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COVER STORY
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Chasing the
Dragons of Komodo
Aboard the Sea Contacts
I from Bali to Komodo
Before every dive I asked myself
the same questions: Would the current be fierce or imperceptible?
Would I luxuriate in balmy water or freeze my butt off? Would
the water be gin-clear or murky as a day off New Jersey? Would
I see exciting critters, like pygmy sea horses, ornate ghost
pipefish, turtles, and mantas, or would I swim among the ubiquitous,
yet stunning, assortment of Indo-Pacific tropicals? I knew before
I came to the diving frontier of Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands
that I was heading to the epicenter of marine biodiversity.
However, I hadn't expected that diversity to permeate every
aspect of my dives. Still, in retrospect, it only seems fitting
that the diving on this run from Bali to Komodo was as wild
and unpredictable as the place itself.
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www.SeaContacts.com
Sumatran Serenade Sidetrip
-- a bonus article not included in the issue
I extended my stay with a week in the jungles
of Sumatra at a lodge owned and operated by Sea Contacts. The
6-day package only provides two days at Kubu Lodge, but the
rest of the trip was almost as exciting.
This is not for the faint of heart: in fact, it's
the toughest version of soft-core ecotourism I've been on. An
English-speaking guide met me at the airport and, with the driver,
drove me to Rawas River Lodge, about a 5-hour trip over a pothole-ridden
jungle "highway." Rawas is strangely elegant relative to the
surroundings: the small-town lodge is very beautiful, with a
large swimming pool by the river and fifteen 2-story bungalows
complete with a/c and mini-bar.
The next day we tested the world's worst road
and my buns, driving 20 miles in about 3 hours to a small riverside
village. The town was out to welcome me. The guide and I boarded
a long motorized canoe (with about 4 inches of freeboard) for
the 4-hour trip upriver through beautiful jungles and past villages
where foreigners are a big hit. I waved and shouted greetings
to more kids on that trip than if I'd been Mickey in a Disney
World parade, but it was great. Kubu Lodge was also very elegant
with 30 individual, 2-story bungalows. The bungalows lacked
a/c, but there was a ceiling fan and, lo-and-behold, a mini-bar
complete with cold beer! I did two days of pretty tough trekking
through the jungle, wishing I had weeks more to savor the fauna:
birds, including hornbills, brilliant kingfishers and orioles;
monkeys, including brown, grey, and golden marmosets; gibbons;
wild pigs; and exotic butterflies like I've never seen. An Indiana
Jones-type bat cave is only a half hour's walk away. That alone
was worth the trip. Total cost was $395 including the guide,
all transportation, and meals. I'll be back, and this time for
much longer. Bring pens and candy to help corrupt the local
kids. See www.kubulodge.com
for details.
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Indonesian Customs
After a 24-hour marathon flight on 4 airplanes, I was,
as usual, toast upon arriving in Bali. At the airport there, customs
agents insisted on my giving them a bribe to bring in my gear.
Diving the Wild West Caicos:
Going the Extra Distance With Fifi
While West Caicos' Atlantic Ocean exposure makes it
one of the better places for pelagics in the Caribbean, it's beyond
the range of most Provo operators, who only take short boat rides to
Provo's many reefs for what amounts to quite decent Caribbean diving.
While some operators offer occasional trips to West Caicos, Fifi Kunz,
who operates West Caicos Adventures, makes a career out of it.
Equipment Tip: New Zealand Safety Sausage
If you've received a free New Zealand Safety Sausage
from Undercurrent, test it before you take it on your next trip. Occasionally,
a diver has reported that the sealed end has leaked.
St. Lucia Explosion Fallout
On July 14, the five-member St. Lucia Coroner's Court
ruled on the October 19, 1997, explosion that occurred on a dive boat
belonging to the Sandals Halcyon resort, killing four divers, including
one American.
Don't Even Think About It: Installment Two
While on a diving trip in the Gulf of Mexico in 1994,
a dive shop owner suspected of sexually assaulting a child disappeared
and was presumed dead. This summer authorities found him alive and well,
living in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Emergency Breathing from Your BC: What the Agencies
Refuse to Tell You
You're 100 feet down with two buddies, who both come
to you out of air. What do you do? If you're as experienced and alert
as one diver I know, you could pass your primary second stage to one
buddy, give your octopus to the second, then begin a slow ascent valving
fresh air into your buoyancy compensator and breathing through your
BC's oral inflator mouthpiece. It's a little tricky and takes some practice,
but it works. Yet none of the commercial training agencies teaches BC
breathing at any level. In fact, since we first reported on this technique
several years back, the industry seems to have closed ranks against
it. Get the full story.
How to Emergency Breathe From a BC
To gain confidence in your ability to act in an emergency,
practice BC breathing skills with your gear in shallow, calm water.
Techniques vary depending on how much air remains in your tank, whether
you have a buddy, and other variables.
Why Divers Die, Part II: Drowning Due to Insufficient
Air
Why do divers die? It's easy to say the cause was an
embolism, a heart attack, or some such thing. However, behind nearly
every diver death is an error, a fatal error, made by the diver himself.
In reviewing dive deaths, each year we find people who flat-out run
out of air and then drown. While often there is a prior event, such
as getting entrapped, here we report cases where an empty tank due to
the diver's neglect brings his comeuppance.
Travel Tip: Bonaire
An ad touting an air-conditioned condo doesn't necessarily
mean the whole condo is air-conditioned.
Travel Tip: Australia
Readers haven't been impressed with trips they took
on an Australian live-aboard this summer.
Travel Tip: Hawaii
Where have all the mantas gone? Visitors have been
reporting fewer and fewer mantas on a night manta dive that was once
rated among the top ten in the world by National Geographic.
Travel Tip: Palau
Readers report on how El Niño affected Palau's
reefs, less expensive Palau accommodations with top-drawer hotel amenities,
and a great tip for reducing airfare on the trip.
Equipment Recall
Ideations Design, Inc. has recalled all model number
MH2 Mini-Hammerhead subsurface signaling devices because defective springs
in the female air couplings may bind up, causing restricted airflow
to downstream systems. Units can be returned to the dealer where they
were purchased or sent to Ideations, 4214 14th Avenue West, Seattle,
WA 98199 for free replacement of the springs. For more information,
call 800-275-4332.
Flotsam & Jetsam
The London Times reports that divers are a great catch,
archeologists believe they've found the remains of Blackbeard's ship,
and NOAA estimates how long current La Niña weather patterns
will continue.
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