Recent posts by wossa1 | Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews Forums

	Thanks for sharing your video…I must admit,the reefs and marine life in Cuba always make me feel a little depressed, they are in a desperately sorry state.

Thanks chaps…much appreciated.

Spunky…..always room for one more !!

While snorkelling at Los Corales, my snorkel buddy turned over a rock. This is the picture I took of what was under it. I have been trying to interpret what I see. Context: there was a Balloonfish a few feet from the rock, whether it was there or moved there after my friend disturbed the rock, I do not know. However, I see a patch of what looks like a Pufferfish under the whatever they are in the picture. Also, moving up a little, what is that?

Here is the little Balloonfish:

And a link to the rest of my pictures:

Los Corales snorkelling

I see an Octopus ….on a tube train in London at the moment so internet rubbish, I will have a better look when home and on a computer (looking on my mobile phone, pic is small).

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It’s sometimes eerie, the Thistlegorm has everything as people had left it before it was blown up which is poignant, boots left where they were last used etc. I like wreck diving, and if you spend a little time researching what you are going to dive then it brings it all too life a little better. I leave for the Revillagigedo Archipelago (southern tip of Baja California) next month for a two week diving trip which I am looking forward too….this is back to pelagic action, rather than wrecks.

I’ll post some pics when I get back

I thought I would update some images from a recent diving trip. This trip was specialised in Ship Wrecks, these tend to be a little more deeper than normal diving so the pictures I came back with are not quite as good or clear as normal…but here are a few.A little video below of non ship wrecks that I took whilst doing some reef diving between wrecks dives….(hit the settings button for HD quality).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JZ5BAPpWv8

A non wreck picture too…a small clown fish in a red anemone…little bugger gave me the run-a-round !

This is the wreck of the Carnatic, (sank 1869) looking head-on as she lays on her side. The ship was carrying £40,000.00 of Gold at the time, (several million in today’s value), 31 people drowned as the ship broke in the middle as it sank.

The main ship I wanted to dive was the SS Thistlegorm. A WWII supply ship which was absolutely laden with valuable equipment for the troops based in East Africa. She lays now over 100 feet down on the sea bed, her cargo still on board and it’s a fascinating dive. The SS Thistlegorm was spotted by two German Heinkel HE-111 aircraft and two bombs dropped on her with devastating impact as it had struck the part of the ship that carried huge amounts of ammunition for the troops. The pics below are taken from the outside of the wreck as it was pitch black and pretty tight getting around inside, so still photography didn’t really work. I will load a short film over the next week of some footage I took from diving in the heart of the ship where on the various decks, Bedford trucks and BSA motorcycles are still lined up, aircraft wings, engines and shells remain untouched.The Thistlegorm laying to rest over 100 feet down, the 120 mm anti aircraft gun still visible on the stern of the ship pointing to the seabed.

On the top desk she was carrying two fully operational Locomotion engines and carriages, the force of the explosion threw the locomotions 60 feet from either side of the ship. These now lay eerily upright on the sea bed, the water was quite dark and it was strange to see these appear slowly out of the gloom once we had located them.

The huge anti aircraft gun positioned at the back of the ship, operated by 9 trained crew.

Additional heavy calibre machine gun specially fitted onto the deck of the ship.

Large unexploded shells lay amongst the wreck.

The ships propeller and my dive buddy….taken on the last dive after spending 2 days going through each deck. The last day we got up at 4.00am to dive and this is us just coming out of the hold of the wreck…the light is quite poor as it’s early sunrise.

A great weeks diving….

Thanks Warren. 10mm on a crop sensor?

I’m thinking there must be a video of this somewhere. Even a GoPro bolted to a light bracket would grab our attention. LOL

10 mm on a crop sensor (Canon 7D)

There is a video….very tongue in cheek, just for fun so not to be taken seriously as I was messing about on my Mac during the long flight home from San Diego.

vimeo.com/108986121

I will post a proper video once I have downloaded and got round to sorting the footage.

[/quote]Let me ask you this question. You swimming with sharks no protection? Have you ever felt scared? omg these photos are amazing! [/quote]

Thanks Admin

We did have protection if we felt we needed it at any stage. We would stand up on the top of the cages (see below) so that we had a certain level of protection, but still the freedom to do the photography. From time to time the odd shark would sometimes get a little familiar or over excited so we would drop down inside the cage when this happened.

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How did I miss this thread? All I can say is "wow"! Fabulous shots. How close did you get, or were you using a long lens?

Thanks eeeefarm…..hope you are well

I was using a 10mm wide angle lens on the majority of shots so you were just a few feet away. Captivating animal, most of the time they were very calm and quite shy, no sign of malice or aggression that you see on ‘shark week’.

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We were lucky with the weather, the boat had been held in Ensenada for the last two weeks and had not been able to get out due to Hurricanes and rough sea. The weather was good for us, the 24 hour crossing to Guadalupe can be tough going but once there, it was pretty ideal conditions.

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These folks are doing a great job:
www.guadalupefund.org Nice link mate….I will be going with Nautilus Explorer who are mentioned on here. I will be going to the Revillegigado Islands with the Nautilus early next year for two weeks diving as well, great boat and crew.

www.bite-back.com

I have just spoken to one of the cleaners at work who is Mexican and she looked at me like I was insane when I mentioned to her I was travelling to Tijuana…she said that she wouldn’t even go there as a National and then reeled off all these horror stories about its reputation. Wow, crazy place, it sounds too much of a gamble to stay, too many robberies and other weird stuff going on.I have decided to go to San Diego, spend the 24 hours there sight seeing and then make my away across the border, through Tijuana early evening to the dive boat.

Gulf side to watch the pupping?
Down to Isla Guadalupe Spunky, 250 km’s off the West coast of Mexico, a really good place to see Great Whites over the next month or so. I think it’s more of a mating thing going on, the smaller Males are there now and then the bigger females arrive mid September….fingers crossed

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Ha ha…..reading between the lines I’m getting the hint to head to San Diego ! Tijuana does have me a little intrigued !

Spunky, I am heading down to Baja California to spend a week diving with Great Whites so maybe a night out in Tijuana would be a good warm up for me

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I have 24 hours in Tijuana in a few weeks time, I hear it’s a little edgy/lively ? Anything to do here or is it more worth while to cross the border to San Diego instead ?

www.bite-back.com

What camera brand do you guys usually buy? I have always used Canon for underwater and above, I like the build etc and I have become familiar with the menus and button positions without having to look each time which really helps when underwater. It’s a familiarisation thing rather than anything else.I use a Canon 7d with an Ikelite housing with a GoPro attached on an arm to record video whilst diving at the moment. I use a Canon G1 X Mk II as a back up which I really love as it’s half the size of the 7d in its housing and gives fantastic quality images. (I also have the the first G1-X, but that had a few issues with the focusing, so I would avoid that if you come across it).

I have a couple of dive trips coming up soon and I have already decided to just take my little Canon G1-X Mk II on one of the trips to save lugging a big camera case on flights.

I love GoPros Admin, they can be set on a wide setting so you would have to be pretty wild if you miss the subject your aiming at…lol. : )

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