Tag Archive
Stormy Weather
The weather has been in the news lately. Between earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, fires, tornadoes and so forth, everyone has been affected by the unpredictable nature of the planet's weather. I can't remember whether it is supposed to be a La Niña or El Niño year, but out here in Indonesia the weather has been very erratic, except in its unwavering atrociousness. The water along the southern coast of the archipelago has been so unseasonably cold that several boats just blew off diving some of the better critter spots near Pantar Island. In Papua, it has rained steadily throughout the "dry" season. Visibility was off everywhere due to surge, waves, and storms. In early April we were supposed to meet our liveaboard in Ambon, and then cross the Banda Sea to Raja Ampat. But things were so bad out there that we had to reroute and only dive in Raja Ampat, which has decent protection in just about any weather. When you hear about waves several meters high and winds blowing a gale, you don't second guess the captain. You just go with his judgment even if it means that you'll disappoint a few clients, miss a few dives. There are things we can do something about, and there are things that we can't fix. Weather, water temperature, and visibility come to mind. We weren't the only people trying to cross the Banda Sea a few weeks ago. There was a small boat with just six guests that was trying to move southeast between Banda and Alor. Even though the captain was instructed not to leave harbor, the guests raised such a fuss about not being able to dive where they had planned, that the crew chanced it. This boat ended up drifting far from its intended arrival port and finally had to... More »
Insuring Against Swine Flu
Dear Fellow Divers, This is the first of our blogs and every few days or so, a number of diving writers with important opinions will have something to say: John Bantin, who spends a dozen or more weeks a year testing equipment for DIVER magazine; Bob Halstead, the retired owner of the Telita in PNG, who is never at a loss for words; Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock, leading photographers and writers putting together a guide on Raja Ampat, Indonesia; Bret Gilliam, who has more insider knowledge about the industry than any combination of a dozen others; Doc Vikingo, who addresses an endless number of health and safety issues in Undercurrent, other magazines, and on the web....it’s a great list. As for me, who started Undercurrent when I was a penniless but crusading diver, I’ll have a few things to say too. For example, as I write this, the swine flu scare is gaining ground and Cozumel, a diver’s favorite Caribbean haunt, is one of the areas where it has shown up. Bummer for anyone with plans to go there, double bummer for the good people of Cozumel, who are already teetering financially from the downturn in traveling divers. About the only time I ever get travel insurance is if I have to hook up with a liveaboard. If my plane is delayed, I could miss the entire trip, so it’s worth having insurance. But I’d sure be thinking about it now if I were to head anywhere in the Caribbean because no one knows the boundaries of this disease. To get covered against these unpredictable sorts of things, travel insurance policies that might cover such events require that you take out a policy somewhere near the time you make your first payment. If you bought a flight to Cozumel in March and... More »
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