10 replies to this topic

[drbill]

I recently returned from seven weeks of work on board the Lindblad Expeditions "cruise ship" MV Sea Lion in Belize and Honduras. When I say "cruise ship," I'm talking about a small (150 ft) vessel with maximum 70 passengers and 35 crew. Lindblad specializes in eco-tourism with minimal impact. These trips went from Belize City to Puerto Cortes, Honduras, then the reverse.

As the "underseas specialist" on board, I dove, took underwater video and lectured on marine-related topics pertinent to the area. It was my first diving ever in the Caribbean so I had to be a quick study.

Most of my diving was on Lighthouse Reef, specifically Half Moon and Long Cayes. These locations offered fantastic diving- great wall dives with minimal current, great visibility and good marine life. Because we are a small shallow draft vessel, we could also get close to Cayes which were not often dived including Coco Plum, Lime, Laughing Bird, Seal and Goffs. Of course with some of them there was good reason they weren't frequently dived, but each site offered something of interest biologically. We also stopped in Utila and either dove SW Key or Lighthouse Reef.

I was pleased with this introduction to Caribbean marine life. I was able to get video footage of all the target species I had identified before my trip (hawksbill turtles, flying gurnard, spotted drum, etc.). I'm spending 2-3 weeks editing the video footage from the 38 dives down there.

Unfortunately I think being back in the tropics has spoiled me. I've only done 6 dives here on Catalina since returning and took only 12 minutes of video total.

Dr. Bill

[Diverlady]

Hi drbill,

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first caribbean diving. At least you get to go diving at home regardless of water temps. I have to wait until the ice melts first!! LOL

Welcome to SD.com. It's nice to have you here!

Diverlady

[Walter]

Bill,

Sounds like a great trip. I'd think you could get spoiled diving in your front yard. I loved the dives Sapphire & I made with you last September. That is an incredibly beautiful place!

That's why I love traveling, there are so many great places to dive. Enjoy your trip to the Sea of Cortez. I wanna go back there as well.

Walter

[WreckWench]

Hi Dr. Bill....YEA!!! You found us!!! We've been busy since we last emailed...and since you've returned to the States. Wow your diving sounded incredible....you are really doing great!!!

Thank you for dropping in and I hope you opt to stay awhile and off gas here in the SingleDivers.com Surface Interval!!! Don't forget to check out other parts of the site...we are more then just a message board!

As for joining us on trips...you'll have to make an exception and do a 1 week excursion with us....the trick is finding a trip that you haven't done or would consider doing again AND finding it during a time you aren't already diving someplace else!!

We will be doing a trip to California so I'll be counting on you and Wrinkles and Sapphire and DiveScoop etc. to help us out with it. I think it will be an official SD.com trip as I've been getting some awesome diving info on where to dive in CA etc.

Glad you are here....-ww

[nikk]

Dr. Bill sounds like an amazing trip! would love to see a long trip report on it

[tankgirl]

What a great trip, I would love to see the underwater videos!

[drbill]

After more than three weeks of editing, I finally have the raw footage converted into usable video clips and thumbnail stills. Ugh. Going diving this weekend here (vis only 20 ft but I have to get the gills wet!). Afterwards I'll start putting the clips together into several new shows for my "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" cable TV show.

Had to cancel Sea of Cortez because my Dad is in the hospital after a serious stroke and I'm going to head back there to spend more time with him.

Dr. Bill

[WreckWench]

Hi Dr. Bill....your father in my prayers! Let us know if we can do anything!!

Also...when you get your head above water....PLEASE consider setting up a photo gallery....we'd love to see your shots...that is assuming you take stills in addition to video!!! -ww

[drbill]

Since I don't really have time to give a good report on the 38 dives on this trip, I should at least let you know that I've written a few new columns based on critters observed on the Belize-Utila dives. You can read them on my website at:

http://www.starthrow...DDDB/column.htm

Eventually I'll add the digital stills extracted from the video in a new section on Belize-Honduras, but since there are about 900 MB of them it will take time.

Dr. Bill

Edited by drbill, 17 April 2004 - 12:35 AM.

[zendiver]

Dr Bill,

I can appreciate the time that it takes to capture (in some insane chronic order), edit, and export for use, depending on the final target in which the media is to be used. I also shoot a lot of video every year and try to put together a 'Best of...' for that year video.

What type of system are you using to do your capturing and editing on?

I have just finished building my new video editing suite at work. It is a dual Pentium 4 Zeon's, 3.0 GHz with an advanced 400 MHz Front Side Bus and a whopping 4MB of L3 cache. It also has built-in Hyper-Threading that enables the processor to simultaneously execute two software program threads. This allows you to run 2 software applications in parallel without sacrificing your performance.

I have 2 GB of Dual Channel DDR RAM and 2 storage Medea Raid units that equal almost 1 terabyte of storage with a data transfer rate 100 R/W per second.

I am using the latest Video Toaster for doing the majority of my editing. The Toaster has been classified as a TV Studio in a box.

I would love to see some of your video when you get it uploaded.

-ZD

[drbill]

ZD- My current system is ancient. P4 1.8 with 512MB RAM and about 400 GB hard drive space (need more!). Use a Canopus DV Raptor RT and Adobe Premiere 6.0. I built it two years ago and it performs adequately to the task since I rarely use complicated transitions or special effects.

Your system sounds awesome.

Dr. Bill