Dear Divers,
Well, this week has seen some unconfirmed whale sightings, but with the slight drop in water temperature we can really begin to believe they are well on there way here. This is of course very exciting for Glenn who will be leading the first of the whale watching trips very shortly.
On the diving side of things we have been busy this week, several new people being introduced into the world of Scuba, congratulations to Kate Churcher, Tara Naige and Andrea Catel De Prates on completing the Discover Scuba program. We are very lucky here in Haapai to be able to offer such a program from the beach as well from the boat as the conditions are so agreeable to each! Find out more about the program here.
We also had some great visitors from Japan and New Zealand, who were welcomed back into the underwater world, all completing refresher courses, both from the beach and from the boat. Thank you to Shuntai Takahashi, Hiroko Takahashi and Lois Cowan for making it so much fun. We look forward to seeing you again.
We were thrilled this week to spot a Leopard shark in the channel between Foa and Nukunamo. This amazing snorkelling spot can be seen from Matafonua and is always full of surprises.
During the dives this week we have spotted a HUGE Napoleon wrasse at J-Caves, we believe in excess of 1.5m that stayed with us for several minutes. Shortly after this we
were graced by a beautiful eagle ray some 10m below us, but with visibility well in excess of 30m this week it has been easy to spot most things! The sisters dive site graced us with a few little gems, including a leaf scorpion fish in its usual hiding spot as well as a multitude of Nudibranchs with at least 8 different types spotted on the one dive. White tip reef sharks were also there to say hello, either free swimming or camping out under the huge table coral at the top of the reef.
200+ resident barracuda were still at Akartia and with the crystal clear water the drop offs surrounding it were stunning, with large skols of Snapper and Fusiliers playing around the reef and in the endless blue.
Finally to round of the week we have been graced with some beautiful sunsets, check out our dive boat with the sun setting behind it. (pic above)
Thank you for reading; we look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Diving has continued this week with more great reef life around every corner, our dive sites have delivered some large Grey Reef sharks at our local big sea mount, this site continues to amaze us with yet more large schools of Barracuda, at times with well over 200 and as mentioned resident Grey reef sharks seen in the blue below and ocassionally paying us curious divers a visit somewhat shallower. The eagle rays at Oak Station have been another joy this week, with large groups crusing over the sand. The week was also ended in splendid fashion as Jenny our resident Dive Master spotted a large Green turtle grazing at The Green Cave.
You can check out a selection of our great dive sites here.
The season is starting to get busy, with divers arriving from England, Germany and New Zealand. Firstly, two new members of the team have arrived - welcome to Tris and Jen, who arrived on the 27th of May and have already had the opportunity to see some of the early season diving delights that have been on offer. So far after only a few dives, there have been white tip sharks, groups of eagle rays, cruising tuna, napoleon wrasse, large schools of barracuda and the pleasure of sharing some wonderful time with spinner dolphins, who have decided to grace the boat a couple of times!!
Visibility has been around the 20 - 25m mark, but will start to see a drastic increase as we head into more stable weather patterns. The new dive boat arrived on the 4th of June and we will be busy this week making modifications to make it fully ready for the dive season ahead. We should hopefully have some photos soon.
Glenn has arrived after an 8 day passage from New Zealand, he has brought with him new supplies for the dive centre and Cat Knapp is fully prepared for the Whale season ahead. We are hoping to see the first Humpbacks in the next 3 weeks.
Congratulations to Stef and Constantine on completing there open water course with Brian. We are so pleased you guys enjoyed your course and all the best in Malaysia.
See you all next week...
The rest of the news starts with our dive boat Yukon. Our previous dive boat has been sold and we are upgrading to a new and bigger boat for the current season to come. More on this coming soon.
Glen will be leaving for Tonga on Cat Knapp around the 7th of May and is fully prepared for the Whale watching/swimming to begin. Glen will be keeping all of us fully updated online with current photos and sightings info on our new whale blog.
Finally, April saw the arrival of Oceans watch and Reef check. 10 Candidates took part in the reef check course, with Glenn becoming a Reef check trainer and capable of running further Reef check courses. Reef check trains divers to be proficient analysts into reef health based on samples viewed whilst diving along Tonga's beautiful coastline.
