Potapko
Contributor
Review of my week on Valhalla
I recently spent a week on the catamaran liveaboard Valhalla.
~~ Valhalla ~~
WE left Brno, Czech Republic on the 11th of July. Eight of us drove 1150km to the port of Piombino in Italy. From there we took a five hour ferry ride to Olbia on the island of Sardinia. After a short search we found the boat docked near the port. The Catamaran is a 12.5 meter long boat with a 7 meter beam. It has four double cabins and two singles for the captain and mate. The cabins were typical size for a boat of this class. Not spacious but enough for the purpose, sleeping!
The Valhalla has a spacious lounge with a fully equipped kitchen. Seating for eight comfortably. Their site advertises a computer in the lounge for your use but it wasnt there. There are large refrigerators with plenty of space for enough food and drinks to last a week. This was a pleasant surprise to be sure. We expected one small RV size and they have two large units.
As you would expect on a boat of this size space is at a premium, so with eight divers, all with double tanks and assorted equipment the deck quickly filled up.
There was plenty of power available to charge our lights and camera batteries. This had to be done primarily during the day when the motors were running. We found that when anchored and the motors off we soon heard the low voltage warning buzzers from the ships batteries. The captain would start the engine if needed so this did not turn out to be a problem.
Diving around the island of Sardinia is interesting and varied. The first day we headed north towards the French island of Corsica and dived a well known spot for seeing Grouper. Here is a link to a video from the location. Merouville-diving,grouper,scuba,corsica,valhalla Video Search - The Best diving,grouper,scuba,corsica,valhalla video search engineer, you can search and download the hottest diving,grouper,scuba,corsica,valhalla videos through leechvideo.com
The weather was very bad that day with three-meter waves so we were not able to find the submerged buoy. The captain did a drive-by and we all jumped in and submerged in 24m of open water. Not my idea but we went for it. In the end we found the buoy and chain so we did our ascent and safety stop there. We then shot the safety bags and the captain picked us up.
After this we had to decide to anchor for the night in Bonifacio, France or turn south. First we searched for a wreck called Angelica, but with the waves and wind we were not able to find this submerged buoy either. It is illegal to anchor at many of these locations and in foul weather it isnt possible to find the submerged buoys to tie to. So, we voted to turn south and head towards some wrecks near the southern end of Sardinia. It was around 5pm and the captain thought we could make it back at least to Olbia before dark. This brings me to one of my least favorite parts of the trip. it was SO far between dive sites. From Olbia we went five hours north to se these grouper, then we headed south to some other locations and had to go five hours back to Olbia and on the next morning another couple of hours to the first wreck. Too much time traveling and not enough time diving for me.
The next morning we decided to dive a wall to 30 meters with a wide assortment of fish and interesting rock formations. It was on the way to the Gulf of Orosei, where we dove the wreck KT. Here is a link to a site with information about the wreck.
wrecks sardinia KT orosei
We did two dives on this wreck before moving on south to another wreck called Nasello. She was an Italian military ship sunk in April, 1943, by a British submarine.
wrecks sardinia nasello
We also did two dives on the Nasello and then headed further south where the captain told us there were some nice caves. Nothing like a cave system but interesting to take a look at nonetheless.
On Thursday we ran into a small problem with the compressor. This leads me to my only real complaint about the trip. Their web site says that the compressor is located below deck and does not interfere with life on the upper deck. Well, the compressor is located under the table ON the main deck which as I said previously is not huge. So between dives one of us spent two and a half hours filling tanks with the compressor roaring in our ears. You could go into the main cabin and close the door but this got uncomfortably warm. The exhaust was aimed by necessity into the center of the deck and several of us came home with various burns from it.
So, back to Thursday. I was filling tanks when I noticed oil dripping onto the deck. I motioned for the man in charge of our group to come out and take a look. After much searching, sweating and swearing, (not me of course but I was not with a group of fellow Christians. I was watching!) they found the block cracked. I must say that the men we had with us were very resourceful. They formed a gasket out of some thick paper and sealed the block to the lower mounting plate and stopped the leak so we could keep filling tanks. However this meant that we only got one dive in on Thursday as they spent the whole afternoon taking the motor off of the compressor, finding the problem and re-mounting it, Several times before it held! We only had one small fire as some of the paper around the edge began to burn from the excessive heat.
Had this not been successful, plan B was to head to port and carry the tanks to a local dive shop and fill them.
We dived twice Friday and docked at Olbia Friday night. Early Saturday morning we packed the cars and headed to the port and the ferry back to the mainland and our looonng drive home.
In Conclusion: I enjoyed the diving as each of the dives were unique in one way or another. I found there to be too much time spent traveling and not enough spent diving. Too far between locations for me. We only managed 13 dives during the six days. I anticipated doing three dives a day at least. This is a trip for the bold and adventurous, not the faint-hearted. It is not four star air-conditioned accommodations. On one hand you can visit some sites you would not otherwise get to but on the other you have to endure the conditions to do so. You really have to be into boating as well as diving. You cook for yourselves, clean for yourselves, clean the boat, and fill your own tanks. For some this is exactly what they want. You get to go wherever you want to go. I admit it, Im soft. This was my first liveaboard and I will not attempt this type again. The next time Ill go where someone fills the tanks, cooks the food, cleans the dishes, and has the advertised dive itinerary determined ahead of time. Not that I dont do those things at home, but on vacation someone else should do it.
I prefer to set up my own gear, but thats as far as I want to go.
Not a blow by blow report, but perhaps this will give you an idea what you can expect.
Thanks for reading
I recently spent a week on the catamaran liveaboard Valhalla.
~~ Valhalla ~~
WE left Brno, Czech Republic on the 11th of July. Eight of us drove 1150km to the port of Piombino in Italy. From there we took a five hour ferry ride to Olbia on the island of Sardinia. After a short search we found the boat docked near the port. The Catamaran is a 12.5 meter long boat with a 7 meter beam. It has four double cabins and two singles for the captain and mate. The cabins were typical size for a boat of this class. Not spacious but enough for the purpose, sleeping!
The Valhalla has a spacious lounge with a fully equipped kitchen. Seating for eight comfortably. Their site advertises a computer in the lounge for your use but it wasnt there. There are large refrigerators with plenty of space for enough food and drinks to last a week. This was a pleasant surprise to be sure. We expected one small RV size and they have two large units.
As you would expect on a boat of this size space is at a premium, so with eight divers, all with double tanks and assorted equipment the deck quickly filled up.
There was plenty of power available to charge our lights and camera batteries. This had to be done primarily during the day when the motors were running. We found that when anchored and the motors off we soon heard the low voltage warning buzzers from the ships batteries. The captain would start the engine if needed so this did not turn out to be a problem.
Diving around the island of Sardinia is interesting and varied. The first day we headed north towards the French island of Corsica and dived a well known spot for seeing Grouper. Here is a link to a video from the location. Merouville-diving,grouper,scuba,corsica,valhalla Video Search - The Best diving,grouper,scuba,corsica,valhalla video search engineer, you can search and download the hottest diving,grouper,scuba,corsica,valhalla videos through leechvideo.com
The weather was very bad that day with three-meter waves so we were not able to find the submerged buoy. The captain did a drive-by and we all jumped in and submerged in 24m of open water. Not my idea but we went for it. In the end we found the buoy and chain so we did our ascent and safety stop there. We then shot the safety bags and the captain picked us up.
After this we had to decide to anchor for the night in Bonifacio, France or turn south. First we searched for a wreck called Angelica, but with the waves and wind we were not able to find this submerged buoy either. It is illegal to anchor at many of these locations and in foul weather it isnt possible to find the submerged buoys to tie to. So, we voted to turn south and head towards some wrecks near the southern end of Sardinia. It was around 5pm and the captain thought we could make it back at least to Olbia before dark. This brings me to one of my least favorite parts of the trip. it was SO far between dive sites. From Olbia we went five hours north to se these grouper, then we headed south to some other locations and had to go five hours back to Olbia and on the next morning another couple of hours to the first wreck. Too much time traveling and not enough time diving for me.
The next morning we decided to dive a wall to 30 meters with a wide assortment of fish and interesting rock formations. It was on the way to the Gulf of Orosei, where we dove the wreck KT. Here is a link to a site with information about the wreck.
wrecks sardinia KT orosei
We did two dives on this wreck before moving on south to another wreck called Nasello. She was an Italian military ship sunk in April, 1943, by a British submarine.
wrecks sardinia nasello
We also did two dives on the Nasello and then headed further south where the captain told us there were some nice caves. Nothing like a cave system but interesting to take a look at nonetheless.
On Thursday we ran into a small problem with the compressor. This leads me to my only real complaint about the trip. Their web site says that the compressor is located below deck and does not interfere with life on the upper deck. Well, the compressor is located under the table ON the main deck which as I said previously is not huge. So between dives one of us spent two and a half hours filling tanks with the compressor roaring in our ears. You could go into the main cabin and close the door but this got uncomfortably warm. The exhaust was aimed by necessity into the center of the deck and several of us came home with various burns from it.
So, back to Thursday. I was filling tanks when I noticed oil dripping onto the deck. I motioned for the man in charge of our group to come out and take a look. After much searching, sweating and swearing, (not me of course but I was not with a group of fellow Christians. I was watching!) they found the block cracked. I must say that the men we had with us were very resourceful. They formed a gasket out of some thick paper and sealed the block to the lower mounting plate and stopped the leak so we could keep filling tanks. However this meant that we only got one dive in on Thursday as they spent the whole afternoon taking the motor off of the compressor, finding the problem and re-mounting it, Several times before it held! We only had one small fire as some of the paper around the edge began to burn from the excessive heat.
Had this not been successful, plan B was to head to port and carry the tanks to a local dive shop and fill them. We dived twice Friday and docked at Olbia Friday night. Early Saturday morning we packed the cars and headed to the port and the ferry back to the mainland and our looonng drive home.
In Conclusion: I enjoyed the diving as each of the dives were unique in one way or another. I found there to be too much time spent traveling and not enough spent diving. Too far between locations for me. We only managed 13 dives during the six days. I anticipated doing three dives a day at least. This is a trip for the bold and adventurous, not the faint-hearted. It is not four star air-conditioned accommodations. On one hand you can visit some sites you would not otherwise get to but on the other you have to endure the conditions to do so. You really have to be into boating as well as diving. You cook for yourselves, clean for yourselves, clean the boat, and fill your own tanks. For some this is exactly what they want. You get to go wherever you want to go. I admit it, Im soft. This was my first liveaboard and I will not attempt this type again. The next time Ill go where someone fills the tanks, cooks the food, cleans the dishes, and has the advertised dive itinerary determined ahead of time. Not that I dont do those things at home, but on vacation someone else should do it.
I prefer to set up my own gear, but thats as far as I want to go. Not a blow by blow report, but perhaps this will give you an idea what you can expect.
Thanks for reading
