galapagos diving: the aggressors

thursday to thursday liveaboard in the galapagos, about 3K USD from prodive australia.
aggressor I and II are the boats.

so what if someone incorporates galapagos in their round the world trip?
the aggressor trip starts with a flight from quito or Guayaquil to san christobal, or baltra.



here is the description from the prodive site:
----

November charters depart from Baltra. December through May charters depart from San Cristobal. Please confirm your port of departure and arrival with your flight provider. The port of departure does not affect the diving or land tour itinerary.

WEDNESDAY: Overnight in Guayaquil or Quito. (Guayaquil recommended)

THURSDAY: Morning flight to Baltra or San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands. Arrive approximately 12:15 p.m. Transferred to Galapagos Aggressor. CaptainÂ's briefing. Afternoon checkout dive.

FRIDAY TO TUESDAY: Eat, Sleep, Dive aboard the Galapagos Aggressor.

WEDNESDAY: Diving ends mid-morning. Arrive at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Islands afternoon. Visit to Charles Darwin Research Station and shopping in Puerto Ayora. Cocktail party on board at 6:00 p.m. Dinner at a local restaurant. Galapagos Aggressors depart for port at midnight.

THURSDAY: Morning checkout. Guests transferred to local Galapagos airport for morning flight to Ecuador. Overnight stay in Guayaquil or Quito.

FRIDAY: Fly home.

*Hotel stays, park fees, airport fees, and dinner on Wednesday are not included in the charter rate.

----

dive rite rec wing and OMS 45ld wing

dive rite rec wing, 51lb lift. the wing can be used with singles or doubles. the wing has a cord that can be adjusted to restrict the wing lift capacity when used with a single tank and prevent it from wrapping around the cylinder.

23kg/51lb lift, ballistic nylon outer bag, 15-mil urethane bladder. also available with dual bladder

price from about 340USD.
information from the dive rite website.
other links to online stores divesports.com, scubatoys.com, divebooty.com.
pic from scubatoys.com.

the dual bladder version available at 340USD from divebooty.com)

the OMS 45lb wing has a single bladder, using elastic bands (bungee cord) around the wing, can be used with singles or doubles, elastic bands reduce drag especially with singles, reduce air-shift, still allow oral inflation.

more information from OMS-australia. the OMS 45lb wing is 250USD from divebooty.com without bungees or 290USD with the bungee cord, 290USD from leisurepro.com with the bungee cord or 247USD from leisurepro.com without a bungee cord.

new fujifilm F50fd

new fujifilm F50fd becomes an option as now fujifilm supports SD cards (as well as the useless xD ones).

F50fd has the fuji finepix super CCD-HR sensor technology that has by far the best high ISO performance in compact cameras. However f50fd has now 12mp resolution, twice that of the previous model, finepix F31fd so it is not clear if it still has the same performace.


some interesting features:

• fujifilm super CCD-HR sensor, high ISO low light performance (although reviews are not available yet to see if the CCD technology still works for 12 megapixels
• full manual control, aperture and shutter priority
• supports reasonable (SD) cards as well as useless ones
• 2.7" lcd screen
• good battery life (250 shots)
• image stabilization (ccd shift)
• about 300 USD

more information from dpreview, dcviews. (the image shown above comes from dpreview.com)

article on underwater photo equipment insurance

http://norbertwu.blogspot.com/2007/07/insuring-your-camera-gear.html

equipment lists

thought i put together a list of all my scuba diving related equipment for my reference.
here is table-of-contents and shortcuts to the lists that appear below:

• need to get equipment
• equipment not needed, but probably will get soon anyway, what can you do...
• the good - equipment i really like
• the bad - dont like these ones
  
• could use a different one, ok equipment, but probably wouldnt buy it again
  
• photography equipment
• tanks
• BCDs
• regulators
• suits, including stuff like gloves, undergarments
  
• masks, fins and all that
  
• computers and gauges
• lights
• other

---

need-to-get-soon equipment

• second strobe. most likely the inon D2000S although the sea&sea YS-110 could be a good alternative
• a cylinder. would like to get a new main cylinder to replace my faber 12.2L which has some paint issues. the aluminium catalina 95cf seems to be a good choice.

equipment not needed, but probably will get soon anyway
what can you do...

• new camera. sea&sea DX-1G maybe
• another new camera. olympus E410 maybe
• dive computer with wireless tank pressure transmitter. that's so un-needed that i havent even spent time looking at different models available.

---

good equipment
this is a list of equipment that i am really happy with, and would easily buy again or recommend to others.

• oceanic V12 split fins
• inon Z240 strobe
  
• DUI TLS drysuit, although very expensive
• OMS thigh pocket
• camera tray
  
• oceanic neoprene boots
• pelican LED 1watt headlamp (recoil LED)
• tiny 10-dollar wrist watch band compass
• suunto mosquito computer
• holden barina
  

bad equipment
list of equipment that i find very bad. mostly a personal taste i guess for some items. but other items are just bad.

• canon housing for G7
  
• OMS 3watt LED headlamp. lasts only 40mins on rechargables, and 2 dives on expensive lithium CR123 batteries, 3watts not terribly bright anyway, looks similar to the pelican 1watt, 3watts LED gets very hot
• Tusa titanium gloves, at least they fit nicely, so if your fingers fall of from cold you wont lose them
• H2YO signaling/ noise maker

ok equipment but wouldnt buy it again
equipment that i am not really dissatisfied with, but if i were looking to buy, i would consider something different.

• bright weights, yet another thing to have laying around and to take extra time to put together
• faber steel tank. my tank is a bit old and i had to repaint it a few time. it still gets some rust, because my paint-job is not exactly professional grade. cannot blame fabers for sure, but steel cylinders may not suit sloppy divers as they are not as easy to work with as aluminium
  

---

Equipment list

my full equipment list. some items appear more than once in different categories (for example my focus light appears as photo equipment and a light)

photography equipment

• Canon G7
• canon WP-DC11 underwater housing for G7
• Inon Z240 strobe with fibre optic sync cable
• fantasea 44 led focus light
• fantasea balls and joints arms: 3 T-shoe ball bases, 4 aluminium joints, 1 plastic joint, 3 aluminium medium length (9in/23cm) segments, 1 aluminium long (12in) segment, 1 plastic medium segment, one aluminium YS type strobe head connector, 1 plastic YS type head connector
• aluminium tray (what the crap is the brand of my tray??)
• fantasea double tray
• pelican case
• fantasea 9in bubble arm (for a t-shoe)
• 2 extra NB-2LH batteries for the G7 (1200mah)
• blue -1.5 stop diffuser for the inon z240 strobe
  

tanks

• faber 12.2lt 100cf at 232bar first stamp 1997, test due october
• luxfer SO80, 207 bar, bought new in april 2005 from prodive city store. O2 clean in april 2007. annual test should be due in october.
  
• faber 5lt pony, 40cf at 232bar, bought new on ebay for 90AUD (no valve). First test and O2 cleaned in may 2007. total amount paid for tank/valve/testing (without the O2 cleaning) should be around 230AUD.
  

BCDs and related items

• blackart stainless steel backplate with single wing. harness webbing and all D-rings etc from scubaroo.com (hard/stiff webbing)
  
• blackart travel stainless steel backplate, around 1.5kg, complete (soft) harness kit from blackart
• aqualung jacket style BCD, bought april 2005 from prodive city store sydney
• blackart harness pocket
• OMS thigh pocket
  

regulators and related

• 2 sets of regulators, aqualung titan and oceanic GT3/CDX5 dry-seal.
  titan was bought from prodive city store sydney, oceanic gt3 from leisurepro.com
  

In more detail:

• aqualung titan first stage
• aqualung titan second stage
• aqualung titan occy
• oceanic CDX5 with environmental seal
  
• oceanic gt3 second stage with an angle adapter
  
• oceanic 180-degree swivel occy
• two BCD inflator hoses (28"/72cm and ??)
  
• one drysuit inflator hose
• 2 black short (29"/74cm inc fittings) low pressure hoses for second stages
• 2 yellow (38"/97cm) low pressure hoses for occys
• 2 high pressure hoses (31"/79cm)
  
• contents/tank pressure gauge, Suunto
• contents/tank pressure gauge (blue reef mini both bar/psi) bought from leisurepro.com for 50USD, april 2007

suits and undergarments

• 7mm (7/5) sonar capri semidry suit bought around 2005
• DUI TLS drysuit shoulder entry, bought from prodive cronulla in 2005
• oceanic neoprene boots (from aquatic explorers)
  
• old wetsuit boots (adrenalin, the-cheapset-ones-you-got)
  
• hot'n'dry 200 fleece one piece undergarment bought used, 2006
  
• fleece socks (kathmandu)
  
• fleece vest (MEC, canada)
  
• fleece thin thermal undergarments (MEC canada)
  
• TUSA titanium gloves 3mm, bought april 2007
  
• oceanic gloves
• other thin gloves (no insulation really)
  
• 3mm short hood with velcro opening around the neck
• 2mm titanium hooded vest (forgot this one on a liveaboard in thailand so it is not on the list really..)

masks fins and all that

• oceanic mask, black silicon (2006), frameless
  
• tusa reef tourer mask white/transparent silicon (2004)
• tusa viewtrek black silicon (2006, does not really fit)
• oceanic V12 split fins XL
• oceanic blades II XL
• TUSA cheapest-fin-they-had, in pieces now, the blade was used as a backplate cover
  
• oceanic snorkel (cheapest-one-you-got)
  
• one piece flexible snorkel (bloody expensive but good when in the pocket)
  

computers and gauges

• Suunto mosquito computer
• Suunto favor S computer
• oceanic wrist compass
• lots of 10-dollar wrist watch band compasses (the best)

lights

• fantasea 44 led focus light, 5AA
• princeton 1watt 4AA
• UK Q40 4AA
• UK C4
• OMS 3watt 2CR123A headlamp
• pelican 1watt headlamp 4AA

accessories

• holden barina 1996, bought in 2005
• Tusa small knife. lost one, so bought a new one, now have two covers one knife. not easy to attach to a harness
  
• another knife, seaquest, attaches nicely on the harness webbing
  
• 2 extra cambands 15USD from leisurepro.com
  
• 2 XS camband weight pockets (5lb max, fits 6lb with some difficulty)
• 2 zeagle 6lb camband weight pockets (one is still on its way from the leisurepro)
• equipment clip lanyard
• 2 slates, one of them has some colorful fish on one side
  
• 1 yellow weight belt with stainless steel buckle
• 6-pocket weight belt (aqualung)
  
• 6.6lb/3kg brighweights
• about 30lb lead weight including two 3lb ones in plastic bags and two 1lb ones.
  
• battery chargers: 8 AA/AAA NiMH, 4-AA sony, 4-AA energizer fast charger (1h), 4 AA energizer, 4 AAA-D, 2 RCR123A lithium
  
• equipment bag with wheels from diveimports.com
• backpack mesh equipment bag (crap)
• mesh equipment bag
• 2 tank protective meshes (fluorescent pink, and yellow)
• H2O signaling device/underwater noise maker (very annoying)
• 4 plastic weight retainers
• bolt snaps, many (18 ? 2 double-ended, one butterfly, 3 scissor)
  
• surface marker buoy from phuket, thailand
  
• spool 100' (33m) from leisurepro.com, 15USD including the double ended bolt snap
  
• 2 extra plastic webbing buckles
• dive rite stage bottle carry strap
  

other: other, what other?

sea & sea YS-110 strobe

YS-110 strobe features:

1. guide number 22 (inon z240 is 24)
2. digital slave TTL through fiber optic cable
3. 105° with diffuser
4. 13 step manual
5. LED target light
6. fiber optic and "hotshoe" cable

uwdigitalcamera.com offers this strobe for about 420AUD plus 60AUD for an fiber optic cable. including shipping to australia it should be around 500AUD. Sea & sea and Inon use similar systems (same nikonos 5pin type of TTL cables for example).

comparison with inon Z240 (price includes all necessary fittings, optic cable plus strobe arm connector and rough estimate on shipping at 40AUD. prices from uwdigitalcamera.com)

feature	sea&sea YS110	inon Z240	inon D2000S
guide number	22	24	20
price	520AUD	660AUD	465AUD
#flashes on NiMH	300	320	520
recycle	3s	1.5s	1.8s
coverage (w/diff)	105	100	100
both optic/hotshoe	yes	yes	no
focus light	yes	yes	no
size	88 x 115 x 140mm	99 x 99 x 122mm	99 x 99 x 122mm
color temp (no/with diffuser)	5600/5100K	5500K / ??	5500K/ ??
weight	570gr	567gr	525
depth	60m	100m	100m

hard to choose between the sea&sea YS110 and Inon D2000S as a second strobe to the inon Z240. there are some sources on the net that claim the sea&sea requires 3s recycle time. in which case the inon would be the better choice.

steel faber 100cf versus aluminium HP catalina 95cf

both cylinders are high pressure around 240bar and have about the same air capacity (95-100cf).

some numbers:
price: faber is 350AUD, catalina is 300AUD plus something more for a DIN/K high pressure valve.
size-weight: faber 13.2kg, catalina 17.1kg. the weight of the catalina is about the same as a 15L/120cf faber. faber has diameter 178mm, and length 635mm . the catalina has diameter 185mm and length (without valve) 700mm. Internal volume is 12.2lt for the faber, 11.2lt for the catalina.
buoyancy: faber +1.2kg empty (from a faber webpage), catalina about +1kg empty (this is my estimate, cannot find any buoyancy information for this cylinder)
weight on your back: maybe 3 kilos more with the catalina since the cylinder is about heavier and buoyancy is the same.

Buoyancy characteristics
the buoyancy of the 100cf faber when empty should be about +1kg according faber's website. sounds reasonable, since the tank is 12.2lt plus some more volume for the thick cylinder walls thats at least 14kg of buoyancy. the cylinder weight is 13.2kg plus some for the valve, say 14.4kg total. the difference seems to make it slightly positive when empty.

a 17kg 95cf@240bar ally would be 11.2lt internal volume and should expect a kilo positive buoyancy when empty.

for comparison, a luxfer 80 cylinder is about 15kg without the valve (valve adds 1kg or so)
luxfer's buoyancy when empty is +2kg according to luxfer's website:
luxfer SO80 goes from -1.4lb(-0.6kg) full to 4.4lb(2kg) empty

faber advantages over catalina

1. much smaller, much lighter
2. less overall weight of "tank+weights", since the cylinder is lighter. weight on your belt should be the same as with the catalina, if the buoyancy numbers shown above are correct
   

catalina advantages over faber

1. aluminum, no rust, the more scratches on it the better it looks
2. flat bottom, no rubber boots
3. does not get as hot during filling, better chances of getting a decent airfill
4. cheaper

Shiprock encounters

a pufferfish that looked out of place at shiprock,
a stars-and-stripes toadfish (arothron hispidus).
apparently it is not too much out of place it's habitat ranges over the northern coasts of australia half way down into NSW and almost to perth.
grows to a max length of 50cm.

[source: guide to sea fishes of australia, by r. kuiter]

Canon G7 in canon housing, Inon Z240 with optic cable and STTL, F3.5 1/60 aperture priority AWB.

Olympus E410

Olympus E410 has live view and seems to be a good entry level camera.
its price is about 930AUD on adorama.com.

The new olympus housing PT-E03 is available for about 940AUD (without the port) from uwdigitalcamera.com.

The housing allows the internal strobe to operate so optic fibre type of strobes can be used. There is also a TTL converter for use with sea&sea and inon strobes.

Buy (photo) stuff from Japan now!

The australian dollar seems very strong compared to the japanese yen (see x-rates.com), it might be a good time to consider buying a second strobe or a second camera when that sea&sea DX-1G is available.



uwdigitalcamera.com has a new look and some interesting new items. well one interesting new item at least, the sea&sea YS-110 strobe for about 450AUD. some features:

• guide number 22
• Three xenon tubes with a beam angle of 105° (with diffuser)
• 13-step manual control
• high-luminosity white LED target light located in the center of its front face, turns off automatically when the YS-110 fires.
• Connection by "YS" cord (hotshoe) or fiber optic cable.
• Operates "digital slave" TTL from the optic cable.

Other items you can buy:

• INON D2000S as a second sub-strobe which is 378AUD (Guide number 20, 100 degree, TTL from optic fibre, 13-step manual),
• INON Z240, 557AUD (optic fibre TTL, hotshoe cord, focus light, guide#24, 13 step manual, external auto)
• Inon UFL-165AD Fisheye conversion lens 350AUD, 165 ° maximum field of view. Close focus ability and extreme depth of field enable stunning wide angle and dramatic close-focus wide-angle (CFWA) pictures.
• the new sea&sea DX-1G is advertised as coming soon.

raptor lights - 100W dive light

interesting dive light
100W, aluminium body, 9.9Ah, 60mins at 100%
RL100 495AUD
http://www.raptorlights.com/

NiMH Cells: 12V / 9.9 Ah
Light Bulb: 100W halogen bulb (fully dimmable with switch)
Burn Time (at 100%): 60 Minutes
Weight: 2.3 kg (in water negative buoyant 400 g)
Maximum Bulb Wattage: 100W
Dimensions: 84mm (diameter): 235mm (length)
Resistance To Water Pressure: 100 meters
Sealing Mechanism: O-Ring
Glass Plate: Hard-Glass
Charger: 230V AC / 50Hz, 0.9A / 1.6A (adjustable)

painting a faber 12.2L (again)

about to paint my faber cylinder for the 4th time. not a major paint job this time though.
Last time i re-surfaced the cylinder i did the following:

• used some gel type of paint removers. worked very well.
• some light sanding to remove all rust. most of the rust was in the boot area.
• first coat with a rust proofing spray (killrust heavy duty primer)
  
• outer coat was a white glossy epoxy spray. two layers. (killrust white epoxy spray)
  
• cut the rubber boot on one side so that it easy to remove and secured it back on the cylinder with an extra camband

The epoxy looks nice and shinny but it's not tough enough. the cambands do scratch the paint and so does the boot. There are already some signs of rust at the bottom.

Not sure if it is ok to use rust converting chemicals such as killrust rust-eater. might try that next round. I am planning to brush paint it next time (not spray) to save my balcony a little bit. the epoxy spray paint was good with all the cylinder markings. When i hand painted the cylinder the paint coat was too thick and almost covered the markings. My faber is now 10 years old. Maybe it's time to replace it and get it over with. The last batch of paints primers thinners brushes and rust converters cost me about $50. I estimate i have spend about $100 painting my cylinder and lots of hours of work.

Aluminium is gooood.

dive kayaks

couple of dive kayaks (for more info on kayaks including prices see this link):

ocean kayaks
the scrambler XL seems to be a good/popular choice.
Length 11' 6.5" / 3.6 m
Width 29.5" / 74.9 cm
Seat Width 17.5" / 44.5 cm
Weight 49 lbs / 22.2 kg
Max Capacity 300-350 lbs /
136.1 - 158.8 kg
Suggested Retail $609 US $699 CA


Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro Dive XT
Length: 4.5m
Width: 56cm
Depth: 34cm
Weight: 25kg
Carying Capacity: 205kgs
Construction: Polyethelene (PE)
$1500 AUD

inflatable kayak from scuba.com
Sevylor single seat inflatable Dive Kayak
Dual bladder,Stainless D-rings
Tank tie down straps
DIMENSIONS: 32" X 109", or 81cm by 2.77m,
Total weight 38lbs,
Capacity 350lbs
price 420 USD

Links on kayak diving

• http://www.sonic.net/~rocky/kayaks.htm
• http://www.kayakdiving.com/
• diveoz thread
• article on divernet.com, mentions possibility of decompression illness due to excessive exercise. also mentions that front entry might be better than shoulder entry drysuits for paddling

article about diving in sweden

the flooded mine looks interesting.

http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/Article____16438.aspx

diving in the red sea

some dive operators:

• Emperor divers
• Camel
• Red Sea diving college
• Ocean club
• Oonas

some information on sharm el sheikh. Liveaboards in the area:

1. VIP one,
2. Lady M, not terribly updated site it seems
3. Nemo divers (eilat)
4. Sea queen fleet
   

some dive sites:

• Tiran - Jackson Reef
• Ras Mohamed National Park - Shark/Yolanda Reef
• SS Thislegorm
• Dunraven wreck

other links and discussion forums:
from diveoz on red sea diving

current camera prices

current prices from adorama and fantasea:

670: nikon p5000 in fantasea 340 + 245 = 585 USD = 670 AUD
790: canon G7 in canon housing 500 + 170 = 670 USD = 790 AUD
930: nikon p5000 in ikelite 340 + 450 = 790 USD = 930 AUD
1165: sea & sea DX-1G 999 USD = 1165 AUD
1212: canon G7 in ikelite 500 + 529 = 1029 USD = 1212 AUD

also:
canon 400D in fantasea 730 + 1066 USD = 2100 AUD
canon 400D in ikelite 730 + 1250 = 1980 USD = 2310 AUD

new sea & sea DX-1G camera announced

bhphotovideo lists this camera for 999USD (not yet available).

interesting points:

• weird hotshoe accepts an LED flash that can be used for triggering up to two strobes through optic fiber cables without firing the internal camera flash.
• wide angle starting at 24
• add-on wide angle wet-lens gives 16mm
• shutter lag time of only 0.1 sec (full shutter press)
• rated to 50m
• camera (most likely Ricoh GX100) might have the same ccd sensor as the G7 (from a post in a discussion forum)
• RAW (about 4sec write time ?)
• its battery lasts 350 clicks, but can also use AAAs (50 clicks)
  

some links:
from digideep, engadget, news.myspace, wetpixel, wetpixel forums discussion, adorama.

photo from bhphotovideo.

sloppy diver's blog. mission statement

scuba diving and underwater photography.

here are some definitions for "sloppy" that match the kind of scuba diving issues covered in this blog (copied from a google search):

• lacking neatness or order; "a sloppy room"; "sloppy habits"
• haphazard: marked by great carelessness; "a most haphazard system of record keeping"; "slapdash work"; "slipshod spelling"; "sloppy workmanship" wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• wet or smeared with a spilled liquid or moist material; "a sloppy floor"; "a sloppy saucer"
• boggy: (of soil) soft and watery; "the ground was boggy under foot"; "a marshy coastline"; "miry roads"; "wet mucky lowland"; "muddy barnyard"; "quaggy terrain"; "the sloughy edge of the pond"; "swampy bayous"
• baggy: not fitting closely; hanging loosely; "baggy trousers"; "a loose-fitting blouse is comfortable in hot weather"
• overemotional: excessively or abnormally emotional