2000 Chapbook

Some of the world's finest diving is in this land just north of Australia whose most consistent feature is its unpredictability.... It's a dream destination for live-aboards with unique critters on a big scale: big fish, big coral, big distances, and muck diving. It's also a naturalist's paradise with beautiful topography: mountains covered with snow in July shade, steaming jungles, butterflies as big as birds, walking-stick insects a foot long, and splendid Birds of Paradise. Most rain comes in heavy afternoon downpours. Volcanoes routinely disrupt things, destroying Rabaul in 1994 for the umpteenth time, although now it has a new airport.... There's excellent land-based diving at Walindi Plantation.... The water in Kimbe Bay may be in the high 80s, with visibility up to 200'. . . . If you're into wrecks, check with the live-aboards in this area as some of them are once again making trips to Rabaul.... After traveling this far, you must take a week to stay in some of the fine lodges like Karawari or Tari (even though they want top dollar) to visit indigenous, primitive, wild-and-woolly cultures that are among the most interesting on the planet. The people are divided into hundreds of frequently-sparring tribes speaking hundreds of languages. Witchdoctors on the outer islands maintain the old value systems, yet go to Christian services on Sundays, and men from the stone age, covered with colored mud, mingle in airports with business people in suits and ties.... Women should not travel alone in PNG. Port Moresby is an unsafe city, although the big hotels are fine; but use Moresby for changing planes and daytime shopping at the superb giant crafts market.... If you have to lay over in Port Moresby, consider Loloata Island Resort (011-675-325-1369 or e-mail loloata@daltron.com.pg), a diver's alternative 25 minutes from the airport .... Malaria prophylaxis is still essential. English and Pidgin English (helicopter: "Mixmaster blong Jesus") spoken....

For full reviews of the following PNG destinations and live-aboards, see:

Mike Ball's new Paradise Sport,PNG Live-aboard Choices, Loloata Island Resort, Undercurrent- October 1998

Christensen Research Institute, Madang Lagoon, Undercurrent- February 1998

Chertan,In Depth- November 1995

Tiata,

In Depth- May 1995

Golden Dawn,

In Depth- March 1995

Chertan,September 1998, Allan & Barbara Jones, Anaheim, CA. Vis: 80 ft. Water: 78-81 degrees. Experienced divers allowed to dive their own plan. Post dive hang encouraged. Excellent camera handling by crew, two fresh water rinse tanks, onboard developing not operational. Second only to Indonesia land-based KBR for macro. International allowances two 70lb bags/person, decreasing within Aus and again in PNG; you may get overweight charges. Smile, a pleasant attitude goes a long way. Chertanis 70' and has a wide beam, providing stability and greater room. Six double bunk rooms. Rooms #3 & 4 are the better followed by #1 & 2. Lower bunk room area is fully air conditioned. Owner Captain Rob van der Loos has been diving the area over twenty years; excellent job customizing diving to the guests' interests. Cook and five crew members. Meals 8:00, 12:30 and 6:30. Breakfasts normally cooked and all meals were above average. Dinners included roast chicken, pork, lamb, ham, fresh fish, pasta and outdoor barbeque on upper deck. Desserts: ice cream, banana fritters, fresh baked cakes and fresh fruit custards. Unless the boat is traveling, you may dive as much as you want, whenever you want. Normally, the Captain or a crew member will accompany you for critter finding. Special 14 day trip: 51 dives; another guest did 61 dives. Our major interest was macro, so most of our dives were 60 minutes or longer and averaged 40' deep. Side trips to villages and skull caves. With experience on two other PNG boats, we consider the Chertanthe best. The newer boats have more amenities, but are capable of dumping twenty divers on pristine sites. Overnight in Cairns to adjust for long travel times and had good accommodations at Acacia Hotel, (http://www.altnews.com.au/~castaway/cairns/cnsaccom.html) US $58/night. We usually overnighted in Port Moresby at The Gateway, but it shows wear so we used the Airways Hotel at the airport. Recently remodeled, it is a large, modern hotel, with outstanding facilities. Airport transportation is free upon notification. (Ph: 675-6411167, Fax: 675-6411291)

FeBrina,November 1998, Peter Hartlove, Longmont, CO. Vis: 40-80. Water: 86 degrees. Overall good diving, lots of life. Soft corals don't compare to Fiji. Michael and Francis helpful in finding things. Saw elusive pigmy seahorse. Good critters, good variety of clowns and fish. Three dives in am starting at 6:30 am, one afternoon dive and three night dives on trip. Great muck dive at Tau's Reef (Dicky's Place). Alan is a great host. Boat old but runs well. Food was ample. (Peter Hughes Diving, Inc.; Phone 800-669-9391 or 800-932-6237; Fax 305-669-9475; e-mail dancer@peterhughes.com; website www.peterhughes.com)

FeBrina,November 1998, Tom Little (tom.little@home.com), La Mesa, CA. Vis: 50-150 ft. Water: 83-86 degrees. Hard to get to, but worth it. Conditions excellent, reefs pristine condition. Boat is 72' carries a max. of 14 passengers so a little crowded. Alan and his crew make every trip outstanding. Some dives involve current and some can be deep.

Golden Dawn,August 1998, Toshi Tsunada, Sumida-ku, Tokyo. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 26-28C. Rare itinerary off Madang. People in Baga Baga island not accustomed to divers, but friendly. Pristine submerged reef decorated with huge sea fans, barrel sponges and lots of pelagics. Rainbow runners, Spanish mackerel, giant trevally, schooling barracuda common. Saw 2.5m tawny nurse shark resting next to huge green turtle. On way to Madang we enjoyed 2 excellent wrecks: Queensland Grouper, sailfin snapper and twin spot lionfish. Strong current, one diver couldn't turn the corner of the wall and was swept away, but tenders above us soon picked him up. Boat operation is flawless. (Ph: 675-3256500, Fax: 675-3250302)

Golden Dawn,June 1999, Clinton Bauder (gecko1@apple.com), Cupertino, CA. Vis: 30-100 ft. Water: 77-82 degrees. Water: calm, choppy. Dive Restrictions: None. 10 day trip in the Milne Bay area out of Alotau. Boat, crew, food and diving all first class. The passengers were solid divers and nice folks. Rained quite a bit and the runoff affected the visibility; lack of sunlight made photography more difficult. Diving is diverse. Deep wreck (Blackjack B17 at 150 feet) a wild 5 knot current dive near Samurai, a Manta cleaning station and lots of walls and muck dives. Other than Mantas we didn't see a lot of pelagics but had about every kind of experience imaginable. Captain Craig DeWitis enthusiastic about diving, knowledgeable about the sites and marine life. Laid back (providing you don't drip saltwater on the nice new upholstery in the salon!). Boat is operated efficiently and competently. Except the cook, the crew, including Ben the alternate skipper, are PNG locals. A rather quiet lot but were friendly enough and competent. Gear, especially cameras, was handled respectfully, cabins were kept clean, Nitrox fills always dead on and in water pickups prompt. Once I wandered into blue water on a drift dive and found myself quite a distance from the expected pickup site in 6 foot seas. Less than 2 minutes after deploying my safety sausage I was clambering into the tender. Aussie Sue Barstow should be a chef at a 5 star restaurant; food was spectacular. Chinese stir-fries, BBQ dishes, Mexican food, Indian food, fresh fish and a host of amazing deserts (first trip following boat work meaning we were provisioned in Australia, so we had more greens and other vegetables than might be available at other times). Veggie lovers planning a trip should contact the boat in advance. Golden Dawnis a converted luxury yacht, mostly wood. Built in 78, she is in good condition and well maintained. Many electronics on the bridge were brand new. Stable vessel both equipped with active stabilizers and "flopper stoppers" which are like weighted sea anchors deployed from booms on either side of the ship. These keep the boat from rolling while at anchor. Half our dives were conducted from an inflatable tender. Dive deck had adequate space for the 8 divers we had on board; benches built into the tank racks make getting into your harness easier. Platform was about a foot below the surface making it easy to swim onto it. Hot fresh water showers on the port side of the vessel. All heads were in the dry area inside the cabin requiring you to remove your wetsuit. Dive deck had a large camera rinse tank and a camera table. Except breakfast, meals were taken on the top deck. The table was protected by a sunshade and removable curtains. Cabins were small but comfortable with adequate storage and each had its own air-conditioner. Some cabins had en suite facilities and others shared. My cabin adjoined the engine room but was not overly loud. People more sensitive than I to noise might disagree. The sink gurgled occasionally and the adjacent shared shower backed up once but this was fixed. Divers were free to do what they wanted: solo diving, deep dives, staged decompression dives or whatever. I hate patronizing divemasters that look at people's computers and lecture them about reverse profiles. I'm a confirmed solo diver and don't want to be forced to dive with somebody whom I don't know and who probably doesn't want to watch me spend 15 minutes waiting for the bulldozer shrimp and its goby partner to make a joint appearance in front of my camera. Dives were generally unguided and many were advanced. Briefings were informative and informal. It paid to hang out in the wheelhouse and ask Craig questions about the site before we got there. Rides in the tender were short. Nitrox: rich fills for deco bottles or rebreathers. Since the fills are done by pumping O₂ first and topping off with air they can't top off a tank with Nitrox. Since O₂ doesn't grow on trees in PNG divers are encouraged to have their Nitrox tanks topped off with air on every other dive to avoid bleeding off O₂. In practice this worked out OK although I would have preferred to have 32% 0₂ for every dive rather than a sequence of 32, 26, 32, 24, 32, 23. This required some forethought such as if you had a 26 % fill for your afternoon dive. In this case it makes sense to dive air or something close to it on the shallow night dive and then have the full Nitrox fill for the deep first dive the next morning. Variety of tanks from 13 to 120 cu ft in both steel and aluminum. I was able to set up a pony bottle for a bail out rig besides the AL 90 I used for my main cylinder. The boat also rents Draeger Atlantis rebreathers and offers certification classes on both Nitrox and the rebreathers. Techies requiring Helium, doubles, rebreather scrubber fills or other advanced stuff should check in advance with Craig and/or make their own arrangements. This kind of diving might warrant a full boat charter. Seas mostly calm and visibility the 25 M range. In the northern areas the water was 82 F and 7 7F in the southern areas. Lack of large edible species like grouper. Here are some highlights: Wreck of the Blackjack: The Blackjack is a WWII era B17 sitting upright and intact in 158 fsw (47 M). The plane was ditched by its crew after flak damage. Next to a reef that provides a nice wall to look at while decompressing. Plane is in excellent condition (the tail gun still moves in its mount) and we had sufficient vis to see the whole plane. Have a good plan before getting in the water as even on Nitrox 26 you only have 10 minutes on the wreck unless you are planning some serious decompression time. Dinah's Beach, made famous by Bob and Dinah Halsted; on the left is one of the prettiest walls you'll ever see. Huge sea fans, amazing fields of lettuce coral, schools of big humphead wrasse and two of our divers even saw hammerhead sharks. To the right is remarkable "muck" diving; mating octopus, mantis shrimp, cuttlefish (no Flamboyants), clownfish, lionfish (at least 5 species including the twin-spot), morays, nudibranchs. Cobb's Cliff: nice ridge with walls on either side topping out at 20 feet. Two large Spanish dancers, a blue ribbon eel and schools of anthias. Observation Point: we carefully examined every log and rock from about 140 feet up with no joy. But squid in the shallows were mating and laying their eggs in a branch of coral; one of the coolest things I've yet seen underwater. A pass near Samurai: incoming current runs over 5 knots, a helluva ride. At the end you get swept into an amazing soft coral and gorgonian garden. Saw some bigger grouper and grey reef sharks as well. The Manta Cleaning Station: are everywhere along a sandy beach but owning to limited vis and their ability to move quickly it's hard to get in the water with them. Mantas on 5 of the 6 dives and at a distance of a few feet. Coming from San Jose, CA it took me 2 whole days, 3 countries, 4 airlines and 6 airports (SJC, LAX, SYD, CNS, POM and GUR) to get there. Arrive at least a day early in case your luggage decides upon a different itinerary. Stayed in the Alotau International Hotel that was under constructions. Nice. Alotau itself is a dull town; the hotel will have a tour service.

Golden Dawn,August 1999, Lois B. Zarka, Brooklyn, NY. Vis: 20-150 ft. Water: 83-86 degrees. 10 days diving. Owner Craig does outstanding job. Constantly redives and discovers new sites. Boat run beautifully by great crew, food excellent, captain helps make the trip always willing to try new spot; a real mensch. Super guide and always there to help find critters. Craig named a dive "A Putz Dive. His meaning visibility 20 feet. When told what the word means to a New Yorker, laughed and still named the site "Putz Dive. Big pelagics, manta cleaning station, dwarf manta cleaning station. Almost every other little critter found by Craig. Only one mantis shrimp. Craig knowledgeable about PNG and helps locals understand the importance of preserving reefs.

Paradise Sport,November 1998, Bill Garner, Pittsburgh, PA. Vis: 30-50 ft. Water: 80-84 degrees. Restrictions enforced: 110 ft. Ship was all that they advertised. Diving was different from I expected muck diving. I was at first disappointed, but after the cruise director took me out, the gloom changed to thrills! Adventure Express arranged everything (excellent). A trip to the highlands, Ambua Lodge was a wonderful adventure. (Mike Ball Dive Expeditions, Ph: 011-61-77-723022, or (US) 520-556-9590, 800-952-4319;Fax: 011-61-77-212152 or 520-566-9598;e-mail: mike.ball@t140aone.net.au)

Paradise Sport,November 1998, Harry L. Cure, Jr., Fort Worth, TX. Vis: 30-80 ft. Water: 83-85 degrees. Great boat. First class accommodations and service. The best for small and unusual marine life.

Paradise Sport,November 1998, José Kirchner, Carmichael CA. vis: 5-80 ft. Water 80-84 degrees. Experienced divers briefed and allowed their own profiles and planning, unless guide requested. Sign in and out and return with positive tank pressure. E-6 processing. Camera rinse/tables, battery charging stations lavish. PNG is critter heaven! Milne Bay diving limited by unseasonable weather, but many sites available. Varied from open-sea pinnacles to muck diving with incredible macro, to a dive on the B-17 Black Jack in 156 fsw. (Good planning and hang tanks made the dive reasonable with aluminum 80, we spent 12 minutes, another 33 minutes working off nitrogen on the nearby colorful reef. Not newly certified they expect people with a minimum of 50 dives, and varied experience. They treat divers as adults, and those demonstrating appropriate qualifications and equipment are allowed to dive solo. Advanced instruction is available, as are photo and video courses. Accommodations lavish and spacious. (One passenger, however, wound up in a small, cramped cabin) Dive deck is well laid out, and Nitrox is available. (A "free Nitrox" offer from a dive magazine we had quoted was not honored.) Après dive activities were varied, including village visits, and the salon had advanced sound and dual video systems. Food tasty and varied. Captain professional and competent, as was dive manager. Food varied, well-prepared and plentiful. The photo/video setup is outstanding, and had all the facilities available (including digital video edit). Some crew seemed close to burnout and indigenous crew seemed competent if distant. The bad and the ugly: Checkout was a scramble, with more than a hint for a tip. Morning departure early with basic continental breakfast. The names of some sites are being changed through creeping incremental-ism. Mike Ball's so-called "Lavadi" is better known as Dinah's Beach, for instance, originally named for pioneer Bob Halsted's capable and personable wife, Dinah; longtime names should be left alone. None of the sites were moored, and sometimes they dropped a large anchor on coral, or tied a chain around a bommie, with a small swath of accompanying devastation. Given that Peter Hughes and smaller local operators in PNG have installed moorings, there is no excuse for Mike Ball's Japanese-financed operation to claim they cannot afford to secure and preserve dive sites for the future.

Paradise Sport,December 1998, Roger Chari, NYC. Vis: 20-40 ft. Water: 84-86 degrees. Fantastic boat. As luxurious as live-aboards get. Good food, lots of local vegetables and fruit. Terrific crew. Hard to beat for easy diving and variety of macro creatures. Nudis galore, seahorse, ghost pipefish, crinoid shrimp; most in 25 feet of water or less; one wall current dive we had a half dozen silvertip sharks, a manta; huge schools of fish on the reef.

Paradise Sport,March 1999, Yong Choi, Palo Alto, CA. Vis: 60-150 ft. Water: 84-87 degrees. Restrictions: 150 ft. depth. Don't go if you are not ready for advanced diving. You need anti-malaria, typhoid and hepatitis. Stateroom spacious with window and 110 & 220 V. Meals not best but service and attitude excellent. Well equipped for photography; E-6 processing. Clown fish, leaf fish, squid, sea horse, weedy scorpion. Great diving in the morning before the breakfast. Discovered new dive sight near the Sanaroa Island. Great diver's destination.

Paradise Sport,June 1999, Frank Arroyo, Lafayette, CA. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 82-85 degrees. Restrictions: None, but maximum depths and times recorded after each dive. Fantastic live-aboard and crew. Craig was an excellent divemaster and Michael an excellent cook. People in their outrigger canoes delivered lobster and crab every day, along with fruits and vegetables. Saw eagle rays and a large silvertip sharks (silvertip reef). Lots of interesting critters - angel fish, scorpion fish, crocodile fish, leaf scorpion fish. An unforgettable trip well worth the money. We discovered new dive sight near the Sanaroa Island. It was a great divers' destination

Paradise Sport,September 1999, Jeffrey D. Hubbard, M.D., Glenmont, NY. Vis: 50-90 ft. Water: 86 degrees. Excellent crew. Fresh food comes aboard daily shop at your local outrigger canoe. Trip director Craig allows maximum freedom consistent with safety. Last day: sleep late, checkout, full breakfast.

Star Dancer,December 1998, Kim Kalisch, Fremont, CA. Vis: 50-250 ft. Water: 80-85 degrees. Reefs pristine, every type of hard and soft coral, unbelievable amount of reef fish. Cuttle fish, blue ribbon eels, leaf scorpion fish. Diving easy. Water clarity was degraded on the rainy days, but when the sun came out, WOW! Topside heated up quickly, so rain and clouds were not a bother. Guest Aussie Chef for the 1st half the week produced universally bland meals. Kiwi, the captain, filled in and saved the culinary part of the trip. (Peter Hughes Diving, Inc.; Phone 800-669-9391 or 800-932-6237; Fax 305-669-9475; e-mail dancer@peterhughes.com; website www.peterhughes.com)

Star Dancer,February 1999, Mel Butler, Claremont, CA. Vis: 40-75 ft. Water: 80-84 degrees. Restriction: use good judgment. Excellent boat, accommodations, food. Well-organized dive deck. Tanks always ready; Tim, Elias, Brian helpful and always available. Sites healthy, only one lacked a tie down in place of anchor. Dive briefings well organized, but I sometimes felt that the briefer had never dived the site. When the briefer describes, "pipefish, green and pink leaf fish, mantis shrimp, cleaner shrimp," I suspect that one of the crew might have a rough idea where to find them. Only Tim, the New Guinean Dive Master, seemed happy to search with us, and he only dived one dive/day. Several crew members had cameras and would either dash from place to place, or shoot a whole roll of film on one object, allowing no one else a chance. On one muck dive, there were three crew in water with their cameras. The customers have come half way around the world to see this stuff. I felt safe, accounted for, and retrieved when I surfaced far from the boat. I liked the crew; Kiwi, the captain, had an eye on things, Matt took the best underwater photos of me I have ever had, and I the cook and her assistants did wonders. I missed visiting villages.

Star Dancer,March 1999, Don & Merideth Parker, Las Vegas, NV. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 88-89 degrees. Airport in Port Moresby: though seven divers going to the Star Dancerasked for information about the flight to New Britain, the plane left without us. We were unable to get to the boat until the next day, disrupting the trip for all passengers. This apparently happens frequently because the menu at the hotel where we were housed for the night, at Air Niugini expense, was titled "Disrupt Menu." Once on the Star Dancerthings went well, with the usual Peter Hughes quality of boat and staff. Did tend to do two or three dives at each location rather than moving to new locations between dives. We had expected to see many pelagics but they were few. While we enjoyed the trip, the problems with Air Niugini both going and returning (the outgoing flight was canceled after we got to the air field) will keep us from returning to PNG. After two trips to Palau on the Sun Dancer,we prefer Palau to PNG. The travel is much easier and the sea life is better.

Star Dancer,March, 1999, William Ungerman, Santa Ana, CA. Never had a bad experience on a Peter Hughes boat. This one no exception. PNG is a long way to come; add a week travel time coming and going. Air Niugini watch out. Boat is nice. Did Witu Islands itinerary. They also do Rabaul. Diving was nice, but highly repetitive. Some pelagics, but no where the high speed diving the group had expected. We were spoiled by Palau and the Solomons. Some ripping currents. Food adequate and plentiful. Crew friendly with exception of an arrogant XX#$R&C who Peter reports is no longer employed. Walindi Plantation is bucolic, in the middle of nowhere. FeBrinadocked alongside. February/March is the wet season and may not be best time to come. Vis: 60-120 ft. Water 86 degrees. Air 80's to mid 90's. Kiwi good Captain. After cruise banquet at Walindi is a feast. The choreography of the native dance review needs reconfiguring. Moving the boat only twice a day is a shame when there are so many good dive sites to be visited. Yeah, I know, weather, time, distance.

Star Dancer,April 1999, Dan Mailick, New Rochelle, NY. Vis: 80-100 ft. Water: 82-86 degrees. The best diving you can do!

Star Dancer,June 1999, Thomas D. Webb, MD (twebbmd@ucla.edu), Playa del Rey, CA. Vis: 100-200 ft. Water: 85-89 degrees. Sunny, water calm. Restrictions: 130 ft. limit, no decompression diving. Outstanding, comfortable and well-run. Diving operation is great for beginners to experts. Food very good and alcoholic drinks are included. Macro heaven. Some pelagics, but the focus is on small stuff. Saw schools of spinner dolphins from the boat, but not in the water. Grey and white-tip reef sharks common, we saw silver-tips on some dives. Large schools of trevally common, many tuna. Reefs are a riot of coral, and the small fish and invertebrates are outstanding. Saw a cuttlefish make a kill on a night dive. Airplane connections in PNG are tenuous. Do not attempt to make a close connection; you'll likely miss it. Flights are subject to long delay, cancellation, and may even leave before departure time.

Tiata,April 1998, David N. Reis-Snyder, FL. Vis: 70-100 ft. Water: 80-82 degrees. Nothing bad about this dive operation. (Ph: 011-675 3257755, Fax: 011-675 3259746)