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"What you see depends on what you are looking for"
Uepi Island Resort Dive Report
March 2009

Someone this morning wrote "What you see depends on what you are looking for" on our 'what’s-on-today' whiteboard. Not sure who, but I suspect it was Jane my in-law who has been madly interacting with cuttlefish the last few days. See the photo below where she has a very personal look at a cuttle in the misguided hope of telling a boy cuttle from a girl cuttle. And as the writing certainly applies to diving as well as life in general, it drew a few comments from the divers heading out to North Log for a session of warm water macro.

The Mantasizing we had enjoyed continuously from June 2008 continued throughout early February 2009 but the feeding Mantas were disrupted by the rougher weather generated by several monsoon troughs in February and March. But eight months of reliable daily Manta interactions was by far our best Manta period ever. We now wonder how blind we have been to their presence over the past years.

North Log has been a standout dive in February & March. This site is along the outer drop-off of Uepi Island, maybe 5 minutes from the diveshop. Basically about 200m of reef edge has 'fall downs', creating long sections of overhangs with an underlying sandy bottom in about 12 metres, all guarded from the deep by a line of vibrant coral bombies. The outer wall drops off into The Slot. Normally I do not pay too much attention to the deeper outside wall as we enjoy a multitude of sheer wall scenery & at North Log the overhangs & bombies have intensely prolific & varied life. But as with all drop-offs there is always a fair chance that something big or bigger will swim past. And when the vis is as good as it has been in February & March, the drop-off has been a vision splendid, worth seeing so on these occasions we cruised for a while, a bit deeper than normal, with the 'cliffs' towering above & the wall stretching ever onward. Recent cruises have produced hammerheads, rays & turtles. But the best for me is up on top where the cuttlefish lay eggs in the fire-coral, the twin spot gobies manoeuvre like twin tracks shooting staccato bursts of cleaned sand out thru their gills, multitudes of shrimp - gobie variations abound, hairy crabs sway in tune with the tentacles of anemones alongside clear bodied shrimps who have their eggs on display in their stomachs, nudibranchs feed voraciously, juvenile fish enjoy the protection of the coral as you near them. If you are looking for colour & 'macro' then North Log is for you. And there are a few giant fans projecting from the overhangs, definitely wide-angle visions.

And thru these months the very high level of fish activity on Uepi Point & Charapoana Point has continued. With blue skies & clear water we have been able to see prodigious distances along the reef at times whether amongst the action at Chara, the panorama of the channel during Point-to-Point, or the diversity of Uepi. Divers have been making discoveries then summoning others with hand signals from over 50m or more away. Of course visibility is not always that good but at times it has been exceptional.

The cyclone activity in Australia has generated several periods of windy & rainy weather, when Marovo has been sitting above a strong monsoon trough. Some very heavy periods of rain have amazed our guests. But most of these have occurred at night & the mornings have been mostly clear & much calmer. It has been surprising how little the heavy rain has affected visibility, producing some less clear layers on top, but not generally affecting the water below. One benefit of the wind has been a lot of Hobie Cat sailing. This has ranged from sailing in very light conditions to very heavy. On one particularly light day two Nordic gentlemen went sailing & trolling. Like many from this region, sailing in an unpopulated wilderness like Marovo is a huge thrill. At one time they spent an hour trying to sail past a small island. Eventually a bit puzzled they decided to check their trolling line & found it had snagged on the reef, which explained their lack of progress. At another time some experienced sailors on both Hobies confidently headed out only to bear the brunt of a short storm with very strong winds announcing its arrival. The two spectacular capsizes were a popular dinner topic for a couple of days amongst those who observed them & the subsequent towing back.

Providing great pleasure have been the two weddings recently held at Uepi.
In January Nikki & Mark came half way around the world to marry at Sunset Point in glorious sunny weather.
The in February well known Dive Bondi identity Robin Skoglund married his beautiful bride Vanessa on the water’s edge at "Vanua 2", amidst arches of tropical flowers, a chorus of pan-piper backed Melanesian melody from the Uepi staff, a flower decorated beach, gentle breezes from across the water. With a hearty compliment of family & friends filling the resort for a week it was a fun time for us all & a lot of great diving was part of the activity. A momentous beach picnic was a highlight. Congratulations Nikki & Mark and Vanessa & Robin from us all at Uepi; we hope we provided you all with a most memorable celebration.

The wakeboarding continues to develop at Uepi. Josh has constructed a raised tow bar with a high overhead hitch on PT108 so the air factor is much greater & the wake a small disturbance below. It also provides much more spectacular crashes - have a look at some shots on the website too.

In late March a barely controllable bunch of invitees celebrated the fact that I (Grant) reached the BIG 60. Celebrating becoming eligible for a Seniors card is at best a dubious reason for celebrating, reinforced by a thoughtful friend bringing me the application forms!
With various selections of photos from my younger times being publicly displayed from time to time I think I held up rather well. Oh for the Hippie era, the birth of surfing & the evolution of Rock & Roll! Do these young kids know what they missed out on?
Coming from most sectors of my life & memory the revellers partied hard for a week or so.
Fortunately the BIG 60 fell on a Friday which allowed the Friday Night Tribe of Townsville Days to reunite & do their thing after some years. Many were divers of long standing & as all of the tribal 'kids' learnt to dive when they were in diapers the compressors worked overtime, along with the music machine & the bar & the dance floor & the wake-board.
Some of you will remember Murray Bain who worked for Mike Ball in the mid eighties & then with wife Sue managed Uepi. He made the trip from Colorado to help us celebrate.
Jack Graham who also worked at Bally’s after Murray left, escaped from driving the ROV's of the oil rigs to be with his family including Ben who made his final appearance at Uepi (for a while anyway). With a contingent of hardy & independent Kangaroo Islanders attending, anything was possible. Amongst the better results was a freezer bulging with large Wahoo & Spanish Mackerel. Thanks too to all the Uepi guests from over the years who passed on their best wishes.

So during February & March the excellent diving has been greatly complimented by virile & diverse social activity.

Of interest is the collapse of Sky Air World, a casualty of the GFC. But with Pacific Blue & an energetic Solomon Airlines competing, the airways to Uepi are still very well serviced.

Lee has now put some YouTube video on our website showing some of the activity for the VSAT project we are involved with. More video is planned.

With a busy year of diving ahead we would love to share the dream with you.
"What you see depends on what you are looking for"

Leana via, Grant, Jill & all the Uepi Team

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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.