Dive Happy

Tonga Humpback Whale Expedition 2010

Chris — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:48:29 +0000

If you've ever wanted to see humpback whales up close and personal, a photographic expedition being put together for September 2010 might be one of the best chances you can get.

Just a quick headsup that underwater photographer Tim Rock is putting together a very special charter expedition to go and see the humpback whales in Tonga in September 2010. This will be a very small charter, with only 3 places up for grabs, alongside Tim and cetacean specialist Douglas Hoffman - which means you get Douglas' insight into the whales and Tim's help trying to get the best photos. The trip will go on for 9 full days between September 20 and 30th and as it's a charter boat, it means that there should be a lot of time spent alone with the humpbacks rather than with other boats and swimmers. I am seriously tempted to go myself if I can find the money. Full details about the humpback whale expedition are on Tim's blog Guam and Micronesia Dive Travel. He is also putting together a couple of trips this year and next year on MSY Damai and is scheduling a 2012 expedition to Biak in Indonesia - another place I'd love to explore.

Canon Powershot S90 Camera and WP-DC35 Underwater Housing

Chris — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:10:57 +0000

The Canon Powershot G11 was widely anticipated by underwater photographers - but the Canon Powershot S90 is smaller, lighter and seems to do the same job for a cheaper price. Which one to choose?

I recently wrote about the Canon Powershot G11 and its WP-DC34 underwater housing
, describing how it was one of the most anticipated cameras by underwater photographers for some time. Canon's G series have brought a whole new level of image quality to compact cameras and get a lot of hype as a result. I'm personally in the market for a new compact camera myself too, so I was poised to buy one - until I heard about the Canon Powershot S90.

Canon Powershot S90

The current price for the Canon Powershot S90 is $399 on Amazon and $174 for the Canon WP-DC35 S90 Underwater Housing on Amazon - that's at least $50 cheaper than the Canon G11. Yet the camera has a full-sized image sensor (sort of), a f2.0 zoom for low light, and shoots RAW format photos. So it basically seems to do everything the Canon G11 can do.

Canon WP-DC35 S90 Underwater Housing

The clincher for me is that the S90 is smaller and lighter - possibly small enough to fit in a BCD pocket. Similarly, on land the S90 can fit in your pocket comfortably whereas the G11 is quite bulky. I am going to wait until I get to play with an S90 -- I'm sure there will be someone on my next dive trip - but I am pretty sure this could be the compact camera I will buy next. If you've been using an S90 underwater, please let me know your thoughts, good or bad, about it.

You can browse the latest Ebay auctions for the Canon Powershot S90 and Underwater Housing WP-DC35 below:

Canon PowerShot S90 10.0 Megapixel - Brand New Camera
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NEW!!!Canon PowerShot S90 Digital Camera - 10 Megapixel
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A0319 Canon PowerShot S90+16GB SD+Bat+Gift+2YrWty S-90
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62" TRIPOD Canon PowerShot G11 G10 S90 SX20 SX1 D10 G9
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NEW Car Charger FOR Canon PowerShot SX120 SX20 S90 G11
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canon powershot S90 digital camera brand new
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Canon PowerShot S90 10.0 Megapixel - Brand New Camera
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Cleaning Kit for Canon PowerShot SX200 IS D10 G10 S90
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Crystal MC UV Protection Filter for Canon PowerShot S90
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Car Charger for Canon PowerShot D10,S90................
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Canon PowerShot S90 Digital Camera Brand New
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Canon PowerShot S90 10.0 Megapixel BRAND NEW SEALED
US $305.00

NEW Canon PowerShot S90 Digital Camera
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Canon Powershot S90 10.0 Megapixel MINT CONDITION!!!
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Canon PowerShot S90 Digital Camera New
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Cleaning Cloth for Canon PowerShot D10 S90 G11 SX20 IS
US $7.95

Cleaning Cloth for Canon PowerShot D10 S90 G11 SX20 IS
US $16.95

Cleaning Cloth for Canon PowerShot S90 G11 SD3500 IS
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62" TRIPOD Canon PowerShot G11 G10 S90 SX20 SX1 D10 G9
US $22.95

53” Tripod for Canon PowerShot G11 G10 S90 SX20 SX1 D10
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Canon Powershot S90 Digital Camera w/3.8x Optical Zoom
US $399.00

62" TRIPOD Canon PowerShot G11 G10 S90 SX20 SX1 D10 G9
US $22.95

Canon PowerShot S90 10MP Digital Camera +BTY+ gifts -us
US $420.99

A0319 Canon PowerShot S90+16GB SD+Bat+Gift+2YrWty S-90
US $476.09

A0317 Canon PowerShot S90+Bat+Gift+2YrWty S-90
US $440.99

Car Charger for Canon PowerShot D10,S90................
US $7.17

Latest Ebay auctions for Canon S90 Underwater Housing WP-DC35

CANON WP-DC35 Waterproof Housing for S90 WPDC-35 DC-35
US $260.62

Canon WP-DC35 Waterproof Case PowerShot S90 Camera NEW
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New Canon waterproof case WP-DC35 for PowerShot S90
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Underwater Flash Strobe for Canon WP-DC28 WP-DC35
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Canon WP-DC35 Marine case for Powershot S90 BRAND NEW
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Canon WP-DC35 Waterproof Case PowerShot S90 Camera NEW
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Canon WP-DC35 Case for Canon PowerShot S90 Housing
US $179.95

Canon WP-DC35 Marine case for Powershot S90 BRAND NEW
US $199.99

Canon WP-DC35 Waterproof Case PowerShot S90 Camera NEW
US $169.95

Clown Frogfish Nursery – Dauin, Philippines

Chris — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 06:09:33 +0000

Finding a clown frogfish is hard enough - but to find a baby clown frogfish is a real red letter day for a diver

On a recent visit to Apo Island in Dumaguete in the Philippines, I was introduced by my eagle-eyed dive guide Gilbert to the delights of muck diving on Dumaguete's coastline. While Apo Island itself has some impressive walls and sloping reefs, the mainland coastline is an unappetising mix of black sand, straggly weeds and wreckage from old cars -- quintessential muck diving conditions. The stretch of coastline near to the town of Dauin is incredibly abundant - I was stunned when Gilbert found not only a clown frogfish, which is rare enough, but then pointed out a baby clown frogfish.

Baby Clown Frogfish, Dauin, Philippines

The baby clown frogfish is tiny - no more than about 2 to 3 centimetres long. The photos above are cropped in, as I didn't have a supermacro lens to fill the whole frame - it's such a beautiful and funny little creature, an exact minature except for the yellow rather than orange colours edging its feet and the darker red of its colours. The mature clown frogfish are still very small, about 6 to 8 centrimetres long, but a bit more bulky.

Clown Frogfish, Dauin, Philippines

This is just one of the amazing critters we found diving at Dauin and Apo Island and I'll be adding more pix of what else we saw soon.

Diving Komodo Trip Report November 2009 – MSY Damai

Chris — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:46:18 +0000

Komodo National Park offers some of Indonesia's best scuba diving, from the temperate waters of the south to the tropical reefs of the north - in November 2009 I took a 10 day trip on MSY Damai to explore this amazing area for a third time.

MSY Damai

I've dived Komodo twice before - in December 2006 on the Peter Hughes' boat Paradise Dancer (about which I wrote this Komodo Diving article for Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine) and then in September 2008 on S/Y Siren. (I wrote this Diving Komodo story for EZ Dive magazine and also wrote up a S/Y Siren Liveaboard Review). In November 2009, I went back to Komodo for a third time on MSY Damai, Indonesia's newest liveaboard. I've already written up a comprehensive MSY Damai Liveaboard Review, complete with videos and photos of the cabins and critique of how the ship operates - this trip report will focus on Komodo as a diving destination.

Cuttlefish, Wainilu

Even though this was my third trip (or perhaps because it was my third trip) I am not tired of Komodo - indeed, I would go back there in a heartbeat, and will definitely be looking for an opportunity to dive there again in 2010. With each trip I've done there I've enjoyed Komodo's sites more and more - a typical liveaboard passes through such a large area that it's quite overwhelming (in a good way) each time you do it.

Check In And Check Out Dives

Our trip began with early morning pickups from Bali hotels for our domestic flight from Bali to Labauan Bajo. We met up at Starbucks and all our check in formalities and checked baggage was dealt with by MSY Damai representatives, so there was very little for us to organise. Once at Labuan Bajo, we were met by Lorenzo, Damai's Cruise Director and several of the Damai team to take all the luggage into three aircon taxis before the 20 minute drive to the port.

Once on board MSY Damai, there were welcome drinks and snacks and a tour of the boat. (See my in depth liveaboard review of MSY Damai for more info about cabins, food, diving setup etc).

We did a check out dive that afternoon at Wainilu, a shallow muck dive that turned up quite a few critters and gave everyone's cameras a workout. Besides juvenile batfish,juvenile sweetlips, barramundi and mantis shrimp, the most fascinating discovery on the dive was a giant Melibe nudibranch, which used the most bizarre hoover action on the sand to find its dinner. (See my post Attack Of The Giant Hoover Walrus Nudibranch for pictures and more info).

The evening dive at the same location served up not only mating mandarin fish but also mating dragonets, a first for many people on the boat. Unfortunately I didn't get any decent shots of either, but it was great to see them.

Komodo Dragon, Horseshoe Bay, Komodo

Close Encounters With Komodo Dragons

The day began early, setting out at 6am to head onto the island of Rinca and see the famous, fearsome Komodo Dragons. The dragons are only found in the wild on three islands in the world - Komodo itself, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang. Having been to both Komodo and Rinca to see the Dragons, I think Rinca is actually the better experience - you have a much better chance of seeing Dragons out in the wild, rather than just the ones that hang around the ranger huts waiting for scraps of food. (You can read my report of spending time with the Dragons on Komodo on my other site Travelhappy). Of course, the fact they're at the ranger huts means that you get to see a Komodo Dragon within about 5 minutes of stepping onto the island, so there is a certain instant gratification. On Rinca, there is a long and short walk - we did the long walk (around 6km and 2 to 3 hours) which took a couple of hours as the morning sun got higher and higher and hotter and hotter. We were rewarded though with numerous wildlife sightings - water buffalo, monkeys, birds etc - and several close encounters with Komodo Dragons. Our group actually wound up being pursued by a Dragon down a driedup river bed, so there were a couple of moments where we had to move fast and the guide had to employ his hefty stick to fend off the overly curious Dragon.

Reef Scene, Tatawa Besar

After lunch, we did two dives at Tatawa Besar, on the island on Pandar - while this morning had been adrenaline and exertion, this was the complete opposite - a stunning reef, with its clumps of soft coral lit up in saturated colours due to the bright early afternoon sun overhead. With the deep, vibrant blue of the water, and clouds and clouds of fish everywhere throughout our time underwater despite the lack of current, there were no complaints about doing a second dive on the same site.

Soft Coral, Tatawa Besar

The night dive was at on the sandy slope of Bus Stop, where the highlights included encounters with starry night octopus and tiny bobtail squid.

Giant Frogfish, Cannibal Rock

Critter Hunting On Cannibal Rock, Yellow Wall and Crinoid Canyon

Overnight we had sailed from Pandar down to what I think is one of Indonesia's most desolate and beautiful locations, Horseshoe Bay. The Bay lies at the very bottom of Rinca and is home to several of Komodo's iconic dive sites, along with a local population of Komodo Dragons that wander along the otherwise appealing sandy beach. There's no rangers here to keep you out of trouble.

We were to be at anchor in Horseshoe Bay for two days and so could basically dive as we wished around the standard 4 dive schedule. First up was the legendary Cannibal Rock, a big seamount just under the water that was so named due to two Dragons being spotted on the beach attacking each other. The water in Horseshoe Bay is much colder than it is in the north of Komodo. The water tends to be 24 degrees Celsius and can drop even lower. As such, Cannibal Rock is usually green water, and quite murky, but the site itself is more than enough to make the discomfort worth it. The rock is a smorgasbord of soft corals, plate corals and crinoids, with vivid yellows and greens predominating, along with scores of stunning and usually rare creatures, from giant frogfish and oversize nudibranches to a golden yellow rhinopia, along with turtles, lionfish and mantis shrimp. It's one of those sites that, especially for photographers, you just don't know where to look first. We did a total of three dives on Cannibal Rock, including one night dive.

Yellow Wall, Horseshoe Bay, Komodo

Yellow Wall and Crinoid Canyon are located on opposite sides of Horseshoe Bay and similar topographically, near vertical drop offs that are covered in a spectacular carpet of soft corals and crinoids that tumble over one another. Up in the shallows particularly both of these sites shine, particularly as we had absolutely flat calm, sunny conditions on both days so the sunlight not only lit up the shallows but the wall above the waterline was also visible. (It worth noting that it's not always sunny around Horseshoe Bay - the two previous times I've visited it's been cloudy and rainy).

Rhinopia, Torpedo Alley

Torpedo Alley was a dive that I was going to skip to catch up on some sleep... until I heard that the dive guides Gusti and Wayan had discovered not one but two rhinopias together. Rhinopias are extremely rare and also very difficult to find, so for two to be spotted together was a real coup. Both Gusti and Wayan are very experienced and I've dived with them on previous trips, and they were on great form throughout this trip too. This was also a good example of MSY Damai's dive policy while at anchor - even though I had technically missed the dive and divers had already started coming back, Gusti encouraged me to gear up and for us to quickly head back out so I could see the rhinopias for myself. While I was taking pictures of them, Gusti somehow managed to find a tiny juvenile rhinopia, of which I only got a mediocre photo. Even so, it was great to see it and to have not missed out on seeing the adult rhinopias too.

Juvenile Rhinopia, Torpedo Alley, Komodo

Bobbitt Worm, Torpedo Alley Night Dive

Torpedo Alley continued to turn up amazing surprises on the night dive, the highlight of which for me was seeing a Bobbitt Worm for the first time. These super scary-looking creatures are thankfully only a couple of inches long (at least, the part that appears above the sand) but their nightmarish appearance certainly makes you keep any appendages safely tucked away. And yes, it's called the Bobbitt Worm after John Wayne Bobbitt. Ouch.

Manta Ray Squadron, Manta Alley

Manta Alley

From Horseshoe Bay we headed to Manta Alley, located at Tora Langkoi Bay. This is another must-see Komodo site where manta rays, probably the most graceful creature in the ocean, gather en masse in the current to feed on plankton. We did three stand out dives here and, while we thought it might be a case of diminishing returns, the third dive turned out to be the best. In the morning we'd encountered super strong currents that had pushed some of us back away from the channel where the mantas are usually seen - I was concerned I was going to miss out, until four manta rays passed straight over my head on the outcrop where we'd come to rest. It was the beginning of a magical dive where we saw mantas swoop and twist around us in all directions for the entire duration of our hour on the bottom. Every time we thought the show was over, the mantas would glide in from another, unexpected direction, sometimes three or four of them in a train, moving with perfect synchronicity behind one another until they spun back out into the blue.

Manta Rays, Manta Alley

On our subsequent dives we made our way back up the channel where the current had reversed direction and was now pushing us in front of it, until we rounded the corner and nearly collided with no less than nine manta rays effortlessly hanging 3 deep in the underwater breeze. As we skidded off to the sides and underneath the mantas barely acknowledged our arrival and continued to remain perfectly still until they'd had their fill of plankton. On our third dive, the current had disappeared and we thought, with it, the mantas would be gone too. Yet they remained, with what seemed a great playfulness as they skimmed over the reef and over each of us as well, unperturbed by our bubbles or camera flashes. I spent the last half hour in less than five metres watching the mantas disappear and reappear within the now greying, turbid water as the day's light began to fade. After 85 minutes, I reluctantly had to draw my dive to an end and exit while the mantas still spun around just below me. If there's one dive site I already want to go back to in Komodo, it's Manta Alley.

Cuttlefish And Diver, Castle Rock

Rocking Out At Castle Rock and Crystal Rock
Our arrival next day at Gili Lawa Laut and the dive sites of Castle Rock, Crystal Rock and Lighthouse was the most anticipated part of the trip for me. At Castle Rock last year, while on board S/Y Siren, I'd had two magical dives at Castle Rock that immediately went into My Top 10 Dives. (You can see a video shot at Castle Rock by my talented friend Ai Futaki too, along with her beautiful Freediving In Komodo video). I'd been wondering if my return visit could possibly be as good. We stayed two days at Gili Lawa Laut which gave us time to dive Castle Rock and Crystal Rock twice, both sites that need the tide tables consulted thoroughly as the current can be ripping. Our first dive was in almost slack water and so there was not quite as much fish action as I remembered from previous trips - however, the corals were resplendent and we spent a lot of time with two cuttlefish that were laying eggs in a large staghorn coral patch.

At Crystal Rock we had giant napoleon wrasse action, the biggest I've ever seen, a good metre in length - and there was the beginning of a definite electricity across the reef with jacks and fusiliers stampeding around us, barely heeding the presence of divers.

Reef Scene, Castle Rock

When we dropped back in at Castle Rock, it was stunning - sitting at 15 metres on the plateau of rock as it drops away into the blue is like being in the front seat of an aquatic IMAX screen. What had been quite quiet on the previous dive soon became a blue canvas filled with, no exaggeration, thousands upon thousands of fish - dogtooth tuna and whitetip sharks weaved in and out of fusiliers, jacks, snapper and a baitball of glassfish tens of metres deep and hundreds of thousands strong, moving as one across the backdrop of the sun illuminating the ocean.

Cuttlefish with Eggs, Castle Rock

Indeed, perhaps the most amazing thing about Castle Rock is the way the whole dive site feels like it's flooded with sunlight - the viz has been spectacular every time I've dived there. Wayan and I were the only divers out front and had the IMAX fishbowl to ourselves - incredible! And as quickly as it began, it was over - one minute the sea was full of fish, the next empty.

Orange Frogfish

Sangeang - Under The Volcano

Further north of Gili Lawa Laut is the still active volcano of Sangeang. There are several sites here, all of which are similar in topography - colourful reefs juxtaposed against the black volcanic sand slopes which still give off sulphuric bubbles from the magma churning deep below the earth's crust. Diving on Bubble Reef, Black Magic and Tikno Reef sites proved to be a riot of colour and different critters, especially this vivid orange frogfish that lurked within the soft coral fronds of Tikno Reef.

Stargazer Half Buried In The Sand, Small World Night Dive

Gili Banta

Bad weather stopped us diving more of sangeang the following day - we had a near zero visibility dive at Bontoh, so were glad to head for Gili Banta and the dive sites of Highway to Heaven and K2. It was the It's A Small World night dive at Gili Banta, the last night dive of the trip, which was particularly great, especially as we managed to find the Stargazers that wait almost wholly buried in the sand waiting for their prey.

Crocodile Fish, Sabolan

Heading Towards Home - Palau Sabolan and Palau Raja

The final two days of our trip involved only two dives each day as we needed to do some hefty cruising to make it back to Maumere on schedule. It was a shame we coudn't squeeze in a third dive on our penultimate day. The two dives we did at Sabolan in the morning were good fun and had great viz, with some good coral growth too, although not a huge amount of fish life, except for the crocodile fish we discovered towards the end of one of the dives.

Fire Gobies

Our final dives at Palau Raja, by contrast, were an unexpected treat - this is a site rarely dived and is named "School House" as you can see the kids heading to their wooden school building on the shore directly in front of the dive site. Despite the presence of fish traps and the evidence of old dynamite bombing, what I thought at first would be a mediocre site turned out to be beautiful. Once we'd headed through the slightly bashed up shallows, there was a steep drop off at around 8 metres that revealed a vertical wall encrusted with massive fan, barrel and plate corals, one of which could have easily swallowed a diver.

In conclusion, seeing Komodo for a third time has only made me want to go back and dive it again. The sheer variety of sites that you see within a 10 day trip - from the temperate waters of Cannibal Rock to the warm tropical waters of Sangeang - makes it a truly unique area for diving. You get the best of both worlds here, with big stuff - manta rays and en masse fish action - as well as a plethora of amazing small stuff too.

There is also the sense of being on an epic voyage thanks to seeing the Komodo Dragons themselves but also the desolate and beautiful topside scenery too. And despite Komodo being a popular destination, you rarely see any other boats - we saw one Japanese boat of divers at Cannibal Rock and that was the only time divers were in the water at the same time as us. The huge diversity of the area means that as an introduction to Indonesia diving, Komodo is hard to beat.

Attack Of The Giant Hoover Walrus Nudibranch

Chris — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:05:51 +0000

While diving in Komodo, I encountered this giant Melibe nudibranch for the first time, which has a bizarre circular mouth that acts like a hoover as it crosses the sea floor

Melibe Nudibranch

I'm a big fan of nudibranches, but I'm used to the colourful sea slugs being just a few centimetres long. Hence when I encountered this whopping great Melibe nudibranch at Wainilu in Komodo, I was somewhat taken aback (I didn't even know it was a nudi until told later). The nudibranch was at least six inches long, huge by nudi standards. The sequence of photos below shows the downright strange mouth it has - as you can see, the mouth (technically, the oral hood) is circular but also contorts into a shape something like a walrus, before it swoops in over the seabed and sucks up small molluscs for food. Truly bizarre and somewhat mesmerising to watch.

I'm indebted to Nudipixel for their amazing database of nudi pictures, which is how I worked out the species. However, I'm not sure what type of Melibe nudibranch this one would be classified as.

Melibe Nudibranch

MSY Damai Liveaboard Report

Chris — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:32:05 +0000

Possibly the most luxurious liveaboard boat currently in Indonesia, MSY Damai is trying a new approach in providing top notch diving and underwater photography

MSY Damai

MSY Damai is a new luxury Indonesian liveaboard launched in October 2009 by Alberto Reija, who previously worked on MSY Seahorse and Kararu liveaboards. Damai (the word is Indonesian for "peaceful") is trying to do something pretty ambitious with the liveaboard concept, by targetting small groups of underwater photographers who want a top-level luxury boat that is super focussed on their requirements. I joined the boat on its 5th and 6th trips during November 2009 as it sailed through Komodo, the Banda Sea and Raja Ampat - after four weeks on board, here's my rundown of what the MSY Damai is like as a diving liveaboard.

Small Number Of Guests
Perhaps the most radical move is the limit on the number of guests: MSY Damai carries a maximum of eight guests on each trip, split between 4 huge stateroom style bedrooms. (There's also a more modest cabin for an extra 2 people, usually tour leaders who have chartered the boat for a group). These cabins are the biggest I've seen on any boat - they are each 300 square feet. There's more info and videos below.

MSY Damai Cabin 3

Max 3 to 1 Guest To Dive Guides
There are three dive guides on board, so there's at most three divers to one dive guide. The whole boat's setup revolves around looking after the needs of underwater photographers, from a custom built spacious camera room and individual rinse tanks at each dive gearup station to extremely proactive boat staff who handle camera gear with skill and sensitivity.

There is also a Cruise Director on board - this is either the boat owner Alberto or Lorenzo, an Italian guy who is endlessly cheerful - even at 5.30 in the morning - and also hyper-organised at keeping the boat running smoothly with the 15 crew on board. He also has some fantastic stories to tell at the dinner table (be sure to ask him about the Teletubbies). Lorenzo and Alberto frequently dive with the guests as well, so providing another pair of eyes in the water to assist the dive guides.

Individual Workstations For Photo Editing
Each cabin has two desks for photo editing, complete with power outlets and overhead light. These means that each guest can review and edit in the privacy of their cabin if they prefer and have plenty of space. This is a very nice touch for photographers, as they can leave their laptop set up and ready to download each dive as they wish.

Cameras And Scuba Gear For Guest Use
Included in Damai's price is usage of 5mm wetsuits for colder water dives, like at Cannibal Rock in Komodo, and there is a spare camera and video camera on board in case of problems with your own. More info on the spare camera below.

The Difference To Other Liveaboards
Some of these things may seem too subtle to be particularly noteworthy - but if you've ever been on a liveaboard where there's too many guests, too few staff, too little effort made to look after your camera gear and too few opportunities to find stuff underwater because you're constantly stuck in a swarm of six divers, then you'll appreciate MSY Damai's setup.

MSY Damai Cabin 4

Luxury Service
Besides the photography angle, MSY Damai provides truly impressive bedrooms (more info on the rooms below) along with very attentive waiting staff , great quality food and an all-inclusive policy of unlimited beer and wine are included in the trip price. The wait staff were very accommodating to all requests - it's a similar concept to Peter Hughes boats that I've been on previously. (More info on Dining and Drinking below).

Premium Pricing
Inevitably, Damai charges a premium over other liveaboards in Indonesia for its services, so it's important to weigh up if the extra benefits of the boat - less guests, much more space, maximum 3 to 1 dive guides, dedicated camera gear set up, luxury service - is worth it to you.

If you check Damai's schedule for the next couple of years on their website, you'll see that they have numerous charters from some of the biggest names in underwater photography. Clearly this is Damai's target audience which needs to be sufficiently impressed not only with their first trip but to return to Damai and be happy to pay the extra trip cost for the difference it makes.

MSY Damai Cabin 1

Accommodation
MSY Damai has the look of a traditional Indonesian wooden pinisi schooner, but it's much bigger due to an extra deck and wider beam. The four bedrooms are divided between Rooms 1 and 2 in the lower deck, which each have two king size double beds in them, and Room 3, which occupies the full back of the boat and looks like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean with its four windows in the stern, and Room 4 above which is a little smaller than Room 3 but has its own private stern balcony. Room 3 also gets the most light due to its position and windows on three walls of the cabin. Rooms 3 and 4 have one king size bed in them. Rooms 1 and 2 are designed to accommodate either one couple or two singles, but if shared by singles they both get a king sized bed to themselves. All of the rooms are a minimum of 28 square metres (300 square feet) - they are all, in short, bigger than my apartment at home.

MSY Damai Cabin 2

In Rooms 1 and 2 there is a toilet and shower in separate rooms, and indeed, a full sized bathtub in the shower room too. There's one sink in the bedroom itself and two writing desks. Hairdryer and dressing gowns are provided in all rooms. One annoyance is that there is no hand sink in the toilet itself.

Rooms 3 and 4 don't have a bathtub, but have the same amenities as Rooms 1 and 2. Rooms 3 and 4 have their own unique characteristics, as mentioned above.

One downside of Room 3, the biggest cabin of all, is that it is directly above the engine room, so when the boat moves early in the morning there is some rattle and hum. Similarly the raising of the anchor can be heard in Room 1.

How Does MSY Damai Handle In Rough Seas?
One important thing to note is that MSY Damai handles well when doing big ocean crossings, like in the Banda Sea. We had a couple of rough nights out there where the boat was pitching around a fair bit, but it didn't the boat into a vomit comet. The creaks and groans of the ship's timbers might be a little more disturbing, but that is standard on wooden boats anywhere. It also helps that Damai's captain is very experienced and knows how to take on big waves while minimising boat movement.

Video Tours of Each Cabin on MSY Damai
Here are individual video tours of each cabin - nothing fancy, it's just me walking around with my camera, but it gives you an idea of their size and amenities.

Dining and Drinking
All food is served in the mess deck, which is airconditioned and has two fans too. Ironically, the single large dining table is slightly cramped for a full complement of guests plus 2 tour leaders and the cruise director - 11 in all - but it's not a big deal. The dining table is a natural place for conversations to begin and lets everyone take part.

Dining follows the usual liveaboard format - light breakfast before first dive, breakfast after first dive, lunch after second dive, snack after third dive in late afternoon, dinner around 7pm for those not night diving or 8pm for those night diving (or whenever they get back). It's possible to order food at any other time but in practice is not really that practical to do so if you are keeping to the dive schedule.

MSY Damai Saloon

Guests are asked before each mealtime to confirm if they are happy with the meal menu and substitutions are suggested if not. This all worked fairly seamlessly with the crew able to quickly adapt to requests. Food is served at the table rather than buffet style.

There is a heavy duty espresso machine on board for those who want cappuccino. There is unlimited beer, wine and soft drinks included in the price. Currently there are no spirits available on Damai, which might change, but would probably require a separate charge. (Bringing your own is the obvious solution - basic mixers like tonic water can be requested ahead of time, so gin drinkers, take note. Don't expect any cranberry juice however).

Lunch and dinner and three course meals - salad as starter for lunch and soup for dinner. Food is very well presented and in general excellent - I took a couple of photos as random examples of dishes we had. I wish I'd done this on previous liveaboards I've been on as I think it helps give an idea of what to expect.

MSY Damai Dessert

MSY Damai Dinner

And here's a random sample from the menu:
Lunch: Starter: Mix salad (carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, eggs, boiled potatoes, raisin) with Thousand Island dressing.
Main course: Spaghetti Carbonara (cream, bacon, parmesan cheese, onion, garlic,egg, salt, pepper). Dessert: Fresh fruit (mango).

Dinner: Starter: Cauliflower soup. Main course: Roast sweet potatoes with grilled wahoo in leak compote sauce and balsamic vinegar reduction, with green beans and sweet corn.
Dessert: Chocolate Brownie.

Sundeck and other amenities
There is a large sundeck with two double bed loungers, four single loungers and two reclining seats located just up from the dive deck in front of the captain's bridge. The sundeck is usually covered with a canvas sail to provide some shade, as the Indonesian sun is pretty savage. There is a balcony with armchairs at the stern of the top deck too.

Massage on the sundeck is available free of charge from Comoran, a qualified male masseuse who also works as one of the wait staff. Several guests (male and female) tried the massage and all said it was very therapeutic for aching shoulders etc.

Dive Guides
As mentioned above, there are three dive guides between eight guests. The guide leader is Gusti, widely regarded as one of the best dive guides in Indonesia who helped discover many of Komodo's key dive sites in the early 1990s. Wayan, formerly from Peter Hughes' Komodo Dancer, and Ketut, formerly from one of Bali's major dive operators, are also excellent, experienced guides.

Diving And Camera Gear Setup

MSY Damai Gear Up Area

The dive station is located at the bow of the boat. Each guest has a tank setup station with their own personal camera rinse tank and locker to store smaller items. (The locker is located under the seat of the setup station). Wetsuits are hung up on a rack at the front of the boat. Nitrox is free and guests are requested to analyse their tanks when gearing up.

MSY Damai Camera Room

Camera Room
The camera room is located by the dining area. Guests can set up their cameras and then bring them from the camera room to the dive area where there is room for them to be put down before being taken to the tenders. The camera room has eight power stations, one for each guest, with a rack of 110 and 220 volt plugs. There is also a storage cupboard directly underneath each station and also two shelves above for placing lenses, chargers etc. The camera room is great, but it could probably do with being a bit bigger - if you had eight people in there simultaneously it would be pretty cramped. As it was, it worked out Ok with five or six of us in there.

There is a continuous supply of camera towels available before and after dives to wipe down gear, keep the sun off and protect ports as necessary.

Spare Cameras For Guest Use
There is also a spare Nikon D200 DSLR camera and video camera on board in case guests have problems with their own equipment. Over our two trips we unfortunately had a couple of breakages and floods and for guests to be able to use the Nikon D200 was a real godsend.

MSY Damai Tender Boat

Diving Boat Tenders
There are two boat tenders for three dive groups. Entry into the water is by backroll entry. Starting in 2010 there should be three tenders - for now, two groups go out and drop in and one tender returns for the third group. This is a bit tedious as it means group 3 has to wait around for 10 minutes or so for the tender to come back. The three groups rotate every couple of days. The journey time to dive sites is usually very short - 5 minutes or so. Occasionally it can be around 10 mins.

Each guest's tank, fins and camera are carried by the boat boys from the station to the tender. Guests just need to remember to bring their own mask and computer.Getting onto the tenders uses the standard wooden staircase down to water level - this works well, except for in choppy water. On our last day of diving we had a lot of surge and the tender went straight under the ladder - not fun. This should be rectified in future.

The boat boys on each tender are excellent - they are quick to help you gear up, and adept at passing camera gear in and out of the boat quickly without bashing it around. There are boxes on each tender to store dome covers, sunglasses, hats etc. They are also generally very good at keeping clear with the engine propeller switched off when divers are submerging, although there were a couple of occasions where I thought they could have left starting the engine for a little while longer.

One major criticism I'd make is that the wooden decks of Damai are very slippy, and there are currently not any handrails along the walkway from the dive setup area to the tender. There are rubber mats on the floor around the dive deck area which help, but guests need to take real care walking to the boat. All your scuba gear is taken for you by the boat boys to the boat before you get on, but care still needs to be taken.

In Summary
It's hard not to be impressed with MSY Damai - it's a great boat that has been built to a specific concept, and it's obviously a gamble for Damai's owners about whether enough divers will agree with that concept and be prepared to pay the extra money. The response of guests on the two trips I was on was generally very positive. The big challenge for Damai is not only maintaining the high standards it's set for itself, but also continually improving the boat in the future. Personally, I loved it - the small number of guests, direct help from dive guides finding stuff, and ease of dealing with all your camera gear along with the top notch food and sleeping arrangements meant that 4 weeks on the boat passed very quickly.

Practicalities: Getting There And Away
Bali is the departure point for all Damai trips - not in terms of the boat departure but where a Dive Damai representative will pick up guests from their hotels on the morning of departure and organise their domestic flight to the boat's departure point within Indonesia. There are numerous international flights to Bali. See Skyscanner and Kayak to compare airline flight prices. (Bali is an excellent dive destination in its own right and deserves a few days at the beginning or end of your trip).

Dive Damai reps handle the purchase of all domestic flights and excess baggage charges, but note these are NOT included in the price - flights and excess baggage are billed to each guest at the end of the trip. Domestic Indonesian flights are relatively cheap, around $US 100 to $200 depending on your destination. Purchasing Indonesian domestic flights when not already in Indonesia is an exercise in futility - better to let Dive Damai handle it for you. This goes for any liveaboard in Indonesia.

MSY Damai Crew

MSY Damai At Sunset

Maldives Diving Trip Report: MV Orion

Chris — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:57:46 +0000

The new Maldives liveaboard MV Orion offers seven day trips that take in classic Maldives dive sites at Male and Ari atolls as well as visiting the whale shark haunt of Hani Faru

MV Orion

MV Orion is built around the cruising in comfort concept, where the boat is appealing to divers and non divers alike. Scuba is a big part of the boat's itinerary with three dives a day -- four if there's a night dive - but it's also a great boat on which to relax, sunbathe, enjoy the spa, sauna and jacuzzi and watch the Maldives seascape go by as the boat cruises during the day. Cabins are very spacious and well-appointed, while the dining room, bar area and sundeck are also designed to provide plenty of room. (I've also written a more detailed report of the practicalities and amenities of the MV Orion, with videos and pictures of the bedrooms and mess decks).

Maldives seascape

Manta Ray, Lankan

MV Orion departs from Male on a 7 day schedule, usually with a checkout dive on one of Male's dive sites. We went to Lankan, the famous Manta Point site, where we saw a couple of manta rays hovering at the cleaning station - great way to begin a trip.

Manta Ray at Hani Faru

Hani Faru - Waiting For Whale Sharks
MV Orion heads from Male Atoll to Baa Atoll which is several hours crossing. This is the location of Hani Faru (also spelt Hanifaru), the small bay that's growing increasingly popular as a whale shark and manta ray hotspot. I've previously written about National Geographic's incredible Hani Faru video footage of mantas and whale sharks feeding together - unfortunately, we didn't get to witness quite such a feeding frenzy during our trip as the whale sharks remained elusive. There were however numerous manta ray encounters, both while snorkelling as they glided in to a bommie only 4 metres down, and again when we went diving at Darawandu Kandu.

The dhoni (a small boat separate from the MV Orion used as a dive platform) goes looking for whale sharks around Hani Faru, cruising until they spot one of the leviathans on the surface. Everyone then jumps in with snorkelling gear to spend some time with the whale shark. If everyone remains calm and no one gets too close to the whale shark, it's possible to spend anywhere up to 20 minutes with one of these huge but harmless creatures.

If there's no luck spotting a whale shark, the dhoni heads to a nearby reef for a dive - with the small chance that perhaps a whale shark will turn up while submerged. It's definitely worth the day of the itinerary at Hani Faru to have the chance to see whale sharks, even if they don't turn up - and the mantas are there pretty much all the time.

Hunting For Hammerheads
From Hani Faru and Baa Atoll we headed to north Ari toll via Rasdhoo Atoll, in search of another rare creature - the hammerhead shark. Rasdhoo Kandu is famous for hammerheads appearing out of the blue to investigate waiting divers, and our luck improved with not one but four of them suddenly materialising out of the depths. To go looking for hammerheads, you need to have good buoyancy and be able to hang in the blue at 30 metres, as that's the best chance of seeing them. Rasdhoo Kandu has a pretty sloping reef with abundant fish life on which to spend the remainder of the dive. The video clip above of the Maldives hammerheads is courtesy of Roald and SJ - thanks guys!

Red Snapper, Maldives

Speedy Drift Dives
Virtually every dive site in the Maldives is subject to the changing of the tides, and incoming or outgoing current. Besides the thilas, or pinnacles, the other staple of Maldivian scuba is channel diving, which can shape up into speedy drift dives depending on the current. We had a couple of contrasting channel dives at Gangahi Beru Faru and Gangahi Kandu in Ari Atoll - the first was pretty fast, with whitetip sharks and napoleon wrasse speeding by as we coasted along the sandy bottom of the channel with great viz all around. The second was a much more gentle affair which barely involved moving your fins to be carried forward - it also let us stop to look under ledges where there were huge stingrays to be found, while more whitetip sharks patrolled nearby.

In Love, Maldives

There are not many night diving sites in the Maldives thanks to the ever changing currents, but Maaya Thila is a stand out location due to the large collection of stingrays, turtles and whitetip sharks that are active at night. It's a deservedly popular dive site so you might encounter other groups of divers there too. Maaya Thila is also worth checking out during the day - when it's just right, the site can be teeming with fish when there's current to carry in big shoals of fish.

Yellow Snapper, Maldives

Fish And Ships
Haza Thila was one of my personal favourites of the trip thanks to the jawdropping clouds of fish racing around the pinnacle - vivid coloured fusiliers coursed over the pinnacle's top and down around us, while huge schools of snapper hundreds of fish strong hung in the current, eyeing us cautiously as we approached. Chunky dogtooth tuna cruised on the edges of the shoals, weaving in and out of the fish as whitetip sharks passed by underneath. I spent a few seconds level with a white spotted eagle ray as it rode on the current before speeding away. Haza has a convenient plateau at 10 metres stacked with big tables corals and dancing schools of tiny turquoise and orange fish.

Glassfish on the Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

SJ on the Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

For our final dives, we visited the Kuda Giri wreck, which is extremely photogenic thanks to its incredibly colourful coral growth and resident schools of glassfish. Sitting upright with the bow at 20 metres, it's perfect for diving (and indeed was deliberately sunk for divers around 20 years ago). There is still the giant propeller at the ship's bottom down at 35 metres. Beyond the wreck is the near vertical slope of the thila itself, which levels out into a shallow plateau of corals.

Bridge Window, Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

Once back in Male atoll, we dived where we'd start at Lankan point in the hope of seeing manta rays again. It turned out to be a real grand finale - we encountered three mantas together at two different cleaning stations, sweeping across the reef in graceful arcs over the heads of slightly awed divers before unhurriedly heading out into the blue in a synchronised manta train.

Incoming Manta Rays, Lankan, Maldives

In all, despite not having much luck at Hani Faru, it was an excellent trip with a good diversity of dive sites and some great big pelagic action. It's my third visit to the Maldives to dive in north Male and Ari, and I'd love to go back to Hani Faru again and also venture down to the far south of the Maldives to see more of this unique dive environment.

Maldives Seascape

Maldives Liveaboard MV Orion Review

Chris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:35:21 +0000

Newly launched in the Maldives, MV Orion provides a serious contender for those wanting luxury Maldives liveaboard scuba diving and island cruising

I recently went to the Maldives to see the newly built MV Orion in its second week of operation. The boat already has an impressive setup, and with its final improvements due to be complete by the end of October 2009 (free Nitrox, free unlimited drinking water, personal entertainment systems in each room) it will be even better. The following is a rundown of the practicalities of being on the MV Orion. I've also published a separate trip report about the scuba diving on MV Orion - the boat follows a 7 day schedule around Male, Baa and Ari atolls.

MV Orion

Included below are some of my world famous quick videos shot around the boat - there's zero production values as it's just me wandering around with my Canon IXUS. However, they hopefully give a good idea of what the bedrooms and bathrooms really look like. The first video shows the boat exterior, while the second and third show the Junior Suite and Standard Double Room. There is also a collection of photos below showing the outdoor bar area, the Executive Suite jacuzzi at the front of the boat, and the huge sundeck up top.

Accommodation
MV Orion can accommodate up to 22 guests. It has an Executive Suite, Junior Suite and several double rooms. All rooms are ensuite with hot power shower, spacious and well-appointed. There is a vanity unit in each room which is good for setting up a laptop and camera gear if required. Each room also has its own flatscreen TV and will apparently have a personal media player in the near future. The air con was a bit hit and miss during our trip, but this is apparently being ironed out in the near future.

Dining And Drinking
MV Orion has a very large, comfortable air conditioned dining room where pre-dive breakfast, big breakfast, lunch, 5pm snack and dinner are served. Meals are served buffet style and there is always a choice of 3 or 4 different dishes. Fresh fruit e.g. watermelon or papaya is the standard dessert. Tea and coffee is available free all day.

There is a water machine due to be installed on the boat which will provide unlimited free drinking water to all guests during their trip. Some boats charge for bottled water beyond an initial two litre per day allowance.

There is a full bar on board serving beer and spirits - draught Heineken is around $4 a glass, and spirits around $5 a shot.

Sundeck and other amenities
The sundeck on MV Orion is massive, with a covered area for those who want some shade. There is also an outdoor bar at the back of the boat which is perfect for sundowners. There is a jacuzzi located in the outdoor bar too, as well as a private jacuzzi at the front of the boat for the use of guests who are in the Executive Suite. There is a spa and sauna also located near the outside bar, and a Thai massage service is available on board too.

Diving
MV Orion does not stick to a rigid schedule of trying to fit in a maximum number of dives per day. Three dives a day is the norm.

Daily Dive Routine - most days begin early at 6am for 6.30 am dive briefing. All dives are conducted from a smaller boat, known as a dhoni, which follows the MV Orion. The dhoni has a fair bit of room for gearing up and storage boxes underneath each seat. All dive gear can be left on the dhoni between dives. Most sites are no more than 10 to 15 minutes from the MV Orion. Remember to bring water, sunblock and sunglasses for each dive. A towel is provided for each guest in their room to bring on the dhoni.

Because all diving in the Maldives is tidal, guests should be aware that briefings can change while on the dhoni if the current is not behaving as expected. The dive guide will check the current before guests enter the water.

Entry into the water is by giant stride, with a fairly tall ladder to climb back up at the end of the dive.

Stepping onto the dhoni from the Orion can be a little bit tricky, so take care to watch your footing and let the staff help you.

Dive guides - there are two dive guides, Hassan and Alex. They are the co-directors of MV Orion's business. Hassan is a veteran Maldivian divemaster with over 15000 dives. Alex also runs a large dive operation in Singapore. There will a third Cruise Director joining the boat in November 2009 who will also act as a guide.

Free Nitrox - Nitrox will be provided as standard on MV Orion. It wasn't available when I was on the boat as it was only the second week of operation - send an enquiry using the form below to check if it's available for your preferred dates.

Camera Gear - there is a large flat platform on the dhoni which is a good place for putting cameras - a rinse tank is also available on the boat. There are charging stations for cameras in the dining room, but they are only really suitable for smaller cameras as they are cubby holes built into sideboard areas. There are several plug outlets in each room. The plugs use 3 pin British style plug sockets. Bring an adapter and surge protector if you use other types of plugs. The electricity voltage is 230 Volts AC / 50 Hz.

Getting There
Fly into Male Airport (the Maldives' capital city) for pickup and transfer by speedboat direct to MV Orion. The ride takes about 10 minutes. Find the cheapest flights to Male on Skyscanner and Kayak.

MV Orion: Enquire Now About Your Liveaboard Trip
[contact-form]

Richie Kohler Interview: Diving The USS Lagarto

Chris — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:05:47 +0000

Deep Sea Detective Richie Kohler has scuba dived many shipwrecks around the world. The WWII American submarine USS Lagarto, whose final resting place was only discovered three years ago in the Gulf of Thailand, is among the most important to him. Chris Mitchell finds out why.

Deep Mystery - USS Lagarto in Fah Thai Magazine

This article was first published in Fah Thai magazine, Oct-Dec 2009. The article appears here in a slightly different form.

Fah Thai is the inflight magazine of Bangkok Airways, Thailand's boutique airline.

To see more of my stories for other scuba diving magazines, visit my Scuba Diving Magazine Stories page.

3rd May 1945: even though the war in Europe is days away from ending, the war in the Pacific rages on. The USS Lagarto submarine meets with the USS Baya in the Gulf of Thailand to take on supplies. The two ships separate, agreeing to stay in radio contact. The Lagarto and its crew of 86 submariners is never seen or heard from again.

60 years later, almost to the day the Lagarto disappeared, the lost sub is rediscovered 70 metres down in the Gulf, far below the depth to which most scuba divers can dive. For a hardy few, like Richie Kohler of the History Channel's Deep Sea Detectives show, deep diving is a way of life, with all the rigorous training, special equipment and danger that entails. Driven by a fascination with the histories and mysteries of lost ships, Kohler traveled halfway round the world from his native New Jersey in 2007 to dive the Lagarto and film a forthcoming PBS underwater documentary to honour the crew of the lost sub and analyse how it met its fate. "I was hired by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum along with John Chatterton to do photodocumentary evidence of the wreck, having documented submarine wrecks before," explains Kohler. "We can apply a forensic approach looking at it. We're technical divers, deep divers with an expertise in shipwrecks. We were shooting hi-definition movie footage using rebreather technology which allowed us to stay underwater for 3 hours at a time."

Chatterton and Kohler's previous experience documenting submarine wrecks is already the stuff of legend, thanks to Robert Kurson's bestselling book Shadow Divers. The book documents the duo's six year quest to identify a German UBoat and its crew that was inexplicably discovered off the New Jersey coast. The book gained a huge audience because it deals not only with high adrenalin deep diving but also with the history and human drama of trying to understand the events that led to the Uboat's demise and give the families of the dead crew closure. While on the Shadow Divers book tour Kohler first heard about the Lagarto. "An older woman came over to me and says she was especially touched by the story, " he explains. "Her father had been lost on an American submarine in the Gulf of Thailand and she wished that somebody would tell her what happened to him. Almost a year later she emails me this amazing story about how her dad's submarine had been discovered by two British divers."

Those two divers, Jamie MacLeod and Stewart Oehl, had sunk their life savings into buying their own boat, MV Trident, so they could pursue their dream of deep wreck diving from their base on Koh Tao. They'd purposely set out to discover the Lagarto, working out an ocean floor survey plan from the last place where the submarine was seen, taking on supplies from the USS Baya. Both assumed it would take them several years to find the Lagarto, but they had a spectacular stroke of luck.

Thai fishermen can occasionally be persuaded to part with the GPS marks of where they find the best fishing -- and as fish congregate around wrecks, this can lead divers to wholly undiscovered ships on the bottom. Stewart having acquired a new set of marks for 500 Baht, Jamie drew the short straw of having to be the first one to go down and see what was there. There's no guarantee that checking a virgin set of marks will produce something interesting -- it could be a pile of stones or debris or, more dangerously, a submerged pinnacle covered in lost fishing nets which can ensnare and trap an unwary diver -- "the billowing wall of death" as Richie's wife, Carrie, also an accomplished technical diver, calls it.

"I followed the shot line down to 70 metres," recalls Jamie, "and suddenly, I realized that the line had landed just in front of the bow, so when you get to the bottom, you're right in front of it, right in front of the bow and looking up at it. It's unmistakable. The Lagarto is sitting upright on the bottom so when you're in front of it it's like it's coming towards you. You never forget it."

"It was the best 500 Baht I ever spent," laughs Stewart.

Because the Lagarto is a war grave, Jamie and Stewart had made contact with the Lagarto US Submarine Veterans of WWII Association to ask their permission to search for the submarine and to keep them aware of their ongoing efforts. When they broke the news that they had discovered the Lagarto, the US Navy sent a team on the USS Salvor to verify the wreck themselves, while the footage from Kohler and Chatterton's documentary provided definitive evidence that the Lagarto had been sunk by a depth charge dropped by the Japanese minesweeper Hatsutaka. For Kohler, there was also a vital task he had to carry out on his first dive to the Lagarto: "As I was heading out to Thailand I received a phone call from Nancy Kenney. Her father died when she was 3 years old on the Lagarto - she has nothing to know him by but the black and white photos she has of him. She knew that the diving was very dangerous and we would be filming the documentary. What she wanted me to do was rap on the side of the hull and say to her dad that her and her mum were OK and that they loved him very much. And that I did for Nancy."

After the flurry of international publicity that surrounded the Lagarto's discovery, the submarine has been left in peace. Only Jamie, Stewart and the US Navy know the exact location of the Lagarto, and there will only be the occasional custodial dive on her in the future. For Kohler, coming to Thailand led him to not only discover the Lagarto, but to also appreciate the Gulf as a still largely unexplored haven for wreck divers. He recently returned to lead an expedition of US technical divers, which was such a success that it could become an annual event. As he explains, "This is true adventure. This is a last frontier when you go down there and you don't know what to expect. Everytime you poke your head into these wreck doors you just don't know what you're going to find."

Previously:

Diving On The USS Lagarto - a first hand account by Ayesha Cantrell with photos of the Lagarto
Return To The USS Lagarto - Ayesha's account of one of the custodial dives on the Lagarto, with new Lagarto photos

Hanifaru – Where Manta Rays And Whale Sharks Meet

Chris — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:45:03 +0000

This has to be the most incredible underwater footage of manta rays and whale sharks I've ever seen - scores of them in a feeding frenzy at Hanifaru in the Maldives

This video clip from National Geographic is absolutely insane. Scores of manta rays and several whale sharks duking it out to see who can eat the most microscropic plankton in Hanifaru in the Maldives. Hanifaru Bay lies in the Baa Atoll, and this gathering of manta rays and whale sharks - sometimes scores of mantas and several whale sharks, which are usually solitary and very rare - occurs occasionally between May to November.

I am heading out to Hanifaru on the Orion liveaboard next month, and so I'm crossing everything that we might get to witness some of this incredible action. If I saw only a tenth of what goes on in these videos, I'd be a happy man. It might even surpass the best dive of my life...

Also check out this stunning Hanifaru photoset on Flickr taken by Christian Loader - thanks to UW photographer Matthew Oldfield for sending me the link.

Hanifaru by Christian Loader

Here's another Hanifaru clip from Aqua Dreams Imaging:

There's more info about Hanifaru on this page of the excellent DivePhotoGuide.com and Bruce Barcott'sfull Hanifaru National Geographic article, complete with more photos, is also online - definitely worth a read.