wild SPS corals, Marshall Islands

Wow! Could I BE more jealous? That's a little slice of heaven...

We'll there's pluses and minuses being out here.....i think more pluses.

for me a welcome break from 'normal' life, heaven might be a bit overstated, but i do smile a lot

Bring the pics bro..Lets see those acro's...The ones we can't get back here in the states....:beer:
markie, you just want me for my pic's....got my camera back, here some new tank shots for ya


Simply Amazing! :)

janice, glad you enjoyed the pics...perhaps our paths will cross sometime.


Got my camera back from Olympus, replaced the CCD. I guess I shouldn't have pocketed it in Thailand so much...I'll make sure to use the carrying case from now on. Good thing, all done for no charge under their warranty.

I'm still figuring out the camera. Bold enough to take some shots in manual mode, messing with the ISO and F stop. I took some pics in auto mode, and they tend to be too whitish. ill figure it out soon enough. On the last two dives, I figured out how to spot zoanthids, its not easy. I've been passing them up without knowing it, so I have a few more varieties in my tank now. I'm finding them around 70-100 feet, and it's a mystery on the coloration until you get them in the tank, whereas colors are washed out this deep. sorry, I don't have any fancy name branding going on...everyone in the marketing department is on vacation, plus I'm not that creative.

My tank is hitting full stride now that it's been up for a year. Ditched the biopellets and went back to good ole GFO. Some of the brown out is slowly fading away, and developing nice coloration and extension to the SPS.

My fish diving buddies boat is down for the count, so no fish catching for some time. The tank is filling in nicely; hope to have the right side built up a bit with new corals soon.

anywho, enjoy the pics.
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Tank looks phenomenal chuck. That clam was well worth the search. Oh if you only had next day air shipping available to all of us in the states!!!

I did start into the application process well my wife did and is starting the waiting game. If things work out maybe you can give me some furniture and I can load up 1500 of aquarium and dive equipment into my crate!!!!
 
Tank looks phenomenal chuck. That clam was well worth the search. Oh if you only had next day air shipping available to all of us in the states!!!

I did start into the application process well my wife did and is starting the waiting game. If things work out maybe you can give me some furniture and I can load up 1500 of aquarium and dive equipment into my crate!!!!

Thanks.......Good luck on the application process. you actually get more household goods shipped. Free issued furniture too (it looks much much better than when i first got here) :)
 
Great thread. I have really enjoyed it. Thanks. I have enjoyed the pictures as well as the wit. Please continue....
 
Looking awesome man

Well thanks ziyaad, kinds words appreciated. Hows the weather in joberg these days?
:ape:Thanks for the pics..Tank is looking sweet..

NP Markie, nice gif, seen rise of planet of the apes last nite on blu ray"¦is that Caesar?

Great thread. I have really enjoyed it. Thanks. I have enjoyed the pictures as well as the wit. Please continue....
Thanks T-man. Unfortunately, I'm not as succinct and eloquent with my words as some. I write and think like an engineer and my humor doesn't often translate well into words. Perhaps I've offended some over the years, but trust me it's all in good humor, and as long as I'm laughing, it's funny.
You have to take me "˜tongue in cheek' 90% of the time.

Well a lucky treat for you today. I managed to kill the bandwidth at work this morning(it's a dead week, most on holidays) and loaded a few videos.

Prinz Eugene battleship dive (heavy cruiser might be a more correct classification)

This is an easy and close dive for us out here since it's relatively close and the prop is sticking out of the water at lower tides. It's not too deep, 10 minutes from the dock by boat. The video shot is running up the port side of the ship, hence the weird angle. Its not possible to dive the entire ship on one or two tanks. Its friggin huge. I find it amazing how quickly a wreck can start to take on aquatic life forms and become a man made reef. I particularly enjoy wrecks "¦..really makes you think while your down there, and take it all in the rich history and stories the ship or airplane has to tell.


prinz_eugen4.jpg


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360 panorama going to the dive spot

Just a spin around shot on the boat heading out to a normally out of range dive spot. There's so many little "˜uprisings' on the lagoon floor. They look like white mounds sticking out of the water (actually they are under the surface just a few feet) when you're flying from above. I'm always thinking, man it would be cool to dive that spot, out in the middle of nowhere, and yes they are cool to dive.
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Ray in the sand
My buddy Mike is in the frame with his underwater camera. He's the one getting ridiculously close to the ray, I'm the chicken shooting vid from afar. That turned out to be a really good dive for us.
<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid143.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr158%2Fcchavis%2Fmarshall%2520islands%2FP8223014.mp4">
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I finally got invited to hang out with the cool kids this coming weekend. Thanks to attrition and being the last man standing (all the other regulars are off island on vacation), I got an invite to go diving with the local scuba gear rep. I snubbed him a few months ago (to go fish collecting), and he refuses to let it be water under the bridge, well he sent a proxy to email me to see if I wanted to go diving since there's an opening, and I said heck yeah. I hope to have some good pictures and videos coming soon.

Its been really windy here lately, and the waves on the ocean side are 10-12 feet, which makes for bad diving. Its calm today, hope it stays that way. I shouldn't complain, after all, it is 85 degrees out in December here, still rocking the Birkenstocks :fun2:
Have a Happy and safe holidays everyone.

Yokwe and Aloha


Chuck
 
ps, someone let me know if the video links worked. ironic, i cannot play them at work, only load them....no youtube access either.
 
Kick A** thread man & job location. My wife & I plan on falling off in about 2 years from now. Can't wait..... & no unfortunately no video.
 
I need to stop reading these dive threads, I always go to bed feeling jealous haha. Wonderful pictures and great tank!!
 
these links might work................





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<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid143.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr158%2Fcchavis%2Fmarshall%2520islands%2FP8222944.mp4"><br/><br/>
<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid143.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr158%2Fcchavis%2Fmarshall%2520islands%2FP8082813.mp4">
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seeing as i have a 384k line here i aint gona bother trying to view the vids today.
Weather here in Joberg is Awesome chuck, well today is terrible i hate the overcast dull weather but we in the heart of summer so great days ahead, will enjoy the videos when i have access to a faster line
 
Kick A** thread man & job location. My wife & I plan on falling off in about 2 years from now. Can't wait..... & no unfortunately no video.


its been refreshing to tune out a bit from normal society. i dont think my weekend expectations will ever be the same, especially after having diving access right at my backdoor year around

I need to stop reading these dive threads, I always go to bed feeling jealous haha. Wonderful pictures and great tank!!

thanks...i think. glad you enjoy the pics

seeing as i have a 384k line here i aint gona bother trying to view the vids today.
Weather here in Joberg is Awesome chuck, well today is terrible i hate the overcast dull weather but we in the heart of summer so great days ahead, will enjoy the videos when i have access to a faster line


ish, 384K.........try 8k down, 5k up. were supposed to be getting high speed here soon. ironic, you can go over to the neighboring island of Ebeye, they have high speed...go over to pohnpei, they have high speed, but not here.


Nice, in the last video, how deep we're you when you ran into the lobos? How was the current? Thanks!!

that was a wreck dive, the Prinz Eugen, hence the funky angle going down the side of the ship, as its laying on its side. thats was probably at 60'. lobo's are quite common out here, tons of stunning variation in coloring, mountains of reef formed on lobo's, some 50' tall. currents are easy on the lagoon side, they'll shoot you along pretty good on the ocean side closer to the tide changes. you generally feel safe with the currents. if it gets too bad, go lower and it will stop.





Here's some pics from 4 different wrecks from yesterday/day before. most of the pictures are from edges of recreational limits, 130' or so. the wildlife covering the wrecks is amazing to me.

Enjoy.

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