Dan Johnson is the man in charge of MV Oceania, co-owner, and captain of this beautiful vessel, and joins me to kick off Season 4. MV Oceania is a liveaboard scuba diving vessel that operates out of Walindi Plantation, New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea, located in the Coral Triangle of the Asia Pacific region, is situated just south of the equator and 100 miles north of Australia. The country encompasses the eastern side of New Guinea Island and 600 smaller islands and atolls. Known for its rich indigenous cultures, Papua New Guinea is home to over 800 languages, making up one-third of the world's languages, and boasts the largest area of untouched rainforest outside the Amazon.
PNG offers incredible scuba diving opportunities with its untouched coral reefs, diverse marine life, and unique culture. The diving hotspots in PNG include Milne Bay in the South, Kimbe Bay, and Kavieng town or Lissenung Island. Divers and underwater photographers come from all over to witness the coral atolls and walls, WWII wrecks, barrier reefs, and other underwater photography subjects the Indo-Pacific region is renowned for. The country also boasts beautiful tropical jungles and mountain ranges on land.
If you're planning to dive in PNG, it's a must to include a land tour to experience the local tribes. With 28,000 miles of reef systems, divers are unlikely to encounter other groups, making it a perfect destination for those looking for a secluded diving experience. The country offers various dive resorts and liveaboard options catering to all levels of divers and is renowned for its spectacular scuba diving.
"Having lived and worked in PNG, I personally rate it as my top hotspot for tropical diving. A must for any avid diver!" (Matt Waters)
Dan is a well-respected figure in the diving industry, known for his extensive knowledge and expertise in navigating the waters of Papua New Guinea, particularly the spectacular reefs of New Britain.
In this 2-part series, we discuss MV Oceania's past, present, and future plans for exploration scuba diving in Papua New Guinea, as well as Dan Johnson's journey and experience as a dive leader. So, join us as we explore the depths of Papua New
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🎵 Music: Forever Young by the legend - AudioCoffee |
captain of the MV for Brina,which is based in Papua New
Guinea. Dan explores the vastScuba diving playground which is
known for its incredible divingopportunities and unique marine
life based out of well Lindyresort, New Britain. And today,
he shares his insights andexperiences from captaining the
(00:32):
MV for breonna. And diving insuch a beautiful location, his
professional journey that bringshim to PNG, and what He has
planned for the future of the MVfor Brina. Get ready for an
adventure filled season of theScuba go podcast.
Dan Johnson (00:47):
I followed you on
Scuba go with the Oceania
webpage, page Facebook page, Iactually got admin to it. So I'm
now a fully updated adminadministrator of the Oceania
Facebook page which is fairlyscary because I have absolutely
(01:11):
no idea how to use Facebook. Nowpetrified I'm gonna press a
button and delete everythingthat everybody has ever done on
it. So that's fun.
Matt Waters (01:27):
Maybe I wouldn't
even try getting down that
rabbit hole. It's I've got like,I've got Facebook for nomadic
Scuba, and obviously for Scubagoat. And then I've got the
Instagram and Meta everything.
And it's nothing short of afucking nightmare, quite
frankly.
Dan Johnson (01:48):
Living in Papua New
Guinea you might as well live in
a cave technology. You know ifyou can get into net worth Oh,
yeah, depends on how cloudy itis and what's going on in the
world at the time. Yeah, howmany earthquakes I've had
recently. That's a good one.
Matt Waters (02:08):
Mate when we when
we were when I was living it to
fee the cell tower that was theonly cell tower and yours was
diesel generator and so thelocal diesel and thought Fuck
it. I need a bit of fuel. I gotNick it and that's it. No
internet.
Dan Johnson (02:28):
Yeah, no, no, no,
we completely understand that
the bloke next door to theresort who had the tower on his
property would sell the dieselfor the tower to the local PMV
cars coming up and down theroad. They don't be there to his
place. And then they'd be there.
Fill them up with the Digi cellfuel and they'd bugger off and
(02:50):
then we'd lose or phonereception for a week. Got a
special Hi, is real special. Sowhat were you doing over in two?
Three? You weren't manager onething?
Matt Waters (03:07):
No, no, there was
the resort manager and his wife.
And then I was running the diveoperations and both side of
things.
Dan Johnson (03:14):
Oh, yes. What was
the name of the resort manager
at the time? Wasn't Simon wasit?
Matt Waters (03:23):
No, no, Simon was
long gone. I know. Yeah, that's
what I had. Yeah, yeah. I hadTony honeys. Brother was in
looking after the place when Igot there. And then Brian. Brian
came in with with Roya a coupleof weeks after I got there. And
(03:44):
he he took over as the managerof the resort.
Dan Johnson (03:47):
Okay, yeah. And
I've not met them. Yeah.
Matt Waters (03:53):
Yeah, good. Good.
Giggle classic kalasha read and
Dan Johnson (03:59):
doesn't everybody
doesn't always a year the
morning. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.
Okay. Yeah. So how long were youthere for?
Matt Waters (04:12):
I thought it would
the visa was for a year. But
because of all the politicalfaff and getting the paperwork.
I think I was 10 and a halfmonths. I just shot a velopment
Yeah, I felt like a year though.
Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. Tobe honest, it was really really
good. But you know, at that timewas a single bloke and there was
(04:32):
only one bar which was theresort resort bar and if there
was no guests in everyone abugger off home. So you know,
six, seven o'clock at night issitting around with the thumb up
your ass and not lots of no
Dan Johnson (04:46):
no internet. Yeah.
I know the feeling.
Matt Waters (04:52):
Yes. Yeah. But it
was on the on the professional
side of things. It wasabsolutely fucking awesome
because The owner, Tony, youknow, when he first told me on,
I was keen as mustard to get outthere and have a look for new
reefs. And that's exactly whathe said, you know, if there's no
one around or if you get theopportunity to slow down and
(05:12):
find some more, spread the wordget as much as you can. Yeah, so
we, me in the local DMS we wentout and explored another 12
reefs and, you know, it was itwas quite nice to map it out
with the boys and get all thecoordinates done, but also to
put their the local family nameson the reefs. Okay. was quite a
(05:35):
quite a big deal for the boys.
It was nice. I really enjoyedit. Yeah, awesome. Yeah. Okay,
cool. Have you been there yet?
Dan Johnson (05:43):
Yes, I have been
there. Unfortunately. I heard
what they've dredged the dredgethe harbour. To me, I was there
before they dredged it and Istill reckon that is one of the
top MCQ dives anywhere in theworld. Definitely. In Papua New
(06:05):
Guinea I was blown away bytrench.
Matt Waters (06:08):
Trench the harbour.
You mean the where the where thedive shop is?
Dan Johnson (06:14):
Yeah, so you got
the little dive shop down at the
bottom of the wall there. Youhad the P PT boat down at 50
metres whatever, had all ofthose old drums from the Second
World War or the 44 gallon drumsLand Cruiser or the Jeep
whatever it was up in theshallows all the mandarinfish
(06:35):
there and everything that entirearea has been dredged.
Matt Waters (06:39):
When was that then?
Dan Johnson (06:42):
Two Three years ago
apparently.
Matt Waters (06:45):
Second, sorry, two
or three years
Dan Johnson (06:47):
ago, apparently.
Matt Waters (06:50):
Really? Fuck. Yeah.
And I used I used to jump inthere. And in fact, there's a
very very good photographer fromSingapore. Shout out Catherine
Lowe. She would jump in thoughshe was there for a week and
every single night she'd be inunderneath the wharf and it'd be
down for our two hours justgetting all the macro time macro
absolutely
Dan Johnson (07:13):
unbelievable dive
and they Yeah, they dredged it
Matt Waters (07:18):
Yeah, it broke my T
boat actually. I think the PT
boat that actually disappearedinto the into the sands. I went
down to take Kevin green thecaptain of attacker jumped in
there to take him down to see itin 2019 and it was it was gone.
(07:42):
So it was already you know theonly photos I got a bit were of
the of the ribs and the skeletonwith it. With the gun. The gun
on the time.
Dan Johnson (07:51):
Yeah. Yeah, but
that's Oh, wow. Okay.
Matt Waters (07:56):
Yeah. Well, that's
a shocker dredging it,
Dan Johnson (07:59):
but yeah, hell
yeah. Apparently they addressed
it. This is all secondhandinformation. I've not had the
opportunity to jump back inthere in the last few years. I
think the last time I visited tofi was back in. Or Blimey? 2012
or so? So about a decade ago?
Yeah.
Matt Waters (08:21):
Yeah. I love it. I
mean, we'd Yeah, well, well, I
got told about the Lucy Lucystick Hammerhead you know the
rumours of Yeah, I was alwayskept dry. Cut you show some
video footage
Dan Johnson (08:41):
Awesome. Nice one.
Matt Waters (08:44):
Very cool. And it's
not just not just one animal
either. I counted forindividuals which is amazing.
Dan Johnson (08:51):
Very, very cool.
Did you did you get yourselfover to the Jacob?
Matt Waters (08:58):
I did yeah.
Brian and Brian and I went anddived it yeah, probably about
midway through my term. Just toget some some footage and lo and
behold, you know, we go downwith a camera and both cameras
(09:21):
go tits up. So unfortunately, itwas experience only but it was
an is an exceptional wreck. Andit's one that I want to revisit
and and get some proper databecause some prepper footage
done. So one day, but that wasit was because of the you know
(09:41):
where it lies to everyone who'slistening to the SS Jacob was a
merchant ship in the war thatsank and it's huge. And it lies
offshore away from all the raveso it's just on sand. And the I
think the I think the seabed isat around about 5758 metres
something like this maybe even alittle bit deeper. But because
(10:04):
it's out on the sand on its own,the the quantity of fish that it
attracts is insane. I couldn'tbelieve it. Huge schools have
literally everything you couldthink of. Pop from the ticking
the bucket list items like Whalesharks and mantas and stuff but
(10:24):
huge, huge barracudas and, youknow, massive shoals of reef
fish. Absolutely awesome. Haveyou had the opportunity to dive
it as well?
Dan Johnson (10:33):
Now? Unfortunately,
not. That is one of the dives
I've been trying to try and workout in my schedule of the way of
just skimming past this and theproblem is, as you said, it's
5860 metres to the sand there.
As a recreational dive there, sowe're all diving on night drops,
(10:55):
32%. Say and I head down to youfor two metres. Yeah, sort of
pushing your boundaries as it isso Yeah, unfortunately not. But
I imagine it's going to be onthe same par as yongala. Except
bigger and better. Yeah, Ihospital manner.
Matt Waters (11:17):
It's huge,
ridiculously huge. I loved it.
But even you know, recreationaldepths, I can remember, you
know, slowly coming back up andaround 30. You can still see the
entire ship which is fantastic.
Yeah, what about the what aboutthe blackjack? Have you managed
to do the blackjack?
Dan Johnson (11:37):
Yes, I took me down
to the blackjack when I was
there. It's a very long boatride to freeze. The main thing I
remember about it. But it's along ride from anywhere it seems
to be. It's right in the middleof to Ali and Sophie, isn't it?
So you know, you've got a longride either direction. The
(11:58):
funniest thing was during COVID,the Oceania went there. Of
course, I wasn't on the boat.
And they all went down there.
They've done several dives onit. So my dive guides, of course
know better than I do. Thesedives down to 1015 minutes. As
(12:19):
they came back, and then ofcourse, my bloody boat goes down
there. And everyone jumps in andhas a epic time on it. So yeah,
okay needs to be revisited. DonSilcock has been trying to
convince me to take the boatthere. I might, I might swing
past it. Because we're doing aone way from Milan Bay, which
(12:43):
dawns on Milan Bay ground torebel. And so it's a very good
chance. I'm going to throw thatin. It's one of the early
morning dives type of thing andgive everyone 28% Something like
that to just make it a bit moreaccessible to the divers. Yeah.
Yeah. Got some fun.
Matt Waters (13:05):
Well, you know, if
you need an expert dive guide
for that. I'm more than willingto come back up. They the owner
of the best video footage thatthere's currently out there for
the blackjack.
Dan Johnson (13:20):
Okay, yeah. All
right. Yeah, no, there's half
traffic at Don's friends. He'sdoing all he's doing all the
summer cinematography of itdoing all 3d exposures and
everything. Have you seen any ofthe shots Don's recently been
doing with his friend? His nameescapes,
Matt Waters (13:42):
not that. Yeah, not
the not the 3d stuff. But I am
catching up with Don next weekover a few beers. So East he did
tell me he's got a lot to talkabout. So our show that's
filling me in on all that kindof stuff.
Dan Johnson (13:54):
It's amazing. It
truly is. I'm trying to get him
up for a charter to do the Rexand rebel. And because for what
they're doing, you know,obviously they want a highlight
if they're going to charter theboat and so are we gonna go down
to the black jackets like have alook at rebel? We've got the
twin tanks. There's plane wrecksevery way. You know, you go down
(14:19):
to the back deck, you have theone wreck and that's just the
blank Jack and yes, it's anawesome wreck. But then we have
a dozen class wrecks in Rebelwhich we can easily access and I
think would be absolutelyawesome for doing.
Matt Waters (14:37):
Yeah. Yeah, there's
another good mate of mine Miko
party. He's based out inThailand and was part of the
Thai cave rescue. And we weretalking about coming up. Or he
was asking me about doing theblackjack some years ago just
before COVID actually. Andthat's all 3d. Was the was the
(14:59):
front He's for the photographyI should note by now, I've had
so many people on the podcasttalking about it.
I'll find it. I'll find it.
Yeah. But he was he was askingme about it because that's
exactly what he does. And he ishe's doing a lot of deep rec
(15:24):
exploration and rec finding. Andthis is the stuff that they do
they go down and do all of thisphotography so that they can get
the 3d element of what it'sactually looking like. Yeah,
flat image.
Dan Johnson (15:39):
And then they do
all the layers and I know
they've, they were up doing themini sub, the top of new island.
Some of the images I've got fromit. Just enrollment
Matt Waters (15:51):
that's what yeah,
that's what he was. He was just
at the recently doing that,isn't it? Yeah.
Dan Johnson (15:55):
Yeah. Literally
before it came over. So May at
the end, or in the middle ofDecember. So we've been there
beginning of December doing it.
Matt Waters (16:07):
And let's, let's
take it back a little bit how
you you know, took all thesesteps through to where you are
now. So you say was it 2015 Youbecame an instructor
Dan Johnson (16:15):
2004 or became an
instructor? Yep. 15 years. Now,
is it something 16 Sending isinstructor not very good at
that. I need fingers
Matt Waters (16:36):
so where were you
or where did you learn actually
work? Right ticket right back tothe start? Where did you first
jump into water and give it ago?
Dan Johnson (16:45):
I was a very so my
first time or Scuba was in a
swimming pool in England. Manymany years ago just as I don't
even think I was a teenager atthe time. But I did all my open
water training my advanced allin Thailand before it became
popular. That was yeah as COcoping. Yeah. Copan Yang? Yeah.
(17:14):
coping. Yeah, that was it. Therewas only three dive centres on
the island. When I learned todive there. I think it's now
more dive centres and people.
From what I understand. I've notbeen back as long
Matt Waters (17:29):
as you thought it
was Copan Yang arcotel
Dan Johnson (17:31):
kotel as coetail
copay. Yeah, Costa Marie is the
party Island.
Matt Waters (17:39):
Nope. Costa Mesa
Koh Samui is the one that's all
built up with all the modernstuff. And you've got Copan
Yang, which is where you go forthe full Moon Party, and
everyone gets fucked up. Yeah.
Koh Tao, which is where everyonegoes to go dive in and get
fucked up.
Dan Johnson (17:54):
Thank you. That was
me. That the latter option?
Yeah. Coachella. Thank you. Hey,guys. It was a long time ago. I
was on my honeymoon. Actually.
My first honeymoon already.
Yeah. And it was very, my ex myfirst wife was very, very kind.
And let me go and do my divecourse. Unfortunately, she was a
(18:17):
non swimming asthmatic. Andprobably that's probably what
pushed me to become a full timeinstructor was I knew that after
I broke up with her, it's thelast place I'd ever meet her.
Yeah, so far, it's worked prettywell.
(18:40):
Do you remember which? Dive Shopyou were at? Big Blue? No. Yep.
Seriously? Yeah. There was youhad a bit of you big blue. And
then there was one on theopposite side of the island,
which can't remember the name ofbut I was big blue actually had
(19:00):
a picture of me many many yearsago with all of the guys in the
background and the shop. Wasthere one second? Let me see if
I can find it.
Matt Waters (19:13):
I've lost a video
stream at the moment anyway.
Dan Johnson (19:15):
That's cool. That's
okay. This is
Matt Waters (19:20):
Yes, big big blue
is a big part of my heart. I was
I was permanent staff there
Dan Johnson (19:25):
are true. Okay.
Yeah. Hey guy. Can you seeanybody there in the picture?
Matt Waters (19:35):
I've lost the video
feed me Ah, fantastic.
Dan Johnson (19:38):
That's that's
terrible shame. Okay, so that
was a I think is Swedish frommemory Stefan or something. And
okay. So, do you recogniseanyone there?
Matt Waters (19:57):
It's a bit blurry.
I can't make it out is that talldark fellow in the middle at the
back, isn't it?
Dan Johnson (20:02):
The tall good
looking one with the bleached
hair. That's me. The one withthe red hair. That's my first
wife. And that fella there. Hewas, I believe was the owner or
manager of the shop at the time.
This would have been going back.
(20:30):
Blimey, I don't know how manyyears ago was this? First train
up. When I first got married itwould have been like late
90s 1998 Maybe 97. Around there.
Yeah.
Matt Waters (20:53):
Well, the guy that
the main owner of Big Blue.
Michael. He's a Swedish guy. Andhe apparently apparently what he
did was he visited Koh Tao fellin love that would place like a
small. Yeah, like they got asmall loan and went straight
(21:16):
back to Kotel and opened up bigblue. So he was I'm not entirely
sure if it was second or third,but they were in the first three
of the dive shops.
Dan Johnson (21:26):
Yeah, I think but
if he would say first one.
Matt Waters (21:30):
Now the other way
around, or their coats out
divers was the original. Okay,cheers with the one that Miko
now owns and think I thinkBuddha view and big blue opened
up more or less. relatively thesame time. Yes. But yeah, yeah.
So Michael, bless him. While hepassed away this time last year,
my Oh, yeah. Lovely, lovelyfellow. And he went on to be a
(21:55):
very, very successfulbusinessman with lots of other
businesses. And even with thepandemic hit, and all that kind
of thing, the very last thingthat he would allow to disappear
off his portfolio would be BigBlue. Its heart was always in
that original shop. Which,
Dan Johnson (22:11):
yeah, yeah. That's,
yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of
like a few years. So
Matt Waters (22:18):
yeah, that's a very
small world. You know, this,
this podcast bringing ustogether never spoken to you
about any kind of your divingbackground. And lo and behold,
you you learn in the place thatI used to live and work and love
was fantastic.
Dan Johnson (22:33):
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Go, hey, go. It's six degrees ofseparation, isn't it?
Matt Waters (22:39):
It is smaller every
day. Really? So after after big
blue and kicking out the firstwife and becoming an instructor
did you did you teach back overthis way or
Dan Johnson (22:54):
so I came, came to
came to Australia did my dark
masters and instructors work fora company pretty much every
company in cares actuallyjumped between boats and always
having fun. But my main employerwould have been deep sea divers
(23:18):
den. And that was where I wasdoing a lot of my teaching, I
went over to pro dive. And thenI got into the Liveaboards. And
that's where I really enjoyedmyself. In between that I short
lived to Mexico for a little bitof time. in Playa Del Carmen
(23:39):
where I did a lot of my techdiving, cave diving and
everything started a small divebusiness there. Which didn't go
quite to plan a couple of thingsin the life I've learned is
never trust a fat Mexican. Andthey're just not meant to be
(24:00):
fat. But the fact thatreconcilement off never and the
older and the other one waslike, pause 1960s porn star big
starch and everything. Yeah,that just went horribly wrong to
maybe make for quite a bit ofmoney. And, but we struggled on
and I believe he's still goingRIF quest divers out in Playa
(24:29):
Del Carmen. If they had onesaround, or over that say good
eight is named Steve. Sacredeight to him for me. And yeah, I
sort of cracked it after about15 months and decided to call it
a day it was just just a bit toohard there. Had a lot of
(24:51):
partying. Very true drinks andspring break. But all the rest
of it, it was it was playing upto the wrong side of my
personality. Let's put it thatway. So I came back to Australia
where I met my second wife. Andwe ended up as working out on
(25:18):
the old game road explorer outon the Coral Sea, doing Bowgun,
Ville Osprey and the ribbonreefs and those runs. And then
I've, we've decided, you know,let's get a job together. And we
put our resume out in the world.
(25:43):
And long story short, we'veended up at Papua New Guinea at
will Indy resort. And yeah, Iremember Max saying to us, it's
so we went there, you know, asyou do when you first rock up to
p&g. She arrived a week ago, themales, they think they're using
my passport to prop up thetable. So my work visa didn't
(26:04):
come through at the same time,obviously. And so I remember my
first experience coming intoPapua New Guinea, he was, it
feels very surreal to me backthen. Back in 2008, this would
be and you know, I got off theplane ride, okay, this is
(26:26):
interesting in Hoskins, and thebuses come picked me up, driven
us out at the airport. And aswe're driving down the road,
I've looked out the window, Ikid you not, we have four or 500
metres out of the airport gates.
And there would have been a kidprobably six, maybe seven years
old. And he's standing therewith a bush knife, holding it
(26:46):
like it's a broad sword head,you'd imagine the old knights to
be in the in the mid mid centurytype of thing holding this bush
knife like this and are justgoing oh my god, we're not in us
anymore, or for Yahweh. That wasmy first inception impression of
(27:07):
Papua New Guinea was this childwith this giant Bush knife,
which I would never have beenallowed to play with as a kid.
Probably for good reasons. Andthat is how I ended up in Papua
New Guinea when there weren'tfor Max Benjamin at the willing
to resort as a diet manager forfive years. And yeah, he asked,
(27:30):
he asked him like, what are youlooking for? What would you want
from us when we got there? And Iyou know, a year would be good.
And yeah, five years later, wesaid goodbye and parted ways.
And not in a bad way. Obviously,I'm back there now. Yeah. And
then obviously, my careerprogressed, I came back to
(27:55):
Australia did all my tickets,engineering ticket, captain's
licence and everything else andI don't drive in the tanker. And
the brief boats out of cans.
Taking the tie. When they soldthe tanker, they basically sold
me with the boat. Been there fortwo years working as the
(28:18):
engineer. And there's a firstmate and they went right. We'll
buy the boat. And can we havehim? And they basically went,
Yeah, sure. So I started theboat over there and spent just
under two years on the tacrineSolomons, which was an adventure
in itself. So yeah, after comingtowards the end of the two
(28:42):
years, I got the phone call fromMax and Alan, we've got a great
idea. As like, great. What isit? How would you like your own
boat? As like? Ah, yeah. So thisis why I'm here on your show.
(29:02):
Now, Isaid yes, at the wrong time. It
was two years before thepandemic hit. So I had a year to
spend a lot of money andthen about a year to make a
little bit of money back andthen three years or two and a
half years of
Matt Waters (29:23):
pandemic
Dan Johnson (29:27):
which would hurt
any new business. So yeah. But
you know, we made it throughthanks to a lot of hard work
from the guys in Papua NewGuinea, a great team that's
behind the Oceania. Big thankyou to all of those guys who
made it possible for us to stillbe here and operating.
Matt Waters (29:47):
Yeah, yeah. We've
got a we've also got to give a
big shout out picked up on thereMax Benjamin, blasphemies. He's
passed away now as well as me.
Yeah. But I think in the in thediving LM into Papua New Guinea.
They've got a sticking right upthere on the pedestal as one of
the founding fathers of whypeople go to Papua New Guinea to
dive now
Dan Johnson (30:08):
100% unfortunately
passed away about three, four
months into the pandemic.
Nothing that COVID related oranything like that. But yeah,
that was a timing is everything.
(30:29):
Yeah, so he passed away. Buttruthfully, the marketing his he
wasn't just said, talking aboutwill indie who would never talk
about will indie per se. Hewould always talk about Papa New
Guinea. He, he went over there,oh, God, Cecily, oh, shoot me if
(30:54):
I get these numbers wrong.
Approximately 40, maybe 50 yearsago as a demon. So an
agricultural officer. He workedfor New Britain Pall Mall, and
him and Cecily bought a plot ofland, expect 200 hectares, or
something like that, where theywill, indeed, resort now sits.
(31:19):
And from what I understand theywere off diving in the Red Sea.
Say, Ah, because the Red Sea wasthe best place in the world to
go diving and the pair of themare there again. We've got
better, better out on the reefsin front of us and what they've
got here. And they really did.
(31:43):
And that was when they changedeverything and decided to become
a dive destination. And hisyears of hard work and promoting
the country, as well aspromoting obviously, willing to
resort was, yeah, justunbelievable. A very clever man,
(32:07):
very passionate about the reefsis one of the reasons Papua New
Guinea has environmentallyfriendly moorings throughout the
entire country, you would haveseen them yourself, maybe even
put a few of them in with thebig drilling machine, which
there's two of them in thecountry, which goes around. And
(32:27):
if someone needs to put a fewnew moorings in, you take it
out, you drill a hole, you sticka steel pin in and fill it up
with cement. And so you neverhave to drop anchor anywhere. So
the entirety of the roof systemis looked after and managed,
unlike anywhere else in theworld. You know, it's a
(32:49):
fantastic system. And that isthanks to Max. The whole Papa
New Guinea and diver Associationwas founded by Max. And unlike
so many other countries, whereyou have a lot of operators who
sort of butt heads. Papua NewGuinea is not one of those
(33:11):
places. It's given us freedom toroam. On the Liveaboards we've
no one. Oh, that's feedback.
Matt Waters (33:23):
Is that, can you
hear that? Yeah. Yeah,
Dan Johnson (33:27):
I can hear that.
Yeah.
Matt Waters (33:29):
Okay, well, we
sought out that annoying
background noise, let me justproudly announce that the Scuba
goat podcast has been rankedamong the top 3% of podcasts on
listener notes, a platform thathosts over 3 million shows. This
is a huge accomplishment and areflection of the hard work and
dedication that goes intoproducing the show, and of
course, the support of all ofour listeners. So I want to
(33:52):
express my gratitude to all ofyou who tune in, share our
episodes and leave us withratings and reviews. Quite
honestly, we couldn't do this orI couldn't do this without
knowing that people want tolisten to the content we
produce. So thank you to all ofour guests and more importantly,
all of you listeners out thereyou absolute Bloody Legends.
Dan Johnson (34:13):
We're talking about
the late departed Max fee.
Matt Waters (34:15):
Yeah, bless him.
Bless him. I never found alegend in his own lunch break.
Unfortunately, I never had theopportunity to meet him. But
I've certainly done a fair bitof chatting with with the staff
at will nd with sendingcustomers up there. Through my
little travel company, but yeah,yeah, it's a shame I would have
(34:37):
loved to have met him.
Dan Johnson (34:40):
He was a very
passionate man and a very
intelligent man to be said. He.
Yeah. And it was all very muchabout Papua New Guinea and the
diving that we have there. Theone thing you could always upset
him with. If you ever mentionedthe no word withdraws,
bleaching, he would gocompletely nuts. And it used to
(35:03):
drive him mad that No, I wouldalways put up a GRR mass
bleaching event. And we neverhad any bleaching. We had few
signs of stress is here, andthey're completely natural. But
no one took into account thatthe ocean rat. The Bismarck sees
a warm mist ocean in the world.
(35:27):
It runs on average between 27and 33 degrees, you know, as a
year round temperature. So yeah,he's struggling. That's a
strange fact about Mr. B. Wasthat he was actually a
(35:48):
honourable Mr. B. He was, Ithink, I think he was knighted
or something. For an order ofPapua New Guinea, really? For?
Yeah, he never, never mentionedit. You know, he was those. But
that was Max all round who wasnever one to blow his own
(36:11):
trumpet.
Matt Waters (36:12):
I think that's
what, that's where you find the
best people. People withhumility. High levels of
humility are the ones that arethe best people to be around.
Dan Johnson (36:21):
Oh, 100%, where I
just humiliate myself? Is that
the same sort of thing? Yeah,pretty much, pretty much.
Matt Waters (36:38):
Well, let's, let's
catch up from Yeah, talking
about. So, Mr. B, he got intouch with you. And about mvrc
on it.
Dan Johnson (36:48):
Yeah, well, at the
time it was. So Maxim, Allen,
the my other business partnerdecided that they wanted to run
a, they believe the market wasstrong enough for a second bezel
to go into the marketplace inPapua New Guinea. They tried
(37:09):
once before with the stardancer, and being a franchise
and everything else that thatentails. ran into trouble with
that. So I got the phone call.
And they said, you know, we'dlike like you to come over and
be a partner in starting a newdive. Venture? And, yes, that's
(37:30):
how the Oceania came about.
Yeah, they weren't interested indoing it with anybody else. So
that was fantastic. They said Ihad the right qualifications and
was just mad enough to actuallypossibly accept an opportunity
(37:51):
like this. You know, basically,I think my sort of
qualifications were, I went intobusiness, or I would go into
business with the two matterspeople I've ever met in my life.
I could die I could build and Icould drive both.
Matt Waters (38:07):
Myself. So it all
goes together.
Dan Johnson (38:12):
Yes, there is
definitely a degree of madness
to work in a place like puff,and you can is you know,
yourself. If you are mad, butwhen you go there, you will be
met by the time you leave. Yeah.
Matt Waters (38:24):
Yeah. I mean, it's
got to be said that Papua New
Guinea is very much an emergingcountry still. And there's a lot
of people that want to try andescalate or, or accelerate that
modernisation of the country,and I am massively against it. I
think that the beauty not onlythe physical beauty of the
country, but the beauty of beingin Papua New Guinea is that it's
(38:47):
decades behind where we are now,which gives it that charisma,
and its unique qualities. Iabsolutely fucking love it. And
I don't want it to change.
Dan Johnson (38:57):
I, I agree. To me
being there every day presents
its own challenges. Nothing isboring. You don't get up at
night and come home at fivedoing the same stuff. You You
get up when you get up and go tobed when it's all done. And it
(39:18):
could be something which is sosimple to achieve in Australia,
but you don't have theresources. You don't have the
technology. You don'tnecessarily have the training in
place to make these thingsdoable. So you make it work. And
(39:39):
I love that challenge about it.
It's yeah, as I said, it'sawesome. And it's very
challenging. Logisticallyrunning a business in Papua New
Guinea is a nightmare.
(40:04):
Everybody thinks, Okay, it'sprobably New Guinea where a
developing country thinks shouldbe a lot cheaper. Except Papua
New Guinea doesn't makeanything, they make billions and
grow beetle nut, and oil palm.
Matt Waters (40:24):
And there's also,
there's also that major factor
of logistics of getting all theshit that you want. So you've
got your customers that want WiFi, and they want long distance
range on your boat, where's thefuel coming from? Where's the
connectivity coming from it all,just that simple litre of fuel,
it could be $1, or two over hereis four or $5 Over there,
(40:45):
because it's got to be flowingin all boats
Dan Johnson (40:48):
shipped up there.
You know, the even O rings forthe dive tanks, you know, here
they are five, six cents each.
For me to get them to then getthem shipped up to Papua New
Guinea, cleared customs or therest of it, they double triple
in price just for a simplewiring, which will burn through
(41:11):
so many in a day, you know.
That's the simplest thing Icould actually think I could
pick, you then go on tomaintaining a vessel to a high
standard and to make sure thateverything is always working,
carrying all the spares and theentire work, basically entire
engine room in her forwardcabin. Because I can't just come
(41:36):
back to port and expect there tobe a row of fleet engineers from
different companies who willjump home with all the right
bits to fix the boat. When Ifinished the the boat show in
Germany, I'm going back upthere, backup to Papa New
(41:58):
Guinea, beginning of Februaryand relocating the vessel from
Kimby Bay, which is where we'rebased out of for about 60 70% of
the year, down to Milan Bay fortwo months. And that on its own
presents a whole new set ofchallenges because I lose the
(42:20):
small support infrastructurethat I have at will end with
logistics, my vehicle, theworkshop, guys who know
everything works on the boat toa place where I'm away from home
for the next two and a halfmonths with no support. It's
(42:40):
fantastic. I've been madlyplanning this, we've madly
planned this trip. And we've gotnew generator going in all
sorts. And the hope is thateverything holds together for
(43:01):
the next two months without anyproblems. If not, then it's
trying to get skilled labour inand trying to find people who
can actually do the job for youin a completely different parts
of the country, which doesn'tnecessarily have the skill set
you're chasing. Or the tradepeople embracing. Yeah,
Matt Waters (43:25):
and yeah. For
people that don't know Papua New
Guinea, the point A to point Bthat you're talking about isn't
just down the road. Is it was it
Dan Johnson (43:35):
two hours? I think
it's gonna take me just a quick
overnighter. Yeah, yeah, soit's, I've got to run up from
Kimby Bay run up to rebel, whichis 24 hours, which is the next
town closest to can be whereI'll be swapping out my life
(44:00):
rafts. And then from there, I'dlike 70 Maybe 60 to our six year
run down to Milan Bay. And yetto arrive there, hopefully with
a day before the charter startso that we can then prep the
(44:23):
boat and do a bit of foodshopping and outs that were
there. have checked with thelocal landowners and and
everything else that we have todo to get the boat ready and to
make sure that things runsmoothly for everybody involved.
And the last time I was downthere. I had to cancel one trip,
(44:46):
which was the return trip fromMilan Bay to rebel because of
COVID. Andyeah, that was my very last trip
down there. So although I havegreat memories of Milan Bay The
whole process being down there,it's still man, marred by the
Memory of the World lockdown.
Matt Waters (45:15):
The pandemic, it's
a nice way to start it back up
there, isn't it? From the startback up from the point where it?
Dan Johnson (45:21):
No we started up in
middle of August, August 16. We
started running again. So yeah,we've had some fantastic
charters in and around the canbe Bay Area running our
signatory trips between father'saway to Ireland's I've been
putting a bit of exploratorywork in for my next year's
(45:46):
itinerary. Is it next year orthe year after actually might be
2024? We're pretty booked thisyear. Yes, 2024. I've put a
couple of extra charters inwhere I want to get off into a
bit more exploring. We twos andbeyond. There's a few islands
out there, and some sayingKazan's very interesting stuff
(46:08):
that I've been discovering.
Matt Waters (46:12):
But tell you what,
I'll tell you what, before we
get on to it, because I want toask you about your little
discoveries and what you gotplanned. For, again, people who
are listening to this podcastmay have not visited Papua New
Guinea yet. So let's give him alittle bit more of an audible
kind of picture of of what we'retalking about. Now. If I can
(46:32):
start on that, I'll say that toget to Papua New Guinea, most
people or all people are gonnahave to fly into Port Moresby,
which is the main city and thenthere's no roads that lead out
of Port Moresby. So you've gotto fly. Again to Yeah, so any
other dive resorts you want togo to? You're gonna have to fly
again internally. Now, there's anumber of ways of doing that.
(46:55):
But we don't need to go intothat. It's simple. It's a
flight, but to where Dan has thevessel and will end resorts you
have to fly from Port Moresby toNew Britain, which is if you
look on the Atlas, you'll see alarger islands directly well,
more or less directly north ofPort Moresby, would you say
(47:16):
that's fair?
Dan Johnson (47:17):
Slightly northeast,
yeah, no offence to Port
Moresby.
Matt Waters (47:22):
All right, Captain
guy it's probably about
Dan Johnson (47:30):
two degrees south
southeast a little bit more than
that. Yeah.
Matt Waters (47:38):
Yeah, so do you
want to take it from there, Dan?
You know if if guests fly intohot skins Hoskins? Sorry. Made
up you guys.
Dan Johnson (47:49):
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
So obviously picked up theairport, run out to the resort.
Spend a night or two in theresort. Check out what they've
got going on. I believe you'vebeen too willing to yourself.
Matt Waters (48:01):
I've now you know,
it's one that drew I've tried.
I've tried to go so many times.
But for whatever reason, there'salways been something that's got
in the way as a blocker. It'sbeen a fucking nightmare. And
I'm determined to get there. AndI will. Well, I in fact, I spoke
to Liz Cotterell so many times.
About about coming up there butnever had the opportunity
Dan Johnson (48:22):
yet. Well, you
know, someone who's up there,
works up there now. So you stillkeep in contact. I'm sure we can
make something happen.
Matt Waters (48:31):
Hell yeah. I want
to run some expeditions up
there, mate. That's the thing.
I'm gonna be bringing people upthere. I did it successfully in
2018. We got like 23 guests cameto two feet with me. For
lending. Yeah, yeah. So we'llmake that happen. Well, the
Dan Johnson (48:49):
Oceania hold 16
guests. So if you can make that
happen, you're more than welcometo click on and say G'day. Yeah,
yeah, as I said, we we, we do alittle bit of this share this
little bit of the same diving,but the result does, but We by
no means get out to all of theirsites by any stretch of the
(49:10):
imagination said they have. Ithink there's over 14 mooring
pins out there. And again, whenthings change over time, and
they always have their sort offavourites, set ones that big
pinnacles that they have therewith huge amounts of fish around
(49:34):
are always a crowd pleaser. Therest of Ireland if the
visibility's good, there isphenomenal. year so we do a
couple of those butrealistically for ourselves on
the Oceania we'll be heading outto the Father's wreaths which is
(49:58):
South out Lindy we head over towhere there's a large volcano,
Alou becomes that right? There'svolcano everywhere they throw a
stick and hits a volcano is aring of fire for a reason. And I
(50:21):
do believe that what we'reactually diving on is the edge
of a very large volcano. frommany years ago, there's just see
Pinnacle's coming out from 1500metres of water, or 500 metres
of water in places up to withinfour or five metres at the
surface. And that's what we'rediving on. And the pinnacle sea
(50:46):
mounds, whatever you want tocall them. And we get a lot of a
lot of schools of barracudassharks good action out there.
And then we'll spend a few daysthen we head over to the wheat
two islands. And that is againanother extinct volcano. And
(51:07):
that is northwest of will indie.
Or north northwest of will indiehead out there and the diving
changes completely again, wherewe get a huge amount of
diversity we do the Kretserdiving which is sometimes
(51:28):
phrased as MK diving paperalways strive to do that term.
So I tried to call it Chris thediving more than Mark diving
because you were not jumping ina muddy puddle is as the
terminology of Mark diving.
bring to people's imagination.
We're jumping in there and we'regoing down checking out for frog
(51:49):
fish and the associatedcritters, which live in the in
the area.
Matt Waters (51:59):
And that's two
islands. That's where the black
sand is, isn't it? Black Sanddive sites.
Dan Johnson (52:04):
Yeah, that sounds
like a sand volcanic sand areas.
Yeah, we get some fantasticdiving there. Ribbon eels. Manta
shrimps packers stick everywhereyou find them. A lot of frog
fish and other bits and piecesdepending on what time of year
it is. And of course, we divethe llama shows which was named
(52:26):
by Jacques Cousteau which iswhich we call by a different
name. I'm not sure I'm allowedto mention that the name of it
on a podcast but I'll go for it.
You can always edit that. It'scalled cracker fat. Listening.
Matt Waters (52:46):
You're gonna have
to explain that.
Dan Johnson (52:50):
Well, so Alan
didn't like the name llama shows
and he jumped in. He has a lookat Eddie came back. And he said
Blimey, even the jelly fish ABSdefeats any Americans listening
(53:11):
you might go by the name ofPopper, chubby, I think, because
I got translated into the otherday for a couple of the guests.
So yeah, and that slide is justmagical. And there's lots more
sites like that. So I generallydo we only run four dives on the
(53:35):
boat a day. That way, we getplenty of surface interval. But
the 70 Minute dives. You know,for diver 70 minutes, we give
good two to three hour surfaceinterval between each dive. And
we've obviously we feed you inbetween every dive what dive
boat doesn't. And, yeah, it's agood experience. We like the way
(54:02):
it runs. So we'll do a couple ofbig fish dives in the morning.
And then onto our critter divingin the afternoon, where we may
open up the dive deck, dependingon how people feel and just say
Yeah, go for it. We'll see youback for dinner.
Matt Waters (54:19):
Yeah, well, it
makes sense. I mean, if you're
going to be doing the pelagicdive in and out in the morning,
and then people are going to bereally low on details for the
afternoon. Kind of get thecredit diving done. And then
those people who don't like thecreditors can start their JNT
while the sun's going downearly.
Dan Johnson (54:33):
Yeah, pretty much
and we get a fantastic sunset
there too. So
Matt Waters (54:38):
so it's nice. I can
only imagine. Yeah. So let's
have a little bit more about theboat. What where she come from?
How old is she? What size isshe? How many people can you
take how many chefs have you goton board? How many donors have
you got to share? Give us thegossip. Okay, well,
Dan Johnson (54:57):
here we go. Some
shameless of shameless self
publicity. So the boat was builtin 2001 was refitted back in
2017 when we bought it from aprivate bloke marked keel as
sharp as in Egypt, looking atother boats to bring across and
(55:20):
then my my friend, Mark decidedto sell his. So came over, have
a look and when we can workthis, I then spent the next
eight months gutting itcompletely and turning it into
what she is today. So what sheis today is a eight cabins
(55:43):
vessel. We have five twin twincabins, three queen, Queen
cabins, the cabins are the same.
They're all ensuite. I'm sureyou don't have to sit on the
toilets take a shower, which Ialways find advantage, everyone
is oceanview. And the twins willhave wardrobes in and they're
(56:04):
very comfortable and refittedwith individual Air Con in every
cabin. So you can set it to thetemperature that you want to be
at. And the temperature whichthe Eskimo in the cabin wants to
beYeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the
(56:31):
and that's all on the dive Decklevel. We then go up a level
internal staircase takes you upto the saloon area where we have
a large saloon dining area wehave it's an open galley. So you
(56:52):
can see into the galley so youalways know the food is
prepared. And the house girlsare always clean. You can see
how everything's being prepared,and you get to chat with them.
How often have you been on adive boat and the foods just
come out of the dark room hasgot no idea what's been going on
(57:16):
behind that door. I like to be alittle bit more open and make
sure that everyone can seewhat's coming in and out. So
yeah, we've got a toilet on theupper level as well as obviously
a toilet on the dive deck withshowers. Yeah. nitrox air on
(57:38):
board the boat. Yeah, modernfacilities USB chargers in the
room. International plugssockets to take everyone's
different plugs so no adaptersrequired. What else have we got?
(57:59):
We've got to dive tender, whichholds eight divers or 10 divers
at a time. It's a 10 metre rigidinflatable with twin twin
outboards on the boat back of itwhich she can go a good pace.
She's great. She's great, greatbike to dive out of she's got a
(58:24):
full dive ladder very easy toclimb in and out of the water
with. It's not one of the rubberinflatable ones, but you're
going to try and pull yourselfover Oh, blimey, here we go.
Where else? Outside areas we'vegot an outside back there area
(58:44):
and then we've got a fullsunroof, which takes up the
entire top deck. The vessels 27metres long and nine metres
wide. It's a really it's a goodboat. It really is a boat. Yeah.
Matt Waters (59:04):
I I do remember it
coming. Or kind of advertising
that it was coming into PapuaNew Guinea. I was rather excited
about it. And like I say meantthat COVID has. But so the
routes that you're doing at themoment are in and around the
(59:26):
islands and down to Milan Bay.
You're planning on doing alittle bit of cheeky exploratory
work.
Dan Johnson (59:36):
Yeah. And so over
time, everything changes
slightly. There is so much ofPapua New Guinea which has not
been dived, or it may have beendive but not by me. And it's not
commercially run. And so,there's a couple of routes I've
got sort of I've got planned forthe upcoming years. One of them
(01:00:00):
is a east coast down newviolence. So there's loads of
little islands running downthere. I'm only doing one of
those a year. And I want to tryand explore. That's more of the
South Pacific side.
Matt Waters (01:00:17):
Punches. Yeah, I'm
just looking at a map. Now. Did
you say that was the east coastof New Island? New York,
Dan Johnson (01:00:23):
the app? So you see
live here and all of the little
islands down the side there?
Yeah, and reef systems and allbits and pieces. I believe there
could be some interesting divingdown that side of the island.
Matt Waters (01:00:40):
Definitely. I mean,
look at those. I'll have to put
these into the podcast. And youknow, so people can have a look
at them as well. But those,those channels that you can see
in the in the C beta, massive.
Yep, it's kind of one. Yeah,there's gonna be some good
currents going through there.
Dan Johnson (01:00:58):
That's it. So yeah,
we'll be running down there.
Running from caveum. Round torebel. Will Indy rebel is one of
our regular mid year itinerariesto get away from the winter.
Cold in Australia, we run thatbut and where else? So many
(01:01:22):
bucks in arrears, it'sridiculous.
Oh, we can, it's all editable.
So heading out to where to whereto and beyond. So this is my
idea that, yes, diving, thefarmers is fantastic. But there
is also great diving ash thatthe way to Ireland and I've been
(01:01:46):
sneaking out a little bitfurther over the last couple of
months to open up a couple ofreefs, which we've not done
before. There's the island outthere, which is uninhabited. And
there's a couple of safeAnchorage is around. And so at
some fish, it's in the middle ofnowhere. There's a large sang
(01:02:09):
que, there. From the smallexperience that we've had
halfway to the island. We'vebeen jumping in cracking the
plastic bottle, if you know whatI mean. I'm sure you've seen it
done. And we've been mobbed bysharks. On average, we've been
(01:02:31):
getting 12 Plus grey, grey reeffees swimming around and three,
four Silvertips coming in andinvestigating. At that point, I
tell the guys to crack thebottle some more and they just
look at me like I'm an idiot andand offer it to me. You bloody
do it. And as we've been findingsome really good diving out
(01:02:57):
there. I'm hoping Don's got somecracking shots. He was on the
last chart with us where we dida couple of them. Yeah, we found
one. Call it middle of nowhere.
And the other one is middle ofnowhere. And then the other one.
Yeah, still trying to work outnames obviously for them all.
(01:03:22):
And there's one which is justlike the cast or it's like a
starts from 40 metres softcorals or all over this huge
Pinnacle coming up to sort of 50metres of water. And it's a soft
Coral Ridge running down andthis healthy, magnificent car
everywhere. I'm hoping that it'sgoing to turn out to be a re
(01:03:44):
cleaning station. She bigcurrents come through there and
they got to get clean somewhere.
Matt Waters (01:03:54):
I'm gonna I'm going
to mention a name out of an
island and I'm going to edit itout. So sorry listeners. You're
not going to you're not going tohear it. Dan, are you talking
around? That's it for part one,folks. Stay tuned for part two
and more exciting episodes. Anddon't forget, added in your
library so you get notified witheach episode drop. Bye for now
(01:04:18):
is the podcast for theinquisitive diver