divemoose
Registered
I just got back from two weeks in Vanuatu where we dove in Port Vila and Santo. My dive buddies were my teenage daughters, (13 and 17) and my wife. My older daughter and I are AOW certified and the younger and my wife are OW. I was comfortable with my daughters' ability, but was concerned with my wife who tends to be a nervous diver. I knew Santo and the Coolidge would be the most advanced dives, so I planned the dives and itinerary with the thought of gradually ramping up the difficulty of the dives, ultimately making it to the "Lady" as my goal.
We arrived in Port Vila after a marathon trip of approximately 48 hours, traveling from Colorado to LA to Sydney to Port Vila. We had huge layovers due to using frequent flyer miles and getting what I could from availability through United. We stayed at the Le Meridien which I found to be nice enough and the food was very good. Mostly we dined in town with our favorites being the Flaming Bull and the Waterside restaurants. I tried the Flying Fox at L'Houstelet but wouldn't do it again. The thought of eating bat skin is a little too much for me.
The next day I scoped out 2 dive operators and chose Nautilus Dive Shop mostly because they had a pool and offered a quick refresher course which my wife and younger daughter took advantage of. My wife said this was a VERY good idea and made her much more comfortable once we made our first real dive.
Our first dive in Port Vila was on the wreck, Star of Russia. It's a sailing ship built in 1874 that sank at about 115 feet. Our dive master was Thomas from Nautilus and the crew and boat were well equipped and professional. The dive was somewhat of a disappointment in that visibility was only 20 to 25 feet. There did seem to be some large fish around the wreck, but I only could catch glimpses of them. The condition of the wreck is not great, the basic structure is still intact, but that's about all I could say. The wife was a handful on this dive with I burned though my tank chasing her. We did approximately 20 minutes bottom time and ended up with a total dive of approximately 40 minutes. This was definitely a more advanced dive than what I had hoped for our first dive. However, I was very happy with the daughters. They had great buoyancy and the youngest came up with 1800 PSI!
The next two dives were also wrecks, the Konanda and the Semle Federson at 85ft. and 130ft. respectively. I enjoyed the Semle most because of the excellent Visibility and we finished up on a very vibrant shallow reef. We finished up our stay in Port Vila with reef dives on Twin Bommies (one day and one night), Ollie's Lolly (aka Pink Panther), and the Abyss (drop off off-shore from Hideaway Island). I found the reefs to be excellent with lots of Nudis and assorted fish. All in all, Port Vila was a great lead up to Santo and the Calvin Coolidge. It gave everyone time to get in good form. The only down side was that the water was between 78 to 80 degrees, which the girls found a little chilly after dives that approached an hour.
Off to Santo where we stayed at the Aore Resort. We were met by the owner Anne on arrival and were completely wowed by the place. Granted, this is really in a remote place, but it was really well run and the food was incredible. We ate dinner there every night and didn't even want to go into town. The prices were actually less than the Le Meridien as well! The bungalows were spacious and comfortable, but didn't have TVs (who cares when in paradise) and no air conditioning (didn't need it).
We dove with Aquamarine Scuba on the advise of Barbara Buchanan (a member of Scubaboard and the travel agent I used to set the trip up). The first dive was to the bow at 96 feet and looked around at the 3 inch guns, the forward cargo hulls, coming back on the top of the wreck or starboard side. We saw ammo, helmets, gas masks, pots and pans and assorted stuff. I think it was really more of a chance for the dive masters to check us out. Our dive master was Charles, a local Ni-Van. This dive was down to 96 feet with a total of 47 minutes including a safety stop.
Our second dive was a penetration dive to the Doctor's Office and the medical supplies. We swam past lower cargo hulls with jeeps and reserve airplane tanks still in them looking like big eggs. There were fewer medical supplies at the location now because of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake two weeks prior to our arrival. We also observed some fresh damage on the hull from this. On the way out we saw the ship's huge washing machine and the barber's chair. We played with a huge resident grouper on the way up past the bow. My wife came up short on air and needed to breath off a spare cylinder we positioned at the 15 foot safety stop site. Ultimately, the girls and I vetoed letting her do any more advanced dives because of this. This dive was to 105 feet with a total time of 38 minutes and we did 2 safety stops at 20 and 15 feet.
The third dive was to the "Lady", a porcelain statue in the ship First Class Lounge. We went in through the sea door on the starboard side and on through to the Lounge and the Lady. Everyone kissed the Lady and checked out a couple of chandeliers, with light bulbs still intact, on the way out. The glass ceiling was very impressive. Coming out through the promenade deck, I noticed that I was entering "deco" mode on my computer. This was a first for me, but I knew the dive plan called for 3 stops at 30, 20, and 15 feet. Ultimately, we ended up spending as much time at the stops as we did on the actual dive and I kicked myself for forgetting my water proof dive cards to pass the time. The max depth was 130 feet and the dive time was 51 minutes including the stops.
I felt like I had pushed the NDL as far as I wanted to, especially with my daughters along, so we planned our last dive in Vanuatu to be on Million Dollar point. This was a great end to our trip because we were all very relaxed due to the shallow depth and amazed by the magnitude of the wreckage of the old construction equipment. Our max depth was 87 feet and the total dive was 41 minutes.
This trip was absolutely amazing! I will be going back if at all possible and this time I will dive more in Santo. Vanuatu is a very special place that is still relatively unspoiled and undeveloped. I almost hate to post this because I would love to see it stay that way. If you are coming from America, I highly recommend using Barb to set it up. Her email is bbuchanan@scubaplanners.com.
We arrived in Port Vila after a marathon trip of approximately 48 hours, traveling from Colorado to LA to Sydney to Port Vila. We had huge layovers due to using frequent flyer miles and getting what I could from availability through United. We stayed at the Le Meridien which I found to be nice enough and the food was very good. Mostly we dined in town with our favorites being the Flaming Bull and the Waterside restaurants. I tried the Flying Fox at L'Houstelet but wouldn't do it again. The thought of eating bat skin is a little too much for me.
The next day I scoped out 2 dive operators and chose Nautilus Dive Shop mostly because they had a pool and offered a quick refresher course which my wife and younger daughter took advantage of. My wife said this was a VERY good idea and made her much more comfortable once we made our first real dive.
Our first dive in Port Vila was on the wreck, Star of Russia. It's a sailing ship built in 1874 that sank at about 115 feet. Our dive master was Thomas from Nautilus and the crew and boat were well equipped and professional. The dive was somewhat of a disappointment in that visibility was only 20 to 25 feet. There did seem to be some large fish around the wreck, but I only could catch glimpses of them. The condition of the wreck is not great, the basic structure is still intact, but that's about all I could say. The wife was a handful on this dive with I burned though my tank chasing her. We did approximately 20 minutes bottom time and ended up with a total dive of approximately 40 minutes. This was definitely a more advanced dive than what I had hoped for our first dive. However, I was very happy with the daughters. They had great buoyancy and the youngest came up with 1800 PSI!
The next two dives were also wrecks, the Konanda and the Semle Federson at 85ft. and 130ft. respectively. I enjoyed the Semle most because of the excellent Visibility and we finished up on a very vibrant shallow reef. We finished up our stay in Port Vila with reef dives on Twin Bommies (one day and one night), Ollie's Lolly (aka Pink Panther), and the Abyss (drop off off-shore from Hideaway Island). I found the reefs to be excellent with lots of Nudis and assorted fish. All in all, Port Vila was a great lead up to Santo and the Calvin Coolidge. It gave everyone time to get in good form. The only down side was that the water was between 78 to 80 degrees, which the girls found a little chilly after dives that approached an hour.
Off to Santo where we stayed at the Aore Resort. We were met by the owner Anne on arrival and were completely wowed by the place. Granted, this is really in a remote place, but it was really well run and the food was incredible. We ate dinner there every night and didn't even want to go into town. The prices were actually less than the Le Meridien as well! The bungalows were spacious and comfortable, but didn't have TVs (who cares when in paradise) and no air conditioning (didn't need it).
We dove with Aquamarine Scuba on the advise of Barbara Buchanan (a member of Scubaboard and the travel agent I used to set the trip up). The first dive was to the bow at 96 feet and looked around at the 3 inch guns, the forward cargo hulls, coming back on the top of the wreck or starboard side. We saw ammo, helmets, gas masks, pots and pans and assorted stuff. I think it was really more of a chance for the dive masters to check us out. Our dive master was Charles, a local Ni-Van. This dive was down to 96 feet with a total of 47 minutes including a safety stop.
Our second dive was a penetration dive to the Doctor's Office and the medical supplies. We swam past lower cargo hulls with jeeps and reserve airplane tanks still in them looking like big eggs. There were fewer medical supplies at the location now because of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake two weeks prior to our arrival. We also observed some fresh damage on the hull from this. On the way out we saw the ship's huge washing machine and the barber's chair. We played with a huge resident grouper on the way up past the bow. My wife came up short on air and needed to breath off a spare cylinder we positioned at the 15 foot safety stop site. Ultimately, the girls and I vetoed letting her do any more advanced dives because of this. This dive was to 105 feet with a total time of 38 minutes and we did 2 safety stops at 20 and 15 feet.
The third dive was to the "Lady", a porcelain statue in the ship First Class Lounge. We went in through the sea door on the starboard side and on through to the Lounge and the Lady. Everyone kissed the Lady and checked out a couple of chandeliers, with light bulbs still intact, on the way out. The glass ceiling was very impressive. Coming out through the promenade deck, I noticed that I was entering "deco" mode on my computer. This was a first for me, but I knew the dive plan called for 3 stops at 30, 20, and 15 feet. Ultimately, we ended up spending as much time at the stops as we did on the actual dive and I kicked myself for forgetting my water proof dive cards to pass the time. The max depth was 130 feet and the dive time was 51 minutes including the stops.
I felt like I had pushed the NDL as far as I wanted to, especially with my daughters along, so we planned our last dive in Vanuatu to be on Million Dollar point. This was a great end to our trip because we were all very relaxed due to the shallow depth and amazed by the magnitude of the wreckage of the old construction equipment. Our max depth was 87 feet and the total dive was 41 minutes.
This trip was absolutely amazing! I will be going back if at all possible and this time I will dive more in Santo. Vanuatu is a very special place that is still relatively unspoiled and undeveloped. I almost hate to post this because I would love to see it stay that way. If you are coming from America, I highly recommend using Barb to set it up. Her email is bbuchanan@scubaplanners.com.
