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.
Reference Michael McFadyen's website.
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
