Bilikiki has come back from another 14 day trip with 13 guests from the US and NZ....and what a trip it was! Starting off on Guadalcanal with some diving into history at the two Japanese wrecks at Bonegi Beach. We then continued to the Florida Islands where the diving was delightful! Diving Devil's Highway was already a big highlight right at the beginning of the trip. Seeing mantas rays feeding was definitely a good omen for what was about to come!

We had clear skies for Leru Cut and coral gardens of Mirror Pond and great spawning moments at sunset time at Mane Point. We spent a day at Mary Island and all of the fish there then headed to Marovo Lagoon where we were welcomed by three orcas early in the morning. An amazing way for Fernando to start his birthday!! Like every trip, Kicha and Mbulo Caves were a hit! Who can resist them? We also did carving markets, some with traditional dancing included, and got fresh veggies at the markets. Veggies on Bilikiki come from the village gardens directly to our plates!

After a few days in Marovo Lagoon we came back to the Russell Islands and our guests enjoyed a lot the diving at Rainbow Reef and around Karumolun Island. Those beautiful coral gardens and the amount of fish life was just breathtaking! Our guests also really enjoyed spending an afternoon at White Beach, it’s WW2 history, macro life and mangroves made the diving there great! The peaceful anchorage site was perfect for an incredible sunset too.

During these 14 days we encountered a great variety of marine life with different kinds of sharks, manta rays, mobula rays, eagle rays, barracudas, big eye jacks, bumphead parrotfish, midnight snappers, schools of spadefish and many others! It seemed like because of the full moon fish were going crazy spawning in almost every dive and that was an interesting show! For the macro lovers we were also lucky: thin robust ghost pipefish, velvet ghost pipefish, juvenile ribbon eels, soft coral crabs, soft coral cowries, orangutan crabs, nudis, flatworms, bobtail squid and cuttlefish amongst many other things.

These 14 days were fun and went by really fast! Thank you very much everyone for joining us onboard! It was such a great trip! We wish you safe travels and look forward to having you back on board soon.

And we would also like to thank our Incredible Crew, as always, for all their hard work, diligent help and caring attention.
Happy bubbles everyone!
Pato and Fernando

Photos below thanks to Frank Baensch who was onboard this trip