ESPIRITU SANTO Diving Espiritu Santo is synonymous with diving the SS President Coolidge, but it’s not the only dive in town. Wreck diving options also include the infamous Million Dollar Beach and the USS Tucker, and for coral lovers, there’s plenty of fringing reefs, drop offs and coral gardens to explore. Being home to the world’s largest, most accessible wreck in the world, Santo is popular with technical divers, using their skills to plunge the depths of the SS President Coolidge. This 33,000-tonne converted luxury liner sank during WWII after hitting a (friendly) mine, and now rests in depths of 21 to 70 metres. The impressive wreck is one of the most exciting wreck dives in the world, that is accessible to recreational divers. If you want to see the whole wreck, you’ll need between 10 and 15 dives, and technical diving allows divers more time to explore the seemingly endless corridors, hidden alcoves and cavernous cargo holds. Other technical dive sites around Santo include Million Dollar Point where you can explore the famously dumped WWII equipment in depths of up to 50m. Dive Centres on Espiritu Santo, provide technical dive training and support both open circuit and rebreather technical divers, with a range of gases and equipment available for hire. For those seeking coral reefs, there’s Ratarata Reef and two at Tutuba Island, with good chances of seeing resident turtles, barracudas and other passing pelagics, plus Cindy’s Reef, off Aore Island, which provides easy reef diving with good visibility. TANNA Diving Tanna is very different from diving Port Vila or Santo, as Tanna is a more remote volcanic island – with an active volcano. Diving Tanna, you will experience crystal clear water, colourful hard coral reefs and an amazing topology of swim throughs and blue holes. The diving on Tanna also offers shear vertical walls with pelagic action including reef sharks, turtles, schools of yellowfin tuna and barracuda as well as the wreck of a small cargo boat. One of the most unique aspects of diving in Tanna is the vast amount of easily accessible swim-throughs and caves. Some so small you question whether it’s possible to squeeze through, but the local dive guides at Volcano Island Divers know this fringing reef like the back of their hand and expertly weave through it. When to dive Diving is possible year-round in Vanuatu, with water temperature varying between 24ºC - 29ºC depending on the season, with the warmest months from January to May and the coolest in August. There is also a distinct difference in water temperature from north in Santo, to south, at Tanna. Rainy season runs from December to March, however with steep drop offs this does not affect visibility. 94//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#229
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