Papua New Guinea, Kavieng

I've finally finished my journal for Papua New Guinea:

Underwater:

http://echeng.com/travel/papuanewguinea/febrinauw/

Topside:

http://echeng.com/travel/papuanewguinea/febrinatop/

Unfortunately, it wasn't the most productive underwater photography trip, but I did get a few photos I like.

There are also links to a 14-day topside trip, which was by far the highlight of going to PNG!

I took off all of my gear and got into the little submarine by the San-Ko Maru.

Great photos Eric, as always! I really like the anemonefish with eggs.

Funny... we did the same with the minisub but on a night dive and with the long deco hose "borrowed" from the boat. I was amazed how they could fit 2 guys in there when I had trouble squeezing in and I'm not all that big a guy.

I'm surprised you didn't find much to shoot... my favorite dive in the area is planet and albatross channels. Big and small all rolled into one...of course only when the tide is right.

I found a lot of macro critters to shoot. Planet was a disaster -- I think that was the outgoing current dive where the dive master ran out of air at like 80'. Albatross was during... slack tide, I believe. No fish. We couldn't find silvertip reef, and were dropped on a tiny little raised coral area, with nothing to see.

No current? No fish.

Big Fish Reef was ripping, though! Lots of fish, but it took nearly 1000 psi to get from the swim step to the drop off.

Eric, I especially liked your topside photos and reports...what an adventure

Your Longnose Hawkfish pose stood out to me

Karl

I found a lot of macro critters to shoot.  Planet was a disaster -- I think that was the outgoing current dive where the dive master ran out of air at like 80'.  Albatross was during... slack tide, I believe. No fish.  We couldn't find silvertip reef, and were dropped on a tiny little raised coral area, with nothing to see.

No current? No fish.

Big Fish Reef was ripping, though! Lots of fish, but it took nearly 1000 psi to get from the swim step to the drop off.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Who was the skipper of the boat? I've been on the Febrina and we were on Silvertip reef(the silly shark feeding is not my thing so I take it off the menu on my charters) a few times. I can't believe Alan (Raabe) couldn't find the reef, it's on the GPS! I'm surprised they screwed up like that. If Alan was the skipper, he's going to have a hard time living that down

And yes, a lot of the channel sites are current dependant, so it's pretty much a lake dive if the water isn't flowing the right way.

I'm also surprised that they made you swim to the drop off at Big Fish... usually you drop and run with the current down to the drop off. The Febrina isn't that nice a boat but it functioned ok. The crew are decent but I am surprised they didn't do the channel sites at the right tides. That's like basic knowledge.

Drew -

Believe me, I was surprised by everything that happened on the Febrina. It wasn't Alan at the help, and they had some GPS coordinates wiped out somehow, which explained not every finding silvertip reef (but dropping us on something anyway, without telling us) and taking an hour to find the San-Ko Maru.

At Big Fish, I asked twice to be dropped off by boat to drift to the drop off, but they wouldn't do it. I was annoyed by that, too.

Eric,

Sorry to hear you didn't have the best diving experience...PNG is usually rated at near the top of having every diver's list of great dive sites!

It's so much fun to look at your fabulous photos and see faces I recognize. We absolutely loved Ambua also and the Huli wigmen...thanks for such a great journal.

Wow! Eric,

What an adventure you had in PNG. Your web journal is highly entertaining and informative, beautiful photos, also your web site is truly phenominal!

Darryl