A great weekend in Forester and the summer holiday season was quite evident with 30+ temperatures, and the beaches and restaurants full of tourists. The diving did not seem quite as good as May but the ocean is fickle and luck of the draw may be a bigger factor than time of the year.
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| Getting ready at Seal Rock |
Blunder number one for the trip was forgetting my wetsuit. I had to hire a 2 piece 7mm with a 'Joan Collins' off the shoulder number (modelling above) covered by a crutch hugging 1960's James Bond top jacket.
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| Jane and a Wobbegong (carpet Shark) |
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| Wobbegong from above (perfect camouflage) |
We had two boat dives on the first day. We drove down to Seal Rocks from Forester and picked up the boat from the beach, it took about 40 minutes to drive. We went out to little rock for the first dive but the visibility was only about 4M. We saw a few grey nurse sharks and plenty of Wobbegongs. The Wobby are everywhere and the really deserve the name 'carpet shark' as they literally carpet the whole area.
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| Port Jackson Shark |
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| Curious Puffer fish |
We had a great night out on Saturday with 10 of us in The Aztec Mexican restaurant. The food was very nice and they had a live band playing that kept us very entertained for the whole evening.
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| Wobby and PJ best of friends (until dinner time) |
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| Grey Nurse at Seal rocks - Big Rock |
Day 2 was a little 'special' and is probably a dive that I will never forget for a very particular reason.
We headed out through the bar from Forester and the boat was almost swamped in a huge wave, but that was just good fun. We went to The Pinnacle but there was rag weed everywhere so we decided to go out to 'Spot A'. There was a 3M swell and everyone was starting to look very green by the time we arrived at the dive site. The DM jumped in and checked out the site and said the current was too strong for us to dive. He went down the anchor line at the front of the boat and his bubbles were surfacing about 10M behind the boat so the current was very strong. A blue water ascent would have seen us needing our safety sausages for sure.
Whilst this was happening at least 2 people threw up,
Mexican food, red wine and a 3M swell are not a great combination. We headed back to The Pinnacle and it just seemed that we had been on the boat for too long at this time.
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| Grey Nurse |
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| Close encounter |
At The Pinnacle the DM jumped in to check out conditions and we started to gear up. Whilst gearing up another 3 people threw up and I started to feel very ordinary. I decided to get in the water as soon as possible. The 3M swell was making conditions difficult on the boat and the
feint aroma of bile was starting to fill the air.
I decided to jump in and as I was filling my BCD, just before I stepped off the boat, I realized that my air was off. I quickly asked Jane to turn on my air as I was only just holding everything together at this point. With the air on I leapt into the ocean and started to feel much better. I watched several people throwing up over the side of the boat as it bobbed like a cork in a washing machine.
Eventually everyone got into the water and we decided to descend as quickly as possible because some people were feeling rough on the surface. I deflated my BCD and still stayed on the surface? I duck dived and swam down to 5M but as soon as I stopped swimming I noticed I was returning to the surface.
That was when I realised that I had not brought any weight. I kept swimming down and after a few minutes found a large rock that I cuddled like a baby. I was able to continue the dive and spent 40 minutes carrying this large rock around the dive site. We saw a huge Eagle ray just meters away. The visibility was quite poor with al the weed in the water and we did hear that the other group almost bumped into a 3M Grey Nurse shark.
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| You looking at me? |
Great Experience and a lesson learned to trust the marine forecast- When they say 3M swell I suggest doing something other than a boat dive.
265+
Yo Colin,
ReplyDeleteHow did you forget to turn your air on and also the weights? You are a bit lucky to get out of it. Glad you are alright.
Funny I also did a dangerous thing on the weekend. Was diving voodoo. Carried Jess' 24 pounds as well as my 24 pounds of weight down to the pool. We are diving dry suits (so all the weight) and she does not have the leg strength to manage the walk down. Also was carrying her fins so she can grab on to things to steady herself. Pool was really shallow. I stepped in. It was a bit deeper than I expected and I found my feet couldn't touch the ground. I was weighed down with all the weight (48 pounds) and had no hands free with the fins and got sucked sucked out the gap in the wall pretty fast. I managed to get out of it finally after a while but it was frightening. It was useless kicking into a bit of current with no fins and a lot of weight. I won't make that mistake again.
This was also after I was talking to Peter at plunge diving about how a guy died by racing his buddy to get in the water first. He jumped in with his fins in his hands, no air on, and twins. He sank fast and died. Body never recovered. And was a very experienced diver.
Regards,
Phil
Hi Phil,
ReplyDeleteThe boat we were on was bobbing around in a 3M swell and everyone around me was throwing up. The smell of vomit and the sway of the ocean was making me feel very ill and the only recourse I had was to get into the water ASAP. Even in this state I did check my air before I jumped in and got Jane to turn it on (just as she was throwing up) before I jumped in, but in my haste I did not check my weights. The weights were on the floor of the boat as instructed by the skipper when we boarded but the ride was so rough I just plain forgot. If I'd have stayed around to do a full buddy check I would have been as ill as the rest of them. It made for a very interesting dive though- no weight and still stayed down for 40 mins :)
It sounds like your experience was a bit scarier. I'm glad it all turned out well- big disadvantage of the dry suits is the weight. Given your nude diving exploits I'm surprised you need a dry suit in Sydney :)
cheers,
Colin.