Matagi Princess, May 1995, Steve Nielson, Danville, CA. "Somosomo straits for 4 days. Super boat, elegant, restaurant quality food. White and yellow walls fully open. Drift diving always. Colorful tropicals with soft corals for stunning visuals. Great variety of fish, nice schools of smaller fish." vis: 75­125 ft. water: 80°­82°"

Matagi Princess II, July 1995, Evelyn Russell, Greensboro, NC. "Sensational trip, terrific diving, wonderful people. Carries 10 divers in 5 cabins with private heads and showers. 4­5 dives/day with the first dive before breakfast. Water 79 to 81 degrees. All diving according to tides and currents. When the current is running, the beautiful soft corals are open and feeding. The captain always had the boat positioned right when we surfaced! The crew did any and all things to assist you. Somosomo Straights an incredible destination. Huge Tridacna clams with gorgeous mantles. Remember, seasons are reversed!"

Matagi Princess II, July 1995, Robin Dyleski, Marina del Ray, CA. "Beautiful boat with big cabins with double beds - private heads. Boat is top heavy and rocks quite a bit especially in open ocean crossings at night. Crew open to exploring new areas, but dive schedule strictly adhered to due to currents and tides. 4 dives/day with optional night dive. Mother boat pick up most of the time or Zodiac pickup (no ladder, somewhat hard to get into). Warm water shower on dive deck and nice salon. Only 5 divers on board and ran out of water on 5th day of 7 (had to go in to refill), boat holds 12 divers. Crew tried to stay out of currents due to video divers complaining they couldn't shoot their video. Unfortunately - no current - no open coral! Made arrangements in advance for camera rental, but on arrival they said they had their camera stolen; no video to rent due to broken battery equipment. Not enough charging stations on boat as only 3 vetoers out of 5 divers and they used all the available outlets. Captain did fine job of trying to satisfy all guests."

Matagi Princess II, October 1995, Mary Burry, Portland, OR. "Wonderful people, boat and diving. Current at times but fantastic soft and hard corals. Fields of staghorn, prolific fish. Food the best; crew flexible with the special requests for dining or trips ashore."

Matagi Princess II, October 1995, Mickey & Phyllis McGihon, Long Beach, CA. "More variety of fish and corals than Caribbean. Divemaster pleasant and accommodating, but spent most of his underwater time watching the photographers and videographers. After four days of requests he led one night dive. Divemasters pointed out sharks, school of barracuda, sea snakes, lionfish, schooling batfish. Dive briefings thorough. Yellow Wall, White Wall, Red Wall, Purple Wall, Rainbow Wall in the Somosomo Straits. Excellent live-aboard with complete facilities; first-class comfort for both divers and non-divers."

Matagi Princess, June 1996, John Burnett, Hermosa Beach, CA. "Quarter moon increasing to a half moon - crew said this is a good period for minimal currents. Although most dive were in the notorious Somosomo Straits, currents (if there were any) were not a problem for anyone. vis: 60­100ft. water: 78­80°. Coral truly outstanding. Many dives were follow-the-divemaster but since they know the territory there were no objections. Bring gloves; stop and look during the drift dives. Dive crew really knew their business. June­Sept dry season and time to go. . . . They kick you off the boat at 8:00 a.m. and if you don't have an early flight out of Taveuni you spend a lot of time at the airport if you don't make plans to do something else."

Nai'a, 1995, Colby Jones. "Four dives a day including a night dive. Use dive computers; depths left to the individual; action generally no deeper than 90 feet. Solo divers not required to pair. Dive off two skiffs. Camera equipment crowded them. Tenders spotted us even when the rare current swept us too far. Large camera area on the boat with 2 well maintained dunk tanks. Plenty of room. Diving very good, though Palau better. Nagali Pass is the Fijian Blue Corner; not quite as electric, but comes close when they do their shark feed. 12 foot manta floated within arm's reach! Soft corals are gorgeous, especially at night. Vis 40' to 100+."

Nai'a, June 1995, Lou McCorkle, Alameda, CA. "Great diving, especially Jim's Alley, EG, and Wakaya. Great boat - very comfortable with a spacious camera room. Great Crew."

Nai'a, June 1995, Nancy Westphal, Appleton, WI. "Staff polite and competent Accommodations as good as any live-aboard. Diving exciting, varied; averaged four dives a day; seven mantas on one dive, sharks at Nigali Pass, microscopic-nudibranchs, scallops, shrimps. Beautiful soft and hard corals, several species of lionfish, reef fish beyond count, sea snake! Traveled from Lautoka along the northern coast of Viti Levu as far south as Gau."

Nai'a, August 1995, Steven Marshall, Sunnyvale, CA. "Moderately difficult water entrance and egress from the Zodiac. Beauty of diving in the colors can make up for small problems. Nai'a can hold her own when compared against other live-aboards."

Nai'a, October 1995, Jim Jenkins, Oakland, CA. "Beautiful ship, well run, good food, comfortable accommodations, great staff. Diving from two chase boats. Nearly all dives with current - always a chase boat nearby. Compared favorably with Palau in terms of walls, soft corals, reef fish, clownfish, sharks, and topography. Highlights: sea snakes, huge schools of barracuda, abundant gray reef sharks, dragon eels, approachable clown triggers, leaf scorpions, lionfish. Vis 40' to 100'."

Nai'a, April 1996, Richard Litsch, Santa Rosa, CA. "Fantastic! Rob Barrel, owner/operator is the best. Great variety of sites. Shark feed with serious sharks . . . not just tiny reef sharks, hammerheads, sea snakes, blue-ribbon eels, large groupers, big schools of barracuda, pelagics, turtles, rainbow runners, rare wartfish, cowries and nudibranchs. Once boat was on site, no restrictions on diving, vis 30­70 ft., water: 84°­86°". Accommodations, food and crew all good."

Nai'a, May 1996, Russell H. Mahoney, DSM, IA. "Second worst of 65 dive trips, 1053 dives. Diver was left in water 20 min. before the inflatables returned. He was about to jettison equipment and swim ashore. Inadequate number of dives: 22 in 7 days; I expected 5/day; a passenger arrived late so we missed 2, weather caused only three to be missed. A shortage of 11 was 67% of what I expected! Too few sites: Wakaya, wall at entrance to channel 6 dives at one site; 4 dives at one set bommies; Beqa lagoon, 8 dives at 3 sets of bommies. Underfilled tanks at 2700 to 2800 psi. Trip departed from Lautoka, 20­30 min from airport. It ended in Suva on the other side of the island. Our group leader had to argue with the boat owner about the room assignments that had been agreed upon several weeks before."

Nai'a, May 1996, Jeremy Shulman, Va. Beach, VA. "12th live-aboard; no match for design, comfort and dedication to comfort. No request too great or small to be fulfilled. 14 crew members (12 Fijian) catered to the 12 passengers (holds 18). Large rooms with private bath, large dining salon, uncrowded gear area, large camera room and everything worked. Diving varied from great to average and itinerary depended on majority of passengers. vis: 50­125 ft. water: 80°. Wonderful visit to village on an out island, current float dives, millions of small fish, all varieties of soft corals and anemones you can imagine."

Sere-Ne-Wai, June 1996, Alan & Debbie Roscelli, Stockton, CA. "Of 7 live-aboards this was the nicest - only 1 year old. Beautiful teak walled living room/dining area. Each cabin has plenty of storage and large private bathroom. Chef excellent at Fijian and American dishes; food plentiful. . . . Divemasters friendly and knowledgeable, allowed plenty of freedom. Mantas and hammerheads are common. Tops of reefs were a beautiful rainbow of colors. Bad: Most days vis was not all we had hoped for but this was very dependent on tides. vis: 60­100ft. Water was a cool 76­78° during the Fijian winter."

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