Dive Trips

Trip Report : Skirts in Scuba

1 year ago

by dive mistress in Trip Reports

November 7th 2010 was ALL about the girls.

Global Dive had booked another “Skirts in Scuba” or Ladies Day Out with Jo and Noel of Yukon Dive Charters.
This trip is at least an annual event and is very popular with the ladies – not just for the diving but for the fully catered (and absolutely delicious) lunch that Jo puts on.
We have also had many a male try, but fail, to beg, plead and even promise to wear skirts and makeup in order to get on the boat.

Spending a day out on the boat with the girls is always a great time. Lots of laying around in the sun (yes! there was sun!), eating and laughing – and most of the girls have cameras and just want to mosey about taking photographs.
And photographs were my plan this trip. Still getting to grips with my Nikon D300, I just wanted to cruise and photograph small things to try and get the focusing right.

First up this year, one of my all time favourites.

Dive One – Mary’s Wall

I headed over the side of the boat with Veronika and Paul.
We all had our cameras so Paul recommended we head around to Mary’s Wall out and past the pinnacle – instead of following the wall which is our usual path.

The pinnacle was covered in nudibranchs – perfect for spending some time to get familiar with the focus and shutter controls of the Ikelite housing.

Tambja Verconis lays Egg Rosette

Once we left the pinnacle and headed over to the wall, I swapped to the second item on my list.
I always dive with a list of things I am looking for – usually 3 creatures/compositions – my other item was Gorgonian Fans and their open polyps.
Each polyp has tentacles that will open to the prevailing current catching plankton and particulate matter that passes. This is filter feeding as the fan maximises the use of the water movement to increase the food supply to the fan.

open Gorgonian Fan polyps

Dive Data || Depth: 22.4m | Time: 67 mins | SAC Rate: 11.7lp/m | Temp: 16 degrees |

… and then there was lunch – YUM!
Jo makes the best chicken pieces, homemade sausage rolls and quiche. We had salad and rolls – and for dessert – mini meringues with fresh fruit salad!
If you have been out on one of these trips before hand, then you know what I mean. And if you haven’t – well get to booking!!

Dive Two – Nursery Cove

A new spot for me!
And on a side note, this is why Noel is a fantastic skipper. It doesn’t matter that I have done hundreds of dives out at the Poor Knights – at least one dive on every trip/weekend is somewhere I have not been before.

Again I headed off with Paul and Veronika – we were heading out of the bay to go and check out the anchor in the sand and then meandering our way back in.
We got back to the wall where Paul and Veronika went one way through the swim through back in to the bay and I ended up going the other way – around the wall we came out and back in to the bay that way.

The photography plan for this dive was fish! Triplefins and Demoiselles!
Notoriously hard to catch in a pose and in focus but worth spending the time on if you don’t get too frustrated.

Blue Eyed Triplefin

Two Spotted Demoiselle

Dive Data || Depth: 18.9m | Time: 52 mins | SAC Rate: 10.4lp/m | Temp: 16 degrees |

Keep an eye out on Global Dive’s Trips List for the next Skirts in Scuba trip. I’ll be there – will you?

Trip Report : Fiji’s stunning Soft Corals

1 year ago

by dive mistress in Featured, Trip Reports

Take me back to Fiji! And right away!

I have just spent the last week diving the absolutely spectacular Bligh Waters out of Volivoli Resort with the crew from Ra Divers and Global Dive.

It is not all about the diving though. A tropical island get away would not be complete without at least a day of lying by the pool – both sleeping and swimming (and of course getting a bit sunburned) and the obligatory consumption of a lot of Gin and Tonic!

Over six days, we completed 11 dives and I was absolutely amazed by the condition of the coral reefs.
Skimming along the reef on a drift dive with soft corals open and as big as trees, well you can see why I want to go back so badly. Not even considering the fact that it is at least half the air and the water temperature that it was in Fiji here at home right now!

As there was a lot of diving – lots and lots and lots – here is a quick break down of the sites and the dives and some highlights:

- Day One

Heading out on the boat on Day One, the plan was to dive the inner reef and ensure that everyone was comfortable in their equipment and feeling confident before we headed out to the reefs in the Bligh Waters.

Dragon Tails

Named for the Dragon Tail nudibranchs.
A mild current to swim against, we circled around large coral heads.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 22.7m | Time: 59 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

Volivoli Sunrise

Coming across a white tip reef shark sleeping on the sand, we spent our time cruising between three large coral heads.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 19.6m | Time: 66 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

- Day Two

Day Two was the exciting day!
The water wings came off and we raced to the outer reefs to dive the sites in the Bligh Channel – the reason we came.

The Soft Corals of Fiji's Bligh Waters

Black Magic Mountain

Coming up from around 40m, this site features a massive coral head with a rather large flat top to it.
Covered in nudibranchs, the soft corals were not all open as there wasn’t a lot of water movement.
Jono found a shark – funny that – so he missed the turtle. Thats right, the turtle! There is a video of the turtle at the end of this post.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 29.2m | Time: 68 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

Mellow Yellow

Peacock Nudibranch at Mellow Yellow

Yellow it is named – and yellow it is.
The very top of this site is covered in – well I think they are a type of yellow soft coral. I added some pictures to the gallery so if you know, please let me know!
Anna and I spent ages at the end of this dive in the sunlight with Peacock Nudibranchs and a tiny Lionfish.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 17.4m | Time: 84 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

- Day Three

Wheatfields

The top of the coral head at Wheatfields is a perfect explanation of how this site got its name.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 24m | Time: 81 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

Heartbreak Ridge

This site has a couple of swim-throughs – massive ones at nearly 30m.
The walls of the passages are covered in big gorgonian fans. With a torch (and strobe), the colours are stunning.

My no-deco time disappeared faster than .. well … something very fast.

Before I knew it, I was right at the limits. We slowly circled our way back up – white tip reef shark. I spent a lot of time at 8m waiting for a Clown fish playing in some anemones.

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Dive Data
|| Depth: 29.2m | Time: 68 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

- Day Four

Instant Replay

Oh I do love a good drift dive – and today, we were drifting!

Spotted sweetlips under rock. Very large and hungry grey reef shark.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 25m | Time: 52 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

Pot Luck

This site was apparently a gamble … but definitely not a disappointment!

Dive Data
|| Depth: 24m | Time: 81 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

The New World

We decided that we really wanted to do a night dive but a few of our group had never done a night dive.
The Fijian guides said that they would take care of them so we headed off to the inner reef to find a suitable site.
I have to be honest and say that if I was making the dive site choice – it would not have been this one.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 24m | Time: 81 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

- Day Five

Marys Maytag

The only dive where we were limited on our bottom time.
We were in a place where we were going to complete a rather fast and long drift dive and there was no where for the boat to anchor. 60 mins max they said. So group One piled overboard, grabbed our cameras and headed down.

The site is stunning!!

Dive Data
|| Depth: 24m | Time: 81 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |

Open All Hours

Our own dive site! Well, a site that we got to name – something to do with Andrew being Arkwright (he may have more than one Granville), the sound of the cash register draw a standing joke at the dive shop … anyways “Open All Hours” seemed appropriate.

It was rather a shame to find 3 or 4 Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish on this part of the reef.
These starfish are not only poisonous and dangerous to us, but they are corallivores – one Crown of Thorns can consume up to 6 square metres of reef each year.
They are extremely hard to kill, and with the long arms covered in venomous spines, any diver trying to clear an area must be extremely careful.

Dive Data
|| Depth: 24m | Time: 81 mins | Temp: 26 degrees |