One of the largest vessels scuttled on the Long Reef Wreck Site is the bucket dredge Coolooli. Built in 1955 at the NSW Government State Dockyard at Newcastle (NSW), the Coolooli was unpowered. She displaced 150 tonnes and was 50 metres long and 10 or 11 metres wide. The dredge was owned by the NSW Maritime Services Board and used to keep NSW ports navigable. Sometime before 1975, it was laid up. On 19 August 1980 (one record says 29 August), the Coolooli was sunk as part of the reef and now lies on its starboard side on sand in 48 metres of water.
With only an 8 minute bottom time plan this was a very short visit to the Coolooli. We descended the anchor line and I must admit that at the time I didn't realise it but with hindsight I can see that I was very "Narked".
From the top of the wreck we were in 40M of water and dropped down to 44m as we circumnavigated the wreck. We saw a Wobbegong but all too soon it was time to ascend.
My computer showed 1 minute until no decompression limits were exceeded so I signaled to my buddies and started to ascend. From my very fuzzy memory of the dive we did spend a lot longer hanging on the anchor line at 5M than we did on the actual wreck. While performing our 8 minute safety stop I started to get a headache again similar to what I experienced on the Valiant. I concentrated on expelling air as I did not want a repeat of the CO2 retention issue I had back then.
After surfacing we boards the boat "Hoochi Mumma" and I was as sick as a dog. I have no living memory of ever vomiting so much! It was a very unpleasant experience and went as quickly as it came. I have a suspicion that I was suffering from CO2 retention or "Hypercapnia" again as I felt fine after about 5 minutes. I do not think it was sea sickness related. It could be "Alternobaric vertigo" but I am not sure and self diagnosis on websites will inevitably lead to the incorrect conclusion. I will monitor this as I do not want to find myself in this situation again.
5 minutes later I felt fine and waited for the TEC divers to surface. We watched them hanging on the deco line for about 40 minutes.
We headed off to the apartments after that and I took my camera on this dive and tried some new setting to see if I could address the colour and blur issue I have been experiencing over the last few weeks.
Back of the Hoochie Mumma
A friendly Blue Groper
The sport and fluorescent setting seem to improve the clarity and colour.
A full schedule has prevented me from giving a full update but I think this was a one-off trip for me. I won't be hurrying to visit the Coolooli again given my issue with CO2 retention.
My experience justifies the rationale about only going deep if you have a real need and it shouldn't be done for the sake of going deep
I went down for a weekend of diving in Jervis Bay to complete my PADI deep specialty course this weekend. I had completed all of my pre-requisite study and was ready to take on the practical aspect of the course. There were to be 2 dives on the Saturday to 30M and 20M and 2 dives on the Sunday to 40M and 25M, with various tasks to complete on each.
We set off on the Genesis on Saturday morning at 8:00am and headed out across a completely flat Jervis bay. We went out through the heads and turned North to our first dive location- Crocodile.
Brett and Nathalie help Jen to attach the pony bottle in the water. Emma and Nathan on the boat.
Brett was my buddy on all dives for the weekend. On our first DiveI took a pony bottle to get the feel of carrying one and in case Brett or I needed it. I wasn't really prepared for how much the pony bottle affected my buoyancy. We went down the anchor line to 30 M but I could not achieve neutral buoyancy. I may have been suffering slightly from Nitrogen Narcosis as I thought the bladder in my BCD had burst. I kept putting squirt after squirt of air in the BCD but still I was sinking like a stone.
I only carry 3 x 3lb weights, so even though the pony bottle was quite light it added a large % increase to my weight. There were lots of pictures being taken and I think Nathalie may have been feeling the effects of narcosis when she started disco dancing @ 30M.
Nathalie's Saturday Night Fever at 30m, Jen her buddy wonders what's going on?
We looked at the effect on colour at depth as Emma, the dive instructor had brought several pieces of different coloured materials, that all had changed colour at 30M. When we ascended the anchor line I found where all that air I had been pumping into my BCD went! I had to duck dive and dump the air to avoid an uncontrolled ascent.
We surfaced and had some lunch. Unfortunately Nathan was quite sick at about -3M and this continued on the boat. He decided not to dive again this weekend, this was his first dive this year and he may have had a stomach bug. He had not had much sleep the previous night and could have been breath skipping (see my post on CO2 retention) (headache information)
The Second dive was on Point Perpendicular. I took a picture of our boat the "Genesis", not sure if she is named after the bible chapter or the 80's UK rock band? By the look of the 2 Steve's I would say the latter.
We went down to about 20M and found a friendly blue groper looking for a feed. We looked at the effect of pressure on neoprene and how this affects buoyancy at depth and why we feel colder. This was a fairly uneventful dive but we did get to inflate our safety sausages at the end of the dive which was good practice and fun.
Day 2:
We set off even earlier and the advanced diver group with us went on the twin hull Avalon ahead of us but we soon caught them up. It was another perfect morning to be on Jervis Bay.
Advanced Course Group on the Avalon
As we had a picture of the Advanced group we decided to pose for a group photo of the Deep group. Steve obliged us as we headed out of the heads and to the north this time to the Arch.
Brett, Jen, me, Ben, Nathalie and Emma
The Arch is a huge swim through, big enough to drive a submarine through, whose bottom sits in about 38M. Our challenge would be to complete a simple child's maze puzzle whilst under the arch to demonstrate the effect of Nitrogen Narcosis when trying to complete simple tasks. We anchored right on the Arch and there was quite a strong current moving to the south. It took quite a bit of effort to get to the anchor line and a few of the divers needed to be towed by Steve on board to get to the front of the Genesis. The arch is an amazing rock formation and is well worth the effort to go and see, I would recommend this dive to anyone.
Brett completing the maze test under the Arch
I switched the video off to complete my puzzle. It took me 23 seconds and I must admit I was just following the pencil hoping to get through the maze, I wasn't able to look ahead in the maze and plan any sort of preemptive strategy as I would on the surface. My pencil did get to a few dead ends and had to back out which would never happen on the surface. After the puzzle I switched the video on but it was time to get out of there.
Underneath the arch, no time to wait around in 38M
With a bottom time of only 6 mins to ensure we stayed clear of our no decompression limits, there was hardly enough time for both of us to complete the puzzle. We planned to do a 22.5M safety stop for 1 minute as there is a strong school of thought that suggests this is beneficial in reducing nitrogen levels. We headed up to 5M and did an 8 minute safety stop to simulate a no-decompression dive limit breach. We took the opportunity to practice breathing on the pony bottle for 1 minute each to simulate an out of air situation, unfortunately Brett unscrewed the 1st stage instead of turning the Air on and we lost the first stage.
We had some lunch on board and headed back into the bay for what was to be the best dive of the weekend, The Wall.
On this dive our only task was to swap regulators to feel the difference between differing setups. We found a suitable spot and and completed the task and then used the rest of the dive to explore the area. The wall is a great dive and there is so much to see in this area, it would take many dives to appreciate all this site has to offer. We found a numbing Ray which Emma kindly offered up for me to stroke.
Emma handling the numb ray
Weswam along the wall and Brett and I found this Giant Cuttlefish sitting in a corner. I was trying to hold the camera and my torch as I wanted to avoid the green haze I usually get. The flashes are from Brett's camera.
We ascended the wall, whose top conveniently sits in 5M, where we did our 3 min safety stop before surfacing and being picked up by the Genesis.
Blue Groper and the Wall.
I think I need the underwater photography specialist course next!
Steve on-board, Crocodile cave in the background.
It was a great weekend and there were just too many things that happened to capture in this blog. The pancakes, the BBQ, the snoring, pods of dolphins, poker and a full deep diving knowledge review on Saturday night to name but a few of the highlights. I would highly recommend a trip to Jervis Bay with Abyss for any diver. In fact if your going let me know and I'll come along too :)
The twenty second day of February 1949 had been a typical late summer's day on the NSW South Coast. At about 3 o'clock a southerly buster had passed the Wollongong area and the sea conditions had dramatically changed for the worse. Since then the SS Bombo had battled the deteriorating seas, first in an attempt to reach Sydney and then in a battle to make the safety of Port Kembla. By 10.00 pm it was only four kilometers away from safety when suddenly the list on the ship worsened. Within minutes the ship had "turned turtle" and sank, taking four crew to their immediate death.
SS Bombo going up Sydney Harbour
HMAS Bombo just after it was commissioned - 26 October 1939
When the Bombo sank, a great deal of its cargo of blue metal dropped out of the holds and fell to the sea floor (remember the ship turned turtle). This pile of metal is now located about 50 metres to the east of the wreck. As the ship went down it ploughed into the sandy bottom bow first. This caused some damage to the bow area. Soon after, the bridge hit the bottom and then the great weight and momentum caused the ship's back to break and the Bombo buckled right across the hull almost in the middle of the ship. At the same time the weight squashed the bridge beyond identification. As she sank, some pieces fell and ended up on the sand next to the remains of the ship. This includes a hopper used to load coal/gravel and parts of the masts. Lying roughly north-south, the Bombo was now in water 32 metres deep and upside down almost in the middle of the shipping channel. Reference: Michael McFadyens Website
Getting ready for adventure
We set off on the Vengeance from Port Kembla Harbour at about 9:20 am in search of the wreck of the Bombo,. Our Dive master was Emma and my buddy was Ashley.
Ashley and Leigh on the Vengeance
We descended to the wreck and with only 20 mins max bottom time we started to investigate. There was a thermal current that we went through at about 20m and the temperature dropped to about 14 degrees. I took a few photos but the depth and my red filter has taken out most of the light leaving a slow exposure time on automatic, resulting in blurred images.
After a short investigation of the wreck, we returned to the anchor line and I was intrigued to see the anchor dancing off towards the south west across the sand. I decided to chase the anchor and caught it a few metres away from the bow of the wreck. I was definitely feeling the effect of nitrogen narcosis as I realised once I got hold of the anchor there was absolutely nothing I could do to secure it.
We found a moray eel in the wreck, here is a video of where the anchor was and the moray eel hiding.
We surfaced without incident and returned to shore, where another Abyss crew were waiting to go out for their first dive. We had a delicious lunch of Tomato soup (& Tabasco) with peanut butter roll, topped off with a pleasant desert of jelly snakes. We waited around for the boat to return for our second dive.
After lunch waiting for the boat to come in
Our Second trip out was a lot "bouncier" and a wetsuit was the best thing to be wearing. We made it out to the wreck and entered the water. Emma took pictures of everyone so i took one of Emma and The Vengeance.
Emma and The Vengeance above the wreck site
We descended the anchor line and this time we had even less bottom time. With a planned maximum bottom time of 18 mins we set off to investigate. The visibility had deteriorated somewhat and there were thousands of fish in the vicinity. Ashley and I investigated the wreck , looking inside all the holes in the upturned hull. It was amazing how many fish were inside the upturned hull.
Ash and I entered a huge gaping hole in the hull that made a sort of overhang, but all too soon it was time to turnaround and head back to the anchor line.
The red light is filtered out at this depth and my camera did not have its own light, so everything appears really green. It wasn't this colour in real life but just the effect of the sea filtering the light.We found the boiler of the ship which is now an encrusted reef on its own..
The dead ship now is a swarm of life
We returned to the surface and the shore without incident. All up 2 very good dives but maybe next time I will dive this wreck on Nitrox to get a bit longer bottom time. I had a great day in the ocean and would recommend this dive to all advanced and above certified divers..
The summer is starting to make its presence know and today was quite a warm one to be walking around with a 5mm wetsuit and 20kg of scuba gear strapped to your back.
The dive master was Joe and my dive buddy was David. On the first dive we found a very friendly blue groper and gave him a feed.
We carried on to the cave and spent a few minutes taking in the cave life. I tried to get some photos but there wasn't enough light in the cave. I guess I need the flash after all!
Inside the cave (no flash!)
We headed out further for a few meters and bumped into a particularly angry giant cuttlefish. He was letting David know in no uncertain terms that he wasn't welcome in these parts. He had his tentacles high up and was darting back and forth. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo as I was too busy taking in the show. We went on a little further before deciding to turn back as I was down to 1800psi. We headed back on a reciprocal heading of 210 degrees and surfaced next to the dive buoy.
After a nice lunch of tomato soup, peanut butter roll and Minties we headed off to do the same dive again. This time we wanted to spend longer in the cave.
David (my buddy)
The visibility was fairly average and there were some very warm and cold currents as we headed back out to the cave. We found a brightly coloured starfish that caught our attention for awhile, but my pictures didn't turn out so good so I won't waste the bandwidth here.
We sat in the cave for several minutes and took it all in. It is quite magical inside the cave and there were hundreds of fish. David found his adversary from the first dive, the giant cuttlefish, lurking in the shadows. The giant cuttlefish was equally displeased to see us as he was on the first dive. I shone my torch on him and he disappeared. We didn't find him again. We left the cave and found a queue of divers waiting to get in. I guess we were hogging all the cave!
Scuba Central
We headed back, passed the rocking horse, and ran into several other scuba divers. It was scuba central for awhile. David was easy to spot as he was the only one with blue fins. I was much more difficult to keep an eye on as I, like everyone else, was black from head to toe. David lost sight of me a few times but I was easily able to identify him and let him know where I was.
I found a nudibranc and tried the macro setting on my camera. I obviously need to keep very still while the macro setting is on as the images all came out blurred. Here is the best of the poor bunch, let's see if I can improve on this?
Blurred and out of focus- it can only get better!
I like this dive site and would recommend it to anyone. It does get fairly busy with lots of scuba divers around. I think this would be an excellent night dive.
View Oak Park - the cave in a larger map Estimated dive path (we went a little further south on the second dive).
Bare Island is famous for being the location of some of the motorcycle action shots in Mission Impossible 2, as we were told several times today. It is located on the north side of Botany Bay near the Ocean outlet.
We completed 2 dives today and our divemaster was David and my dive buddy was Keith. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries on the first dive so I didn't get too many shots today.
Dive 1
The visibility was quite poor and Keith and I descended to about 8M and headed 210 degrees. We looked under every crevice and found a Giant cuttlefish hiding in one of the small caves around the area.
Keith
The visibility was quite poor (about 5M max)and my pictures have got the green hue back again. Even with the red filter there is still an ugly green tinge to everything and I think it may be related to the visibility?
We found a tiny swim through but couldn't wriggle through it. I took some pictures of Keith from the other side.
Keith in the small cave
I spotted a small cuttlefish and took this video just before my batteries died.
After this we found a huge cuttlefish in a cave and fed the most friendly blue groper. He was very close and really very comfortable with divers. I stroked him several times and he thought my black torch was a sea urchin, he wanted to have a bite at it several times. Keith eventually fed him and we headed back.
Dive 2,
We decided to circumnavigate the island for our second dive. The eastern side of the island has some great sponge gardens and very nice overhangs- this place could rival the GBR if it wasn't so overcrowded with divers (wait that is the GBR!)
I'm sure we went too far south as we had a huge swim back. We found an octopus on the way and had a little play with him but he wasn't interested.
We spotted a solitary Port Jackson shark resting in a cave, then we found 3 huge Port Jacksons all laid up together. I estimate they would have been 2M long as they were very big, much bigger than the ones we have seen at Voodoo.
Keith surfaced to get a bearing and saw that we were still south of the island and had some white water between us and the island. We had a vigorous swim North and eventually saw the familiar piece of steel near the entry to the first dive. I indicated to Keith that I was down to 50 bar, we had been swimming in about 2-3M for 5-6 mins. We decided to surface and finish the last 50 m with a surface swim to the exit.
Upon arrival we found Oak Park was swarming with surfers and the swell was up so we decided to move around to the more sheltered Bass & Flinders dive site. Our Dive Master David, warned that it was only 6-8M deep but as I've never dived there I thought "why not?"
Schwen's camera setup
On the first dive we had a trio buddy. My buddies were Schwen and Ben, Schwen had a fairly substantial camera setup. I was trying out my red filter lens for the first time on my camera and I am happy with the results (above).
Ben
We headed due East under the fishing lines and submerged to about 5M. We swam along a rock face that was teaming with life. A large and very diver friendly Blue Groper was nudging us for food and allowing the guys to stroke him.
Ben stroking the Groper
He was very friendly and the one of the biggest Blue Gropers I have ever seen, we saw a smaller brown/green female also, but she wasn't so diver friendly. Here is a video of him using the red filter.
This video was taken using the red filter: see the video below at a similar depth using the same equipment without the filter. The colour improvement is remarkable.
We went through a swim through and took our time to look under every overhang. This was a very good dive and I would recommend it to anyone. Don't be put off by the depth there is a lot of stuff to see here.
Caroline
The Second dive I was buddied with Caroline. We headed off ahead of the pack to avoid the congestion we encountered in our first dive. In an overhang we found a cuttlefish, a little further on we found blowfish and Nudies. I took pics of the Nudies but they came out blurred, I will have to work on the Macro settings on the camera.
Nudie in a sponge
We came across a Port Jackson Shark but she scuttled away quickly before I could get my camera out. We covered a lot more distance on the second dive and turned around at 2000 PSI. On the way back we found the swim through again and came across a couple of Rays that I followed to get a picture of.
timid Ray
I lost my bearings for a while and Caroline had disappeared. I spotted her in the distance and we continued back.
Eye see you
We found an Octopus with his trade mark rubbish pile around his hole (pic above). That is his eye peeking out at me in the hole.
All up 2 very good dives. I highly recommend this site to anyone and I am very happy with the results of the red filter on my camera.
Up at 5AM we went out in search of the wreck of the valiant yesterday. The Valiant was apparently commissioned in 1945 by the Ministry of Munitions. The tug was 22.5 metres long, 5.4 metres wide and displaced 72 tons. A sister ship, the Fury, was built at the same time. The Valiant was powered by a Crosley HR4 diesel engine giving a top speed of only 8 knots.
Valiant
After the end of World War II, ownership of the Valiant passed to the Melbourne Harbour Trust Commissioners. It appears that the ship was modified at this time, with water tanks added, the foredeck lowered and equipment added to suit her new role as a fire boat. It appears to have operated out of Melbourne. I do not know much more about its history but in 1975 it was still registered to the Commissioners.
In 1981 after a complicated series of events while under tow to be scuttled, the tow ropes broke and the Valiant sank approximately one kilometer east of Barrenjoey Head. reference:Michael McFadyen Scuba Diving Web Site
We boarded the "Hoochie Mumma" at the Spit and set out on our 90 minute trip to the wreck site. What started off as promising weather soon turned into fairly blustery conditions.
Hoochie Mumma anchor chain, bad weather
As we were anchoring over the site the crew had a mishap that caused the rear anchor to get wrapped around one of the propellers. One of the divers jumped in to inspect and it took several attempts with hammer and crowbar to remove the mangled sand anchor from the prop.
We were the first into the water and started our slow descent to the bottom of the anchor chain. I was on 33% Nitrox and was buddies with Michelle and our DM, Sam. To demonstrate the effects of narcosis, Sam had a slate of 3 brain teasers at the bottom (~28M)which I completed in 27 seconds (on the surface it took me 19 seconds). We headed out at 45 degree (suggested direction of the wreck)using a 40 M line. No sign of the wreck and only bare sand to be seen. We did a complete 360 degree search at the end of our 40M line, still no sign of the wreck.
CO2 poisoning
We had been down about 17 mins and it was time to head back. I noticed a headache starting and thought nothing of it at the time. We stayed on the anchor line at 5M for our 3 minute safety stop and then slowly surfaced. My headache was now quite severe and I suspected that something was wrong. Upon getting back on board the boat I took off my gear and felt a strong urge to throw up that was accompanying my pounding headache. I went to the back of the boat and took some fresh air. After a few minutes I started to feel better and I got a cup of tea. I suspect my headache was caused by CO2 retention (
Headache information) as I had been skipping breaths wanting to not be the person who ran low on air first, in fact I had returned with over 100 bar while my buddy was down to 50 bar, so I must have been breath skipping quite a bit.
Feeling better we went down for our second dive after the boat had been repositioned. The Captain said that we had drifted while the rear anchor problem was sorted out and he would now get us directly over the wreck. Second dive; I focused on continuing to breathe as I did not want the CO2 retention problem again. Unfortunately we did not find the wreck again, but we did see the concrete bucket (that was attached to the rear anchor) which we saw on the first dive in the distance. None of the other dive groups found the wreck either so our boat operator apologised and blamed new sonar and sat-nav equipment that had just been re-calibrated. He offered us all a free second trip to this or any other site that they operate to - not too bad.
One poor guy was terribly sea-sick and he looked awful on the 90 min trip back. It was cold, grey and raining. I managed to doze for about 20 minutes to ease the trip.
The last chance to dive Voodoo for this year was called off due to the swell (2.9M max from the south so Voodoo would have been hammered) We went around to the North facing Monument and Steps dive in Kurnell National Park and did a double dive.
The DM was Rod and my buddy was Dylan.
First dive was from the monument so we dropped off our gear and drove our cars to the top of the steps before walking back down the hill (It is so much easier without the gear).
Upon descending we were surprised to see a rapidly moving turtle closely pursued by one of our divers with a camera. It was gone so fast I never had a chance to get a photo of him. We drifted with the outgoing tide towards the steps along the way we went found a small swim through which was pretty exciting. I always am hesitant before going through a swim through but always elated once I've done it. You never know what you will disturb under there and there is always the possibility of something going wrong and getting stuck but that is the thrill of the swim through. We spotted cuttlefish, octopus and a giant cuttlefish in the rocks. I took my first attempt at a video of a cuttlefish and a very curious blue groper kept coming in to see if there was a feed available.
We did our 3 min safety stop and I was very impressed with our navigation as we surface about 20M from the Steps. This is a great site for learning navigation as there are a few landmarks around to give you some clues as to where you are.
The Second dive was from the steps and we planned a reciprocal navigation dive heading out at a bearing of 300 degrees. The visibility was very poor on the second dive and I lost sight of Dylan initially at about 5M. Luckily he had his torch and appeared out of the murk within a few seconds. We found an octopus in his scavenger garden and he shoved a large rock out of his hole at us. Searched hard for the illusive Weedy Sea dragon but was unable to find any . I have no doubt that they were there but they blend in so well with the kelp you need a trained eye or a stroke of luck to find one.
The scheduled dual nitrox dive on the Bombo was canceled due to the rough weather. The storms have now passed but the seas are still 2-3m swells so the boat trip out to the site was called off.
Next planned dive is for next Sunday - shore dive "Leap to The Steps"
3 dives today at Camp Cove as most other dive sites were closed due to bad weather. The beauty of Camp Cove is no matter how rough the conditions get it is always calm and sheltered.
There is a pile of submerged rocks, to the north of the beach, that we swam out to and descended there. We swam north and found a lot of marine life in the rocks.
The purpose of the 3 dives was to complete part of the Advanced Diver course.
Dive 1 - Peak Buoyancy:
We descended and had to swim through hoops at various angles to each other without using our hands. We practices hovering about 1-2 m from the sea bed and then we were given another 3 lb weight. We had to hover at the same height without using our BCD. It involves taking a big breath and inflating your lungs more. We then had the hoops placed at various depths and had to swim through them and finally we were given another weight and had to swim the hoops again at varying depths without adjusting our BCD. The course gave me a lot more confidence and really demonstrates the effect of using your lungs as a buoyancy compensator.
Dive 2 - Underwater Navigation
We swam out to a large sand area where there was very few visible reference points. Our DM extended a 30M line along the floor and we swam the length of it counting our fin strokes. My fin stokes was 34 half strokes or 17 complete strokes. We then had to swim a 30 m square course from the direction given to us by our DM. We achieved this fairly successfully. Our second challenge was a 30mx20m rectangle course but we headed South and hit the rocks before we could complete our 30M so this threw us out a bit. Lastly we swam a 30m triangular course (adding 120 degrees at each turning point). This was the most successful of all but I think it was because we were starting to follow and trust the compass rather than our own sense of direction.
Dive 3 - Underwater Naturalist
The dive brief was to keep this to a 30 minute dive and we had to spot and classify 5 marine species each. I took my new camera and decided to photograph my results. There is abundant marine life in this area and we saw cuttlefish, blue gropers, black cod, leatherjackets, trumpet fish, squid, octopus, sting ray, and a few others that I will have to look up (black and white striped fish with yellow tails?)
We were out of the water with the dive computer showing 29 minutes so a well planned and executed dive. After 3 dives I was quite tired and looking forward to the double wreck dive tomorrow.
Big Storms in Sydney over the weekend caused most shore dives to be closed. There was diving still at Oak Park but I skipped due to the inclement weather and inevitable poor visibility due to the rainfall. Apparently we have had more rain this weekend than we have had in the last 2 months.
I received my new Intova 6 with underwater housing, cant wait to try it out. I will dive with the housing only first time to see if there are any leaks then all things being well I will dive with the camera to take some snapshots.
Next scheduled dive is Friday 9th October- location is Cape Solander but given it's ocean exposure will probably be called given the forecast.
Very cold in the water (14 degrees) and visibility was quiet poor (about 5 M max). First dive: I noticed the same bell ringing that I had heard in Gordon's Bay a few weeks ago. I remember asking the other divers if they heard the bell and some did but most didn't. I put it down to the fact that I was the only one not wearing a hood so I was able to hear it better. I thought this was too strange a coincidence to hear the same bell at a separate dive site so I tried to see if there was any rhythm or timing to the bell - I noticed the bell rang every time I drew air from my regulator so the sound was some sort of metallic resonance coming from my tank. Once I recognised the noise for what it was it didn't sound so much like a bell ringing. The ringing was there on the second dive as well - I will post a question on a dive forum about this as I am sure I am not Robinson Crusoe here. We swam to the Cave and a few divers went in but it silted up very quickly and my buddy knocked his first stage on the way out of the cave and it started to slowly leak. I took a look and indicated to him that he had a leak but we continued the dive and made regular checks on his PG. There were no further problems with his equipment for the rest of the dive. We exited with 70bar at the planned exit point.
The hour long lunch break was pretty cold and seemed longer because the Soup Natzi had told me "no soup for you today!" because I didn't get my booking online before 5pm the previous day. Another lesson from today's dive is to make sure I book at least 24 hours in advance to give the guys at Abyss enough notice to feed me (or god forbid I actually planned to feed myself:))
Second dive was fairly uneventful for my buddy and I but the other group did lose a diver and the divemaster had to go back and get him. I am not sure of the whole story but that is a problem when you dive in groups rather than in buddy pairs. At the exit we waited to let Brett know that we were out and 3 of the group of 5 came out at one exit point while Brett and another diver came out of the other exit point.
Dave took some photographs and said he will email me them I may post them when I receive them.
The Leap and The Steprs are both inside Botany Bay National Park near Kurnell. The dive master was Emma my buddy was Dylan.
First dive: we entered at the leap and it is easy to understand why it is called the leap. You have to leap about 1.5M into the surf (swell wasn't too bad today) with you scuba gear on and clear the rocks below. It seemed pretty daunting at first but it was quiet easy and safe. We drifted with the incoming tide around to the Steps and exited there. Visibility was quite bad and the water was very cold (13 degs).
Second Dive was from the Steps and we swam a heading of 290 degrees until our air reached 150 bar and turned around on a reciprocal heading. Again visibility was bad but we did spot 1 PJ and 2 Weedy Sea Dragons. We surfaced near the kelp forest and swam 100M to the exit point at the steps. All up two very successful dives and a boost to the navigation skills.
We went to Kurnell and I was volunteered to lead Kim and Frank to the site as they did not know where it was. I knew where Kurnell was from my old triathlon days but I wasn't sure where the dive site was. I figured I would spot the Abyss truck when I got there and everything would work out. Needless to say 3 carparks later we eventually found the dive team. The dive master was Bill and my dive buddy was Steve. We had a fairly uneventful first dive. We spent a bit of time going over the sand before making our way north to the wall. Visibility was very bad at times with Steve becoming a blur at 2 metres at the worst point. I spent most of the dive keeping my eye on Steve and was amazed at how loud a large ship sounded as it went past. At one point I thought this huge steel hull would come ripping through the kelp towards us it sounded so close. We exited by the large white sign and had a bit of difficulty navigating over the shallow rocks with a bit of swell. The time between then and the second dive was more eventful. We had a BBQ and collected some cash for the National Coastal clean up designated charity. Upon setting up my gear I left it standing just out of reach of my fins and mask. I decided to try to grab my fins and mask with it balanced standing up (what was I thinking!) My nerves got the better of me and I quickly turned around to see if the gear was falling. No there it was upright, steady as a rock and not a breeze in the air. Whew! I felt more relaxed and turned to get my fins and snorkel. Reaching down to grab my fins BANG-PSSSSSS a huge gas explosion behind me! I turned to see my gear lying on the floor with gas belting out from the first stage a full throttle. I reached down and turned the knob for what seemed like 400 turns before the noise eventually stopped. The tanks had rolled over and bumped the first stage enough to pop the O-ring - this totally freaked me out and made me feel like a complete idiot. The guys from Abyss were really cool about it but I was really shaken by the whole experience. I decided my second dive was canceled but the guys from Abyss dive club got me another tank and another set of regs and within minutes I was ready to go. I was really not in a good frame of mind for diving at this point and as I entered the water I seemed to totally calm down. It was as if my mind just shut out the drama to focus on the dive at hand. We saw a few Weedy Sea Dragons and my buddy Steve was counting and measuring them. We returned to shore after about 40 mins with another dive under my belt.
Lesson from this dive - be very careful with your gear when setting up. Always lie it tank down in a clean place.
Voodoo is located on the south side of the Kurnell National Park at the end of Sir Joseph Banks Drive.
I completed 2 dives here on Saturday 12th September. I went with a group from Abyss dive club and our Dive Master was named 'Cem', not sure if I spelled that correctly?
We inspected the entry and exit point before our dive and found the seas quite flat. Apparently the name Voodoo was given to this location by some old surfies that said the waves here well up like some kind of magic, so it is not a dive spot that can always be accessed. Our dive master, 'Cem', told us that in his experience this site is unfit to dive 3 out of every 4 times he has been here due to the waves.
We decided that today was a good day to dive and 'Cem' briefed us on the dive and the intricacies of entry and exit. I was buddied off with one of the other 'no mates' divers and met my new buddy named Markus. Markus had a European accent something like German but I wasn't sure exactly and never asked him.
We went back to the car park to gear up and went through the necessary checks before returning to dive. It was a particularly hot day and we were overheating in our wet suits and I can remember being relieved to get in the water which was a chilly 17 degrees.
We arranged to follow 'Cem' and his buddy for the first dive as 'Cem' was very familiar with the area. Within a few minutes we came across a Port Jackson shark. OMG I thought "SHARK!" but 'Cem' got hold of it by the tail and started to stroke it like a big pussy cat. These creatures really are very placid and nothing seemed to excite them. We saw a blow fish that 'Cem' scared and it did what it is famous for, it blew up like a wedding balloon. We saw countless PJ's (Port Jackson Sharks) sitting on the floor and a few cruised around us, they are the most remarkable creature.
We found a curious blue groper and ended up at 5 m where we cruised the kelp back to the exit point while completing our safety stop. All up a most enjoyable dive.
We returned to the car park and had some lunch. We stayed out of the water for 1 hour before gearing up to return for a second dive. This time Markus and I decided to go it alone and we planned to follow the same route as the first dive. After we descended the area looked somewhat familiar and we followed a heading north before turning SW. We didn't find as many exciting things on our own and got down to 19.5M. I signaled to Markus that we should ascend as we had obviously gone to far out and were dropping off the reef. We climbed back into the reef and found a few PJ's and a very nice cuttlefish. We did our 5M safety stop but we had become disorientated. We surfaced about 250M away from the exit and had a nice relaxing snorkel back to the exit.
All up a great days diving and some lessons learned about navigation (or lack of ability with such).
