Last minute questions for the Bonaire trip...

[AlanWald]

I will be Indonesia for a month doing a lot of night diving so the"C" cell adapters mean I can use my lights as much as I want and not have to worry about how many "C" cells to bring.

I have two small travel chargers that will charge 4AA or 2 AAA (get the models that are 110/220 volts, they cost only few dollars more). They cost about $14. Some models even have a cigarette lighter adapters and you can get adapters for that to allow you to connect to a 12 volt car or boat battery if that is your only source of power.


Most good dive lights have a hydrogen scrubber catalyst and if you are recharging the batteries regularly, you will be venting the lights every time you open it.

I always take a small light on all day dives as well.

Make sure that your spare bulbs are the right ones for your lights and test them for fit and put them in protective containers. I like the little Nalgene Lexan screw top containers that you can find at most good backpacking shops. They will hold a few bulbs, I pad them with cotton.

I had problem last trip because the Ikelite PC-M instructions said "takes any standard PR type bulb" and I had a spare. But the globe was too big to fit in the light even though it looked like it would fit.

 

[rottielover]

Yes, the Pelican Nemo lights I have as well as the Princeton Tec Shockwave LED both have the hydrogen scrubber in them.

 

[AlanWald]

The LED version of many lights put out significantly less light than the Xenon bulb version.

From the Underwater Kinetics web site.
http://www.uwkinetics.com/products/category.php?cat=6

Sunlight SL4 XENON Brightness:113 Lumens
Sunlight SL4 eLED™ eLED Brightness: 33-38 Lumens

The same light with LED puts out significantly less bright.

 

[Bosun]

We are fully converted to LED lights now, our YS110 strobes (2 each) include LED dive light, we use 6 segment LED lights as target lights on the camera housing and have very small AAA LED lights as back up.

IMHO People use far too powerful lights at night - it is supposed to be a night dive.

So our rechargable battery count is 8 AAA's and 32 AA's for 4 strobes and four dive lights. Cameras are SLRs with their own long life rechargable batteries.

 

[ronbeau]

So,

They weigh everything that THEY put in the plane, or your carry on too? I've got heavy batteries and camera equip. that I can carry on in a backpack that would knock off quite a few pounds of my huge overage. I'm starting to wonder if it isn't smarter to ditch the heavy (8) C-cell lights and extra batteries for night dives for some smaller lights, some of the camera equip., the Nitrox analyzer and just trust theirs, and some of the save a dive kit tools and wrenches. I do try to limit the stuff I take, but it can really reduce some of your fun of having all of your usual dive equip. Maybe I'll just chalk it up to the cost of the trip and bite my tongue and we'll pay the hundred bucks.

When we flew on DAE last year between Aruba and Curacao DAE weighed the checked baggage but not the carry-on. On the way back I moved the batteries to the
carry-on luggage to offset items purchased in Curacao.

 

[ronbeau]

Do they weigh the "checked at the plane" luggage(carry on) or just the stuff that they take at the counter, while letting you "carry" your small backpack to the plane with you?

Thanks

DAE did not weigh the "checked at the plane" on our trip between Aruba and Curacao last year. There were very strict with the regular checked baggage.