Wayne Beckwith
Fiji
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Nº97
Date: 2014-01-27 - 08:57
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Max Depth: 29.9m Duration: 28mins
Pictures
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- Temp: Surf 28°C Bottom 28°C
- Dive type : Recreational, Drift, Reef
- Visibility: Good Water: Salt
Specific gear used
- Weights: 6 kg
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Dive Profile
- 1. Air
- 13L Steel 156 → 40 bar
- Average depth: 16m
Data provided by EOL.org
Species Identified
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26th actually the 25th as we crossed the international date line on our 50min trip out to the Rainbow Reef fro a Qamea Island (ga-mea) The reef is very long and is home to. Multitude of dives sites. This first one "White Wall" is world class and is in the top ten dive sites. discovered several years back by a New Zealand diver who spent months mapping the area and working out when and how to get around the currents and tides. This was in the day if no easy access to tank refills and only had the two tanks. He used to do two quick scout dives on one tank and a longer exploration dive on the 2nd tank.
Best Conditions (tides and current) for the White Wall typically only occur fortnightly and that's still weather permitting. We were lucky to have had glassy water with blue skies though surrounded by threatening storm clouds over the islands.
There were already 2 boats there with about a dozen divers between them. The water was so clear you could easily see them swimming along the top of the reef. Good news was they were in front and on their way back up. We basically had it to ourselves with just the 3 of us. Our dive master/guide Eric and a girl from Germany Tania also staying on Qamea.
You descend down the shot line and head straight into a deep wide swim-through that starts around 15mtrs. This brings you out on to the wall, which for most dives in this area then becomes a drift dive. Turning left along the wall and you immediately see why this place was voted so highly as the wall is literally covered in brilliant white soft coral. The shear volume of the coral is what makes the "White Wall" so unique.
We were lucky with the visibility on the day being the best in several weeks at around 20m+. Usual tropical fish about including a few larger Bass and a small white tipped reef shark. Though we bottomed out at around 24mts the wall descents probably a another 10-15. After than the sea floor is around 250m+ further.
The wall ends with another swim-through back up to the reef plateau this one was full of fish surround 360deg of the walls inner lining. With some bottom time up our sleeve, our guide took us back for a shorter loop back via the first swim-through
Though all sounding great so far I did have a couple of technical issues. First one with my first stage uncontrollably purging on entry and lost about 70bar in the process. My hired BCD had a very slow leak in the inflation valve whereby it kept inflating it, which required regular dumping to keep from ascending. Hence more air was wasted, which explains a higher than my usual air consumption. On top of only descending with 153bar. I was obviously concerned this dive was going to be cur short.
With 4 of the worlds top ten dives now check off my list, it's tine to plan the next trip!