Max and Cess:

Congratulations on creating one of the most memorable diving destinations in the world. I remember very fondly my two "working" cruises on the Star Dancer, with its wonderful crews. And the week my husband and I spent at the resort was outstanding. I wish we had time this year to take advantage of one of those Star Dancer cruises.

Best wishes,
Pam

Relvie and Digger onboard Star Dancer.

This was my sixth trip with The Dancer Fleet
and certainly not my last. The (above) photo of Relvie and me I think shows the attitude of the crew on the Stardancer. Relvie is one of the excellent "diver's assistants".

Only bad was the arduous travel time, (about 24 hours each way). Diving was about equally split between the Witu and Father's islands off of Milne Bay, and was remarkable. In the Witus, we had native visiting in dugouts with outriggers every day. We visited one village and the paucity of their belongings was unbelievable. But the natives don't even have a word for unhappy in their language.

We had sharks in the water with us almost every dive, sometimes 4 or 5 under the boat on entry that followed us to the dive site. Two of the dives were shark feeds, and the sharks stayed around for the whole dive, even after having emptied the bait box. Photographer divers must have gotten some great shots. Turtles, mostly small showed up on five or six dives. I love them. Schools of Batfish were plentiful and almost too friendly, particularly for the photodivers.

Captain Peter Manz threw in a few muck dives to show us the amazing diversity of the waters of PNG, with Mandarin fish, assorted flatworms,pigmy seahorses,Blue Ribbon eels, Pipefish,Leaf Scorpion Fish, Peacock Flounders, Squat Lobsters,Mantis Shrimp, and of course,Nudibranchs.

On the Bommies, we had many Octopi and Moray Eel encounters, large Maorie Wrasse, dense schools of Jacks and lesser dense schools of Barracuda, Black and White and Red and White Lion Fish, Banded Shrimp,many different colored anemone fish,Coral Morphian Shrimp,large Humphead Parrot Fish,large Puggerfish,Scorpion Fish,George, a Great Barracuda that stayed under the boat for several dive sites in the Father's Islands, (which were not really islands but bommies the never quite reached the surface, and many more minute animals that I could barely see, even with my magnifying glass, and immediately forgot the names of. Martin an eagle eyed New Guinean had an outstanding ability to find these minute critters. Jamie Queensberry the tour director and also one of the divemasters doesn't yet have the exploration skills of Martin, but is well on her way.

On a few dives we had adverse currents, which Captain Manz, (who incidentally was an expert skipper) countered by running a Darby line to the anchor line and from the tie down point to the current side of the reef where we hung and watched the parade of fish, both large and small. Even the more inexperienced divers handled it with ease.

The boat, though not new by any means was comfortable and Jana Gibson, from New Zealand provided family style cooking with "to order" breakfasts, sumptuous lunches with some native cooked vegetables and several main courses. Dinners were after night diving and were less diverse than the lunches. Between dives, cake or muffins or varied
spreads and crackers kept us from losing any weight. A complete bar was available with assorted liquors and red and white wine, all complementary.

4 dives a day were available for all but the last day. Night diving was available on 6 of the 10 days. The dive deck crew was always available to provide whatever assistance was needed, including washing and rinsing the dive gear at the end of the trip. All diving was done from the Stardancer.

The water was almost too warm. I wore a 3mm hyperstretch and would have preferred a 1mm. Some overall covering is recommended because occasionally we encountered reefs covered with coralimorph which could cause a nasty sting if touched.

Visibility was generally at least 80 feet horizontally with maybe a hundred looking down when the sun was overhead.

This was my third trip on the Stardancer in PNG and by far the best. Overall, I rate the diving as the best in my experience.

"Digger"
CA, USA
May 2007
7-Oct-2006

Photos by Adriana Basques

I'm writing just to let you know that we had a wonderful time in PNG! The crew was so nice, especially Jamie and Martin. All dives were wonderful and we had a lot of fun! I think everybody on board enjoyed a lot and the crew, as I've mentioned before, did everything possible to make it an unforgettable trip. All dive masters were looking for nice things for me to shoot :-) Was amazed how Martin can find almost invisible things !!!
Cheers,
Adriana B.
Brazil
7-Oct-2006

Dear Peter and Staff,
11/9/04

Rarely in life do people have their expectations met and exceeded! However, those feelings describe the experience of the ISAM group that chartered Peter Hughes' Star Dancer in PNG October 20-30, 2004. It was one of the best live aboard experiences of all times. Where else in the world can you dive in warm crystal clear waters with the largest to the smallest creatures in the sea and have an erupting volcano as the background for your ten day trip on a live aboard?

The second dive of the charter can be best described as swimming with a whale shark under the shadow of an active volcano. We had a gift from the sea when this magnificent creature visited our group at the beginning and end of the dive. ISAM members saw the largest fish in the sea on our first day of diving along with some of the smallest pygmy seahorses on our remaining dive days. The diving was pristine and unique; a macro and wide-angle heaven of photographic underwater opportunities. The macro subjects were tiny pygmy horses, panda clown fish, mantis shrimp, leaf scorpion fish, hairy octopus, crocodile fish, a leafy sea dragon, porcelain crabs and countless other unusual critters. Wide-angle photo opportunities were also plentiful with lots of big fish action. ISAM divers not only swam with the whale shark but also spotted several species of sharks in the open blue water and experienced the silvery swirls of large groups of jacks, barracudas and tuna. Gorgeous reefs provided colorful scenery of corals, sponges and fish life. ISAM also had a thrilling dolphin encounter when the Captain of Star Dancer herded a massive pod of dolphins alongside snorkelers.

The staff of the Star Dancer treated ISAM guests like royalty. We received first class service and excellent food. Our personal laundry was even done by the crew and they washed our dive gear at the end of the charter. Another luxury was the wonderful shoulder massages and warm towels awaiting guests after every dive. Now that is service perhaps above and beyond even that for which Peter Hughes Diving is famous!

As travel director and executive secretary of the International Society of Aquatic Medicine (www.divingdocs.org), I have had the wonderful opportunity to dive top dive sites around the globe. As a veteran diver with 1000 plus dives worldwide, I would rate this experience on the Star Dancer in PNG as "as good as it gets" in the diving world.

I look forward to more exciting adventures combining ISAM medical seminars for physicians and other health professionals, along with Peter Hughes live boards. This is a winning combination for bringing adventure into our medical meeting - and medicine into our adventures.

Sincerely,

Bridget K Thomas, RN, MSN