Dragon Alley off Barrenjoey Dive 6
Our Dive Rating |
|
Entry |
** |
Scenery |
** |
Navigation |
*** |
Exit |
* |
Crew Friendliness |
* |
Over all |
1.8 |
Out of three |
|
More fish !! Gee there seems to be a lot of them underwater.
Barrenjoey Point Dive 8
Our Dive Rating |
|
Entry |
Nil |
Scenery |
*** |
Navigation |
* |
Exit |
Nil |
Crew Friendliness |
Nil |
Over all |
0.8 |
Out of three |
|
It seemed all of that !!
Visibility was 5 to 10 m.
In my haste to get out of the boat , and therefore calm my stomach , I think I made my first mistake. I don't think the band on my mask was positioned right and I didn't check it.
We had no line to get down and it was difficult , till Tony persuaded me to go down headfirst. This is where my mask started to fill with water , slowly enough for me to think it was simply a clearing problem.
Meanwhile Illana and Scot were trying to get down. They got down to 10 m. But Illana couldn't clear her ears , so up they went. Tony and I had no idea they were back in the boat getting seasick. Illana , also in some pain.
Tony and I saw a weedy sea dragon with eggs. Meanwhile I kept clearing my mask ! Just as I was wondering how I was going to stop this and started to tighten it. My mask came off in my hands. This is where I made my second mistake.
I should have dumped all the air in my BC and fixed up the mask on the bottom. Unfortunately this was the first time it had come off , when I hadn't planned it. So I simply put it back on and cleared it. But in doing so I drifted up to about 10 m.
So I then simply dropped back down , expecting that Tony was able to see what I was doing. No I was wrong. I must have sucked too much air and ascended too fast. Tony had lost track of me. He did look for my bubbles , but found other divers' bubbles instead of mine.
So up he went and back to the boat. This did not do Illana much good. She was now worried as well as sick and in pain.
I waited a few minutes , in case Tony was close and could find me. Then I started up. Looking for bubbles on the way ( I saw none ). I came up swiftly only doing a couple of brief stops on the way.
When I hit the surface I looked around and found the boat. It was not too far away. But the swell made it seem like many miles. I swam towards it , but each time I bobbed up I was off course. Sometimes to the left , sometimes to the right. I tried taking a compass bearing and following that. But the needle was moving too erratically from the swell. And getting seasick while swimming !
I got closer and closer to the boat. Slowly. It seemed I was going as far off course as I was getting towards the boat. But Illana tells me it was not as bad as it seemed to me.
I suppose I was about half way there when Tony grabbed his fins , mask and snorkel and came to help. I guess Tony must have been a bit frustrated when the ' captain ' told him earlier to get in the boat and take his gear off.
After all that I lost my weight belt when I got back to the boat. I had even tightened it when I surfaced ! It just slipped away.
We waited for the other pair of divers , then the boat lurched back.
Reverse peristalsis is a wonderful thing !!
Dragons Dive 15
Our Dive Rating |
|
Entry |
** |
Scenery |
** |
Navigation |
** |
Exit |
** |
Crew Friendliness |
**** |
Over all |
2.4 |
Out of three |
|
Things went astray when we got to the Valiant. There was Mark with his little boat trying to find the mooring line. It had been cut.
Ian moved to where he knew the Valiant to be. But could not locate the line. Eventually Mark moves over to where Ian started to look and sends down a diver to look for the line. After a few trys the diver finds it.
His divers go down. He refuses to let us tie off him, he refuses to let us use the mooring line that a diver from his boat went down and retrieved for him, in fact he threatens that if we do he will drop the line on us while we are down there diving!
All this took about an hour! So I am feeling a 'little' sick by now. Ian and Matt decide to take us elsewhere. I jump into the water, go up to the bow to wait for Illana. Where it all seems too close and there is too much tossing around. When my weight belt slips I decide to abandon the dive. Illana goes down with Matt, but she too abandons the dive with a fin problem.
When the others are back in the boat we head off to Palm Beach for lunch. After which the other divers decide they need to head off. That left Matt, Ian and ourselves.
The water is a little choppy so we decide to do a nice little dive off the point. It was a good little dive 12 metres for 32 minutes. Saw pottery and bottles that had been encrusted. And my first Cuttlefish.
'Diver Transport' is a nice boat and I would recommend Ian and Matt from Pro Dive to anyone.
Dragons Dive 24
Our Dive Rating |
|
Entry |
** |
Scenery |
*** |
Navigation |
** |
Exit |
** |
Crew Friendliness |
**** |
Over all |
2.6 |
Out of three |
|
It was so colourful down there. So many different coloured sponges etc!
Ian found a weedy sea dragon and passed it to us to hold! Yes folks, we held a dragon!
We played a quick game of ' hand ball ' with small sponge.
Later we came across a groper who seemed to know Ian. It would simply not leave him alone. Insisting that Ian feed it.
Our Dive Site Ratings |
|
Scenery |
2.5 |
Navigation |
2 |
Over all |
2.25 |
Out of three |
|
