Our Live-Aboard Adventure

So in the last post we mentioned something about going on a boat. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of live-aboard boats – apart from what the title implies – these are boats that one lives on in between getting in the water and diving.



Cam has been doing training with various dive operations, and was asked to train on this boat. When the opportunity arose for Jane to join him on a live-aboard adventure she jumped at the chance! What an amazing opportunity! The boat sailed around the Milne Bay Province, taking us to places we had never been before – Kwato Island (where there is a beautiful old church),


the Engineer group of islands, the Amphlete group of islands and Goodenough island – higher than Mount Kosciuszko, but pretty much straight up from sea level. The type of image that takes your breath away to behold (as corny as that sounds). Amazing stuff.

Of course, we also had the chance to do lots of diving.




The average day on a live-aboard is:

6:30am- wake up and eat a (cold) first breakfast. Then dive.
9:00am- get out of the water and eat a (hot) second breakfast – just like a hobbit. Then dive.
12:00pm- get out of the water and eat lunch. Then dive.
3:00pm- get out of the water and eat afternoon tea. Then dive.
5:30pm- get out of the water, chill out, then eat dinner.
Occasionally after dinner there is a night dive on offer.

Phew! Luckily it wasn’t compulsory to do all of the dives as Cam is slightly more of a fish than Jane is, but the regular eating habits suited her just fine! However they both got a little bit obsessive about the underwater photography – it really is a lot of fun. And when you are in such an amazing location there is just so much to see! Such as:
sharks,




mobilas,


lion fish,


ornate ghost pipefish (hard to find),


rhinopias (again hard to find),


frog fish (also hard to find),


clown toby (cute – and Jane is very proud of this picture),


fire sea urchins,


blennies


nudibranchs,




and sea fans galore!


And we couldn't forget the usual clown fish photo either.


Also sometimes one finds a wreck of a plane on the bottom of the ocean – this is a B17 bomber from WWII at 47 metres underwater. Very cool.




Anyway, the point is we had a great time. The fellow guests (Peter,Kathy, Sarah and Chirs) were lots of fun, and provided great conversation and good diving company. We’d like to thank Paul and the crew (Simeon, Connie, Rose, Adrian, Jimi, Freddy and Max) for being wonderful hosts and helpers, and for looking after us so well. A trip we won’t forget – but for all the right reasons.