We were on our honeymoon when we met the team from Nautilus and Leanne asked ‘has anybody ever wanted to jump off the back of a boat but hasn’t tried it yet?’ Of course Michael instantly jumped at the idea, dragging his new bride along! But the second we got wet, we were hooked! Our introductory dive took us to Twin Bommies which has become our loving friend, spending many hours exploring the reefs and playing with the fishes.
As soon as we arrived back at Nautilus, we booked our open water diving course. After studying our theory (over cocktails by the pool at our resort), Sonja (the middle one) was able to teach us many skills while we enjoyed the crystal clear waters of Port Vila.

After we got our open water ticket (see us celebrating in pic), we enjoyed a number of great dives including the Konada Wreck, where we discovered the loo, the wheelhouse and stopped for a cuppa tea on the wheelhouse roof.

We enjoyed our diving so much, we returned to Vanuatu the following year and went on more than 10 dives with our friends at Nautilus (with our instructors Lucy, Drew and the always helpful captain Freddy – see pics).

How can you beat two beautiful dives with 20 metre + visibility with homemade cakes in between (see pic of instructor Lucy and friend below).

Some of the highlights of our dives include: scaling the wall and going under the staghorn at Twin Bommies; the phenomenal wrecks of Semle Federsen, Star of Russia and Konanda; and the amazing viz and colours of the tropical reefs and sea life.
We’ve already booked our third trip in less than 2 years and our mission this trip is to do a night dive to see the turtles!

VILA DIVE ADVENTURE

Soon after arriving in Port Vila we made our way down to Nautilus Watersports, being keen divers from Sydney and having just dived the Coolidge we wanted to see some reefs, we found the staff very helpful and were able to do all the dives that we requested including the Tasman a plane wreck and two other wrecks as well, the reefs were just amazing with heaps of fish and other critters.

After doing the Tasman plane wreck dive we decided to snorkel back to the dive shop, on the way we saw a seahorse and a really strange looking worm on the wall just in front of the jetty of the dive shop. I have put together some photo’s to view as this is a photographers paradise. With so much to see it’s great to know that the staff are safety conscious and very knowledgeable of the local area.

Regards Grant and Suzi (Sydney, Australia – 30th Dec 2008)

The other night, a number of us went for a dive at the Twin Bommies.

Twin Bommies is an excellent dive site for both advanced and novice divers. The mooring line leads divers to an insensitive bottom where they can adjust their buoyancy and acclimate to their surroundings. Novices will enjoy circling the Bommies that teem with diverse aquatic life. There is always a good chance of finding a cuttlefish or a lion fish hiding near the Bommies, and the clown fish can always be seen nearby.

Experienced divers have the option of following the wall across form the Bommies. Table coral, nudiebranchs, clown fish, and lots of other interesting stuff can be seen along the wall.

I’ve done a number of dives at this site, and have become familiar with the various points of interest here. I was excited to do a night dive (it had been too long since my last), but I had expected to see essentially the same site, just darker. Generally I’m not happy to be wrong, but I was pleased to be wrong about this dive.

We arrived at Bommies just as the sun was beginning to set. The full moon hung low in the sky, and was clearly visible before the sun had finished setting. These were perfect conditions for a night dive; full moon, calm waters, and excellent visibility.

My buddies for this dive (Gemma and Josh) and I geared up and splashed down. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon as we made our descent. Our first destination would be the wall. This was going to be interesting; I was breaking in a brand new torch and I was going to try to take photos while I juggled the light back and forth in my hands.

The clown fish were just bedding down for the night, nestled into their anemone when came upon them. They seemed a bit sleepy and a tad bit surprised to be entertaining guests after dark.

Feather stars; they almost look like alien creatures that are slowly and patiently invading the Earth, ocean first. It was great to watch them curl up and hide as I shined my torch on them. I wasn’t really able to light the shot, line it up, and take it very quickly, so it was mostly closed by the time I snapped this.

Once we’d finished up at the wall, it was on to the Bommies.

The Spanish dancers were out in abundance tonight. I was very happy for the chance to snap a few photos to show everyone back home, as we only have American dancers to photograph.

As we puttered around the Bommies, I could see Gemma make a sharp turn off in a different direction. She had spotted one of the turtles that sleeps near the Bommies. It’s always amazing seeing a turtle, no matter how many times you’ve spotted one before. I’m always taken with their grace underwater, especially considering their awkward shape. This guy was much too far for me to hope to photograph, so I had to content myself with following (really, trying to keep up with)him.

At this point I was starting to run a bit low on air, so I signaled my buddies that I’d be heading back to the surface. Just as I turned away to make my way closer to the mooring line, I saw this parrot fish nestled in for the night.

Awesome dive.

Greg: Padi Instructor @ Nautilus

Home: U.S.A

www.Nautilus.com.vu

What can we say; the weather and water conditions have been just spectacular, blue skies and turquoise waters, with the water temperature creeping up to 28+ degrees and the vis being around 15 to 20 mtrs what more could you ask for. The Semle as always was awesome with vis of 35 to 40 mtrs. With the conditions being so great this week we have ventured out to the Cathedral twice and were visited buy a large school of Maori Wrasse, with great Grand Dad leading the group.

Lots of fun also had on board Cowrie with dive enjoying the surface interval jumping of the top of the dive boat, great photo take by Steve.

We would like to congratulate Ali for completing his PADI Advanced course and also Pontus and Bill for completing their Padi Open Water Course. We would also like to thank Cath & Grant who have been back for their 3^rd trip this year and to Rob & Judy for their 2^nd trip with both couples completing in excess of 20 dives.

Happy Diving.

www.nautilus.com.vu

Even though we have had rain most of the week the visibility has been great with 30+ meters, water temperature is starting to creep, sitting around 26 to 27 degrees.

The marine life has been in abundance, Cuttlefish, Turtles and also a sighting of Dorothy our friendly Dugong yesterday and how lucky were the dives, all were Discover Scuba Dives of the P & O Cruise boat in port for the day, it really is being in the right please at the right time.

We would like to thank Sue and Tony for coming back and diving with us again this year and for the mammoth amount of dives they completed.

Come on over to Nautilus Watersports for a Great Vanuatu Diving Experience

Nautilus Watersports. Port Vila. Vanuatu

diving@vanuatu.com.vu