Monthly Archives: Wednesday February 19th, 2014

Namena – Part 2

Posted on Wednesday February 19th, 2014 by dafdaf

After spending the first hours snorkeling around the anchorage, on the second day we sailed towards the outer reef where the ‘proper’ dive spots are to be found. We take Jason’s Yacht and tow two dingies in the back. Not far from the northern entrance to the reef we put the SY Bodhran on a mooring and use the dinghies to explore the reef.

A turtle in the anchorageBertel, me and Melaniea little GrouperUnicornfish

The sea is calm and the visibility under water quite good. Sitting in the dinghy we can make out the dive spots and decide to go for a quick one at ‘Grand Central’ while Jason and Melanie are snorkeling with the incoming tide and drift over the reef back towards the yacht.

Hello, Nemo !Top-side of the rock at 'Arkansas'A little white-tip shark at the 'Four Sisters'Oh the beauty. Just imagine: that's all alive and moving. It's just unbelievable !!

The second stop is at ‘Arkansas’ – a lonely coral column extending from -25m up to about -4m. While Bertel and Jason dive circles in the deep I’m free diving and again amazed by the sheer beauty of this site. The soft coral on the top looks like wheat fields (hence the name: Arkansas) and the rock is surrounded by colorful soft & hard coral, lots of ‘unicorn fish’ and numerous other species. We stay for quite some time and are all happy we made the decision to visit Namena.

More little fishes - still at 'Kansas'Flashes of color and form. Tropical coral fish.At the drop-off.Blue in blue.

During the next days we also explore the southern reef and the dive sites called ‘Chimneys’ and ‘Mushrooms’ as well as the ‘Four Sisters’. All of them breathtaking beautiful. Timing is important tough: the sites on the northern side should be visited shortly after high tide, while the ones at the southern side are best visited at low tide. The difference between slack water and out- or incoming tide is huge and the currents can get quite strong. If one got the timing wrong, it’s definately worth waiting in the dinghy for the current to change.

And more little fishMe, freediving.Again at the drop-off.Diving at the 'Mushrooms'

During the final dive at the mushrooms I dropped our camera which neatly sank into a depth of about 25m – which I guess it could survive – but despite wasting a full bottle of air on it, I still couldn’t find it again. So for the time being those will be the last underwater shots. Damn ! The Nikon AW110 was an awesome all-round camera and I’ll definately miss it a lot.

Back at the reef in the anchorageOne of the more beautiful fish. Unfortunately I forgot the name.The circles show the sites we've visited.Weather is changing. Time to go back 'home'.

But good news for everyone who plans to visit Namena during the next months: When we arrived there was only one mooring at the anchorage and one about 0.5nm ESE from the northern channel. There are plans to put as much as five moorings near the island and numerous at the dive sites. That will make visiting those spots a lot easier for cruisers.

Thanks to Jason for many of those awesome photos. Please visit his blog to see more !

Posted in Animals, diving, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov | 4 Comments

Namena – Part 1

Posted on Monday February 17th, 2014 by dafdaf

Even though the island of Namena lies only 25 miles from Savusavu it seems to be rarely visited by sailing vessels. I guess this is because there is not a lot information available about the island and (mostly) because there is no protected anchorage available. That means: ideally one should visit Namena in light easterly or with no wind at all.

The Suvarov finally sailing again.What a nice anchorage we have...Crystal clear water and lots of healthy coralThe snorkeling at the anchorage is already quite amazing.

We waited for some days and used the diminishing easterly to sail down to Namena, while during our stay we lie mostly becalmed and quite comfortable. ‘We’ that is the SY Suvarov, SY Odin and the SY Bodhran. Jason from Bodhran takes the mooring and we drop the anchor and 75m of chain in 23m of crystal clear water.

On the first day we payed our visit to the little ressort on the island and payed 30 Fiji Dollar for a permit to dive in the marine reserve  – which is good for one whole year.

Diving into the real beauty of Fiji: underwaterFishyAnother beautyStunning jellyfish

Even on the anchorage the coral are already quite impressive and the amount of fish is unbelievable. There are turtles, sharks, barracudas, groupers and endless little colorful tropical fishes around. During the first minutes I’m quite overwhelmed and don’t really know where too look… During the next days we will take the SY Bodhran and tow two dinghies towards the outer reef where the ‘real’ divespots can be found. Expect a lot more and even nicer pictures in the next posting.

Taking a picture of a clownfish is considered the sunset of underwater photograpy. ;-)Oh - speaking of.... Here you are.The skipper snorkeling...A coral peephole.

Posted in Animals, Freedom, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov | Comments Off

Depression (tropical)

Posted on Saturday February 1st, 2014 by dafdaf

No, no, no ! Don’t you be worried ! Although having been seperated from my loved ones for more than a month now, the psyche of the skipper is still in good shape. Turbulent was the weather which got affected by a tropical depression during these last days. That’s why I’ll do another post with pics of wind and rain.

Sommerzeit ist RegenzeitA look towards the Savusavu Marina in the back of the bayAlex fighting back to his yacht. Heh.Made it !

After being at anchor out at the reef for more than two weeks, a few days in Savusavu are a welcomed change. Because of the forecast I took down the big sunroof and gave it to a local tailor to stich up a few holes. Then we wait for the wind. The weather prediction was spot-on and despite being well protected behind the little island, we still had a constant 30 knots with gusts reaching into the 50ies.

The water in the entrance is getting roughPalm trees being tortured by the wind.The SY Tamora fighting a gust, about 1km up the bay. weather_20140128

It wasn’t too easy doing pictures with the rain coming in horizontally and the light being only slightly above candlelight-level while working mostly with maximum zoom. It was a lot easier on the next day, during the ‘golden hour’ when the water level was at it’s high and we could watch as an australian yacht was pulled out of the mud.

Something's wrong in the Savusavu marina...Damn !! Stuck in the mud at low tide.Closing in with the dinghy. The water level is still rising.At high water the yacht is nearly afloat. (As are the local children.)

The Beneteau somehow got the mooring line around the keel and shaved through it after which the boat was adrift and ended up close to the mangroves. That was pretty lucky – as there is enough coral around to split the thin fibreglass hull. But the lucky boat got stuck in soft mud and could be towed out at the next high tide without any further damage. Two dinghies and a boston whaler from the local perl farm pulled on the mast to lift the keel out of the mud and a dive boat with 500hp pulled the yacht into deeper water.

Weight on the boom, lines to pull on the mast head, all set.Start your engines !Pull ! Pull ! Pull !!She's moving !!!

Back in deeper water and everyone's happy !!Local spectators.Beauty in the Va'a.Going back home just before sunset...

Uh ! And I’ve even got more good news: After waiting for eight weeks, yesterday my christmas parcel finally arrived !!  After months I’ve finally got a decent computer again. Yay !

My old MacBook Pro died in the caribbean when a glass of water was spilled over it. The replacement, a MacBook Air killed itself when the internal (SSD-) harddrive got knocked out. So I had to use the ship’s navigation computer, an old Asus EeePC. It’s a nice little laptop that draws nearly no power but for working with pictures and videos it’s the wrong equipment. That’s why I’m as happy as a child on christmas day to finally have a decent laptop that won’t lag behind when I’m typing my blog posts. Maybe it also has positive influence on the frequency of updates. Only two posts duting the last month ?!? That’s an all-time low, I better start writing again…

Posted in Apple, Learning for life, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov | Comments Off