Dive Review of
Mike Ball in
Papua New Guinea/Milne Bay

Florida - coast and gulf areas, cave diving in the central Florida springs.
 
Caribbean, central and south 
Cozumel

Dive Conditions

Be back on the boat with 500psi in your tank otherwise if you had a
computer dive your computer profile  

Set up was great! Outlets for recharging batteries and large work areas
with dedicated rinse tanks for photographic equipment.  There are also TVs
in the lounge area to view your pics on between dives.  The staff also
knows how to handle and care for photographic equipment which is something
I've occasionally seen lacking in other operations.  

Overall Rating

Upon arrival at the local airport we were met by the dive staff and all of
our gear (seems everyone else came in on the same flight also)was accounted
for and transferred to the boat for us- we never lifted a thing!  There was
adequate transportation for the divers and their gear and we made the
transfer to the boat in one easy trip! 

On my first dive my camera housing flooded and the staff of Paradise sport
went way above and beyond in their efforts to try to fix the situation. I
think they were more upset it than I was, and were amazing about the
situation.   Even though I thought it was hopeless (it was a digital camera
EOS-20D ) they kept trying everything they could think of to get the camera
back in operation. The engineer  even put it down in the engine room to try
to dry it off in the hopes that it would come back to life.  The camera pro
had a Sea anbd Sea film camera they made available to rent to make sure
that I would have a least some pictures of the trip. 
 
The divemasters/guides pointed out everything you could think of to shoot
pics of and were extremely helpful during the entire trip. I still don't
know how he spotted the pygmy seahorse on that fan but he did ! My wife and
I even found a hairy frog-fish on one of our night dives in the muck.  The
boat staff were wonderful especially in assisting my wife in getting in and
out of the water as she has a chronic back aliment and they helped her
throughout the entire trip.

The only thing I got a little tired of was muck diving, after 2 1/2 days of
it I was ready for the reefs again and we did eventually make our way back
to several world class diving areas.  

If you're ever out in the Milne Bay area the B-17 bomber wreck at 155' is
definitely worth the dive as well as visiting a village or two for the
local sing-sing's and meeting with the local islanders.  It's not often
that you get to meet people whose laughter is so real and unhibited that I
swear that it starts in their toes and works it way up !

All in all it was definitely traveling 1/2 way around the world and we plan
to do it again in several years maybe dining in Kimbe the next time. 

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