I have spent the last couple of years either working as an IT contractor or working fulltime for short stints where I didn’t accumulate much holiday time, so my last “major” dive trip was some time ago. In the meantime I have been using the prospect of a 2 week dive holiday as a carrot to keep going through that period. 2007/2008 has brought employment stability and personal stability so finally it was time to realise the goal! Yippeeee!

Indo-Pacific was the region of choice and PNG was by far my number one preference. It appealed for many obvious diving reasons but also my available leave days were out of sync with my girlfriend’s, so I felt this solo trip should be to a place I would be unlikely to go in future if Laura was with me (she isn’t a diver….yet!).

Stage one of planning were emails to all my dive buddies asking where to go in PNG. I quickly came to the conclusion that a live-aboard was definitely the way to go, at least that’s what I thought then, because in hindsight, land based diving would have been fine for me.

I soon learnt that live-aboards in PNG are very expensive and despite a couple of emails from a dear friend who knows some operators, I couldn’t get a price that I felt offered me value for money. Indonesia, a country I had never visited before was now on the radar.

I think there are some obvious reasons why the boats in PNG (and the Solomon’s) are so expensive, cost of fuel being high on the list, but it strikes me the primary reason is good old demand, with it coming primarily from the US and Japan. I respect that, particularly in seasonal businesses to prosper you have to make hay while the sun shines.

The internet era and Google has brought us a new challenge called Analysis Paralysis. Yeah, you know it, a simple search and before you know it, too much info, too many choices, too many what’s, if’s and buts. I had a bout of AP for several weeks as I Googled my way through diving in Indonesia. The infection got worse after I settled on North Sulawesi … too many resorts … too many options with good and bad stories … too many opinions.

I quickly focused on North Sulawesi as I envisaged a week on the southern side, the Lembeh area, lots of macro and lots of unique critters, the “Muck Diving” capital of the world, and then a week on the northern side of the peninsula, the Bunaken area, for corals, walls and wide angles. I’d miss out on some histories wrecks and aircraft, but you can’t have everything.




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I was travelling on my own so friendly social dive resorts were required, they didn’t need to be plush, just offer value for money, good guides and safe diving. I shopped about and ended up following my mate Dave Harasti’s recommendations of Bastianos on the Lembeh side (they also have one on the Bunaken side) and Cocotinos on the Bunaken side.

Getting to North Sulawesi from Australia.

I do wonder how much business the dive travel agencies in Australia get from individuals, I suspect not a lot because it is so easy to package a holiday for yourself, indeed I’m not sure it would be too hard to organise group travel?

Gateway to North Sulawesi is the city of Manado. There are a number of ways to get there from Australia but by far and away the most efficient is via Singapore. It’s simple to arrange through the Singapore Airlines website and the online prices are excellent, better than what any travel agency could give me. The Singapore to Manado leg is operated by Silk Air, the regional airline of Singapore Airlines so baggage transfer and booking is seamless.

There are 4 Singapore - Manado flights a week so with plenty of Sydney Singapore flights every day you can choose a quick stopover in Singapore if you wish. On my outbound I had 8 hours overnight and I used the Transit hotel in the terminal (best airport I have ever been in) which only cost me AU$70 (approx) for 8 hours (my flight did get delayed further, see post before this).

Nearly all the resorts in North Sulawesi have “bundled” packages, that is to say, meet at Airport, transfers to and from, meals included, x number of dives etc, so all I did was book flights via singaporeairlines.com, book the transit hotel also via the web, book both resorts via email and advise of my arrival and departure times..done!! All booked..easy!!

Nearly forgot to add, luggage and weight limits, Silk Air are fine, they are used to divers (I’d say flight was 40% divers, 40% bird watchers and rest were regular travellers), the challenge is getting past the check-in staff at Sydney! I managed it, 15kg backpack and a 30kg bag which was 98% dive gear (you only need T-shirts, shorts and one long pants for clothes), I think I was lucky, I was caught but the supervisor was busy when I insisted my camera gear wasn’t going into the hold. My advice, keep your primary luggage to 25kg and you run a better chance of them not checking your backpack.

I survived the road from Manado to Bitung!

OK, so remember its my first time to Indonesia, Oh my God..on the road, they’re nuts..crazy..friggin loopers, I now know why the taxi drivers in Sydney who are from the wider region use the car horn so often, it’s the way they learned to drive!

Met at airport as expected and an hour drive to Bitung for the crossing to Bastianos on Lembeh Island. The roads reminded me of the roads in Ireland when I was a young fella and Ireland had only just joined the EU, narrow and chaos on the single lane road with trucks, mopeds, cars etc. competing, anyway I clinched the seat and not so much survived but was relieved we didn’t kill someone.

Lembeh and Bastianos.

Bitung is a port town/city in Lembeh straight, look at the Google map above (open the larger one and zoom)and its size is put into perspective, as such its not the most plush town but thankfully it was just a transit point.

Most of the dive resorts in this area are to the north east of Bitung or across the straight on Lembeh Island. I had chosen Bastianos but other notable resorts are Two-Fish, KBR and Lembeh resort. Particularly on the island, the resorts are multi-level rising up the side of the island, ie dive shop water side and accommodation and restaurant above. Bastianos is no exception but it has a camera room at the water level so not so bad in terms of carrying camera gear up multiple levels and of course the dive staff look after your dive gear rinse and storage.

I believe dive routines are much the same in all the resorts, double dive before lunch and after lunch, choosing one or two dives from an afternoon dive, Mandarin dive (dusk) or a night dive.
In my opinion, key to great diving in this area is your guide. And why wouldn’t it be, they are locals, they have been diving the area day in and out for years and they are the people who discovered just about everything. My guide at Bastianos was a great guy called Elrick.

Lembeh is arguably the Muck-diving capital of the world, that is to say that the bottom is mostly black volcanic sand and while at first glance it appears lifeless, it is very far from lifeless and is home to some of the weirdest critters found anywhere. In terms of photography it is 50mm / 60mm / 100mm stuff i.e. macro, although I must say that if I were to visit again, because I have the images I got this trip, I’d love to try some close focus wide angle, particularly on critters like the Mimic Octopus.

Highlights in Lembeh for me were a particular Mimic Octopus encounter (although I was nearly out of air so it was short), Pygmy Seahorses (Yes they are really the size of a grain of rice), several differently coloured Ornate Ghost Pipefish and a number of tiny Anglerfish. I also got to see a Flamboyant Cuttlefish but there were 4 other photographers photographing him, kicking the sand up, so I just moved on and let the guide know that if he found something with me wait a few minutes before telling the others.

Average dive time was in the 60 to 70 minute range, hard to get much more as tanks are filled almost exactly to 200bar. Dive profile naturally varies but a typical profile might be down to 18 metres on a sloping sandy bottom, potter for a bit pretending to find stuff while the guide really does the work, meander back up the slope with the second half of the dive in the 12 to 5 metre range. A couple of dives I had tidal current but it was easily managed. Visibility varied from 5 metres to 15 and I believe that’s typical on the Lembeh side. Plenty of litter about from the towns along the strait but not as bad as I had expected and much of it providing homes for a variety of critters.

If you’re heading over, research what you really want to see and the guides will choose sites that match and most likely will locate the subject. Equally, I went with a “show me what you think I should see” attitude and that was fine.

I enjoyed my time in Bastianos, although I wasn’t in great form, almost lethargic but I subsequently realised I did have a bug, because when I went to the next resort, I … eh .. let’s say, emptied. My girlfriend had exactly the same bug so I reckon a bit of food poisoning from Sydney, just before I set off.

Speaking of food, the food at Bastianos was great but there is something lacking and I realised when I went to Cocotinos that what Bastianos needs is a bit more professionalism on the hospitality side, little things like the welcome, welcome briefing and attention to detail for some of the non-diving stuff. But of course you get what you pay for and I’d like to try out a place like Lembeh Resort if I was going back.

The Bastianos package included transfer back to the airport but I used that to transfer to Cocotinos, just outside Manado, on the Bunaken National Park side of North Sulawesi, no issue and no extra cost for the diversion.

A quick hello to my dive buddies from Bastianos, Vandit and Pritha from Dive India, see http://diveindia.com/ Vandit dives with a 20D also in an Aquatica housing but with the Inon 45 degree viewfinder attached.

Bunaken and Cocotinos.

The welcome upon arrival was so warm and genuine that I immediately feel in love with Odyssea Divers small resort, Cocotinos.

The resort is only a couple of months old so it really is in tip-top condition and such is the attitude there that I am confident in will remain in mint condition for many years to come.

Imagine this, a “standard” room better than most rooms I’ve stayed in anywhere, kingsize bed, tea/coffee/water/safe/bathrobe, lovely tiled traditional bathroom (western toilet), air con and an efficient fan, a relaxing walk 5 metres from my front door to jump into a beautiful pool which is located beside the bar / restaurant (hooked up with wireless internet), with the camera room, dive shop and jetty on the other side of the bar, what more would a diver want … within reason.

While Cocotinos is relatively new, Odyssea divers are well established so there is a very competent feel about the place. My guide was Djeki, absolute class and Odyssea’s MD is Andrew Lok, a native of Singapore who is well established and known in Sulawesi. Andrew was telling me that they have a new Cocotinos resort opening in Lombok in August next year, it’s already on my list of want to do destinations.

One thing to note about Cocotinos, it’s located in a small village and like any rural village anywhere, when the sun comes up, everyone gets up, so if heading over and sensitive to early morning noise (including dawn prayers from the local Mosque), let them know and they will room you accordingly, aside from that, it adds something to the experience being in such a location and if you take any of the half day or day long land based trips, you will get even more value from that experience.

So what about the diving? Well the area is known for Bunaken Island and the surrounding Bunaken National Park. Stereotypical diving is moving, in light current, along walls of coral with heaps of Turtles, visibility in the 15 to 20 metre plus area and lovely warm water.

In both locations I dived with a 5mm long-john with a normal rash vest covering my shoulders and arms (long sleeve rashie recommended), Bunaken side was probably 27 to 28 degrees and Lembeh a tad cooler but after 26 dives, I still didn’t feel the cold.

I did 3 wall dives out at the islands but I actually preferred the dives just off the mainland. Typical profile there would be max depth probably to 18 metres with most of the action in the 16 to 5 metre area of sloping white sand with heaps of coral and some small walls.

Highlight for me was without doubt the Pontohi Seahorse, so cool! If a Pygmy Seahorse is 1 grain of rice, these guys were probably at most 3 grains. They were just beautiful and I was delighted to capture one of them feeding so he didn’t take any notice of me. Speaking of that, I had heard so many stories about having to wait for Pygmy Seahorses to get used to you before they turn and face a camera, maybe beginners luck with me but fortunately had no issues and the Pygmies on the Lembeh side effectively ignored me.
Other highlights for me were the critters in the Sea Stars and on the finger coral and the challenges of getting that Mandarin fish “kissing shot”, which I didn’t quite achieve.

While at Cocotinos I meet Jennifer Temple who is a cracking underwater photographer. Jenn just spend 3 months in and about Indonesia and the Philippines. Many of the shots on her Flickr site are from the Cocotinos / Bunaken area, check out her site here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennifer_temple/

The Cocotinos Sunset Series;

I was a bold boy at Bunaken.

It was like this..there I was moving along at a nice pace with the current along the wall at Bunaken, I looked right, Djeki was 7 or so metres ahead on a corner, and round the corner, at my depth comes a beautiful Turtle, coming head on for me, oh how cool.

I have the 10-22 on, he isn’t quite close enough yet, I raise the rig .. what the.. round the corner chasing after a turtle, swimming into the current, in MY SHOT, is a bloke with a Sea and Sea dSLR rig and what looked like metre long arms, get real dude, your not going to catch up and you have ruined my shot .. I am sooo bad, I started breathing like crazy, he ruined my shot, I was bubblin’ to ruin his.

The Turtle rose up over me, I grabbed a couple of frames, yer man kept after him. I chuckled to my self, I felt so bad, when I got back on the boat like a bold kid confessing to his mother I had to confess to Djeki … hehehe, so baaad!

The Aquatica 40D rig gets a workout.

I’ve had my Aquatica 40D rig for a few months and this was the first serious work out it was getting. All in all, I’m very happy. The Aquaview viewfinder was an absolute dream, I loved the ability to change aperture and shutter speed with one hand and at the shallow depths I felt confident in the integrity of the ports. It was also an easy operation to change ports on the boats and the stix floatation arms ensured my wrists and arms were never tired while diving, although I did feel it in my wrists on land towards the end of the trip (26 dives in 9 days).

It wouldn’t be a photo trip without some issue and for me it was the control for the 40D’s rear dial not working. Taping the rubber grip to the control fixed this so looks like the rubber slipping was the issue. Vandit said he had previously had the same issue but he super glued the rubber to the control.
The other challenge I had was adjusting from eTTL to manual strobes, in fact, for the first few days it really annoyed me. My previous camera was a Canon 350D in an Ikelite housing that had eTTL so I pretty much positioned the strobe and forgot about it, its all manual with the new rig.

Initially I addressed the challenge (learning curve?) by powering down the strobes to 1/8th power and only worked aperture and shutter speed but the best solution was when I dropped the second strobe and shot with a single strobe, that was a good move and the way I’m going in future for macro photography!

Conclusion.

A great trip, exceptional value for money at under AU$4000 including all spending money, flights etc. (tip - ask the resorts about any “specials” they are doing, I got a Adex dive show special from Cocotinos)
I can see myself going to Cocotinos again, maybe as a stopover on my way to Ireland next, its only 3 or so hours from Singapore, in fact people pop over for a week from Singapore to do their courses.

Next time I’ll definitely bring Laura, I was told there wasn’t much to do topside, but there is, Cocotinos has a nice pool and spa and there are several half day and day long guided trips to take, although you still wouldn’t be heading out of the resort for sunset strolls along the beach.

Diving was great, I’m happy with my photography but not ecstatic, looking forward to returning with some ideas in my mind as to shots I want to get, might even try one of the wrecks next time.

* * The underwater gallery from this trip is; click here * *

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So I say to the waiter, “Is it normal to serve white wine at room temperature in Singapore”, Well according to him it is, but he can chill it for me if I wish but it will take 5 minutes. Welcome to the Changai Village Hotel, or maybe it should be the Changai Village Catering School.

In my past life before I got into IT I was a Hotel Manager back in Ireland. After spending my school days working at the Leopardstown Inn, I did a 3 year term at Cathal Brugha St (Catering College in Dublin) followed with 10 years hard labour in the trade .

In the latter part of my hotel life I was trained as an instructor for a state agency in Ireland called CERT and subsequently put in a couple of seasons as a Bar and Restaurant Service Instructor. Tonight, sitting in the restaurant of the Changai Village Hotel I was suffering Deja V’ue frm those days.

Let me set the scene, on my way to Sulawesi in Indonesia for that long awaited dive trip, Singapore Airlines to Singapore and their local subsidary, Silk Air, for the Singapore to Manado leg. Introduce Volcano Eruption! Yeah, you read it right “my flight was cancelled due to a Volcano!” How often does that one happen to you!

Sounds mad doesn’t it, until you call the resort in Manado and they don’t know anything about a Volcano and all the other airlines are flying into Manado, no longer sounds mad, indeed, starting to get mad. Anyway, flight cancelled and we’re shafted till the next day so 7 and a half hours after departure time (it was a comedy of errors and incompetance show by the Singapore Airlines staff) we make it to a Singapore Airlines Executive Hotel called the Changai Village hotel.

Well you have heard the story about the restaurant already.

So why am I writing this, am I just mad about todays experience? Maybe that’s part of it but there is more bugging me…its a 1960’s hotel thats in need of renovation, the bar and restaurant is over staffed to make up for staff inexperience and its like, well, all the staff are Indonesian and Indian and it looked like the boss were locals, there was just something very wrong…its an amateur show, like Singapore Airlines earlier.

Just ignore me, I’m bitchin’

Roll on Sulawesi tomorrow..

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So with my new 40D housing, I wasn’t happy about the Ikelite strobe bulkhead and where it entered the housing. My concern was that over time, with movement (due to close fit to camera) I’ll have a breakage where the cable enters the Silicon.

As Aquatica can’t do much for me since its a genuine Ikelite part, I needed to do something to stabilise that end of the cable.

I added some silicon, but I wasn’t happy, so I cleaned that up as best I could and have added 2 x 3M claspy type thingies that now firmly hold the cable.

The 40D fits in very snugly against the cable with minimal or no movement. The little clasp’s also hold the cable out of the way for camera loading and minimise risk of the cable catching when closing the back. All in all a good result in my opinion!

  Here are a couple of shots from the past weekends, one of the usual Sea Star close ups and one of a Seahorse at Clifton Garden’s. What do you think of the Seahorse shot?  There is something about it that I like, although as a couple of people said, it may benefit from some cropping at the sides. 

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Rob Stewarts documentary, Sharkwater, has finally made it here to Australia!

The doco doesn’t actually open to general release for another few days, but I was lucky to made it to the Sydney Premier last week. I was delighted to find out that the major cinema chains really are pushing Sharkwater, and every day since the premier there have been reviews on public TV.

Sharkwater delivers an important message that I’m not going to get into now suffice to say I will be dragging my mates who laughed at me for walking out of a restaurant that served Sharkfin soup to the cinema!

Say NO to Sharkfin soup and say NO to any business that supports or sells it! Pass it on!

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Dived at Bare Island today to test my Sigma 50mm in the Aquatica rig. All went well and managed the two shots you see here.

I’ve painted the Weedy Sea Dragon just for something different . . . . . OK, I did it to save the image. Visibility today was poor to say the least and I had lots of particles suspended in the water, the image didn’t come out too bad in the end!
There is also a shot here of an Upside-down Pipefish (Heraldia nocturna), I’ve included it because it took me 20 bloody minutes to get it! These guys can be seen free swimming but I have never seen them do that, they are more often seen in pairs swimming upside-down in little caves.
So the experience today with the 50mm was good, it’s a Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro which requires the Aquatica extension part # 18456, although on their website Aquatica suggest their isn’t a need for an extension ring. It is possible to limit movement of the lens and in that way no extension ring is required but for full functionality you need the 18456 otherwise the front of the lens will be hitting the glass.
Speaking of extension rings, I forgot to mention in the last post that I picked up some reflections on the 8 inch dome with the 10-22mm shooting into the sun, that is reflections from the front of the lens. Aquatica quote the # 18453 port extension for the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. The # 18456 extension fits and that will bring the front of the lens closer to the dome. I’ll possibly jump into the pool mid week to test.

I had exactly the same issue with that lens and Ikelite and moving to a shorter extension fixed that issue with no apparent down side.

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There is a UK based dive wear company called Fourth Element that support the OW-USS, and it struck me, when adding them to the OWUSSAustralasia site, that I am entering a fourth phase of my underwater photography life.

I started off with a little Canon S40 in a Canon housing, added a Sea and Sea strobe and not too long afterwards went to a Nikon Coolpix 5000 in an Ikelite housing. Strobe upgrade also occurred and I initially added one and then a second Ikelite DS-125.

Phase three seemed like giant step at the time as I upgrading to a dSLR with a Canon 350D, also dressed in Ikelite.

And now phase four, a Canon 40D in an Aquatica housing.

The first thing I noticed about the Aquatica rig was how compact it is when broken down. The Ikelite housing is effectively a plastic block with an opening at the back and a rugged one piece handle and base set, whereas the Aquatica is an alloy body that breaks into two even pieces with detachable handles and no base.

The Aquatica form provides better options for travelling so for example the housing will go into my backpack and the handles into my main luggage.

Aquatica housings come with either two Nikonos strobe connectors or a single Ikelite connector. As I have Ikelite strobes the Ikelite connection was an obvious choice. This means that I am back to shooting manual rather than eTTL (TTL = strobe power automatically adjusted, circuitry included with Ikelite housings).

I’m happy with the transition back to manual, I feel I have got on top of it after just one dive and I feel it’s a better way for me to go in terms of image production.

One thing that does concern me is where the strobe cable enters the housing, it appears to be stressed coming in right on top of the camera, I can see this breaking at some stage (memo to self, email Aquatica and ask them about this).

Aside from that issue the general build quality of the housing is good. Control connectivity to the buttons is precise, a snug fit so that the controls are immediately responsive. I really noticed this on my first deep dive (45 metres), the response from the buttons and dials was excellent.

I did have a control hiccup one day, one control fail to grip a camera dial when the camera was loaded. From that I have learned that testing all the controls and having a set of Allen keys at hand are important with this housing. Resolution to that specific issue was to tighten the offending control.

The primary reason I moved to Aquatica was the better port system, that is, a bayonet locking system. My previous system relied on, to a point, pressure to hold the port in place. I believe that system was responsible for a minor leak I had one day, and that minor leak was enough for me.

There are a number of different port systems out there and they all have their pro’s and con’s. A possible con with the Aquatica system is that there have been reports of it moving after being closed. I don’t see this as an issue, there is a locking system that lock’s the first piece of the port to the housing. It is a tad hard to get to reopen (I use an Allen key) but I prefer that to the latest version of the lock (on the D300 housing) which has an external knob, mine is totally internal and despite it being hard to get to, that’s one hole less and I’m happy with that.

Another superb Aquatica feature is the Aqua View. This viewfinder extension is just fantastic. Its not cheap but having now completed 5 dives with it, I’m never diving again without one! OK, maybe the bigger viewfinder on the 40D is a factor in my pleasure with the Aqua View, but still what it gives me is an even bigger viewfinder and more importantly the ability to look straight into the viewfinder since there is clearance for my reg. I have already noticed that I’m doing less image cropping in my digital darkroom.

There is a learning curve when using the viewfinder with the 100mm lens, the challenge is aiming but practise will make perfect and the pro’s massively out-weigh that con.

So, diving experience to date….my first couple of dives were macro, Canon 100mm lens. The rig is heavy and negatively bouyant underwater.

There are a number of reasons for this, as an alloy housing, there is a snugger fit to the camera body so less air inside and the ports are heavier, especially the macro port which has a heavy glass front. The Aqua view is another heavy piece and add a couple of heavy strobes like the Ikelite DS-125 and you have a rig that, after an hours diving, is difficult to manage.

Worth it? Yes, but I don’t have to put up with it. Aquatica have a buoyancy compensation float available but I use the connection point to mount a Fisheye light so I’ve just purchased some Stix floatation arms that go on my ULCS arms. I haven’t dived with the Stix setup yet and will report in on performance when I do (hopefully tomorrow)

While on the topic of arms, I have a mix of ULCS and Ikelite arms, what I have noted is that the Ikelte clamps don’t hold well with the Aquatica connections even though they are all supposed to be 1 inch balls. The grip with my ULCS clamps is excellent, so I use the Ikelte clamps at other points in the arm set.

I’ve only done a single deep dive to 45 metres with the 8 inch dome port (I’m not using the 9 inch glass megadome), no strobes. Without the strobes buoyancy was slightly negative so the housing was really easy to manage. I loved the responsiveness of the controls, with my older housing at that depth the controls would have been a tad sticky.

OK, so what else do I have to tell you..not much more really at this point, hopefully get a couple of dives in this weekend and will be able to add more after that and I’ll add a few photos to this post over the next day.

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