Quote me on this: Sir Francis Drake

“From Jaua Maior we sailed for the cape of Good Hope, which was the first land we fell withall: neither did we touch with it, or any other land, untill we came to Sierra Leona,...

Posted by on 18 June 2013 | 12:42 am

Student registrations

The sight of SDI student registration forms popping out of the printer is cause for serious concern.

Posted by on 17 June 2013 | 12:13 am

Thosand yard stare

Even though Junior is a scant six months old, his face has a wisdom and maturity of a much older soul. Here he demonstrates his thousand yard stare while posing with a Mares BCD. This...

Posted by on 16 June 2013 | 12:24 am

Dive sites: The Sentinel

I don’t think this dive site has a name (other than what we call it), or that it’s high on anyone else’s list of fun places to dive, but it’s proved to be a reliable...

Posted by on 15 June 2013 | 12:24 am

Friday photo: Espergærde beach

We visited Denmark in July 2011 to spend time with family, and I took this photo at Espergærde (these two photos were also taken in the harbour of this small seaside town). Vegetation like this,...

Posted by on 14 June 2013 | 12:09 am

Newsletter: More or less

Hi divers Last weekend we took a tour of the SA Agulhas II, an extremely impressive ship! We were all ready to run away and become polar explorers until we stepped outside on deck (and...

Posted by on 13 June 2013 | 1:54 pm

Article: Vanity Fair on big wave surfing

Susan Casey’s book The Wave dealt with big wave surfing and surfers, and introduced me to the small (comprising no more than a few hundred surfers), elite group that travels around the world to locations...

Posted by on 12 June 2013 | 12:04 am

A Day on the Bay: Algal bloom in Hout Bay

Date: 23 April 2013 Summer diving in the Atlantic can be incredible, but only after a couple of days of convincing southeasterly wind have pushed the surface water offshore and allowed it to be replaced...

Posted by on 11 June 2013 | 12:09 am

Article: The Scenic South on solving Cape Town’s white shark puzzle

The University of the Third Age (U3A) is an organisation for retired people (mostly), providing opportunities for further education, creativity and socialising. In August last year Tony and I gave a talk to the False...

Posted by on 10 June 2013 | 12:40 am

Permission to come aboard?

The cheeky seal appearing in these photos, that came really close to Seahorse when we were preparing to take her out of the water at False Bay Yacht Club, was caught on video as well...

Posted by on 9 June 2013 | 12:01 am

A Day on the Bay: Seal at the slipway

Date: 11 May 2013 We enjoyed beautiful, calm surface conditions one sunny day in May when I took some local and visiting divers down to Shark Alley to visit the broadnose sevengill cowsharks. The guys...

Posted by on 8 June 2013 | 12:06 am

Friday photo: Espergærde harbour

Pulling out these photos from our July 2011 trip to Denmark has made me so happy. Here’s one of the jetty and breakwater at Espergærde, a small seaside town north of Copenhagen. At the end...

Posted by on 6 June 2013 | 11:53 pm

Newsletter: Naming rights

Hi divers Last weekend the COLD FRONT arrived as predicted and totally owned the title, we had hail several times over the weekend (the cats enjoyed nibbling on it) but the city centre really had...

Posted by on 6 June 2013 | 2:08 pm

Article: Vanity Fair on Somali pirates

In the last couple of years the pirate attacks taking place off the coast of Somalia have slightly reduced in frequency and success rate, thanks to fairly aggressive anti-piracy measures taken on board the vessels...

Posted by on 5 June 2013 | 12:40 am

Cape Town from space

Here’s another image of my favourite city, taken by Canadian astronaut and all round amazing chap, Colonel Chris Hadfield, while he was on the International Space Station. I had to look at it for a...

Posted by on 4 June 2013 | 12:38 am

Releasing a pair of ragged tooth sharks

One beautiful morning in early April I hitched Seahorse to the divemobile, and headed across to Gordon’s Bay for a special project. The boat had been chartered to assist the Two Oceans Aquarium with the...

Posted by on 3 June 2013 | 12:11 am

Article: Wired on brinicles

We first encountered brinicles in the BBC’s Frozen Planet series. They are tubes of ice that grow underneath the Antarctic sea ice, driven by the salinity differential between ice and seawater. Wired.com features a beautiful...

Posted by on 2 June 2013 | 12:13 am

Bookshelf: Herman Mellville (Moby Dick) on the blue whale

At the time that Herman Mellville wrote Moby Dick, blue whales were little known. Here is a highly speculative extract from Chapter 32 (“Cetology“) of Moby Dick, which describes the blue whale based on observations...

Posted by on 31 May 2013 | 11:59 pm

Friday photo: Breakwater at Vedbæk

More Denmark… and more Vedbæk, a small leisure boat harbour just north of Copenhagen. Here’s a breakwater just outside the marina.

Posted by on 31 May 2013 | 12:22 am

Newsletter: Getting wet

Hi divers It has been a lean week with very few opportunities to go diving. Last weekend was no better. I spent Friday out on the bay in very misty grey conditions and the weekend...

Posted by on 30 May 2013 | 1:22 pm

Acai Berry Select

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