Tide tables for Dili and Hera May 3rd through May 9th 2007
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Assorted Pictures
Spearfisher - K57
Anemone - K41
Cowry - K41
Stars and Stripes Toadfish (Arothron hispidus) eye - K41
Diver - K57
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Fish of East Timor
Blue-ringed Angelfish (Pomacanthus annularis) - Com jetty
Harlequin ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus) - Pertamina jetty
Bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) - Dirt Track
Ribbon eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita) - K41
Spine-cheek Anemonefish (Premnas biaculeatus) - Bob's Rock
Dive Log
Location: Behau village AKA Rick's Rapture
Date: 29th April 2007
Time in: 1400
Duration: 74mins
Max Depth: 30 metres
Tides: High 1147 2metres – Low 1827 0.7metres
Weather: Sunny, some breeze
Sea: Calm, small wavelets
Visibility: 15metres +/-
Divers: Two – Self/Aki
A very nice dive. Swam out from the beached fishing boats until there was about 5metres underneath us. Descended over some healthy corals and headed north to the start of the wall. We then followed a ridge down to about 30metres looking for anything big. On the way down we spotted a Giant Barracuda, two nice Nudibranchs (Glossodoris sp) and a huge school of Neon fusiliers. We also found a Flying Gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis), a very ugly fish when resting but when it is alarmed the pectoral fins come out looking like a Dresden china plate. Magnificent. We then headed east along the slope. A large Napoleon wrasse accompanied us along the way. Found some more Nudibranchs, including a very pretty little Flabalinna.
Flying gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis) Behau village
Date: 29th April 2007
Time in: 1400
Duration: 74mins
Max Depth: 30 metres
Tides: High 1147 2metres – Low 1827 0.7metres
Weather: Sunny, some breeze
Sea: Calm, small wavelets
Visibility: 15metres +/-
Divers: Two – Self/Aki
A very nice dive. Swam out from the beached fishing boats until there was about 5metres underneath us. Descended over some healthy corals and headed north to the start of the wall. We then followed a ridge down to about 30metres looking for anything big. On the way down we spotted a Giant Barracuda, two nice Nudibranchs (Glossodoris sp) and a huge school of Neon fusiliers. We also found a Flying Gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis), a very ugly fish when resting but when it is alarmed the pectoral fins come out looking like a Dresden china plate. Magnificent. We then headed east along the slope. A large Napoleon wrasse accompanied us along the way. Found some more Nudibranchs, including a very pretty little Flabalinna.
Flying gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis) Behau village
Dive Log
Location: K41
Date: 29th April 2007
Time in: 1030
Duration: 80 mins
Tides: High 1147 2metres – Low 1827 0.7metres
Max Depth: 30.5 metres
Weather: Sunny
Sea: Flat calm
Visibility: 20metres +/-
Divers: Two – self/Aki
We started the dive at the beginning of the wall. Fantastic vis and no current. We headed east along the wall and found one leaf scorpionfish, 3 Nembrotha lineolata nudibranchs and lots of fish!
Carried on down to the overhang at 25metres to look for sharks. Found one whitetip reef shark in a small cave then looked up and saw a large Napoleon wrasse shadowing us. Carried on along east and just hung out with all the fish. At 100bar we turned around and came back at around 12metres all the way. Absolutely wonderful. Lots of sunlight, lots of fish and no current. At the end of the dive found another Nudibranch (unidentified) that I’ll try to ID later. Thanks Aki, a great dive.
Nembrotha lineolata - K41
Date: 29th April 2007
Time in: 1030
Duration: 80 mins
Tides: High 1147 2metres – Low 1827 0.7metres
Max Depth: 30.5 metres
Weather: Sunny
Sea: Flat calm
Visibility: 20metres +/-
Divers: Two – self/Aki
We started the dive at the beginning of the wall. Fantastic vis and no current. We headed east along the wall and found one leaf scorpionfish, 3 Nembrotha lineolata nudibranchs and lots of fish!
Carried on down to the overhang at 25metres to look for sharks. Found one whitetip reef shark in a small cave then looked up and saw a large Napoleon wrasse shadowing us. Carried on along east and just hung out with all the fish. At 100bar we turned around and came back at around 12metres all the way. Absolutely wonderful. Lots of sunlight, lots of fish and no current. At the end of the dive found another Nudibranch (unidentified) that I’ll try to ID later. Thanks Aki, a great dive.
Nembrotha lineolata - K41
Friday, April 27, 2007
Bob's Rock - West
Site Name: Bob’s Rock West AKA Behau Forest
Location: About 48km east of Dili on the coast road, Behau
Getting there: After driving through Behau village, with the white-walled ex resort, carry on up and over the cliffside road. Once you get to the bottom, sea-level, part of the road look on the left for a rock with ‘HB’ spray-painted in white. Turn off the road here and head down the track to the waters edge.
GPS Co-ords: TBA
Entry/Exit: Just east of the overhanging tree. Swim out about 30metres until you are over an area of coral rubble. Descend here.
Shade: Plenty
Diver Experience Level: Open Water and above
I think this is one of the most under-estimated sites in ET. Lots of different terrain, coral species and depths. On the entry there is a nice big stack of staghorn coral, full of Anthias, Basslets, Coral trout and Lionfish. Also at least 5 different species of clown fish including Spine-cheeked, tomato, pink, false and Clarks.
Just to the east of the staghorn, at about 12metres, is a big barrel sponge. This is a great place to look for critters. On or under the sponge itself look for leaf scorpionfish, ghost pipefish in the crinoids and banded pipefish under the sponge. About 1metre west of the sponge is a mushroom coral, host to 2 white pipefish.
On roughly the same line as the sponge but at 21metres is a solitary gorgonian fan. This is home to at least 4 Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti). The area between the sponge and the fan is also a good hunting ground for different species of Nudibranchs.
Just west of the staghorn is a big sandy patch. Halfway across the patch is a very large colony of garden eels (Heteroconger hassi). These are the longest garden eels I have seen anywhere.
After the sand you come to more coral. A wall stops at about 10metres depth with a gentle slope to a bommy at 12metres. The base of the wall has numerous little overhangs where you may find a crocodilefish (or flathead) lying in ambush. The bommy is also good for critters eg: banded shrimp, leaf scorpionfish.
From the bommy I usually head down to about the 18metre mark and continue west. After a while you will come to a wonderful overhang at a depth of about 24metres which juts out into the open ocean. The overhang itself has a lot of life, including the biggest Spanish dancer (Hexabrancus sanguineus) I have ever seen at 67cm! Also it is a good place to hang and just look into the blue for passing pelagics. The wall carries on here for a good while but by now most divers are at about 100bar so its time to turnaround. Slowly ascend to around the 10/12metre mark and make your way back to the starting point via a wonderful coral wall. This is best dived at around midday with the overhead sun lighting the place up like a tropical garden.
Highlights: Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), white pipefish (Siokunichthys nigrolineatus), Garden eels (Heteroconger hassi) and Harlequin ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus)
Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), Bob's Rock
Location: About 48km east of Dili on the coast road, Behau
Getting there: After driving through Behau village, with the white-walled ex resort, carry on up and over the cliffside road. Once you get to the bottom, sea-level, part of the road look on the left for a rock with ‘HB’ spray-painted in white. Turn off the road here and head down the track to the waters edge.
GPS Co-ords: TBA
Entry/Exit: Just east of the overhanging tree. Swim out about 30metres until you are over an area of coral rubble. Descend here.
Shade: Plenty
Diver Experience Level: Open Water and above
I think this is one of the most under-estimated sites in ET. Lots of different terrain, coral species and depths. On the entry there is a nice big stack of staghorn coral, full of Anthias, Basslets, Coral trout and Lionfish. Also at least 5 different species of clown fish including Spine-cheeked, tomato, pink, false and Clarks.
Just to the east of the staghorn, at about 12metres, is a big barrel sponge. This is a great place to look for critters. On or under the sponge itself look for leaf scorpionfish, ghost pipefish in the crinoids and banded pipefish under the sponge. About 1metre west of the sponge is a mushroom coral, host to 2 white pipefish.
On roughly the same line as the sponge but at 21metres is a solitary gorgonian fan. This is home to at least 4 Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti). The area between the sponge and the fan is also a good hunting ground for different species of Nudibranchs.
Just west of the staghorn is a big sandy patch. Halfway across the patch is a very large colony of garden eels (Heteroconger hassi). These are the longest garden eels I have seen anywhere.
After the sand you come to more coral. A wall stops at about 10metres depth with a gentle slope to a bommy at 12metres. The base of the wall has numerous little overhangs where you may find a crocodilefish (or flathead) lying in ambush. The bommy is also good for critters eg: banded shrimp, leaf scorpionfish.
From the bommy I usually head down to about the 18metre mark and continue west. After a while you will come to a wonderful overhang at a depth of about 24metres which juts out into the open ocean. The overhang itself has a lot of life, including the biggest Spanish dancer (Hexabrancus sanguineus) I have ever seen at 67cm! Also it is a good place to hang and just look into the blue for passing pelagics. The wall carries on here for a good while but by now most divers are at about 100bar so its time to turnaround. Slowly ascend to around the 10/12metre mark and make your way back to the starting point via a wonderful coral wall. This is best dived at around midday with the overhead sun lighting the place up like a tropical garden.
Highlights: Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), white pipefish (Siokunichthys nigrolineatus), Garden eels (Heteroconger hassi) and Harlequin ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus)
Pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), Bob's Rock
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Anyone Can Dive
Timor Leste’s Youngest Scuba Divers
By Ann Turner
Nandini Hannak and Svein Klakeg (aged 8) have become Timor Leste’s youngest scuba divers. They have just finished the PADI “Bubblemaker” course for kids, whilst their elder siblings Anjleen Hannak and Ane Klakeg (aged 10) have completed the “Bubblemaker” course and are now well on the way to getting their certification as PADI Junior Open Water scuba divers.
Already veteran snorkellers, the Hannak girls decided that they wanted to join PADI Divemaster father, Jurgen and Advanced Diver mother, Elke, in the underwater fun. Mum and Dad duly delivered Anjleen and Nandini to FreeFlow Dive Centre’s Instructor, Marianne Woodward and within a day they were cruising along the bottom of the Hotel Esplanada’s swimming pool like old hands.
Recreational scuba diving has only been in existence since the 60’s and many people still think that it’s the stuff of James Bond movies, a sport only for very gung-ho, adventure sports types. But now that 8-year-olds are doing it, we’d better think again! I didn’t pluck up the courage until I was 40; once I saw my first coral reef, up close and personal, I regretted the non-diving decades that had passed by. To think that so much of our world is covered by oceans and that I could have lived my life without exploring the beauty of the reef and seeing for myself the amazing creatures that live on it. How I wish that I could have started as a child! I think of the things I could have seen and the experience I would have accumulated now that I’m a 50-year old diver. It’s never too late to start, though. An instructor friend of mine once taught a 76-year-old woman to dive!
PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) deserves the credit for opening up the dive experience to children. Their specially-designed courses for 8 year-olds and above are called “Bubblemakers”. Under the very close supervision of a PADI Instructor, the youngsters learn how to breathe and swim underwater according to PADI’s very stringent safety standards. Once “Bubblemakers” are confident underwater, they realise that they can get up to all kinds of fun beneath the water’s surface. Anjleen and Nandini enjoyed playing with the underwater torpedo – it glides through the water like a Frisbee. Young divers can stand on their heads, swim through hoops, or hover motionless in mid-water. “Bubblemakers” also get a personalised certificate with their underwater photo to hang on the wall. Anjleen, at the age of 10, is already old enough to start on the next step: the Junior Open Water certification, which allows kids to get out onto the reef with all the grown-ups (and the fish). She was very excited after her first dive in the sea: “There is so much to discover that you don’t know where to start!” she said afterwards. Nandini will have to wait two years to catch up with her sister but she’s already impressed with her first scuba dive in the swimming pool: “I feel like a fish, weightlessly floating in the sea…”, she said.
But there’s also a very strong educational reason to take the little ones underwater. They learn valuable lessons about underwater life and reef ecology. As the future custodians of the marine environment, the sooner children realise how wonderful and delicate it is, the sooner they can play an active role as ambassadors for reef conservation.
My own enthusiasm for marine life has been magnified through the eyes of these young divers. Anjleen and Nandini were so inspired by the beauty of the reefs in Timor Leste that they started painting pictures of underwater scenes. There is nothing childish about these works of art; each species pictured is correct in its anatomical details, its habitat and behaviour. These girls are already experts.
Instructor Marianne enjoyed the course as much as the kids: “Teaching kids to dive is a fantastic experience, they are so enthusiastic about everything they do and their excitement is infectious, especially when they see their first Nemo. Obviously being at the PADI youngest age for diving, extra attention and supervision is necessary, that’s why I teach kids on a one to one basis. But if their parents are divers they can come along for the fun. It’s something really special seeing your child take their first breath underwater”.
So now, the whole family can get out of Dili for a day’s diving and International schoolmates can play together underwater. No more boring Sundays!
Anyone aged from 8 to 80 can scuba dive, subject to the following conditions:
you must be able to swim (200mt. for PADI Open Water)
you must be in good health. You will be asked to fill in a confidential health questionnaire and may have to obtain a dive fitness certificate from a dive specialist doctor if you have particular medical conditions.
Find out more about dive courses on the PADI website: http://www.padi.com/
Ann Turner is co-owner of Timor Leste’s longest-established dive centre, FreeFlow, situated close to the Hotel Esplanada on the beach road. FreeFlow conducts regular dive excursions to beaches outside Dili, with BBQ or buffet lunches. Families and non-divers are welcome. Call 7234614 for further details. To book a dive course, call PADI Instructor Marianne Woodward on 7234615.
Marianne and Ane Klakeg in the pool
Picture curtesy Anjleen, PADI Junior Open Water
By Ann Turner
Nandini Hannak and Svein Klakeg (aged 8) have become Timor Leste’s youngest scuba divers. They have just finished the PADI “Bubblemaker” course for kids, whilst their elder siblings Anjleen Hannak and Ane Klakeg (aged 10) have completed the “Bubblemaker” course and are now well on the way to getting their certification as PADI Junior Open Water scuba divers.
Already veteran snorkellers, the Hannak girls decided that they wanted to join PADI Divemaster father, Jurgen and Advanced Diver mother, Elke, in the underwater fun. Mum and Dad duly delivered Anjleen and Nandini to FreeFlow Dive Centre’s Instructor, Marianne Woodward and within a day they were cruising along the bottom of the Hotel Esplanada’s swimming pool like old hands.
Recreational scuba diving has only been in existence since the 60’s and many people still think that it’s the stuff of James Bond movies, a sport only for very gung-ho, adventure sports types. But now that 8-year-olds are doing it, we’d better think again! I didn’t pluck up the courage until I was 40; once I saw my first coral reef, up close and personal, I regretted the non-diving decades that had passed by. To think that so much of our world is covered by oceans and that I could have lived my life without exploring the beauty of the reef and seeing for myself the amazing creatures that live on it. How I wish that I could have started as a child! I think of the things I could have seen and the experience I would have accumulated now that I’m a 50-year old diver. It’s never too late to start, though. An instructor friend of mine once taught a 76-year-old woman to dive!
PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) deserves the credit for opening up the dive experience to children. Their specially-designed courses for 8 year-olds and above are called “Bubblemakers”. Under the very close supervision of a PADI Instructor, the youngsters learn how to breathe and swim underwater according to PADI’s very stringent safety standards. Once “Bubblemakers” are confident underwater, they realise that they can get up to all kinds of fun beneath the water’s surface. Anjleen and Nandini enjoyed playing with the underwater torpedo – it glides through the water like a Frisbee. Young divers can stand on their heads, swim through hoops, or hover motionless in mid-water. “Bubblemakers” also get a personalised certificate with their underwater photo to hang on the wall. Anjleen, at the age of 10, is already old enough to start on the next step: the Junior Open Water certification, which allows kids to get out onto the reef with all the grown-ups (and the fish). She was very excited after her first dive in the sea: “There is so much to discover that you don’t know where to start!” she said afterwards. Nandini will have to wait two years to catch up with her sister but she’s already impressed with her first scuba dive in the swimming pool: “I feel like a fish, weightlessly floating in the sea…”, she said.
But there’s also a very strong educational reason to take the little ones underwater. They learn valuable lessons about underwater life and reef ecology. As the future custodians of the marine environment, the sooner children realise how wonderful and delicate it is, the sooner they can play an active role as ambassadors for reef conservation.
My own enthusiasm for marine life has been magnified through the eyes of these young divers. Anjleen and Nandini were so inspired by the beauty of the reefs in Timor Leste that they started painting pictures of underwater scenes. There is nothing childish about these works of art; each species pictured is correct in its anatomical details, its habitat and behaviour. These girls are already experts.
Instructor Marianne enjoyed the course as much as the kids: “Teaching kids to dive is a fantastic experience, they are so enthusiastic about everything they do and their excitement is infectious, especially when they see their first Nemo. Obviously being at the PADI youngest age for diving, extra attention and supervision is necessary, that’s why I teach kids on a one to one basis. But if their parents are divers they can come along for the fun. It’s something really special seeing your child take their first breath underwater”.
So now, the whole family can get out of Dili for a day’s diving and International schoolmates can play together underwater. No more boring Sundays!
Anyone aged from 8 to 80 can scuba dive, subject to the following conditions:
you must be able to swim (200mt. for PADI Open Water)
you must be in good health. You will be asked to fill in a confidential health questionnaire and may have to obtain a dive fitness certificate from a dive specialist doctor if you have particular medical conditions.
Find out more about dive courses on the PADI website: http://www.padi.com/
Ann Turner is co-owner of Timor Leste’s longest-established dive centre, FreeFlow, situated close to the Hotel Esplanada on the beach road. FreeFlow conducts regular dive excursions to beaches outside Dili, with BBQ or buffet lunches. Families and non-divers are welcome. Call 7234614 for further details. To book a dive course, call PADI Instructor Marianne Woodward on 7234615.
Marianne and Ane Klakeg in the pool
Picture curtesy Anjleen, PADI Junior Open Water
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