SS Royal Shepherd

Richard and I dived on the SS Royal Shepherd today(see Michael McFadyens description). It was kind of lucky really as we were bound for The Colours further south. On our way we saw the Frog Dive boat anchored. The Frog Dive driver kindly let is hook upand run down his anchor line. Three cheers Frog Dive!

On the bottom we were greeted with 1m or less of vis. It was actually quite interesting to be tested and probably added to the dive. There was nota lot in the way of fish life but for a mechanical engineer all the mechanicals bits of the boat were there to see!

I must dive more wrecks...

ps. as this was a new site for the duck it has been added to my maps page

Midway... and SWR Video

Went diving at Midway Reef today off Dee Why. The boat ramp at Long Reef was still buried in sand from the 6m swells a few weeks ago!

Vis was amazing and 12 months on from this there was only a single tiny cuttle fish.

Check out the video here

and also the SWR video here

100 Dives... at South West Rocks

I clocked up dive 99, 100, 101, 102 and 103 at South West Rocks over Easter!

Dive 100 was in the cave!!! and no I wasnt nude... (the water was too cold)

Dive 99 was almost on the Valiant a week earlier... 6m swells had washed the bouy away so we didnt go down. Probably a good thing.

SWR is an amazing place. We camped at Arakoon at the old gaol. Friday and Saturday we dived fish rock with South West Rocks Dive (John was the boat driver and guide). These guys are an excellent operation. Unfortunately their compressor blew up so on Sunday we were faced with a $15 fill at Fish Rock Dive Centre. Outrageous... a nitrox fill should not cost this much and it was really just shameless profiteering. They should be ashamed and I for one will not be diving with them ever... especially with the professional operation down the road. Three cheers to SWR Dive.

The fishlife and quality of diving is amazing. We saw turtles, rays as well as GNS on every dive (except our shore dive). We dove the tunnel twice and on the second day we passed through twice on the one dive! Even Goal Reef is underrated! We saw loads of juvenile fish (even clown fish) and 2 turtles.

Closing In On 100 Dives

Logged my 98th dive today (I think). With various PC problems and a broken strap on my dive computer i figure that since my last update I have done 2 dives at Harbord and 2 dives at North Head.

Matt P, Richard and I are going to Southwest Rocks at Easter so I might be celebrating dive 100 up there... of course if dive 100 must be done nude then I might try and knock it off earlier!

Crystal Clear Water

I dived the Apartments today with my brother, Jason. Whilst the weather wasn't great with a strong wind, chop and showers, the boat ride out revealed a deep blue water. Once we put our masks on we could clearly see the bottom 20m below. Amazing. I've never seen such clear water anywhere. The whole dive site was clearly visible. It was a little disorienting to be honest as everything was so different. Regardless it was a fantastic dive. Interestingly it was also the warmest water I have dived in Sydney since I got my computer in April 2004.