BNG goes to PNG

In article <1131765154.852872.25170@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups. com>, Reef
Fish <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote:

€ Grumman-581 wrote:
€ > "shawn" <shawnabbtt@aol.com> wrote in message
€ > news:1131720911.295572.85650@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
€ >
€ > <not-sure-where-you're-from-so-crossposting-left>
€ >
€ > You really need to learn how to quote so that others will know to which
€ > message you're replying...
€
€ "shawn" was clueless in now quoting anything to identify the post to
€ which he was replying.
€
€ But Grummy, couldn't you have found from your newsreader that
€ he was replying to
€
€ <11n48uf6eis9o2e@corp.supernews.com>
€
€ which was Greg telling him to "fuck off"?
€
€ I am sorta sympathetic with "shawn" and morgan -- in the respect that
€ rec.scuba.locations is no longer a suitable place for any scuba
€ discussions
€ anymore.


So says the pot....

In article <1131765154.852872.25170@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups. com>, Reef
Fish <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote:

€ Grumman-581 wrote:
€ > "shawn" <shawnabbtt@aol.com> wrote in message
€ > news:1131720911.295572.85650@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
€ >
€ > <not-sure-where-you're-from-so-crossposting-left>
€ >
€ > You really need to learn how to quote so that others will know to which
€ > message you're replying...
€
€ "shawn" was clueless in now quoting anything to identify the post to
€ which he was replying.
€
€ But Grummy, couldn't you have found from your newsreader that
€ he was replying to
€
€ <11n48uf6eis9o2e@corp.supernews.com>
€
€ which was Greg telling him to "fuck off"?
€
€ I am sorta sympathetic with "shawn" and morgan -- in the respect that
€ rec.scuba.locations is no longer a suitable place for any scuba
€ discussions
€ anymore.


So says the pot....

Alan Street wrote:
> In article <1131765154.852872.25170@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups. com>, Reef
> Fish <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> € Grumman-581 wrote:
> € > "shawn" <shawnabbtt@aol.com> wrote in message
> € > news:1131720911.295572.85650@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> € >
> € > <not-sure-where-you're-from-so-crossposting-left>
> € >
> € > You really need to learn how to quote so that others will know to which
> € > message you're replying...
> €
> € "shawn" was clueless in now quoting anything to identify the post to
> € which he was replying.
> €
> € But Grummy, couldn't you have found from your newsreader that
> € he was replying to
> €
> € <11n48uf6eis9o2e@corp.supernews.com>
> €
> € which was Greg telling him to "fuck off"?
> €
> € I am sorta sympathetic with "shawn" and morgan -- in the respect that
> € rec.scuba.locations is no longer a suitable place for any scuba
> € discussions
> € anymore.
>
>
> So says the pot....

No, said I. Alan Street is BOTH the pot AND the kettle in the
rec.scuba
newsgroups who contribute NOTHING but NOISE.

-- Bob.

Alan Street wrote:
> In article <1131765154.852872.25170@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups. com>, Reef
> Fish <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> € Grumman-581 wrote:
> € > "shawn" <shawnabbtt@aol.com> wrote in message
> € > news:1131720911.295572.85650@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> € >
> € > <not-sure-where-you're-from-so-crossposting-left>
> € >
> € > You really need to learn how to quote so that others will know to which
> € > message you're replying...
> €
> € "shawn" was clueless in now quoting anything to identify the post to
> € which he was replying.
> €
> € But Grummy, couldn't you have found from your newsreader that
> € he was replying to
> €
> € <11n48uf6eis9o2e@corp.supernews.com>
> €
> € which was Greg telling him to "fuck off"?
> €
> € I am sorta sympathetic with "shawn" and morgan -- in the respect that
> € rec.scuba.locations is no longer a suitable place for any scuba
> € discussions
> € anymore.
>
>
> So says the pot....

No, said I. Alan Street is BOTH the pot AND the kettle in the
rec.scuba
newsgroups who contribute NOTHING but NOISE.

-- Bob.

I have scuba dived in many exotic dive locations, besides Bali, Cocos
Island, the Coral Sea and GBR, Palau, Rangiroa, and about a dozen
islands in French Polynesia. I was even the only passenger on a
cruise ship to dive at Easter Island where everyone else was gawking
at the giant moai statues.

I may be the only person in these newsgroups who have dived there,
but I always wanted to be able to say, "BNG goes to PNG" where
BNG is "Big Nassau Grouper", because travel from the East coast of
the US to get to PNG is not the easiest travel to get to that dive
location.

Thanks to a post by Marco Polo in rec.travel.cruises,

http://www.etravelblackboard.com/ind...id=44193&nav=5

"BNG goes to PNG" has suddenly taken a giant step toward reality.
Getting to Cairn is trivial for a Continental Airline frequent flyer
since
it is the only city in Au CO to which CO flies. The cruise ship tab of

$6000+ for a 10 day cruise is a bit on the steep side, even though
it's in Oz dollars which put it close to the $4000 USD mark.

I think this will be a cruise that may interest some of the scuba
divers
in the US and Canada who may be interested to see the top side of
PNG besides the diving at the ports of call that are familiar to
divers.

-- Bob.

Star Princess at Sea Day

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "Reef Fish" <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1131378649.833052.219990@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>
> > $6000+ for a 10 day cruise is a bit on the steep side, even though
> > it's in Oz dollars which put it close to the $4000 USD mark.
> >
> > I think this will be a cruise that may interest some of the scuba
> > divers
> > in the US and Canada who may be interested to see the top side of
> > PNG besides the diving at the ports of call that are familiar to
> > divers.
>
> Why would a real diver spend all that money for a handful of "excursion"

Since you're a real diver NOT, Greg, you'll never know.

Isn't it quite possible that SOME real divers like to see some things
on the
TOP side of travel, and they are not cheapskates like some unemployed
lawyer who spends his entire days in rec.scuba and rec.scuba.locations?


> dives when a 10-day trip on the Star Dancer is over $1,000 less?

Non-sequitur. Suffices to observe that I've been on more Dancers, and
to more Dancer locations you'll be able to afford, in your near or
distant
future in diving.

-- Bob.

"Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote in message
news:11mv8jothi0i349@corp.supernews.com...
> "Reef Fish" <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote in message

>> Non-sequitur. Suffices to observe that I've been on more Dancers, and
>> to more Dancer locations you'll be able to afford, in your near or
>> distant
>> future in diving.
>
> It's only a matter of time. You had a lot of it, being a school teacher
> with summer vacations and sabbaticals and now retired, with no more
> responsibilities than copying over last year's lecture notes for this
> year's class and showing up three days a week for a couple hours to talk
> about something no one much cares about. But I'm young and have 30 years
> ahead of me, where you're obviously beyond doing any more liveaboard trips
> and are living on a fixed income in a slumping economy. I'll catch up in
> about five years, guaranteed.

For instance:

"We dived only a small portion of the possible dive sites in Bali, all in
one small Nusa Penida Island area, so I am not even sure if the diving
is representative of all diving in Bali. But since I am a Warm Water Wimp,
and the kind of sudden-death currents
are a bit too strenous for senile citizens like myself, and it's so far
to get here, it's unlikely that I'll ever dive Bali again."

-- Reef Fish, 4/26/04

I'm doing a 11-night Bali-Komodo liveaboard in July. By the end of this
summer I'll have done three times as many dives there as you'll ever have
done or will do in the remaining days of your life. And so it goes.

(BTW, that was also the first time you ever saw a Mola Mola, something I've
seen plenty of)

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote in message
> news:11mv8jothi0i349@corp.supernews.com...
> > "Reef Fish" <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> >> Non-sequitur. Suffices to observe that I've been on more Dancers, and
> >> to more Dancer locations you'll be able to afford, in your near or
> >> distant
> >> future in diving.
> >
> > It's only a matter of time. You had a lot of it, being a school teacher
> > with summer vacations and sabbaticals and now retired, with no more
> > responsibilities than copying over last year's lecture notes for this
> > year's class and showing up three days a week for a couple hours to talk
> > about something no one much cares about.

And you claim to be a LAWYER? With that kind of faulty LOGIC and
inattention to details, no wonder you're unemployed. :^)

You're correct that I am retired -- but why would I have the
responsibility of
copying over last year's or any year's lecture notes for any class any
year?

I gave plenty of lectures to statisticians in sci.stat.math this year
without
any reference books or journals because I had given them all to 10
libraries in China, and I can lecture on any of the more than 100
topics
I lectured to that group this year from long-term comprehension memory
that can be delivered at moment's notice.

And when I was teaching FULL TIME the last decade or so, I only had
to show up TWO half-days a week -- Tuesdays and Thursday mornings.
You obvious missed dozens of those references in the archives.


> > But I'm young and have 30 years
> > ahead of me, where you're obviously beyond doing any more liveaboard trips
> > and are living on a fixed income in a slumping economy. I'll catch up in
> > about five years, guaranteed.

You're youngER and much less experienced -- that's about all you can
say.


> For instance:
>
> "We dived only a small portion of the possible dive sites in Bali, all in
> one small Nusa Penida Island area, so I am not even sure if the diving
> is representative of all diving in Bali. But since I am a Warm Water Wimp,
> and the kind of sudden-death currents
> are a bit too strenous for senile citizens like myself, and it's so far
> to get here, it's unlikely that I'll ever dive Bali again."
>
> -- Reef Fish, 4/26/04

Good pick. It shows my healthy sense of HUMOR and diving reality
that goes with my ONLY scuba diving rule for anyone, "Know YOUR
limit, and dive WITHIN it."

I've dived in much more swift currents than those in Bali within the
past five years. Bali diving is really no big deal. It's not worth all
the
TRAVEL hassle to get there just to do a few drift dives of mediocre
quality.


> I'm doing a 11-night Bali-Komodo liveaboard in July.

That's a guarantee that you'll NOT be doing any really swift currents
or the best dives. It's catered to the lowest common-denominator, such
as yourself.

Just like the Tahiti Aggressor you were on, a few months after I dived
on it. The 12-knot current of the passes were nothing but hype and f
iction to scare off clueless newbies on board from diving them.

You can dive another 30 years and you'll NOT have dived in as many
islands of the French Polynesia as I've done within a period of about 4
years. About two dozen islands, because I was on FOUR different
itineraries of the Tahitian (misnomer) cruises, and TWO of those four
are no longer offered. Diving on some of those islands are much
more exciting and rewarding than diving in Bali.

> By the end of this
> summer I'll have done three times as many dives there as you'll ever have
> done or will do in the remaining days of your life. And so it goes.

What about French Polynesia? How many of its islands will you
do in the remaining days of you life? You were the "Anti-Aldora
IDIOT" clueless newbie only a couple years ago. You think
you'll live long enough to do 1,000 dives in Cozumel, let alone the
1,200 at which I stopped counting in 2002?


> (BTW, that was also the first time you ever saw a Mola Mola, something I've
> seen plenty of)

True. I have also seen DOZENS and DOZENS of other exotic
marine life you've never seen and will never see. You think you'll
live long enough to make a dive in Easter Island?

You're scuba talk only fools other newbies who are more clueless
than you are. But at least you're talking SCUBA, unlike Ron Lee,
Alan Street, and Lee Bell who are spewing only non-scuba nonsense.

I have already given my assessment that Lee Bell's diving experience
is not even in the same league as yours, even thought you've been
diving only a few years -- based on the locations in which you've
dived.

You should ravel in that compliment of mine, and not exaggerate
the limits of your diving experience.

-- Bob.

At Sea heading to Majahual, where diving is for Clueless Newbies
and baby sardines.

"shawnabbtt" <shawnabbtt@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1131452095.758341.66450@g44g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> If you guys could quit having a pissing contest, i would be interested
> in the dives done in French Polynesia. I dove PNG in August on a land
> package at the Tawali, built by the owners of Oceanic. Great diving!

French Polynesia, aka "Tahiti", covers five large island groups spread over
almost a million square miles of the Pacific. Therefore, your request is a
bit broad.

The "main" islands of FP are the Society Islands, which includes the
Windward Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, etc.) and the Leeward Islands (Bora Bora,
Huahine, etc.). The Tuamotu Atolls lie to the northeast. Most people
arrive in Papeete, Tahiti by air, an 8 (+/- .5) hour flight from LAX.
Travel to the other islands can be done by air or sea. Reef Fish has posted
several times about the interisland cruising available there which you can
easily Google.

My experiences are limited to diving one of the Society Islands, Moorea, and
diving several of the Tuamotu Atolls off the Tahiti Aggressor (I believe we
hit five of them). The Aggressor is based on the largest of the Atolls,
Rangiroa, accessed by a 2 hour flight from Papeete. Rangiroa has several
hotels with their own dive operations, and is suitable for land-based
diving. The Blue Dolphin dive shop at the Kia Ora hotel is
rebreather-friendly as well, with rental Draegers and Inspirations in stock.
The diving of Rangiroa, as is the case with the other atolls, some
uninhabited, that the Aggressor visits, primarily features "diving the
cut" - i.e., high speed drift diving through the gap in the reef during
tidal changes. The Aggressor has termed this "pass flying" and offers a TDI
specialty card for those who collect them. In addition to the adrenalin
charge from the "flying", the atolls are teeming with reef sharks, and other
big animals (turtles, various rays, Napolean wrasses, titan triggerfish) are
frequently spotted. I had some issues with the boat and the French DM when
we went, but I've spoken to others who have been on the boat more recently
and had none of the problems I encountered.

Moorea, like the atolls, is a hard coral reef. Like Hawaii, the FP islands
are too remote for soft corals to have found their niche. Personally, I
find this a bit monotonous. The Tuamotus make up for it in the diverse and
prolific sea life. Moorea, on the other hand, being much more developed and
probably much more fished out than the Atolls, lacks in marine life as well.
Without much marine life and with monotonous coral, I found the diving there
to be a bit boring. However, there are sharks. Locals feed the blacktips,
so they're very plentiful especially if you get under a local boat when
they're "chumming" with chicken. As harmless as the scavengers are, my
heart skipped a few beats when I realized I was the centerpiece of a feeding
frenzy as I was ascending to the wrong boat. The main attraction of Moorea
is the large population of "tame" lemon sharks. Unlike other mean and
vicious lemon sharks, these big guys apparently don't bite. They look like
big fat grey reef sharks. I wasn't too impressed, but then we had just come
from week of diving the Tuamotus so I was a bit jaded.

I was asking from a blurb by Bob, about French Polynesia...broad or
not...

"You can dive another 30 years and you'll NOT have dived in as many
islands of the French Polynesia as I've done within a period of about 4

years. About two dozen islands, because I was on FOUR different
itineraries of the Tahitian (misnomer) cruises, and TWO of those four
are no longer offered. Diving on some of those islands are much
more exciting and rewarding than diving in Bali. "