TonyG

Hi Jim, Apologies, courier is best, Fedex, DPD, Yodel, UPS etc., would be preferable, just standard delivery preferably for next week sometime. Marked as fragile of course. That would be great. Cheers, Tony

Hi Jim, It comes to us all I am afraid, I also have this as well :-), as we become older. I do a lot of diving around Eyemouth/Abbs, and we probably have some mutual diving-friends, and my early diving days were out with Pete Gibson for 15 years+, and Jack Law, and of course I know Lawson very well. Am now diving regularly with Gary (and Billie... again), from Eyemouth - age has crept up on me, and its the best to go for me, rather than gear-lugging anymore at Abbs. Also, I've contributed to a number of books, including - like you - Paul Kay's marine fishes. Thanks re dome-port, that's great news. Let me know the best way to transfer money to you, eBay etc. Here is my flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjgilbert-images/albums Thanks Tony

Thanks for getting back to me. In your post of Sept 04: " 1. Sea & Sea compact dome port. Have noted two tiny dings - and I mean tiny! One near the centre and the other (more of a slight scuff really) about 3.5cms from the perimeter. Will easily polish out if you want to go to that trouble. ** Price therefore reduced to £100** " Are selling this for £100, if not why has the price increased? If it has slight scuffs then £100 seems reasonable. Please confirm price. Thanks Tony

Hi, do you still have the NX 56601 at all please?

Ed, Have been to Kauai and thought the diving wonderful, and want to go back. I went with Dive Kauai, see their web site, run by Mike. Its midway around the main road which stretches from the north to south on the eastern side of the island, in Kapa'a. We stayed at Hanalei Colony Resort, nice series of condo's, and I commuted nearly every day to dive from their boat in the south of the island. We did however do some shore dives. Tunnels Reef at Kee Beach was just down the road from us, and it was superb shore dive of 28 interconnecting lava tunnels. I did this as a night dive, and the white tips were out hunting by then, but we did get to see some of the big turtles, spanish dancer and so forth. Another shore dive is at Poipu, near Kapa'a, where we spotted dragon morays, quite rare. This can be done as a night dive as well. It is a good idea to d a few boat dives to get out to Sheraton Caverns, Fish Bowl, Camp One and Turtle Bluffs, all great sites. Owing to inclement seas, we didn't get out to Nihau, but at least there was a monk seal on one of the local dives! Take into account driving distances and times from wherever you stay, as the road is narrow in places and busy at times. The road from Princeville to Ke'e Beach (& Bali Hi), is very winding, narrow, dodgy in places, and crosses some "interesting" bridges. Tony

Its a little far to travel, but we are lucky in the UK with Capernwray (see www.dive-site.co.uk), its packed full of willing trout. Better than that it has a south facing view so plenty of sunlight. Generally, with the group (see www.nupg.org.uk for some pics of the trout), the group seem to manage this easily with a variety of cameras (film/digital SLR or wet). My own experience is to get the sun behind it and shoot in the shallows (2-3m), with say 1/125th a faster shooter speed on F8/11/16, to "touch" the fish with light, on a single strobe (at the bottom rather than top). This works for very silvery fish, whether trout, silverside, bogue or bream. You certainly need to meter but bracket (am still using Provia 100F film) and dont shoot the fish directly on if you can, a slight glancing angle is best. I am sure some of our group particularly the takes of the excellent shots of trout on our website have some comment to make.

I've been packing camera stuff for 10 years now and aside from a few heated arguments in Gatwick with some checkins (bad time of month, personal troubles, dont like divers etc.) I have no problems (touch wood) with Pelican cases. I've flown from Gatwick, Heathrow, Midlands, and usuallly Manchester, and my rule is usually check the main dive bag in with the strobe arms and any other non-breakable bits, screwdrivers, clamps and so on. Then just say I am taking a camera case on, and they usually have said "ok", and thats charter flights to RS, Med, Canaries (Lanz/Tenerife). I've only had one occasion in 2003 with Excel to Sharm where they winged at mine as well as the whole aircraft load of photo-divers had to chuck their cases in the hold. The only other occasion it had to go into the hold was for Domincan Republic - but we were flying on 9/11 (2004) :-(. I've found, its best to bang a padlock on it, and can usual fit the housing, 2 ports, camera and two lens in the box with foam and bubble wrap, the rest in the main bag. Its also a good idea if they moan to say its "sensitive camera equipment" and you are quite willing to stick it under your seat and put up with the discomfort. Mind you, it was my dive bag of 29.7Kg that attracted Monarchs GBP30 new standard charge for sports equpt in November from M/c, quite where my personal baggage allowance of 20Kgs went I do not know. But, then each airline has a formula "make it up as you go along" / "how much abuse can I give customers in the early morning" - the smaller the number is proportional to the chances of getting through ok!

Brian On Kauai, try www.divekauai.com its in gthe middle of the island on east coast at Kapa'a. I dived with them about 5 years ago and Mike & Hugo are still running the hardboat. I see you are going to Na'Pali coastline, its 4000ft, be careful with 300m limit after diivng. You dont say where you are staying but there is one main highway, and yes there is a little rush hour! The boat usually goes from the small boat harboure in the south. As for dives, Sheraton Caverns was a great one and Night Dive Tunnels Reef at Ke'e Beach (where they filmed south pacific Bali Hi) - Hugo knows this very well. Spanish dancers, big green sea turtles and white tips :-). Also Koloa'a Landing at Poipu, night dive, for the endemic dragon morays! Fish Bowl and Camp One were also good with loads of fish, swimthroughs and frogfish. Enjoy. Tony

2x45 minute talks at a Zoo Alex? The images being conjured up in my mind .... "Zoo" could mean the local nightclub, but I guess in this case it was really a zoo. Are you claiming you are Dr Alex "Doolittle" Mustard, talk to the animals (as well as photograph them) hah! Anyway, nice on the credit, and btw, Jessica Alba, I've an A1/2 (big anyway) film poster (the ones the video shops use) of Nancy Calaghan aka Jessica Alba dawbed on my office wall - in all her glory - and blonde'ish hair. It was from that fantastic film Sin City. I got to see it at the flicks in Scheveningen (The Hague) - much better on the big screen (as I am sure you can appreciate). Incidentally if it already hasn't done, its coming out on DvD with an extended/directors cut with even more lucid cartoonified gore and you can watch it in episode format as well! Can't wait for the sequels. Tony (from NUPG)