, below:

Another Spotted Shrimpgoby with their hardworking snapping shrimp partner, below:

A pair of Banner Butterflyfish, below:

Another well camouflaged Leaf Scorpionfish, below:

I skipped the fourth dive, I had developwed a sore throat and an obnoxious cough as the day wore on so I skipped a dive and also had a long nights sleep in the hope I'd feel better the following day{s}. https://youtu.be/XzbFJZkC_BU