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Here are our top tricks & tips for exploring the oceans and adventuring off the grid.

The post Get Out More and EXPLORE – Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Get Out More and EXPLORE - Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid | Drenched Productions

Get Out More and EXPLORE - Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid

Get out more and EXPLORE but don’t stick to the beaten path. Here are our top tricks & tips for exploring the oceans and adventuring off the grid. 

 

The Expedition Drenched project has always been founded on two key principles – marine conservation and adventure. All of the crews that have called the Sylfia home have been delightful little misfits that prefer to be out on the water (or wearing SCUBA gear below the water) over being stuck on land. We spend tons of our time sailing the oceans looking for interesting dive sites – from popular, mainstream sites to off-the-grid sites that are rarely seen by human eyes. 

Over the years we’ve become pretty good at planning our adventures, but it wasn’t always so easy and breezy for us. This week we thought we’d share some of the tips and lessons we’ve learned while trying to cobble together a trip that’s exciting for everyone. 

Get the Right Training to Dive Off Grid

If you’re going to be diving off the grid you need to remember that you MUST be able to rely on yourself and your crew for all emergencies. Experience and proper training should always be the priority of any crew looking to dive remote sites. But of all the available SCUBA courses out there, which ones are the MOST necessary? Here’s our list of the five courses you should focus on before heading out on a remote SCUBA adventure.

Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid | Drenched Productions
SCUBA Diving Off the Grid | Drenched Productions

Advanced Course

Remote dive sites and sites that are further away from shore are almost always going to be better for advanced divers than beginner divers because of greater depths and highly volatile ocean conditions. The Advanced SCUBA course, whether it is PADI, SSI, or any other certifying agency, will give you a good foundation for dealing with more challenging underwater situations. You’ll learn the basics of underwater navigation and the added concerns associated with diving up to a depth of 30m, and you’ll practice and improve your buoyancy skills. These are all critical skills to have (and build) when you’re going to be diving off your own boat onto a remote site without a local guide or local professional.

Navigation Speciality

The whole idea behind diving remote sites is to get out and explore a new place, but that means that you’ll always be diving at a completely unfamiliar site. Being able to navigate properly underwater is super important so that you can keep your bearings on new sites and surface close to your boat. A SCUBA navigation speciality course will teach you how to navigate using an underwater compass and also using natural landmarks and visual cues. It’ll fine-tune your observation skills and make you the natural leader of your adventure dive team.

Rescue Diver

A heavy battle ensued and the sub submerged itself to avoid the powerful guns on the two attacking ships. But, not only did the ocean not give her a safe place to hide, but the ocean also gave away her position. The large submarine was moving through bioluminescent plankton-filled water that lit up the underwater vessel for the attacking forces to clearly see. When done properly, SCUBA diving is a relatively safe sport. However, it is still considered an extreme sport and accidents can happen. When you’re on vacation and diving with a dive centre, your Divemaster and the dive centre are responsible for your safety. Off-the-grid diving means that you won’t have a team of professionals to help you if something does go wrong. Getting a rescue diver course under your belt would give you (and your dive team) good reassurance that you’re capable of managing accidents and emergencies that are commonly associated with SCUBA diving – like locating a missing diver, getting an unconscious diver to the surface, and providing basic first aid in the ocean and on land.

Night Diving Speciality

The oceans come alive at night. Millions of animals emerge from their hiding places in the deep oceans and shallow coral reefs alike. Nighttime is when most of the ocean’s creatures go hunting. A night diving specialty course will teach you how to navigate when you can’t see anything, how to use your underwater light to communicate, and how to safely ascend and descend in total darkness. Don’t be afraid – a night dive is one of the most magical ocean experiences out there!

Drift Diver Speciality

Our last diver education course suggestion for diving remote sites is the drift diver specialty. Why is this one on our list? Easy. Remote sites often have much stronger currents than inland sites and the drift diver course will teach you how to be a confident diver even in strong currents. Beyond that, it will also teach you how to safely enter and exit the water in a strong current situation – a must if you’re going to be diving off the back of your own boat into the unknown!

Have the Right Safety Equipment

Having the right safety equipment is extremely important when you’re diving off-grid for the same reasons that having the right training is important. When you’re out on your own without the support of a dive centre and a team of professionals, you have to have all the equipment that normally be carried by a divemaster or a SCUBA instructor, plus all the things that would normally be found on a professional dive boat. 

When you’re diving off-grid, every member of the team should be carrying their own ‘safety sausage’ or surface marker buoy (SMB). This is extremely important. No matter how bright and colourful your dive mask is, you will not be visible if you drift too far from the boat. An SMB is a bright orange and about a meter tall and it’s clearly visible from a distance away. Divers should also always be carrying their own compasses and dive torches so that they can navigate independently (if needed) and have an additional way to signal for help. 

The equipment that should be kept on the boat includes a dive flag that signals to others around that you have divers below, a save-a-dive kit with extra replaceable parts, and onboard emergency oxygen. Another important layer of safety is having surface cover from the boat. NEVER allow all the crew members to dive at the same time. ALWAYS leave at least one person aboard the boat to look out for divers with problems and things like incoming bad weather. 

How to Find the Right Site

Finding your way to popular dive sites is easy because most dive centres around the world will actively advertise the best local dive sites and will build their day trip packages around these local favourites. The Expedition Drenched crew prefers to find our own dive sites to explore, sites that can teach us something or show us something new. 

We’ve always found our off-the-grid sites using the internet and simple word of mouth. Searching through SCUBA diving blogs, online forums, and even Instagram feeds is how we find dive sites that most people have never heard of or can’t access. If we’ve decided to hit a completely submerged site, we’ll use our onboard sonar and depth finder to locate the underwater structure we’re looking for.

Sometimes, like when Expedition Drenched was travelling through the Solomon Islands, we even had to travel to land and speak to village elders to locate some underwater wrecks. In a lot of locations in the South Pacific, the exact locations of some of the older wrecks, like the World War II wrecks, are only known by a select few villagers.

Do a Proper Pre-Dive Buddy Check

Once divers become professionals or get enough experience under their belt, they can sometimes stop doing buddy checks before they jump in the water. They become complacent when they shouldn’t. Always make sure to do a proper buddy check before SCUBA diving, especially when you’re diving in a remote area. Take the time to check your gear and the gear of your dive buddy while you’re still dry on the boat. Make sure that any problems that could ruin the dive are found early. 

 

How do you remember all the steps in a proper buddy check? It’s easy. Bruce Willis Ruins All Films. Or whatever other acronym you want to use! 

 

BCD- inflate and deflate your buddy’s BCD while they do the same to yours

Weights – check that you and your buddy are carrying weights

Releases – double check to make sure that all releases (and safety strap) are attached

Air – breathe from your buddy’s alternate while you breathe from your primary
Final – final checks (compass, dive torch, asking if are we good to dive)

 

The ocean is a HUGE place and you can technically go SCUBA diving almost anywhere you want. If you’re lucky enough to have access to a private boat or happen to find yourself part of an awesome boat crew like us, don’t feel that you have to stick to the dive sites that are on the beaten path. Use your imagination and explore some completely new places that could offer some totally unbelievable experiences. 

 

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Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

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Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

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We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

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]]> 3332 History in the Solomon Islands – Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber https://drenchedproductions.com/diving-a-ww2-submarine-b17-flying-fortress-bomber/ Sat, 15 Oct 2022 16:24:30 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=3049 We SCUBA dive a Japanese sub and an American bomber aeroplane in the Pacific Theatre - Diving World War II history in the Solomon Islands

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Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber | Expedition Drenched

History in the Solomon Islands - Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber

We SCUBA dive a Japanese sub and an American bomber aeroplane in the Pacific Theatre – Diving World War II history in the Solomon Islands

They say that loose lips sink ships – but so do guns and wars!

This season of Expedition Drenched has brought our crew to (probably) the most beautiful place on earth, both above and below the water. The crystal-clear, warm, turquoise waters gave us almost too many excellent SCUBA dives to count and the lush green hills of the Solomon Islands introduced us to village after village of friendly and welcoming locals.

The Expedition Drenched crew spends a lot of time fighting to keep man-made things out of our ocean waters, but sometimes these things get into the water anyway. Wars around the world have left an untold number of shipwrecks and aeroplane wrecks on the ocean floor. One war, in particular, left a huge impact on the South Pacific – World War II.

The fighting in the Pacific Theatre during WWII was intense and a good deal of it was centred around the Guadalcanal area. So while we’re here we just had to strap on our SCUBA equipment and jump in to check out some of the wreckage left behind from the worst war in human history.

Guadalcanal - War Erupts in Paradise

Guadalcanal is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area and the second most populated. It is a tropical paradise with deep blue and turquoise waters surrounding lush green flatlands and jungle-covered mountains. The tallest peak in the Solomon Islands is on Guadalcanal too.

Despite Guadalcanal and the rest of the Solomon Islands being one of the most idyllic places on earth, this area of the world saw some of the most intense battles during WWII. It was an extremely important strategic outpost in the Pacific Theatre for both the Allied forces and the Japanese.

At the beginning of 1942, Japanese forces landed in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Their goal was two-fold: to build a naval base that could protect the Japanese offensive and to create bases that could break supply lines for the Allied forces. The Allied forces didn’t really like this Japanese tactic and they launched their Guadalcanal campaign on August 7, 1942.  The fighting was bloody and drawn out, but eventually, the Allies were able to stop the Japanese by inflicting terrible losses on their military assets. While the Japanese kept resisting and engaging in the odd, isolated battle, the Allies were able to reclaim many of the Solomon Islands and neutralize strategic Japanese positions.

Japanese I-1 Submarine

The I-1 type of Japanese submarine was a large cruiser sub and was the lead unit of the four submarines in her class. The specific I-1 sub that we were looking to dive was originally commissioned in 1926 and she has one heck of a history. 

This submarine served in the Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII. During the latter, she supported the attack on Pearl Harbor, ran anti-shipping patrols in the Indian Ocean, and participated in the Aleutian Islands campaign and the Guadalcanal campaign. This particular submarine was no stranger to combat and was pretty lucky during her lifetime – until her mission near Guadalcanal where she was attacked by two New Zealand warships, the HMNZS Moa and Kiwi.

  • Dive Type: Submarine wreck
  • Date Wrecked: January 29, 1943
  • Depth: Minimum –  10m, maximum –  25m
  • Location: Near the village of Tambea – Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

The Moa and the Kiwi began patrolling the Guadalcanal area on December 19, 1942, and on the night of January 29, 1943, they found themselves near the Kamimbo Bay area of Guadalcanal, a Japanese-controlled area. The I-1 sub surfaced and headed for the port but was spotted by the Moa and the Kiwi. 

HMNZS MOA | Expedition Drenched
HMNZ Moa | Expedition Drenched

A heavy battle ensued and the sub submerged itself to avoid the powerful guns on the two attacking ships. But, not only did the ocean not give her a safe place to hide, but the ocean also gave away her position. The large submarine was moving through bioluminescent plankton-filled water that lit up the underwater vessel for the attacking forces to clearly see. The New Zealand warships took advantage of this natural help and dropped depths charges that successfully brought the I-1 back up to the surface. The Kiwi rammed the submarine three times and eventually ran it aground on a shallow reef near the shore where it still sits today.  

What is Bioluminescence?

Bioluminescence is one of the most amazing phenomena in the natural world. It’s a process where a living organism is capable of producing certain chemicals that produce light. That’s right. Bioluminescent creatures come with their own lightbulbs. 

The most well-known example of bioluminescence is fireflies. Also known as glowworms or lightning bugs, fireflies are soft-bodied beetles that live in the marshes and wooded areas of temperate and tropical climates. They have specialized cells in their abdomens that allow them to produce light. The entire chemical process that occurs within these cells is super complex but essentially the cells contain chemicals that produce light when exposed to oxygen. Believe it or not, a firefly can also control the beginning and end of the chemical reaction. It can turn its light on and off by allowing or disallowing oxygen access to the cells. 

While fireflies might be the most common example of bioluminescence in the natural world, the majority of creatures who are bioluminescent live in the oceans. From tiny little bacteria to large predatory sharks, the examples of marine bioluminescence are endless and extraordinary. Not only does the bioluminescence adaptation exist throughout the entire range of marine organisms, but it’s also found in all marine habitats from the surface to the deep sea floor. 

The bioluminescence that gave away the I-1 submarine’s position occurred in the surface waters and was generated by a bloom of plankton. It might seem crazy that a bloom of microscopic creatures can produce enough light to give away the position of a well-designed submarine, but it’s true. As the plankton are disturbed in their watery home, they become bioluminescent to (it’s believed) deter any more interaction from a potential predator. 

SCUBA divers often take advantage of this apparent defence mechanism to give themselves a little fun when they’re diving at night. If you turn off your underwater torch during a night dive so that it’s as dark in the water as it can be, then move your arms around rapidly, things in the water will start to glow. The small organisms in the water begin to produce light because they believe the rapid change of water movements is a danger to them.

The Submarine That Exploded Twice

After the Japanese I-1 submarine ran aground on a reef, the surviving Japanese soldiers abandoned the ship, leaving everything behind. The submarine’s commander, Lt. Koreeda, quickly realized that during the evacuation, they’d left behind things that could be very useful to the Allies – like code books, charts, lists of Japanese marine designations, future military plans, and more. He knew that they had to go back to the stricken submarine.

During the night of February 2, 1943, Lt. Koreeda, two junior officers, five crew members, and eleven other Japanese sailors returned to the I-1 sub-armed with depth charges that they hoped would destroy the vessel. The charges weren’t quite strong enough but they did do enough damage to make most salvage attempts useless. Not all attempts, however. The Americans were able to retrieve a code book from the destroyed I-1 sub that eventually allowed them to crack the Japanese code.

Diving an American B17 Bomber Airplane

It’s estimated that there are 200 shipwrecks and 690 aeroplane wrecks in the Guadalcanal area. That’s a lot of history hidden beneath the waves! We couldn’t bear sailing to such a history-filled area and only diving one of the WWII wrecks. After exploring the Japanese submarine, we piloted our little boat over to an American B17 bomber just offshore from the village of Ndomo.

  • Dive Type: American B17 bomber wreck
  • Date Wrecked: September 24, 1942
  • Depth: Minimum –  9m, maximum –  18m
  • Location: Near the village of Ndomo – Vilu, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

This particular aeroplane wreck is a Boeing B17 ‘Flying Fortress’ Bomber originally built in Seattle, Washington. The plane was affectionately called Bessie by its crew. In September 1942, Bessie was relocated to Henderson Airbase in Guadalcanal. On the 24th of that month, she took part in a bombing mission to Tonolei in New Guinea to destroy a Japanese seabase. 

During the bombing raid, Bessie was heavily attacked by Japanese Zeros (a type of fighter plane). She was in rough shape and she tried desperately to return to Guadalcanal, but she didn’t make it. She ditched at sea a mere 180m from the shore, 30km inside a Japanese-controlled area. 

Bessie’s captain was badly injured in the crash but managed to make it to shore and evade capture by the Japanese for six days. A gunner also survived the crash and managed to escape capture. His remains were found in the Guadalcanal hills after the Japanese retreated. The fates of the other crew members remain a mystery.

The final resting place for this proud American aircraft is a patch of black volcanic sand sitting on the fringes of a lush coral reef. She’s missing her tail but otherwise, she’s still intact with her four large engines still hanging from the wings and seats still attached in the cockpit. The wreck is now crusted in brightly-coloured corals and sponges and its aluminium alloy construction means that it’s been able to withstand the corrosive effects of an eternity at sea. It still looks just like an aeroplane!

The marine life that call the waters of the South Pacific home didn’t ask for war and certainly were not part of the conflict that brought so many countries to arms. WWII was destructive on land and also on our seas. Years of constant fighting, explosions, fuel spills and metal vessels littering the ocean floor brought havoc to the marine world. SCUBA diving on these WWII wrecks really helped the Expedition Drenched crew to remember a very uncertain time in the history of the world, but it also reminded us that the marine environment is capable of regrowth and regeneration. Just look at all the coral and life that you can find on these historical wrecks.

Happy (history) bubbles! 

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

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Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

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  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

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The post History in the Solomon Islands – Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> 3049 We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/ https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2022 19:37:50 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2242 We put on our SCUBA gear, attached ourselves to ropes, and let the Sylfia drag us through 9,000ft deep open ocean water in the middle of the night. And we’d do it again! Expedition Drenched goes open ocean blackwater diving!

The post We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Blackwater Diving Over 9,000 FT of Water | Expedition Drenched

We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration

Expedition Drenched

02 July 2022

We put on our SCUBA gear, attached ourselves to ropes, and let the Sylfia drag us through 9,000ft deep open ocean water in the middle of the night. And we’d do it again! Expedition Drenched goes open ocean blackwater diving!

We’ve been on the Sylfia and the open water for almost two weeks now, slowly making our way from mainland Australia to Lord Howe Island. The voyage so far has been fairly problem-free and the new crew is adapting well to a life at sea. 

Night diving is something that the Expedition Drenched crew does pretty often. We love being underwater after dark to witness how the ocean changes when the sun goes away. This is when most of the creatures in the ocean start to move around looking for food. 

As we sail towards our next stop on our way to Lord Howe Island, we thought we’d take advantage of the extremely deep water we were in and do a blackwater dive. We won’t lie – we were all a bit nervous before the dive. Who wouldn’t be nervous to be underwater in the pitch-black attached to a boat that’s drifting and pulling you through the current? But those nerves disappeared soon after we jumped into the soup of creatures that the Diel Vertical Migration delivered right to us. 

Diel Vertical Migration - Largest Migration in the World

When people think of large animal migrations, they usually think of geese flying south for the winter or wildebeests travelling over the Serengeti because we can easily see these migrations. But actually, the largest migration in the world happens twice a day in the deep oceans. 

The term ‘diel vertical migration’ is easy to understand if you break down its parts. Diel means that it happens every day. Vertical refers to the direction of movement. And migration highlights the mass movement of animals. The average creature migrates 1,000m towards the surface when the sun goes down, then migrates 1,000m back to the depths at the end of the night. That’s a huge distance to travel since most creatures are quite small. It would be the equivalent of you having to run 10km to go get your dinner and then having to run 10km back home to go to bed.

Diel Migration | Expedition Drenched
Daily migration of marine life between the twilight zone and the ocean surface – animation by NASA
( https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2018/08/)

The Diel Vertical Migration is such a large event that it causes turbulence in the ocean water. Migrating jellyfish can move water upwards through the water column and this movement carries nutrients across water boundaries to new places.

The daily migrations of marine creatures were first noticed by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in the early 1880s. While the exact reason for such a large movement of animals is still unclear, the best explanation to date is that they swim toward surface waters to feed at night while conditions will keep them hidden from predators. Some creatures may migrate to take advantage of the reduced exposure to ultraviolet radiation, while others use the nighttime currents to move to areas with more food. 

The Diel Vertical Migration also plays a significant role in the carbon cycle. The creatures that feed at the surface during the night return to the depths for the daylight hours and they take their waste with them. This accelerates the rate at which carbon is transported to the sea floor and sequestered. With climate change still worsening, the conditions in the ocean are constantly changing. If conditions get too bad and the daily migration of these animals is disrupted, there could be huge implications for the environment. 

So, What Is Blackwater Diving?

Blackwater diving is exactly what it sounds like – diving in black water. It’s essentially a really special night dive. This type of diving is still relatively unknown to a lot of the SCUBA diving community but it is gaining popularity quite quickly. And for good reason, too. It’s an awesome experience.

There are three different types of blackwater dives: bonfire, near a reef, and open ocean (or off-shore). Each of these dives focuses on diving in dark water and experiencing the marine creatures that emerge at night, but each is unique and requires different things from a diver.

A bonfire dive is the easiest blackwater dive so it makes a good starting point to ease into this (sometimes scary) type of diving. It’s usually done in shallow water (10-18 meters) in an area with no current. Lights are placed on the ocean bottom pointing upwards (almost looking like a group of bonfires) and they attract all sorts of nocturnal animals.

A near reef blackwater dive is the most challenging type of blackwater dive, even though the name makes it sound pretty chill. These dives usually take place along a reef or wall where there is open ocean immediately adjacent. Lights that mimic moonlight are placed around 10-15 meters down in the water column and they attract life from the neighbouring reef or wall and the depths. A decent amount of diving experience is helpful to undertake this dive since the lack of visual references in the water often presents divers with buoyancy issues. 

The last type of blackwater diving sounds terrifying but is going to give you the best experience – open ocean blackwater diving. To do this dive correctly, you should be in the open ocean over thousands of feet of water and in a slight current. Since those conditions could mean drifting away in open water at night, open ocean blackwater diving has to be a bit different. Each diver is connected to a drop line that is also connected to the boat. They can ascend and descend along the rope but as the boat is pulled through the current, the divers will be pulled along with it. 

 

 

This is the type of dive that we’ve just done. For many of the crew, it was their first blackwater dive of any kind so nerves were a bit high, but so were the excitement levels. Plus, it was a perfect chance to take full advantage of the Sylfia’s brand new in-hull Lumitec Marine Lights. As we were on deck gearing up and going through our blackwater dive briefing, our awesome Lumitec lights were attracting all sorts of bizarre and other-worldly creatures up from the deep.

Lumitec Marine Lights | Expedition Drenched

Rainbows of Colour in the Dark, Dark Night

It’s hard to describe this dive to people who weren’t there. How can you properly describe seeing the most beautiful rainbows of colour in the pitch-dark night? The ocean creatures that drifted past our faces in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean at 2:30 am absolutely blew our minds. 

We saw an incredible variety of bioluminescent creatures that emit their own light, like Comb jellyfish. These jellies have genes that produce photoproteins, a combination of two chemicals involved in light production. When calcium is added to the molecule, light is born. Comb jellies also produce rainbow effects when the comb-like plates on their bodies break up due to water turbulence and diffract the surrounding light. 

Lord Howe Night Dive | Expedition Drenched
Lord Howe Island - Blackwater Diving | Expedition Drenched
Blackwater Diving | Expedition Drenched
Black Abyss Diving | Expedition Drenched

 

Really and truly, the only way to understand what we saw on this amazing open ocean blackwater dive is to check out the Expedition Drenched Season 3 Episode 4 video that’s live on our YouTube channel now. Make sure you check it out and throw us a like and subscribe. Also, drop a comment and let us know about the cool stuff you’ve seen on a blackwater dive!

Next Stop - Elizabeth Reef

  • Coordinates: 29°57′25″S 159°4′32″E
  • Distance from Lord Howe Island: 175km
  • Width: 10.5km
  • Length: 6.1km
  • # of Recorded Fish Species: 311

Our next stop is Elizabeth Reef, roughly 175km north of Lord Howe Island. Elizabeth Reef and neighbouring Middleton Reef form the Lord Howe Rise, an underwater plateau. They’re both also part of a regulated marine park so it should be a stunning location for some seriously wicked dives. 

One of the most exciting things about Elizabeth Reef is the high recorded number of Galapagos sharks. These sharks are only found around Lord Howe Island and Lord Howe Rise so they were already one of the draws of our expedition to the area. But the high number of Galapagos sharks at Elizabeth Reef may suggest that the reef acts as a nursery and that is a very exciting prospect for the shark-loving Sylfia crew.

Stay tuned to our YouTube channel and come explore this idyllic coral reef with us!

 

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
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GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
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The post We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/feed/ 1 2242 Exploring the HMAS Brisbane – A Sunken Missile Destroyer on the Sunshine Coast https://drenchedproductions.com/exploring-the-hmas-brisbane-a-sunken-missile-destroyer-on-the-sunshine-coast/ Tue, 14 Jun 2022 22:28:42 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=1994 This week we’re pirates-turned-cheerleaders - supporting Amy as she becomes a PADI scuba diving instructor, and cheering about our dives on the HMAS Brisbane wreck.

The post Exploring the HMAS Brisbane – A Sunken Missile Destroyer on the Sunshine Coast first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Exploring the HMAS Brisbane - A Sunken Missile Destroyer on the Sunshine Coast | Expedition Drenched

Exploring the HMAS Brisbane - A Sunken Missile Destroyer on the Sunshine Coast

Expedition Drenched

14 June 2022

This week we’re pirates-turned-cheerleaders – supporting Amy as she becomes a PADI scuba diving instructor, and cheering about our dives on the HMAS Brisbane wreck. 

This is an exciting episode for the Expedition Drenched crew. We’re lucky enough to get to explore the HMAS Brisbane wreck, and we get to be a team of salty cheerleaders as we support Amy as she trains to become a scuba diving instructor. Watching her chase her dreams and take a step towards sharing her love for the ocean with others makes us the proudest pirates around!

The HMAS Brisbane is a wreck that has some real history behind it, and a serious amount of sea life living in it now. The wreck is considered to be one of Australia’s top 10 dive sites and is an exciting experience for Open Water divers and more experienced adventurers. There have been over 250 species of fish, and over 1,000 species of marine life recorded on the HMAS Brisbane dive site so it’s pretty obvious why the crew was particularly stoked about this adventure. 

  • Vessel Type: Guided-missile destroyer
  • Built: 1965
  • Length: 133m
  • Width: 18m
  • Depth: 15 – 27m
  • Tonnage: 4,551

Oh Hey, HMAS Brisbane - What’s Your Story?

The HMAS Brisbane was one of three Perth-class guided missile destoryers that served in the Royal Australian Navy. The ship was US-designed and was built in Bay City, Michigan in 1965. She was launched in 1966 and was officially commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in 1967. She is named after the city of Brisbane, Australia. 

The Brisbane was deployed to the Vietnam war twice, once in 1969 and again in 1971. In the late 1990’s, she was deployed to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Damask and was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation by the Australian Government for her actions in the Gulf. 

Initially, it was proposed that the ship be donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum to replace the HMAS Vampire, a Daring-class destroyer. But luckily for us, and all the other enthousiastic wreck divers out there, the Brisbane was marked for scuttling as a dive wreck off the coast of Queensland. 

Before the HMAS Brisbane was scuttled, she had some parts removed so they could be reused. Her search radar was removed and donated to the Royal Thai Navy for their use, and her bridge and one of her 5-inch guns were removed so they could be preserved and displayed in the Australian War Museum. 

The actual sinking of the HMAS Brisbane happened quickly. Really quickly. The ship was filled with roughly 200 to 250 tonnes of concrete so she sank in only two minutes and ten seconds. But while she went down quickly, she sank exactly as planned and is now a hugely colonized underwater playground for scuba divers. Here’s a fun fact – to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the scuttling of the HMAS Brisbane, a Queensland radio station, 92.7 MIX FM, ran the world’s first live underwater radio broadcast from the wreck itself on July 31, 2015. That’s putting a whole new spin on pirate radio!

Diving the HMAS Brisbane Destroyer Wreck

It’s always exhilarating to drop down on a shipwreck. In perfect conditions, it can feel like you’re parachuting down onto a ship docked at port. In poor conditions, it can be a totally creepy, eerie experience that has you questioning what you’re eyes are actually seeing. We had great conditions for our dive and revelled in the huge, coral-encrusted shipwreck that sat before us on the ocean floor. 

 

The wreck is upright on its keel sitting in the sand at roughly 27m while the top of its stacks reach up to about 3m below the surface, depending on the tide. There are countless different rooms and areas to explore including the crew living space, sonar equipment room, boiler room, engine room, and even a guided missile silo. 

While you don’t need a wreck certification to dive the HMAS Brisbane, it’s always helpful to have a bit of wreck diving experience when diving a wreck. Why? Well, because you can go inside this wreck and without experience and good buoyancy control you can easily kick corals and marine life, and even kick up loads of silt that can reduce visibility for everyone on the site. 

The Brisbane wreck offers a few special treats for divers that want to explore the inside. Before it was scuttled, blast holes were put in the sides of the ship to allow divers unrestricted and safer access to all the treasures hidden inside the massive structure. 

  • Max Depth: 27m
  • Min Depth: 15m
  • Min Certification Level: Open Water Diver
  • Avg Vis: 14 – 32m
  • Water Conditions: Warm water, 17C – 27C
Scuba Diving, Wreck Dive, Brisbane, Australia | Expedition Drenched
Exploring the HMAS Brisbane | Expedition Drenched
Exploring the HMAS Brisbane, Australia | Expedition Drenched

The Marine Life of the HMAS Brisbane Dive Site

The HMAS Brisbane has been underwater for 22 years so it’s seriously rich in marine life from soft corals, anemones, huge amounts of fish, and even unique creatures like octopus. Inside the different rooms of the shipwreck you’ll find thick clouds of small, shiny bait fish that use the wreck to hide from the large predators that roam the local waters. Sometimes, divers will come face-to-face with massive Queensland Groupers inside the wreck too – a bit of a shock when you’re not expecting it!

During our dive on the wreck we made an effort to look past the schools of fish and take a closer look at the smaller creatures that make the walls of the wreck their home. Once your eyes focus on the smaller scale, the local nudibranchs start to become visible. These colorful sea slugs come in every size, shape, and colour imaginable and for a diver with good eyesight (and a macro camera), nudibranchs can easily become the highlight of a dive. We were lucky enough to spot a multicoloured Painted Nudibranch and an alien-looking Yellowlined Roboastra. 

The HMAS Brisbane gave us such a stunning dive that we decided we’d jump in after sunset and dive the wreck a second time. After the sun goes down, the large ocean predators begin to hunt, so a dive site can be incredibly different between daytime and nighttime. We were really hoping that the wreck would come alive and we’d see some even more impressive ocean life. 

We were not disappointed. During our first dive, we ran into a Day Octopus hidden under a small ledge, trying it’s hardest to not be seen. It’s hard to top an octopus sighting. But while on our second dive, exploring the wreck through the beams of our underwater torches, we hit the jackpot and came across a tiny baby octopus. Watching the impossibly small creature move it’s tentacles and breath through siphons was an experience that none of the current Expedition Drenched crew will ever forget. 

This week, we really think everyone should try to follow in our footsteps. The HMAS Brisbane wreck is a stunning underwater experience for any kind of diver and it truly shouldn’t be missed. With it being so close to shore, it can easily be something that you can check off your list in a single day. Which will give you the time you need to check in with Sunreef Mooloolaba and Platinum level PADI Course Director Kai Steinbeck and talk to them about becoming a PADI dive instructor, just like our Amy did.

Let’s all give Amy a big CONGRATULATIONS for becoming a real-life PADI scuba diving instructor. It’s not an easy undertaking, but Amy crushed it and we can’t wait to see her start to teach others how to breath underwater and enjoy our stunning ocean world. Keep making us all proud, Amy!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
BUY AT AMAZON
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON
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The post Exploring the HMAS Brisbane – A Sunken Missile Destroyer on the Sunshine Coast first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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