The Banda Sea aboard the MSY Seahorse

[stphnmartin]

I took a trip aboard the MSY Seahorse in the Banda Sea back in late September/early October. The primary goal of such a trip is to see schooling hammerhead sharks. This was my second attempt and managed to get some good footage of them. It's really quite a challenge to capture them well as you never know when they will show up and how close they'll be. The GH5 has a hard time focusing on such a subject in the water column at a distance. My strategy each dive was to swim off the wall, turn around and focus the lens on a contrasty area on the verge of visibility. Then, I would keep my fingers away from the focus lever for the rest of the dive!

When we finally encountered the school, I had to make a few short fin kicks towards them till the focus peaking appeared around them on the monitor, then pressed record!

Here is the video of the trip. Comments and critiques are welcomed.

 

[CWK]

Love your videos. I only wished mine could be just half as good.

 

[Dan]

Fantastic video!

It looks like you were lucky with the weather. I was there in 11-19 September, 2019 and experienced some rough weather & poor visibility.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

really nice one...great work.

 

[stphnmartin]

Fantastic video!

It looks like you were lucky with the weather. I was there in 11-19 September, 2019 and experienced some rough weather & poor visibility.

Thanks Dan. We encountered rough seas as well. Many boats, especially those heading south were waiting in Banda for better weather. We were fortunate to be heading west mostly with the wind.

 

[stphnmartin]

really nice one...great work.

Thanks Ministryofgiraffes!

 

[chillyinCanada]

How did you find the Seahorse? Especially in heavier seas?

 

[stphnmartin]

How did you find the Seahorse? Especially in heavier seas?

I really liked the Seahorse and found it quite comfortable while on board. The camera room is pretty big--which is important to me. The food was excellent and plentiful. The dive deck very organized and roomy.

It handled rough seas fairly well. It wasn't as noisy as other wooden boats I've been on in rough seas. However, there's no getting around big waves. Some nights I slept sideways on the bed to keep from getting tossed side to side due to heavy seas. One evening dinner was a quick reheat of leftovers due to dangerous conditions for the chef trying to prepare a meal in big waves.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I really liked the Seahorse and found it quite comfortable while on board. The camera room is pretty big--which is important to me. The food was excellent and plentiful. The dive deck very organized and roomy.

It handled rough seas fairly well. It wasn't as noisy as other wooden boats I've been on in rough seas. However, there's no getting around big waves. Some nights I slept sideways on the bed to keep from getting tossed side to side due to heavy seas. One evening dinner was a quick reheat of leftovers due to dangerous conditions for the chef trying to prepare a meal in big waves.

I love the Seahorse too but wasn't sure how it would do on rougher seas.

Did you have a room by the camera room?

My last trip abroad her, I was downstairs instead and she was creaky. Lol

I was stuffingittle paper wedges here and there in the noisiest joints and I chuckled to myself to think of the next tenants who might start to see little folded paper wedges lying about or wonder why they were sticking out of the walls here and there.

Who was your cruise director?

Yes, food, yum!

 

[stphnmartin]

Yes, our room was off the camera room. That may have been more insulated. I had two other buddies below deck. One said he slept like a baby, the other did not and had similar ideas as you about paper wedges!

Stephen was the cruise director, but Akim was also onboard.