Sere-ni-Wai magazine reviews

From Skin Diver Magazine

Fiji’s Elegant Sere

...Built specifically for diving, the Sere is 101 feet long, with a 22 foot beam. She accommodates a maximum of ten divers and a crew of four. With this many square feet per diver, you quickly begin to realise what diving comfort is really about. It is very easy to be on a part of the boat and not see anyone else.

Four large, individually air-conditioned staterooms are below decks, two on each side of a long hallway. Each room has a large double bed with a single bunk above it. There are drawers under the bottom bunk for clothes. There are additional drawers in a desk/dresser on the opposite side of the room. The bathroom is very large and has its own private sink, toilet and a shower big enough for two.

A specially designed fifth stateroom is near the lounge on the middle deck. This “honeymoon suite” boasts a very large bed, private bath and several large windows on the port side.

The lounge on the middle deck has several large couches and chairs arranged around the video centre. Divers can watch pre-recorded videotapes or view the results of guest videos recorded on a previous dive. A large dining table is aft of the lounge and accommodates all the guests comfortably. Food is prepared in a very large kitchen below decks and brought up to the dining area. Both American and Fijian foods are served. The crew is also able to prepare meals for guests with special dietary needs.

For those who want to catch a little sun, there are lounge chairs on the forward sundeck and on the upper and lower aft sundecks.

At the Sere’s stern are two spiral staircases that lead to the dive deck. A large bench on the swimstep allows divers to comfortably sit down and put on their tanks. Once they are fully geared, they simply stand up and take a giant stride into the warm Fijian waters. When guests return from the dive, their tanks are placed back ion the bench and filled for the next dive. Fresh towels are available at all times, as they are constantly recycled through the boats’ laundry system.

The Sere accommodates the special needs of the underwater photographer. Crew members hand you your camera and take it from you as you go in and out of the water. A freshwater rinse tank is near the two camera tables. There is one camera table outside and another inside, for more delicate camera systems.

Diving aboard the Sere is just about as good as it gets. Even though the boat is 101 feet long, Greg moors it right on top of most of the dive locations. This means you merely jump off the swimstep and descend to the dive site. On those few occasions when the Sere cannot be moored over the reef, a skiff is used to transport the divers to and from the site. All travelling to different areas is done at night in order to maximise the number to dives during the day.

Most of the diving is in or near an area in Fiji called Bligh Waters. This band of nutrient rich water, between the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, has an extremely high level of animal life. Each Sere trip differs slightly owing to divers’ needs, weather and overall conditions.

It’s hard to say which site is the best, everyone has his/her favourites. Fortunately, the Sere dives most of the favourite spots, such Beqa and Astrolabe Lagoons, Wakaya, Namena, Savusavu, taveuni, Lau Group and Vatulele...

From Sport Diving Magazine

Bula Fiji!

...From Kadavu, we flew to Suva to board our chartered dive liveaboard which took us to the islands in the Lomaiviti group that are accessible only by boat. (The central islands of Lomaiviti, sparsely populated with no major resorts, are made of nine main islands and several ones.) Accommodating 10 divers, the 30 metre Sere-Ni-Wai (song of the sea), was one of the most luxurious and well-equipped dive boats that I’ve ever been on and I’ve been on several! she was beautifully appointed with spacious cabins, large decks, camera tables and rinse tanks and a swim/dive platform which could be envied by any dive boat operator. Besides all of these wonderful features, there were warm towels handed to us as we got out of the water. What a delightful treat.

Our first (and check out dive) was at Ngau Island. there’s a barrier reef on the west coast where strong currents flow through Nigali Passage into a protected lagoon where the pinnacles were crowned with all kinds of soft and hard corals and multitudes of reef fish hovered above the corals. Our favourite dive was drifting through the channel to the point of a coral head and anchoring ourselves along some dead coral and rocks to watch the fish action. Whitetip reef sharks , barracuda, groupers and schools of brown snapper circled and drifted in the current as it swept past us.

Continuing north in the Koro sea, our next dive sites bordered Wakaya Island, home of one of the most luxurious and exclusive resorts in Fiji. some of the most unique creatures resided in this area such as yellow leaf scorfish, blotched fairy basselet, long-nose hawkfish, unicorn surgoeonfish and colourful blue and yellow ribbon eels.

At the north end of the Koro Sea off the coast of Vanua Levu lies a narrow tall island, Namenalala, which is surrounded by barrier reefs and the prettiest diving that we had experienced. ninety per cent of the island is a nesting ground for sea turtles and for great flocks of birds. The lagoon marine reserve where the most stunning multi-hued corals cling to craggy outcroppings. Giant tridachna clams are nestled on the sand shelves and green moray eels poke their heads from cuts in the wall. Zigzag oysters, purple tunicates, green tree corals, delicate feather stars hanging on black gorgonian coral fans, hordes of reef fish fluttering among mounds of pastel soft corals and red seawhips carpeted stove-pipe formations punctuated with undercuts and craggy sides...