Diving Bokissa-Island-Style (with Hot Tub)
By Lothar. Filed in Vanuatu |
We lived for the last 9 days on Bokissa Island, a small, circular coral island about 1/4 mile in diameter. It was so relaxing, that we never managed to hike the trail around the island. A typical day for us was, for example, Sunday, July 29 :
After breakfast, we rest in our hammocks by the beach, before heading down to the dive boat around 9 AM. We are diving on the Promenade Deck of the USS President Coolidge, the dive site an easy 1/2 hour boat ride from our dock. We are back at 11 AM and soak in our private hot tub at Fare #15, gazing at the blue and turquoise Pacific. The sound of the Tam-Tam ( a wooden club) is letting us know that lunch is ready. Afterwards, we have time to digest, stretching out in the hammock, until we take the dive boat at 2 PM. This time, we are off to Tutuba Point, having some nice vistas of Tutuba Island along the way.
The diving around Bokissa is still excellent. Tutuba Point has great reefs and canyons, and I am surprised to see so many different corals here. We see the usual reef fish, but also Clown Fish, a Moray Eel, a big lobster and a black-and-white banded sea-snake zooming by us. After this relaxing drift dive, it is back to our Bokissa Island and more hot tub time before dinner. The night sky is bright with the stars, the Southern Cross and the Milky Way, and we finish the day in our beach chairs, looking at the show in the sky.
The rest of the week is not much different, and often it is only the 2 of us and a dive guide on the boat. At one point, there is only one other couple besides us at the dinner table. The resort has 16 bungalows, but this week the staff has only us to look after.
We can even choose our dive times according to the current weather, and postpone for an hour, to let a shower go by.
This is the most relaxing and stress-free diving, we have ever experienced.
On Thursday, August 2, we are diving Aore Point, about 10 hours after the 7.2 earthquake. It is a different kind of dive, with many stag-horn corals broken from the force of the quake, and the whole reef being covered by a layer of sand. On Saturday, August 4, is already our last dive here. We dive Bokissa Bommie and we are happy to see, that this reef shows no signs of earthquake damage. The many color corals are still there and the Clown Fish are still charging at our face mask, defending their offspring.