| Print Page | |
SCUBA DIVING NEWS - DEVOCEAN TATTLER #8 (Mar'07 - May'07) The Devocean Tattler is a quarterly scuba diving news giving you insights into the staff at the Devocean camp and happenings at the camp itself. It will attempt to inform prospective visitors of diving conditions and recent marine sightings as well as trying to make predictions on what might be seen and experienced weather wise in the future. You can also subscribe to scuba diving newsletter - click here. First off, let me start this Tattler by apologizing for the lack of quarterly frequency that you may have found your selves accustomed to over the previous years. Writing has not been one of my strong points, to name one of many. However, I am working on this failing. PONTO NEWS Ponta do Ouro itself was not as busy as it has been in past years due to a number of reasons. I think people are going farther North over their longer Christmas holidays, the stronger Rand is making those overseas holidays a tad more affordable and last but not least, people or torn between R & R/diving on the one hand and competing with the unruly biking fraternity on the other. Great attempts where made to display signs around town as to the rules to be followed should you be a Quad Fan. Money was spent on accommodating a traffic police force to police the unruly. That did have some effect, but we are not yet at the point where safety is not an issue and noise levels to a bear minimum. On a good note we are still working on solutions. Should you want to give your view and comments on this matter please click on this link. http://survey.vcorrespond.com Needles to say New Year was wild and wet. We never made it out there, but have it on good authority that a good time was had by all. CONDITIONS As we in the Southern Hemisphere know our warmest weather does not come bang in the middle of summer but in January and February. However this did seem to be late again, with the heat really hitting us early February to mid March. December itself was really good if you were a skipper, excellent if you were a diver with +30m viz at times and not so good if you were a spear'o/fisherman. We had so many flat windless days in early December with some really stunning dives done at "3 sisters", "Aquarium", "Checkers" and "Doodles". Being able to go to the Pinnacle "ball to the wall" 10 out of 14 days is unique. Fishing was not so good and has not been for some time. What is happening out there?? Global warming!!!! Lets not forget about the weekend of the 21st of March, equinox tides and cyclones in the Madagascan area and south of the 17th parallel. The only winners over that weekend where the pro surfers and onlookers. There where huge 6m plus waves, rolling from the South and breaking off the "Point of Gold". Where are you Damain?? Viz was down for a few days but bounced back by Sunday. Always Sunday!!! The middle of summer brings the best out of dives such as Pinnacles. We have had some really close encounters with Zambezi's and Hammerheads for the past 3 months. There were many times when I had to peak over my camera housing to see how close the noonoes actually where due to my view finder on the video machine being completely filled with shark. Exciting times. SIGHTINGS "Doodles" has been doing its thing again. Until it opened its mouth, I would have mistaken it for a piece of weed. You might have guessed it; a "Merlet's scorpion" fish (Phinopias aphanes). It might be known as a "Weedy Scorpion" fish to those Helmut Debelius fans. "Leopard moray eels" have also been noted there by our chief spotter, Yvonne. CREW Well nothing has changed much here; Taryn still doing her thing in the engine room, assisted by her loyal staff; Yvonne doing more than her fair share on the flight deck; and me, a little of this and that... We hope to have our new DM, Brett Smith joining us by no later than mid April. Will he have his work cut out for him?? CONTACT DETAILS AND HAPPENINGS I would like to remind every body that our primary number is +27 83 657 4050 and failing that +258 848 114 626. Why all the number changes?? We find Mcell in moz not working most of the time and the old SA Vodacom number being blasted out by Vodacom Mozambique. Our office hours are still from 8am - 4pm weekdays. However, you might pull your hair out trying to get hold of us at times. Don't despair; your business is very important to us. Should you not succeed in getting hold of us, please send a SMS or go onto our web site www.devoceandiving.com and contact us through the booking link. If you have sent a SMS or left a message we will call you back ASAP. EXPANSION We would like to take this opportunity to tell you about our expansion at Devocean Diving. We hope to accommodate those that would prefer to do self catering (miss out on Taryn's cooking, bad mistake) by expanding our facilities at the "Nursery". Additionally, the tents and rooms will afford more flexibility for those groups larger than 26 persons. We have enlarged the existing Lapa, built a serviced Kitchen and two additional well kept ablution blocks. Packages at the Nursery starting from R1 170.00, for 3 nights. Please contact us should you need a structured package to suit your needs. In the months to come we will be going up to Dobela for long weekends to dive on some of the worlds best untouched reefs. This will be a bit rustic, (will have flushing toilet) but the diving will more than make up for it. We are looking at groups no greater than 12 at a time. (Great for all you camera buffs). Interested parties please contact Tony on +2783 657 4050. On that happy note we trust you had a great Easter and look forward to seeing you soon. Any comments or views are much appreciated so don't hesitate to drop us an email - click here.
|
