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Welcome to Pelagic Pixels. This is the temporary index to Rob and Dawn's diving pictures. Eventually it'll be nicely formatted, please bear with us. Until then most links can be found below whilst they are sorted into the categories above :-)
Most recently we've had a flurry of UK trips, mostly as part of the SeaSearch project.
2011Filming with the BBC - July 11 After the Observer course we were joined by the BBC for some filming to make a documentry special on the North Norfolk Chalk reef - it should screen in September with One Show presenter Mike Dilger taking to the reef to do the ohhhs and ahhs! | |
Seasearch Observer weekend, Sheringham - July 11 Our biggest ever Observer course ran like clockwork... all in all we had 30 divers hitting the water and there were smiles all round. Sheringham did us proud with approaching 10m of vis on shore dives! | |
Norfolk - June 11 2011 had a bit of a false dawn with the surprise dives in April but we knew the good stuff would take a couple more months to arrive. The vis still came a little early, and you can watch it arrive over a couple of weeks in these galleries :-) We've made some great friends with Manta divers who have dropped us on some great wrecks and Dawn has been out with GYSAC as well. Mr Squashy would have had his first outing of the year too but a blocked slip meant it was time for plan B - shore diving at Sheringham. | |
North Cornwall - May 11 It always seems that having two coasts should make diving easier for lucky Cornish folk but in fact the North Coast has hardly been surveyed at all. Angie and Emily though this should be rectified - and organised a magnificent trip! We mustn't forget to thank Steve for putting us up and Oscar the lurcher for putting up with us. |
2010
North Norfolk Dive Week - Early 10 The start of the season is often a bit mixed but his time we were pleasantly surprised... and distracted by trying out our freshly named boat - Mr Squashy - and his sidescan sonar. Sorry these galleries were late, the later ones are better but these are good fun and carry the usual disclaimers about having the wrong camera for the day and car park horseplay | |
North Norfolk Dive Week - July 10 If you've ever wondered about diving in the East here's a few galleries which might encourage you to take the plunge. We set aside a week and hit the jackpot with great vis and a mill pond flat sea. That would be enough but the chalk arches we found off Sheringham were stunning.... It was another chance to get out in Mr Squashy, our inflatable which let us get out to the best chalk reefs |
2009
Holland - May 09 Zeeland in The Netherlands isn't the first place everyone thinks of as a diving destination but a certain time each May the cuttlefish come to meet and mate under the Zeelandbrug. They arrive when the temperature is right for them and stay for about a week. This time we missed almost all the cuttlefish but still had a great time. | |
North East September 09 There's also a collected index for the next two
galleries - as it's all Northern | |
Farnes 09 It was a long time since we'd been to the Farnes and what better way to revisit them than on an MCS trip. Fiona organised a great trip, great weather and picked a roomy boat which gave us plenty of space to stretch out. Stan Hall's base in Beadnell was excellent for the group and well placed for food and great sunsets on the beach. After three days of seal filled diving we moved North, across the border to St Abbs - for our first visit. | |
St Abbs 09 We stayed at the Rock House which could not have been more convenient. The first day was great but the second showed that even shore dives can be 'tricky' so we went for a walk in the afternoon. A wonderful place for wildlife and I hope we get more than a day of calm weather next time. There was so much to look at we could have spent all our time around Broad Craig but just had to swim over to Cathedral Rock too. By the time we surfaced from our dive on the second day the conditions were marginal and we really didn't need the observant Lifeboat man to tell us not to go in again. (100 Images) | |
Norfolk in August There's also a collected index for the next four galleries - as it's all Norfolk | |
Skomer
fish survey, July After the hard work of the Scallop survey and the excitment of Urchin scissors in previous years we were looking forward to some simple fun with territorial fish... unfortunately the weather was 'a bit' wet and the vis faded as the weekend went on. As ever we had a great time thanks to Kate's slick organisation and the new improved Lobster Pot pub. |
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Norfolk in July There's also a collected index for the next four galleries - as it's all Norfolk |
2008: The page was damaged beyond this point. There may be galleries missing from 2009 and 8
Norfolk
Autumn '08 As Autumn arrives there's definite feeling of diving on borrowed time with each extra visit to Norfolk. This omnibus collects dives from September and October, including the wildlife on parade for our Norwich Seasearch course, the first outings for the Seasearch boat 'Dangermouse' and a day's diving which was disrupted by the discovery of a fouled net. | |
Kalimantan
'08 - Indonesian Borneo - Nabucco
and Sangalaki What a trip! We'd wanted to extend our Borneo diving after visiting, what is now very busy, Sipadan 4 years ago, but Sangalaki had been off the radar for a while. Finally it was due to open again so we jumped at the chance to be there first but thought it would be prudent to spread our time between two islands in the area just in case things weren't quite ready... Still missing some captions! | |
Holland
- May 08 This was our best planned trip to Holland yet, and so only right that it should go off the rails straightaway... and the Zeelandbrug was filthy and pretty much free of cuttlefish thankfully some of the other sites were just as packed with animals as before, phew! Another interesting twist was that the regional tourism gods had started to update the facilities and now there were toilets even in the middle of nowhere! | |
Swanage
October 08
In the end this was my last dive trip of the
year, many thanks to William for inviting me along. We had the last of the good
weather and in fact some of the best conditions of the year - flat seas for
diving the Kyarra! As we came back after the last dive all the boats in the bay
were being pulled out in expectation of a BIG storm, perfect timing
William! | |
The
Isles of Scilly September 08
We'd wanted to go to the Scillies for years.
What better way than with Sally masterminding the like-clockwork logistics for a
week of wildlife watching? Although the weather wasn't at its best we saw lots
of good stuff and we didn't miss a dive. The island was a great tranquil base
and it was very tempting to stay.There are two sets of galleries, one set with
bad jokes and dodgey captions and a sneaky set of spotters guides where we tried
to name all the stuff we saw. | |
Norfolk
Survey Weekend August 08
We had high hopes for our Survey Weekend but all bets were off when we arrived to 2m waves at Cley... We went for a walk but William went in and the gallery telling that story is fun! By the evening things had calmed and David dragged us away from a baked Alaska to night dive the Rosalie... suffice it to say it was dark, surgey and mostly covered in crabs. Sunday was a different story, we were able to dive both wrecks and complete a GPS plot of the Vera - many thanks to Sarah for heroically towing the survey buoy. | |
Norfolk
in August 08 Part 1
By August the water was balmy... so we got in as many dives as we could. On this early weekend we dived the Vera and Rosalie twice each and the next Rob was treated to a dive on the Nubia off Sea Palling with GYSAC. Conditions were not yet at their best but Dawn found some tiny new nudibranches on the Vera and we were able to take some wideangle pictures of the wrecks. As it turns out this was good preparation for our surveys later in the month - oh and Dawn insisted on including some topless beach shots to show how warm it was... | |
Crab
rescue July 08
Put online for the MCS and any press to use. Pictures of the rescue - taken by William Hutchins, and a selection of the net underwater and 'jagged wreckage is perfect for snagging fishing nets' background pictures. | |
Salthouse
long weekend land and sea July 08
In July we had to spend a couple of days invigilating at the Salthouse Art Festival and that seemed like the perfect excuse to spend a long weekend on the coast diving as well as acting as 'artists' | |
North
Devon July 08 After being cancelled last year this summer's wasn't all wine and roses either, cue bibical rain! After a couple of days of National trust sight seeing we eventually found the the vis around North Devon hadn't recovered... so our last day was a trip to Lundy - where we had much better vis than on our trip in May. Many thanks to Sally for arranging the trip and acting as our minder for a few days of surface tourism too.. | |
Norfolk
July 08 - Part 1 Our early July haul from Norfolk wasn't as large as we'd hoped as the weather has been 'mixed'. We got in a dive on the Vera on the day our exhibition launched in the Salthouse and Sam and Tony from Great Yarmouth bravely put up with Rob and freaky downpours so we have a couple of diving galleries. | |
Norfolk
Omnibus Edition - June 08 digest
June was a very busy month... We held a Seasearch Observer course with 19 keen divers and (unfortunately) no diving, a Nudibranch ID course with Jim Anderson who travelled down from Scotland to tutor and still (frustratingly) no diving and then we were invited out by Mick from NEDSAC and all of a sudden there was vis off Cley and impossible numbers of nudibranches off Sea Palling. At last the East coast was open again! These galleries show all of that... | |
Lundy
- Seasearch Lundy MarineID Course and diving - May 08 We jumped at the chance to join Sally's trip to Lundy, arriving fresh from Holland in time for a primer course on local marine ID. The course was hosted by Ilfracombe SAC who were a great bunch and dived from Obsession II. | |
Plymouth
- Seasearch Sponge Course and diving - May 08 It's always a pleasure to join Sally's well organised trips, the conditions in Devon are usually better than those up in East Anglia and you really can't find a more authorative source than Bernard Picton. It was a very enlightening and great fun.The microscope sessions at the MBA revealed the amazing, beautiful selection of shapes which sponges create to form skeletons but give little hint at from the outside. |
Plymouth -
November 07 Sally having some new seafans to investigate seemed like a great excuse for a trip to Devon - until we rolled up at Fort Bovisand to find the MOD police had locked the gates! But everything got sorted and we got 4 good dives in, with a free rollercoaster ride back from the first! Many thanks to Sally and Danny for a really enjoyable weekend. |
Norfolk
- Fun and Seasearch off Cley and Rosalie - October 07 We'd never dived this late in Norfolk before but the sea stayed flat and fun as we managed a dive weekend and a Seasearch Observer practical session. These six galleries include rare wide angle shots of the Rosalie, Vera and even one of Dawn - so Seasearch students know who their leader is ;-) | |
Cley
Exhibition Weekend - September 07 Norfolk Wildlife Trust publicising the Marine Bill was the ideal opportunity to introduce their mainly bird watching visitors to photos of the exotic wildlife which lurks just off shore. We couldn't resist fitting in a dive too! | |
North
Pembroke - September 07 The Urchin survey seemed ages ago and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces from that adventure. Kate had (as usual) got the world organised on her side and we had a great time and will be back - if they'll have us! |
Salcombe Bay
from Plymouth - August 07 Although we had been due to dive North Devon in June the had weather scuppered that plan so Sally (Seasearch Coordinator for Devon) worked hard to fit in another trip. We dived out of Fort Bovisand on their cool, black RIB, running around towards Salcombe to sites including Prawle Point and Persier Reef. We stayed in the Mountbatten centre which turned out to be inexplicably empty but handy for both Bovisand and food on the Sound front. |
Norfolk
Twin Wreck Shore Dive Challenge Take 2 - The Vera and Rosalie again August
07 This was a momentous visit as we saw the first Tompot Blenny (that's him on the left) reported off Norfolk (as far as we know) and I finally got some decent pictures of Bib! For this trip we had a good number of our new Seasearch people who were ready to do some of their assessed reports and get well on the way to being qualified observers! See our guide page if you want to take the challenge yourself :-) |
Norfolk
Twin Wreck Shore Dive Challenge - The Vera and Rosalie August 07 Shore diving sounds easy, and the diving bit is... but even the shortest walk is complicated by carrying 35kgs of equipment. Walking across gravel makes it even more fun! However it was well worth the effort and no means boat there's no need to limit your dive time. Both wrecks have slack enough for at least an hour's dive most weekends - we were greedy and had an hour and a half :-) We have added a guide page for anyone who fancies taking the challenge themselves :-) |
Cley next the Sea,
Norfolk July 07 We can't believe we waited so long to dive the Vera at Cley next the Sea, it was packed with pipefish and crawling with crabs. Our local half dozen were joined by a group who had come down from Nottingham. |
Skomer
Urchin Survey, Pembrokeshire Jun 07 We really enjoyed taking part in the Urchin survey in the Skomer Marine Reserve. It was our first stab at practical underwater surveying and the discipline of making several passes over the same terrain certainly made for a thorough creature hunt. Many thanks to Kate Lock for organising the event. |
Lyme Regis - Sea
fans and sunset coral, Dorset Jun 07 It was a pleasure to return to Lyme Regis, doubly so since we dived from John Walker's boat Miss Pattie. John helped the group with their mission to assess the impact of scallop dredging on the seabed fauna, particularly the pink sea fan - the UKs largest coral. We found fans and sadly evidence of damage but there was no shortage of other wildlife and a chance to see sunset corals.See the See the Seasearch news page for more information | |
Holland - May
07 Very overdue but well worth a browse the cuttlefish are online at last! They join the other Dutch underwater life which has been on show for a while - sorry it's taken so long. Diving with the cuttlefish in Zeeland is an amazing experience, at least until other divers are attracted by your lights - some things are the same whatever country you dive in... |
At the end of last year we returned to Indonesia spreading our time between Bunaken, Lembeh and a liveaboard via Halmerhera to Raja Ampat. There's a gallery for each part of the trip and even some bonus surface shots and panoramas. | |
Our first few days were spent relaxing on Bunaken Island with Twofish divers | |
...and then a few more at their place on Lembeh Island .... | |
...before we transferred to the confused luxury of Odyssea 1 for the main part of the trip. | |
Just in case you're curious here are some assorted surface pictures... | |
...I've separated the panoramas as they make a nice themed group by themselves | |
Our first visit to the
northern part of Raja Ampat was aboard Shakti, all hail Cap'n Dave...
Raja Ampat, Shakti May 06 | |
...and then a few days
relaxing on Kri Raja Ampat, Kri Island June 06 | |
Although I thought the pygmy
seahorses were adorable it seems that the stunning views from the top of the
hill on Wayag were even more popular so here's a better version and some more
panoramic views Raja Ampat, Panoramas May/June 06 | |
Slightly less glamorously we
followed that with a trip to North Norfolk. Weybourne is one of our favourite
dive venues, there's a small wreck and some gullies which are both packed with
wildlife. Sadly some club politics mean it was our last club trip but we were
able to savour our memories of better times whilst hunting down nudibranches.
Weybourne, Norfolk July 06 |
Thailand and Myanmar December 05 | |
Sipadan and Kapalai, November 2004 | |
North Sulawesi, including Bunaken and Lembeh, November
2004 | |
Our most complicated and
varied trip was to New Zealand in February and March 2004. We drove and dived from South to North NZ when the storms and
floods permitted... Stewart Island , Otago Peninsula , Mount Cook , Akaroa , Kaikoura - whales and dolphins , Kaikoura - diving , Pupu Springs , Pohara - Eels! , Napier - City of Art Deco and worms + blown out in Whakatane , Hahei - hot water beach , Hahei - diving , Great Barrier Island - diving and Poor Knights - diving. Phew, it was Really quite a trip! | |
After that we needed a rest so we had a long weekend in Western Australia :-) diving Ningaloo Reef and having fun on the surface in Exmouth and Perth in March 2004. |