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In the Doldrums with the dolphins
October 2010

October is a great time for diving. Who said that having the doldrums is bad? Spring has sprung & extra good things always seem to happen in October. The weather has become progressively ‘doldrumy’ and dreamy. With regular daytime incoming tides there have been plenty of good dive-site options.

like it was “Nautilus Country”. As our immediately previous attempts had not been that successful the guys were extra keen to see the results, so they jumped the starting gun and were back with one very nice Nautilus shortly after dawn. Everyone had a good look at what must be one of Natures most unusual creatures, then after breakfast Jill & I released it at North Log. This was a very relaxed nautilus & he was in no hurry to descend, staying with us for about 20 minutes before casually heading off into the deep blue. It was fairly clear water and we could see him oscillating with his jet propulsion down to maybe 70m or so.

For the rest of the dive we meandered back & forth along the treasure trove that is North Log, checking out the small stuff, the nice fans, soft & hard corals. The numerous cleaning stations were full of customers that morning, with the patrons exhibiting all sorts of colour changes and behavior. If you take your time approaching a cleaning station and be fairly still, adopting what you imagine looks like a “Hey I am here to be cleaned too” pose, you can get much closer than normal. But usually the customers dash off just before you take the prize-winning photo, and the cleaners rush over to give you the once over. A nip from a cleaner is not that nice but will get rid of any lice, other parasites, dead skin and who knows what else!

There have been numerous dolphins around, out in the blue beyond and in the channel. A few days ago, a returning Dive boat reported ‘whales and dolphins everywhere”. The initial consensus was Pilot Whales or another whale like them. The boat refilled quickly with keen observers and returned with some good surface shots of what was similar to a Pilot Whale, but unlike any other of our common whales or common dolphins. They agreed there were ‘whales & dolphins everywhere’. Spinner Dolphins & maybe Bottlenose were amongst the whales. Interest aroused we set out in two boats, snorkeling gear and camera gear in hand. Out in The Slot, a couple of clicks from Billy Ghizo Point, we spotted numerous small pods scattered across the calm expanse. Slowly approaching the pods some noticeable characteristics were the white body colour, many scars across the backs, the largest being about 3.5m long, a rounded head and the first dorsal a long way back from the head. Unfortunately our attempts to see them on snorkel were not very successful with only brief glimpses, as whilst visible they would not let us get close to them. On the other hand the Spinner Dolphins were much more cooperative and everyone who snorkeled had good and close sightings. One boat returned home after about an hour but we persisted hoping that a particular group of dolphin would become interested in us. After some time Jason was put in by himself and it all began to happen. A pod of maybe 10 Spinners comprised of young, adults and two senior ‘Escorts” whose job it was to protect the pod. These two came over & checked Jason out. Jason an accomplished free-diver began vigorous acrobatic gymnastics under-water, and the two Escorts just loved it. They mimicked everything that Jason was doing at close quarters. Eventually we had 5 of us in the water and the aqua-aerobics continued. The Escorts zoomed around us all, continually mimicking the antics of Jason & now Josh. The rest of us kept taking video & stills and the Escorts certainly were not camera shy. How cool was this, out in 1500m of clear blue water, sunny skies and lovely water temperature, with a couple of ultra inquisitive & friendly dolphins. This session lasted over an hour with all of us snorkelers finally calling it a day being nearly exhausted. Back on the main-house deck we all poured over the books. Finally the ‘whales’ were confidently identified as Risso’s Dolphin (Grampus griseus). Unfortunately we only managed good photos of the Spinners.

Jason with the dolphins

The Bapita trip has been getting such good reports that it is hard not to want to go on most trips ourselves. So when a good opportunity arose, with the weather superb, we were raring to go. The first stop was the Taiyo fishing boat wreck near Hele Bar. Upright with the keel against the reef wall, the bow at a depth of 1.5m and the stern at 40m, it is a unique sight. I settled at 25m and took some shots of Josh and others on SCUBA. After that Jason joined in snorkeling below and around me as I tried to get the best image composure I could. Dark shadows with bright sunlight directly above meant it was harder than I thought it would be. I worked my way up trying different compositions. Jill joined in freediving at the 20m mark. Jason did a Titanic “King of the World” finale.


Jill freediving the Taiyo boat	Jason freediving the Taiyo boat

Next was the incomparable Penguin Reef. How was it? Incomparable. After about an hour drifting along the panoramic and diverse coral walls I was about to surface when a beautiful Pygmy Manta soared past me in the current. He wheeled about and repeated the process, even more closely.

Pygmy manta and a few fish at Penguin reef

Rendova Islands in the distance crowned with white cloud. Laying in the shade for lunch the sunshine was brilliant and the colours of the trees, sand and lagoon were stunning. Having heard that the coral bombies across the front of the bay were really nice we dropped in on the outside wall, finning our way to the entry passage. The wall was nice in places but the dive really came to life at the passage itself where the bombies were every bit as nice as we had been told. It is relatively shallow so the rest of our party who had chosen to snorkel had a very nice look around too. A ‘teenager’ batfish posed for some easy stills and video.

After a brief and close tour along the impressive cliff bluff at Bapita we entered the entrance passage of the backwater lagoon and tied off on the tree root under the wave cut platform. The water was absolutely crystal clear. Four divers who had not stressed out their computers came back raving about the dive. The high tide was a maximum and we had to raise many overhanging tree branches as we fought our way back to Nono Lagoon through the ‘everglades’ of Bapita. The last trip saw two crocodiles but not this day.

All October the Mantas have been wowing our guests. Finally this morning Jill and I had our turn and we were not disappointed. I encountered 4 different Mantas. The best encounter was when a Manta came from 25m away, to swim just over my head as I lay on the bottom. A large contingent of yellow and black striped juvenile Golden Trevally swam with the Manta.

Josh’s mum Jenny is an artist. She has been visiting along with Josh's Dad Kerry and sister Kehra. Not to miss an opportunity we asked Jenny to liven up the outside wall of our new compressor room with a painting or two. The fantastic result on one wall can be seen in the photo below where Jenny (on the right) is with Ceciel Van Uyen. Ceciel with husband Theo were on their eleventh trip to Uepi and are booked again for next year. They have become part of the Uepi furniture.

We are happy to report that some of the baby Giant Clams we placed at Uepi Point are doing very well. They have grown quite a bit and we are hoping they are now less vulnerable to predators.

The local Dugongs are becoming less & less timid. Guests are very regularly seeing them in the late afternoon, grazing just in front of the beachfront accommodation. For the latter part of October, almost every evening, guests were sitting quietly in chest deep water and a Cow(?) and calf(?) would graze in the area, even as close as 10m away. A male frequented the area also. Sorry no photos ……yet.

October …. hard to better the Doldrums & the Dolphins.

‘Leana via’ from Grant, Jill, Josh & all the Uepi 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.