Off to Cairns

This week Amy and I are off to sunny Cairns to dive the Great Barrier Reef and explore the jungle.


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We hope to come back with pictures and videos of lots of cool fish and jungle residents.

Until then, here is a picture of a double rainbow over Manly from yesterday:

Thailand Part 2: Diving the Similian Islands

The next stage in our Thai adventure took us to the Similan Islands via a liveaboard dive boat for 4 nights. We completed 13 dives over the course of the trip and saw some amazing vistas both above and below the water.


The weather was fair and the seas calm allowing for great visibility of the abundant and diverse sea life.

The areas we dove in ranged from soft and hard coral bottoms to huge granite boulders that provided many swim throughs and caves to explore.dodging the pirates by ducking through an underwater cave

The Similan Islands provide a fertile ground for the huge abundance of live. We saw many species of animals that we had never seen before such as lionfish, harlequin shrimp, nudibranch, seahorse, blue spotted-stingrays, a sea snake and many more.Lionfish or alien creature?

We found Nemo!

Chris hiding in the school of fish

Most significantly, on the second morning, we looked up after frantic pointing by our guide to see a WHALE SHARK!!!!!

WHALE SHARK - WHALE SHARK - we saw a WHALE SHARK!!!

If Amy has spoken you to about diving at any point over the last several years she will no doubt have informed you that it was her mission to see one of these. All the anticipation, hoping, and wishing could not have prepared us for this, the thing was huge, dwarfing anything else we have seen. Imagine swimming along and then seeing something the size of a small school bus come past you.

Amy at her happiest moment - that's the whale shark she's pointing at

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean (whales are bigger but they are mammals). The one we saw was between 15 and 20 feet long. It swam over us then turned around and came back twice. They are extremely rare and everyone was freaking out with excitement. When we got to the surface, there were high fives all around.One of our dive group to give you an idea of the size - he's around 6ft tall without fins

We also encountered some large manta rays on two dives, they were beautiful and graceful as they flew through the water.

Is that manta about to attack Chris?!

Of the 13 dives we completed, one of these was a night dive. This is difficult to describe as it is both terrifying and awesome at the same time. In fact, it is mostly the terror that makes it awesome. We saw some different species at night and carefully tried to avoid the poisonous critters such as the lionfish, scorpionfish, and stonefish. No casualties to report. Some excitement at the end of the dive though as the current picked up and one of our divers was swept past the mooring line of the boat. We ended up forming a human chain to save her from disappearing onto the blackness. Good times.


Overall, the dive trip was the highlight of our tour in Thailand and the diving was among the best we have had. I would recommend it to anyone who dives and is keen to see some breathtaking scenery.

Off to Thailand!!!

Tomorrow Amy and I depart for 10 days in Thailand. We have heard nothing but good things about the southeast asian nation and are greatly looking forward to it.


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While there we will be diving in the Similian Islands and plan on watching the national sport of Muay Thai.


We will post pictures and video when we return, woo hoo!!!

Visitor #1: James Legrand - Part 2

James with a frosty one

One of the other adventures we took James on while he was with us was to take a local SCUBA dive. We were originally supposed to do a wreck dive up the coast but due to rough conditions brought on by a strong southerly swell, we were rescheduled to dive the Queenscliff Bombura (which I have written about here) and North Head, which is the northern arm at the entrance to Sydney Harbor.

North Head:

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The diving was good and we saw lots of fish including Morwongs, cuttlefish, wobbegong sharks, leatherjackets, blue groper, snapper, and puffer fish. It was also cool to dive the Bombie, something I have seen the effect of on the surface but never been able to investigate the cause of that massive wave. It was amazing to see so much sea live just minutes from where we live. You can see Manly in the video which was taken from the boat.

James flashing the "Still Not Drowning" signal

About to go under at North Head

During the surface interval between dives, we were treated to watching the coast guard doing training of helicopter rescues. That was pretty cool.

Vanuatu: Diving the Coolidge

Amy and our guide

One of the main draws of the islands is scuba diving on the USS Coolidge, a former passenger liner that was converted to a troop transport during WWII. The ship hit an allied mine (D'OH!) while on the way to deliver troops and equipment to the US base on Vanuatu, the overwhelming majority of the troops got escaped with their lives (the captain actually went down with the ship) but due to the desperate evacuation all of the equipment was left on board. This, combined to the close proximity to shore makes for an outstanding and unique diving experience. The ship itself is gargantuan, approximately 650' long and lying on its port (left) side on a slope with the bow closest to shore. We did 3 dives on the Coolidge, visiting 3 separate areas.

Click on the picture to for a blown up version courtesy of Aquamarine

Dive 1: The Promenade

Looking up at the surface through the structure of the ship and hull

This dive was mostly on the outside of the ship and was the shallowest of the 3. It is approached as a warm up dive to get people comfortable with the location and depth. We descended over the bow and swam along the deck, which due to the fact that the ship is on its side, is perpendicular to the ocean floor. We saw some large deck guns, a huge crane and the bridge. At one point, we entered the ship by swimming through a large hatch in the deck to a storage compartment that contained jeeps and tanks which had to be abandoned. We next swam up to the starboard (right) side of the ship which was closest to the water's surface. Here there was lots of coral built up and some previous divers had stashed some gear that they recovered from the ship including a gas mask, a rifle, some ammunition, and a helmet, all covered in barnacles and coral.

Preparing to battle the underwater WWII zombies, helmet on the knee

This was a cool dive and it helped us get accustomed to the scale of the ship. for the short time we were inside, you could see that it was massive, the tanks and jeeps were dwarfed by the size of the hold they/we were in.

Shell from a deck gun. Be Prepared.

Dive 2: The Lady

This is probably the most well known dive and location on the ship, the primary objective being a carving of a woman petting a horse that is above a doorway in one of the interior corridors that is a vestige of the passenger liner days. This was the deepest dive we did, it took up through the ship and down to about 125' (12 stories) from the surface.

Drifting in the current

It started off with us following our guide dropping through a cut hole in the starboard side of the ship. The reality of this is hard to describe, you are basically swimming down into a dark hole on the side of the ship into a hallway that is otherwise enclosed. Because the ship is on it's side, the portholes are above you as you swim through this corridor, providing the only natural light in vertical columns that pierce the darkness. In the video, these appear as circular holes in he ceiling. The water inside is extremely clear, you can see reasonably well once your eyes adjust but before that, you are looking over the cusp a dark hole that you are about to descend into. We soldiered on.

This was one of the holes in the hull that we descended through

Once entering the ship, we made our way through successively deeper corridors through the bowels of the ship to The Lady. The corridors are relatively large, there is enough space for a person to turn around without any advanced acrobatics (aquabatics?) but you are definitely enclosed. There is no way to extricate yourself without retracing your path. For one, there is no way a person could fit through the portholes, secondly, you are very deep in the water and would not want to risk getting lost in a dark, sunken ship. When we finally got to The Lady (we couldn't take pictures of her-too dark but here is one), we took a few moments to check her out and then began our ascent. We have video of this point in the dive, it starts at about 35 seconds in on the embedded video. About 40 seconds into the video, you can hear me inhaling and then on the exhale, there is hysterical, maniacal laughter. This was primarily due to euphoric joy.

On our way out, we passed through several rooms that we hadn't stopped in on the way down. After you have reached the deepest point in the dive and are on the ascent, air conservation is less of a concern so we could take the time to look at this stuff. We passed through a bathroom with the toilets on the ceiling above us as well as a workshop with a vise sticking out of the wall, both due to the sideways orientation of the boat. All of these items were covered in coral but you were able to make out their shapes, especially after some charades from out guide.

We eventually came out through a side corridor into the large hold we had been in on the previous dive which contained the jeeps and tanks and then after a safety stop with lots of fish and coral, ascended to the surface.


Dive 3: Medical Room

This dive was more shallow than The Lady but more as well diverse. We also entered through a cut hole in the starboard side of the ship, swimming into a dark room but saw many different compartments, including the eponymous Medical Room.

Evil Clown Fish

First off was a storage compartment for airplane fuel drop tanks. These are large, egg shaped containers that are strapped to planes to extend their range and then dropped while in midair when they are empty. There was also lots of small caliber ammunition in this room, bullets lying everywhere. After the storage compartment, we swam to the washing room which contained clothes washing machines - some smashed, others intact. Next was the Medical Room of the ship which contained cabinets with vials and bottles of medicine, some of which were still sealed. We got to handle some of these and then carefully put them back.

The last stop was the barber shop of the ship, which still had the barber's chair intact. Our guide demonstrated by placing himself in the now sideways chair.

Amy swimming through a corridor

It was odd seeing these aspects of everyday life on the ship. It helped cement the idea that this wasn't just some ancient structure but was actually a home to people from our grandparent's time and they did what little they could to make it as bearable as possible.

Overall, the dives were outstanding and diving the Coolidge is a unique opportunity for wreck divers. We were amazed by both the immense size and complexity of the ship and the exploration far exceeded our expectations.

Safety stop, with company

The guides we were diving with were from Santo Island Dive and Fishing and I cannot speak highly enough of them. Mal, the operator was friendly, accommodating, and helpful throughout the entire trip and the rest of the staff are all local guys who were friendly and eager to share their island and wreck with us.

Surface interval between dives

For more info about diving in Vanuatu check out Vanuatu Diving Info

Survived Vanuatu

Us in one of the holes cut in the side of the USS Coolidge

Well, we are back from our trip and it was AWESOME!!!!!

Vanuatu was beautiful, the diving was great, and we did some other fun stuff like caving, canyoning, and floating down a river in the jungle.

Here is a video of the reef diving we did, I will post stories and video shot in the jungle and on the USS Coolidge, the 650 foot sunken WWII ship that we dove later in the week.

For more info about diving in Vanuatu check out Vanuatu Diving Info

Forster part III

One on the people we were diving with was nice enough to supply us with a copy of their pictures and videos. This gentleman, Martin is an experienced divemaster and all around good guy. Martin hails from Denmark and will soon be leaving sunny Australia to help tourists navigate the deadly ski slopes of Japan.

Thanks Martin, you rock!

Forster part II

How close? This close.

Amy and I took advantage of the recent ANZAC Day long weekend to take a group trip up to Forster to go scuba diving. It was really fun overall and the diving was cold but great.

Day 1:

Started off the day heading out to Seal Rocks, the most widely-known site in the area:

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The water was colder than Amy and I usually dive in. We were in full wetsuits. This helped marginally. The site itself is a set of rocks jutting out of the water about a 10 minute boat ride out from shore. Grey Nurse Sharks tend to congregate around the rocks and surrounding terrain, we had been told that around 30 were seen on a recent dive.

We plunged into the cold water and descended and were blown away. There were at least 50 sharks swimming around down there, on top of countless other fish. At one point we were holding onto a ledge, looking over the edge at a small flat area as these sharks swam around and in front of us. Behind them, against a cliff were thousands and thousands of smaller fish, presumably waiting to be eaten. It felt like we were young kids, lying at the edge of a game that older kids were playing, incapable of joining in but the rules of which were very clear.
After we dropped off that ledge to the bottom of the site, where we lied prone and looked up at a ceiling of sharks swimming between us and the surface. We crept along under the sharks like a prisoner trying to sneak across a darkened yard.

Eventually, we reached a sheer wall and we waited for a break in the sharks to swim up it, using handholds in the wall and our fins to surface.

Never in my life have I felt more like a ninja.

sssshhhhhh

This was followed by a lunch interlude and then a second dive, which was also abundantly populated with sharks. On both of these dives we saw a huge diversity of wildlife. Everything from stingrays to baitfish, to many larger fish such as cobia, tuna, wobbegong sharks, and all sorts of coral and underwater flora. The only thing really missing were the eponymous seals which we were told were eradicated by local fisherman years ago.

This great day of diving was followed up by a friendly game of beach rugby, which Amy and my team won, 2 tries to 1. Go America.

Beach rugby field

We wrapped up the first day with dinner out in lovely Forster and a game of Asshole (sorry mom, that is what its called) or Presidents and Assholes, as it is apparently known internationally.

Day 2:

Day 2 was a bit more of a trial as we woke up to cooler temperatures and had to look forward to putting on a cold, wet wetsuit. For anyone who has not had the joy of doing this, it sounds bad but is actually worse in practice. I would compare its level of unpleasantness to ripping a band aide off but the band aide is over your whole body and there is no quick way of doing it. Also, you know the whole time you are doing it that you are soon going to be jumping into even colder water and staying in it for a while. In short, it completely sucks.

But, we were here to dive and after the amazingness of yesterday's dives, we steeled our grimaces and slipped in. The suckiness of the cool weather and cold wetsuits was counteracted by a good omen on the boat ride out. We had a pod of dolphins riding our wake. Everyone's mood drastically improved.

The dive sites on the 2nd day were closer to Forster and after an aborted attempt to dive a mid-ocean site called, "Pinnacle", we were diving close to shore. These sites were also great with visibility often being reduced to only a few feet due to being obscured by shoals of fish. There were also sharks around, although not as many as Seal Rocks. We saw several instances of schools of fish clumping around sharks. One would assume they were doing it for protection or perhaps they were hoping to get some scraps that would get away from the shark the next time it had a meal.

There is a shark in this cloud of fish in front of Amy. She is looking directly at it.

The highlight of the 2nd day's diving was a point in one of the dives where we were lying in a kelp bed on the edge of a bowl-shaped depression about 40 feet across. This was affectionately called, "The Shark Bowl" by our guides. Unlike Seal Rocks, this was appropriately named. There were around 15 sharks swimming around in it. It felt like we were looking through the window of a secret club. We laid in the kelp, anchoring ourselves on the tough plants for a while, watching them mill around, presumably plotting which of us they were going to eat. Apparently our ninja skills from the day before paid off as we made it out whole.

Chillin in the Shark Bowl

Day 3:

Day 3's dives were once again around Forster and our guides persevered to take us our to the Pinnacle dive site again, hoping that current would be more cooperative. We lucked out and suited up.

This was a really interesting dive site as it is the top of a sea mount, the top of which is in about 100 feet of water. I actually got really excited as I got ready to descend and started screaming the same profanity laced exclamations into my regulator as when I was about to jump out of the plane skydiving. I was pretty happy about this mental comparison. We descended along the anchor line into the darkness. It was really cool.

Looking down the anchor line into the depths

When we got to the bottom, it was a weird feeling. There is an area of near-bare rock surrounded by nothing but water, with fish swimming around. I realized later that it looked exactly like....the top of a mountain. Only, it was underwater. This may sound weird, but if you have ever climbed a mountain, when you get to the top, it is rounded off and there is nothing else around, you can see for miles, maybe to where you parked your car or started the hike but you are surrounded by the land around you. This was strange because it looked exactly like other mountaintops I have been to but there were fish floating around and beyond them was murky darkness rather than a horizon.

We swam around the peak for a bit, spotting a couple wobbegongs and a gigantic stingray. There were lots of large fish around that would usually be great for spearing but it is illegal to spear with scuba gear. We saw schools of kingfish, jewfish, and cobia. Pictures were tough down here because you lose a lot of light due to the depth.

We ascended up the anchor line and during the safety stop, the guide sat on a barrel that was floating there and fed fish out of a bag that he had brought along. There is video of this in the earlier post.

Overall, this was a great trip, both because of the fun the people that we went with and the quality of the diving. The only downside was the cold water but Amy has remedied this by vowing that the next place we go will be warm. Totally with you on that, as long as there are sharks.

Forster part I

Just got back from an awesome dive trip up in Forster for ANZAC Weekend. Going to crash out for now but thought I would post this pic and video first. Details and more pictures to come.

Forster:

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Video shot diving: