The conditions at Broughton Island - Looking Glass, the tunnel straight through the island that Grey Nurse love to lurk in - were perfect, so we did both dives there.

We saw thousands of fish, big blue groper, but most importantly, 7 or 8 big Grey Nurse, one of them easily the biggest I've ever seen - about 2.5 metres long.

There was a fair amount of surge, so the first dive was a little hair raising. After a decent surface interval, the swell died a bit, and the sun had angled into the crack in the island, so the second dive was well lit and a lot more plesant.

Sat 11 Nov 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

North Haven, Cod Grounds

Finally, some Grey Nurse. Still very scarce. The water was sensationally clear on the last day at Cod Grounds, so clean you could see the bottom from the surface - almost 35 metres down. Carpets of Wobbegong everywhere.

My old friend the Eastern Blue Devilfish made a few appearances, such a lovely fish.

Mon 02 Oct 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

North Haven, Titan and Cod Grounds

The weather relented and gave us a stunning clear and calm morning, the plan was the Titan and then the Cod Grounds. Never a huge fan of wrecks, to be perfectly honest, and this one is espectially boring in that its subsided into the sand, about all thats showing is the featureless bottom plating, covered by, well, at 40m, not much at all.

Still, getting Narc'd is almost as good as a few beers, so I didn't complain.

THe Cod Grounds are entirely different prospect - last time I was here there were an astonishing number of Grey Nurse about. This time only a couple, perhaps the weather didn't agree with them...

After the dives, we had the whole afternoon - we took a drive to Crowdy Head national park.

Sun 01 Oct 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

North Haven, Bonnie Hills.

Back diving for the first time in quite a while. Had to just about commit murder to get the time away from work commitments. I'm sure they'd lock me in the office if they though it was legal (or at least could be gotten away with).

Anyway, the weatherman totally and utterly failed us for the first day in North Haven, blowing a gale in the morning meant we were restricted to inshore reefs. Still, a very colourful reef at that.

A couple of Port Jacksons, a couple of painted crays, and quite a bit of colourful weed and spongues - was certainly not unpleasant.

Sat 30 Sep 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Cape Solander, Kurnell NP

Andrew del and I snuck off for an early Friday morning dive at Cape Solander. A freezing 10 degrees in the light breeze on a shore, but a very pleasant 19 degrees in the water. The water was calm and clean, but there wasn't really a lot of fish life about.

We came across a very accomodating baby giant cuttlefish. He didn't mind posing for a few photographs at all, just the occasional bright colour change to indicate he knew we were there.

There are a few whales passing Botany Bay already - they seem early this year.

Fri 02 Jun 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

Kurnell, The Steps, Botany Bay National Park

A lovely day for it - overcast, but warm. Its been a while since I was diving with the Abyss crew, and low and behold I met Racheal, whom I last dived with in Little Bay about 2 years ago - (which was a very horrible dive, involving a huge snorkle back because of nasty current). So, we buddied up again. Racheal is now an excellent diver and buddy.

Because the tide was going out, the water visability wasn't tremendous (all that dioxin in the harbour probably) but there were pockets of clear water, and I had the macro lens on anyway, so getting close to things was required.

It was weedy sea-dragon day. We must have spotted about 10 altogether, and none were very shy, dispite the 50 divers or so that had already visited them. After thoroughly blinding a couple with flashes (poor things - I try to keep it to 3 max, or it stresses them out) we headed on to the swim-throughs towards monument and enjoyed nudibranchs and spongue life.

The second dive people were going to repeat the first dive (boring !?!?!) so Racheal and I tried our luck with going with the current for the second dive, towards the steps, with the knowledge that it might be a harder swim back on the return leg. As luck would have it, by the time we started the second dive, the current had dropped off and it really needed have mattered which way we went. That was great though, because we had the whole section from The Steps to the Leap to ourselves, and saw catfish, rays, more weedy's, pigmy leather-jackets, brightly colour weed cale's and lots of schools of bigger fish that tend to vanish after a few divers have been through already.

Sun 12 Feb 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

The Wreck of the Oakland, Nelson Bay

Sunk in 1905, A steamer that carried mollassis and coal to and from Qld, is lying in about 26 metres of water on sand.

The guys were going their deep module, and wreck module, and I don't especially enjoy wrecks much anyway, so I enjoyed being narked instead. There is always something else you can do if you get bored in the water ;)

Thanks to Jules, Mel, Tabi, Steve (Ox), James, Aimin and Aimina for a great weekend. Drop me a line if get a minute guys, so I have your email addresses.

Sun 29 Jan 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Halifax, Broughton Island and Cabbage Tree Island, Nelson Bay

An amazing days diving. In only three dives we'd cranked up a large list of animals, one of which is found only at Cabbage Tree island - the Donut Nudibranch. We saw eagle rays, wobbegong, grey nurse sharks, at least 8 different varieties of nuidbranch, pinapple fish, feather stars, a blue groper and a brief encounter with the creature from the black lagoon...

First dive was at Halifax point, an aquatic reserve just around the point from the boat ramp and jetty o the east of the Nelson Bay township. A nice leasurely stroll into the water on a sandy bottom and a very easy dive, especially since we had timed our entry to coincide with the high slack tide.

Nudibranch's abounded, and colourful spongues and weedbeds were the backdrop for the dive. I counted 7 varieties of Nudi's in a little over half and hour. Truly fantastic.

2nd dive, Looking Glass at Broughton Island, is simply breathtaking. A balloon shapped tunnel right through the island, the Lookingglass is a gloomy lurking ground for grey nurse sharks and huge schools of bullseyes and stripey.

There was a bit of surge, which surved to hurl you flying along the dark corridors of the tunnel, and then leave you weightless in the back-surge. Once such surge brought me up over a large boulder and face to face with the first grey nurse shark of the day. I'm not entirely sure who was more supprised, but I give the prize for best reaction to the shark: a quick turn, a snap of the tail and he was gone. All I did was drop my camera :)

The final dive was at Cabbage Tree Island, on the swell leeward side, amongst two smaller wrecks. Instructed to watch for a rare 'Donut' Nudibranch, James and I had it spotted and dazzled with strobe light in under 5 minutes flat. THe rest of dive didn't fail to disapoint, an Eagle ray took a bit of a chase to get within camera range, and a dozing wobbegong had made the old wreck his home.

After all this, the group still had enough energy to front up for a winery tour and some wine tasting. That finished us off though I think, the rest of the evening ends sort of, well, blurrily.

Sat 28 Jan 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Kurnell, The Steps

First dive back in the Sydney - Andy del and I hit the Steps in Kurnell for a Saturday afternoon dive. A glorious day after a dreary morning - the sun was belting down on us just after 1pm - not a great time to be putting on 5 mm neoprene.

The water felt SOOO good after the hot climb down the stairs. It felt even better after passing the thermocline at 5m.

Not great vis, but classic Kurnell, lots of fish, lots of nuidbranchs, weedy seadragons, etc.

I need to do some gear maintenance, my tanks are out of test, and my new computer, inexplicably, has a flat battery.

Sat 14 Jan 2006 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

Kurnell, The Steps.

Went diving with Andy del, practically straight off the plain from Singapore. THe sky was blue, the water warm (ish) and the weedy's were out.

The mission was to test my new underwater enclosure out, which was a success and a lot of fun. I think once I get the hang of it, it will be amazing, the improvement I can already see - with the old Sony Cybershot I'd have to throw away about 50% of the images because they were out of focus or something else was wrong with them. With the 300D, that ratio drops to a about 10%.

There wasn't a great deal to see on the dive really, a coupe of weedy's and a few nudi's were out, but thats about it. It was just good to be diving again.

Sat 16 Apr 2005 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

Kurnell - Steps, Leap to Steps

Caught up with Andrew for one last dive in Oz before I head of to Singapore. Perfect conditions, the water was a delightful 20 degrees at the steps. A bit murky in the water, but a good dive nonetheless. Lots and lots of nudibranchs out, the odd giant cuttlefish, and a couple of very friendly blue grouper.

There were plenty of fishermen about, but the only fish they nearly caught was an Andrew... damn fool fishermen. Don't they know there are no fish about?

Sun 26 Dec 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

S.S. Yongala and Wheeler Reef

Fantastic diving in the Great Barrier Reef again, the coral was in excellent condition and there was lots of life out and about.

First port of call was Wheeler Reef. Made up of mainly small to medium bommie clusters and meandering sand paths it was very easy to get lost, though with the amazing visibility we didn't do too badly.

Towards the end of the day, we found a large school of fusiliers being mercilessly picked off by a big school of black trevally. Absolutely huge fish, some nearly 2 metres long. White tip reef sharks cruised along underneath the carnage, picking up stunned near misses.

S.S. Yongala was an absolutely amazing dive. 110 metres of wreck, lying on its side in 30 metres of water covered from bow to stern with soft corals, sea fans, spongues and plant life. Green turtles, Qld Grouper and Coral Trout where everywhere. Black Trevally and white tip sharks cruised nearby and shovelnose and huge bull rays glided effortlessly along in the current.

A wreck is a bit difficult to dive, and often we found the current in the shipping channel a bit daunting. Mostly we were mored on the down current side, so you initially swam into the current to the far end of the wreck, turned around, and flew back to the start.

S.S. Yongala is easily the best diving on the GBR I've done so far.

Fri 10 Sep 2004 | /Diving/Australia/QLD_-_Great_Barrier_Reef | permalink

Great Keppel Island (Diving)

Started our diving trip. Andrew, Simon and Dan were doing the remainder of their Open Water PADI and I was coming along for the dives.

It took about an hour and a half to get over to the island from the Roslyn Bay marina, and we were in the water by lunch time.

The water wasn't the cleanest, but it was delightfully warm. We started with a reconasance snorkle before a shallow (4 metre) dive to get the guys used to their gear again.

After some lunch, we moved to another spot and did another dive with more skills this time. I basically hung around nearby taking photo's while masks were cleared, etc.

We anchored near Big Penisula, part of the Great Keppel Island, and did a spot of fishing before dinner. We caught a fair few fish, even caught a couple of keepers to have for dinner.

Finished the night off watching the amazing view of the stars while listening to the surf on the nearby beach - wonderful.

Sat 13 Mar 2004 | /Diving/Australia/QLD_-_Great_Barrier_Reef | permalink

Yankalilla, exHMAS Hobart.

Leap Day !

More dives on the Hobart, followed by a drift dive in the vain hope of catching a crayfish for dinner. I spotted one, but it was far to quick for me.

We ended up having dinner at the Normanville Chinese / Thai restaurant, which was supprisingly good.

Sun 29 Feb 2004 | /Diving/Australia/South_Australia | permalink

Yankalilla, The exHMAS Hobart, Leafy Sea-dragons.

We started the day slowly, first dive was not until 11am.

The dives were excellent on the Hobart. The ship has been so thoroughly prepared that there was no problem at all going inside and through the various decks. More detail can be found in the dives section.

We returned to the accomodation for a BBQ dinner, and after that was all squared away, went for a night dive, trying to locate the Leafy Sea-Dragons. Success!.

Yankalilla, The exHMAS Hobart, Leafy Sea-dragons.

Sat 28 Feb 2004 | /Diving/Australia/South_Australia | permalink

Adelaide to Yankalilla (diving)

Headed to Yankalilla today, on the Fleurieu penisula to the south of Adelaide. Had lunch in Yankalilla at the Bavarian Wusrthaus, whis was quite a treat.

The dive lodge is awesome, easily the best setup lodge I've ever stayed in - comforatble and spacious, all facilities, fully stocked beer fridge...

No images today. I basically had a day off and kicked around reading.

Fri 27 Feb 2004 | /Diving/Australia/South_Australia | permalink

The Cave, Eden

An absolutely magic dive. Amzing visibility, easily 25 metres. The cave was a far swim in a strong current, but the life on the way was nothing short of amaing. Numb rays, rays, old wives, nudibranchs, sea fans, eels, catfish, jellyfish and even an eastern blue devil fish.

The cave was interesting with the ceiling covered in the mirror surface created by trapped air bubbles.

Some great multi coloured sea fans - a couple of different colours had grown from the same rock and had ended up fusing together - the colours mingling together...

Mon 26 Jan 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Henry Bolte, Eden

The Henry Bolte is a bit more broken up, but the result is lots more fish life because the wreck provides a greater range of nooks and niches for life. Still, a reasonbly enjoyable wreck with visibility this good.

Sat 24 Jan 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Tasman Hauler, Eden

The wreck of the tasman hauler was quite fun, as far as wrecks go. The huge propeller, several metres across, presents a nice swim through, even for someone like me who is not trained to be entering wrecks.

Excellent viz, and some nice growth and fish life to explore once the rusting huck of steel lost its appeal...

Sat 24 Jan 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Henry Bolte. Eden (Night)

Deepest night dive I've done, and certainly the eariest with the wreck looming up here and there, and the lights of other divers appearing and disappearing at random through the holes in the wreck.

Sat 24 Jan 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Jervis Bay, Gorgonia Wall

Compared to last time I was in Jervis Bay, this dive was a tremendous let down. It seemed that all of the marine animals had just up and off somewhere better, leaving just empty water and flies.

To make matters worse, I forgot to plug in the power for my alpha light - so i had no light to explore under rocks and crevises, which is what I usually do when the good stuff isn't just there ready to be seen.

Oh well, you get that. You also get no images ;)

Fri 09 Jan 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Jervis Bay, Pyramid Rock

A bit better with the light. Similar low levels of life, but if you hunted for it, it was there to be found.

I found a couple of Nudibranchs I had not photographed before. This was also my first dive with my new steel tanks.

Fri 09 Jan 2004 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Forster, The Barge

An Excellent dive. Perfect conditions, no current, great visbility.

The barge is an old garbage barge that was used to help build the bridge between Forster and Tuncurry, twin towns on the NSW north coast.

Julia and I, both interested in the idea of a barge covered in Nudibranchs stayed on the barge, which John from Action Dive had expertly anchored within 5 metres of.

We weren't disappointed. Huge nudibranchs everywhere. Thousands of fish, small and large. Moray Eels, small and large. Colorful and abuundant sponges.

I normally don't really go for wrecks, but this has to be an exception. Perhaps because it lies on the tip of a rocky reef, life seems to have colonised it extremely rapidly. There are big hols all over the hull, large enough to poke your head and a light though, but not large enough for divers to be going in there messing things up.

Even the dive profile is near perfect textbook ;)

Sun 30 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Seal Rocks, Off the beach

After a disasterous incident involving me trying to be helpful, a badly maintained pneumatic steering line and a bit of swearing, we limped back to the bay at Seal Rocks on the emergency outboard.

There is a group of reefs and rocks off the right heads of the bay, and we stopped there for a second dive, again looking for Grey Nurse.

This time we weren't disappointed.

Not far from the rocks is a large sand patch, somewhat circular surrounded by tall banks of rocks and circling slowly inside and around it were 8 or 9 grey nurse.

A thrill to see always, these sharks were a little more formidable with the extra light afforded by the shallower depth at which we encountered them. They normally live a bit deeper.

We spent a bit of time cooling our heals just watching quietly and then started to explore some of the extremeties of the caves and overhangs around the perimiter of the sand patch. At the back of a long trench heading away from the patch we found a large resting port jackson shark.

An excellent dive.

Sat 29 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Seal Rocks, Little Seal Rock

Little Seal Rock isn't all that much to look at. The huge crashing waves attempting to complete the job of eon's in a day, however.

We anchored a little way of the island and got into the water. Our goal was a series of channels and gutters that ran obliquely away from the island down into about 30 metres of water, and hopefully to find grey nurse sharks.

We didn't find any.

We did see plenty else though, an abundance of large bull rays gliding around and over the canyon walls of the gutters. Huge schools of red morwong - far more than I've ever seen in one place before.

There were several moray eels out swimming in the open water which I found unusual. As soon as they spotted us though, they retreated back to their rock crevices.

Lots of fish life and interesting geology made the dive a good one. There was a medium current, which we small into at the begining of the dive to get to and along the gutters. It then was so kind as to turn on us and we had to swim against it to return.

The current prevented us getting to the anchor again, and our safety stop had to be performed in open water with no reference - with the current as it was, this put us some distance from the boat.

I used my marker bouy. I have a scubapro dump fitted bouy, so all you need to do is inflate it and attach it to youself below the water line and it stands to attention for you and stays inflated - an excellent investment.

It was a long snorkle back against the current. The dive and current itself had been a bit much for Julia and I needed to help her the last few metres back to the boat. I don't think my legs have forgiven me yet :)

Sat 29 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Monague Island

The seals were even more playful today, and there were lots more in the water. They were coming right up to me - you could look into their large round eyes.

A current picked up soon after we got into the water with them, and Lennard got seperated from me. I looked around for a minute or two, but ended up having to tell Greg I'd lost him. This cut the dive a bit short.

Sun 09 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Montague Island, Lady Darling

The Lady Darling is an old boiler ship, wrecked in 1888, and only found in 1998, its in pretty good condition. Plenty of life has grown up on it, but it must get a fair current over it, nothing very large is growing there.

Its home to few large snapper and wrasse.

As far as wrecks go, this wasn't that bad. I'm not a huge fan os rusting hunks of metal, but I enjoyed this dive, nonetheless.

The profile is near perfect for a deep dive. A full 5 minutes safety stop. The Computer briefly went into deco just before ascending while I was waiting for Phil to come back to the anchor.

Sat 08 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Montague Island, The Gut

The Gut is a little bay on the side of the island formed where the two larger lobes come together and are joined by a narrow strip of land.

What a fantastic dive! Near perfect visibility, loads and loads of life - rays, sharks, wobbegongs, wrasse, large fish, eels.

At first the site looked quite barren - just large boulders with no plant life or sponges. This didn't seem to bother the truckload of large life that was loitering around though.

On the short snorkel back to the Nitro, we saw a ray on the bottom - we had enough air to go down and take a look. It turned out to be a quite large eagle ray sitting exposed on the rocks.

Sat 08 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Montague Island

Seals! What more can I say? These are truly remarkable creatures, and easily the most entertaining you're likely to meet under water.

Lennard and I were quite keen and ended up in the water first, and we spent some minutes with the seals on our own.

The seals would imitate every move we made. I took great delight in doing loop-the-loops and all 20 odd of the seals would do the same after watching me. The same went for barrel rolls.

An excellent experience.

Lennard had trouble with weight, and concentrating on his diving with the excitement of the seals. We cut the dive short and headed back after realising the problem was weight.

Sat 08 Nov 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Oak Park, The Cave

Fantastic to finally be in the water again after a nearly 3 month break. I stuffed up and arrived late to the shop because of Daylight Savings time (argh!) but it was OK, Geoff a visitor from Melbourne was just organising tanks and gear to join the club dive.

Geoff followed me to Oak Park, and we found the club dives going into the water already, so we took our time and did the dive on our own.

I was amazed at how well I can remember the site. I managed to get us all the way to the cave and urinal and back again without getting lost.

My new regulator was really working well - this was the first time I've made it to the cave with plenty of air to spare, my air consumption, even after being out of practise for so long, was better than ever.

Lots of brightly colour sea tulips on the dive, a big giant cuttlefish and some nudibranchs.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of diving again - I doubt the dive was really that spectacular, but the first time back, combined with the sense of acheivement of navigating and making it to the cave and back, made it special.

Geoff also thought it was special, which is great - hopefully he'll be back soon.

Sun 26 Oct 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Oak_Park | permalink

Oak Park, Fish Soup

Alison and Greg were kind enough to wait back for me out of the club dive, as Geoff only had the time to do one dive, and we'd just gotten out of the water.

We intended to head to 'fish soup' but ended up making it to the cave again. Lots of great things to see on the way, such as giant cuttlefish, large and small stingeree's, nudibranchs, starfish and sponges.

I'm really enjoying the improvement the switch I made for my light makes - I don't waste so much time trying to get the light on an off.

Sun 26 Oct 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Oak_Park | permalink

Kurnell, The Leap to Steps

A Port Jackson shark survey dive. I didn't have my camera, as my brother still has it from his trip to China.

I enjoyed my first dive back in a long time - it was good to be in the water, and watching the bubbles.

We only saw one very pregnant female PJ, not very ig, only 1 metre long. The season appears to be coming to an end.

There were a few other creatures of interest, but on the whole, generally very quite. Great conditions, just nothing around.

Sun 21 Sep 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

Ulladulla, North Bommie and Seal Cave

Ulladulla. Reasonable dive - the promise of a "Seal" in the cave. You'll have to look at the photo's to see what that meant :) I got stuck trying to swim through the cave - yikes ! Was a bit scary.

Eastern blue devilfish, and a few friendly wrasse.

Sun 27 Jul 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Ulladulla, Lighthouse Wall

Urg. Lots of current and surge. Relatively tough dive for my 100th, but you get that, I suppose. A Port Jackson shark, quite a big one, made the dive worthwhile though.

Getting back onto the boat was my biggest problem - no ladder! The idea was to kick up the side, grab hold of something and land yourself like a penguin. Ha! Fat chance (ie. none for me). I ended up getting out in the end, by dury rigging myself a foot hold out of a rope, so I could stand up high enough to grab something and have some leverage.

Ulladulla has a lot of things in common with Sydney diving, but with a few of the Jervis Bay elements - lots of starfish, more fan and soft corals and gorgonians, etc.

A similar dive to the last one, without the bad visibility and current problems. The dive site essentially a long wall in line with the shore, the top of which is largely boring, bu the wall face loaded with corals and plants and fish.

Towards one end of the wall, it broke up into large boulders everywhere. Lying under one was a massive bull ray - apprarently a permenant resident of the site.

Turning around and heading back the other way we followed the wall again until it broke up into a series of large boulders.

Loads of fish life, lots of large morwong and sweetlip about, and plenty of catfish and scorpionfish hiding in crevices and between the rocks.

Still no nudibranchs. Bugger.

Sat 26 Jul 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_South_Coast | permalink

Oak Park

A nice leisurely dive, and a really long one too. My time away doesn't seem to have effected diving any, in fact I think my breathing was the best its ever been.

Peter joined us as a group of three, he was running a Dive Master course on the day. He dragged us asside and told us that he would vanish after 3 minutes or so, and we would not see him for the rest of the dive. When we got back, we were to act dumb, like we were always a group of two.

That little nugget tucked firmly into our belts, we went off and had a brilliant dive.

My buddy took the nav for the first half or so. Well, actually we sort of traded back and forth. Neither of us was spectacularly sure where anything was. Nevertheless, we got right out to fish soup without actually meaning to, and went past the bubble cave (and its nearby urinal in the sand) on the way back.

Fish soup was excelent, the largest school of Old Wives I've ever seen, and another bigger school of fast moving kingfish.

Other than that, a big eagle ray early on in the dive made it interesting, after we disturbed him, he circled us for some time, always keeping right out on the perimiter of our sight, like a ghost.

THe exit was one of the toughest I've done in ages. Because of the wave action, we had to get out on the south side of the pool. The waves were merciless, dragging you back more than you went forward. Tough work. For the 2nd dive, we decided we'd head to the right (south) of the normal Oak Park reef, across the series of reef fingers that mark the entrance of the river mouth. Our exit point, the rocks at Bass and Flinders.

We attempted to do this, but found it pretty tough going, and the surge quite strong.

Peter decided to turn around after consultation with the two trainee DM's.

The decision was made to head back, and we did. As soon as we got back to where we started, I knew Peter was up to something, because we started to follow the reef out in the direction of the cave. After about 30 minutes, I was running low on air, and indicated this to my buddy (one of the DM's.) This didn't seem to do much, but eventually someone let Peter know for me. He responded that he was lost.

Well, A debate like it I've never seen so painfully drawn out with hand gestures and slates... heheh. I knew precisely which way it was to go back, but noone seemed interested. Finally, my air dipping way below what I thought I'd need to get back from about where I thought we were, I took matters into my own hands and made some pretty straight to the point gestures to Peter (Low on air, thats the way back, point).

We left them to it, arguing, and headed back. Again Peter was up to something, because he shot away as if out of a canon. They hadn't a clue we'd gone, or where.

The exit was no peach either, having worsened from before, and I was tired.

This was a good dive. Gave me some great insight into the mechanics of what it takes to be a DM (and a little of what not to do). I felt pretty good that I knew what was going on and that I knew where I was, although I admit I didn't have the pressure of responsibility to cloud my judgement.

A great dive, despite not seeing much.

Sun 06 Jul 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Oak_Park | permalink

South West Solitary Island - Groper Island

This dive site was much more remeniscent of Sydney dive sites, lots of broken rocks, large soft corals, crested horn sharks and of course, blue gropers. Enhanced, though, by a staggering abundance of fish and the addition of more northern species such as plate coral, anenome's and clownfish, and colorful wrasse.

At the beginning of the dive, a batfish was sticking closely to the mooring line, and seemed to be unfazed by the swarm of divers that descended around him. Inifinitely patient, he almost seemed to enjoy having his photograph taken.

Almost immediately I happened upon a wobbegong taking a morning nap in his natural hammock, a large plate coral. Sharks seemed to be a bit of a theme this morning, as the next thing we came accross was a crested horn shark.

Other highlights include a massive starfish, so big I could not touch its outstretched arms with mine, a black cowry shell with white spots (that appeared to emit light), and a lovely clown fishand anenome.

A fantastic dive, extremely relaxed and refreshing, and very nearly an hour long.

During the surface interval before this dive, a small manta ray made an appearance near the boat, but not before masquerading as a shark for a while (causing quite a stir) as it swept and turned while feeding a bit too far from the boat to be more positively identified.

After a bit of a snack, we got back into the water and found that the batfish was still swimming about near the mooring line, still as oblidging as ever. This time we went off to the west of the mooring and got down a little deeper to around 17 metres.

I finally spotted a nudibranch, having spend all of the previous dives looking out for them and not finding anything. I took over 20 photo's, but sadly only one was even remotely in focus - very strange.

Another cowry shell, and another crested horn shark rounded out this most excellent dive.

Sun 08 Jun 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

North Solitary Island, Anenome Bay, North West Rock.

The first morning of the trip and the weather was behaving itself for the first time in ages for me - calm, clear, not a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind - A fantastic day. The Pisces is a fairly small vessel, 7 metres long. Luanched from the main beach at Woolgoolga, it was a snack to get on. The 30 minute trip out to North Solitary Island was very calm and uneventful - not a single jump-slam for the entire trip out, which pleased me immensly.

North Island is quite small, little more than a lump of rock with a little grass clinging tenaciously to the very top and around the lower edges, we went past the island to a small lump of rocked topped with green called North West Rock, tied on to one of many moorings that are present throughout the island chain, and geared up for this dive.

Once in the water my ovservations from the boat were confirmed - the visibility was excellent, the boat lying in 16 metres, I could make out the fish at the bottom.

The rock was split so that a tinyier portion lies a little way away from the main rock, forming a channel, it was through this that we swam, starting at about 8metres in the channel and dropping down to 16 - 17 metres at the other side and explored the various rock ledges, walls and swim throughs on the other side before heading back.

There was a wobbegong in one of the swim throughs, along with dozens of huge painted and spotted sweetlip, thousands of smaller fish, and schools of larger fish above, it really deserved the name fish soup.

On the return journey under the boat at about 8 metres were a few patches of large anenome's each with a different species of clown fish as company. Moving from North West Rock, we made our way to North Solitary Island, and again the mooring points were quite numerous. We moored at a spot called Anenome Bay, David had told us that if w thise liked the anenome's on the previous dive, we would love this - he certainly was not wrong.

Once we'd had a little light refreshment and geared up again, it was back into the water to find that, if anything, the visibility was even better.

Descending down you became faintly aware that the sea floor was slightly fuzzy, indeed that it seemed to shimmer slightly. Approaching closer with the descent revealed that the bottom was covered with sea anenome's, shoulder to shoulder, as far as the eye could see, and with the amazing visibility, that was quite a distance.

The carpet of anenome's covered a vast area of the dive site, it was difficult to tell where each one sbegan and the previous finished. Anenome's with white tips, blue, yellow, red, or orange tips, thin tentacles, thick ones, bubbles on the end - the variety seemed endless. Each one had a colony of clown fish living amongst its protective fingers, the species of clown fish nearly as varied as the anenome's.

Most clown fish I've seen have been living on an anenome that is otherwise isolated. The fish tend to be very timid and shy and dive down into the heart of the anenome, or even under the rock it lives on in fear as you approach. Not so for the thousands of fish living on this margic carpet - the proximity and abundance of places to live must have nessesarily increased the competition for somewhere to live, because these clownfish were quite fearless and even agressive in their behaviour. They certainly weren't shy when you approached to take a photograph, even to the point of tapping the camera and your goggles if you got to close to their patch!

As if the anenome's weren't enough, a couple of Grey Nurse Sharks were lurking about in the gutters closer to the island, one of then being cleaned, and a juvenile lionfish was nearby - the first time I've seen on that A) has been in descent visibility - no clouds of sand, and B) hasn't immediately turned its back to me before I could get a photo.

Finally, the trip proved fruitfull, with a pair of humpback whales, one of them playful enough after we stopped to breach for us to see, magnificent.

This dive easily makes it into the category of best dives ever, absolutely magic.

Sat 07 Jun 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Titan and Shark Trip, North Haven

8 of us made the 385 kilometre journey north of Sydney on the eve of a busy and raining ANZAC day long weekend to try and find two behemoths lurking quietly in the deep dark places of the world � one natural, one artificial. One fresh and new and ultimately a failure, one perfected by millions of years of evolution. The wreck of the Titan, and the Grey Nurse Shark.

The Titan lies in around 40 metres of water about 3.5 km of the coast of Laurieton and North Haven NSW, and definitely qualifies as a deep dark place. The Cod Grounds are further out from the Titan, lying 5km off shore in around 30 metres of water and is home to a large population of large Grey Nurse sharks.

Setting out from Sydney early Thursday I realised with a sense of dread that the weather was not about to be nice to me. The dark clouds building to the north may have told me, or it might have been the bucketing rain that soaked me the second I stepped out of the house with my first arm load of gear.

I was sadly right. Clouds and cold clinging rain was our companion for the weekend, but that Thursday just before picking up Sam was the last time it bothered me for 3 straight days � diving awaited, not just normal diving, but great diving.

Our drive down was uneventful and cheery, passing through the small townships of regional NSW, and arriving safely at Kew, which is some 25 km�s from the coast. We made our way to Laurieton, and finally North Haven and without much problem our accommodation at the North Haven Boat Motel � formerly the �Boat-O-Tel� (an infinitely more appealing name, I thought).

The rooms were large and neat, the beds comfortable, and very shortly, the fridge was adequately stoked with a plentiful supply of beer. First dive was at 8am. Needless to say we promptly found our beds.

Peter from Scuba Haven was at the motel jetty to pick us up when we made the leisurely 50 metre stroll from our rooms with our gear and in our wetsuits, our first destination would be the Titan. The boat ride out was uneventful with the exception of the bar crossing at the mouth of the river, a rollercoaster like thrill.

Gearing up and jumping in the water gave us an idea of what the rest of the weekends diving would be like, the water was warm and a clear sapphire blue all the way down to the Titan, clear enough to give you a healthy dose of sunlight at even 40 metres.

The Titan was lying almost completely on its back in the sand, and is obviously a new wreck, the level of growth on the hull was quite low. We stayed fairly close to the bow of the wreck to avoid an overly deep dive, probing into the pitch black shadow of the cave formed between the wreck and the sand. A pair of performing moray eels was the highlight of the dive, using old anchor chain guides as a new home, followed closely by a large wobbegong lazing on the top of the hull with his tail draped into one of the hatches. As is the way with deeper dives, we were very soon out of time and left the Titan to its rusting and headed for the surface.

While at the deco stop we were treated to a bittersweet show of the rain on the surface of the ocean viewed from underwater � quite a show but an assurance that we were about to be cold and wet on the boat.

The weather had turned a bit for the worse and Peter decided that it would be best to head back in, we would try Telegraph Rock on the way. It turned out to be rather disappointing after the description Peter gave us, but the current and swell forced us to abort the diving for the day.

After a night of social shenanigans and beer and pizza, we were back on the boat at 8am, with the cheering news of an improvement in the weather and the even more cheering news that we were heading for the Cod Grounds and the sharks.

If anything, the visibility had only improved and the sapphire blue water welcomed us back. We could see the vague outlines of rocks on the bottom in 25 metres water. We were soon at the bottom and immediately spied several large grey nurse� slinking off into the distance. We headed off in the general direction they were heading and found a world of large boulders and rock pinnacles covered with sponges and weed.

We wandered a little way from the anchor line, and found a large cauldron shaped amphitheatre of rock full of sharks. Sam noticed that a few divers were not with us and went back to collect them, I perched on a rock in the centre and waited for him to return. There were already a few sharks around, but in the space of a minute or two that number rapidly grew to around 20 � sharks were leaving and joining the group all the time, but I could count at least that many at one point.

The rock in the centre of this amphitheatre made the perfect lap point for the sharks � they went around and around, the larger ones alone, the smaller ones in pairs. They got closer on each pass, so close that I couldn�t focus my camera on them anymore. I even got bumped by one. What a thrill.

Well, I think I�ll leave my story right there � it just doesn�t get any better than that. Peter and Scuba Haven were excellent and knowledgeable, the group of divers a fun bunch to be stuck with all weekend, and the sharks amazing. Thanks must go to Abyss for another trip away that allowed me to easily say �I had a truckload of fun, bet you�re miffed you missed it!� to anyone who asked.

Sun 27 Apr 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

North Haven, Cod Grounds

An amazing dive, from the moment we got in the water. The visibility was a spectacular 20 metres, you could make out the rocks on the bottom at a depth of over 25 metres.

Clear blue ocean water, warm surface and a thermocline on the way down. Amazing feeling of free falling through the clear water on the way down.

Sharks EVERYWHERE, a small ampitheatre of rocks was a just a little way off from the anchor and Sam left me on my own there for 5 to 8 minutes while he went back to check on the other divers in the group. 20 Grey Nurse in and arround the ampitheatre thought I was the attraction of the day and circled continuously looking at me. This only came to an end when the other dive boat servicing the area dropped its (painfull and anoying) divers in and they came storming into my little spot and drove away the sharks (bastards!).

We went off for a bit of an explore and found a huge wobbygong, lots of other large fish like Black Cod, catfish and Sergant Bakers. There was also several large and not timid schools of bullseyes.

Overall and amazing dive. Easily the most and biggest grey nurse I've ever seen - all of them were bigger than the largest at Magic Point in Sydney. Sadly the depth of the dive had us returning to the surface all to soon.

Sat 26 Apr 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_North_Coast | permalink

Little Bay

Last time I was at Little Bay I was a student and we stayed within the natural reef wall that crosses the mouth of the bay. I now know why. Once we crossed over into the ocean side of the wall, the current kicked in and tossed us around mercilessly.

We ended up on the completely wrong side of the bay, the right side when we were supposed to be diving the left.

Lots of work and diminishing air, bottom time was short. I was not enjoying myself.

Plenty of fish life around, though, and the odd giant cuttlefish. The current had died away and we were able to take full advantage of the amazing visibility for Sydney.

Thousands of fish and life once we got out in the bay a bit further, at abot 12 metres or so things picked up a bit.

Lots of nice rock ledges, holes and walls to explore.

Because the current was still around, the bottom time was dimished with extra work. Kevins air ran out quite quickly after we headed back and we had to snorkle quite a long way.

This was a much better dive though, Little Bay will be worth diving again.

Sun 19 Jan 2003 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney | permalink

Bare Island

Bare Island looked nearly perfect today, pin flat, crystal clear, not much wind and a nice warm sunny day.

Andrew, Phil and I decided to go in the left hand side of the island and head out and around the back as far as we could get.

An excellent dive. I could easily call it Nudibranch mating day, as I saw about 14 pairs of nudi's going at it. There was also an abundance of variable aphelodoris' around, which I'd not seen before and 1 other species I've not yet seen.

The dive was nice and leasuirely, and lasted for an hour comfortably - I still had 75 bar left at the end.This time we go in on the right hand side at the usual place and snorkelled out towards the back of the island before dropping down and heading back further into a deeper area of reef.

The visibility was not as good here, more than likely due to the large number of divers that had already been in, and the changing tide.

Not a lot to see out the back of the island, but we still saw a weedy sea dragon and a few nudibranchs.

The highlight of the dive was that Andrew spotted a Red-Indian fish right at the end of the dive. I had low air, no batteries left in the camera, but I still managed to get a couple of decent shots of my first Red-Indian fish.

We also came across a length of chain with a good length of rope attached. Andrew coilled up the rope to dispose of.

Another great dive - best time on an aluminium tank.

Sun 29 Dec 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Botany_Bay | permalink

Oak Park, Night (New Computer)

My first dive with my new dive computer, an Uwatec Aladin Air 2 Nitrox wrist computer with air integration. No consoles dangling from me, no crappy guages - I'm extremely pleased with it and how easy it makes getting the information you need at a glance. I'd left my camera at home, as I wanted to concentrate on using the computer and to not be lumbered if things went wrong.

The dive was extremely relaxing. I've not been for a little while, longer than I usually like between dives. We had a nice leasurly dive out along the lower edge of the oak park wall reef, and came back along the top of the wall.

The collection of rocky overhangs and other rock structures makes Oak Park a great night dive, there is lots to shine your torch into and explore.

We spotted an enormous wobbygong shark snoozing under one of these rock caves - he was easily longer than a diver.

Other items of interest was a pigmy seahorse, pointed out by Kellie and lots of large nudibranchs. There were quite a few splendid chromodoris about, and unusually, they were quite large ones.

I found I got quite cold towards the end of the dive which is unsual for me, especially considering the temperature of the water. I think it must be that I've lost too much weight for the wetsuit I usually hire and it doesn't fit as snugly as it should to prevent water circulatiing around.

Wed 18 Dec 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Oak_Park | permalink

Gordons Bay

Gordons Bay during the day is definately not as good as the writhing life display it is at night. We spent nearly an hour underwater, and aprat from a few large Red Morwong, saw very very litte. It was quite rough though, and this tends to send animals to ground.

I did se my little green "Lined Tamjba" again though, holding on for grim life to the bottom of a weed.

I was aslo suppremely hungover, so it wasn't a great dive. It was still enjoyable, just dissapointing...

Sat 30 Nov 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney | permalink

Gordons Bay

I�ve never before seen so much life on a single dive. Everywhere you shone your light there were hundreds of little things (and not so little things) scurrying for cover. There were sea hares, brittle stars, hermit crabs, hinge back shrimp, baby squid, nudibranchs, and fish, large and small.

Being a particularly warm evening, the water at the surface was correspondingly warm, but seemed to be quite cold at the 10 metre mark � about 16 degrees I�d say. The cold, surprisingly, was the reason we finished early � our air consumption was going very well � after 45 minutes, I still had 120 bar.

The water was flat as a pin and entry and exit was a snack. We followed a wall off to the right of the entry point and headed in a sort of circle around the inner part of the bay. The wall was fantastic. The wall was covered in weeds at the top, 4 to 5 metres high with crevices and caves everywhere. Sea hares mating in the weeds, wonderfully coloured plant life and large red morwong were in abundance.

The nudibranchs were the highlight of the dive. I saw 5 new ones � one�s I�d not seen before, 2 of them I�ve yet to see in a book Its such a buzz to see new things, especially as exotic as the nudibranchs we encountered. I even managed to get splendid photos of them.

All around this dive was an excellent end to a sweltering work day. It is easily a 5 star dive. [[thumb|

Mon 25 Nov 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney | permalink

Camp Cove

What an excellent night dive. We essentially just pottered about in 8 to 12 metres of water, in perfectly clear and calm water. I had a smaller that normal tank and still had air to burn - we turned back because it was cold!

A couple of Octopus, a small one in 3 metres right at the start of the dive, and later a large one that was feeding. It leaped on a fish, pumped water under its tentacles and started feeding - was quite spectacular.

We also saw a created horn shark, unfortunately he was a little ill with some fin rot. There were nudibranchs, including one I'd not seen before, dwarf lionfish (scorpionfish) and lots of cardinalfish.

On the return journey along the reef wall, it was well after dark and another animal I had not seen before was out an about. The Metabonellia haswelli echiurans (worms) were probing around with their bright green forked proboscis. If you shone light onto them, they immediately retracted - usually back under a rock. Its was quite cool to watch 10 to 20 of them simultaneuos vanish from sight with the passing of a light.

Overall an excellent way to spend a Friday evening (healthier than alcohol!).

Fri 15 Nov 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney | permalink

Bare Island, Left and Right Side

Philip and I tagged along with another 2 divers from the club. This day at Bare Island there must have been 200 divers - possibly because it was so rough elsewhere. We decided to get in on the right side first and swim out around the back as far as possible before dropping down so as to avoid the other divers as much as possible. It was very hard going. Snorkling in rought sea is NOT my idea of fun. We saw a huge wobbygong - scare the pants off me because he was coming up the other side of a boulder I was swimming over. I raced after him for a shot, but he vanished... There were some huge nudibranchs, particularly a large Splendid glosodoris on an otherwise bare rock. Biggest nudibranch I've seen to date. I didn't really enjoy this dive to much - lots of swimming on the surface, and the other divers seemed to need to be somewhere else all the time, rather than appreciating the things that we saw...Same people again, but after the last time a bit more content to have a relaxing dive. Last time I did the left side of Bare Island, several large caves and hollows had massive giant cuttlefish in them. These had been replaced with smaller juveniles. We saw the odd weedy sea dragon, and quite a few Violet Pteraeolidia nudibranchs high on the reef walls.

Sun 10 Nov 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Botany_Bay | permalink

The Steps and The Leap, Kurnell

Paolo was content to drift along slowly and didn't mind that I was taking pictures. I also new the dive site a bit, so he was happy to let me lead (which is rare at the moment, and a bit of a thrill).

Lots of baby cuttlefish on this dive, 15cm's max. Paola passing his hand over one and it changing every colour in the rainbox made for some great video clips as well.Paolo was content to drift along slowly and didn't mind that I was taking pictures. I also new the dive site a bit, so he was happy to let me lead (which is rare at the moment, and a bit of a thrill).

Lots of baby cuttlefish on this dive, 15cm's max. Paola passing his hand over one and it changing every colour in the rainbox made for some great video clips as well.

Sun 20 Oct 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

Tabbagai and Weedy Wall

Lots of murky black algae in the water made the bottom at 30 metres dark as night. It was definately torch diving. Lots and lots of nudibranchs out, and the light made for good photo's. Still lots of black algae around, but this time the nudibranchs were out everywhere, including 4 mating pairs, which was a real thrill. Very difficult nav because of the vis and the current, we all got slightly lost and needed to use the reel to ascend.

Sun 13 Oct 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney | permalink

The Leap and The Steps

Lots of nudibranchs out!

Sat 14 Sep 2002 | /Diving/Australia/NSW_-_Sydney/Kurnell | permalink

The Cliffs, Lady Musgrave Island

Jason�s cold had got the better of him, so I was buddies with Tim again. This spot is called �The Cliffs� and it lives up to its name well. It consist of a couple of levels of reefs, running along in high walls.

We moved along the right hand side of one wall and got down to about 18 meters before turning back. The wall was covered in sea anemone�s giant clams, assorted corals and lots of little nooks and crannies. There were fish everywhere, lots or Moorish Idols and Angelfish, moon wrasse, triggerfish and sergeants.

Tim indicated he had a problem with his air, which I couldn�t work out precisely why at the time, but we headed back. It was quite a swim back as it turned out, because the current had changed direction.

Tim had snagged his reg on his jump from the boat, and the reg and the first stage were leaking air. This can be seen in a couple of the photos below. This time we decided to go the high side of the wall we just looked at and head up into much shallower water to look at the smaller fish and the coral.

The current had died down. We found the top of the wall and swam along the top of it. The top was similar to the previous dive along the bottom of the wall.

After a short time, we came to a field of small bommies interspersed with gutters of sang. It was quite nice to swim along these channels, looking under ledges, or swimming over the small bommies. Again, so of the bezt colour was to be found in around 6 metres of water or less. The fish life was spectacular, in all the colours of the rainbow.

We headed back at about 110 bar, because I remembered the sort of swim back we had last time. In slightly deeper water, we came across a small group of Emporer Snapper. No wonder they call these guys snapper, they have huge mouths. While looking at the snapper, a single small manta ray came swimming past and did a large circle around us and moved off between us and the boat.

I was glad to see the German couple, Simone and Thomas at the anchor chain when we got back � almost certainly they had seen the manta. Their luck had not been good in this department and had missed each on so far.

Tim had not seen one either, and the guys had also seen it, so it turned out to be an excellent finishing dive to a great trip.

Mon 19 Aug 2002 | /Diving/Australia/QLD_-_Great_Barrier_Reef | permalink

Lady Musgrave Is, Split Bommie

We�d gone inside the lagoon at Lady Musgrave Island to a spot just inside the entrance � Split Bommie. The bommie was just about breaking the surface, so prior to this dive we went over to look at it with only a snorkel. We were keen to have a look around at the base now, after we�d seen the caves and swim-through�s it offered.

The boat lay in around 10 meters of water, and was a stones throw from two bommies, the one we�d just looked at, split bommie, and another not far away. Tracey had also told us about a small bommie off to the right of the main one which was home to a large black moray eel. This clinched it, we�d take in all the bommies, ending with the moray eel.

We didn�t spend too long at split bommie, as we�d seen most of it snorkelling. We did a couple of laps around the base, and swam through the splits. We also had a quick foray into the cave at the bottom of the bommie. Inside the cave, Tim spotted a shark, and indicated as much to us. Knowing that usually the only sharks that live in caves are wobbygongs, I went back in very carefully, not able to see what he was talking about. I came back out for more clarification and found out there was another chamber off to the right. Back inside I saw what all the fuss was about � a largish white tip reef shark having a wee nap on the bottom in the safety of a cave.

We left the split bommie and