Life Below The Surface

Bonaire - April 2011

2011-04-25T07:49:00.000-04:00

Well it has certainly been a while since last taking a scuba oriented vacation. In 2008 we went to Bonaire, but unfortunately I had a cracked underwater housing and thus no photographs were possible. That condition of course was rectified prior to this trip.

Once again Bonaire proved to be a relaxing place to be. The weather was warm and dry with occasional clouds providing relief from the sun. At first glance not much had changed on the island in the three years since our last visit. But as we drove around during the week it did appear that there had been more development - more home building - especially in the northern part of town along the leeward side of the island. The roads were in a little better shape as well. Most noticeably is the fact that the official currency became the US dollar. That is convenient! Most things are still expensive - especially eating at a restaurant.

We stayed at the Den Laman condominiums and used Bonaire Dive and Adventure (BDA) as our dive operator. The condo's are wonderful (the "Grouper" room was our home) and the staff at BDA were most helpful. They gave very good directions to finding the frog fish and seahorses they were aware of - good enough for us to find them!! Do be aware that if you are diving Nitrox and plan anything late afternoon or especially night dives, you'll need to set your tanks aside early in the afternoon. Not a problem - but you will need to plan ahead just in case.

The biggest change we found on the island was actually below the surface. The reefs in 2008 were nothing short of vibrant with lush soft corals and teaming with life. On this trip at first glance things still looked good, but in taking a closer look the soft corals appeared to be mostly damaged. The tube sponges were either broken or appeared to be mostly damaged. The hard coral was still healthy but there appeared to be more sand spread around. We only spotted one octopus, very limited lobsters, no green moray eels and limited numbers of other eel species. We never saw a ray of any kind. On our previous trip these under water species were all seen. Although out of the hurricane belt, it appears that the island has seen some very strong storms in recent months that have taken a toll on the reef and its inhabitants.

Another underwater observation was the infiltration of lionfish. In 2008 we didn't see any, although I'm sure they were there. This trip we saw several on every dive at every site. Bonaire is losing the battle against the lionfish and will need to get very aggressive if they intend to get ahead of this growing problem.

Here's a link to the photos from the trip - both above and below the surface.

Cheers,

Monty

Underwater Explorations

2008-12-19T10:01:00.004-05:00

Underwater Exp...

Caribbean Sea

By Monty Chandler

Book Preview

My new book "Underwater Explorations" is now available! A little over a year in the making it features photographs from St. Vincent, Belize, Curacao and Cozumel. Not your ordinary fish book, Underwater Explorations, contains photos of unique items such as West Indian Sea Eggs, Conch eyes, Neck Crabs and scenic coral landscape.

This book tells people in pictures why you love to dive! A certain conversation starter for your home or office.

Cheers,

Monty

Underwater Explorations

2008-12-19T10:01:00.001-05:00

Underwater Exp...

Caribbean Sea

By Monty Chandler

Book Preview

Reinvent The Wheel?

2008-10-17T15:09:00.001-04:00

I've recently been confronted with some challenging questions from new acquaintenances. They have involved some really good people asking some really good questions of me to which I have really not had very good answers. The questions - very tactfully put - have revolved around when, if, or why, I haven't made it easier and more transparent for people to buy prints of my images if they want to. Or even to buy the image so they can make their own prints if they want to, under appropriate license of course.

My approach to this has been that I like to deal with the folks that buy a print to ensure they are satisfied with the result. Kind of the personal touch if you will. Turns out some folks don't see it that way. What I've been told is that the touchy feely stuff is really good during the time of taking the photos, but once taken, processed and posted, my new friends point out that selecting and printing is a commodity process that they feel more comfortable doing without needing to deal with anyone else.

I have to admit that I was uneasy, but I listened. What's more I think I understand and get it! So, what I've been researching is various ways to make the business end of purchasing as transparent as possible. That's where the title of this entry came from. I found that I could reinvent the wheel by setting up my own web-based store and merchant processing account - or - I could use some existing services. I'll be honest, I didn't like most of the 3rd party providers I looked into.

That's when I ran into a site called Smugmug. I know the name is corny, but the service is superior to anything I have seen to date. Not only do they support a professionally outsourced printing agency, but they support the online acquisition of the digital image along with personal and business use licensing, as well as a variety of gift products that go very well with photographic images.

So the short story is that I have bought into Smugmug and have begun loading images up to the site. It'll take some time to get my portfolios up there, but I wanted to let folks know that I've started this process and would love for people to visit the site and provide me with their feedback.

I'll be building the Underwater galleries in the next several days.

I hope that you find this a pleasing method to view my images as well as find it a viable option to acquire any prints or products you find desireable.

Here's the link! http://montychandler.smugmug.com/

Cheers,

Monty

Bonaire Diving

2008-07-04T08:18:00.006-04:00

Well I finally got a chance to go to Bonaire in June 2008. Although high on the list of most divers, it had taken years for me to decide to go to Bonaire. No particular reason for this delay other than there were many other destinations that took my fancy, or had been easier for me to get to.

I'll state early on that I unfortunately got no underwater images from this trip due to a crack in my Ikelite underwater housing for the Canon 20D camera I shoot with. Of course I did not discover this crack until I went into the water for my first dive - and performed my routine check of the housing for leakage prior to descending. Good news was that my camera and lens did not get wet - bad news, no underwater photos. Hopefully Ikelite will stand by their product and repair/replace the housing. More on that in another post with the results of their actions.

I selected the Divi Resort as our hotel for the week for a couple of reasons. First I had heard good things from fellow divers on the scubaboards about Divi and second is that for my first trip to Bonaire I wanted to be close to the center of town - walking distance. I also thought that a resort might have more services for a first time visitor to the island. I won't go into a lot of detail about Divi, but I was not all that impressed with the place. My expectations are never high when going to dive resorts, but generally the staff are at least friendly. Not here. They seem to take for granted their guests and are just short of rude. Ambivelant to your presence might be a good description. The only two exception this this were the dive master at the dive shop - I forget his name - and the lady who runs the photography shop (she was friendly). Other than that, you are just short of a bother. Next trip I'll either rent an apartment or give Buddy Dive a try.

As far as the diving went, I must say that it is all that has been described. Just wonderful! From Divi I noticed that their three boats which were active seemed to be full each day. I really don't know why. I rented a pickup truck and did shore diving each day during my stay. The boats go to the exact same spots as the shore divers. If there is a boat at the site, just take your time gearing up and they'll be done which will just about guarantee that you won't see anyone else underwater at the site. The boats hook up to the buoy that you will swim out to and use for your entry/exit navigation. I had heard that the swim outs might be long, but I did not find this to be the case at all. In fact the reefs were very, very close to shore.

Bonaire proved to be one of the easiest places to dive that I have ever been to - short of the swimming pool where I check out gear after servicing. The water was very warm ( a skin works well), the water was crystal clear, there was no current or surge, and navigation is a breeze. You should pay attention to your depth as the above positive description of the diving environment can lead to some deception about your depth. A lot of the diving is wall diving. On the south side the walls tend to slope more gradually with many sites having a double reef. On the northern part of the island the walls tend to be steeper with the bottom being well beyond recreational depths (read blue water). The marine life was abundant. Schools and schools of beautiful tropical fish, very healthy coral and sponge formations, a multitude of macro life, several species of eels, and rays, and a few turtles as well.

Some of my favorite sites found on this trip were:

South end sites:

Alice in Wonderland

Hilma Hooker - A huge wreck laying on its starboard side in 28 meters of water in the sand between a double reef.

The Lake - A beautiful series of sand bottoms between a double reef with mushroom looking coral formations. We dove this site a couple of times. First time we went south and reached the Hilma Hooker stern before making our turn. Second dive we did the outer reef again to the south. Probably my favorite dive site of the trip.

Tori's Reef

North End sites:

Andrea II

Karpata - This one is close to the end of the road, beyond where the road becomes a one-way. You'll need to take the dirt road over the hill to get back and I suggest ensuring you have a truck for the ride.

1000 Steps - Not really 1000 steps. Another lovely dive site.

The Cliffs

While I did mange to hit a few restaraunts during the week only one place stood out as being really good in my mind. That was Pasa Bon Pizza. I did find that eating in Bonaire is quite expensive - about double what I find similar quality restaraunts cost in most parts of the US. Also, be prepared to spend as much for a coke as a beer.

I look forward to returning to Bonaire - with a functional underwater housing! The photo opportunities are plentiful and the diving is spectacular. One of the best I have seen in my travels around the world.

I did take a short drive out to the south end with a camera on our first day. A few photos can be seen at this link. Just click on Bonaire - June 2008.

I never took anything to the dive site that wasn't going underwater with me (except my tee-shirt and a rag towel) and I left the truck unlocked and the windows rolled down.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Boynton Beach, FL

2008-05-28T13:37:00.005-04:00

Trip Photos

Am I in the Caribbean?? Well, no I guess not - but it sure seems like it. In fact I'm about a mile off the beaches of Boynton Beach Florida diving with Splashdown Divers.

With our next Caribbean trip scheduled for June to Bonaire, we decided to take a drive down to Florida and dive the reefs we had heard about around West Palm Beach. Based purely on feedback that the reefs were a little shallower on the southern end, we decided on Boynton Beach. The scuba boards had positive things to say about Splashdown Divers, so we booked our two days of diving with them.

The scubaboard contributors were spot on - once again. Splashdown Divers run a smooth, professional operation. It is fair to say that the boat feels crowded if it's booked full (which over Memorial Day weekend it was). Turns out this really isn't an issue - let me explain. You set up your gear while the boat is at the dock. You get ready while the boat is at the dock. There's about a 10-15 minute boat ride out to the reef. The diving is drift diving and you go in groups of about 4-5 people. You float a dive flag for each group so the boat captain knows where you are and you do your own dive. They ask that you keep the dive to an hour maximum so the groups can be picked up in a timely manner - this also limits the distance separation between the groups. As the dive depths were in the 15-18 meter range, an hour was about the right time. If a couple of you need to surface a little earlier than the rest of the group - no problem, just follow the line up to the flag. I highly recommend that you have a safety sausage with you because if you get separated from the person holding the flag, you'll want a way to insure that the boat captain sees you when you surface and there's a bit of chop in the water! (Not to mention the fishing boats) So other than the few minutes you're on the boat there really isn't much of a crowd. I found the diving to be very relaxing. Another observation is that Splashdown appears to have a significant local business. This translated into experienced divers who knew the boats routine. I didn't see the usual caribbean "tourist diver".

What truly surprised me was the health of the reef and the abundance of marine life. When I look at my photo's I see the same types of life that I see from my Caribbean trips. The reef was amazingly healthy with brilliantly colored sponges, sea plumes/rods and healthy coral formations. There were schools of diverse fish life. There was also abundant macro-life. Everything from Jawfish to Slender Filefish to cleaner shrimp to tobaccofish. Many of the species often seen throughout the caribbean destinations were plentiful.

We also saw a 300 pound loggerhead turtle taking a snooze (a first for me) and we saw a 12 foot Sawfish resting in the sand next to the reef (also a first for me)!!! Since I was shooting with a 100mm macro lens this trip the photo's of these two are limited - but they exist. Proof of the Sawfish was a must!! I took two and had to stitch them together - just to get a headshot! What a sight..

We'll definitely be back to this area to do some more diving. Next trip we'll probably go towards Jupiter to see the northern part of the reef - but no doubt we'll also be back to Boynton Beach and we'll dive with Splashdown Divers again.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Roatan Diving - April 2008

2008-04-21T10:49:00.003-04:00

Another visit to Cocoview Dive Resort in Roatan Honduras has been completed. As in the past, I had a marvelous time. Thanks to Liz and her staff for a lovely stay and feeding me all too well! Also a special thanks to Patty at Dockside divers. One of the most pleasant ladies you will ever meet!

Our week was spent with Rueben as boat captain and Jesse as our Dive Master. Jesse is amazing at finding the critters and leading a dive. Our boat had a very experienced group of divers with a lot of photographers. Experienced is the key as everyone got their shots in a slow paced and courteous manner.

The underwater photos can be seen via this link. Lush coral, beautiful sponges, a few fish and macro life were all found again on this trip. I tried to limit the number of photos, but found it difficult to do. Neck crabs, Jawfish with eggs and Seahorses are some of my favorites.

On one dive, we saw one of the most unusual creatures I have ever seen. I did not get a photo as it was quick and hid under the coral about as fast as it had appeared. One of the other photographers did get a photo, although I have not seen it. The creature is called "The Thing" (Eunice roussaei). Hopefully I will one day see another as it was beautiful.

Enjoy the photos.

Cheers,

Monty Chandler

Belize - Dec 8-15 2007

2008-01-02T07:40:00.000-05:00

Belize Underwater Photo's
Underwater Gallery

I did not know what to expect as I headed down to Belize for a week of diving. I had heard that it was home to the largest reef system in our hemisphere, but that was about it. Due to its proximity to Honduras I guess I thought in the back of my mind that it would be very similar to the diving in Curacao or Roatan. With that in mind I had really settled on my macro setup featuring a 100mm macro lens with a single strobe to focus on the little stuff. I was happy with that as the little stuff is fun and challenging to photograph. As is usual when you try to guess at what will be below the surface, I was wrong.

Getting to Belize from Charlotte was very easy. There's a direct flight which takes a little less than three hours. It doesn't get much easier than that - which is very important due to the amount of "stuff" I have to carry. One checked bag has my dive gear and my clothes (not many clothes needed when your going to spend a week on a live-aboard dive boat), another checked bag (pelican case actually) for the underwater housing, strobes, strobe batteries, and a 50mm macro lens port and a third checked bag for the remaining 100mm macro lens port, 8" dome port for the wide angle lens, various rings for zoom attachments and my nitrox analyzer. A direct flight and checking these three bags allows me to only carry my camera bag/backpack with cameras, lens, laptop, external disk drive, and various other digital gadgets needed for a week on a boat.

The week was to be spent with Nekton Cruises, one of three primary live-aboard dive operations running out of Belize City. Flying in on Saturday and arriving around noon, a Nekton representative meets you at the airport (a relatively small place where immigration, baggage and customs are all contained in an area not much larger than most high school gymnasiums), gathers your luggage and yourself and transports you to a local hotel (The Princess hotel). I found that this is done for a couple of reasons. You need to go somewhere to spend the next 6 hours until it's time to go to the boat and they need you to go somewhere safe for you to spend this time. So Nekton has entered into agreements with the taxi service to meet and great its arriving passengers and with the hotel to hold their passengers over for these 6 hours. Belize City was a major dissapointment for me. We took a stroll out of the hotel and wandered for several blocks through the surrounding neighborhoods and streets. That probably was not the brightest thing that I had done on this trip. Not that anyone said or did anything - because they did not - but we (my brother-in-law and I) were sitting ducks and stand-out targets of opportunity if there ever was such a thing. Belize was once British Honduras, but since independance it does not look like the local government has done much investing in the infrastructure. We did enjoy our over-priced food and drinks at the hotel during our wait, decided not to see a movie in the hotel theatre and avoided the hotel casino. At 6:30 PM the transportation guys showed up, gathered the guests and took us to a small local grocery store on our way to the marina where the boat awaited. The store stop is for those guests that want pick up some alchohol or soft drinks for the week as they are not provided on the boat. I bought a 2 litre bottle of diet coke, which must have been laced with gold given what I paid for it.

Saturday night we arrived at the boat and were met by the crew. They welcomed us warmly and told us which room we had been assigned and were shown where it was. The crew had already placed our luggage in our rooms so I proceeded to unpack and settle in. Of course the first thing after settling in is the briefings by the captain and the crew. An overview of what will happen during the week, a talk about the boat in general, its safety features and location of all the gear needed in the event of an emergency, and introductions by all of the crew members and the captain. It was immediately obvious that this crew enjoyed what they did and viewed themselves as a team who were there to help you in any way they could. The captain was a soft spoken fella who came across as friendly, professional and knowledgable about the reefs, quays, and the boat. After all the formalities were over and the boat left the dock and headed to sea, most folks headed off to bed as they had been traveling since the early morning hours of the day.

On a live-aboard the daily agenda is as follows. Breakfast at 6:30, morning dive site briefing at 8am, pool open from 8:30 to 11:45, lunch at noon while the boat moves to the afternoon dive site, 1pm is the afternoon dite site briefing, pool open from 1:30 to 5:45, dinner at 6pm, night dive briefing at 8pm followed by the night dive. This is the schedule for Sunday through Friday (no afternoon diving on Friday due to flights on Saturday and Friday has a dawn dive if you care to wake up before even the chickens have). This translates into eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat dive, eat, dive, sleep. Do this 5 days in a row!!

Diving on these reefs in Belize was fantastic. The health of the reefs, the abundance of life, the variety of fish, coral, sponges, rays, shellfish, octopus, squid, etc was unlike most diving I've experienced in the Caribbean. Most of the dive profiles allowed for a crusie along a wall at whatever depth you choose (watch your gauges as the bottom is not visible) followed by a return swim to the boat at the top of the wall - with nitrox filled steel 95 tanks this translates into minimum 1 hour dives. What stands out is the abundance of healthy coral, sponges and marine life at all depths of these profiles. Not only the abundance, but the size of the coral and sponges. Most diving in the Caribbean has nice coral, but the size of these in Belize stands out. Barrel sponges larger than yourself, sea plumes that look like small trees, huge brain coral formations and a diversity of coral and sponges found in dense configurations that are consistent throughout your dive - not found in little patches, but the entire wall.

The clarity of the water - as evidenced in the wide angle photographs - also stood out on most days and most sites. There was little to no current all week. Only one site that we visited had any appreciable surge in the shallows. I later learned that there was a late season tropical storm that had passed a few hundred miles from us during the week. I did remember hearing the captain talk to one of the guests about it but he dismissed it as being nowhere near us - which it wasn't. The water temp was a refreshing 27c - about equal to the surface temperature - with no thermo-climes recorded on any of my dives. I wore a 3/2 wetsuit all week and was very comfortable.

I should mention the food since it is a staple in the daily agenda! :-) Arminda is the cook and she is a wonderful ;pca; Belizian lady who takes personal pleasure in your enjoyment of her food. If you need anything just tell her and she will do everything she can to accomodate you. There's a reason she has been with this boat for 7 years. Her breakfasts varied every morning, a snack was prepared every morning and afternoon, a hot lunch was available every day and a tasty filling dinner was promptly served at 6 each evening. It always amazes me that so many people can be fed such good food on a live-aboard dive boat. Remember, this is not a cruise ship, it's a dive boat with a fairly small galley for cooking. The Nekton Pilots dining area/salon was spacious enough for the guests to spreasd out, eat and discuss the previous dives and experiences. On this trip, the guests shared their passions and experiences of the day as the crew also joined in on the conversations. I enjoyed that.

On several evenings one of the crew members would hold a discussion on topics of interest after dinner and prior to the night dive. These included a fish ID forum, a talk about turtles, and a guest photo sharing on Friday evening.

The week went by too fast, but after 23 dives (I skipped 3 dives during the week) I was ready to call it a week and head home (of course now I'm ready to go back!). Friday evening was spent docked at the marina. After dinner and the photo show I packed up all my gear and prepared to head back home. Saturdays transport to the airport and subsequent flight back home were as uneventful as the trip down to Belize - all a good thing.

All in all I had a wonderful week of diving and fellowship with other divers. After completing my review of the pictures I had taken - all 930 of them - I had trouble getting it paired down to just 100 to put on the website, although I did get it down to 113. I was particularly pleased with the wide-angle photo's of the coral formations. The clarity of the water allowed for these to be taken without the use of strobes.

Feel free to have a look through the Underwater gallery or specifically the Belize '07 gallery and share your comments or questions with me. I always enjoy discussing diving and underwater photography!

Cheers.

Monty

http://www.montychandler.com/

Belize in December

2007-09-23T00:24:00.000-04:00

Next trip has been planned. Belize in December aboard the Nekton Pilot. Stay tuned for a report and photos!

CocoView, Roatan, Honduras / Aug 11-18, 2007

2007-08-28T09:34:00.000-04:00

Underwater Gallery

I'll start this entry with a single word description of the trip - WOW!!

There are many trip reports posted for CocoView and Roatan out on the web in dive related boards and I must say that they are very accurate. Given that, I'm going to skip all the details that are easy to find and instead provide a view of my impressions and the things that stood out for me.

My flights from Charlotte via Atlanta to Roatan aboard Delta were uneventful. Remarkable huh? But the travel was very smooth and relaxing.

The differences started when we landed at Roatan Airport. I've been on a few trips where the Resort or Liveaboard had said that someone would meet me at the airport and take me to my destination. That has always meant that someone was waiting outside with a van for me to put my luggage in and would take me to my destination for a fee. Not the approach taken by CocoView.. Someone met us right outside of immigration! They told us to stand in a particular spot and point out our bags as they came on the conveyor belt. They took the bags off the belt and stacked them up until everyones (those going to Cocoview) bag had been located. Then they led us through customs and outside where we got in a van and they loaded our luggage onto a separate truck for transport to the resort. All this a for few dollar tip to the guys who handled the luggage. Note - it's hot in Roatan in August and I haven't broken a sweat!

A short air conditioned van ride to the resort and we arrive at the CocoView landing. We hop into a small boat and are taken over to the resort. We're given a quick overview of the resort, told where our rooms are, and the relaxing begins. Our room key was in the door to our room - where it stayed the entire week. About an hour later our bags showed up in our room - service!

A little about the resort - This is a dive resort. Not the Four Seasons! It was exactly as I expected it to be. I found the place well laid out. The dive center, photography shop (more about Tim Blanton later), and the boats and the dive lockers/gear station/rinse areas are arranged perfectly for diver access. You couldn't ask for more in terms of convienence. The main clubhouse is at the center of the resort and is where you have all your meals and is where the bar is located. I found the clubhouse to be very comfortable for meals and generally meeting people for conversation and the sharing of photo's! My room was rustic but clean and tidy - no complaints.

You must bring your bug spray (Off, Deet, whatever) as they do have some little sand fleas or mosquito's or whatever they are - I couldn't see them. So, of course they are referred to as "noseeums".. Much is made of these, but I must admit that I put a little spray on my legs a couple of times a day and after a week I had no bites..

As this was my first trip to Cocoview I had to wait until the following morning to dive as they have a policy that says you have to go to an orientation prior to diving. I was a little agitated at this at first, but after going through it I see why they insist on it. A couple of reasons for this. First is that once you have gone through the orientation you really understand their "front yard" and are able to easily navigate it the rest of the week - very important. Second is that not all divers who go there have experience underwater and thus truly need this orientation - enough said.

The daily diving routine is as follows. After a very nice breakfast at 7AM, you board your assigned boat at 08:30. You go to a site and do a dive. After the dive your surface interval is the ride back to the front yard where you will be dropped off at one of three spots. Cocoview Wall, Newmans Wall or the Prince Albert wreck. If you want to dive one of the walls, you let them know how long of a dive you want and they'll drop you at the right spot for your dive back to the resort. These walls are fantastic dives! Also there are numerous coral heads all around the wreck and an airplane just off the left of the bow of the wreck. You will complete your morning dives between 11 and 11:30. Lunch is at Noon. Then you do the dive routine again at 2PM. Finish the afternoon diving at around 4:45. Dinner is at 18:30. Then you start thinking about your night dive or fruity drinks they can make at the bar - your choice. The corals on the sandy slop heading to Cocoview wall are great for night diving as is the wreck itself. I only wish I had had more night dives. The weather didn't cooperate in the evenings for all our night diving. We got up at 4AM one morning to do a "Night Dive". Turned out to be the best one!

A little about the staff. While all of the staff were friendly and provided great service (with a smile) I want to brag on some that I had great experience with. Our divemaster was a fella named Kirk. He was just great. He was very good at finding the little critters that I like to see - and he pointed out the bigger stuff that others wanted to see. On top of that he reminded me several times that I was on vacation and it was his job to load tanks, switch tanks, handle cameras, etc. I have a habit of being self sufficient - he had a habit of reminding me that I was on vacation and it was his job to work.. Rueben was our boat captain. It is his boat and he ensures that everyone is taken care of - safely. He and Kirk handled my camera setup as well as my dive buddies video setup on every dive - going in the water and coming out.. It's the extra effort and the little things that make a difference and these two guys took care of both! Another staff member I want to bring special attention to is Tim Blanton. Tim's the photo professional at the resort. Now I know that just about every resort, liveaboard and dive shop has a photo pro. Rarely do I meet one that I want to get advice from - not to mention actually pay to get that advice. Well Tim is an exception in my opinion. The best money I spent on this entire trip was for the two hours of conversation with Tim. Tim handles things in a one on one session. Tailors his conversation to you, your camera, your experience and your needs. He is frank, honest, clear and concise in his communication - but most of all is practical in the coaching he provides. He knows the technology and he knows how to apply it. You have to listen, absorb and learn. As I said - his time was my wisest investment. When I go back in April '08 I'll be spending more time with Tim.

23 dives, 1,580 photos, and 7 days later it was time to go back home. As at the beginning of this post the treatment you receive doesn't stop just because the week is over. The staff picked up my luggage at the door to my room, brought it to the boat dock, loaded it into a truck and brought it to me at the Delta line in the airport. The same Cocoview representative that met me when I arrived also ensured that I had everything as I left. That's service!! Remember, it's the little things that stick.

If you're a diver and want to go to a place that is built just for you, then I highly recommend CocoView as a dive destination.

Here's a link to the photo's I've posted for this trip:

Roatan

Underwater Gallery

Cocoview website: http://www.cocoviewresort.com/

Cheers,

Monty

Roatan - Aug 2007

2007-05-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

Another trip is now in the planning stage. I've never been to Roatan and am looking forward to some critter diving and a little macro photography. Stay tuned for what I hope are some great photo's and a trip report to share the experience.

Cheers,

Monty

www.montychandler.com

Curacao Trip Report - 3/3/07 thru 3/10/07

2007-04-08T10:21:00.000-04:00

Underwater Photo Gallery

Saturday - March 3, 2007 - A long day of travel which went fairly smoothly – except for the minor detail of our luggage not making the same flight to Curacao as we did. The good news is that it came on the next American flight out of Miami so it was only about 5 hours behind us. Since this is vacation, not to worry. Got the rental truck, went to the hotel and got checked in, went to the dive shop and registered – as well as seeing old friends – and then went to the grocery store to get set up for the week. By the time all this was accomplished it was time to go to the airport and meet our luggage. The guys there were very good. They brought the bags out to us since we couldn’t get back into customs. In fact they brought all the bags out to the truck. Then it was back to Habitat to unpack and prepare for our first dive of the trip. There’s something special about the first dive being a night dive at 10PM.. And for those that have not been there, the Habitat house reef is one of the best dive sites on the island. It’s set up is second to known, except perhaps a live-aboard, in terms of convenience. Water temp was 26c – Viz was excellent as usual. Full moon made the night dive very nice. So nice in fact that our first “incident” was my dive buddy’s torch going out – didn’t refresh the batteries – and the lighting was so good she didn’t use her backup for about 5 minutes as she navigated by the moonlight! Yes, she had a light stick attached to her BC so I could see her. The usual array of critters were out and about including the Green Morays, crabs, lobster and octopus. A very nice start to the trip…

Sunday - March 4, 2007 - After a bit of a sleep-in, some coffee, and a breakfast of bacon, eggs, fruit and orange juice, we headed up to get our tanks for a day of diving. Habitat has an air-fill right next to the parking lot so you just back the truck up to the little shed and load ‘em up. First stop of the day was Playa Kalki. This spot is at the far west/south end of the island. It was about a 45 minute drive from Habitat – road goes up along the coast through a few little “towns”. A nice drive actually. The Playa Kalki reef is beautiful. Lush coral and bountiful fish life. Lot's of macro life as well. Very nice bright blue lettuce sea slugs - other colors as well, but the blue were very nice. On this first dive we went right (North) along a lush coral reef teaming with various fish and multiple coral/sponges.The facilities at the site are really two-fold. There is a small dive shop on the site with lockers (actually a cubby hole - but they lock the door), rinse shower, rinse tanks, camera rinse, a pier that makes entry and exit a breeze. They also have a black marker at the drop point which makes it even easier. The cost to use the dive shops facilities is US$2.00 - very reasonable..So that's the dive site, but there's more. About 50 meters from the dive shop there's a nice little cabana area and a beach with lounge facilities. The cabana area has a decent little bar/diner area that served reasonable snack/bar food - burgers, chicken satay, sandwiches, etc. It was actually quite good. If you have a non-diver along on the trip this is a good site to bring him/her to for lounging on a nice beach.As usual while diving these remote sites, don't leave any valuables in your car. This was a lesson we learned again on this trip - although not at this dive site. We did however see a couple who were not as fortunate at this site. Some of the local thieves had jacked up the right side of their rental car and stolen both wheels/tires. A major inconvenience for them and just plain stupid on the locals part - but poverty will drive stupid people to do even dumber things without regard to what it does to other people.. Remember - you are prey to the local thieves - Don't leave ANYTHING of value in your vehicle.. Follow that little golden rule along with the one that says don’t go to strange places alone and you’ll have a wonderful time going to the local dive sites. Each has something wonderful to be experienced.We enjoyed Playa Kalki so much, we did two dives on this day at this site. On the second dive we went left (South). The other three divers in our little group liked the South dive better for diversity of coral formation primarily. Both directions were quite nice though. I highly recommend this site for ease of entry, beauty of the site, nice facilities and food/drinks availability. After this we decided to head back to the Habitat and rest a little. Figured we do another night dive after dinner.Night dives on the habitat reef are always cool. This dive was no different. We headed in a generally north direction, as we had the previous night. On this dive I saw the largest Green Moray Eel I have ever seen – and I’ve seen some very large eels. We were about 20 minutes into the dive at a depth of about 15 meters just lazily toodling along the wall when my light hit upon a huge Eel out hunting along the wall about 2 meters from my right shoulder. All I could say, think or do was mouth “oh my god” as the size of this Eel registered in my mind. I know all about fish stories, but no joke – this was one exceedingly large Eel. That’s about all I could think about as we hit our halfway point and went shallower for our return the our entry point (the rope @ habitat – talk about easy navigation). A great concluding dive to the day!

Monday - March 5, 2007 - After realizing on Sunday afternoon that I had forgotten my 50mm Macro lens at home, I skipped the morning dive and headed into Willemstad to see if I could procure a macro lens. After all I had brought the port. Yes – I’m a blonde, and I’m still a little upset with myself for such a boneheaded mistake. After all what I do when I dive is photography.. Anyway, save yourself some time if you’re ever in my spot. Nowhere on this island will you find a 50mm or 100mm macro lens for a Canon EOS system.. But I did have a nice breakfast in town at a little café up from the local Boolchand’s.When I got back to the Habitat, the others had enjoyed their morning dive at the Habitat house reef and where ready to head out for the day. Again we loaded our tanks into the truck and headed off on our days adventure. First dive sight for today – for me at least – was Kleine Knip. Kleine Knip has a longer swim out to the drop area over the reef. My dive buddy got a bit tired going out - and so did I to an extent. Had a bit of a rest before submerging just to be sure I had caught my breath and was not panting as I went under water. That's about the only bad thing I would say about this dive. The site is a remote site without facilities, but the entry and exit were easy enough. The coral was similar to other dive sites and there was a lot of marine life. It’s hard to describe the beauty and I did not sit and take notes right after our dives about what I saw. Two weeks later it’s a bit hard to do, but once you’ve been to Curacao you’ll understand what I mean by all the sites are beautiful!Second dive site of this outing was Playa Jeremi. This is a very pretty little cove type beach. It is a remote site without facilities. It’s just outside of Jeremi, where we stopped into a little snack shop for a bottle of water, chips and Ice cream – remember it’s 90 degrees F outside. The Ice Cream was welcome.. So, remember all my ranting earlier about “Don’t bring ANYTHING of value with you to these remote dive sites”? We’ll as a result of going into town earlier and not wanting to hold everyone up any longer than I already had, I forgot to put all my stuff away in the safe before heading out today. That little blunder cost me at Playa Jeremi. Actually it cost me US$5 and about two hours of my time – as luck would have it, the local thieves found entry into our truck and made off with my wallet, the US$5 it contained, and my son’s sunglasses.. The two hours of my time was the amount of time I spent on the phone cancelling credit cards. Fortunately my card numbers are different than my wife’s so we were not left without resources to pay our bills etc for our stay. Not to mention that I was at least smart enough to not be carrying our cash around in my wallet. But it did cost me $120 as my room keys were in the little pouch that was grabbed – and since they got our room key, we changed rooms when we got back to the Habitat as well. They were very good about everything – and accommodating.But I digress – Playa Jeremi is a little remote site, a very good dive, with an easy entry/exit. I recommend it too – despite my further blunder in not following my own advice, as mentioned above.After a bit of rest, numerous chats with banking officials, and a nice dinner, we headed out for our next night dive at about 10:30. This time we headed South at a very leisurely pace. Saw the normal crabs, nocturnal fish and eels. Towards the end of the dive we did happen upon an octopus that was out feeding. We watch this lovely creature go from patch coral head to patch coral head feeding. It would gracefully land on a coral head, expand its tentacles all around it for a couple of minutes, then swim to another coral head. We watched it do this for 5 – 10 minutes before heading off, not wanting to disturb this magnificent animal. What a way to end a day!

Tuesday - March 6, 2007 - As one of our party is leaving tomorrow we left the selection of dive site to him – and he made an excellent selection. This morning we headed off to Porto Marie. Porto Marie is a privately managed beach with a dive shop on site, an excellent beach for lounging, showers, rinse tanks (which are a bit on the unusable side due to the rinse water being less than desirable), a nice shower, lockers and a very nice outdoor eatery. You can easily spend a day here and it is great place to go if you have a non-diver in your party. That’s the scoop on the above water scene. The true beauty of this place is the reef itself. It is a double reef site. There’s a map of the site near the bar which you should have a look at before diving the site so you can see the myriad of different ways to dive the site. I like the back wall of the second reef best as you will see very interesting sights there. On this dive we sat and watched some jacks feeding on a bait ball. They rounded up the bait fish and then began attacking. It was an incredible site. We generally see larger fish off this wall. You definitely want to keep an eye out for movement in the blue water. The reef is lush with lots of beautiful coral, sponges, macro life and various fish. Watch your time and air as it’s easy to get caught up in the beauty and forget that you have a 20 minute trek back to your entry point. Hopefully I’m not unique in my observations and lost in time quality while immersed in the beauty of this site. Probably my first or second favorite dive site on the island – so far. After our second dive, we decided to hang out as a family and go into town (Willemstad) for an evening of shopping and dining – and a few beers. Knowing I had to get up early the following morning to take our departing friend to the airport, the festivities did not run too long into the evening. I’ll just say that Willemstad is a nice little town after the cruise ships leave and the locals have called it a day and begin to enjoy their city. Very nice indeed.

Wednesday – March 7, 2007 - After going to the airport in the morning and having a nice breakfast, we decided we'd do one dive down to the end of the rope at Habitat reef. This was a fun dive. Not much at the bottom. Just a little patch coral and mostly sand past 30 meters. So we decided we'd head to the left (South) and see what was there at depth. We did run across a large green moray that was fully exposed. Got a few pictures of him which came out quite nice. From there we just did a gradual ascent till it was time to turn around and head back. A relaxing dive for the day.After the dive we just relaxed around the villa and later went and did some grocery shopping for the last few days supplies. I’m glad we remembered we were on vacation and took a little time to just do nothing!

Thursday – March 8, 2007 - For the first dive of the day, we headed off to Playa Lagun. This is a site we had not been to before. We found that it has a fairly long swim out to the reef. Further than it looks actually. The site really has little to no facilities. There is a dive shop at the site - across the street from the beach - but we did not go look at it so I don't know much about it. I did see some tables so it looked like you could at least get a cold drink there if you wanted one. Other than that it's a beach in a small cove - which means a fairly narrow entrance out to the open ocean. This means that you really need to know where you entered because you don't want to miss the entrance on your return. We use a marker to mark our entrance - and there is a marker in the form of a 2 liter bottle mounted on a rod which serves as a marker too. On this day there was a little current flowing from North to South, so we headed off into the current at the beginning of the dive. With my big camera this proved to be a little bit of a deterrent for me. The return was much like a drift dive back to our marker though. Nice dive and pretty coral with lots of fish, etc.. Been there done that - probably wouldn't put this site high on my list for returning to though... Not a bad site mind you – I don’t want to mis-represent it. It’s just that after you’ve dove it and a number of other sites in Curacao you might not put it on the “A” list.For our second dive we headed down to Cos Abao. At the entrance you do pay a very small entry fee on a per vehicle basis. I think it was like US$3-4. It’s a private facility – but the small amount you pay is well worth it. I had forgotten just how nice this dive site is. We had a light lunch and some water during our surface interval here. Very relaxing. Afterwards the three of us got our gear on and headed into the water for our second dive of the day. This was very relaxing - nice entrance/exit on the beach. It’s a beautiful beach to look at as your swimming out to the reef. The reef here is gorgeous with lots of critters and fish swimming about. I will come back here on my next visit.

Friday – March 9, 2007 - Alas our departure date in tomorrow morning and this will be our last dive of the trip. In keeping with our belief that the nicest reef to dive in Curacao - and certainly the most accessible for us – is the Habitat house reef, we decided to dive here this morning. We got up early so we could be in the water just as the sun was rising so we could witness the transition from night to day. This is just about as cool as going on a twilight dive and seeing the reverse transition. Lots of critters about including eels, crabs, and other nocturnal fish as well as the daytime fish beginning to swim about. After this dive we gave our gear a thorough rinsing/soak. Went back up to the villa and cooked my favorite meal of the day – breakfast!! Hot coffee, bacon, eggs, fruit and fresh squeezed orange juice sure hit the spot. After cleaning up a bit, we went down and got our gear so we could let it dry during the day. It’s really nice at Habitat. Nice to be able to thoroughly soak your gear there and not have to worry about doing it all after you get home. Gear is all ready to make another trip! We did a little sight-seeing the rest of the day and went back into Willemstad to do a little shopping. Early to bed due to the 8am flight the next morning. Another vacation to Curacao ended, another week of fun in the sun and some wonderful diving. Now I have 400 photo’s to look through and see if there are those few quality shots that’s help pay for the trip!

Cheers,

Monty
www.montychandler.com

St. Vincent Diving - October 2006

2006-11-02T14:16:00.000-05:00

Underwater Photo Gallery

So after being dry for a couple of months, I was able to get down to St. Vincent for the first time to try a little critter diving. While St. Vincent does have some reefs to dive, they also have other, more interesting, things to see that you won't see elsewhere. Of course it's mostly macro critters so if that doesn't suit your fancy then it's probably not the place for you.

To get to St. Vincent we flew through San Juan. From San Juan it was a twin engine prop plane for a couple of hours to St. Vincent. Upon arrival it was interesting that Customs was very inqusitive. They searched all our bags and asked many questions about why we were in St. Vincent. I guess they have a problem with visitors bringing things into the country and not paying proper duty on the goods. It wasn't a negative thing, but was very different to experiences I have had traveling to other places around the world.

As it was just three of us guys on this trip we selected the cheapest - comfortable - accomodations. We stayed at Paradise Inn. Again, it was comfortable with a friendly staff, clean rooms and a working air conditioner - but a restaraunt that was limited in selection - both at breakfast and at dinner. Not a problem though as there are a number of places to eat within walking distance which were very nice. Our breakfasts were good and included juice, fruit, eggs and a meat. Bacon, ham, or sausage.... Bacon was not available every day, sausage was a hot dog, and ham was actually ham.. Again - not knocking the place. We got what we paid for and would stay there again.. But know it's not a resort that your non-diving partner would enjoying lounging in while you're off having a great morning of diving.

Dive St. Vincent was the outfit we dove with - in fact they set everything up for us! Bill Tewes - remember that name - runs a great shop. Bill takes great care to ensure that his customers are taken care of. He has a dry wit and a bit of a sarcastic tone - like me he's an old guy - but he cares greatly about your experience and strives to ensure you see what you want to see. Take the time to talk to him and you'll find a comrade who cares about the critters, the environment, the island he calls home and of course the future of the dive industry in St. Vincent.

Bill has a few boats - his "fleet" is parked right in front of the dive shop. As we were visiting during their low season we were always on one boat. It was a nice dive boat, complete with all the requisite safety gear and access features we divers like to have. Bill takes care of everything, including setting up your gear and assisting you with getting it on. Do pay attention to the dive briefing - Bill will give you very good insight as to what you can look for in different areas of the dive. If you multi-task during the dive brief, you'll miss details that you will wish you hadn't missed. It's a simple back roll off the boat to begin your dive. After the first dive you're free to dive your dive. I say after the first dive because Bill wants to see that you are proficient in your dive skills before turning you loose (not invasive, but if you haven't dove in a while and need a little help, Bill wants to know that and ensure you get it). Bill really is "all about you".

Unless you are very experienced at spotting macro creatures that you probably have never seen before I'd suggest you hang near Bill during the dives. He is a MASTER at finding the little critters. He'll write profusely on his slate identifying the little critters for you. Remember to take a photo of the slate and then the critter - that way you'll remember what it was! :-)

My desire was to find Seahorses - and Bill led us to Sea Horses - two different kinds actually! Long Nose and Lined. Above is a photo of the Lined. A 16X20 hangs on my wall at home!

I'd certainly recommend taking a trip to St. Vincent if you are wanting to see some very unique macro critters. There's only one outfit to dive with - Bill Tewes and Dive St. Vincent.

Cheers,

Monty

www.montychandler.com

Curacao - July 2006

2006-08-05T15:44:00.000-04:00

Underwater Photo Gallery

Curacao, N.A. - As I had said in my previous post, my first dives in Curacao were so good I just had to go back. So instead of heading to Bonaire we altered plans and made our booking to stay at the Habitat Resort.

Once you have decided when you want to go, you need to do a few things - the easiest way of course is to book your package through the affiliated travel agency with Habitat in your country. Just email the folks at Habitat and they will let you know whom to talk to. Your package should include your rental car - you'll need this and keep in mind that you'll want to be hauling dive tanks and gear to the various shore dive spots so something with some room for all that will be needed. We stayed at the Habitat resort and included all the shore diving we could do (24X7) as well as including breakfast each morning. Remember that your flight home will probably preclude you from having breakfast on your last morning. Breakfast is served from 07:30 - 10:30. Try to get to the dive shop by 4:30PM so you can get your weights and any rental gear you will need. Anne Marie and her team will take very good care of you! They will give you a short orientation about the dive facility, the dive site and a few particulars you'll want to know about - like how to avoid their dive boat lane - stay on the bar side of the rope!!

Once checked in and oriented, your easy diving vacation is now up to you and the speed at which you want to go. Here's a website I recommend you have a look at to orient yourself about the various shore diving sites around Curacao - it's homework before your trip and it's worth the read - http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/Curacao/index.htm#1

Our first few dives on our arrival afternoon/evening were at the Habitat House reef - we enjoyed a sunset dive and then a night dive later in the evening. As the Habitat site is such a nice spot and very easy to navigate it served as a very good checkout/orientation dive for my group. As coincidence would have it our first dive was my 200th dive - couldn't have asked for a better spot for that to happen.

A little about the Habitat Dive site: Above the surface is a divers dream come true. The facility is a three level facility. At the top is the dive shop where you check in and get whatever gear you need. The middle level is where the classroom for this PADI 5 Star facility. While I was there this trip I saw numerous people taking certification courses from a very competent staff. On the bottom level is what I would term as the dive platform. It is a large deck area which has a locker room, fill station with Air and Nitrox fills, two tubs for gear rinse, one tub for camera rinse, a fresh water shower, hangers for wetsuit drying, a large wooden table for gear assembly as well as a couple of benches for gear assembly. From here its a very short walk down a pier to your entrance to the water. It really can't get much better than this - as good as a live-aboard and just as easy - and the pier doesn't rock!

Diving the wall at Habitat is very enjoyable and is one of the best sites I had the chance to dive. It was the site that convinced me to return to this island to dive this summer. Marine life is prolific, sponges and worms are prolific. Coral is beautiful. Water is warm. My dives in June and all my dives on this trip (14) were without any appreciable current or surge at any of the sites.

We dove at Porto Marie which is just down the road from the Habitat resort. This is a must-do site as well. The facilities at this public beach are also very good - not quite as good as Habitat's, but very good none-the-less. Rinse tanks - which in the weekend were a little over-used, and showers are available. There's toilet facilities as well as lockers. Also a nice lunch time restaraunt is right on site which was very nice as we had a small lunch while enjoying our surface interval. The reef at Porto Marie is very nice. At the beach entrance there is a double reef effect. Both are beautiful and you will feel like you are diving in an aquarium - I know its an overused term, but I know of no other way to express the feeling of diving among such dense marine life with clear viz.. Read what folks have to say about the site at the website I gave above. When you get there, have a look at the map of the reefs that is painted on the wall next to the restaraunt. It will help you plan your dives. You could easily spend a couple of days diving at this site (we did and I could do another couple of days here as well). The entry fee for this beach is US$2.50 - given the facilities it's a bargain! Shower cost 25 cents in the local currency - that's about 15 cents US$.

Another site we dove at is Cas Abao. While the facilities are not quite up to what the previous two were, it was a very nice place. Restaraunt (limited nibbles and sandwiches/fries, etc.), shower, toilet facilities - all present. The reef is an excellent wall type dive and just as full of life as the previous two. Entry from the shore is simply a walk off the beach and into the water. A short kick out to the reef. Turn over on your back while finning out so you can enjoy the view of the beach as you make your way out to the reefs edge. It is a beautiful beach and shoreline - take the time to appreciate it..

Life below the surface on the western shores of Curacao is plentiful. Shore diving at your own pace is a very relaxing way to spend a diving holiday. Curacao now has a permanent place on my list of favorite dive destinations. There are still 19 more shore dive sites left for me to explore. Something to look forward to!

Cheers and safe diving,

Monty

www.montychandler.com

Curacao - June 2006

2006-06-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

Curacao - June 2006

Photo by: Monty Chandler

There are times in life when you are very pleasantly surprised - my first dive in Curacao was one of those experiences. While planning a family vacation my brother-in-law suggested that we may want to bring our dive gear and do a little shore diving in Curacao.

So with that little bit of background, upon arriving in Curacao we rented a car and drove about 45 minutes over to a little resort called Habitat Curacao. As walk-on shore divers we were treated wonderfully by the staff there. They have a great facility complete with showers, lockers, rinse tanks, an onsite restaraunt and very easy entry/exit into the water. They have a rope that goes out to the wall from the pier which makes navigation a breeze! And the beauty of the coral on that wall is spectacular! The marine life is abundant to say the least - as well as diverse. Imagine - two scorpianfish within minutes of each other! Eels, parrot fish, peacock flouder, schools of fish, etc.

The only down side was that we were only there long enough to do two shore dives. No problem though - we're heading back at the end of July to spend several days in Curacao diving the sites on the island. And yes, we were impressed enough with the Habitat facilities that we are going to stay with them as well. I'm looking forward to waking at 6 am and doing a wonderful dive before breakfast each day!

I'll let ya know how that trips goes in about a month. Stay tuned.

Cheers and safe diving to ya,

Monty

www.montychandler.com

Aruba - June 2006

2006-06-30T09:33:00.000-04:00

Underwater Photo Gallery

The Antilles Wreck - Aruba

On a family vacation in June 2006 I had the opportunity to do a little diving in Aruba. Aruba is known for its wreck diving as there is not really a large reef system to draw divers. If not for the urge to blow a few bubbles I may have passed on this diving - but I'm sure glad I did not.

The Antilles is a very large cargo ship sitting in about 20 meters of water. It lies on its side and is very accessible. Passing through the cargo bays is very easy as they are not enclosed as is typical for other penetration diving in wrecks. This is certainly "the" wreck dive for Aruba diving.

Cheers,

Monty

www.montychandler.com

St. Kitts - Statia - Saba (25 March - 01 April 2006)

2006-04-05T10:51:00.000-04:00

Saba

Photo's from this dive trip can be found at the following link:

Underwater Photo Gallery

Trip Report:

Dive 195 has now been logged. My trip with Explorer Ventures aboard the Caribbean Explorer II went very well. I'll start by saying that the trip was wonderful as an overall experience.

Saturday, 25 March '06 - Of course this was a great day! Having already been packed for almost a week, the morning was filled with the last minute gathering of final items to toss into the bags. An 11AM flight meant no hurrying around in the wee hours of the morning. Our son was gracious enough to take us to the airport so I didn't have to lug around all the bags that contained dive gear, camera gear, clothes and various other carry on items. We arrived at St. Kitts on time - a bit early actually - and found a quaint little airport. Going through immigration and customs was a breeze and we found the Taxi Driver associated with Explorer Ventures waiting just outside - turns out his name is Perci and he serves as the Island Tour guide as well. A short $10 taxi ride and we were brought right up to the boat on the dock where we were greeted by several members of the crew. They assisted us with our belongings, showed us to our cabins, did a bit a briefing, and we selected our diving stations for the week - a wonderful start! After unpacking our dive gear and setting up, we made up our nest in the cabin and were set for a week of diving. Dinner was servered promptly at 18:00 - as we would find all meals were served promptly at their designated times - followed by a captains briefing and introduction of the crew. Our Captain - John - is a veteran boat captain and along with the crew call this area of the Caribbean their own backyard. Donna served as the purser on this trip due to a bit of an ear problem preventing her from diving. She was very pleasant and attentively went about her duties all week - in addition to several other supporting roles which demonstrated her knowledge of diving, the ship and her overall desire to ensure that all guests had a great trip.. Our diver masters/leaders/instructors were Mike, Jen, and Sean - all of whom knew the reefs and dive sites very well and were helpful in all aspects of the diving and shipboard experience. Our cook was Tony - who served wonderful meals all week long - in addition to snacks between each and every dive consisting of fresh baked cookies, cakes and misc treats. The engineer for the trip and new captain who will be taking over from John in the next couple of weeks was a great guy from South Africa named Grant. His friendly attitude and personal demeanor will make him a great asset to the operations of this boat - he is a pretty cool guy..

The bad news for the dive trip was that although parts had been ordered and delivered - I delivered them - the Nitrox compressor/Bladder thing wasn't working and therefore we would be diving on air all week. Not great news, but not the end of the world either. OK - so Day one was completed, we were snug in our cabin, versed in the boat, familiar with the crew and were set up to dive - now all we had to do was sleep and get ready for the first day of diving.

Sunday, 26 March '06 - Our first Day of diving was around St. Kitts. My first dive since September '05 - my first dive with my new camera setup which was way different than my previous - and to make matters worse I didn't use enough weight. For some reason I thought 4lbs would be enough - and it was, until my aluminum 80 tank began to empty out and then I got a little light. So needless to say the second half of my first dive was less than pleasant as I tried to take photographs being a little on the positive side of buoyant :-). First Dive site was a little wreck called the River Taw. Nice first acclimation dive. Action item - Double my weight to 8lbs..

Second dive site was a little spot called Coconuts (average) where we stayed for the 3rd dive as well.. 4th dive of the day was at Corinthian Reef which had a nice little Tug Wreck along with a neat crane. Highlights were a Turtle, several trumphet fish, and some very large Box Porcupine fish. Saw various marine life, but this part of St. Kitts was really "average" as far as diving went. Viz wasn't the greatest as we were near shore and we were a bit tired from our first day of diving, so we skipped the night dive.

Monday, 27 March '06 - The agenda for today is to move towards the north end of St. Kitts and dive an area known as Paradise Reef. There is also a land tour of St. Kitts which we'll take part in as well. Paradise Reef was a fantastic dive site. The water was clear and the reef was vibrant with color and marine life. A combination of deep and shallow water was available to provide for an excellent dive profile. I really liked this dive site. We also dove a nearby reef called Anchor Aweigh - not sure why as there were no anchors, but a nice site none-the-less. In the afternoon we took the land tour which visited a church and an old Fort which sat on a hill overlooking the sea. It was a nice change and I enjoyed the tour. Closed the day out with a great night dive on Paradise Reef - saw Flying Guinards, Several Squid, Lobsters, Crab, Large Cowfish, Box pufferfish and Southern Rays.. All in all a very good last day at St. Kitts.

Tuesday, 28 March '06 - The agenda for today, besides the dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat routine had us moving over to Statia in the morning before/during breakfast. Statia was interesting to me from a couple of perspectives. First, it was a much busier place than I had expected it to be. There were tankers "parked" all around the north end of the island. There was a pipeline that extended out from the island for what looked like a mile and tankers were offloading there petroleum cargos and/or taking on cargo. Seems that Statia is a transfer or switching station for tankers in the Caribbean. There are numerous large holding tanks on the island as well.. In addition to that, Statia takes its reef system fairly serious as well. A marine park ranger stayed on the boat with us all day and went on our dives with us as well. He gave a briefing at the beginning of the day - which he read from a piece of paper - but after that was very friendly and informative about the island and the reef system. Our first dive of the day was on a wreck named the Chien Tong - this is a recent wreck that they should not dive for the next 5 years or so until something grows on it. A very boring dive. Nice wreck, but not developed yet. We then dove a site named Barracuda Reef was a nice dive along a small wall which had a "field" full of Sea Whips, Sea Fans, and soft corals. It was a macro heaven and yielded a lot of photo's.. After lunch our next dive site was a place called Humps and would have been an excellent dive site if the viz had been a little better. ot's of soft coral, fan coral and sea whips hosting lot's of juvenile sealife. The late afternoon dive site was at Double Wreck. It had nice little patches of coral teaming with life. Nice large southern sting ray photo on this dive. Night Dive was at Wreck City - The Viz on this dive was very poor. Couldn't have actually done this dive if it had not been guided. Did get to see a Barracuda eat a soldier fish! That was pretty cool...

Wednesday, 29 March '06 - Todays agenda is to move on over to Saba!! This is what I booked this particular trip for! Our first dive of the morning is at a site called Third Encounter. It is a dive to a beautiful pinnacle whose top is at 28 meters and goes down beyond recreational limits.. The water was crystal clear and the pinnacle was indeed lush with coral growth and beauty. As it was a fairly deep dive it was also fairly short. On the way back to the boat there is a reef to look at - and I spotted a couple of Nurse Sharks napping.. Certainly a great intro to Saba diving! Next dive was at a site named Tent Wall. It is a nice wall dive with lots of soft coral and tube sponges. Our next couple of dives were at a site called Ladder Labyrinth. It's a nice set of finger reefs with sand chutes between them. Lush corals and lot's a marine life inhabit this reef system and it has a diversity of habitat. On the afternoon dive we saw squid, nurse shark, tarpon, cowfish and southern stingray. The night dive was done at the same site. My buddy and I went on the night dive alone, which was cool because I dove with both my DS125 strobes on without diffusers which finally let me get some good night shots. All in all a pretty cool day of diving at Saba. The Captain had tried to get us up to Diamond Rock in the afternoon, but there was a bit of swell and wind so we'll try again tomorrow.

Thursday, 30 March '06 - Man O'War Schoals and Big Rock Market were the two morning dive sites. Both were very nice, with vibrant coral and macro/juvenile life throughout. We took the afternoon off from diving and did a land tour of Saba. Saba is a really cool little island which is very clean and tidy. We visited a place where they made special beads, visited a little town on the island towards the top, saw an overlook of the tiny airport, and visited a little church with very nice ceiling paintings made by a local artist. Again, a nice change of scenery and pace.. On this evening we did a dusk dive at Tent Reef where we were able to see the transition from day to night. Saw several Eel, Lobster, and other critters. Had a large Red Snapper follow us around during the dive hoping we'd light up an easy meal for him - no such luck!!

Friday, 31 March '06 - Last two dives of the trip will be this morning - bummer!! But the good news is the bi-directional swells we've seen the past two days are now gone and Diamond Rock diving is a go! This is a lovely site, both above the water and below. The site sits in about 25 meters of water, although my max depth was 20.1 on this dive. With the twin pinnacles - one you can see on the surface and other sitting about 15 feet below the surface - you do a lazy figure 8 dive. Dive it right and the profile will maximize your bottom time and leave an easy 2 minute swim back to the boat/mooring if you are moored between Diamond Rock and Man O'War Schoals. Our last dive of the trip was at Man O'War Schoals which is a pinnacle with lush corals, sponges, vibrant marine life, and on this dive a sleeping nurse shark on the north face.

After the diving was done we settled in for the 3 hour crossing (~23 miles) from Saba to St. Maarten where the Caribbean Explorer II docks. After arriving at about 13:30 we took the opportunity to walk around St. Maarten near where the Cruise ships dock, visit some of the shops, have a drink and just relax while watching people do their thing. Later we joined up with the other divers on the trip for a nice dinner at a local restaraunt with the Captain. 2 for 1 drink specials made for a nice evening.

Saturday, April 1 '06 - After breakfast we finished packing and got our stuff off the boat and out of the way so the crew could go about their business of cleaning evening and preparing for the next round of guests who would be arriving later in the afternoon. As our flight was not until later in the day, we made our way to a local coffee shop and waited for the shops to open. I had spotted a lens I wanted to buy the day before but didn't have time to haggle with them before dinner. So after a bit of negotiation I completed my purchase of my new 16-35MM L series EF Canon Lens.. While I was very pleased withthe photo's I had taken with the 50mm Macro lens this trip, I was dissapointed with the wide anlge lens, so I decided to prepare for my next dive trip with this new lens. Now all I need is the 8" port and 4"dioplar and I'll be all set!!

One bit of advice. If you are flying out of St. Maarten on a Saturday afternoon - get to the airport about 3.5 hours before your flight and be ready to wait in line for at least 2 hours (outdoors).. It's a small airport, with several concurrent flights, and they hand-search all checked baggage. All three combined make for a long process.. So be chillin'!

Till next time,

Monty
www.montychandler.com
http://www.montychandler.com/Underwater%20Gallery.htm

St. Kitts to St. Maarten

2006-02-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

Well it's Feb 27th - A little under a month before my next dive trip. I've booked a trip with Explorer Ventures to vacation on their live-aboard diving vessel (Caribbean Explorer II) departing St. Kitts on March 25th for one week of diving in the Eastern Caribbean.

Link to Explorer Ventures - http://www.explorerventures.com/cexhtml/sabaindex.html

Our trip will take us from St. Kitts to Saba to Statia and finally to St. Maarten. I've experienced one other Live-Aboard dive trip in October 2004 in Turks & Caicos, also with Explorer Ventures. The fact that I am going to be a repeat customer means I was happy with the last trip and their services.

Divers tend to get a bit excited about upcoming dive trips and I'm no exception. The planning for the trip starts well in advance - somewhat due to the fact that the travel all has to be arranged in advance for obvious reasons - when you don't live near the water, or places where you can dive.

The planning involves deciding where you want to go, who you want to go with and what you want to do during the trip. For this trip we've selected the Eastern Caribbean and specifically Saba because we have heard a lot of good things about the diving and also because that area of the Caribbean is not the "popular" spot for most divers. I've been to Cozumel a half dozen times (and it is one of my true favorites), Turks & Caicos, Maui, Australia, and Bermuda, but this time I wanted to try something a little different.

So now we've defined the where being the Eastern Caribbean and the who being Explorer Ventures - the what has become underwater photography. I've been taking photos underwater for the past six years, playing and toying with different cameras and experimenting with shots to learn what works and what doesn't. I have been using the Sea&Sea MX10 35mm underwater camera. It's a great camera to learn with. Of course it has user limitations being a film camera in that the feedback is a little delayed. I have usually had the film processed upon my return from vacation and then had to scan them and do a bit of color correction with photoshop. This all takes quite a bit of time and is a little expensive. So for this trip I have decided to go digital.

My camera of choice above the surface is the Canon 20D digital SLR. So for this trip I've decided to outfit the 20D for underwater use. This has involved researching the housing, strobes and ports available for the camera. Before I started on this research I had no idea what I was in for or what the expense would be to truly get the configuration I wanted. I've selected the Ikelite housing and dual Ikelite DS125 strobes. In addition I wanted the ability to use a couple of different lenses. As I am just starting with this digital venture underwater I have decided to use two fundamental lenses. First will be a 50mm macro in an effort to capture the little things in the sea. They're my favorite! For a wide angle option I've selected the kit 18-55mm zoom lens. Primarily I've chosen this because I already owned it and the rest of the configuration is expensive. After seeing the results of this I may add lenses in the future. The results will be posted on my website after the trip. But needless to say I'm excited about this new capability and my expectations are high!

Further planning has involved how I'm going to get all my stuff from Charlotte to St. Kitts. I've purchased a case for the underwater housing, strobes and ports. I've also purchased a backpack to carry my regs and mask on the plane as well, along with my camera and its compliment of gear for above water shooting. The rest of the dive gear and the minimal shorts and t-shirts required for caribbean vacationing on a dive boat will all be checked luggage! So all in all I'll have 4 bags, two checked and two carry on - all of which I will need to carry to the airport and from the airport to the dive boat upon arrival and back again when the vacation is done.

The last bit of planning and paperwork has involved the application and risk documents to Explorer Ventures, gathering of C-Cards since I'll be diving Nitrox, passport to make immigration a non-issue, IPOD loaded with the music I'll want to listen to, international calling access for my mobile phone, and dealing with the fact that I now have a little less than a month to wait!!!

So now time needs to go by and I'm sure I'll pack and re-pack, arrange and re-arrange my stuff several times as the anticipation builds for what promises to be a wonderful vacation experience which I will share within this blog.

Cheers,

Monty
www.montychandler.com