Edie's E-Diving space

Browning Pass HideAway, Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada

John and I flew to Vancouver, BC, Canada, and picked up a car on Sunday, August 5.  We took the ferry from Horseshoe Point to Departure Bay at Nanaimo where we stayed for the night and drove the next morning to Port Hardy where we met John deBoeck at IV's Pub/Restaurant next to the Quarterdeck Inn.  Then we took a two-hour ride on MV Striker V to the HideAway on Niegi Island, 15 miles north of Port Hardy.  The HideAway is situated ideally in Clam Cove just minutes from Browning Pass and some of the prime diving sites of the Queen Charlotte Straits including the North Wall, 7-Tree Island, HideAway Island, Frank’s Rock, Eagle Rock, SS Themis, Rock of Life, and more. 

The HideAway itself is a collection of very rustic buildings which have been converted into a combination of a “bunk house,” a couple of “cottages,” and a main house where home-cooked meals and family living are available.  The emphasis is on diving rather than superficial amenities.  No chocolates on the pillow, but the basics are provided, there is plenty of good food to support the cold water activity, and we were quite comfortable. 

            We were fortunate that there were not many other guests while we were there, so we had the opportunity to receive John’s full attention and the benefit of his extensive knowledge and experience.  John operated the MV Clavella liveaboard for years in the Vancouver Island area and knows the diving there intimately.  He has hosted magazine writers, professional photographers, and film crews for major documentary TV and movie programs for decades.  Any serious diver who wants to find the best place to dive and/or particular marine life seeks out John as the best guide.  He understands the tides and knows not only when to dive each site, but how: what depth, for how long, and in what direction. 

            In addition, we were blessed by meeting some of John’s regular friends who came in their own boats.  They were both divers, local to the area, and full of information, stories, and interesting experiences to share.  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting them and learning many new ideas and insights.  In fact, the HideAway, because of its situation in Clam Cove, attracted a number of traveling boaters which found shelter there.  The setting was tranquil and peaceful.  There was an abundance of wildlife: gulls, sea birds, eagles, otters, seals, and we even saw a wolf that came out on the beach within sight of the HideAway and looked at us while we took photos!  John said it was the first on the island in the last 27 years! 

            The diving was spectacular!  We saw the wide selection of Northwest marine specialties including rockfish of several kinds, sculpins, kelp fish, red Irish lord, sea stars and sun stars, anemones, crabs, all sorts of sponges, corals, shrimp, and the wonderful wolf eel!  I even had an encounter with a giant octopus when I tried to collect a few abalone shells in front of its den!  The brilliant colors all around were awesome.  And, the kelp provided convenient lines for descent and ascent. 

            We used Nitrox.  And, we took some underwater digital photos during the trip. Photo facilities were flexible with space as needed.  We spread out our gear in the bunk house.  This was a great trip for dry suit diving. We got to adjust our weights and figure out some techniques that would help us in the future.  We got plenty of good advice and assistance from veteran dry suit divers who had good ideas and took time and patience to help us.  We were able to dive on a flexible schedule with time to relax in between.  There were areas nearby for hiking, exploring, and observing nature.  In other words, Browning Pass HideAway offered more than just diving.  It was a place where one could chill out and take a break as well as enjoy as much diving as desired in some of the most beautiful and challenging dive sites in North America.  The Browning Pass HideAway definitely deserves a return trip. 

NAI’A, Fiji, the Second Time Around: June 23-30, 2007

We were transported from the Pacific Pearl Resort after our week there enjoying diving with Aqua-Trek, to the Tokatoka Resort Hotel in Nadi on Saturday, June 23, where we were picked up by a bus containing the group of divers led by Steve Webster formerly from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and proceeded to meet the vessel Nai’a for a week of fantastic diving.  We had joined the group because we had such a good trip last year we wanted a repeat opportunity to add to our planned trip with Doc’s shark oriented week before.  We were not disappointed.  Steve makes the Nai'a trip regularly. Indeed, the combination of top reefs and top dive service by the Nai'a is hard to match anywhere else in the world.

The previous dive directors, Josh and Liz, had departed from the Nai’a, but the new one, Sonia, was excellent.  She gave thorough briefings and provided helpful assistance whenever needed or requested.  One of the best features about the Nai’a is its respectful attitude toward its divers.  Rather than setting a lot of limits and rules, the divers are allowed to dive their own profiles and times and encouraged to let the dive masters know their individual needs.  Thus, the new divers get plenty of help while experienced divers are not monitored excessively.  Divers are allowed to be responsible for their own dive. 

The two dive tenders are assigned to different dive sites to minimize the impact of divers.  Two morning and two afternoon dives and an evening dive are standard.  The diving is dictated by wind and weather conditions but choices are plentiful and are spectacular.  The signature feature of Fiji, soft corals, are abundant in many of the sites visited by the Nai’a.  Colors and formations vary between sites.  Some sites have pinks and reds, others are golden and yellow.  Some sites are rich with a combination of hard and soft corals, others are dominated by hard corals.  There is a very wide range of types of these corals as well as tropical fish.  Not many pelagic fish are seen nor are sharks common.

One of the most delightful aspects of diving in Fiji is the bright color of the reefs.  The fans, corals, and fish give a vibrant view of a shimmering garden moving and changing constantly with the current.  The dance of small anthias as they cascade around the corals provides ribbons of brilliance.  These swirls of bright fluttering fish sweep across the pinnacles and shower the sides of walls especially at the shallower depths.  Swim thrus provide a mysterious multi-dimensional experience noted by shafts of light flickering through coral windows contrasting with shadows. 

On the Nia’a, the photographer finds an entire equipment room with counters, charging stations, dedicated towels, rinse tanks, a system for the cameras to be taken to and from the tenders, and availability of AV equipment for previewing results.  The video materials provided by the Nai’a for promotion and on its web site are excellent. 

Life on the Nia’a itself is a pleasure.  Cabins and facilities are tops – comfortable and complete.  The menus are varied and interesting.  Choices of entries are offered.  Snacks and beverages are plentiful and tasty. Presentations about fish ID and other relevant information were given.   Entertainment was offered constantly.  Kava parties conducted by the crew, serenades of songs, and a village visit are examples.  We even had an opportunity to go back to the village of Megagi which we had visited while on the Fiji Aggressor II.  We brought the children a CD of photos we had taken of them during our previous visit and learned how they were using the laptop computer. 

The atmosphere on the Nai'a was one of fun, eat, dive, rest, relax, enjoy, dive, snack, drink, watch, review photos, and prepare cameras … more fun!  Above all else, the crew was dedicated to insuring that the needs of each guest were met.  They were always smiling and cheerful, ready to help in every way possible.  In addition, the crew had a special dynamic of cooperation that gave them a harmony that facilitated all of the ship's operations. 

The week on the Nai’a was definitely a happy time.  The crew, the dive group, and the diving were exceptional.  We were very pleased that this third week of our Fiji adventure was such a splendid finale to a triple hit of winning trips.  Check out the Nai'a trip diary at http://www.naia.com.fj/diary/dd_070623.html

We had had not one or even two great trips: all three had turned out to be spectacular.  Great folks, great diving, and great photos.  Thanks Aggressor, Doc and Aqua-Trek, and Nai’a!

THE SIRENE CALL OF FIJI: San Diego Shark Diving at Aqua-Trek, Pacific Pearl Beach Resort, Beqa Lagoon

The Pacific Pearl Beach Resort is located at Pacific Harbor, a few miles from Suva on the road to Nadi.  It is situated on the beach of famed Beqa Lagoon which has gained a reputation for dramatic shark diving as well as beautiful reefs.  San Diego Shark Diving Company owned and operated by “Doc” Paul Anes organized a trip that offered a chance to dive with the company that had brought international attention to the shark diving activity: Aqua-Trek.  Their shark-oriented dives had been featured by such dive leaders as Howard and Michelle Hall and Stan Waterman who filmed the activity and they had been chosen as finalists in a competition sponsored by the World Tourism Group for eco-based entrepreneurship. 

The Pacific Pearl package offered room with breakfast for a week and a daily two-dive boat trip including two days of shark dives.  Additional dives were available if desired.  The large pool and scenic grounds provided a luxurious resort atmosphere.  Convenient village shopping, restaurants, and a selection of tours were available.  Some guests went river rafting, for example.  One night a native foods dinner was enjoyed at a condo resort next door complete with kava ceremony and entertainment.

The coral reefs of Beqa Lagoon were surprisingly lovely and the photo results were gratifying.  The group that made this journey turned out to be funny and delightful companions who were lively and eager to get the most out of their Fiji experience.  Because these guests were “spread out” all over the resort, the contact was not as close as on a liveaboard, but, nevertheless, a community spirit developed during the course of the week that yielded a strong bond of friendship and commonality.  We shared photos, experiences, and good wishes for each other. 

The highlight of the trip was probably the shark diving especially the day the tiger sharks appeared.  The group was grateful that the two big tiger sharks were “friendly” and that they thrilled us by coming very close without using any advantage of their awesome size and power.   In fact, the shark “wranglers” of Aqua-Trek had more on their hands to “control” the divers than the sharks!

We were able to obtain some terrific video and stills of the variety of sharks that showed up for the feast: nurse sharks, bull sharks, white tip reef sharks, gray reef sharks, black tip, and, of course, the tiger sharks!  A huge collection of tropical fish gathered around also, and the activity even attracted a large napoleon wrasse.  The only problem with diving with Aqua-Trek was that they did not offer Nitrox.  That would have been helpful for the profiles we were diving.

In general, the diving was well organized with proper safety lines, arrangements, briefings, and space on the dive boat.  However, there was little consideration for photographic gear in terms of rinse buckets or other special provisions.  There was no shower on board.  BYO rinse water.  We were given drinks and cookies after the first dive.  Dive gear could be left on the boat, rinsed by the crew, and prepared for the diving the next day.  Items such as computers and cameras were taken off by individuals.  We wore our suits back to our room where we washed everything in the tub and hung it out to dry on our patio. 

Staying at the Pacific Pearl was definitely a change of pace from being on a liveaboard.  And, doing two dives a day was a reduced “diet of dives.”  However, this level of activity provided more time to edit photos and deal with the increased demand of energy to move gear and fit in other activities such as shopping, having a look around, seeing something of other sights and sounds of Fiji.  We enjoyed the opportunity to “kick back” and slow down a bit before racing off to another week of intense liveaboard diving.  Doc runs a good trip!

I found a nice video of the shark dive on You-Tube that shows the shark dive that we had with Aqua-Trek.  The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S7mWjRqcMg

Our own video is quite similar.

THE SIRENE CALL OF FIJI: FIJI AGGRESSOR II 2007

May 2006 found us flying from a 2-week photography trip with Cathy Church on the Bilikiki in the Solomon Islands to Fiji.  Little did we realize that we would be enchanted by these beautiful islands with their hospitable people and magnificent reefs.  But, the spell was cast and we returned in June 2007 to begin a three-week Fiji odyssey with a week on the Fiji Aggressor II.

From the very beginning, the trip went smoothly, as we were met by the Aggressor driver at the Nadi Airport for our transfer to Suva where the boat was docked.  Several other members of the diving party were also present and we began making acquaintances and becoming dive companions for the coming week.  We represented a cross section of divers from around the USA and Italy, too, of a variety of ages and experience.  Right away, it was apparent that we were an agreeable bunch, tired, but eager to have fun, fun, fun.  Arriving in Suva at the Tradewinds, we found the dive director, Steve, from last year and other crew there who recognized us and welcomed us back.  This trip we had booked the master cabin for ease of access and because the trip spanned our 46^th wedding anniversary.  We quickly made ourselves at home

There is no need to recite every experience of the week because it would take volumes to describe the jokes, the laughter, the smiles, the teasing, the easy spirit, and the camaraderie of the group.  Indeed, the dialogue and scenes were more like a sit com than an ordinary group of divers withdrawn into their own clique or personal state of concentration on a book or other preoccupation.  And, of course, there was the famous fabulous food that kept coming morning, noon, and night AND in between to keep us energized for the fantastic diving!

And, fantastic is an understatement to describe the diving.  The weather was better than perfect.  The temperature was mild, the wind was slight, the sun was sparkling, the water was brilliant blue, the coral was luxuriant and radiant, and the fish were teeming. We saw everything we wanted to see except maybe a whale shark and we did not expect to see that anyway!  The other sharks came, the huge groupers, the jacks, the tunas, the Napoleon wrasses, the usual array of tropical fish, eels, even sea snakes.  The small stuff was there for those who were patient enough to look.  No one was disappointed. 

One evening we visited the Megagi Village.  Last year we had gone there and afterward had sent the teacher photos of the children who danced for us.  They had written thank you notes and we had written back in return.  Now we had a special surprise for them – a new Toshiba laptop computer complete with the usual office software and a special National Geographic package of back issues up to the year 2000.  At the village, the children gathered around my husband as he showed them the computer and asked if they would like to have one like it.  They responded, “YES,” enthusiastically.  So, he said, “Get your teacher and tell her you talked me into giving you this one!”  They could hardly believe it.  The chief received the gift graciously on behalf of the school and village.  These children will benefit greatly from the expansion of their access to information and technology.  Aggressor brings guests there to help support their efforts to improve economically and to share their culture.  See the photos of the Village Visit.  We enjoyed a tour, kava ceremony, and dancing.

Several special occasions occurred during the week.  First, we celebrated our 46^th wedding anniversary on June 11.  We were presented with a chocolate brownie cake topped with candles and two bottles of champagne.  We drank one of the bottles with the guests and saved the other.  It found a good purpose later.

The purpose later turned out to be a celebration for Steve, the dive director.  After his year plus service on the Fiji Aggressor II, he was departing to return to his home in Ohio.  This was his last voyage on the boat.  So, we all decided to throw him a surprise underwater going away party!  A sign was made with his name and “Congratulations!” on it.  And the bottle of champagne was hidden under a diver’s wet suit.  On the very last dive of the trip, the surprise was launched.  One diver pretended to be “in trouble.”  When Steve came to investigate the group surrounded him waving the sign and bottle of champagne.  I was the official photographer and John did a video.  See the photos in the album.  The party was a huge success with a lot of silliness underwater.  Steve was quite surprised!  “How was he to know there was a party going on?  We was a splishing an’ a splashing!”…..

The Fiji Aggressor II is the smaller of the two boats that Aggressor has assigned to Fiji.  The other one has been designated as Fiji Aggressor III and is actually formerly the Tahiti Aggressor.  It is larger and can accommodate 20 guests.  The Fiji Aggressor II is more compact and we like the ease of getting around on it.  There is adequate space for cameras, dining, relaxing, and other amenities.  Cabins are comfortable.  It takes 10 guests.  The space is adequate for that number and it is nicer to have a smaller number.  It is easier to get to know the smaller number of guests.  We felt more like a family by the end of the week and hated to say, “Goodbye.”

OK, so we had a LOT of fun on the Fiji Aggressor II for that week.  That is not surprising at all because between John and me, we have booked 22 trips on Aggressor boats world-wide including some multiple trips: Caymans, Belize, Cocos Island, Tahiti, Red Sea, Utila, and Fiji.  Never have we been disappointed or dissatisfied by how a trip was handled by Aggressor!  We have found the company and their philosophy of operations to be professional and consistent. And, most of all, their management is responsive to the needs of their dive clientele.  That is how this company keeps getting our repeat business.

Sea Hunter, May 17-June 4, 2007: Dream Trip Turned Nightmare

A trip led by Sylvia Earle and augmented by the photographic expertise of Amos Nachoum on famed liveaboard Sea Hunter to both Cocos and Malpelo Islands!  And, in addition, a chance to take some deep dives on the Deep See Submersible offered by the Undersea Hunter Group!  How fantastic is that?  We thought it would be a great opportunity to return to Cocos Island where we had previously enjoyed a wonderful trip on the Aggressor Okeanos with some additional experiences that were not available on that trip.  I learned of the trip scheduled for May 17 – June 3, 2007 as soon as it was announced in March 2006 and booked it immediately for myself and husband!  I got our air tickets as soon as they came available and was all set to go even though I had previously scheduled another dive trip for us to Fiji leaving on June 7…a tight squeeze. 

We were looking forward to this great adventure with Sylvia Earle, when in January 2007, we were notified by Amos Nachoum that she had withdrawn from the trip!  The reasons provided by Dr. Earle were less than substantial and did not provide any commitments beyond those that were described in various press releases during the nearly entire year past.  In fact, some “reasons” cited were completely contradictory to generally available information and were questionable to say the least!  Dr. Earle’s reliability quotient quickly fell to zero as it became apparent that she had no concern for either Amos Nachoum’s high cost commitments, and situation of being left without a leader at the last minute, or for the investments of the participants based on their expectations of her leadership.  Even letters to her and to the directors of her program at the National Geographic Society were met with a stonewall of apathy regarding the problems created by her failure to fulfill her commitment. (That correspondence is available to anyone who is interested in the exact phraseology employed by these parties in their attempts to manufacture lame excuses.)

Amos Nachoum retained Alex Antoniou, Director of Field Operations for the Shark Research Institute, to fill the leadership position on the trip in anticipation that he would acquaint the participants with his activities of tagging hammerheads and collecting data for research into the patterns of their presence and their behavior in and around Cocos Island.  Payments were already in place, plane tickets already in hand, so what choice was there but to go ahead with plans to make the trip.  But, we were NOT pleased with the loss of the primary attraction to the trip!  Nor was Amos Nachoum pleased with our correspondence with Sylvia Earle and the National Geographic Society about this unprofessional and even unethical behavior on her part.  So, we began the trip with a major blow struck against us in the form of an e-mail by Amos to the other participants essentially disavowing our letters and casting a measure of blame on us for his inability to reverse her decision. 

The trip began with our expectations still rather high with hopes of good advice with regard to tips of how to improve our digital photography and the opportunity to get great photos and video of the sharks at Malpelo and Cocos Islands.  WRONG!  Amos Nachoum turned out not to be familiar with our particular cameras: Olympus 350 in Olympus housings with 2 Sea and Sea YS 90 strobes.  Both were new cameras which had been set up by Cathy Church with instructions to use them with TTL settings on the strobes and manual settings on the camera.  I had used my camera in the Caymans and had taken my camera to the Maldives, both with excellent results. 

Amos Nachoum, however, directed us to disregard Cathy’s instruction and to use manual settings on the strobes and use aperture priority settings on the camera.  Amos is a world class photographer and a person whose advice is hard not to accept, so my husband and I did as he suggested, but we began to get “black” and much underexposed results.  The camera was not responding the way he expected, so he declared that we were not following his instructions and that the results were not possible although the settings we had used were recorded in the camera and showed up on my Photoshop picture profiles.  It took many dives all with failed tests to convince Amos that his directions were inappropriate for our camera configurations.  We finally realized that the synch chip connecting the two strobes would ONLY operate on TTL and NOT at all in manual.  When set on manual, the strobes did not deliver appropriate light even though they fired.  End result was that most of our photos over several days of the trip were not exposed correctly and were of poor quality.  We were then instructed by Amos to use TTL with aperture priority, but we still got poor results both in terms of the shutter speed assigned by the camera and the focus.  The range of apertures possible just did not allow fast enough speeds to avoid the blur problems on these limited cameras.  His final conclusion was that our cameras would not take good photos.  That, however, was not correct.  When on our next trip we went back to the procedures previously suggested by Cathy Church, the professional photographer who sold us the camera, we got great shark and reef photos. 

The Olympus 350 camera in an Olympus housing does in fact take very nice photos when using manual controls on the camera and TTL on the strobes!  No, maybe not as good as a Nikonus, but pretty good by any other measure.  The lesson we learned?  Even when instructed by a distinguished professional photographer with a strong personality, you should not spend several days of your trip trying to do what they say if it does not work with your equipment. Have more confidence in your experience and go back to what you were doing before.  Use the techniques that you know were working in the past.

So, what else could go wrong?  Murphy was not through with us.  The Sea Hunter would see to that!  In spite of its reputation, Sea Hunter was not up to its “game” for our trip.  In general, the cabin was cramped, there was no desk, chair, just a tiny space the width of the door with cabinets beside it and narrow twin bunks.  There were only a couple of small hooks on the back of the door and wall leaving little place to hang anything. The blankets were not clean and caused me to suffer several nights of severe coughing before I removed them all and then was OK.  For a “high-end” dive boat, this was not your luxury cabin!

There were several safety problems – accidents waiting to happen – and some actually DID!  One, the rail down the stairs to the cabin level did not extend all the way giving nothing to hold for balance.  We had to hold on to the steps themselves or brace against the wall while going down backwards. It was a tedious and precarious situation.  There were hatches and obstacles in the floor of the dive deck which caused stumped toes.  These could have been more clearly marked or padded. 

Another problem was that there were no lines or trailers in the water to grab if someone fell overboard on the main boat OR to assist divers getting on and off the dive tender boats.  Once a diver did fall between the tender and main boat and was quickly dragged by the current behind the boat.  They had run to the middle of the boat to retrive a life ring with a line on it to toss to him from the back of the boat.  Had a line been there, he could have grabbed it.  A life ring with a line was later moved to the back of the boat after the guests requested it. 

Lines to assist divers approaching the dive tender were provided only briefly on our boat and then removed.  The ladder on the dive tender was not stable and flopped around violently causing many bruises to arms and legs.  That is where a line would have facilitated the approach to the ladder and removal of fins before getting whacked by the unstable ladder.

But, most serious of all safety problems was the asymmetrical floor level in the dining room.  There were booths on one side, booths in the center, and a serving counter on the other side each divided by corridors.  The corridor on the serving side was level.  The corridor between the booths had two steps at the end of the center booth. This two step step-down was NOT even.  The top step was much higher than the next one.  That uneven step was not a normal situation and took some getting used to.  Several people commented that they had stumbled going down it.

 step came into play on the third dive day in Malpelo, when leaving the diving area after lunch, even though I was holding on the backs of the booths beside the steps, the boat lurched (going between dive sites), I forgot about the uneven stairs in in the suddenness of that distracting situation, and wound up being thrown across the floor on to a sill between the dining room floor and salon carpeted areas.  That fall resulted in a huge hematoma on my back causing me to miss almost 2 days of diving!  Very little concern was shown about my fall although it was witnessed by nearly everyone.  The size of the swelling across my entire lower back where I landed on the sill was huge.  It took 10 hours of ice packs to begin to reduce the size slightly.  No accident report was made at the time.  In fact, I was asked to fill one out mere minutes before leaving the boat at the end of the trip.

The disappointing net result of this fall was a negative treatment of me and my subsequent diving by the crew.  It would take to much text to go into all the details of how this was manifested, but some of the most egregious transgressions included a bogus “rescue” attempt when I was trying to board the boat after a dive.  I had my foot on the ladder, my BCD unclipped, no fins, and safety sausage deflated when I was dragged away from the boat, stripped of my BCD and my AIR!!!!  Another indignity was the assignment of a dive master to shadow me and interrupt my dives thereafter. This action hurried me along during the dives not allowing photography of interesting subjects.  Furthermore, it created a “racing” pace that was totally inappropriate for taking photographs. 

I don’t think Sea Hunter dive masters knew anything about “plan your dive and dive your plan” OR “dive to your level of training and/or own profile.”  Their approach was more like, “round ‘em up and herd ‘em out.”  Also annoying was the refusal by both Wilson (dive master) and Amos to discuss these problems in order to sort out whatever misunderstanding had transpired.

In another incident, I was chided for wasting water by rinsing myself in my dive skin with the dive deck shower although other divers routinely washed all of their gear in that manner and with the fresh water hose in the same place.  There was also differential treatment of the teams on the two dive tenders.  The group on the tender that Amos Nachoum and Alex were assigned went to a greater variety of dive sites with better possibilities of seeing schools of hammerheads or other unusual creatures while those in our group were taken to less productive sites.  For example, that group participated in attaching the tags to the sharks while we did not even get to watch that activity even though it was supposed to the “highlight” of our “leader” Alex’s efforts.  In other words, our group was rather ignored with regard to the best diving opportunities and activities.

Another area that is delightful on most liveaboards is the FOOD!  That was not the case on the Sea Hunter.  Breakfast was nothing to remember.  3 choices of dry cereal, sour yoghurt, plain bread toast, some sort of bland ham, brand X cheese (that did not look or taste like cheese), watery scrambled eggs (maybe), sometimes other items, but NO CHOICES or special orders.  Lunches and dinners were not particularly creative with beans and rice being the ubiquitous staple over and over and over again. The tortillas were rubbery and not particularly tasty either. This was not the Costa Rican restaurant that would lure you thousands of miles to seek out a gourmet experience. 

Was there anything GOOD about this trip?  Well, yes, one thing.  We went over to the Argos boat, the recently added Undersea Hunter Group research ship where the Deep See submersible was docked and we took some dives.  I went to 300 feet with another guest and I and my husband dove to over 1000 feet together.  The Deep See holds two passengers and a pilot.  He was excellent and gave us a thorough briefing.  We saw very interesting creatures during these dives and took both digital photos and video.  Also, we received a DVD of more photos and video of the combined trips from ours and the rest of the group who made the dives.  The professionalism on the Argos was light years better than on the Sea Hunter.  In fact, they were hosting a group of British filmmakers who were creating a new Discovery documentary on Cocos Island.  It would have been nice to spend more time with them and learn about their adventures and activities.  I am sure they were treated with genuine respect and their needs were accommodated cheerfully. 

On the Sea Hunter, the area for camera equipment was serviceable with adequate charging stations, rinse buckets, towels, and other amenities one would expect.  Support for rebreathers was available.  Two divers had brought their own rebreathers.  Storage for dive gear and suits was adequate.  The dive deck was spacious.  The salon had a good flat screen TV and good AV equipment. There were comfortable sofas, a library, and videos to watch.  Décor was attractive.  AC worked pretty well except that we constantly used our personal electric fan in the cabin.  A PC with Photoshop was available for photographers to use.

Our bottom line is this: if you are looking for a good trip to Cocos Island, our personal experience was VERY positive on the Aggressor Okeanos.  We would recommend it highly and would be happy to go back on that boat.  Unless the Sea Hunter does some very thorough explaining and compensation for our lost investment, time, my injury (which my doctor says will cause pain and not absorb for 6 months), the Undersea Hunter Group liveaboards will reside on my “go at your own risk” list.  As for Amos Nachoum, he had a bad hand dealt by Sylvia Earle.  But, I am not willing to take any more chances unless some iron clad guarantees were offered – something Amos does not provide. We did NOT get what we paid for!!! Our expectations were NOT met!!!  I had considered his Antarctica trip for 2008 and chose NOT to put that decision off until after the Cocos/Malpelo trip as he requested.  Instead, I booked an Antarctic dive trip with Aurora Expeditions with whom I have traveled twice diving and sea kayaking with great results on the Polar Pioneer.  I am confident we will have a wonderful trip with them and will continue on from there to dive at Easter Island next Feb.-March. 

A buddy relationship should be a personal choice, not something arbitrarily made by a boat divemaster or other member of the staff.  The industry standard of “dive to one’s level of certification” should be recognized by those who conduct diving operations.  If a diver is certified to be a solo diver and is properly equipped, then the diver should be allowed to carry out that type of diving in a safe and reasonable manner.  If agencies are going to have respect for themselves, then they must respect each other.  Solo diving has been established long enough to have amassed a record of prudent practice and to have earned its place among diving specialties.  It is about time for it to be recognized as a legitimate type of safe diving.  Certainly it is SAFER than the alternatives of diving with the “buddies from Hell”!