Night dive under full moon?

[Wreck/Tec]

Travilin Tex
You may enjoy this experience very much. Excellant vis and a full moon make for a beautiful dive. Make no mistake you'll need lights, but take the time to roll over on your back, ( be mindful of your surroundings though ) look up and view the moon from under the water. It's very different, pleasantly so...........
Wreck/Tec

 

[The Chairman]

so I asked him to pull his wetsuit up! :tease:

 

[uk diver 2000]

Cave Diver is absolutely right about the colors; they can be absolutely stunning at night. But if you really want to feel like you belong there, don't forget to cut your light off at some point and let your eyes adjust. That's the real beauty of a full moon dive: becoming a reef creature yourself. Oh, and don't forget to wave your hand around for the bioluminescence light show!

You are going to have a great time.

 

[pentiumchic]

I just did a night dive here at Kaka'ako Point Panic (Oahu Hawaii) Was a blast the colors were grand.The moon was about half full.Can't wait to do it again there's talk of doing a wreck called the Seatiger a 2 tank twightlight boat dive Xmas eve.What a wonderful way to spend it! Come on Santa need 45 bucks.LOL Hope you have as much fun as I did.You'll be hooked on it.Can't wait to hear what you saw.

Jen

 

[Uncle Pug]

...don't Tiger Sharks feed at night?

 

[pentiumchic]

Ssssssh that will be our little secret.*laugh* BTW in that area more likely to run into a hammerhead.They tend to pup in Pearl Harbor.

Jen

 

[XtremeSea1]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...
...don't Tiger Sharks feed at night?

Yea...but so do I:mean:

 

[DiverBuoy]

If vis is good, a full moon night dive does provide plenty of ambient light. On the 3 night dives I've done WITH a full moon the visibility was good enough that if you placed your dive light against your chest you could see the bottom and some aquatic figures with ambient light. But vis has to be good to take advantage of this. Nevertheless, you still need a dive light to make the dive.

In St. Martin where the vis is very often over 60 feet, a shallow dive with full moon would be lovely. I was in St. Martin on the 18th and St. Thomas on the 19th of last week. I can tell you the weather was perfect - only a few clouds. And the moon was gorgeous. Vis was only so-so in St Martin according to the divers and the Dive Safaris scuba shop owner Bobby I spoke with. They were planning a night dive that night, but they all said they didn't expect very good vis, surge and currents had been a little rough that day.

Anyway looking forward to TravelinTex's follow-up feedback.

 

[TravelinTex]

Thanks to all of you who helped me understand night diving in general and moonlight diving in particular! Unfortunately, visibility during day diving off St. Martin last week was down to 50-75 feet/15-20 meters only, and water temps were hovering just under 80 deg. F/26 deg. C. Therefore, I passed on the night dive, but I know enough now to enjoy a future one.

Like DiverBuoy, I was diving from Dive Safari in Simpson Bay, who run a good operation. On my next trip I hope to dive Saba Island, about four hours' boat ride from St. Martin, which is down to 80-90 feet/28 meters. Here in the U.S. that would require the PADI Advanced cert., like many of the dives off New Jersey, and although I'm sure the shop would let me dive off Saba without the cert in hand.

I was hopelessly spoiled by taking my check dives at Desecheo Island off Rincon in NW Puerto Rico, where vis was virtually unlimited to me (officially 200+ feet). Bottom was a good combination of sand and coral that would lend itself well to reflecting moonlight, so that would be great for a full moon dive. FYI, I very highly recommend Taino Divers there in Rincon (Greg Carson, skipper/divemaster is a fellow Texan .

Thanks again to all, and I really appreciate having this board for a resource.

 

[divrnr]

Just came back from Maui and did a twilight dive in Molokini Crater and a night dive at Naked Marty's Reef. Awesome, I have a pic looking up at the moon from 70' with a shark above me. Hope it comes out good, getting developed now...