Bob and Dinah Halstead are legends of PNG diving and in the January 2006 edition of Divelog, they wrote about one of their favourite reefs (and mine) in that part of the world.  Bob has kindly let us reprint his article for the Club website.

DEACON’S REEF, LAUADI

Deacon’s Reef is situated to the east of Dinah’s Beach at Lauadi on the north coast of the mainland about 12 n.miles from East Cape, Milne Bay. In the south-east trade wind season it is perfectly sheltered – and even during the short “north-west” season the wind mostly comes from the south-west and so only rarely is the site not suitable for diving.

Along this part of the coast there is no continental shelf. At Deacon’s Reef beneath the coastal cliff, there is a narrow ledge at 6 – 10m with a series of coral towers rising to just 2m before a near vertical wall drops to about 60m. Deeper than this the bottom rapidly slopes away to depths of nearly 1000m, yes, that is correct, a thousand metres! It is an exciting dive site because, in addition to the beautiful coral gardens, big creatures from deep water, such as Hammerhead Sharks, marlin, whales and Whale Sharks make the occasional appearance.

Anchoring at Lauadi for larger day boats and live aboards requires an anchor down the rubble slope in front of the designated coconut tree, and then a line from the stern of the boat to the tree. There is now, thanks to Tawali Resort a short boat ride away, a dinghy mooring in a good spot right at Deacon’s reef. Anchoring at Deacon’s Reef itself is strictly forbidden because of likely damage to the lush coral life there.

Dinah’s family have a caretaker at Lauadi who welcomes visitors, and who will help with anchoring and will guide tours ashore. Lauadi has a wonderful rainforest walk up a small river to two idyllic waterfalls with spectcular swimming holes. The caretaker logs visiting boats and there is a small fee for diving. Both Dinah’s Beach and Deacon’s Reef are included in the single fee and most visiting boats spend at least a full day, and night, diving themselves silly.

Now and again if heavy rain falls and the river floods, a plume of muddy fresh water spills from the river. This does make the dive look uninviting – but for those in the know it is not a problem. Since fresh water floats on top of sea water you only have to dive one metre or so beneath the surface and the water is still very clear. Interestingly the murky surface water is rapidly blown out to sea by the off shore south-easterlies when the rain stops and the clear surface water returns. Only during the rare north-westerly blows do the sites get stirred up enough by wave action to significantly reduce visibility.

For an anchored boat the best way to dive Deacon’s Reef is to take a short dinghy ride to the far side of the site at the point past the large fallen rock, then dive along the reef back towards the moored boat. This is easily accomplished on a single dive and, remember, the dive is through calm water right up against the shore! Deep dives are possible and can be fun but most divers choose to stay shallower than 15m. and even spend a lot of the dive on top of the shelf in less than 8m of water. You can accumulate a lot of bottom time that way and no problems with decompression.

The shallow reef at Deacon’s Reef is partly shaded by overhanging trees growing on the above water cliff. In sunny weather rays of light flicker through the branches giving extraordinary opportunities for underwater photographers to capture exquisite photographs. It is absolutely worthwhile spending at least one whole dive following the base of the cliff in only 5 – 6m. Green tree corals abound along with soft corals, sea fans and sea whips all loaded with anthias and other reef fishes. At one spot, a rather narrow swim through, I regularly pick up broken off pieces of sea fan and “replant” them back on the reef – I now have my own rock with a multitude of fans on it!

Several Giant trevally hunt the abundant fusiliers, and a large, lone, Great Barracuda hangs in the shadows of the cliff waiting to pounce on a careless fish. The cliff wall has many cracks and crevices and even a cave. In the evening, exploration of these with a torch (do not penetrate the cave) often reveal the elusive Comet. A fabulous fish renown for sticking its tail, which resembles the business end of a large moray eel, out of holes. If the illusion does not work the Comet slowly disappears in the hole. Flashlight fish may appear at night along with a multitude of crustaceans and molluscs.

Deacon’s reef was named by us after Kevin Deacon of Dive 2000 Sydney, who, as an inspired underwater photographer, you have all read about many times in Dive Log. Kevin is a regular leader of dive tours to PNG and is returning in 2006. I bet he is going to want to dive Deacon’s Reef!