Swimming with sharks

The recent spate of shark attacks in Australia made DD a little lairy about the first activity on day two of our Fiji cruise: swimming with black and white-tipped reef sharks.

Passengers were assured the crew would be in the water with us at all times, closely monitoring the sharks’ behaviour to ensure our safety.

Ace …

We were transported to an outer reef in very choppy conditions. I jumped into the water with a pool noodle and immediately spotted sharks swishing past and below me.

But I couldn’t get my mask to stay watertight and waves kept slopping over me as I struggled to fix it.

Every time I stuck my head underwater I’d be greeted with the sight of sharks and spectacular coral, then I’d splutter back to the surface and try to fix my mask again.

Some people were not coping with the conditions at all, so we were herded back to the tender, where a couple of passengers proceeded to hurl over the side at regular intervals.

We returned to the Yasawa Princess and headed to our cabins for hot showers. DD was drying off when the request came over the loudspeaker for any doctors or nurses on board to please make their way to the main deck.

DD pulled on his clothes and headed out to assist an unconscious woman. He found her pulse, lost it, then found it again.

She regained consciousness after about five minutes, with his diagnosis being a panic attack combined with dehydration and a big first night on the boat.

I’m not sure what they’d have done otherwise, as we were a fair way from the mainland.

An informal infirmary was also established on the rear deck, with sea sick passengers clutching the champagne coolers as spew buckets and staring resolutely at the horizon as the boat navigated its way to calmer waters.

Fortunately DD and I didn’t feel the slightest bit unwell, as I have very bad memories of when we crossed Bass Strait.

Sea sickness is the worst.

Crisis and rough seas averted, we sailed to Soso village on Naviti Island. One of the elders gave us a tour of the school and church (beautiful interior below), then we shopped at a shell market set up by the local women.

I’d packed little stationery gift bags for the visit – mini plastic rulers, pencils, sharpeners, rubbers in the shape of aeroplanes and rainbows, and Australian animal stickers.

I handed them out to the kids, but was trumped by a genius woman who gave them bubble blowing tubes.

Still, word spread about my gift bags and three boys who’d missed out came down to the beach when we were leaving, asking politely if they could have rubbers too.

So maybe I did ok after all.

My friend Emily also gave a bag filled with coloured pencils and other stationery supplies to one of the local school teachers.

Then it was back to the ship to prepare for dinner – a traditional Indian Thali banquet, complete with a gorgeous array of saris for passengers to wear.

As we sipped our a pre-dinner bubbles, another passenger approached DD asking for medical assistance for his friend, who had a sore stomach. DD dutifully trudged off to put his rusty medical skills to the test again.

Dinner was delicious, although the chef later admitted to me that his grandmother would kill him if she tasted the food because it was so under spiced to cater for non-adventurous passenger palates.

Oh, and the woman who DD had helped earlier bought us a bottle of Chardy to have with our dinner, score!

Then we slipped away before the Bollywood dancing, ready for an early night after our action-packed day.

Song of the day: Alice Cooper “School’s out”