Day 185 The Hookah

Kurt heads to the Frigates surf break with Rob in the Salicorn dinghy while the rest of us board Liahona for a day of diving on a sunken Japanese fishing boat about a quarter of a mile from where our boats are anchored. Another boat in the anchorage, Dive-Figi.com, has told us about the shipwreck and the buoy that marks the spot.
Liahona weighs anchor and when we get to the buoy, Rob and Laura from Dive-Fiji are already there in their dinghy with their dive gear. With their help we anchor the big catamaran on top of a coral head that is only about 20 feet across and sticks up from the 90 foot deep bottom to about 15 feet from the surface. From the water (snorkeling) it looks very strange to see this 50 foot long boat tethered to the top of a 75 foot tall thumb of coral.
Jim (Liahona) loads the “Hookah” in our dinghy and he and Mark set up the hoses. The hookah is a small air compressor connected to a one-cylinder gas powered motor. When running, it pumps air into hoses that end in scuba mouthpieces. Two divers can descend to about 75 feet but three put too much load on the system so the group goes down two at a time to inspect the boat that is lying upright on the bottom. The stern is in about 75 feet of water and the bow rests on the edge of the coral head at about 30 feet deep. The water is very clear and it is easy to see the entire boat from the surface. From what we understand, the boat hit one of these coral heads and sunk some years ago. There is a little coral growing from the sharp edges of the boat but mostly it is free of marine life.
I do some snorkeling in anticipation of diving and find that I cannot clear my left ear so I disappointedly decline. Wendy and Jim take some phenomenal pictures and we have a great day of diving and snorkeling.
Before we pull up anchor, Kurt and Rob (Salicorn) return and join in the diving.
Finally, overexposed to sun and salt water, we return to Southern Star and pull up our anchor to follow Liahona on the short trip to the island of Mbengga, which is shown on most maps as Beqa. There we anchor in front of the Beqa Dive Resort, which was known in former times as the Marlin Bay Resort and is quite famous among scuba divers as a top-of-class dive resort. We attempt to sign up for their shark dive but learn that the trip is already full. The manager offers us a free “bure” or beach hut and we decide to stay for another day and go to the fire walking ceremony tomorrow.