Rainbow Warrior
All the experienced divers were to jump into Deep Six from Paihia Dive, a fast rubber boat that can reach 30kt while all others divers were on the big slow boat. We made it to the Rainbow Warrior in about 1h despite a topside visibility that was as much as the underwater one: about 15m at most due to a very thick myst.
The first 5m of water were full of salps and water was more greenish than bluish. Nothing special about the wreck you will find the usual marine life: moray eel, scorpionfish, gem and clown nudibranchs. Dive was short (about 30min+) as the wreck lies on a flat bottom at a depth of about 25m and I was not diving Nitrox. The top structure/deck is around 18m.
Frankly it’s not a great wreck dive, but it’s worth the visit only for the historical value of it. And unless what some dive ops say, it was not French terrorists that blew it up.
For the 2nd dive we anchored in a nearby rocky island. While kitting up a group of bottlenose dolphins swam under the boat. Water here was around 15C and we did not see much except a lot of kelps, short-tail stringray, a John Dory that kept showing me his tail despite my best effort to get its profile and a couple of nudibranchs.
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If it wasn’t the French who blew up the Rainbow Warrior, then who was it, pray tell? The Tooth Fairy, perhaps?
Comment by Schmuckles — December 21, 2003 @ 8:38 pm
Someone a little bit ‘aware’ would make a real distinction between ‘terrorists’ and ‘secret services’. Though the act is often the same, the nature of it depends on which side of the barrier you’re in. No need to be xenophobist, close-minded and doing gratuitous attacks with unrespectful comments.
Comment by stephane — December 22, 2003 @ 6:51 pm