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Diving the Dream
May 2007.

May was a busy month with guests from all corners of the world. More & more European divers are deciding that the SW Pacific is their favourite area in the world. Luckily Australians have this diving heaven right on their doorstep, a mere 3 hour flight from Brisbane on Solomon Airlines as-new aircraft. The word is that it is a very comfortable aircraft. With more competitive fares being offered the Solomons is attracting a lot of attention. If you book through a Dive Travel professional familiar with the Solomons they can assure that you get the best deals & weight allowances on offer. Contact Lee & Rhonda at our Melbourne for all the information you need.

Once in Honiara you will be left in no doubt that you are in a developing country, "The Islands Lost in Time". But this is part of the charm and if you relax & work along with the friendly islanders in no time you will magically find yourself on The Deck at Uepi, sipping a Welcome Drink & overlooking the magical Marovo Lagoon; the stress & tension evaporating from your body & soul as you contemplate days of colourful & diverse diving. Then your "Dream" can become reality.

During May a very late cyclone in the making formed in the Coral Sea. Consequently the weather was a mix of sun, rain, wind, calm, cool air & hot air. Underneath where it counts conditions were generally very good. With Uepi's unique location we are able to choose from many dive sites according to weather, other ambient conditions, diver experience and preferences. Currents were mild so the big schools of fish were not so prevalent at the Points until quite late in the month. Late in May the south-east trade winds, known locally as "Hetcha" began to blow, practising for the coming months. Along with Hetcha come the stronger incoming currents in the afternoon, so we anticipate plenty of action in the coming months.

A very large barracuda has taken up residency 20m from the Diveshop. This loner is displaying a guard stare, very large teeth & is making us all a bit wary, especially as the dive-staff keep saying "onefella fish emi gotem barava big teeth foa bitem iufela". Whilst we love big fish we are not so keen on this carnivore hanging around like a blowfly at a BBQ. I have asked for volunteers to move him on but no one has volunteered, except several have volunteered me to do the job! This species of Barracuda often follow night divers which is a bit distracting. The largest barracuda I have seen would have been about 100 kgms (about my weight), possibly smaller allowing for my heightened awareness, but it was like a tree trunk. This current cuda would probably only make about 30 kgms of fish-fingers, but is still imposing. I wonder how the resident schools of snapper, perch, damsels & small trevally are feeling?

Often June is the start of our 'hammerhead' season when we see more hammers more often. The last weeks have produced regular sightings over a wide variety of sites, mostly singular larger sharks. But recent close encounters with 3 good size adults at Elbow suggest that we may be in for a very good season. I have discovered my macro lens is actually a very good lens for shark shots so I was very happy to get several good hammer shots at Elbow point then forty metres & five minutes further along the wall take some of my best pygmy sea-horse shots with the very same lens....amazing! Interestingly the population of pygmys were waning badly over the past year & we only had a couple of guaranteed easily accessible sites. But then Lamae, one of our sharp-eyed dive-guides, spotted some on a differently coloured red fan. And the pygmys had changed colour too! Many times we had searched these exact fans for shrimps & other creatures & never seen even one pygmy. Amongst the newer red pygmys an occasional pygmy retains its previous pale pink colour. The same fan hosts very small commensal shrimps which also seem to have had a population boom.

A few days ago we dropped into a stronger current hitting Chara Point. The Grey reef sharks were everywhere & as active as I can recall. They were a swarming cloud, not that happy if we infringed into their flight-path. Working our way upwards in stops, hanging tightly on to camera/video we settled in about fifteen metres in a small lee. This was white-tip territory as they hug the wall, their weasel faces squinting at us. I heard Jill sound the alert as a very surprised hammerhead brushed past us. The drift down the channel produced a superbly camouflaged Stone-fish, creepy but special.

In mid May Dive-guide Robert at the Diveshop, spotted a large whale breaching. We deployed as quickly as we could be rounded up, finally spotting the whale some distance away, sped over to identify a very large Humpback. Having been on the surface some time he dived before we could film him. We estimate that we only see about 1% of the whales that pass. But the dolphins have been sociable this month with Wayne Goldings "Out West Diving" group from Sydney having a very spectacular & close underwater sighting at Landoro. Many of the trips to dive-sites produced great dolphin bow-riding & acrobatic action & it was not uncommon to spot dolphins from the breakfast tables.

Earlier in the year we carried out major renovations on two of our beach front Bungalows - including all new interiors and “island style” bathrooms – check out accommodation section and photo gallery for details. The response from guests has made all the hard work worth it. We are currently working on another with an extended 'extra' room added on. Our army of returnees need not worry, the character of Uepi will be maintained, as you repeatedly stress in your comments. We also have made a few improvements to the Dive-shop which we hope you like.

With stronger incoming currents, coolish water temperatures & plenty of sunshine we can only Dream of the Diving we are about to enjoy in the coming months.

Maybe you should "Dive the Dream" with us.

Leana via,
Grant, Jill & the Uepi Dive Staff

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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.