After our stay in the Netherlands, we will travel to Ljubljana in Slovenia to meet some business partners and then down to the south coast of Italy for a few days. There is scuba diving near where we are staying, has anyone scuba dived on the southern coast of Italy? We’re staying about 100 kms from Naples. If anyone requires a credit card in the Netherlands please see this Krediet kaart site

I still love the feeling I get down underwater, no matter what the viz is like. However, my dive buddy kept making signs he was falling asleep, he likes to be occupied all the time. For me, I just loved being in the “now” down there! We had a barbie after the dive and talked about our dive experiences, which I love doing!

David Gallo in Ocean Exploration

David Gallo focuses on the work of two scientists: Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab and Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and .

1) It takes divers underwater to provide a temporary base and retrieval system in the depths, as a simpler form of submersible vessel.

2) It is used to artificially reproduce conditions under the sea which are hyperbaric (pressures above normal atmospheric pressure). This chamber can be on land or ship-based, and is used for diving-related and non diving related medical applications.

There is a national hyperbaric center in Scotland, which plans to build the world’s largest and deepest chamber, so it can test underwater equipment at depths greater than 5,000m.

These chambers not only save diver’s lives, they are also used to treat non-divers’ medical conditions, such as carbon monoxide poisoning. Recent studies have shown that the chamber can be used in the treatment of specific eye conditions, where the retina has been starved of oxygen.

With a hyperbaric chamber being used to treat non diving related conditions, this is good news for divers. It means the chambers could become more accessible.

I have a friend who’s been diving from Heron Island and said it was one of the most beautiful places he’s dived. There are over 20 dive sites, so Scuba Divers can easily enjoy up to 3 full dives a day and an occasional night dive too.

Here’s what AusEscapes.com.au say about a Scuba Diving Vacation at Heron Island

“Heron Island Resort is one of the few Queensland island resorts situated right on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It’s what you don’t see around Heron Island that makes the resort so special. You won’t see any buildings above the tree line. And you won’t bump into any daytrippers either. The reef experience on Heron is exclusively for guests, a unique experience few other resorts in the world can offer. There’s a relaxed island lifestyle that sets Heron Island Resort apart, a sophisticated yet casual resort atmosphere. Here the emphasis is on exploring and discovering the natural attractions that have made Heron famous around the world.

You’ll enjoy some of the world’s best reef diving. There’s a choice of spectacular sites just minutes from the beach, and can you imagine a better place to learn to dive? There is no need for day trips to the Great Barrier Reef, because you are already there! So you can easily enjoy 2 dives a day. There are over twenty different dive sites close to Heron Island.

Join a guided reef walk to learn more about the unique ecology of the Great Barrier Reef or snorkel off the beach and come face to face with the kaleidoscope of marine life just below the surface. Enjoy a day trip to explore an uninhabited coral cay or just spend the day lazing by the pool. At night there’s live entertainment, dancing or a quiet drink in the Pandanus lounge. All meals are included in your tariff and the Saturday night seafood buffet comes highly recommended. You’ll find a range of accommodation to suit your budget. As you would expect, Heron Island takes great pride in maintaining their high standards of food and service.”

We had a great time! The viz was poor, however we still saw lots of stuff. We went with about 5 other people, and Luke led us.

Luke found a couple of turtles sleeping, so gave them a bit of a nudge, and off they swam.

I saw John brushing at something on his head, and afterwards he told me this Damselfish was tapping him on the shoulder, and then came back later on, having a go at his head. He wondered what it was!! These fish are very territorial, so it was just protecting his environment.

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I will post when the drink is launched in a few weeks.

My first thought when I turned on the camera was “great, it’s more like a computer”. Instead of the rather complicated menu system on the 550, with the Sealife DC600, there is a Mode button to select Photos, Video or Playback.

Each Mode has it’s own menu, accessed by a “Menu” button. Press the menu button, and there are 3 tabs ( like on a number of computer software applications ) Scrolling through the menus is very easy ( Much easier than on the 550 ) Even with the Underwater casing, accessing the menu is very easy.

The LCD monitor is flatter and I’m sure it’s a little larger, and it’s much easier to see the LCD display underwater.

I find the Flash setting a little confusing, and haven’t worked it out yet. The flash setting depends on what “Scene” is used.

Underwater ( with the casing on off course:-) the buttons seem easier to find, mostly because it’s more simple.

The first time I went scuba diving, I put the camera on Video mode before placing it in the underwater casing because I couldn’t find out how to change the mode back and forth between video and still photos. I read the manual a couple of times and couldn’t find out how to change it. So, my first dive was all video - it was a very bad day for diving so can’t show you the video. Visibility was about 1 foot ( maybe ).

Before going diving again, I looked on the sealife website, at their FAQs. Guess what the first FAQ says? They must have forgotten to put it in the manual:-)

1. How to select video or playback mode when the camera is in the housing.

When the camera is in Sea, Ext Flash or SplashWater modes, you can push the LCD display button to toggle between picture, video and playback modes. When the camera is in any other mode (and outside of the waterproof housing) you can use the slide switch on top of the inner camera to switch between video, playback and picture modes.

So, overall I think there’s a definite improvement in the DC600. A strange thing happened on my second dive though. My husband took the camera when we went off the boat. It was set for video and so he pressed the “Power” button, then Shutter to start the movie. He pointed the lens towards his subject for awhile, then pressed the shutter down to turn it off. And, it wouldn’t turn off. He showed me and I couldn’t turn it off either, so we didn’t know if it was still shooting movie. When we got back to the beach, the camera was still playing. By the time it dried and I was able to take it out of the casing, the battery had run out. The camera is okay, so that’s good.

One more thing I forgot, the Power button and the Shutter button have switched places which was a very good idea!

I’ll post some photos after I go diving next.

I have some video here that I took with the camera on it’s own. It takes great video.

Bear in mind though, this video has been compressed for YouTube, and the picture you see before clicking the play button has been compressed too. When the play button is hit, the picture is very clear. The first photo you see ( before the movie ) was a snapshot taken off the movie, using “Windows Movie Maker”. Very clear don’t you think - I didn’t do anything to it in Photoshop either.