Let us dive!!!

No blogging, no diving, no nothing... So no diving has just been for the last week, but it feels like it 's been almost as long as no blogging, which has been considerably longer, no surprises there!

When Kini at Hideaway Activities meets pro surfer Kelly Slater at the airport, you know that Windguru was correct, and the big swells are a reality. Many pro surfers, many tow ins and alleged 100ft faces at Cloudbreak, but as I can't find anything about that on the web, I'm guessing the coconut express is exaggerating a little.

Predicted three metre swells were enough to get us to take Skylark and Stingray to safe harbour in Korolevu a week ago, where the boys were on guard through out the high tides, though not sure how much was guarding and how much was drinking kava... Monday was pretty messy, with the swells building, but Tuesday was the biggie, with 20ft waves hitting Fanny Hill at low tide. High tide brought waves over the wall at Hideaway, several of which made their way to the pool, much to the surprise of the guest still swimming. Six inches of sand was deposited on the bottom of the pool, along with several fish, and a gaggle of hermit crabs, so no pool session for us the next day. All shiny and new again now, though somewhat colder and a little salty. Returning to the instructor house revealed that the house was still standing, though the high tide mark was way behind the house, big coral chunks in our garden, which now has more sand on it than the beach. The beer bottle mountain under the house was proven not to be the only support holding it up, as they are now spread all the way to the lemon tree. Captain Indiana Spider Cat did not have to go down with his ship...

Monday looks like it will be OK to dive (please, please, please), boats will be back and it will be interesting to see what has happened to the dive sites. Stingray will have changed the most, but is pretty resilient, and I don't think I'll be finding my mask on Casbah in the near future, might be worth a walk along the beach... The poor old blue starfishes had a hard time, and many were washed up on the beach. Naiomi made it a kid's club activity to put all the starfish back, which was great until the kids started playing frisbee with the poor things. We'll have to see if the nurse shark that has been hanging out on Big Foot and Sundance is still around, and the Napoleon wrasse harem...

So dive shop super tidy, kit all beautifully polished, boats scrubbed and shiny, compressor shed sorted and cleaned, van scrubbed to within an inch of it's life, dive instructors and dive masters all ready to go - here's hoping!!!

I'll update you on what we find underwater soon... Plenty beer botles, I'll wager
Claire

Well done Diveaway boys!!!

Hah, surprise!!! Its less than a week since my last blog....

A real mix this week of certified divers and first time divers, so we got to visit a lot of our less dived and more advanced sites. I say we, I mean Alex and the boys as I am still full of cold.... Bordello had some fabulous vis earlier this week, with turtles and sharks making themselves apparent, and we had white tips and grey reefs on Fanny Hill yesterday. Just one solitary barracuda though, the currents were not favourable for the big school we sometimes see.

We've been keeping the guests at Hideaway pool amused this week with our rescue course antics - luckily no one has called in the emergency services as per our yelled instructions... ChiChi and Mere have been doing an awesome job, and I am only slightly hoarse from all the shouting. Mere had been threatened with no food at the Diveaway lovo if she hadn't finished her rescue by Saturday, so she spent the whole day sulking, as there was no way we were going to get finished... We couldn't be that mean to her tho!!! She did spend the whole evening complaining about having a sore ear, so we will see if she turns up for work on Monday - any bets? ChiChi is an excellent panicker and should make herself available for all rescue courses - she managed to give Mere a few good dunks and she is a tiny lady!

The lovo was a whole lot of fun, with Tuks and Epi doing the bulk of the cooking. Lovo is a traditional way to cook food in Fiji, with stones being heated up prior to food being put on top and buried for several hours.... Just like in the UK, boys do the occasional outside cooking for parties with lots of fuss, girls do the rest (and always the tidying up!). We even managed to liberate Damos from Mango Bay for the evening, but 5 hours later he was getting withdrawl symptoms and had to go back... I can highly recommend lovo lamb and chicken, and sweet potato is just lush! There is a sign, on King's Road north of Nadi pointing towards the 'lovu crematorium'... My imagination was conjuring up images of food being cooked on top of gently smouldering dead people, until the taxi driver pointed out that lovu, with a u at the end, means crematorium in Fijian...

The lovo was a very late celebration for Te and Tuks getting their Divemaster certifications through from PADI. With busy family lives it's difficult to get us all together at once, and even last night Salo was missing as he caught chicken pox off his nephew - NOT small pox as Alex keeps telling everyone.... So massive belated congratulations to the Te and Tuks, big man hugs and slaps - you the man!!!

So a relaxing Sunday catching up on Facebook and only 18 more sleeps til my family come to see me, exciting times!!!! Rescue update coming soon!