Main Menu
Join Undercurrent on Facebook

The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 | |
For Divers since 1975
The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975
"Best of the Web: scuba tips no other
source dares to publish" -- Forbes
X
 

Dive Review of Telita in
Papua New Guinea/Milne Bay, Kimbe Bay

Telita, May, 2007,

by Jennifer Meriwether, CA, USA (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports). Report 3389.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments We were originally scheduled for 10 days on the Telita on a repositioning cruise from Alotau in Milne Bay to Tufi. We had so much fun on the boat that we ended up canceling our further land plans and staying on for another 10 day repositioning cruise from Tufi to Walindi in Kimbe Bay. The new owner/captain of Telita, Paul Baker, is very friendly and customer service oriented. His main concern is to make sure that his guests have the best possible dive trip. We had horrible weather for the first 10 days of the trip, including a cyclone in the Solomon Sea that caused rough conditions in Milne Bay so Paul completely revised his plans and concentrated on taking us to dive sites that were more protected. The boat is very comfortable with 5 ensuite guest cabins. The bathrooms are quite large for a liveaboard with plenty of hot water and even seats in the downstairs cabin showers so that you can sit down and take a shower while the boat is moving (something we really appreciated in the rough seas we encountered). The boat has passive stabilizers that are lowered when at anchor and they help minimize boat rocking. The food was not gourmet, but it was tasty and filling with plenty of meat (fresh fish if we'd caught any that day), veges, fresh fruit and wine with dinner. Lunches were always prepared meals, not cold sandwiches. Afternoon tea brought an assortment of treats including freshly baked scones, carrot cake, caramel peanut butter bars and yummy brownies. The dive deck is large and easy to move around in with two hot showers and a really good swim-up ladder. Depending on the current most of the dives either started from the boat and ended with a pickup in the zodiac, or vice versa. Nitrox is available and all of the boat's mechanical systems were well-maintained. Except for a few muck sites in Milne Bay, most of the diving was on bommies that were a mile or more off shore. Our trip included lots of exploratory dives and Paul really enjoys trying new sites. Even on his established itineraries, he always tries to do at least one or two exploratory dives. Some sites had really great coral and/or gorgeous walls, others showed a large amount of damage from coral bleaching episodes, especially in Milne Bay which had a really bad bleaching about 5 years ago. In spite of Milne's reputation for muck-diving, we found the "critter" count to be rather low compared to the diving we've done in Indonesia. However, PNG has an abundance of fish large and small. Because the population of PNG is relatively small and the Asian fishing fleets have not yet fished it out, you get to see a complete ecosystem instead of seeing only smaller fish and nothing large. We had at least 1-2 sharks on most dives, sometimes up to 10, mainly grey reefs with the occasional white tip, black tip and silvertip. We also saw grouper, snapper, mackeral, barracuda, dog tuna, napoleon wrasses, bumpheads, turtles and rays (eagle, manta and stingray) making it a really good destination for those who like the big stuff.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Indonesia, Thailand, Hawaii, CA, Cozumel, Curacao, Bonaire, Little Cayman
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather windy, rainy, cloudy Seas choppy
Water Temp 82-85°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 35-65 Ft/ 11-20 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions None
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 3 stars Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 5 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 5 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments large camera worktable, rinse bucket on dive deck, 110/220 charging station
Was this report helpful to you?
Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here
 

Subscribe Now
Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 157 dive reviews of Papua New Guinea and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

 
Featured Links from Our Sponsors
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
Best of PNG
Best of PNG
The PNG diving and land tour specialists. No-one knows PNG above and below better. Resorts, liveaboards, festivals, villages, flight deals.
Reef & Rainforest, Let our experience be your guide -- Reef and Rainforest
Reef & Rainforest
is an agency for travelers that scuba dive. Want biodiversity, critters, tribal villages, birds of paradise? We specialize in Papua New Guinea.

Want to assemble your own collection of Papua New Guinea reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

Undercurrent Home


Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email.
And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent

Free Undercurrent Issue
Get a free
monthly email and
a sample issue!


Find in  

| Home | Online Members Area | My Account | Login | Join |
| Travel Index | Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews | Featured Reports | Recent Issues | Back Issues |
| Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | Seasonal Planner | Blogs | Free Articles | Book Picks | News |
| Special Offers | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |

Copyright © 1996-2024 Undercurrent (www.undercurrent.org)
3020 Bridgeway, Ste 102, Sausalito, Ca 94965
All rights reserved.

Page computed and displayed in 0.1 seconds