Viani Bay / Dive Academy Fiji
13 Sept 2020

We decided to make a get-away from Savusavu for a while and headed back to Viani Bay. Marina and Jone at Dive Academy Fiji were expecting us and we caught one of their new moorings after a long semi-bash north. I've not been seasick in over a year but this eight hour trip took me over the edge; cleaning up the broken contents of a plastic hair shampoo bottle was my undoing.

We ended up with seven boats in Viani Bay at one point over the extended weekend and Dive Academy was thrilled. One of my goals this year was to learn more about free diving so when Jone recruited for a class I threw in my anxiety and signed up along with three other cruisers for a full class. Thursday night Dive Academy arranged a potluck on the beach and we met do the online and caught up with old and new friends. I had to rush home and cram the e-learning module from Padi in before class.

Friday, the first day we were in shallow water learning how to relax, stimulate the mammalian reflex and breath-up for breath holding. I started at a pathetic 34 seconds and by the fourth go round was just over 2 minutes?!? It is a very inward sport and not at all about doing better than my classmates. We cheered one another on and our confidence built quickly. The dynamic section is more about learning efficient movement underwater to conserve oxygen longer. It took a couple tries to get my weight belt correct but then I was able to focus on diving down shallow, whipping the extra long fins with straight legs and gliding. I was so caught up in the technique I forgot I was holding my breath...

Saturday morning we took the dive boat out to Rainbow Reef to a sandy bottom area with the float and a long line to a weight which would be adjusted deeper each turn. A trick I forgot to do the first dive is to gently begin clearing sinuses just as soon as you duck dive under the water. About 3 meters down I realized and tried to clear but not successful so had to turn back up to surface. The next two tries I relaxed and was able to clear my ears and reach modest depths of 30 and 40+ feet. The last dive my ears would not clear and I knew I was too tired for another try but felt successful and confident with practice it will get easier.

Jone and John from Nacuda (New Caledonia family) had spear guns along so after a break we went back in to watch them fish for the bbq celebration after class. It took much patience and many dives but Jone brought up three parrot fish before his band broke. We went back to Viani bay and our boats to dry out and then headed to the beach for the "final" paper test and a beer toast from Jone for passing! The fish tasted amazing as well as the breadfruit with garlic and bokchoy/carrot salad. Dive Academy only uses local ingredients and has trees and crops growing in every niche.

So one amazing thing off my bucket list!