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GRAND PRIZE WINNERS
 PHD's 2006/07 PHOTO/WRITING CONTEST PLEASE JOIN US IN CONGRATULATING: Nadja Brandt, Writing Contest Winner Dick Gamble, Photo Contest Winner First, a warm thank you to all of our guests and friends who shared their stories and photos with us in the 2006 "Best PHD Live-Aboard" Photo and Writing Contest. Nadja Brandt won the Writing Grand Prize (and wins a trip on the Dancer of her choice), with: ______________________________________________________ Giant Fin, Big Mouth: Diving Tete-a-Tete in the Galapagos Near the edge of a rocky plateau 70 feet below the ocean's surface, I'm groping for sharp, barnacle-encrusted rocks with my gloved hands, when suddenly, our dive guide Jaime signals us to let go. Our group of eight divers kicks furiously into the blue waters off the Galapagos Islands, trying to make headway into the open ocean. Hundreds of hovering small, red snapper-like Pacific creole fish seem to observe our efforts. We can't see much else, beyond our own bubbles. As Jaime excitedly rattles his underwater noisemaker, we kick even harder. I'm frantically trying to catch my breath, when my eyes identify big, white spots that appear to be floating. As my vision adjusts, I make out a giant back fin, then a massive tail. It's a 45-foot, 8-ton whale shark -- the biggest fish in the sea, an underwater Mack truck. My husband and I are on a two-week diving trip to these fertile islands, located 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. This is a view of the Galapagos Charles Darwin didn't get when he sailed there aboard the Beagle in 1835 and began to formulate the theories of evolution he later published in ``The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.'' The Galapagos are the Nature Channel live. Today, 97 percent of its 13 islands, 42 islets and innumerable rock formations have been declared a national park, limiting fishing to certain areas and quotas (still, 100,000 people visited last year alone). The surrounding seas, 50,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean, constitute the second-largest marine reserve in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia. Here a lucky diver undeterred by cold waters and strong currents can enjoy a once-in a-lifetime chance for a tete-a-tete with sharks and 150-year-old turtles the size of coffee tables. During our two-week stay aboard Peter Hughes's Sky Dancer, a 110-foot vessel geared toward diving, we dove off Darwin and Wolf Island -- solitary rock formations located 250 nautical miles north of the central islands -- where we were surrounded by hundreds of 7- to 10-foot hammerhead and Galapagos sharks, swimming in wall-like formations just feet away, eerily eyeing us with their sideways-protruding eyes. On this particular day, I am just a few arm lengths away from this whale shark, a huge yet peaceful fish. My husband Matt is indeed so close that he is accidentally brushed by the gigantic tail fin and tossed off track in his efforts to film this leviathan. He manages to catch up with the creature, which seems completely indifferent to our presence, and gets a close-up of its 6-foot-wide mouth, slightly opened to filter the waters for krill and other small prey. Even the most seasoned divers among us have forgotten to check dive computers for depth and air levels as we try to keep pace with this mythic Goliath for at least a few moments before it slowly dives to greater depths and fades out of sight.
This is how Dick "narrated" the shot: This image is my idea of “Two Favorites With One Shot” ……….. We were on the Wind Dancer off Grenada in Sept 2006 when I came upon several colorful and translucent Azure Vases. This was our final daylight dive of the day at Frigate Rock and the light was slowly dimming. I am always drawn to these sponges by their unique color and translucence they offer, unlike any other sponge. I have even shot these beautiful sponges with a remote strobe behind the vase to highlight the translucence. On this occasion, as I approached I noticed movement inside the vase and WOW! There was another favorite of mine – an elusive Red Lipped Blenny, posing inside this azure vase as if he felt protected inside his lair! Although he bounced around inside the lip of this vase he always peeked over the edge like playing hide & seek. Thus I was gifted with not one but a series of shots that fulfilled my day. This unique scene was icing on the cake since this was also one of my first ever digital camera shots. I admit resisting for some time any upgrade from my trusty film SLR to a new digital SLR camera system. To say I was pleased with this image after the update is an understatement!
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Peter Hughes Diving Inc.
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