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21 June 2010

Uto ni Yalo HomeWard Bound

BULA Viti, Rotuma kei Vuravura. Sorry our report yesterday was cut short but we were facing difficulties with our satellite phone and computer hook up.
We have gone forward a day now and are on Tonga time as we approach the International Date Line.
Tuesday evening saw a larger crowd gather at the Anglican Hall at Leifiifi. The word had gone out about Ratu Manoa's story telling and many more Fijians had come to hear his now famous Lui the Chinaman, Koli Lotu Katolika (Catholic Dog), Vei Tavalini and Imaria jokes that we have got accustomed to hearing at each gathering with the Fijian community. After the first round of jokes, people would keep requesting more and more stories, then very late in the evening they wanted to hear a repeat of his famous jokes above.
Even though the crew have heard the jokes many many times, we are still not sick of hearing them. He is such a talented story teller, a real kai Rewa.
Wednesday was more or less a rest day for the crew. We started with an 8am crew meeting and then we all went down to the Apia Marina to await the Fiji rugby team for a photo on board the Uto ni Yalo.
However, there was some miscommunication and when I checked with the team manager, the team had dispersed for a day off and it was difficult for the photo shoot to take place.
So most of the crew walked into town to look around while I took Rupeni and the girls to meet Melina (Keil) Annandale, my wife's sister so she could take them to do the vegetable and meat shopping.
Ratu Manoa also came with us so we could make a few phone calls to Fiji in relation to our arrival in Fiji later this month.


18 June 2010

Madly, Truly, Deeply - smh.com.au


Seven bull sharks circle overhead, like grey submarines, bulky and watchful. During the pre-dive briefing, I signed a personal liability insurance form. If I do something stupid I will bear the cost.
The dive master warns me not to point at anything while I'm on the bottom at the feeding station. No sense in offering the sharks something else to bite, I assume. So I lie low.

Scuba-diving with large sharks is an exhilarating experience. On previous shark dives in South Africa I was alone in a cage while great whites eyeballed me. Though these were extraordinarily exciting dives, I felt like a sliced lunch at the seal diner, cold and unappetising. In contrast, this warm-water dive in the Beqa Island channel off Viti Levu's Pacific Harbour is a sheer adrenalin rush: no cage, and open water all around. Here, I'm with five other divers, an equal number of guides and countless sharks. Whitetips, blacktips and grey reefs dominate, mingling with tawny nurses, silvertips and sicklefin lemon sharks.
A guide and I feed a frenzy of whitetips and greys from a small bucket of fishy scraps. Only a few metres away, the sharks dart like silver bullets, missing one another by centimetres.

by Tom Neal Tacker - smh.com.au/travel

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