Correction: It was Not a Fire

As we reported in our November issue on Fiji's Nai'a liveaboard, our undercover writer was told by a crew member that the 2010 refit of the Nai'a's was due to a fire in one of the cabins and that Nai'a crew was "very conscious about fires and safety of her passengers."

As you can imagine, liveaboard owners are very touchy about firese these days, and the Nai'a's owner, Rob Barrel, wrote to say that his crew member got it wrong. "When one of our Fijian crew said the 'fire' was in a cabin, not the engine room, I expect they were focused on the location and not as picky about the English language distinction between fire and explosion as I am ... We have NEVER had a fire aboard Nai'a. In 2010, during drydock with no one aboard except a team spray-painting the inside of a water tank, something sparked the paint fumes and caused an explosion. The strong steel hull contained the explosion, but all the staterooms were destroyed. Significantly, the explosion did not cause a fire. We rebuilt the ship to an even higher degree of fire suppression, and we are very careful about potential sources of ignition."