Lars Hemel: Messages

Nice place for snorkellers too! We saw white-spotted puffers, lion fish, bearded scorpionfish, octopus, pyjama slug, mantis shrimp, moses sole, lots of pipefish and a lot more!

Diving this in early December 08, we started gearing up outside the 'Al Capone'. A short walk with fins in hand passing by the very sobering rock wall with plaques of the Blue Hole deaths. Then entering carefully into the Bells. Diving down the Bells was a very nice experience. I was closing the group and the stream of bubbles of divers before me through the 'chimney' was very nice. Be sure to equalize pressure often, diving head-first to 27m is unusual. Exiting the chimney, the coral landscape was very pleasing and rich. Plenty of fish, octupus and many other species were there. We were the only dive group and had a very nice, slow drift dive for 47minutes to the Blue Hole. This was my first dive in Dahab and one of the better ones, only surpassed by the Canyon-Coral Forest-Eel garden combination dive. I was diving with Moon Divers, I can recommend them.

This was one of my best dives ever. I was lucky enough to do this dive multiple times when I did my divemaster course at Magnetic Island. I finished my divemaster course just before the gropers started to become agressive. And I have seen many snakes, gropers, cods and other big fish, that definetely made it my best dive so far.

We arrived here by car and entered the water as a shore dive. We saw some marine life, but overall this dive was not really spectacular. Nice relaxed dive with some octopus, flat fish, cuttle fish and parrots.

What people forget about this wreck is that its obviously the ultimate destination for snorkelling! Its close to shore (70m) and so shallow (9 to 14m) so anyone who can snorkel can visit it. Even novice snorkelers are able to join and visit the wreck. Forget your scuba tank, and visit this wreck just holding your breath !!! Its only one time in life you can have such a chance.

In the Coral Sea, about 250 kilometers away from Cairns, lies Holmes Reef, a reef interesting for us all. There are drift dives, caves, turtles, deep dives and incredible night dives. Not to mention the amount of pelagic, smaller marine life and different species of hard and soft coral. One of the biggest thrills however are the enormous numbers of shark encounters.

Blue Maomao Arch is one of the best accessible and most famous dive sites on Poor Knight Islands. It is a shallow arch named after the fish named blue maomao that are extremely abundant here. This bright blue colored fish eats plankton and lives in the waters of New Zealand and eastern Australia. It is amazing to dive at this dive spot with spectacular sunrays, archways and cathedral like appearance. This place is popular for novice divers because of its easy entrance and sheltered location. Other fish species you will often spot are blennies, stargazers, wrasses, grouper and moray eels. Colorful sponges and hard corals can be spotted along the walls.

Nursery Cove is a shallow and small cove with a permanent boat mooring, a fisherman's anchor and hundreds of juvenile fish. Continuing southward you can find a small area named the labyrinth which is filled with canyons and swimmthroughs. Fish life such as pigfish, wrasses, john dories, snapper and rainbow fish are common inhabitants and enrich the arch with some color.

One of the top dive sites at the Poor Knights Islands is Northern Arch at the most northern tip of Tawhiti Rahi Island. From December to March you will often find short tailed stingrays near the arch's base as this is the place where they mate and breed. Other species that you can often find while diving here are red snapper, blue maomao, trevally and kingfish. Gorgonians, sponges, anemones, nudibranches and hydroids are excellent decorators of the walls near Northern Arch. These already steep walls drop away to below sixty meter once you leave Northern Arch.

You will think this 75 foot wreck used to be a tugboat but in fact she is a steel hulled shrimp boat. She sank at the pier in Safe Harbor in 1986 but was taken on land to create an artificial reef out of it. Experts decided that the wreck was to be scuttled near Miami, but locals didn't agree and wanted to tow it to a different destination just the night before it was to be transported. However, it choose its own final resting spot as it sank before it reached its planned destination. There are many stories about how, who and why, but nobody knows for sure.

Artificial Reef Programs removed doors, entanglements and stripped loosed parts. They blasted openings in its hull to create a wreck for fishermen with a high flow through the wreck that attracts many game fish. On August, 1985 she sank on her port side in waters of eighty foot deep before she reached her planned final destination. Divers got even luckier when hurricane Katrina moved the wreck in its upright position later that same year.

The tiny bow sheaves are still easily seen and were apparently typical for those Army mine planters. Three bicycles have been left recently on the wreck to add some extra entertainment.

I just had my first diving experience in Malta. After doing initiation and skills in the pool, we went for the Open Water Dive at Marfa Point. It was spectacular: lots of sealife (fish in all sizes and colors, star fish, fire worms,...), nice coral walls and very good visilibity. A very nice first experience in the world of diving.

A fantastic bay with everything needed to hand. With varying depths it makes it idle for try dives and Open Water confined dives when training. I did my Open Water course in Marsalforn Bay with Scuba Kings dive centre which is situated perfectly on the sea front with idle access into the bay. The bay is full of life and great topology. There are fantastic dive sites across the island but for beginners you cant beat Marsalforn Bay.

My dive here was fantastic. It starts with diving down into the deep black darkness. Going slowly down to almost 40 meters of depth, taking a quick look at the stalagmites there, and then we had to ascend again. Between 30 and 20 meters we were surrounded by eight or nine bull sharks. They were just waiting for one of us to exit the group. Then, at our safety stop, we were surrounded by big cods. And that's all the life I have seen, three kinds of species. As I said! Simplicity at its best!