Around the world » Diving

Diving Baron Gautsch – Porec – Piran

Bérna — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:30:01 +0000

The northern Adriatic is well known not only for its pretty coastline but as well for the many wrecks. Today I (Sarah didn’t come due to the super cold water) went for the nicest one, the Baron Gautsch. After a painfully slow 2 hours diesel boat ride we enter the water to descend on the main line, the surface current is more like a river than a sea, but at 6m it’s all calm. the water is definetly too cold (13°) foar 5+5mm wetsuit but whatever I’m here so lets forget the cold. The visibility wasn’t great, but the wreck looks really nice. At a depth of 35-42m the 100m passenger boat lies flat on the sand and allows very easy dives on the upper deck. I do a 40min dive with 6min Deco using EAN28. I’d be nice to come with doubles, a Deco stage and reels to penetrate the lower decks.
As I get back we leave for Porec and its UNESCO listed Byzantine cathedral with amazing mosaics on the aside, and then further to Piran where we go out for some good fish and spend the night in an hotel.

Diving Cres

Bérna — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:20:54 +0000

Mabul – Sipadan

sarah — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:29:09 +0000

We were so excited (event without sleep at all) to dive Sipadan and I have to say while trying to get some rest, I was thinking that to compensate this spoiled Mabul island, it must be really really really cool! Well it was…it is crazy to think that we were working only 50 min away form this world famous island but that the underwater world is so different! White and black tipped reef sharks, schools of bumped head parrot fish and barracudas, heaps of turtles, groupers, and so much more! And Foremost BIG WAAALLL diving…

Definitely world class.

Diving in Pom Pom

Bérna — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:44:18 +0000

Here Some Great pictureso of the diving around PomPom Island:

Almost a week

Bérna — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:02:46 +0000

So, It has been a week from when Sarah and I were still renewing our (now awesome) apartment in Sagogn and now I’m living on a semi-tiny Island east of Semporna (Sabah, Malaysia). The island is about 30minutes around (that’s what people tell me, I haven’t done it yet, but tomorrow I will ) and it has a resort on it. There are around 60 guests and 30 employees, so not much folk :). The guests are mainly Italians and some Japanese, the difference couldn’t be greater

After suffering from a plane-cold, yesterday I restarted diving. by noe I’ve done 6 dives just following a local dive-master to get the feeling about where those small -sometimes very very small- thingies live.

As I said before (I think) the Celeb sea is a paradise for macro photography, which basically means that anything bigger than 10 cm is neglected :)… doesn’t make my life any easier…. but today I found my first orangutan crab, a banded pipefish and a tiny lionfish. As well I saw a beautiful mandarinfish… so I’m getting my eye tuned.

I’m starting learning some words of bahasa melayu (malay language) a

nd yesterday I had my first “super satisfaction”… After repeating some words with a boat captain, he told me that I had a very good accent unlike the others… Brits

so, write to you soon
cheers Marco

First day on PomPom

Bérna — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:14:35 +0000

Hello from the island!

Finally yesterday I got on the island, after a long day waiting for the boat to get me here, I can now see myself how it looks like. It is actually veeery beautiful! today I got to do my first two dives and to guide a snorkeling trip. Very cool, I already got to see some highlights like the orang-utan crab, the mantis shrimp and many nudibranches. In the afternoon I saw some squids, turtles, lion fishes, clown fishes and many more while snorkeling near mataking.

Unfortunately, there is not only good things, the reef here has been bombed (as in bomb-fishing) and some bits are in an horrible state, what a shame.

Now I’m super tired and I need to sleep… I’ll write soon again

cheers Marco

Mosquera & Seymour

Bérna — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:14:13 +0000

New spots, new guide, new luck!?
We try, the first dive site is supposed to be a very good site to spot white tips and hammerheads, the second to see Rays (eagle, golden and maybe manta).
After a semi-complicated start caused by the new girl that didn’t have enough weight and the DM loosing her, we start drifting. After a couple of minutes luck seems to be playing with us, the fists mini school of white tips is just there. We stop, hold on a rock and watch. With the time passing, they get more and more curious and start checking us out, very cool! Meanwhile, schools of fish and turtles keep on passing by. We start moving again, we still want to see the hammerheads. As the dive goes on we keep on seeing white tips and turtles but no hammerhead, after all luck didn’t totally play with us. 60 minutes into the dive we start the ascend, three more minutes of safety stop and then it happens, at 1 m depth there they are, two beautiful small hammerheads waiting for us. Amazing! With big smiles on our faces we surface and get ready for more.
After a short lunch break we go rays spotting, as we drop to the bottom it is immediately clear why this site is so good for rays, an immense plain full of huge garden eels extends in front of us. Garden eels are thin eels that live in vertical holes in the sand, when no predator (first of all eagle rays) is around they come out of their holes standing upright catching food. When a predator (or a diver) is getting too close they quickly retract into the safety of the hole. They live in big groups creating what looks like gardens, hence the name.
After just a couple of minutes we see the first medium sized eagle ray, but it is just an appetizer to what is to come, seconds later a group of 12 spotted eagle rays is effortlessly passing five meters in front of us. The sight is amazing, but what is even more impressive is the size of the rays spanning from 80 cm to 3 m of wingspan, massive and still the most elegant sight you can imagine. The school stays around for a good five minutes giving me the chance to take some good (I hope – remember my display is not working) video shots. We move around a bit just to find another school and enjoy the spectacle. Not enough, while I’m filming Sarah spots a hammerhead!
Definitely a good day and at 2pm we’re back in Puerto Ayora to rest and enjoy our memories.
Eagle ray video coming

Floreana

Bérna — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:12:13 +0000

Early day today, we meet at the dive shop at 7… we leave for Floreana, the southernmost of Galapagos Islands, about 30 nautical miles from Puerto Ayora. The trip there lastas about two hours and the ocean is fairly calm but it manages to knock down Ryan and Luca’s wife and to make Sarah focus on the horizon.
Once we get there the Capitan decides that (to help the seasick ones) we will first do the land visit. On the dock we meet huge marine iguanas, pelicans, sally footed crabs and sleepy sea lions. A short bus ride gets us to the visit site, first we go for a stroll to see where buccaneers used to live and hunt in the 17th century then we go to the giant land tortoises.
What to say about them… HUGE! Those things can live up to 150 years (rough data) and keep on growing until they are around 80. Well, you’ll ask what the secret to such longevity is, definitely take it easy!
Half more hour of navigation takes us to the first dive site: Champion. Here we are supposed to se white tips, seals and a lot of fish. The site is very nice; there is a “bit” of current but nothing dramatic. As expected we se sea lions and white tips and lots of fish. Unfortunately no big surprise coming from the blue but for this the second dive should be better.
After lunch we move to Enderby where big big things (I’m talking whale-sharkish here) could surprise us.
First we go after the weird looking batfish over a sandy bottom. For once that I’m not being the lowest one to follow what our guide said, the others saw it and we didn’t… oh well. Then we moved to the rocky reef where all the activity was. There we saw plenty of fish, an octopus, a school of jacks and we fought hard against the very strong current waiting for the big ones to pass by but we were unlucky again. Well, not really unlucky, the dives were really cool; we just do not seem to be meant to see hammerheads and whale sharks…

Gordon’s Rock

Bérna — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:08:12 +0000

Yipiha..we are finally going diving!! With all the underwater advertising picture that we saw, we were more than ready to see school of hammerheads, whale sharks, turtles, penguins and all the rest. Apparently the place is one of the best to see what we really want to see: Hammerheads. We had the video camera of the dive shop with us, it was part of our deal for 130$ for two dives. The problem is that the housing screen is not working, so Marco will have to record without really knowing what he will point at. Will see… It was a short one hour ride from Puerto Ayora to the dive site. The current was stronger that we were used to. We had to grab the rocks to be able to stay at the same place for a while. During the first dive, I kind of see my first hammerhead but he was pretty far and disappeared fast. We saw lots of turtles sleeping at the bottom that we could admired from close.
The second dive is pretty much the same, thousands of fish everywhere. We hadn’t seen that anywhere else so far. It is really nice even though nothing big…BUT WHERE ARE THOSE SCHOOLS?

Diving with Sea Lions

Bérna — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:45:28 +0000

DIVE VIDEO___

Oh my god we were so excited! diving with sea lions, can you imagine that! It was luckily a beautiful day and it helped us putting our 2 x 6mm wet suit on, which -i translate- means that it was going to be damned cold. And it was…13 ° C! ouahhhhhhhhh ( that’s what we sayed when the water penetrated our wetsuit). Anyway we were so happy to be there, surrounded by hundreds of sea lions. They are just phenomenal under the water, gracious, fast …and soft! like a puppy! their curiosity make them behave like dogs, so that you can touch them. I let you enjoy! (and don’t smile because we are not moving…yes, it was COLD