Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Vila Dive Adventure
VILA DIVE ADVENTURE
Soon after arriving in Port Vila we made our way down to Nautilus Watersports, being keen divers from Sydney and having just dived the Coolidge we wanted to see some reefs, we found the staff very helpful and were able to do all the dives that we requested including the Tasman a plane wreck and two other wrecks as well, the reefs were just amazing with heaps of fish and other critters.
After doing the Tasman plane wreck dive we decided to snorkel back to the dive shop, on the way we saw a seahorse and a really strange looking worm on the wall just in front of the jetty of the dive shop. I have put together some photo’s to view as this is a photographers paradise. With so much to see it’s great to know that the staff are safety conscious and very knowledgeable of the local area.
Regards Grant and Suzi (Sydney, Australia – 30th Dec 2008)
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Night Dive
The other night, a number of us went for a dive at the Twin Bommies.
I've done a number of dives at this site, and have become familiar with the various points of interest here. I was excited to do a night dive (it had been too long since my last), but I had expected to see essentially the same site, just darker. Generally I'm not happy to be wrong, but I was pleased to be wrong about this dive.
We arrived at Bommies just as the sun was beginning to set. The full moon hung low in the sky, and was clearly visible before the sun had finished setting. These were perfect conditions for a night dive; full moon, calm waters, and excellent visibility.
My buddies for this dive (Gemma and Josh) and I geared up and splashed down. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon as we made our descent. Our first destination would be the wall. This was going to be interesting; I was breaking in a brand new torch and I was going to try to take photos while I juggled the light back and forth in my hands.
The clown fish were just bedding down for the night, nestled into their anemone when came upon them. They seemed a bit sleepy and a tad bit surprised to be entertaining guests after dark.
Feather stars; they almost look like alien creatures that are slowly and patiently invading the Earth, ocean first. It was great to watch them curl up and hide as I shined my torch on them. I wasn't really able to light the shot, line it up, and take it very quickly, so it was mostly closed by the time I snapped this.
Once we'd finished up at the wall, it was on to the Bommies.
The Spanish dancers were out in abundance tonight. I was very happy for the chance to snap a few photos to show everyone back home, as we only have American dancers to photograph.
At this point I was starting to run a bit low on air, so I signaled my buddies that I'd be heading back to the surface. Just as I turned away to make my way closer to the mooring line, I saw this parrot fish nestled in for the night.
Greg: Padi Instructor @ Nautilus
Home: U.S.A
28deg and Great Vis
What can we say; the weather and water conditions have been just spectacular, blue skies and turquoise waters, with the water temperature creeping up to 28+ degrees and the vis being around 15 to 20 mtrs what more could you ask for. The Semle as always was awesome with vis of 35 to 40 mtrs. With the conditions being so great this week we have ventured out to the Cathedral twice and were visited buy a large
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Cuttlefish & Turtles
Even though we have had rain most of the week the visibility has been great with 30+ meters, water temperature is starting to creep, sitting around 26 to 27 degrees.
We would like to thank Sue and Tony for coming back and diving with us again this year and for the mammoth amount of dives they completed.
Come on over to Nautilus Watersports for a Great
Nautilus Watersports. Port
Sunday, August 10, 2008
NOT ONE, NOT TWO … BUT THREE
Saturday 9 August
FROM THE MIGHTY TO THE TINY !
Saturday 2 August
diving@vanuatu.com.vu
Saturday, July 26, 2008
25M + Visibility on most sites everyday
It’s been a great week for diving with beautiful weather and visibility reaching 25m + on most sites everyday.
A few highlights over the past few days include seeing Devil Rays at Twin Bommies and Pango Drift, and during the night dive on Wednesday, the whole group was thrilled to spot a Nautilus and a Slipper Lobster on Twins Wall. We seem to have gained a new navigation aid on Neville’s Surprise drift dive by way of a large cuttlefish that’s been spotted the last three dives in the same spot ! Visibility on the Semle Federsen Wreck reached new highs on Thursday - we could see the sand at 50m+ from about 8m down the mooring line.
Thanks to all that have dived with us this week, especially Alan and Kirsty who have clocked up almost 25 dives between them. Also, Roger who was desperate to dive on the Tasman, and we finally managed to drop him down onto the Flying Boat on Friday. Best of luck for your diving on the Coolidge next week, and enjoy your 60m dive on your 60th birthday – 1m for every year, what a great way to celebrate !!
Congratulations to Colin who completed his Advanced Open Water on Monday. This week sees farewell to Jackie who has spent the last few weeks with us completing Open Water through to Rescue and logged over 60 dives.
New Diving Addicts this week = 40 Welcome to our underwater world.
Email: Diving@vanuatu.com.vu
Web: www.nautilus
Mantaray at Play
I have just spent a fantastic week diving with Nautilus. All the staff were helpful and friendly and made diving a fun and pleasurable experience. All the dives were different, I went out to Reef, Drop Off and Wrecks.
Roger –
Nautilus would like to wish Roger a happy 60th birthday for Wednesday 30th July.
Email: Diving@vanuatu.com.vu
Web: www.nautilus
Sunday, June 29, 2008
5 X Manter Rays
Wow, what a fantastic weeks diving we have had, the weather might not have been the best but the visibility and the amount of fish activity was to die for.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
From Chantelle and Michalis (Greece)
We had a great week of diving with the team at Nautilus. Warm water, good vis, excellent wrecks and some other really fun dives with dynamic staff who took care of everything. We took loads of shots but these two are our favourites Dive site: The Big Dipper. The little fish is no more than a few millimeters long.
Best wishes Chantelle and Michalis (Greece)
Here a couple of photo's we took
Friday, March 7, 2008
Stingray at Pango Point
Unidentified Stingray
Cruising down Pango Reef towards the Semle Federsen wreck this large lump in the sand caught our attention. All we could make out was a large gill moving gently, but as we approached the "lump" it turned out to be a huge stingray buried in the sand. It looked strange as it didn't have the normal whip tail that most stingrays have ... it had a stump instead ! What's out there that eats stingray tails, or have we discovered a new creature ?
Sunday, February 3, 2008
"Angry Clownfish"
The biggest bully in the ocean !! This little clownfish was tormenting us as we tried to photograph it at Pango reef. Jordan (13) and Rhiana (12) have a fascination with these little fish, and wanted to see them on the dive. They got themselves close enough to the anemone that the dominant clownfish decided that enough was enough .. and they were too close ... so gave them a small bite on the hand to tell them off. Squeals of laughter from Jordan and Rhiana and the fun had only just begun as we had another 30 minutes or so of diving and clownfish searching left to do.
The Cathedral
The best time to do the Cathedral cavern dive is early morning, with the sun streaming down into the cavern. Otto (pictured) requested that we jump in before the rest of the divers to get the chance for photos and we had the cavern to ourselves. Visability is usually 20 meters, but on this occassion we were fortunate to have 30 meters or more. On exiting the cavern to begin the wall portion of the dive, a large eagle ray cruised passed us out into the blue ... it then turned around back towards us, and went straight over our heads, only a couple of meters above. What a shame all the other divers were still inside the cavern and missed this !!