Friday, September 25, 2015
Monday, June 01, 2015
The People!
The more I think about it, and the more obvious it becomes that beside some spectacular events on the dives, what will really remain after this trip are the memories of encounters with fascinating and interesting people.
One of the pleasant surprises on this trip was to find out that Valerie Taylor was going to be onboard the National Geographic Orion during a big portion of the trip as a Guest Speaker, from the Seychelles to Bali.
Some of the youngest divers might not know about her, or her career, but I became aware of her achievements quite early in my diving career, in the last century ;-)
I had seen a few of the movies she made with her late husband, Ron Taylor, and it was a real treat to hear her introducing them, and presenting slide shows "in the flesh", and sharing meals with Valerie, but most of all, sharing underwater time with her was a real treat.
Another speaker was Lawrence Blair, writer/adventurer, with whom we unfortunately shared too few dives, but fortunately many breakfasts and movie projections.
And then all the other divers, and non-divers. What a fascinating time...
Labels: Diving, Indian Ocean, Lawrence Blair, Travel, Valerie Taylor
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Au large de la Côte Sauvage d'Afrique du Sud.
Grâce à cette stratégie, et en écourtant notre visite à Mossel Bay, nous sommes parvenus à rattraper notre retard.
Nous sommes passés au large de Port Élizabeth heir, mon chez-moi pendant pas mal d'années au siècle dernier...
Ce matin, la Côte Sauvage se montre à nous sous une couverture nuageuse, et nous avons déjà traversé quelques averses. Ce sera probablement assez tranquille jusqu'à Durban.
Je vais essayer de trouver le temps d'éditer quelques photos, mais ça risque de ne pas être tout de suite...
Labels: African penguins, Cape Gannets, Cape-Town, Cruise, dolphins, Indian Ocean, Mossel Bay, Photo, Photography, Port-Elizabeth, SCUBA, South Africa, Traveling, Voyage
Off the wild coast.
Labels: African penguins, Cape Gannets, Croisière, Cruise, Diving, dolphins, Indian Ocean, Mossel Bay, Photo, Photography, Port-Elizabeth, South Africa, Traveling, Voyage, whales
Friday, March 20, 2015
Cape-Town (Table Mountain in the fog)
That, however, didn't bother the seagulls, that got together to claim ownership of the sand on this foggy beach.
Tomorrow I will meet the team from the boat, and I'll try to take a few pictures of the boat in the Cape Town harbour so you can drool on Sunday lunch...
So far so good. I survived the lions in the streets:
Speak to you soon...
P.S. If you look at my profile, you might be able to see the South African phone number I'll be using until we cross over to Madagascar.
Labels: Cape-Town, Croisière, Cruise, Diving, Indian Ocean, Photo, Photography, Plongée, SCUBA, South Africa, Traveling, Voyage
Le Cap (Table Mountain dans le brouillard)
En fait, ça n'a même pas embêté la bande de mouettes qui s'étaient réunies pour faire la fête sur la plage ce matin.
Demain, je rencontrerai l'équipage du bateau, et j'essaierai de prendre quelques photos du vaisseau dans le port du Cap pour vous faire saliver sur le rôti du dimanche...
Jusqu'ici, tout va bien. J'ai survécu aux lions dans les rues:
A bientôt...
P.S. Si vous jetez un coup d'oeil à mon profil, vous verrez peut-être le numéro de téléphone d'Afrique du Sud que j'utiliserai jusqu'à ce qu'on traverse vers Madagascar.
Labels: Cape-Town, Croisière, Cruise, Diving, Indian Ocean, Photo, Photography, SCUBA, South Africa, Traveling, Voyage
Saturday, March 07, 2015
Schedule details
At last! All the flights are finalised, so the dates are now set in stone (well, at least the concrete of the runways ;-)
For people that want to see the details and arrange to meet, I put a summary of my schedule with locations in a public calendar:
https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/951h53s7lv0ah48bgfuvcgf2oc%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic
I don't yet know how much Internet access I'll have along the trip (both from a hardware/network/communications point of view, or free time that I can leisurely spend on the Internet).
I'll try to update my contact details after the first week if there is a way to contact me, and I might use some limited form of roaming on my phone, so if you have my phone number (hint: if you're in some of my circles on G+, you can access my phone numbers) you can try to send me a SMS.
Labels: Croisière, Cruise, Diving, Indian Ocean, Photo, Photography, Plongée, SCUBA, Traveling, Voyage
Les dates
Les billets d'avion sont finalement fixés, donc les dates du voyage sont maintenant gravées dans la pierre.
Pour ceux qui veulent me rencontrer pendant le voyage, j'ai publié un calendrier: https://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/951h53s7lv0ah48bgfuvcgf2oc%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic
Je ne sais pas encore si j'aurai accès à Internet en route (autant d'un point de vue matériel machine/réseau/communications qu'au point de vue temps libre).
J'essaierai de mettre à jour un numéro de téléphone pour me contacter, je vais peut-être utiliser le roaming avec parcimonie, donc si vous avez mes numéros de téléphone (si vous faites partie de mes contacts ou de mes cercles sur G+, vous avez accès à cette information dans mon profil) vous pouvez essayer de m'envoyer un texto.
Labels: Croisière, Cruise, Diving, Indian Ocean, Photo, Photography, Plongée, SCUBA, Traveling, Voyage
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The view from my office window this year...
A few of you know that in addition to my computer jock job, I also double as diving instructor and divemaster.
I recently accepted a mission in the Indian Ocean, so in March I'll be sailing from Cape-Town for a ten weeks cruise along East Africa, Seychelles, Maldives, Sri-Lanka, Andaman Islands, Malaysia and ending in Bali in May.
Now starts the visa danse...
(En Français ici)
Labels: Cruise, Diving, Indian Ocean, Photography, SCUBA, Traveling
La vue de la fenêtre de mon bureau ...
Quelques uns savent qu'en plus de mon boulot d'esclave d'ordi, je fais aussi office de moniteur et d'accompagnateur de plongée.
J'ai récemment accepté une mission dans l'Océan Indien, en mars, j'embarquerai d'Afrique du Sud, au Cap pour une croisière de dix semaines le long de l'Afrique de l'Est, les Seychelles, Maldives, Sri-Lanka, les iles Andaman, la Malaisie, pour terminer à Bali au mois de mai.
Bon, maintenant commencent les paperasseries pour les visas...
(In English here)
Labels: Croisière, Cruise, Diving, Indian Ocean, Photo, Photography, Plongée, SCUBA, Traveling, Voyage
Friday, March 23, 2007
For some family related reasons, I will not be able to leave as early as I planned to, so I 'll have to fly to meet Connie, later in May.
On one hand, it gives me a bit more time to prepare my underwater equipment, even to test it maybe. I recently purchased an underwater housing, originally designed for the Canon EOS 1, and I will modify it to take my 5D. This should be fun... if it doesn't flood!
I tested the flash, and it works in manual mode, which is all I want, so it's a first step to documenting the dives we're going to have soon...