Namena

Even though we really needed to get to Savusavu to sort out the watermaker issue, we decided to head just a little bit south for a few days to the island of Namena, which is a small island in the middle of a marine reserve. I thought when Tim learned that he couldn’t spearfish there he would change his mind about going, but I guess the pristine diving still enticed him. I really didn’t want to go. More than ever, I was ready for fresh provisions and restaurants, and I really had my heart set on arriving in Savusavu sooner rather than later. However, I was much less grumpy about the decision about going to Namena when we arrived to find our good friends on True Blue V already there.

The satellite image below shows where we exited and entered the various reef systems. We exited the Vanua Levu fringing reef through what is labeled “Nadi Passage.” It was wide and it was easy to see due to the breaking waves on the reef, but there were some strange wave patterns in the pass due to current which were a little unsettling as I viewed them from a distance. We entered the Namena reef through an unlabeled pass that we had chosen by examining the satellite imagery. There was a wider, obviously deeper pass further to the south, but the pass we chose a little more direct. In the pass there were two pinnacle coral heads that we spotted rather late but still avoided in plenty of time.

We anchored on the north side of the island, and we mostly had light winds while we were there, but they say you can also anchor on the south side if the prevailing wind is from the north. The island is mostly uninhabited, in that there is no village or anything. But there is a single dive resort on the north tip of the island, but from our vantage point in the anchorage you barely knew it was there, except for the dive boats. There is also a dive operation based in Savusavu that brings people out to dive the Namena reef.

The weather was actually perfect during our stay, or maybe just a bit too hot, and Tim and Brenden broke out the huka to do a dive out on on the reef. They went to a dive spot called “The Chimneys” and it turns out that these were the same two pinnacles that we had previously avoided as we entered the reef. They thoroughly enjoyed the dive, but from these two you don’t hear about how pretty and healthy the coral was or how many fish there were, no you only hear about all the big fish that would swim right up to them, taunting them because they couldn’t spearfish.

Myself, I enjoyed the crystal-clear water by taking the paddle board around the island and exploring an amazing white sand beach on the other side. One of the unique things about this island is the abundant bird life. The boobies (red footed) and frigates are so numerous; it reminds us a bit of Isla Isabel in Mexico. We were pondering what makes this island have so many birds when we haven’t seen that anywhere else in Fiji, and we think probably because there’s no fishing allowed so they have abundant food close by, and also because there’s no predators, no humans to take their eggs. I also went on a brief snorkel with Max and Liz on the southwest tip of the island, and it was nice healthy coral and lots of little “aquarium fish.”

On another day Tim took both boys out on hooka dive. Yes, Alex even went this time. This time it was to the north pass to a dive spot called “Grand Central Station.” Tim seldom writes notes in our logbook, but after this dive I found the following note in his handwriting: “Awesome dogtooth! Walu, fish, sharks, coral”

When we departed Namena we left up through North Save-a-Tack pass and had an easy day sail up to Savusavu. It was a cold, rainy, and foggy day, so the visibility was pretty bad, but we were happy for two reasons: 1) We were able to sail, like actually sail with no engines or anything. After all the upwind motoring we’d been doing to get back east, it was very nice. and 2) We were accompanied by a pod of dolphins. Back in Mexico it seemed like you couldn’t move 2 miles without seeing dolphins but since then they’ve been more sparse. They swam with us for a while and it was good fun.