Scuba Dreaming

[Joshua Smith]

Man...my list is long, but I'm ticking them off...one by one. It's nice to see that most of my list is reflected in other's lists, too. What's interesting is that I'm really not a warm water kind of diver. Temperate, perhaps, but I prefer the cold.

1 - Antarctica. Doing that in the next month or so, with a stopoff in the South Shetland islands on the way down.

2 - The Doria. It's not the hardest wreck out there these days, but it's historic.

3 - Empress of Ireland - yet another good one

4 - Jackson Blue makes it on my list, but the Florida caves in general are high up there. I've now passed on two opportunities to go down and do 'em; bad timing on both offers.

5 - The Gov. It's here.

6 - Scapa Flow - each and every time I go over to the UK and Ireland, I think about it...the hardest moment for me was last Christmas, on a ferry between Cairnryan and Larne and knowing I wasn't going diving...

7 - Clipperton Island - I passed on a slot which came available for a 2010 trip, but I'm regretting it. Next time. It's so remote, so unvisited, and so unique. I suspect it's a lot like the Socorros, which I have done, but even less spoiled. My only "warm water" want, really. I suppose I'd so Sulawesi, if you twisted my arm a little, or Cocos, but I'd have to think long and hard about it.

8 - Lake Baikal - Damnit, Siberia is cool...and I mean that in many ways. There's apparently 1500 species living in the lake, one third of which are found nowhere else on Earth. It's also the deepest lake in the world. How cool is that?

9 - Tobermory - in general, I'd like to do some Great Lakes diving, and the video footage and testimonials from my friends tell me it's a good place to hang out and go dive...

10 - Juan Fernandez Islands... another bioreserve, and one that's not frequently visited... I suppose I have a Robinson Crusoe thing going on; he was the only guy who got everything done by Friday This sort of is warm waters, I guess, as it's too far north for the Humbolt current, but I'm not sure it's diveskin suitable.

Good list! Seriously? You're going to Antarctica? I demand a thorough trip report with lots of pictures when you return. Bonus points for leopard seal sightings, free beer for pictures of leopard seals. Are you taking your rebreather?

[nwbobber]

John what do you know about pelelieu? A good friend of mine, now deceased, fought as a Marine in the battle of peleleiu. I have always wanted to go see it.

[John Rawlings]

John what do you know about pelelieu? A good friend of mine, now deceased, fought as a Marine in the battle of peleleiu. I have always wanted to go see it.

Then he fought in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war! My uncle, too, was there, but he died when I was a child and I was never able to talk to him about it. The Marines suffered almost 10,000 casualties during the fighting as they had to blast the Japanese defenders out of underground, prepared positions.

There is an extremely good recent book out on it, called Brotherhood of Heroes, by Bill Sloan.

- John

[Grateful Diver]

Locally, Port Hardy and Nootka Sound are high on my list of places I haven't been yet. I'm planning to do one of them later this year.

Far away places ... I'll be doing one of them in a few weeks when we visit Indonesia for three weeks ... Bali, Komodo and Sulawesi. It'll also be my first liveaboard experience. Besides that I'd like to do ...

- Red Sea
- Galapagos
- Papua/New Guinea

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[camerone]

Good list! Seriously? You're going to Antarctica? I demand a thorough trip report with lots of pictures when you return. Bonus points for leopard seal sightings, free beer for pictures of leopard seals. Are you taking your rebreather?

Yup, seriously. I will bring back pictures from the trip; we're just taking a point and shoot (7 MP) for underwater, with a small strobe, though, so don't expect anything too fantastic. Luggage is already a problem...

I wanted to do it CCR, but the logistics of 'sorb and O2 are just about impossible, and due to the remoteness, 60' is the max limit. With a steel 95, that's an hour, anyway, and 28 degree water is cold

That's one of the two reasons I've been slumming lately with a set of hot pink doubles on my back blowing bubbles around here...