The Whales Of The Silver Bank

Well its all change here on the boat as we find ourselves down on the silver banks just off the coast of the Dominican Republic (The DR). Its whale watching season and the long and short of it is that we are now a floating hotel. We leave the port of Pourta Plata each Friday night and make the long transit out to a large coral platau off the coast called The Silver Banks, which is where we tie up for the week. There we stay for five days of whale watching and its not hard to spot them as there is anything from five to seven thousand humpback whales here over the season!! This first week has been an interesting one as I have once again found myself in the kitchen cooking. It has been fun and yet again I just need to look up through the window and I am blessed with a consistent flow of whales fighting for supremacy or mothers looking after their new born. It is incredible to be out here amongst these creatures. I did not get to get in the water with them this week but we are here for eleven weeks now so there will be plenty of time. As I said before there is also three weeks off to think about in-between too. When we arrived in the DR last week I was taken back to when we arrived here in 2010 on the cruise ship. It is an incredible country with rolling hills covered in growth. The streets have almost a Cuban / South American vibe to them and the rules of the road are similar to Thailand or India (crazy free for all). I look forward to spending some time exploring but for now its turn the boat over and head back to the banks!!

I wrote the previous entry a while ago and have not had chance to post it. In other news I had the most incredible dive a few days back. I entered the water, alone, with the task of checking the mooring to ensure the bolts were tight and we would not float away at any moment, that sort of thing. When I got underwater I could hear a whale singing, it was close and it was making the most incredible bass sounds that shook my chest but the visibility was terrible so there was no chance of me seeing them. I headed towards the coral head the mooring was attached to and still the singing continued so I just swam around above the coral head looking to see if there was a whale nearby. As I glanced back over my shoulder a huge male humpback was swimming straight past me, as my jaw dropped I kicked a little closer, he was having non of it and with two effortless kicks of his tail he was out of sight. What a blessing, very few people in the world have been in the water with humpbacks and even less have been on SCUBA. I was grinning from ear to ear but I still had one more task for the dive and that was to find some lost sunglasses. I began search patterns near the back of the boat and was not having much luck, I did however find an old dive compass which had been there so long it had coral growing on it. A spotted moray eel came to check me out and I found the most beautiful blue sea anemone. As I looked down to see how much air I had I was shocked to see I had 10bar!! And I was still at 25 meters (for those non divers that’s not a great deal of air and rather deep to have no air). I calmly started my ascent and kept my eyes to the ground still in search of the glasses. At about my halfway mark I looked down and saw what looked to be sunglasses. I looked again at my air and it was now reading pretty much zero. I decided….what the hell I’ll go for it and I swam back down and collected what I saw. It was indeed a pair of glasses, not the ones I was looking for but some a previous guest had lost almost a month ago. I wont bore you with the details but I made it back onboard the boat and what an amazing dive it was.

I am now on Vacation/holiday in a small town called Caberete in the DR and needless to say it is EPIC. Surfing in the morning, kite surf the afternoon and then the party kicks off on the beach around 10. All good so far and I’ll try and post a little more now I have internet!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwjCRFHx4Og&feature=youtu.be

The Holiday Season

Yet again it has been a long time since I have entered the realm of blogging and there has been a fair amount going on. Talking of the holiday season, I made the mistake of categorising some of my stock photos with the word ‘Holiday’ and being an American site they were instantly rejected for not having anything to do with Christmas!!

I was back in the UK for a couple of weeks and it was incredible to say the least. It was however very cold and I can safely say I am completely acclimatised to the Caribbean now. My parents threw a Christmas day, not on the actual day, and the whole family was there which was quite a feat in itself. My best bro had an epic surprise party, which went without a hitch a managed to quell my need for good music and beer.

My photography is really starting to pick up now and is gaining momentum as we speak. One of the windows open on my desktop is of my new website, under construction, and the other is some shots I have been editing from yesterdays diving so I think I can say I am hitting it hard. Just before my return to the Caribbean I submitted my first article that will be published in Under Water Photography magazine, obviously I will be shouting about it closer to the release date of Jan/Feb. I had my first ever placement in a photography competition. I was placed third in the Stoney Cove monthly event, first and second were both incredible photos so I was happy. The prize arrived in the post the other day, lets just say it may take longer to pay for my camera than I first thought!

I am trying to up my game by the week and I am trying to enter some prestigious competitions with the hope that I wont just make myself feel bad for not winning. There are three weeks before we shut shop in the Turks & Caicos and head for the Dominican Republic. There we will stay through to April, taking a full boat of guests, every week, to snorkel with humpback whales on the Silver Banks (Google maps). This will all be broken up for me by a three week holiday/vacation during which I will be Kite surfing for fourteen days and doing a ten day course in Miami towards my big boat Captains ticket…. And taking lots of photographs:

Nikon D600 in Hugyfot  InonZ240 strobes. Shutter 1/60 f20 iso 400 Tokina 16mm

Rain Drops And Palm Trees

 

The Bahamas, it always conjures up images of clean blue skies, warn sun with a gentle breeze, crystal white sands with turquoise blue waters lapping at its edge and lazy palm trees leaning out to sea.  I’m sure that if you took a flight to the northern Bahamas in the summer time then this is exactly what you would find. Right here, right now in the southern most islands of the Bahamas it’s a very different story. We set sail from Caicos Marina, Turks & Caicos, on Saturday evening with eight guests and six crew bound for Mayaguana the next morning. The itinerary would see us stop at this southern most island of the Bahamas first and then follow on to Plana Cay, Samana Cay, San Salvador, Conception, Long Island and dock in George Town, Great Exuma to complete our trip.

We arrived the next day after driving through the night, the crew taking turns to watch the bridge, dropped the anchors and we were diving!! The day drew on and the diving was good and the weather was calm. The weather report for the next few days told a different story and so a decision had to be made. The fourth dive was complete and over dinner the captain announced that the weather was closing in and we would have to drive through the night to reach the relative protection of San Salvador (they claim that this is where Christopher Columbus first hit land, so do the residence of Grand Turk and so the argument continues).

We once again took it in turns to sacrifice sleep and we powered on into the night bound for San Sal and running from the weather. We awoke the next morning to 20 knot winds and sideways rain but we could see land. After finding somewhere to hide we hit the water and the diving was good. We stayed here for the next few days and the wind started to calm but the rain continued to fall with some glimpses of sun. We have had great guests this week and they have been totally understanding of the situation.

We arrived at Conception Island yesterday morning and the weather finally broke. We had some beautiful dives and a Hammer Head shark showed its face, which really makes the trip for us. I jumped in to guide the first dive at 6am this morning and the sun did not show its face before we surfaced in time for breakfast. As I was diving along the wall, hovering in darkness over the abyss with panicking phosphorescence exploding like fireworks before us, I remember that I really enjoy the Bahamas for its epic topography and stunning visibility. This trip has been different from previous trips and the main reason is that we are all relatively rested, which makes everything else seem that little bit more enjoyable.

Its Been A While

 

Well its been a long time since I last wrote on here and I think that it is probably due to the fact that my previous entry was going to be hard to beat. After an accumulation of a few months I think I have enough tales to suffice an entry worth reading.

In August I flew back to the UK for my sisters wedding with the mission of being the official photographer for the event. I some how managed to turn the event in to a well-timed mission, with no margin for error.

I woke early on the Saturday morning to see off that weeks guests and to finish my packing. My flight was going to leave around 2pm so I headed to the airport just after lunch and made my goodbyes. I checked in without drama and in no time I was on my way to Miami, on schedule so far. The usual pain of getting through customs was there to greet me when I arrived but I am getting well trained at being patient with the American imigration system, even if it drives me insane, I smile and do as I told.

I hailed a Yellow Cab and ask the driver to take me to Electric Avenue, a very popular electrical store and there I would find my new DSLR camera that I had pre-ordered over the net to save time. The guys in the shop were fantastic and they had obviously been working there for may years. Some conversation was had and we soon got on to the fact that I was on an important mission with little time to spare. With great intrigue they listened to my itinerary and were all amazed that such a feat would even be considered. Walter, one of the three gentlemen, was most interested in my background in underwater photography and gave me a business card to contact him. He has invited me to give a presentation on my pictures at a meeting of his photography club in December.

I left the shop with my new camera and jump into the yellow cab, that was patiently waiting, and headed back to the airport (just as a side note here, I have been wanting to buy this camera for over 6 years and I am over the moon with it!!). I checked in and got some food then found a charging station to get some juice in the camera as there would be no time when I landed. With a couple of hours to kill I got settled in to the operations manual. The reading continued into the night and I tried to get some sleep as we flew over the Atlantic and into London. An overcast Sunday morning was there to greet me when I arrived at Heathrow, forty minutes ahead of schedule!!

I jumped in my hire car and headed off to the midlands. I arrived at the country manner that my sisters wedding would be held and there waiting was my good friend Madeline, her camper van and my pressed suit and shoes to get changed into. There was just enough time for us to stroll to the venue and a quick briefing from the master of ceremonies. Quick hellos to everyone present and it was off to work, all standing. The first glimpse of my sister and my father was of them both heading up the isle. A cheeky grin from my dad let me know he was pleased to see that my journey had gone to plan.

I had great weather for my holiday in England and managed to cram a lot in to my two weeks, but its never enough and back to the Caribbean I went. I had managed to pick up the new addition of an underwater housing for my camera, again something I had dreamed about for many years. Upon my return, after reclaiming my lost baggage that had my new housing in, things got back to the same routine. Guests have come and gone and I continue to practice my underwater photography. Our current captain will be leaving us this week, after five years with the company, and our relief captain will take us to the Bahamas for three weeks. I am learning a lot on this boat and I hope to learn a lot more. Soon it will be time to holiday in the UK again and then early next year we head to the Dominican Republic for the Humpback Whale watching trips. Hopefully I wont leave it so long to write here again. If you want to catch up on some of my new photographs head over to my flikr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonjameshigton/

Running Away From Chantal

 
Well you really wont believe what happened this week!! You just couldn’t write it…. So I’m just going to type it instead!

It all started well, the guests got on board no problem, they got settled in and sat down to enjoy dinner before we set sail for the week. Once all the dishes were done and the tide was high we set out to leave the dock. We made it to the entrance of the dock and ran aground on shallow rocks. There we stayed as we battled to get free. As I started up the dingy to go and push on the starboard side I had an over whelming feeling that this was a higher power telling us not to leave the dock this week but I ignored it and we wriggled the boat free. We set anchor and I got kitted up and did a dive under the boat to establish a rough damage report. The stabilizer fin was badly damaged and the props had some small dents. After reviewing my photographs the Captain decided it was safe to continue and off we went.

The next couple of days went very well, the diving was good and the guests were having fun and getting involved in some heavy banter. One guest however was having some stomach cramps and had decided to sit out a days diving. No sooner had we got into the flow the bad news started rolling in. A storm cell was forming in the southern Caribbean and it had earned itself the name “Chantal”. After some careful monitoring we had no alternative than to run and hide in the safety of our marina. We joined up with the Aggressor ( the other live aboard here in TCI) and tied down the boats for the night. Before closing up shop Martin and I kitted up and took a dive under the boat to remove the damaged fin so we could leave it at the ship yard for repair.

The storm came and went. When it finally hit us it had burnt itself out and was only classified as a “tropical wave”, nothing too dramatic.

Once again we set sail for a final days diving before the week was out. We managed three good dives and settled down for some dinner before the night dive. After dinner one of the guest went to talk with the captain in the wheelhouse. His stomach cramps had concerned him and he had called the dive medical association DAN. They had advised that he stop diving and monitor for DCS ( the bends). He had taken their advice and took a day off diving. After feeling fine he had joined us for the three dives on the final day. When surfacing from the final dive he was complaining of a pain in his shoulder, a classic symptom of DCS ( Decompression Sickness). With a call to the local recompression chamber on the island and contact once again with DAN its was confirmed that the boat must return to port immediately to allow a full medical assessment. We set sail to Sofadilla bay where we would anchor and tendor the patient in. All went well and upon arrival at the doctors it was confirmed he had a case of the bends and would be kept in for treatment over night so we all retired to bed, still on anchor. At around 2am a very loud bang and the sound of loose chain could be heard throughout the boat, what more could possibly go wrong!!!

I headed to the bow to investigate and found the engineer and the captain starring at the anchor windlass. It turned out it had given way and around an extra 150ft of chain had broken loose. After about two hours of boring stuff I cant be bothered to explain we had retrieved most of the chain but we had not enough power to lift the 500lb anchor from the ocean floor. Cue another dive by me at 3am with the biggest lift bag you ever did see. In zero visibility, at 3am in the morning, I found myself being dragged along the ocean floor, wrestling with an anchor and trying to hold on to the lift bag so I didn’t drift off into zero viz water. The anchor was raised to the surface and we winched it tight and secured it to the deck. Finally we got to bed a 4am…then we had to get up at 5am to take the guests diving!!!

So I write this here, now, sailing home to port with no additional problems. Fingers crossed we get tied up and I get my beer at 5pm!!! I am sure this will go down as the most interesting week to date and it turns out that Chantal was the least of our worries.

Engine Problems

 

Ive grown up around canal boats and they are truly a part of me. I worked for my fathers company for over a year and I learnt how to weld a boat together, fabricate steel, hot rivet plates the same way its been done for hundreds of years. The one thing that I never really learned about was the mechanics of a diesel engine, but that’s changed a little now.

A few weeks ago we were in the Bahamas and one of our engines blew a piston. Its not a simple case of calling the AA and hoping for the best, we have a resident mechanic but he cant work alone when it comes to rebuilding an engine. I took my turn in helping to rebuild the engine and I learned fast. The engine was put back together and we made the next weeks charter without a hitch. Unfortunately I now know what constitutes rebuilding one of our engines, lets just hope it doesn’t happen again soon.

Well its been a while since I last wrote this and I suppose I’ve been busy. We got back from the Bahamas, which is a good thing. Don’t get me wrong they are beautiful islands but it means more work on our part, longer hours and the pay is always low. Meaning we have a tired cranky crew, damaged boat and no money to show for it.

Anyway we arrived back in the TCI and got back to normal duty, not to mention I only worked one week and then off to Miami!!

Leaving the routine of the boat behind its such a relief and Miami is only a small hop away so a 6am flight got me in at 10:30am. I hired a car for the week, a brand new Chevy Malibu with 8 miles on the clock!! I cruised up the main street of south beach, the scene of so many films, surrounded by super cars and palm trees. I found my hotel and checked in for the week then walked to the strip for a check of the bars and a few beers. After finding The Clevlander (look it up on the web) with house music, a pool and cold beers I got settled in for the night.

That was pretty much it for the week – coffee, beach and skateboarding during the day. Miami heats basketball on the big screen, beers and pool parties by night. Needless to say I had a good time, love Miami, want to go back and felt refreshed and ready to work again at the end of the week.

So I am back on TCI again and getting settled back into the routine, cant complain for now. Week one nearly done and only eight more weeks then I’m bound for the UK shores for the sisters wedding and some great days spent with friends, good times.

Cleaning dishes and swimming with dolphin

Just a quick note about my office: The other week I was washing dishes as the guests were eating breakfast, just like any other morning. We spotted a pod of about twenty dolphins heading towards the boat. Martin and I ran out and grabbed fins and mask and jumped in. We swam with the pod, diving and playing for about half an hour. We jumped out, dried off and returned to the galley to continue with the dishes. I had to smile and wonder how many times I will ever run out of my place of work to swim with dolphins, good times.

Last week saw us head up to the southern most island of the Bahamas, Mayaguana, for a chartered trip to research and cull Lion Fish with the charity R.E.E.F. Lion fish are not native to these areas and are accused of devastating the reef populations in this part of the world. The charity is led by Lad Aikins and supported by one of SCUBA Diving’s all time legends Peter Hughes, both on board for the week and a honour to dive with them. It was an interesting week and a tough week with over night transits and bounce dives to set moorings. One thing that always gets me about trips like this is that we get to dive sites that may have never been seen by another human being. That really excites me, true exploration of new reefs, seeing formations no other person has ever seen. We had a great week and some great people on board.

The Bahamas is always tough because we have to be up early to move the boat, dive more to set buoys to tie into and take turns to drive the boat on long transits. Last week was a taste of more to come, we returned to TCI to restock and refuel and we are now on route to George Town, Exuma. We will spend the week covering a new Island every day, some of which are uninhabited, then spend three weeks diving the beautiful southern Bahamas. Its hammerhead season and its going to be good, tough work, long hours but rewarding.

www.REEF.org

May 25^th – Leave Turks & Caicos - Ropes off around midnight and set a course for Mayaguana. Im on watch for two hours during the night.

May 26^th – A day diving in Mayaguana, still not that great a place to dive, ropes off early morning.

May 27^th – Plana Kay, A beautiful deserted Island with crisp white shores and palm trees J

May 28^th – Samana Kay, deserted but diving not impressive.

May 29^th – San Salvador, always amazing diving and hammer head sharks!!!

May 30^th – Conception Island, a beautiful place to dive, deserted and a hot spot for luxury yachts to get away from it all.

May 31^st – Long Island, Bahamas - Early morning dive on the Cumberback, a 40ft island freighter then 3 hours before docking in george Town, Great Exuma.

Technically eight islands in one week, Bahamas will be home for the next couple of weeks and then we do it all in reverse.

Im not into the whole self portrait thing but I swam over to Plana Cay, A deserted island in the southern Bahamas, I was the only person on the island at the time so I had to get some evidence