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Welcome to Pelagic Pixels. This is the temporary index to Rob and Dawn's diving pictures. Eventually it'll be nicely formatted, please bear with us. Until then most links can be found below whilst they are sorted into the categories above :-)
Most recently we've had a flurry of UK trips, mostly as part of the SeaSearch project, but the Dutch cuttlefish have arrived at last!
2008
 | Holland - May 08 This was our best planned trip to Holland yet, and so only right that it should go off the rails straightaway... and the Zeelandbrug was filthy and pretty much free of cuttlefish thankfully some of the other sites were just as packed with animals as before, phew! Another interesting twist was that the regional tourism gods had started to update the facilities and now there were toilets even in the middle of nowhere! |
 | Swanage October 08
In the end this was my last dive trip of the year, many thanks to William for
inviting me along. We had the last of the good weather and in fact some of the
best conditions of the year - flat seas for diving the Kyarra! As we came back
after the last dive all the boats in the bay were being pulled out in
expectation of a BIG storm, perfect timing William! |
 | The Isles of Scilly September 08
We'd wanted to go to the Scillies for years.
What better way than with Sally masterminding the like-clockwork logistics
for a week of wildlife watching? Although the weather wasn't at its best we saw
lots of good stuff and we didn't miss a dive. The island was a great tranquil
base and it was very tempting to stay.There are two sets of galleries, one set
with bad jokes and dodgey captions and a sneaky set of spotters guides where we
tried to name all the stuff we saw. |
 | Norfolk Survey Weekend August 08
We had high hopes for our Survey Weekend but all bets were off when we arrived to 2m waves at Cley... We went for a walk but William went in and the gallery telling that story is fun! By the evening things had calmed and David dragged us away from a baked Alaska to night dive the Rosalie... suffice it to say it was dark, surgey and mostly covered in crabs. Sunday was a different story, we were able to dive both wrecks and complete a GPS plot of the Vera - many thanks to Sarah for heroically towing the survey buoy. |
 | Norfolk in August 08 Part 1
By August the water was balmy... so we got in as many dives as we could. On this early weekend we dived the Vera and Rosalie twice each and the next Rob was treated to a dive on the Nubia off Sea Palling with GYSAC. Conditions were not yet at their best but Dawn found some tiny new nudibranches on the Vera and we were able to take some wideangle pictures of the wrecks. As it turns out this was good preparation for our surveys later in the month - oh and Dawn insisted on including some topless beach shots to show how warm it was... |
 | Crab rescue July 08
Put online for the MCS and any press to use. Pictures of the rescue - taken by William Hutchins, and a selection of the net underwater and 'jagged wreckage is perfect for snagging fishing nets' background pictures. |
 | Salthouse long weekend land and sea July 08
In July we had to spend a couple of days invigilating at the Salthouse Art Festival and that seemed like the perfect excuse to spend a long weekend on the coast diving as well as acting as 'artists' |
 | North Devon July 08
After being cancelled last year this summer's wasn't all wine and roses either, cue bibical rain! After a couple of days of National trust sight seeing we eventually found the the vis around North Devon hadn't recovered... so our last day was a trip to Lundy - where we had much better vis than on our trip in May. Many thanks to Sally for arranging the trip and acting as our minder for a few days of surface tourism too.. |
 | Norfolk July 08 - Part 1
Our early July haul from Norfolk wasn't as large as we'd hoped as the weather has been 'mixed'. We got in a dive on the Vera on the day our exhibition launched in the Salthouse and Sam and Tony from Great Yarmouth bravely put up with Rob and freaky downpours so we have a couple of diving galleries. |
 | Norfolk Omnibus Edition - June 08 digest
June was a very busy month... We held a Seasearch Observer course with 19 keen divers and (unfortunately) no diving, a Nudibranch ID course with Jim Anderson who travelled down from Scotland to tutor and still (frustratingly) no diving and then we were invited out by Mick from NEDSAC and all of a sudden there was vis off Cley and impossible numbers of nudibranches off Sea Palling. At last the East coast was open again! These galleries show all of that... |
 | Lundy - Seasearch Lundy MarineID Course and diving - May 08
We jumped at the chance to join Sally's trip to Lundy, arriving fresh from Holland in time for a primer course on local marine ID. The course was hosted by Ilfracombe SAC who were a great bunch and dived from Obsession II. |
 | Plymouth - Seasearch Sponge Course and diving - May 08
It's always a pleasure to join Sally's well organised trips, the conditions in Devon are usually better than those up in East Anglia and you really can't find a more authorative source than Bernard Picton. It was a very enlightening and great fun.The microscope sessions at the MBA revealed the amazing, beautiful selection of shapes which sponges create to form skeletons but give little hint at from the outside. |
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Plymouth - November 07 Sally having some new seafans to investigate seemed like a great excuse for a trip to Devon - until we rolled up at Fort Bovisand to find the MOD police had locked the gates! But everything got sorted and we got 4 good dives in, with a free rollercoaster ride back from the first! Many thanks to Sally and Danny for a really enjoyable weekend. |
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Norfolk - Fun and Seasearch off Cley and Rosalie - October 07
We'd never dived this late in Norfolk before but the sea stayed flat and fun as we managed a dive weekend and a Seasearch Observer practical session. These six galleries include rare wide angle shots of the Rosalie, Vera and even one of Dawn - so Seasearch students know who their leader is ;-) |
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Cley Exhibition Weekend - September 07 Norfolk Wildlife Trust publicising the Marine Bill was the ideal opportunity to introduce their mainly bird watching visitors to photos of the exotic wildlife which lurks just off shore. We couldn't resist fitting in a dive too! |
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North Pembroke - September 07 The Urchin survey seemed ages ago and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces from that adventure. Kate had (as usual) got the world organised on her side and we had a great time and will be back - if they'll have us! |
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Salcombe Bay from Plymouth - August 07 Although we had been due to dive North Devon in June the had weather scuppered that plan so Sally (Seasearch Coordinator for Devon) worked hard to fit in another trip. We dived out of Fort Bovisand on their cool, black RIB, running around towards Salcombe to sites including Prawle Point and Persier Reef. We stayed in the Mountbatten centre which turned out to be inexplicably empty but handy for both Bovisand and food on the Sound front. |
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Norfolk Twin Wreck Shore Dive Challenge Take 2 - The Vera and
Rosalie again August 07 This was a momentous visit as we saw the first Tompot Blenny (that's him on the left) reported off Norfolk (as far as we know) and I finally got some decent pictures of Bib! For this trip we had a good number of our new Seasearch people who were ready to do some of their assessed reports and get well on the way to being qualified observers! See our guide page if you want to take the challenge yourself :-) |
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Norfolk Twin Wreck Shore Dive Challenge - The Vera and
Rosalie August 07 Shore diving sounds easy, and the diving bit is... but even the shortest walk is complicated by carrying 35kgs of equipment. Walking across gravel makes it even more fun! However it was well worth the effort and no means boat there's no need to limit your dive time. Both wrecks have slack enough for at least an hour's dive most weekends - we were greedy and had an hour and a half :-) We have added a guide page for anyone who fancies taking the challenge themselves :-) |
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Cley next the Sea, Norfolk July 07 We can't believe we waited so long to dive the Vera at Cley next the Sea, it was packed with pipefish and crawling with crabs. Our local half dozen were joined by a group who had come down from Nottingham. |
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Skomer Urchin Survey, Pembrokeshire Jun 07 We really enjoyed taking part in the Urchin survey in the Skomer Marine Reserve. It was our first stab at practical underwater surveying and the discipline of making several passes over the same terrain certainly made for a thorough creature hunt. Many thanks to Kate Lock for organising the event. |
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Lyme Regis - Sea fans and sunset coral, Dorset Jun 07 It was a pleasure to return to Lyme Regis, doubly so since we dived from John Walker's boat Miss Pattie. John helped the group with their mission to assess the impact of scallop dredging on the seabed fauna, particularly the pink sea fan - the UKs largest coral. We found fans and sadly evidence of damage but there was no shortage of other wildlife and a chance to see sunset corals.See the See the Seasearch news page for more information |
 | Holland - May 07 Very overdue but well worth a browse the cuttlefish are online at last! They join the other Dutch underwater life which has been on show for a while - sorry it's taken so long. Diving with the cuttlefish in Zeeland is an amazing experience, at least until other divers are attracted by your lights - some things are the same whatever country you dive in... |
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At the end of last year we returned to Indonesia spreading our time between Bunaken, Lembeh and a liveaboard via Halmerhera to Raja Ampat. There's a gallery for each part of the trip and even some bonus surface shots and panoramas. |
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Our first few days were spent relaxing on Bunaken Island with Twofish divers |
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...and then a few more at their place on Lembeh Island .... |
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...before we transferred to the confused luxury of Odyssea 1 for the main part of the trip. |
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Just in case you're curious here are some assorted surface pictures... |
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...I've separated the panoramas as they make a nice themed group by themselves |
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Our first visit to the
northern part of Raja Ampat was aboard Shakti, all hail Cap'n Dave... Raja Ampat, Shakti May 06 |
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...and
then a few days relaxing
on Kri Raja Ampat, Kri Island June 06 |
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Although
I thought the pygmy
seahorses were adorable it seems that the stunning views from the top
of the hill on Wayag were even more popular so here's a better version
and
some more panoramic views Raja Ampat, Panoramas May/June 06 |
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Slightly
less glamorously we
followed that
with a trip to North Norfolk. Weybourne is one of our favourite dive
venues, there's a small wreck and some gullies which are both packed
with wildlife. Sadly some club politics mean it was our last club trip
but we were able to savour our memories of better times whilst hunting
down nudibranches. Weybourne, Norfolk July 06 |
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Thailand and Myanmar December 05 |
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Sipadan and Kapalai, November 2004 |
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North
Sulawesi, including
Bunaken and Lembeh, November 2004
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Our
most complicated and
varied trip was to New Zealand in February and
March
2004. We
drove and dived
from
South to North NZ when the storms and floods permitted... Stewart Island , Otago Peninsula , Mount Cook , Akaroa , Kaikoura - whales and dolphins , Kaikoura - diving , Pupu Springs , Pohara - Eels! , Napier - City of Art Deco and worms + blown out in Whakatane , Hahei - hot water beach , Hahei - diving , Great Barrier Island - diving and Poor Knights - diving. Phew, it was Really quite a trip! |
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After that we needed a rest so we had a long weekend in Western Australia :-) diving Ningaloo Reef and having fun on the surface in Exmouth and Perth in March 2004. |
