Club News
2010 Dive trip to Kavieng PNG
19 members and friends this year travelled to Kavieng in PNG many spending time in Cairns on the way over or the way back. As usual staff at Allways dive Expeditions did the booking etc for us. (thank you Tracey)
The Diving was done through Scuba Ventures, Dorian picked us up at the airport and transferred us to Nusa Island retreat before filling in the required forms. It is recommended all divers visiting remote dive locations take out Dan insurance you are a long way from .
There were a few dives that need to be mentioned the Der Yang was dived on what had to be described as a fantastic day with great visibility ( a couple of our members were alleged to have grumbled another trawler/coastal trader, that was until they hit the water )
The deep Pete biplane wreck dive was on par with the best you can do any where, several good photos were shot on this day
The Catalina/ wreckage site was another good dive.
Dorian and Cara made us all welcome. Dorian took photos of the group during the trip and put on a slideshow before we departed, he also provided a DVD of photos to all Divers.
The accommodation was at the Nusa Island Retreat, a small island within sight of the mainland the rooms are a mix of on suite bath rooms or shared facilities. All built from timber with traditional thatched roofs all rooms were clean tidy and provided mosquito nets over the beds.
The staff at Nusa Island were excellent arranging transport and snorkeling and sightseeing trips for many of our group.
The dining room Bar area is located in the center of all the rooms, the food provided by the resort was fabulous with a wide variety on offer every evening.
This Area was used by Dorian on 2 occasions to show some of the excellent photos he has of the area and the creatures that live here. Some of Dorian’s photos are in the photo page and well worth a look.
Many people took advantage of the last day to do a local sightseeing tour visiting waterfalls, Eel garden, tree house an a attempt at surfing (some of our members can remember when they could do it)
2009 Dive trip to Puerto Galera, Philippines
25 members and friends this year travelled via Singapore to Puerto Galera in the Philippines many spending time in Singapore on the way over or on their return. As usual Jess at Allways dive Expeditions did the bookings etc for us.
The Diving was done through Action Divers, Ross made us all welcome and made the non divers among us more than welcome making sure they were part of all non diving activates . Action Divers arranged a 'Meet and Greet' night at Portofino Beach Resort and near the end of the week a 'Sunset Cruise' with a few drinks. Part of the cruise was a short stop and a visit to the 'Rock n Roll Bar' ( a few more drinks) and return trip to Portofino for a Mexican banquet. A great night was had by all.
Many people took advantage of the last day to do a local sightseeing tour visiting waterfalls, the suspension bridge, golf course and White Beach. The tours were in the local jeepnee style vehicles and lunch for some was enjoyed at an Italian Restaurant recommended by Ross.
Between us we visited several restaurants during our stay and found the food always excellent.
Australian dollars were easily cashed into pesos and we found the people friendly every where we went.
The accommodation was split between Portofino and Out of the Blue Villas
Portofino is of Spanish-Mediterranean design located right on the beach with a pool overlooking the beach.
Out of the Blue with its spectacular views and excellent standard of accommodation was well worth the climb up the many stairs every day.
2008 Dive trip to Madang in PNG
18 members and friends travelled to Madang on the north coast of PNG for a relaxing weeks worth of diving the trip was arranged by Jess at Allways dive Expeditions.
The accommodation was at Jais Aben resort and the diving was arranged by Aquventures located in the resort complex.
The package included 12 dives some members of course did extra afternoon dives and a night dive.
We also attended a seafood buffet at the Coastwatchers hotel, went into the Chinese restaurant one night and also attended the local game fishing club BBQ on the Sunday night before departing on the Monday afternoon flight.
2007 Dive trip to Vanuatu, Santo and Solomon Islands
Members and friends recently travelled to the Espirito Santo to dive the President Coolidge Wreck. Some travelled via the Solomon Islands and out to Tulagi diving the Destroyer Aaron Ward and other wrecks near by. The trip was arranged by Allways dive Expeditions and majority of the accommodation was at the Hotel Santo.
10 dives were arranged as part of the package through Aquamarine up to 9 dives were done on the Coolidge and 1 dive at Million Dollar point. Some took the opportunity to also do a reef dive from the dive shops boat. Some members stayed a few extra days and dived with Allan Power.
The SS president Coolidge Was launched in 1931 and after the attacks on Pearl Harbour was converted to a transport ship.
On 26 of October unaware of the mine fields protecting Santo harbour and fearing attack from submarines the captain proceeded into the harbour striking 2 mines.
The captain realising the ship was going to sink ran the vessel aground. There were 2 casualties 1 in the engine room from the initial explosion the second captain Elwood .J. Euart went down with the ship after successfully saving others.
A memorial to captain Euart has been placed overlooking the wreck site.
2006 Dive trip to Truk Lagoon
Several members of the Darwin Sub Aqua Club recently made the journey to Truk lagoon in the Federated states of Micronesia.
Spending 7 days aboard the SS Thorfinn diving the Japanese wrecks sent to the bottom during Operation Hailstone.
Operation Hailstone was the code name given to the raids on 17th and 18th of February 1944 by US forces.
SeaWolf Production's website provides a great deal of information on Operation Hailstorm.
Truk is without parallel the world's greatest wreck diving in a wonderfully comfortable location. The spectacular remains of around 70 wrecks lie accessible to most divers.
The Wrecks are spectacular all in their own way due to the coral growth on the shallower wrecks or the lack of growth on the deeper dives.
Truk's sheltered lagoon offers warm clear virtually currant free water providing excellent dive conditions.
We departed Cairns on Friday 28 April 2006 at 00:10 AM and arrived in truk at 10:00AM via Guam. We spent two days relaxing at the Blue lagoon resort did some local sightseeing tours to the Former Japanese Communications headquarters.
The site consists of several buildings made from extremely thick concrete 4 to 5 feet thick to provide protection from Allied bombing raids.
We also visited a gun emplacement a tunnel had been dug well into the hill side and was strategically placed looking out over the lagoon.
We were picked on Sunday afternoon by of the Throfinn’s Ridged inflatable dive tenders and taken on board. Usual forms were filled out and a general orientation of the vessel was given by captain Lance Higgs.
During the 7 days aboard we did up to 24 dives these included the following wrecks
submarine I169 Kiyosumi Maru Rio De Janerio maru
Fujikawa Maru Hoki Maru Yamagiri
Kansho Maru Sankisan Maru Unki Maru
Nippo Maru Heian Maru Sanfrancisco Maru
Gosei Maru Micro Trader Futagami Salvage Tug
Shinkoko maru Hoyo Maru Dihatsu junction
Aikoko Maru Yubae maru Seiko Maru
Betty Bomber