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Hammerhead & Dolphin Soup with a bit of Turtle & Eagle Ray on the side.
June 2005

Sometimes it just happens and when it does you just have to be there! After a relatively quietish 12 months "The Elbow" has turned it on again. The stronger incoming currents began to flow and the marine-life concentrated. The Elbow is one of the two 'outside corners' of the island. The other Uepi Point is on a deep passage but The Elbow is pure drop-off. Covered profusely in vertical columns of golden sea fans & some large soft corals it is also a habitat for a very wide range of fish.
Included amongst the trevally, rainbow runner, tuna, mackeral, fusiliers, anenome fish and more are rarer fish like the exotic green, yellow & white leaf-fish and the halimeda ghost pipe-fish.

The Elbow is a cool place to hang out just watching & waiting. Everything that swims along a drop-off swims past The Elbow. The list includes Pacific Sailfish, Marlin, Manta Rays, Eagle Rays, Dogtooth Tuna, turtles, Leopard Sharks, Spanish Mackeral & big solitary Barracuda. For the last few weeks of May & early June we have had a parade of Scalloped & Great Hammerheads. Often we just quietly hang out from the corner so we can just see the wall. This is when I wish for a closed circuit rebreather with minimal bubble & noise. The visibilty is often very good down deeper & it feels like one of the calmer retreats on the planet. Just when the solitude & the nitrogen gets a hold of you & you are dreaming away, they come, the creatures of your dreams. No matter how well prepared you think you are, the hammerheads always sneak up on you. "How the heck did you get there, so close yet I didn’t see you?" Fumble with camera settings, just getting it right slightly after they turn away!!!! The dolphins are different and you can hear them gregariously squeaking away as they survey you prior to coming in for a closer look.

The biggest school of hammers was eight & they scooted around the blue like ice-skaters. Fairly inquisitive at times just cruising past at others. Adam attracted the name HAD, Hammerhead Attracting Device, as they seemed to be wherever he roamed. Jill zoomed about with the video proving that a hammerhead who looks slow when cruising is actually going rather fast if you plan to keep up with it. How that little tank is not sucked dry I will never know?

The best dolphin interaction was with a school of about ten or so. They were all mature with no young, so they had no qualms about approaching us & showing off their synchronised swimming. Ping ping ping. My attempts at ballet seemed to impress them for a while and was worth the ridicule my dive buddies handed out back in the boat. Nothing is quite as graceful as a chorus of dolphins swirling about in 3D space.

Once the dive-computers start taking over, The Elbow wall is right there to stepladder you to the shallows. It is not uncommon for a big hammer to cruise over the top of you; a ray to flit by or sit there suspended in the nearby current, or a turtle to browse. And if not then a vista of coral fans and formations will be home to another spectrum of creatures.

Another favourite site is Billy Ghizo Point. We had never night dived it but having regularly seen Spanish Dancer eggs we decided to have a look. In the daytime this reef is as colourful as they come. At night it is blinding. And to top it off the most humungous Dancer that ever lived. Jill is a first class spotter but I had to have three 'points' before she realised the rock was a nudibranch. Now I have never raved about Dancers but this one was a looker, beautiful. About 3 metres away is one of our pigmy seahorse fans. Normally we spot about 6 little 'Denise’ but at night the fan was loaded with seven in a hand span in places. Deco considerations meant I could not census the whole population, but there is always next time, right?
Those who have been to Uepi will know what I mean when I say "Soup’s served" (Deliver Vio circa 1985). This time the venue was The Elbow. And the soup was great!

Leana via, Grant & Jill & the Uepi Dive Team

We sincerely wish to thank the following people for use of their photographs in our website:

Peter Lange, Peter Pinnock, Oceania Films/Matt Guest, Eric Cheng, Fred Bavendam, Andy Belcher, Manuela Kirschner, Louise Murray, Roberto Rinaldi, Mark Strickland/Oceanic Impressions, Jill Kelly, Grant Kelly, Wes Kelly and Jason Kelly.