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GermanyOne of the best lakes to dive in Germany is the "Bodensee" in southern Germany. The Bodensee, some 80 km long is bordered by Germany, Switzerland, and Austria (hey, that's Austria, not Australia !:)). One spot popular with divers is in the german town of Ueberlingen: deep, dark, cold and clear...vertical wall all the way dwon to 400 ft.
more info about Lakes including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Argentina Atlantic (South)Forget about diving in Buenos Aires. The city is by the River Plate (Rio de la Plata), which is a mud soup. The closest diving you can try is in Mar del Plata, 400 km south of Buenos Aires, and the diving there is so-so.
If you have time, go to Puerto Madryn. This is 1,500 km south of BA, and the diving there could be spectacular. They have one of the largest sea lion & sea elephant colonies in the world, and depending the time of the year that you go, you are almost guarantied a dive with Right whales. There also several wrecks around there. Don’t remember their depth. Although summer just finished down there, you need AT LEAST 5mm wet suit.
ORCAS Every year since 1976, the arrival of Transient / Resident Orcas to the Peninsula Valdez has been observed.
The Orcas patrol along the steep pebble coastline of Punta Norte, listening to the young seals, only a few weeks old, as they play in the water or cross from one colony to the next.
See
website more info about Orcas including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Antigua & Barbuda Caribbean SeaI don't know how helpful I can be because I was there in 1989. I'm sure many things have changed there especially in light of the storms that have hit. I stayed at a friends timeshare right on the beach and there was a dive shop within walking distance. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name. But the dive shop was owned by a guy named "Big John" and I would dive with him again in a second. He is somewhat of a legend there and actually founded some of the more popular dive spots. I was there in November and water temp was 75+ and air was 85 avg. The viz was fair...not great for Caribbean diving though....avg was 40 ft. I saw huge ray ( 8 ft wing span ), turtles, lobsters, an octopus, lots of nurse sharks. If you can, try to do a dive that is called... I think.... "The Shoots" or "The Slides". It's a big rock crevice and the current actually pulls you through it just like being on a ride. It might be near English Harbor but I'm not sure. It's a very cool dive though and VERY different from any other dive I've done. English Harbor itself is about a 100 ft dive. It's ok and also some crevices and neat rock formations that you can go through. But the one I mean actually PULLS you through and it's in about 50 ft of water.
more info about Various including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Turkey Mediterranean Sea The highlights are 'Mexican Hat' , 'Aladdin's Cave' , 'Three
Tunnels' and the night dive on 'Rabbit Island' .
Mexican Hat was excellent! We descended to approx 20 metres from where we
entered a tunnel (3-4 m in diameter) through which we finned upwards until we
did a safety stop at 6 m where the water becomes like a 'heat haze': natural
spring water mixing with the salty seawater. We surfaced in the most amazing
'cavern' and when we turned our torches off we could see the light coming
through the rocks and the sea shone a brilliant turquoise. Another dive site
similar to this one was Aladdin's Cave, but where we surfaced there was a hole
in the top of the rocks and it was equally beautiful with the sun shining
through to the water where we bobbed about on our inflated BCD's. The Three
Tunnels was another 'adventurous' dive as it involved diving in and out of
narrow ravines. The highlight of that dive was waiting for the group to emerge
and seeing the air bubbles permeate through the tunnel 'roofs'.
Rabbit Island night dive was fun as my buddy and I busily searched 'Navy
Seals style'(!) with our torches under rocks and in nooks and crannies and felt
a sense of achievement when, amongst the more usual array of marine life, we
discovered 2 octopus and watched as one changed color to a pale blue and then a
pale pink. We also saw a red baby octopus with white spots, not such a great
camouflage!
There were only two disappointing dives (in terms of lack of sea life and
topographical interest): Aldiana Bay and one of the night dives at Aquarium
Reef . Aldiana Bay, I gathered from general chit chat, is not considered one
of the better dive sites and it is possible that we just got bad timing with the
night dive at Aquarium Reef. Rabbit Island for the night dive, however, we
recommend highly.
more info about Rabbit Island including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Germany Baltic SeaWe travelled to the port of Greifswald in the former East Germany to board the Artur Becker. This is a converted survey ship that has been refitted for the needs of sport divers with an air compressor and recompression chamber on board. The captain, Karl - Heinz Hanke, has wide experience of the Baltic and the entire crew were helpful and supportive throughout our charter. Conditions aboard were basic but comfortable although we had to cater for ourselves.
WRECK LOCATION REMARKS Cypriot Freighter 54 22.800, 16 14.200 Wreck upside down in 20 m
Vulture 54 57.800, 15 05.300 Not found in reported location
Zulu 4 Submarine 55 14.720, 14 39.430 Upright in 35 m
Koronowa 55 13.283, 14 33.072 Located but not dived
Odin 55 24.366, 12 36.333 Not found in reported location
Knippla 55 18.400, 12 47.850 Well broken wreck in 20 m
Tinda 54 55.133, 13 12.000 Not found in reported location
Unknown Wreck 54 53.908, 13 23.158 Large wreck upright in 48 m
more info about The Baltic including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Croatia Mediterranean Sea
is a wall\rock dive down to 30mtrs with
Amphora to spy.
BANJA , Very rocky with lots of holes to poke about in.
The GARDA is a flat wreck and worth a good rummage and at 23 metres
SESTRICA , Lighthouse rock. A site with rocks within 2mtrs of the surface
in the middle of a channel we thought maybe we would find something, afraid not,
but lots of life.
MAJSAN , a swim down to 30mtrs to look at an anchor dumping ground
including a thirteenth century anchor, three metres tall stood upright on the
bottom
The BOCA , in 10mtrs a total awe-inspiring 28yr old huge wreck which
stands proud of the surface. It is very intact with all parts assessable
including the engine room, machine shop with lathe, cargo, spare prop, main prop
and portholes. (Don't touch). The story is that the skipper was drunk and didn't
see the shore, bang. You can see the hulls concertina shape as the bow stopped
and the stern didn't. You must visit this site.
DUBA East , Octopus reef, 25mtrs Octopus and Conger.
DUBA West , A rocky wall dive with Amphora wedged in the rocks.
more info about Kneza including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Lebanon Mediterranean Sea
The Souffleur
The submarine 'Souffleur' is a French Vichy Submarine, built in 1924
and sunk by the British on April 25th 1941 with a loss of 50 lives.
The Macedonia
This wreck is starting to form an artificial reef. The 'Macedonia' is
the shallowest of the diveable wrecks, laying in 2 sections in 16M. She was a
cargo ship who ran aground on the shallow rocks during the 1960's. The crew
managed to keep her afloat until the cargo was removed and she was then sold to
an individual in order to be broken up for scrap. Unfortunately, the new owner
was unable to complete his task, as the remains of the ship sank during a storm!
This is not a breathtaking dive as she is barely recognizable as a ship; the
remains are mainly broken ribs and plates but her position next to a small reef
means she has been fairly well colonized and Groupers and Morays are common.
Lobsters can be seen in season and we were fortunate enough to encounter a
Common Guitarfish.
Alice B
The ' Alice B ' is an excellent wreck for penetration dives and very
photogenic due to the fact that she sits upright and largely intact at 37M. The
Militia sank her during the civil war in order to make an insurance claim. She
was declared 'lost at sea' and the insurance company duly paid out one million
US dollars in compensation! Still, the insurance company's loss is our gain!
more info about The Souffleur including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Antarctica Antarctic (Southern Ocean)
Any expedition to the Antarctic is expensive. Dive equipment is more
expensive. There isn't any 'Club Med Antarctica' where you could stay.
There is always the possibility that your vacation excursion could get you
socked in to Antarctica for six months or more. Why would you want to dive in
waters where hyperthermia or getting trapped under ice is such a high risk? Big
and unsusual critters, that’s why!
An Antarctica voyage should be a carefully planned and coordinated adventure,
precisely scheduled to take advantage of the short 'austral summer'
season to visit the frozen continent. Amos Nachoum organizes a 20 nights voyage
that is a dream come true for photographers needing the extra time to capture
the elusive 'one great shot'.
Surrounded by the Southern Ocean, defined as the water between latitudes of
40-64 degrees south, uninterrupted wind circulates vigorously developing into
the notorious 'roaring forties' and 'furious fifties' .This
interaction between wind and sea currents creates a region of intense turbulence
and as a consequence, the Southern Ocean is richly productive ecologically. An
abundance of plankton supports the world's largest concentration of marine
wildlife. Millions of sea birds, penguins, seals and whales appear in glorious
abundance with the coming of the Southern Hemisphere's spring season. Most forms
of Antarctic life clings to the edges of the continent, where beaches and cliffs
offer snow free nesting grounds for birds and pupping locations for seals. It is
our intent on this voyage, to see and photograph most, if not all of the
available species
See
website more info about Antarctic Expedition diving including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Anguilla Caribbean Sea The refloating and sinking of four vessels in 1990 increased
the number and variety of dive sites found in Anguilla's waters. Since then, a
considerable amount of coral growth has been noted as well as the attraction of
an abundance of marine life in terms of schools of baitfish, jacks and a wide
variety of demersal species. The ships have settled well and are sitting upright
facing the waves. Seven wreck dive sites in addition to excellent reef and wall
dives suitable for both novice and experienced divers offer expanded dive
opportunities. The quality and diversity of dives, coupled with attractive daily
discounted multi-day dive rates, make Anguilla a rewarding destination for scuba
divers seeking 'new' dives. Divers can choose from an array of
accommodations, ranging from cozy inns and guesthouses with rates between $50
and $125 daily to luxurious resorts where each dollar a guests spends is value
received in the sheer beauty of the surroundings and the level of service
rendered. Anguilla now has two full service dive centers with programs catering
to divers and their non diving companions. Some examples of dive sites regularly
visited include the wreck of the 230 foot long M.V. Sara at a depth of 80
feet, an imposing backdrop for underwater photographs. Sunk only last year, the
wreck has already attracted an impressive amount of marine life. ' Prickly
Pear ' at a depth of 30-70 feet is noted for its underwater canyon
characterized by ledges and caverns. 'Grouper Bowl' at a depth of 25-
50 feet is part of the Sail Reef System and home to some of Anguilla's hard
coral formations. Large groupers are found among the overhangs and small
caverns. 'Little Bay and ' Frenchman's Reef ' at depths of
15 to 40 feet are excellent novice wand photographic dives featuring an
abundance of marine life.
more info about Reefs, Anguilla including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Venezuela Caribbean Sea
Pinnacle (or Guasa) the 'not for
sissies' dive. Lots of surge and current and struggling down a rope to the
top of the pinnacle. It was very poor—but we still managed to see everything
you can think of up close: huge, varied species of parrot fish, more octopus,
drums, eels, scorpion fish, interesting corals, and more reef fish that you
could imagine. With the current, we could only imagine what lay out of our line
of vision!
Los Gatos brought us huge nurse sharks, morays, fighting (with each
other!) scorpion fish and the biggest scrawled filefish any of us had ever seen.
Green Paradise (and it was). 1st and Los Cuchos ('Eagle
Rays' and there were!) (2nd) Good vis and all the Eagle Rays you could
count—not to mention a few bull sharks swimming back and forth below. Huge
green morays (some of the biggest we’ve seen since Cozumel 10 years ago!) were
on every dive many times more than one sighting and also out free swimming!
Mini Wall, New Wall, Ledges Turtles, African Pompano, queen angels
everywhere, soap fish, huge southern rays. Wicked, flying current at Ledges but
big nurse sharks hidden everywhere in the ledges, big porcupine fish, and
biggest cowfish we have ever seen. Beautiful forests of corals and so many
schools we called it the 'Fish Freeway'.
El Avion and La Cocina . Visibility dubbed La Cocina the
'Where Were You?' dive. Almost all of us rolled off and never saw our
own buddy until the end of the dive. We buddied up with whomever we could find
and all made the dive. Again, "clouds" of every size wrasse and other
fish. The last dive was called the "Sergeant Major dive"-they were
everywhere.
more info about Reefs including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Puerto Rico Caribbean Sea The Black Wall – 97 ft
This dive is on a wall covered with black corals and is pretty typical of the
profile that we dove for the wall dives. The top of the reef is at 60 feet and
we dove to a depth of ~95 feet along the wall. Dropping in we first sighted a
Spotted Eagle Ray and were accompanied by Four Eyed Butterfly fish while on top
of the reef and also spotted a four plus foot Green Moray.
The Super Bowl – 80 ft
The super bowl reminded me of Cedral in Cozumel with coral heads separated by
narrow sandy channels and is also around the same depth with a bottom at 80 or
so feet and the top of the reef at 50 some. At this site we saw the only shark
of the weekend and the only shark that others had seen in several days of
diving.
The Hole in the Wall – 135 ft
The hole in the wall starts at 125 feet and exits about 90 feet. This is a
nice dive and an easy swim thru that needn’t worry anyone. This is where one
of the group spotted a rock fish and we saw a couple of nice sized eels here to.
The Chimney – 75 ft
This was a really nice drive and was typical of the second dives in depth and
bottom. But, we were treated to a school of Barracuda and a Hawks Bill turtle
that Angel swears never saw me as I had to get out of its way or I would have
been run into. No kidding, it came within a very few inches.
In summary, Puerto Rico offers some excellent opportunities for wall and
reef diving and Angel has stated his intention to explore more dive sites west
of Parguera since he now has a craft that can reach them quickly. I also
can’t wait to check out the west coast around Mayaguez and Aguadilla
as I was told that the reefs and water there are beautiful as well. So, bring
the dive gear and come and explore a fascinating island with much to do and see
both above and beneath the sea.
more info about Black Wall including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Papua New Guinea South China Sea It doesn’t get any better than this! The diving left us speechless. From
the untouched beauty of the bommies to the tiny, weird creatures in the muck, to
the B-17 Blackjack bomber, everything was superlative. We saw everything from a
Harlequin Ghost Pipefish to a Hammerhead. Be careful of the Panda Anemonefish–they
are quite aggressive and they bite hard!
There is even a Nautilus dive where a cage is sent down with bait and several
Nautilus are brought up for the divers to see and hold. The crew then takes the
animals back down to 200’ where they are released unharmed.
- The Ranch
--So called because of its resident pygmy seahorses, at about
20 m.
- Silver & Black
--A fun dive site, where a flutemouth hovered over
me to hide as it stalked prey. The main attraction is a sandy plain with
hundreds of garden eels, bobbing and weaving in the current. Schools of
triggerfish and other reef fish. At night, we saw two ocellated epaullette
sharks, an enormous grouper, blue spotted rays, and even a dime sized octopus
free swimming in the blue.
- Jason's Reef
--Two bommies where Rhinopeus have frequently been
spotted.
- Bunama Beach
--A muck dive site, filled with fantastic creatures! A
pair of harlequin ghost pipefish, numerous porcelain crabs, eels, seahorses,
lots of shrimpfish flitting through the seagrass, double ended pipefish, red
tailed pipefish, a variety of outrageously colored gobies, and much more. At
night, we watched a color show put on by a cuttlefish, a swarming ball of
catfish feeding, a shy little cowfish, and ghost spider crabs. Fantastic!
- Ayers Rock
--Again looking for Rhinopeus, again failed. A great
consolation was a mature blue ribbon eel as well as the black, juvenile
version.
- Observation Point
--Billed by the divemaster as a great muck diving
site, it was a bit disappointing. Nobody could find much of anything.
- Wreck of the B-17 "Blackjack"--
Lying at 48.5 meters. It is
almost perfectly intact, with very little encrustation to mar the beautiful
lines of this enormous airplane. Such is the condition of this plane that the
twin cannons in the tail turret still move in their mounts, and the belt of
bullets is still clearly visible. Reach into the cockpit, and you'll find that
the pilot's yoke still moves. The nose of the plane is caved in from the
impact, and the propeller tips are bent back, but it still looks like the
plane is ready to fly
- Kearst Reef
--A blue water dive, this was a bit disappointing. We did
three dives, and only managed to spot one very shy gray reef shark, a small
school of barracuda, and the occasional moray.
- Deacon's Reef and Dinah's Beach
--Two dive sites close to each other.
The boat tied up at Dinah's Beach with two tenders running divers over to
Deacon's. I'd seen Deacon's in various books I'd read before coming, and I was
shocked to see the difference between the present day Deacon's and the
pictures I'd seen. It seemed like 50% of the fantastic profusion of red whips,
sea fans, and other coral formations had died off, leaving scars of dead coral
pieces lying about. This seemed to be diving heaven! Frogfish, eels, mantis
shrip, octopus, ocellated epaulette sharks, cuttlefish...simply everything was
here! And the best part about Deacon's/Dinah's is the shallowness, which meant
some marathon 100+ minute dives. All told, I was underwater nearly 7 hours
that day!
Basilisk Point -- Basilisk was the worst sites of the trip, a wall dive
where some mantas occasionally pass by.
more info about Paradise Sport including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Netherlands Antilles Caribbean Sea Playa Porto Marie
This is a small private cove and beach with a small entrance fee. The beach
is long and beautiful and you can spend a day diving here.
It’s a short swim to a double reef system that is very similar to a large
oval fish bowl. You can dive around the inside of the coral bowl or on the
outside of the coral reef on the wide-open ocean side of the coral reef.
It’s easy to navigate and on the far side there is a natural opening or
break in the reef about 10 meters that acts like a gateway to the open ocean.
Just follow the reef from the inside of the bowl to the outside then turn around
follow the reef back to where you started. Easy to dive and navigate. Max. depth
for us was 70ft. You could have stayed at 50ft. The water is always calm here
with great marine life. We saw several eels, a few turtles and many fish. Playa
Porto Maria also has fresh water rinse showers, Umbrellas, restaurant, bathroom
and a dive shop right there. A great day of diving, food and sun. A great place
to take divers and non-divers.
Playa Kalkai
This dive site is on the far west of the island and has a dive shop right
there. In fact you are better off renting tanks at West End dive shop and use
their shower and facilities after your dive. The rental tanks at West End are
only $6.00. It’s easy to do two dives here. The reef runs parallel to the
shore and is a short swim from the small beach. Easy parking and stairs down to
the beach and ocean. This site is the last shore dive on the island but well
worth the drive. The visibility was about 90ft. no current and beautiful reef
and lots of fish. eels, and lobsters.
more info about The Playas including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Solomon islands Pacific
- Leru Cut
is a geologic formation where the solid
limestone of an island has a section cut into it. The top of the cut was open
to the sky, but it was only about 5 meters across at the widest. We dropped
down to about 15 meters and swam into the cut. It was like going into an unlit
alleyway between two large buildings at night. Although there was light
outside on the reef and up above at the top of the cut, down in the cut itself
it was quite dark. This made for some interesting lighting effects.
- The Toa Maru
is a 400ft+ Japanese cargo ship that was attacked and
sunk during WWII. The ship rests on its starboard side on a slope with the bow
in the shallows starting at about 25ft and the stern ending below 120ft.
Artifacts included fuel drums, ammo, saki bottles, and a motorcycle. The big
surprise was the condoms that Danny had previously found on one of his many
dives there. To preserve them, he placed them in a jar and hid them in the
wreck to show to his guests. I never laughed so hard through a reg when the
divemaster pulled that jar out of its hiding place.
- One Tree
I caught this dive at a good time as a school of Spotted
Eagle Rays performed an acrobatic display for over twenty minutes with a few
of them checking me out at very close distance.
- The Hell Cat
- A shallow dive; 30ft, this American fighter plane was
perfectly intact. Ammo still found in its wings. Amazingly, this fighter was
accidentally shot down (pilot survived and was rescued) by WWII ace Greg
'Pappy' Boyington of the Black Sheep Squadron. One of Pappy's
bullets hit the engine and the fighter had to ditch due to loss of oil
pressure.
- Japanese Zero
This is a shallow dive that is only a stones throw from
the market in Gizo. It is an intact plane that, although interesting on its
own, had a beautiful florescent red anemone. The two anemone fish that called
it home were 'tinted' in the same color of red. A few fin strokes
away are the broken pieces of a Japanese Float plane.
more info about Reefs and wrecks including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Virgin Islands (British) Caribbean Sea The reef diving in the Francis Drake Channel area is very extensive. The dive
at the Indians is not to be missed as well as Rainbow Reef and Painted
Walls . Each sight has its own character, and as is my custom, I prefer the
dive crew to pick the sights based on weather conditions and experience.
Visibility at all sights were never less than 60 feet with some sights having
80+ feet viz. Water temps were in the high 70's but my hooded vest was worn
under my 5 mm wetsuit for all dives since we were averaging about an hour per
dive.
Overall I would have to say the reefs that we visited were very healthy, with
no sign of abuse, overfishing, or bleaching. The National Park fees assessed to
dive certain areas were modest and were apparently well spent on multiple secure
moorings at each sight. Although there was an apparent lack of the 'big
stuff' like sharks and rays, we were blessed with several sightings of
smaller, but equally interesting critters.
We happened to locate two sailfin blennies in separate unattached pieces of
coral and when placed in close proximity, the show they put on for us lasted
almost 15 minutes. With sails out fully, they took turns posturing and chasing
each other in and out of the holes they called home. We finally had to separate
them as we laughed through our regs and their behavior. We also sighted several
male Jawfish (complete with a mouthful of eggs). A black spotted nudibranch was
also spotted and duly photographed and captured on video.
RMS Rhone This wreck is probably one of the most famous wrecks in the
Caribbean and has SO MUCH life on it. She sank in 1867 when she was pounded onto
a sharp rock during a hurricane. Almost everyone on board died.
The wreck of the Beata which is a tug boat sunk intentionally, where
you'll probably see sting rays as they feed on the garden eels living in the
sand.
more info about Tortola including maps, reviews, and ratings...
United States Pacific
San Benedicto is a very rugged
island that looks like a volcano rising right out of the ocean. The last
eruption was in 1952 and you can easily see where the eruption took place, on
the lower side of the southeast corner of the island.
Shark Caves is located on the East side of the island. A dive briefing
was given prior to our arrival at which time we were informed that gloves,
lights and knives are strictly prohibited while diving any of the islands.
Target lights and focus lights attached to any camera gear are exempt. The
recommended water exit procedure is to climb the ladder with your fins on to
avoid any injury with the potential bouncing, surge and currents that may exist.
This was not difficult with the wide, well spaced steps on the ladder and was
indeed a very good recommendation. Once the anchor was dropped and the RIB’s
were in the water, everyone suited up and jumped in for the first checkout dive.
The dive was to approximately 70 feet. Visibility was poor at only 30 feet, but
I was able to get up close with at least a dozen white tip sharks resting in
their caves. I also spotted a Shovelnose Guitarfish, a very Stingray-ish looking
variety of the shark family.
There were hundreds of Moorish Idol's and even with the reduced visibility,
it was a great dive and the water temperature was a pleasing 76 degrees, 10
degrees warmer than the water in Cabo. Once all of the divers were back on
board, the Solmar V moved to a protected bay with calm water on the south side
of the island and dropped anchor for the evening. It seemed that in a matter of
only minutes, a few Silky sharks showed up and began patrolling the boat a few
feet under the surface. After dinner, we were treated to a shark feeding show
off the side of the boat where tuna parts were hung off the side.
more info about San Benedicto, Baja including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Aruba Caribbean Sea The Antilla was a German freighter that was sunk in
1940. The ship is 400 feet long and there is one large compartment that you can
penetrate. The viz was still low and there were tons of people and boats at this
site. The snorkel boats were there along with every dive company on the island.
The ship was neat to see but this site is way too crowded. There were groups of
divers going in all directions and it was pretty had to even figure out which
group you were with! Our DM did manage to keep our group together on this dive,
but again, we were not overly impressed with the crew. The most personality they
showed was when the boat got back to the dock and they were pointing out the tip
jar to all of us! Well, after these first 2 days of diving, we were about to
cancel some of the rest of our dives and put the money towards something else.
Fortunately, the next day we did a "South Coast" 2 -tank dive. WOW….
What a difference. The dive was great with beautiful reefs and much better
visibility. The boat left at 8:30am so you had none of the cruise ship crowd or
the resort course divers. There were only 8 divers on the whole boat. Our dive
master and boat captains on these trips were much better. We dove at a site
called The Fingers . It was a drift dive (we had never done one of these!)
The reef comes down like a finger and we went to 100 ft. There were beautiful
coral formations, sea fans, and a diverse amount of fish. The second dive was at
a site called Gino's Choice, max. depth was 60 ft. There was a neat drop
off at this site but we couldn't follow it too far down since this was our
second dive. There were large brain coral and star coral at this site. We saw
many moray eels on this dive.
more info about The wreck of the Antilla including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Mexico Caribbean Sea
While Puerto Aventuras does not have the dramatic walls of Cozumel, it is a
dive destination worth visiting in its own right. Relaxed pace, lush reefs and
cenote diving make for an enjoyable vacation of a different style.
Our first dives were on Las Islas and Santos, two fairly shallow reefs just
out from the harbor entrance. We thought we would be bored, but far from it.
La Islas featured a mixed structural environment, nothing like the reefs
and walls on Cozumel, and the marine life, while sparse, was nonetheless,
interesting. Our biggest pleasure was in experiencing Loggerhead Turtles for the
first time. We encountered four on Las Islas, two of which I would estimate to
have a shell length of close to four feet, if not slightly longer.
Santos served to give us an example of what we would experience on the
balance of our open water dives, lots of vegetative life, fans, sponges, etc.,
and very few reef fish. Yes, we did see some rather large parrots, and the
occasional school of grunts, a squirrel fish or two, and an occasional juvenile
grouper but, again, nothing like what you see on the typical dive on Cozumel,
and other than the parrots, nothing of any size.
Cenotes Every diver should dive a Cenote at least once. Diving in
tropical waters, I wear a two piece, 1.5 mil long sleeve/long leg wetsuit. The
cenote dive guide, Mario, suggested that I might be a little cold, and handed me
a 3 mil shorty to put on, over my wetsuit. This being fresh water, he also
suggested that I could reduce my weight (the lead I was carrying, not my
physique) by as much as 25%.
We geared up in the parking lot, and carried our tanks on our backs down the
steep steps, visions of my "diving demise" being not underwater, but
due to the severe head trauma of a misstep.
The dives at Chac Mool and Kukulkan would be a typical two-tanker, but
with some new rules. One-third in, one-third out, one-third in reserve. With a
full 3,000 psi charge, we submerged into a small passage way that lead to a much
larger chamber. We experienced the halocline effect of the mixing of colder
fresh water over warmer salt water, which, again, intuitively is incorrect,
until you allow your mind to adjust for relative density differences. The visual
experience of the halocline is similar to diving in oil and vinegar salad
dressing, blurring one’s image during the penetration, but allowing for clear
viewing both above and below this sector.
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Australia PacificThe Navy Pier at Exmouth is a must if you can only do a day or two. The only company with a licence for it is the one opposite the Tourist info office in Exmouth. I was a bit suspicious when they said that a pier dive was one of the best in Oz but it is a mindblow. Only 10-12m or so but more fish than I imagined possible, sharks, huge groupers, wobbegongs and dense packed shoals of many species.
UPDATE Kristin Anderson reports the Navy Pier at Exmouth has been closed to divers since 01 August 2006 and there are no plans to reopen it in the near future. We are hopeful that the Pier will be re-opened at some stage, but there's no information on that yet. Currently they are doing maintenance so it will likely be at least several more months before any decisions are even considered.
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Samoa PacificAn interesting place, a couple of dives excellent, better than Raro, the others rather mediocre. Moana Divers in Apia, and Pacific Resort Divers in the south were both OK (that means the air was clean, everything worked, the boat was there when you surfaced, they seemed to know what they were doing, and they did not insist on guided diving). PRD set a ridiculous 20m depth limit but we ignored it.
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