Diving Blue Cave Tanna Island Vanuatu

The Tides and Turned

Who would have thought, just days before, Blue cave had been a boiling cauldron of surging water, smashing far inside the cave. Throwing people around in its turbulence, people losing masks and fighting to stay away from the rocks, the waves raced in and out pushing us around. That was 5 days ago and 10 days since tropical Cyclone Lola, a category 5 cyclone, had hit Northern islands of Malekula, Pentacost and Epi Island. (where we had been staying when the Cyclone hit)
Lola is now in the record books as one of the earliest cyclones to hit Vanuatu, outside of cyclone season.

A strong wind surge had still been present when we first arrived in Tanna, making the water very murky and sometimes un-diveable.
A 6.0 Earthquake had hit 60km off Tanna island on Sunday, 2 days after we had arrived. Which gave me thoughts of a Tsunami racing up onto shore at our beautiful accommodation location.

The weather had changed dramatically since then, and now we had flat calm conditions for our diving.
Staying at white Grass resort, and diving with Volcano Island Divers. I was able to complete 5 dives, 3 shore dives and 2 boat dives. I had hoped to do at least 6 boat dives but you can't predict what the weather is going to do.

The dive locations included, Blue Hole 1, Circus reef, House reef, Blue cave and Kosabus reef. I will focus on Blue Cave.

Itching to get into the water and dive from Volcano Island Divers new boat, we made our way to an amazing dive site, passing many reefs and shore dive locations on the way, we spot a dougong sunning itself on the surface, as we get closer it disappears under the blue waters and swims off, unfortunately not allowing us to jump it with it.



Having completed our boat dive out on the deeper part of the reef, which was abound with turtles, moray eels, banded sea kraits, and garden eels. We commenced our safety stop closer in shore. We entered through the mouth of the Blue cave, our eyes had to adjust to the different levels of dark and light, You can see a stream of sunlight penetrating through the water column, dancing off the sand below.
The water is so clear it is like Gin. The shadows around highlight the magnificent sun-rays streaming through from the hole in the ceiling, 10 metres above our heads.

Dancing in the shadow of light

A large school of Yellow Stripped Goatfish (Mulloidichthys vanicolensis) group together tightly, illuminated by my video lights and the sun rays dancing around us. These majestic fish swim along side us, never seeming to be frightened by our presence.

I could spend hours here photographing these beautiful fish in this stunning location, unfortunately, my cylinder only holds so much air and we need to head back towards the boat.

A snorkeler hovers above us, swimming back and forth through the mouth, to the bright blue water outside the cave. the reflection off the underside of the water is mesmerizing, it draws your eyes to the light rays surrounding you everywhere you go.
Of the 5 dives I completed I would say that this had to be my most favorite location. Would I go back and dive Tanna again? Yes definitely.

Thanks to everyone at White Grass Ocean Resort & Spa for having us. and everyone at Volcano Island Divers for taking me out on fun and exciting dives.

If you would like to discuss diving with them you can email; diving@whitegrasstanna.com or info@whitegrasstanna.com