Often the unexpected places turn out to be my absolute favorite. In July I headed to Newfoundland, Canada to dive WWII wrecks with Ocean Quest Adventures. There was also snorkeling with humpback whales, kayaking and a cod was kissed. You can read the whole story in X-Ray Magazine.
Mexico
I was a diver for 17 years before I made it to Cozumel. Isn’t that crazy? I heard about how lovely it was for years and finally this summer I started a bit of a Mexico expedition there. Diving with Salty Endeavors I found the reef to be lovely and I liked the constant drift diving which made me feel like I was just lazily taking it all in. I also unknowingly got a photo of baby toadfish and now I will search for them always. My article is in the new X-Ray Magazine issue which you can download for free. Also check out the Contributor’s “Favorite Portraits” I have images of a turtle from Yap being cleaned by scarlet shrimp.
Next up was a few days in Isla Mujeres snorkeling with the whale sharks. The largest fish in the sea congregates in this area from June to September each year. Read how to do it over at Scuba Diving.
Then it was off to cave country where I fell in love with cavern diving and can’t wait to go back and get cave certified. Diver let me go on and on about mystical and mythical these underwater enchanted forests are. I can’t wait to go back.
I also recently did a little piece Truk Lagoon for Asian Pacific Boating Magazine. I still cannot wait to get back there to the M/V Odyssey.
Tech Diving in the Florida Keys
I’m so excited for a new article tech diving some of the Key Largo, Florida wrecks. You can read the whole article over at Scuba Diving Magazine.
I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Bill and Nadine Beard about starting the dive industry in Costa Rica 50 years ago for the latest issue of DIVER. I think about some of the chaos I've experienced working in places like Chuuk or PNG currently and cannot even imagine the struggles (and amazing rewards) of showing up to a country where you have to bring your own dive tanks 50 years ago. Not to mention I've added more dives to my bucket list - diving during an eclipse and in a volcano crater lake. This was so much fun (and also challenging as I haven't really done many interviews in the past).
Download the whole issue (still available for free):
Galapagos
So excited my Galapagos article is in the June issue of DIVER and my encounter with Godzilla made the cover (okay, it’s really a marine lizard….but you must be able to see the resemblance!) You can download the issue for free here.
One More Minute
I am a “one more minute” kind of person, particularly when it comes to the ocean. As a child I always wanted one more minute in the water (pool or ocean) or one more minute playing outside or one more minute reading an exciting book before I had to go to bed. I’ve always wanted to hold onto the good stuff as long as possible.
When I’m scuba diving I’m particularly bad at this, but my experiences have shown me that those ‘one more minute’ moments are sometimes the best. I can’t tell you how many times the dive was about to end and then the sharks or dolphins showed up or we found the craziest critter. I recall being in Lembeh once and the main thing I really, really wanted to see was a bumble bee shrimp. The poor dive guides had been looking for them for me the whole week. On my last dive of the trip I had passed up my camera and one of my fins when someone pulled on my other fin. The dive guide had found my shrimp (three of them, actually) and with my fin and camera returned to me, I descended back to a mere ten feet where they were living under a small coral head. I got my shots.
On my last night in the Galapagos I went to a place I had been seeing sea lions in the water in previous days. The golden hour is a real thing underwater too, so I hiked in around 4, arriving around 4:30. The three previous days I had seen the sea lions playing in the water; fins in the air, playing with each other, and their little noses and whiskers coming up to breath before I even got in the water. But this day I sat at the edge and looked around and saw nothing. I couldn’t even make out any sleeping on the rocks. It would figure, my last night would be a bust.
I got in anyway and swam in a big circle covering the outer edge of the area and almost returning to where I started without having seen anything. The light had gotten to that perfect point where sun beams could be seen flashing underwater and there was a warm yellow tinge to the shallowest part of the water. It would have been perfect if a sea lion would show up.
I started filming the sun beams (b-roll, right?) and as if it were waiting for me to push the record button a juvenile sea lion appeared right in front of my dome port. It circled me and even paused a few seconds in the perfect place in the perfect light. But I must have been boring and it didn’t stay for long. Happy I at least saw one, I headed for the exit, content with my experience.
The exit point was cement and rock stairs, slippery with algae and the low tide exposed all the stairs and lava rock below. Getting out with my heavy camera, fins and mask was a challenge and I was planning on sort of scooting up the rock backwards inching my backside up each step. I almost got seated on the first rock when a huge wave came in and swept me back out. Happy I didn’t get smashed into the rocks (no blood or scratches on my delicate camera port) I looked out at the incoming waves (which I should have done the first time) and decided to wait until the set has passed to try again. I swam away from the port-scratching rocks and waited.
The sun had fallen behind the cliffs and all the pretty light beams gone and I heard a snort behind me. Another sea lion had shown up (thank you to the wave that tried to pulverize me that kept me in the water.) As it twisted and turned around me I couldn’t help but think that I was about to get out of the water and I would have missed this. One more minute.
The one more minute turned into probably an hour and the sea lion found a stick floating in the water and played with it, (I always knew they were the puppies of the ocean), then it played with some seaweed, and then two other juveniles showed up and the three spun around me so much I got a little dizzy (and I’m sure the video of that will make people sea sick.) What amazing animals. What an amazing experience. The sun was setting as I was getting out, still having a bit of a hike to get back to my room and I was thinking about how sad I was to leave the Galapagos on the walk home.
I seem to have come to a place in my mind where everything feels very terminal. What if I never return to the Galapagos? How sad. Lately I have been having these feeling with people too, every time I part ways I have this immense sadness that I will never see them again. I’m sure these feelings are partly due to covid, part my father passing away unexpectedly, and part just getting older. But giving them an explanation for occurring still does not make them go away or feel any better.
When I was 20, I remember being in Argentina at the Perito Moreno Glacier and absorbing the incredible sight with others. We were watching ice break off the glacier and making huge splashes in the water, which would echo seconds after the event, like thunder after lightening. An older man said to me, “I will probably never see this again.” My much younger self couldn’t even fathom this. What do you mean you’ll never see this again? It’s amazing! Why wouldn’t you come back here? I hadn’t quite grasped the concept of time yet and how it keeps passing. How it becomes filled with so many things and how many places there are to see on this incredible planet of ours. I haven’t returned there either. Makes me wish I would have spent one more minute.
I understand the man better now and this concept weighs heavy on me. It makes me melancholy to leave an amazing place thinking I may never see it again, and it’s distressing when I part ways with people. I suppose this isn’t such a strange idea, the older we get the more people we encounter and the more people we lose, be it in death or just in life’s path taking us further away from some. This year has solidified this. It makes me want to have one more minute with everyone I meet, everyone I know, and everyone I have met before. Did I make the most of those minutes? I hope I did and I hope in the future I value those minutes more.
My life has been filled with amazing people; some I only crossed paths with for a short time and I think in the past I always said goodbye expecting to see them again. I’m grateful to have seen some of them again; particularly the friends that have become repeat occurrences around the world in this crazy life. I’m not good with letting go or loss, I want all the good times and good people and good places to go on forever. I want them all, all at once. While that is impossible, I hope these deep rooted emotions go away soon; of everything feeling so final and every parting being the last. Maybe after whatever way covid disappears or becomes integrated into our lives, these feelings will pass. That I won’t feel like every parting is the last parting. And for those that are, I hope we had enough minutes.
Sometimes returning to a place can be sad, seeing how it has changed and to be somewhere again but without the same people or in a different context. I find myself contradictory in that I crave new places and exciting experiences, but yet change is so hard. Returning to the Galapagos after 15 years, (I cannot believe it’s possible I’ve been a solo traveling adult for that long…or longer….) proved to be a place just as incredible as my first trip here. I had started to wonder if it was really as good as I remembered, and it is. I hope I am lucky enough to return here again and I hope it remains as good as it is; it has the odds stacked against it. The better something was, the harder the goodbye is. I want just one more minute before I go.
Meg Teeth
So this one time…diving for megalodon teeth…in South Carolina….
I managed to sneak in a little diving (if you can call 30ft with zero viz in a river diving)….
Read about it in the August UK Diver Magazine. Click for a free download here.
Dive Log Australasia is also letting readers download the latest issues for free, I have a piece on Truk Lagoon in the August issue.
I have spent the past five years making a yearly pilgrimage to Roatan, Honduras for the Roatan Underwater Photo Fest and there’s something special about returning to a place over and over again. I wrote about it in this month’s UK Diver. You can download this issue for free and find lots of other great stories in it as well.
Roatan
Returning to Roatan in UK Diver, underwater photo techniques at Moziak Underwater Housings, Truk Lagoon on Youtube, Raja Ampat in Australian Dive Log.
Read MoreBooks to Pass Time
Hello out there! How is everyone? I’ve found myself with more time than normal during the pandemic and revisiting some of my favorite books. I thought I’d share.
Diving Books
100 Dives of a Lifetime - Carrie Miller
This book is perfect for right now! Need a virtual dive vacation? Want to plan your next dive trip? Get lost in some of the world’s best dives as told by Carrie Miller and incredible photos (you might find a few photos of mine in this book too!)
In my opinion this is sort of the underwater photography bible. When I first read it years ago I felt like my photography improved through osmosis through the pages. Highly recommend this to anyone looking to imporve their underwater photo skills.
For anyone looking to learn more about decompression theory, this book is great. It is easy to understand and discusses a lot of the topics recreational training prefers not to talk about. Even for those who don’t consider themselves “tech” divers, it’s an easy to read and understand text for things all divers should know, but often aren’t taught. Knowledge is so important even if you don’t plan to do deco dives.
The Soul of the Octopus - Sy Montgomery
We all love octopus. It’s a book about octopus - just read it.
Sex in the Sea - Marah J. Hardt
The ocean is so interesting! This book talks about some of the undrerwater world’s crazy reproductive behaviors you couldn’t make up if you tried! It also has a conservation theme and discusses how things like pollution and climate change are altering the behavior of some of these amazing creatures.
One of those books that is tough to put down, a true story about the discovery of a World War II German U-boat 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey. A must read for any diver.
Travel Books - My travel obsession has been fed by books. Paul Theroux taught me about long travel, spending week and months wondering without definite destinations and time restraints. Bill Bryson about the humor you must find while on the road. Kira Salak proved to me that even though I was a woman, I could go wherever I want. I love travels that seek out something - to travel to learn. Here’s some of my favorites.
I love love love this book. A shipping container of bath toys spilled during a hurricane and the author travels to find where they all went. It’s a study in ocean currents, ocean pollution, environmentalism and more.
In 1899 two women set out to race against the fictional Jules Verne character, Phileas Fogg, to travel around the world in 80 days. Since reading this Nellie Bly has become a bit of a hero to me, a female investigative journalist over 120 years ago who at one point entered an insane asylum appearing to be a patient to document the mistreatment of patients without knowing how she would be able to get out. (You should read that too - Ten Days in a Mad House.)
Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams
If you haven’t read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, go read that first. But once you’re finished check out this book where Douglas Adams travels to see some of the world’s most endangered animals. Komodo dragons, rhinos, kakapos and more.
The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas - Paul Theroux
He got on a train in Boston and ended up in Patagonia. My hero. My six month trip to South America after college can be directly linked to this book (and an Outside Magazine article on hiking Torres del Paine.)
The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific - Paul Theroux
In this one he gets in an kayak and paddles through 51 islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Malay Archipelago - Alfred Wallace
Better than Darwin’s books. Alfred Wallace also came across the idea of evolution while traveling through SE Asia. This book is his journey, his observations, and the difficulties one would encounter traveling from Singapore to New Guinea over eight years starting in 1854. Plus this book is suuuuper long, great for passing time.
A woman’s solo journey through Papua New Guinea.
Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers - Simon Winchester
This one starts on the United Island Hopper. You only think of the Pacific as paradise islands, but there is so much more.
In 1883 a volcano went off in Indonesia and changed the world.
A journey through the Australian Outback to learn about Aborginals' ancient "Dreaming-tracks.” Chatwin’s In Patagonia is an excellent read as well.
Don’t Stop the Carnival - Herman Wouk
This maybe isn’t travel, or it’s the type of travel where you decide to stay…forever….and take over a hotel in the Caribbean. We all have that dream, this guy did it.
Books about Viruses - I used to study virus evolution, here’s some of the books that might help explain more about what’s going on, but easy to read and understand.
The Coming Plague - Laurie Garrett
Don’t say we weren’t warned. Actually this book talks about past disease outbreaks and how our social and environmental practices led up to them. From Amazon - “Changing social and environmental conditions around the world have fostered the spread of new and potentially devastating viruses and diseases.”
David Quammen is another of my favorite authors and this book specifically looks at human infections that came from animals. Basically how diseases from wild animals are passing to humans. He also talks about bats (back in 2012). Sound familiar? He also has a great book on Ebola and the Song of the Dodo is a classic.
National Geographic Emerging Explorer Virologist who hunts diseases. He also warned us of this.
If you want to read some really interesting case studies of how it is human behaviors that spread diseases, Robert S. Desowitz is the master. The Malaria Capers, Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria?, and New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: Tales of Parasites and People.
Okay - Last One
Okay so currently there aren’t many copies available of my book, but last time I looked there are a few on Amazon and I still have a few copies I could mail out (send me a message if you want one.) Printing has been disrupted due to the pandemic, but hopefully there will be more soon. This is a great book for anyone interested in WWII, airplanes, or diving.
Latest Articles
What a crazy start to the year it as been. I spent the first six week captaining the MV Odyssey in Truk Lagoon (there’s a new video on YouTube). Right before I was about to leave the Federated States of Micronesia enforced a travel ban to keep COVID-19 out, bring our boat to a standstill as no divers can arrive in the country. Ikelite recently published a piece on my Top 5 Wrecks of Truk Lagoon (to photograph).
Dive Photo Guide published a piece I wrote called Take Photos, Save the World about the responsibilities underwater photographers have to be ethical in how they take photos and the importance of sharing what we see underwater.
An article I wrote for UK Diver Magazine is online at Diver Net - Service Ethics about my trip to Belize with Aggressor Fleet which turned out to be great even with an excessive amount of travel challenges. I have also been writing some blogs for All Star Liveaboards - check out their website for some fun content.
I hope everyone is safe and healthy during these crazy times. While dive travel isn’t an option right now, it will be again soon and we will need to support our favorite dive shops and resorts so they can continue to be there for the future. I have a few upcoming trips that are still planed to go as scheduled if things are back to normal by then.
In September the Ladies Dive and Art trip will be September 12-19th, 2020 and the next week, September 19-26th, everyone is invited for a mini underwater photography workshop. The Red Sea Underwater Photography Workshop will be November 12-19 on the Omneia liveaboard. Feel free to send me a message if you’d like more info. Would love to spend some time underwater with you all!
Summer Update: Timor-Leste, Tiger Beach, Saba, Travel and More
In December I visited the unique country of Timor-Leste and was really impressed by the shore diving accessible just out of Dili. With muck diving and reefs comparable to Bali, but without hardly any other divers, I really enjoyed my week diving with Dive Timor. The article was published in X-Ray Magazine Issue #91. Download the whole issue for free here. Or view my article online here.
I’ve been writing several blog posts for Moziak UW Cameras and you can read those here.
If you want some tips on shooting wrecks I did a piece for Ikelite - How to get the Best Shots when Shooting Wrecks.
Diver Magazine published an article on diving Tiger Beach which is now online here.
The Saba Ladies Dive and Art trip in April was such a success we are going to go back and do it again next year. Join us September 12-19th for a week diving the amazing reefs of Saba while also getting creative and learning from some of the island’s amazing artistic ladies. We will be staying at Queen’s Gardens Resort and diving with Sea Saba. Two dives each morning followed by afternoon art classes. This beautiful island has amazing food, my favorite gin bar, yoga, hiking, and more. Send me a message if you have any questions and see the previous blog post for how this year’s trip went.
If you’re looking to go diving I have a few different trips coming up. The fifth installation of the Roatan Underwater Photo Fest will be happening November 2-9th and there are still spots available. I’m leading a trip to Raja Ampat on the Siren December 6-16th. Next year I’ll be offering a tech trip on the Truk Odyssey July 4-11th, 2020 (this is a rare chance to dive the deeper wrecks to Truk from the comfort of the Odyssey liveaboard. Tech certified divers only, 2 dives per day, depths from 165-220ft, CCR supported.) And I will be returning to Saba for the Ladies Only trip Sept 15-22nd…and possibly another week in Saba directly following that open to everyone.