This snippet of news was kindly donated by the wee blonde fella. It turns out that Google have updated their SEA view again, this time with the wreck of the Mary Celestein Bermuda, so if you can't make it to Bermuda for a dive on it, you can take a virtual tour online.
"Google has mapped the wreck of paddle steamer the Mary Celeste, which sank in 1864 and sparked a maritime mystery. The wreck was catalogued as part of Google Street View using images from the Catlin Seaview Survey and allows computer users to browse the remains of the ship without getting wet. The ruined vessel rests some 55 feet below the waves off the coast of Bermuda complete with one of its huge wheels."
Ok, so it's not quite the same as direct contact with the water but you got to admit that it looks pretty damned fun! The video footage of the whales and whale song is pretty amazing too. One more thing to add to the christmas list........
"DeepFlight Super Falcon, a $1.7m personal submarine that is hand built by Hawkes Ocean Technologies. Of course, it looks like it comes from a sci-fi or spy movie because Graham Hawkes, the designer of the Super Falcon, has made submersibles for films like For Your Eyes Only and Aliens of the Deep."
"With an obscene number of GoPro cameras and some hydrophones, Hawkes and his co-pilot Lee Behel decided to dive off the coast of Hawaii in an attempt to capture a whale song. The DeepFlight Super Falcon is capable of dropping to almost 400ft and the battery powered electric engine can move it around at 2-6 knots (up to 6.9mph)."
So my former colleagues at Sony have finally (officially) announced the A7 and A7r this morning and what a corking pair of cameras they are as well. A lot of the features we knew of but they kept us guessing as to the final shape of the body right until the end.
With 24MP and PDAF on the A7, 36MP on the A7R and weather sealing on both, they are just some of the wonderful new goodies Sony has brought to the table as well as allowing for native E mount usage as well as the new FE standard for the bodies not to mention A mount support through adapter as well as every other manufacturers lenses through adapter as well. This on top of the announced 15 new FE lenses to be released over the months.
It just doesn't get much better. Or does it? I've no doubt Nauticam will have a housing ready to go for these bad boys in no time. Get ready for some FF shots in the near future........
The viz was shockingly bad today (as you can see from the pics) but undeterred, we made a bid for the main wall and were instantly greeted by huge shoals of jacks, snappers, sweetlips and groupers. The snappers were particularly frisky today with constant nudges and bumps and continuously wanting attention. It's like having a wife!!
Demanding constant attention......and the snapper!
The current wasn't too bad at all despite a 9 knot NE blowing a the surface and a change in tide so it was nice just to hang out in the blue and admire the scenery for a bit.
There a were a few nice little stingrays with escort mooching around in the sand as we headed back in to shore, unfortunately there were proving to be a little camera shy today. Obviously don't like to be watched whilst they eat.......
We had a short wait whilst the sun melted over the horizon and crowds of tourists dispersed before we got back in to see what we could see. Almost straight away Jill caught sight of nice big eagle ray cruising over the hardpan at about 5 metres.
As soon as we illuminated it, it done a nice little vertical loop for us and swam off into the depths. No shots I'm afraid, too dark, crap viz and macro lens just aren't conducive to good photos.
There were some extremely nice nudis out tonight with a frightening number of fringe backs all precariously perched on coral and algae. Maybe they were chased up there by sea dogs or something........
"How did I get up here?"
Still, despite the acrobatic antics of the nudis, there were a few yellow spotted rays cruising around for a midnight snack before bed time whilst the peacock flounders where content to park their flat backsides and watch the reef go by.
Yellow spotted ray needs food, badly
"What, you want me to move around for the camera? No"
Oh, and did I mention fringebacks doing a balancing trick? The lettuce leaf slugs were in on the act as well. There must definitely be something in the water..........
"alley-oop!"
And to round off the evenings festivities, we had an unexpected guest in the shampe of a stone fish parked right underneath the jetty, just happy to sit there and mind it's own business. It was probably trying to figure out why all the nudis were so afraid of being on the ground............
Pondering the innate abilities of climbing nudibranchs
Another blistering day of diving with no current, blue skies and great viz in the water. On top of that the Greenhouse were also celebrating their one year anniversary, so congrats to them for providing good food for hungry divers over the past year.
It's all good
We decided to shake things up for a change today and cruise the mini wall and sand garden for the first dive instead of the main wall, and just see what was out there. There was a good selection of jacks and hogfish hanging around, not to mention large shoals of sweetlips, grunts and sergeant majors so we had quite a nice variety today.
Look at those sweetlips. The fish ain't bad either! Boom-boom!
And we did have the odd turtle or two cruising around as well so it was definitely a mixed bag creature wise today.
Hero in a half shell........
The best was yet to come however as the sun slipped towards the horizon and we got ready to get in for our customary night dive and the discovery of some new friends that we hadn't seen before.
Scuba cat provide last minute buddy checks and ensures the purr-fect dive plan
Night time is the right time
First priority of the day was to try and get a shot of the jawfish at the 6m as it was taunting me with a mouthful of eggs from the previous dive, unfortunately with a 30mm macro you need to be on top of them to get the best results and after 25 minutes of trying to coax him out of his hole, he wast budging. I'll get you next time!
However, just a little way off I found a really nice surprise of a sea plume shrimp on a sponge. It really caught my eye with it being so green (like kermit but without the hand up it's bottom), which was a nice find as I'd never seen one here before and supposed to be a bit rare in this neck of the woods.
Something new and exciting!!
We also found our usual sleeping turtle under the coral head, every night dive without fail, that's where you find it and for an added bonus we had a little burrfish buzzing around as well.
As the dive wore on the blood worms got increasingly worse and I must say this is the worst I've seen them yet which was a real shame as they really get in the way of some of the shots and ruin them, but there's not a lot you can do about it so you make do.
Blood worms aside, I did find a lovely little purple-ring nudibranch which we got some shots of before the worms moved in and obliterated the area.
But that's not all, we also had a second surprise from another new visitor in the shape of a sculptured slipper lobster which was superb. At first I thought it was a flouder with the flat shape and the fringes but then I noticed the legs. Very unusual and very nice, like a hovercraft but not as noisy.
If there were two you would have a pair of slippers........
I got a little bit of video of the slipper lobster as well but you'll see what I mean about the blood worms being everywhere. Lovely. Not.
For those without flash embedded, you can also see the video on Youtube: HERE
But with making a couple of new friends on the reef this evening and the nudis, it's difficult to complain.
08:25:00
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