Fairy Bower, 24th November 2007

Dive No. 281. 10.55 am, 19 degrees, 64 mins, 7.6 max, 6.1 av
We (Liz, Caroline and Chris and I) headed east from the beach (submerged at high tide) to see if any dusky whaler sharks had started their Manly summer sojourn. We didn't see any of these sleek juveniles so we slowly meandered back towards the western side. I kept losing everyone else and, after surfacing a few times to look for the others, eventually crossed over to the western side by myself where I nearly tripped over a large, sleeping wobbegong. A dwarf lion-fish was the main attraction (I wonder if he was swept down from the tropics by some weird current) and there were plenty of drummer, blackfish, mullet, yellowtail, leatherjackets, morwongs, and assorted wrasse.

Bare Island, Western Side, 17th November 2007

Dive No. 280. 10.53 am, 18 degrees, 64 mins, 14.6 max, 11.3 av

Liz, Sharon, Caroline and I decided to do the western side rather than go with the large group led by club DM Leeza, who opted for the eastern entrance. Liz was fired up by a reported sighting of an eastern blue devil fish by Caroline three weeks ago on the western side and was determined to see it and maybe a Red Indian fish as well. The conditions on the surface were perfect on all sides of the island and we entered via the “rock-pool” on the western side and soon hit a cold thermocline. It was a lovely dive even though we didn’t get to the holy grails of the eastern blue devil fish or the Red Indian fish or even a relatively commonly-sighted weedy sea dragon (or seedy wee dragon, as Leeza calls it). We did see two green (or golden?) moray eels, a crested horn shark resting amongst the colourful sponges, some squid (they’re smart and fast so it’s very hard to get close to them - they fix you with those intelligent eyes as they swim away from you, backwards), cuttlefish - both little and giant, lots of blue gropers and a few nudibranchs. Liz and Caroline lost us on the way back; Sharon and I surfaced after looking around for a little while and I was surprised to find how far west we were when we surfaced (about 10 metres west of a small fishing boat!). It seemed as if we were at least 50 metres from the point and we’d already swum a fair way east so the reef must go a long way west.

Fairlight, Saturday 3rd November 2007

Dive no. 279 63 minutes, 9.1 metres max depth, water temp=20 degrees.

The weather was cold and it had been raining heavily across Sydney the night before, so the dive seemed anything but propitious. Dive 2000 DM Dave Young led me and a motley bunch of clubbies, including the ever-faithful Liz Brodie (now an old salt after her 200th dive the week before) and as soon as we’d plunged in off the rock shelf west of the pool and beach we were surprised that the vis was fantastic - much better than I’ve ever seen in the numerous dives I’ve done at Fairlight. The water temperature was a comfortable 20 degrees too so we were in for a great dive, as Fairlight is critter heaven, with numerous rock formations, overhangs and amphitheatres full of sponges, nudis and various fish, including some tropical species! On this dive there were plenty of rock cods lying on barrel sponges and some great nudibranchs, plus the usual morwongs, gropers, surgeon fish, yellowtail, parmas, etc. On the eastern end, near the swimming pool, there were some interesting tropical fish and Dave reckons there’s hard coral there as well. We also saw a small cuttle and a small giant cuttle. Liz has seen turtles here but I’ve never been lucky enough to see one of those magnificent reptiles south of Fish Rock. We surfaced after about an hour and everyone was suitably impressed and pleasantly surprised by the good conditions.

Bare Island, Western Side, Saturday 27th October 2007

Dive no. 278 52 minutes, 15.1 metres max depth, water temp=17.This dive was much better than any of our group thought it would be. There was a bit of a swell coming in from the north east and the tide was very high when we entered at the “ramp”. Despite the north east swell and breeze, there was a medium-strength current coming from the west. Liz and I headed off to the sponge gardens with a retinue of divers as Peter (divemaster) sorted out a logistical problem on shore. Usually when I’m leading the pack and heading west at Bare, I experience slight trepidation at what seems like an endless expanse of featureless sand and this time was no exception but, again as usual, the reef suddenly loomed out of the nothingness and we were in a wonderland of colourful sponges and weird critters. We’d already passed a shovel-nosed ray lying half-asleep in the sand and I was taking a video of the mass of jellyfish that had suddenly materialized when Liz beckoned excitedly with her torch – she’d found a weedy sea dragon (it might have been the same one we saw at the exact same spot last week). It was nice to watch him feed as he slowly glided over the sandy bottom. There was a plethora of multicoloured nudibranchs, including some strange filigreed ones. Later I found a crested horn shark lying on a sponge (see pic) and there was a pair of black-reef leatherjackets on the way back. The current from the west made the return trip into a drift dive of sorts, which was nice. The only downside to the whole dive was that we missed a Red Indian Fish that a few of the other divers saw and Liz was devastated that Peter and Carolyn saw an Eastern Blue Devil Fish, which we also somehow missed (Liz has never seen one, whereas I’ve been lucky enough to get a glimpse of one under a rock ledge at the north eastern side of Bare, off the mainland).

Dive Log Complete to 20th October 2007

277. Bare Island Western side, 20th October 2007
10.53 am, 18 degrees, 56 mins, 15.9 max, 11.6 av
Dave DM + 18 divers all up!

I buddied with Liz who was on her 200th dive and keen for me to take many photos of her underwater holding up a modified Dive 2000 sign (with one zero crossed out). Weedy Sea Dragon, plenty of variously coloured nudis, cuttlefish, squid, really large red morwong, a large blue groper came within one centimetre of my face. I had trouble with mask-flooding: could be due to the hood getting some of my expelled air in it and then pushing the straps open a bit - a blew the air in after I felt a bit of mask squeeze; also had problems with negative buoyancy, I kept adding air to the BC to compensate for depth and negative buoyancy but when I tried to expel air at the safety stop, no air came out and at the end of the dive a lot of water came out of the BC.

276. Shelly Beach 13th October 2007
10.43 am, 18 degrees, 56 mins, 11.6 max, 7.6 av
Jean-Paul DM plus a whole bunch of ring-ins. Problems from the start with one diver aborting because of tank issues. Then two divers got lost quickly, we surfaced and waited but they didn’t follow correct procedure. I took my buddy and the other two back down while JP went to look for the errant two. The other two in my group promptly got lost. The dive was boring, hardly any fish except for a blue groper and some other green gropers, a school of surgeonfish of small size and the usual suspects of small fish like mados, parmas, etc. It’s been a while since I’ve been around the point at Shelly and I was surprised to see the rocks covered in a slimy algal growth. Hope this isn’t the start of something awful - maybe a lack of algae eating creatures like sea-urchins or drummer?

275. Bare Island Western side 6th October 2007
10.49 am, 18 degrees, 57 mins, 14.6 max, 10.7 av
The underwater vis was a bit disappointing because the above-water prospect water looked so clear as we walked across the bridge on the way to the site (western side). Large group, Peter was DM and I was buddied with Liz.

274. The Pipeline, Nelson Bay 1st October 2007
11.38 am, 18 degrees, 75 mins, 13.7 max, 11 av
Critter heaven - a plethora of different nudis plus octopus, blue-ringed and otherwise, decorator crabs, seahorses, lots of soft corals looking like purplish cauliflowers.

273. Wreck of The Oakland, Port Stephens 30th September 2007
2.52 pm, 17 degrees, 33 mins, 25.9 max, 19.8 av
I lost my hat on the trip out - a sudden wind gust! Entry and exit were hairy but the dive was good. Blind sharks, striped catfish, estuarine catfish, dwarf wobbies, morwongs, large-ish squids, fortesque (which congregated on the sandy bottom just near the bow of the wreck). Everyone was pretty stoked by this dive, though I was slightly blasé after diving The Yongala recently!.

272. Fly Point, Nelson Bay 30th September 2007
10.33 am, 18 degrees, 50 mins, 19.5 max, 13.1 av
Great sponge gardens, decorator crab, blue-ringed octopus, crested horn shark - Liz and I got lost and ended up on the beach only a metre or so below the keel of a large yacht with its engine running! A frightening experience and Liz almost lost it back at the car-park when the enormity of our close-shave hit her, she had a few tears. We'd missed out on going with the main group owing to some snafu and, after Scot and his buddy headed back to shore, Liz and I went on, hoping that our meagre navigation skills would get us to the best sponge gardens. We went too far south and ended up in a sandy section, full of the purple soft coral that look like weird cauliflowers. I knew we were headed for shore as the water was slowly getting shallower but the sound of boats was getting louder and more ominous. Suddenly Liz grabbed me and pointed upwards - the sight of that large keel just above our heads and the sound of the engine running was unnerving to say the least. I could only think “the boat can’t go any shallower" so I headed for the shallower water, slightly possessed by panic. We made it okay but it “put the wind up us”!

271. Cabbage Tree Island, Port Stephens, 29th September 2007
2.45 pm, 19 degrees, 53 mins, 12.2 max, 9.1 av
Choppy ride out on the port. Once we descended and swam past a sculpture(!) I became aware of the strong current, which we were swimming against. The only consolation was that the hard work kept me warm but I was having a bit of trouble catching up to the group after the usual equalization issues left me behind. The low vis didn’t help either and at one stage I mistook another diver for Liz, my buddy (and it was a bloke too)! Once we got to the rocks that come down from the island side we could use them to pull ourselves along. This is the same site I did with Lambo years ago, with a small, scattered wreck. The best part was coming across a red indian fish and later I came across another two. They “play dead” by looking even more like a sponge or leaf and going limp, lying on their side, probably the only defense they have as they can't swim at all fast. Next to the RIF was a shovel-nosed ray, which was ignored by all the photographers and appeared slightly miffed.

270. Halifax Point, Nelson Bay, 29th September 2007
9.49 am, 18 degrees, 49 mins, 25.5 max, 14 av
Dwarf wobbies, bullseyes, nudis, rock cods, blue gropers, small shovel-nosed ray.

269. Shelly Beach - southern end, 23rd September 2007
2.46 pm, 18 degrees, 74 mins, 7 max, 4.9 av
UW Photo course dive with Kevin Deacon as DM plus Liz, Amanda and Sharon.

268. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, Byron Bay, 12th September 2007
11.12 am, 20 degrees, 49 mins, 22 max, 12.8 av
As usual, Julian Rocks delivered a nice relaxing dive, with Mark as DM, though the vis was ordinary. Four large grey nurse sharks cruised by, eagle ray, potato cod in the distance, golden trevally, morays, blue gropers, nudibranch, lionfish, sweetlips, wobbies, etc.

267. HMAS Brisbane wreck, Off Mooloolaba, Queensland, 10th September 2007
10.59 am, 20 degrees, 43 mins, 22.9 max, 14.3 av
This dive was a full “penetration” dive - we entered near the stern and headed through the ship towards the bow - lots of strange passageways and stairways - quite impressive. Swarms of bulls-eyes congregated on the small rooms off the passageways. Claustrophobia is avoided by constant viewing of large side windows to the left and right, letting in plenty of light. The surge made going through some of the doorways a little difficult. The surge later, right near the bow, in shallower water (while doing safety stop) was pretty hairy in a couple of instances.

266. HMAS Brisbane wreck, Off Mooloolaba, Queensland, 10th September 2007
9.15 am, 20 degrees, 47 mins, 25.9 max, 14.6 av
Poor vis made the huge wreck less impressive: I was never able to see more than a few metres at a time. I expected to see some metal but the entire ship is covered with barnacles, except some of the metal “ropes”. Lots of little fish, including bulls-eyes, later saw some trevallies but nowhere near as impressive as Yongala.

265. Yongala wreck, Off Ayr, Queensland, 7th September 2007
11.57 am, 22 degrees, 47 mins, 20.4 max, 13.7 av
Great dive with so many large pelagics swarming all over the place, plus plenty of resident reef fish (even though there’s no reef as such - no rocks whatsoever!); Queensland groper (giant!) looking very cranky under the bow section. Plenty of turtles and sea snakes too.

264. Yongala wreck, Off Ayr, Queensland, 7th September 2007
10.02 am, 22 degrees, 40 mins, 27.7 max, 16.5 av
Deep diving course for my advanced: at 27.7 metres, I had to count from 1 to 16 on a slate, sorting out the jumbled numbers and touching the tip of my nose in between each successive number. Bull ray, strange trevally with a chunk taken out of it, maybe a missing dorsal fin; some great feeding frenzies from the pelagics, darting into little nooks and crannies and scattering the little reef fish all over the place, barracuda, trevally (jacks), all sorts of other fish.

263. Yongala wreck, Off Ayr, Queensland, 6th September 2007
11.54 am, 22 degrees, 56 mins, 20.5 max, 14 av
Aborted first dive due to unease because of sickness and replacement mask flooding. The second dive was good with plenty of huge fish: giant trevally, humphead wrasse, batfish, fusilers, parrotfish, large golden moray, manta ray plus turtles and olive sea snakes. Amazing display of humpback whales breaching almost fully out of the water on the way back.

262. Shelly Beach, 25th August 2007
10.55 am, 17 degrees, 66 mins, 7.3 max, 5.2 av
No DM, visibility quite good considering, plus the water was almost warm. Plenty of PJs around plus an aggressive giant cuttlefish that “attacked” Liz, attracted to her silver shaker. Snapper, drummer, surgeons - a great deal of fish. Also saw a purple anemone, rather than the usual red and green ones.

261. Fairy Bower, 18th August 2007
10.41 am, 16 degrees, 60 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
DM Peter; Liz and another Jean Paul as buddies. Large schools of yellowtail, drummer, mullet and maybe surgeon; octopus; two PJs (mating?); large spotted cod snuck away before anyone else saw him.

260. Bare Island (southern entrance), 11th August 2007
10.49 am, 15 degrees, 51 mins, 18.6 max, 11.9 av
At least half a dozen PJs; small long pipefish with hardly any discernible fins; Amanda and Sharon saw a red indian fish but no-one else did; a couple of PJ eggs and squid or cuttlefish eggs all over the place. Apart from that, the usual suspects: mados, morwongs, parmas, gurnards, Sgt Bakers, hulafish, etc. We entered at a point further south than I’ve ever been at BI, then headed west and down to 18.5 metres, then north and east back to the usual exit point.

259. Fairy Bower, 28th July 2007
10.39 am, 15 degrees, 63 mins, 7 max, 4.9 av
Fiddler ray, PJ, octopus, GC.

258. Camp Cove, 21st July 2007
10.44 am, 14 degrees, 61 mins, 6.4 max, 4.3 av
DM peter. Very cold! Couple of seahorses, some nudibranchs, LJs, morwongs - red and crested, plenty of small fish.

257. Camp Cove, 7th July 2007
10.54 am, 16 degrees, 67 mins, 6.4 max, 4.6 av
DM Dave. Cold!, seahorses, lots of pairs of little cuttlefish, largeish octopus, nudis.

256. Shelly Beach, 30th June 2007
10.55 am, 18 degrees, 56 mins, 11.0 max, 7.6 av
DM Dave Young. Very cold, even though it was still 18 degrees - perhaps it was because we were moving slowly, or that it was a bit boring because of the terrible vis. Nothing much of note at all until we came across a Giant Cuttlefish that seemed in playful mood; he even followed us for a while.

255. Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower, 23rd June 2007
10.45 am, 18 degrees, 71 mins, 7.6 max, 5.2 av
After all the rain and storms, everywhere was either too rough or polluted, except for Shelly or Fairy. Vis was terrible, there were eight of us with Liz, Sharon and me as a team; we soon separated from the rest and slowly headed to the western side of Fairy. The highlight was a beautiful, large fiddler ray; plenty of mullet, yellowtail, blackfish, tarwhine, drummer, in small schools. The swim back was quite grueling and seemed to take forever, even though it was probably only about 15 minutes.

254. Stingray Reef, Trial Bay, SouthWest Rocks, 11th June 2007
12.20 pm, 21 degrees, 18 mins, 5.5 max, 4.6 av
Little reef just north of the rocks on the beach at Trial Bay, near the shops. Nothing much of note, except stacks of bream and yellowtail.

253. Bait Reef, SouthWest Rocks, 11th June 2007
11.46 am, 21 degrees, 15 mins, 8.5 max, 6.4 av
Churn was so intense that we aborted after 15 minutes, though Liz was enjoying it!

252. Ladies Reef, Trial Bay, SouthWest Rocks, 11th June 2007
9.31 am, 21 degrees, 72 mins, 10.1 max, 8.2 av
Nice play dive after we travelled out to Fish Rock and decided not to dive there because the conditions were terrible. The other boat, crewed by Kevin and Murray, was already disgorging divers, and they later said that the vis was good and that the churn wasn’t nearly as bad as you would think from the terrible surface conditions.
Ladies Reef is small, maybe a bit less than half a football pitch in area, with masses of soft corals, sponges, crinoids of all sizes and colours and plenty of macro critters including some ghost pipefish. I took a lot of photos of a golden moray, who exited from one nook where he was snuggling up to a porcupine fish. There were a few octopi, though none came out of their lairs; lots of yellowtail cruising around, plus plenty of rock cod, rock kale, parmas and assorted little reef fishes like boxfish, angel fish and garfish.

251. The Gutter, Fish Rock, SouthWest Rocks, 9th June 2007
10.25 am, 21 degrees, 39 mins, 27.7 max, 15.5 av
Shorter dive because my computer kept threatening to send me into deco! The same thing happened to everyone else too so I suppose it was because we went deeper on this dive than on the first. Ghost pipefish on a black coral tree (an orange black coral tree!), large loggerhead turtle trying to sleep with two lionfish cruising close by. Still plenty of GNS. We also saw two humpback whales about 100 metres from the boat in between our two dives.

250. The Gutter, Fish Rock, SouthWest Rocks, 9th June 2007
8.41 am, 21 degrees, 44 mins, 26.5 max, 18.3 av
Pretty rough weather (cyclone-force winds further down the coast around Newcastle; the drive up was fairly wild, with a severe rain/hailstorm dropping the vis to about 5 metres - we had to pull over on the freeway and wait for it to pass, it was quite scary). Big swell plus plenty of chop, took me a while to descend and I used up a bit of air stressing about trying to get away from the surface waves. Down below there was plenty of back-and-forth churning and the conditions meant we had virtually no choices of where to dive: the Gutter or nothing. There were lots of GNS down there but not a great deal else except some lovely small clownfish and blue fusiliers, etc.

249. Fairy Bower, 2nd June 2007
10.32 am, 19 degrees, 66 mins, 7.3 max, 5.5 av.
Lots of fish: bream, tarwhine, blackfish, surgeon fish - all grazing on sea grass; dusky whalers, at least 4 (Liz counted 6); lots of mullet on the western side in the shallow water above the rocks; largest squid I’ve ever seen underwater.

248. Bare island, western side, 19th May 2007
11.00 am, 19 degrees, 60 mins, 16.5 max, 11.6 av.
DM Dave, large group (12), buddy Mike, gusty westerly got stronger so the water was very choppy and with a fair swell when I surfaced. Lost buddy at about 40 minutes; we were never with the main group anyway; the exit was hairy but fun - I’d surfaced at exactly the same spot we descended and the swell was up; I snorkeled for a while and then swam on my back after the water kept getting in my snorkel with the heavy swell. Eventually made it to the north western side where we entered but a bit dodgy getting out; also, I fell over climbing back! 3 WSD, three GC, LJs, stripeys, mados, etc., etc. I felt very invigorated when I was back at the car: something about the gusty wind and the crazy conditions!

247. Clovelly Pool, 16th May 2007 Night Dive
8.00 pm, 21 degrees, 65 mins, 7 max, 5.2 av.
Keith, Lilian and me: the water was nice and warm, Clovelly pool is a tad quotidian of course but wasn’t a bad diversion: one giant cuttlefish, porcupine fish that seemed completely mesmerised by my torch and came towards me with a silly look on its face - Keith grabbed its tail and he lazily took off but came back later. there were various other medium sized fish swimming jut on the fringe of visibility, maybe some bream and some more sleek-looking creatures; lots of mado in overhangs and valleys. My torch’s batteries ran out, which was surprising.

246. Bare Island, 12th May 2007
10.45 am, 20 degrees, 61 mins, 13.7 max, 10.1 av.
Average BI dive, though others seemed to be more impressed than I was; slightly murky, and I felt cold, even though the water was a tolerable 20 degrees. I was too negatively buoyant, not sure why but no air purged at the end of the dive, despite the fact that I’d added quite a bit of air as I got deeper and my buoyancy became an issue; I may have been badly balanced through trying to carry the camera and fill out the slate for the fish ID survey Liz and I had decided to do just before we went in. Consolations were a beautiful seahorse, incredibly friendly blue groper, volute, weedy sea dragon and nice sponge gardens.

245. Harbord, 5th May 2007
10.57 am, 21 degrees, 60 mins, 12.8 max, 8.8 av.
Fantastic conditions: beautiful weather, great vis and calm seas - Dave (DM) decided to enter via the rock side on the eastern coast; there were 15 divers so it took a while to get them all in the water via the entrance (jumping in from about 1 metre); then we headed east for a long time (Dave later said that he wasn’t aware there was a reef that far east); then we headed south and followed the usual way; usual story with Harbord, i.e. impressive landscape but not a plethora of fish; usual fish: morwongs, hundreds of mados, pomfrets, Sergeant Bakers, yellowtail, parmas, rock cales, gropers (at one stage, Liz was being followed by two large blue gropers), three giant cuttlefish, crested horn shark, unusual sighting of a black cowrie covered with what seems almost like a string of pearls; I forgot to check if my camera had an SD card (it didn’t) so I couldn't take many shots. I found a great swim-through and Liz followed me through - on the other side was a huge GC.

244. Fairlight, 3rd May 2007 Night Dive
8.38 pm, 21 degrees, 54 mins, 9.1 max, 5.8 av.
Bad vis made this a fairly boring dive, and the night was capped off by me locking the keys in the car which was an unmitigated disaster! Not many fish around, and those that were around were the usual suspects except for an interesting flutemouth with stripes (I almost thought he was a banded sea snake when I first saw him). The full moon was nice, especially as I surfaced and it was shining so brightly directly overhead that I could see it a couple of metres below the surface. The vis improved markedly in the really shallow water near the beach and rocks and there were interesting things there, such as a weird slug-like creature, perhaps a type of sea-hare.

243. Nth Bondi, 29th April 2007 (Fish Survey Dive)
9.21 am, 21 degrees, 38 mins, 7.9 max, 4.9 av.
Disappointing because my tank wasn’t filled, owing to a then not-identified problem with the valve (I blamed it on the poor girl at the shop!). I had to start with what I had yesterday (90 bar) and immediately had buoyancy issues with the light tank. There was a reasonable amount of swell coming in as we entered at the boat ramp but the vis was pretty good. The DM said the max time was to be 50 minutes with 30 mins only for fish survey; Liz and I lasted for 38 minutes in the shallower regions but the others all came out just after us anyway (not sure why they didn’t do the full 50 mins). Usual assortment of Sydney fish, though more drummer than usual.

242. Fairlight, 28th April 2007
10.48 am, 21 degrees, 69 mins, 8.5 max, 6.1 av.
An amazing amount of different fish, even though the vis was pretty poor: little cuttlefish; large schools of yellowtail; boarfish; bullseyes; plenty of large morwong; nannygai; striped catfish; hulafish; different types of surgeonfish; large-ish bream all in great abundance. If the vis had been better it might have been reminiscent of a coral reef, with so many fish. Nice dive!

241. The Steps, Kurnell, 22nd April 2007
11.07 am, 22 degrees, 54 mins, 12.8 max, 9.5 av.
Great sponge gardens, wonderful vis, WSDs (3 or more); crested horn shark; beautiful nudibranch (unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera!); huge giant cuttlefish (Liz said he grabbed her camera!). Lots of people turned up for the dive but the only ones I knew were Dave (DM), Jane (his woman), ambo Sharon, Amanda, Rostrum and Liz. Hadn’t done The Steps for a while, the walk down is slightly difficult, especially for my dodgy ‘ip.

240. Fairy Bower, 21st April 2007
10.48 am, 22 degrees, 61 mins, 7.9 max, 5.5 av.
Plenty of dusky whalers around - I counted five; usual suspects other than that: yellowtail school; two giant cuttlefish. No DM on this dive so Liz and I led two others - Karen and some other sheila.

239. Fish’n’Chips , South West Rocks, 19th April 2007
12.13 pm, 22 degrees, 58 mins, 25.0 max, 14.3 av.
Some of the other divers opted to forego the cave and cruise with the sharks at Fish’n’Chips so I decided to join them, being somewhat fazed with the cave, especially as Peter said there wouldn't be any GNS at the shallower entrance. We did go to the deep entrance at 25 metres and I went in a bit of the way, through a curtain of bullseyes, then south along Fish’n’Chips where there were GNS galore, cruising up and down the gutter. Plenty of large wobbies too and large schools of nannygai (should that be pomfrets?), bullseyes and surgeon fish. Peter led us to a shallower region at the eastern side of the rock (I assume near the Aquarium). there’s a nice little valley there and the vis was exceptional. A turtle hung around for ages and Peter tried to coax it with some food. A black cod, moray eels, and plenty of clown fish. Nice dive.

238. The Pinnacles to Fish’n’Chips , South West Rocks, 19th April 2007
9.45 am, 22 degrees, 47 mins, 23.8 max, 17.1 av.
Beautifully calm conditions (the calmest I’ve ever seen at this site); Peter (DM) said we’d attempt a drift dive from the Pinnacles around the rock to Fish’n’Chips; normally the current would be too strong and would sweep a diver out to the east but it was actually not as strong as Peter thought it would be. Quite cold at one stage, especially after Julian Rocks. Plenty of sharks at Fish’n’Chips: GNS and wobbies and the wobbies are more active than at JR. Caught a glimpse of a turtle which appeared much more prominently on the second dive. Nice numbray and small bull ray.

237. The Nursery to Needles to Hugo’s Trench , Julian Rocks, 17th April 2007
2.17 pm, 23 degrees, 51 mins, 16.5 max, 10.7 av.
Very choppy conditions on the ride out plus on entry; turtle at the bottom of the mooring line; drift dive over The Needles was fast and we came across a school of yellowtail kingfish, very impressive but gone too soon; leopard shark; two moray eels, one a beautiful golden spotted colour; lovely bright blue anemones and soft corals.

236. The Nursery to Needles to Hugo’s Trench , Julian Rocks, 16th April 2007
2.12 pm, 24 degrees, 50 mins, 18.6 max, 11.3 av.
Choppy conditions but much less swell than the previous days; DM Snappy; started off slowly because of gear problems with my buddy; had a bit of a poke around the Nursery and then drifted towards Hugo’s Trench on the other side of the rocks; saw a small stingray and leopard shark before getting into the drift; then a small green turtle but I was unable to get a good movie of him because of the speed of the current; drifted to Hugo’s Trench which is a good dive in amongst the walls of the little canyon that is the trench; went past a congregation of large wobbies, one was particularly big, maybe almost 3 metres; bull ray flew over us; snorkellers said they saw a manta but we missed it; nice, small, orange moray eel; reasonable-sized lionfish.

235. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, 15th April 2007
2.17 pm, 24 degrees, 47 mins, 18.3 max, 11.9 av.
We had a look at the shallower end of the cod hole first, as usual, then went to the deeper end (18 metres - low tide) and I was surprised that the DM took the group through, something I haven't done since 2003 - divers haven’t ben allowed in there since around then, as a GNS habitat, though perhaps that is a self-enforced policy rather than a government statute, also, maybe the dive shops has told DM’s they can use their own discretion and go through if they're sure there aren’t any GNS in there; the other option is that the DM was either a cowboy or didn't know the rules. Leopard sharks everywhere on this dive, especially in the sandy, gravel trench before the cod hole; they were lying on the bottom or swimming freely, accompanied always by remora; they seem less lazy than wobbies, certainly and maybe similar to PJs in their activities. A huge bull ray swam past, again, a rare-ish sight, as they’re usually resting on the bottom (more common to se a bullray swimming than to see a wobbegong swimming, though!). Schools of large sweetlips languished on the bottom too; parrotfish, etc. At the briefing the skipper said the current wouldn’t be strong as it was low tide but it turned out to be a strong current on the way back. Many of the group ran low on air and were escorted to the mooring line while I looked after the other two; then the DM came back down and we looked around for a short while and then surfaced, my first ascent this trip using a mooring line!

234. The Needles, Julian Rocks, 14th April 2007
11.16 am, 24 degrees, 53 mins, 15.5 max, 10.7 av.
Strong surge made it like a washing machine sometimes; DM Mark reminding me of a whale shark as he drifted ahead, seemingly lazily but moving easily with his huge fins; thousands of fish of all types busily going about their business in the back and forth surge including some stunning tropicals; octopi, one brown and swimming quickly, the other looked like it had been attacked - it had one limb missing and didn’t look very well: grey colour and sluggish; we came across the largest bull ray I’ve ever seen - maybe two metres in diameter, awe-inspiring in its massiveness. Only me, Mark and a young Scandinavian woman, we surfaced on the other side of the rocks, fairly close to the large waves smashing against the rocks. All the boats were on the other side of the rocks but eventually a Sundive boat came over, thinking we were his divers, and then radioed to our boat.

233. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, 14th April 2007
8.29 am, 24 degrees, 45 mins, 19.5 max, 12.8 av.
Leopard sharks; the Cod Hole was full of large sweetlips and several huge potato cods or Queensland gropers; moray eel intertwined in soft coral; large eagle ray soaring above near the breaking waves.

232. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, 13th April 2007
8.06 am, 24 degrees, 54 mins, 15.6 max, 9.5 av.
Strong current made it a drift dive from mooring to the cod hole but we had to go back almost straight away because someone was getting low on air (!). The trip back, against the current, was fairly heavy going. There wasn't much pelagic action at all and only the warm water and the great vis compensated for the general lack of large fish or other types of marine creatures. There were wobbegongs everywhere, but all were asleep and there weren't any large ones (smaller than the average one you see at Shelly or FB); nice to sea cleaner wrasse right inside the large gills of a sweetlip; plenty of anemones and clownfish amongst most of them; blue gropers, again, no bigger than Sydney BGs; lionfish, lots of crinoids, soft corals and some hard corals in drab colours. Others saw a leopard shark but I didn't.

231. Fairy Bower, 7th April 2007
10.51 am, 22 degrees, 73 mins, 7.6 max, 5.8 av.
Dusky whaler!; GC; small wobby; pineapple fish; striped catfish school; nice relaxing dive, north then east a bit then back south east over the sea-grass meadows, then back.

230. Clifton Gardens, 3rd April 2007 Night Dive
7.12pm, 22 degrees, 80 mins, 6.4 max, 4 av.
Liz, Keith, Lilly. Sea-horse; LJS; squid came really close, mesmerised by the torch; estuarine catfish; decorator crab; large crab looking defensive.

229. Shelly Beach, 31st March 2007
10.44am, 21 degrees, 75 mins, 11.3 max, 6.7 av.
Liz, Amanda, Sally + many others with Dave DM. Another dive at Shelly, nice relaxed though my mask kept leaking; weedy, wobby, plenty of little fish like mados, hula, yellowtail, giant cuttlefish, squid just off the southern end of the beach.

228. Bare Island, 24th March 2007
10.46am, 21 degrees, 55 mins, 14.6 max, 10.1 av.
Entered from the north west side of the mainland because of work on the bridge. Headed south, south west for the western reef, over a small reef, then sand and then the western reef – usual things: crested morwongs, red morwongs, cuttlefish, giant and small, volute, nudibranchs. Others reported seeing red Indian fish and seahorse but I missed out. Many divers about and many of those inexperienced, so there was a bit of sand churned up but a relaxing dive nonetheless. Dave (DM) took some back and left me with (I thought) just my buddy but turned out to be Liz and her buddy plus two others. We went over a flat section of reef to the north and then I led them back, heading due east most of the way (Liz approached me after a little while with a message on her slate asking me to lead until Dave came back). I felt my navigation was vindicated when we met Dave head-on near the end of the reef; we then headed north by north west, seeing a couple of very long, translucent, thin worms in the sand and then the little reef while doing safety stop. 80 bar on exit.

227. Fairy Bower, 17th March 2007
10.36am, 22 degrees, 77 mins, 7.9 max, 5.2 av
Our quest for the duskies continued but to no avail this time: numbray, crested horn shark, pineapple fish, large yellowtail school, large luderick school, wobby, two black reef LJs, large flatheads, maybe 1 metre.

226. Inscription Point, Kurnell, 11th March 2007
10.35am, 22 degrees, 53 mins, 14.3 max, 11.0 av
Solo, beautiful conditions, headed north then west to sponge wall and flat sandy bottom where there were 3 or 4 weedy sea dragons hunting. There were more weedies on the rock ledge and a dwarf lionfish on a sponge near some weird white egg-shapes, maybe they were eggs or maybe a type of sponge. Plenty of fish, but no big ones except the usual blue groper (I relented and prised off an urchin then presented the bottom side to him, rather than filleting it for him, he rushed at it with a loud thud); a stingaree, plenty of old wifes; green wrasse, CB wrasse, red morwongs, kelpfish, goatfish, cardinals, etc.

225. Shelly Beach, 10th March 2007
10.40am, 22 degrees, 83 mins, 13.7 max, 7.6 av
Patrick DM, beautifully warm water – 22 degrees all the way; motorbike; flounder; wobby; WSD; nice long dive but no dusky whalers!

224. Balmoral, 4th March 2007
10.10am, 23 degrees, 58 mins, 5.2 max, 3.1 av
Clean Up Australia Day – numbray, octopus, harbour leatherjackets, usual cardinalfish, goatfish, etc. I picked up around 15 kilos of rubbish, mainly plastic bags.

223. Bare Island, northeast of the bridge, 3rd March 2007
11.42am, 23 degrees, 13 mins, 3.7 max, 3.0 av
Too shallow, slight southerly swell made it a bit dodgy to attempt to get closer to the edge further north towards the beach where I saw the eastern blue devil fishwith Keith. Nothing much to see but it was sort of fun frolicking in the shallows.

222. Bare Island, western side, 3rd March 2007
10.45am, 22 degrees, 51 mins, 14.9 max, 10.1 av
Nice and warm, similar to Thursday night but no octopi. Big cuttlefish right under a ledge, bullseyes, nudis, juvenile and full-grown WSD.

221. Bare Island, western side, 1st March 2007 Night Dive
8.12pm, 22 degrees, 69 mins, 13.1 max, 8.2 av
Very relaxing night dive (though still slight mask-leakage issues). DM DY, Liz and new guy Scott; water was warm and we saw some good sights, especially a largish octopus on the sand that we harassed enough to get him angry and attacking and attaching himself to Dave’s hand. Also a juvenile weedy sea dragon, smallest WSD I’ve ever seen, maybe half the size of the average; a dwarf lionfish on a sponge; flounders, crested morwongs, active sea urchins everywhere, plenty of Cardinalfish and goatfish and at least four small cuttlefish.

220. Bare Island, eastern side, 24th February 2007
10.50am, 16 degrees, 66 mins, 11.6 max, 9.1 av
Large group led by DY; I was buddied with Liz and we went alone after she thought her camera housing had flooded. I saw the bubbles of the large group just as Liz and I were ready to descend but we didn’t see anyone else for the whole 66 minute dive! It’s a lovely landscape there, with gorgeous sponge gardens but not many fish today, except for a very friendly blue groper. Liz signalled a turn-around when she got to 120 bar and on the way back we saw two weedy sea dragons. There were a couple of nudibranchs along the way but overall a dearth of fish, especially anything large - shows the impact of recreational fishing and spear fishing in these places. Water was unusually cold, again!

219. Bare Island, western side, 18th February 2007
10.13am, 18 degrees, 61 mins, 15.2 max, 10.4 av
The lovely seahorse on the tulip again (the DM accidentally - and obliviously - flicked him as she swam away after photographing him); plenty of large cuttlefish, nudis, at least 2 weedy sea dragons, rock cods, etc. Drummer were scattering wildly as we entered – made me think for a moment that the great white supposedly sighted here a few weeks ago was just beyond our vis! Good Sunday club dive with Kevin leading and Cherie in our little group.

218. Fairy Bower, 17th February 2007
10.47am, 22 degrees, 50 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Plenty of churn, especially at the far western end where the broken plants made vis difficult; the eastern side was better but we were hardly there when Sharon had to turn back (50 bar). Two of the largest giant cuttlefish I’ve ever seen were lurking under rocks there plus some nudis. The only thing good on the western side was the large yellowtail school and a wobby or two.

217. Gordons Bay, 10th February 2007
10.35am, 21 degrees, 59 mins, 12.5 max, 9.1 av
Big, fat nudis, octopus clutching a shell (going to eat the occupant?), aggressive giant cuttlefish nearly attacked me and buddy Chris.

216. Bare Island, western side, 3rd February 2007
10.40am, 19 degrees, 52 mins, 14.9 max, 10.4av
Dave Young DM; seahorse on sea tulip, boarfish.

215. Bare Island – eastern side, 27th January 2007
10.37am, 20 degrees, 52 mins, 11.9 max, 8.2 av
WSD in two locations, second one covered in eggs; got quite rough with the southerly moving in so quickly.

214. Shelley Beach, 25th January 2007 Night Dive
8.17pm, 20 degrees, 46 mins, 9.1 max, 5.5 av
Nice night dive, amazing to see all the sea urchins on the prowl, plenty of wobbies and other nocturnals; nice to see phosphorescence in the dark.

213. Inscription Point, Kurnell, 21st January 2007
10.21am, 15 degrees, 55 mins, 13.4 max, 9.1 av
Gusty nor’easter had chopped up the surface a lot, which made entry a lot of fun. The water was cold and the vis from the buoy the club had provide about 50 metres out from the rocks was almost nil. I found myself in a green void when first descending but soon the vista cleared beautifully and we were in a splendid sponge garden environment.

212. Fairlight, 20th January 2007
11.32am, 15 degrees, 25 mins, 7.5 max, 5.5 av

211. Fairlight, 20th January 2007
10.59am, 16 degrees, 22 mins, 8.5 max, 5.8 av

210. Fish and Chips, Fish Rock, South West Rocks, 15th January 2007
12.01pm, 20 degrees, 48 mins, 26.2 max, 14 av
Just me and Garry, water got very cold after we ventured beyond the deep cave entrance; plenty of GNS cruising and I noticed that one was following my buddy very closely, without him realising – when he turned the shark moved away but it seemed like it was following him as long as he wasn’t aware of the shark’s presence

209. Fish Rock Cave, South West Rocks, 15th January 2007
10.53am, 22 degrees, 52 mins, 23.2 max, 12.2 av
DM Peter, Chris (used to own Fish Rock Dive centre) – boat boy, I buddied with Garry, a portly instructor from Cronulla. Water was very choppy, viz not very good, especially in the cave. I had a slight fear attack just after descending but I was fine after a couple of minutes. Highlight was a fight between two rock cods, broken up by a bigger rock cod. The morays are getting quite sociable down there, often swimming freely; another highlight was a leafy scorpion fish. GNS were cruising at the mouth of the cave but I missed most of that as we were bringing up the rear. Bull ray asleep a fair way into the cave. One of the divers was a ten-year-old boy.

208. Fairlight, 30th December 2006
10.57am, 20 degrees, 70 mins, 8.2 max, 5.5 av

207. Fairlight, 23rd December 2006
10.40am, 16 degrees, 59 mins, 9.5 max, 6.4 av

206. Fairy Bower, 16th December 2006
10.27am, 19 degrees, 65 mins, 6.7 max, 5.2 av

205. Harbord, 9th December 2006
10.36am, 20 degrees, 49 mins, 11.9 max, 8.8 av

204. Shelly Beach Point/Fairy Bower, 7th December 2006
12.33pm, 20 degrees, 74 mins, 9.8 max, 6.4 av

203. Fairy Bower, 7th December 2006
12.01pm, 20 degrees, 26 mins, 5.2 max, 4 av

202. Gordons Bay, 2nd December 2006
10.18am, 20 degrees, 43 mins, 12.2 max, 8.2 av

201. Swansea Bridge, 26th November 2006
3.19pm, 20 degrees, 35 mins, 8.8 max, 7.3 av
The current was still strong as I attempted to reach the bottom. Stripeys, large bream, tarwhine, toadfish, drummer, morwong; great growth still there despite the rock dumping, though I didn’t see too much evidence of dumping on the south-western side.

200. Swansea Drift, 26th November 2006
12.30pm, 20 degrees, 32 mins, 12.8 max, 6.4 av
Overshot the exit point as we hurtled along – I calculated that we should surface after about 34 minutes but we’d gone a couple of hundred metres past the boat ramp after 32 minutes, so the tide was coming in faster than the last time we did this dive.

199. Fairy Bower, 25th November 2006
10.44am, 20 degrees, 76 mins, 7.9 max, 5.5 av
Giant cuttlefish, dusky whaler on eastern side, nudis, wobbies, estuarine catfish.

198. Bare Island – North eastern side, 18th November 2006
12.50pm, 19 degrees, 30 mins, 8.8 max, 6.7 av
Eastern Blue Devil Fish!
197. Bare Island, 18th November 2006
11.37am, 19 degrees, 19 mins, 6.7 max, 4.3 av
196. Bare Island, 18th November 2006
11.06am, 19 degrees, 23 mins, 10.1 max, 6.7 av
Mad Russian forgot his weights and only realised just as he was about to plunge in off the rocks on the southwestern side of Bare Island. He then sprinted all the way back to his car with all his gear still on, including the tank! Then he got lost at least 2 times during the dive, surfacing a long way southwest. In spite of this “entertainment” the dive was a bit boring until the last dive when Keith and I explored the rock shelf north east of Bare where there are fantastic sponge gardens and the elusive blue devil fish lurks under the ledges. Also saw a blind shark that had been speared and left for dead, rock cods, some great nudis, an octopus and a goatfish lying on a sponge.

195. Bare Island, 12th November 2006
9.26am, 19 degrees, 53 mins, 18.3 max, 11.6 av
PADI Photo comp, well-organised day and perfect conditions. Nice dive, started with Liz as buddy plus Keith and his buddy but we lost them almost immediately. White and blue nudibranchs, fantastic sponge gardens, gloomy octopus, crested horn shark or PJ. I managed to get some OK photos, one of which got a runner-up prize.

194. Gordons Bay, 11th November 2006
10.33am, 19 degrees, 52 mins, 12.5 max, 8.5 av
Good sponges under the rock ledge, rock cods everywhere, sleeping cuttlefish, back cod, beardie, stingaree, nice variety of nudibranchs.

193. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks, 2nd November 2006
12.44pm, 19 degrees, 67 mins, 22.6 max, 11.3 av
No camera so of course all sorts of new fish appeared! Best of all was a guitar shark or shovelled nosed ray. Warm current again made getting back into freezing current very hard. Another 4-minute safety stop.

192. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 2nd November 2006
10.24am, 18 degrees, 63 mins, 25 max, 12.8 av
Exciting dive with GNS, bullrays, huge black cod and usual swarms of bullseyes at cave mouth as we approached from the deep side. I went back for Kong a couple of times and we ended up overshooting the mooring line so I had to do a 4 minute safety stop without a mooring line, little bit tricky and anxiety producing.

191. Black Rock, Sth West Rocks 1st November 2006
12.00 midday, 18 degrees, 62 mins, 11 max, 7.9 av
Nice easy site with plenty of corals, soft and hard plus beautiful black laced cowries, like a string of pearls on a black cylindrical base, green turtle trying to rest, stacks of fish all doing their thing.

190. Fish’n’Chips, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 1st November 2006
9.45am, 18 degrees, 51 mins, 27.7 max, 16.5 av
Great site but very cold. Wobbies everywhere, draped over the rocks on the edge of cliffs, GNS cruising in the gutter. Later we headed for the Aquarium where a sudden and strong warm current brought the temp up to 20 degrees – heaven and there was a lot of action, including a turtle, GNS swimming hard to stay stationary in the current, fusiliers and heaps of other fish all excited by the warmth and speed of the current.

189. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 31st October 2006
12.29pm, 19 degrees, 59 mins, 21 max, 13.1 av
The chimney from the shallow entrance head first then back up again – exciting! Felt very cold and the boat ride back was the roughest ever, like a rollercoaster ride in a cyclone!

188. Entrance to Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 31st October 2006
10.20am, 19 degrees, 52 mins, 27.1 max, 17.7 av
Heaps of GNS, loggerhead turtle asleep at the bottom (I nearly trod on him while getting GNS photos!)

187. Ladies Reef, Sth West Rocks 30th October 2006
2.28pm, 21 degrees, 18 mins, 10.7 max, 7.9 av
Soft and hard corals – brain coral esp, YTs, lionfish.

186. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 30th October 2006
12.37pm, 21 degrees, 55 mins, 24.7 max, 13.7 av
Bullray in chimney, plenty of GNS in gutter at deep entrance, scorpionfish.

185. The Pinnacles, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 30th October 2006
10.03am, 21 degrees, 55 mins, 29.9 max, 17.1 av
GNS, moray, green turtle, scorpionfish.

184. Fairy Bower 28th October 2006
10.31am, 18 degrees, 63 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Mullet school, YTs, nice GC..

183. Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower 21st October 2006
10.31am, 18 degrees, 85 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Wobbies, scorpionfish, huge school of striped catfish.

182. Fairy Bower 14th October 2006
11.06am, 19 degrees, 48 mins, 7.3 max, 5.5 avg
Plenty of rubbish in the water and not much that was unusual, though we did see 3 wobbies all asleep at different locations on the eastern side. There was a fair bit of swell coming in from the north and I didn’t make it to the western side, where I suspect the churn was pretty dodgy anyway. Despite all this, it was a relaxing dive, mainly with Keith who’d pranged his car immediately before the dive!

181. Bare Island 7th October 2006
10.50am, 17 degrees, 54 mins, 13.7 max, 8.2 avg
Two weedy sea dragons; gurnard; not much else of note - the vis was poor and I had slight problems with the substitute reg which I couldn’t attach to my BC.

180. Fairy Bower 30th September 2006
10.35am, 18 degrees, 73 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 avg
Bad viz and the water was a strange yellow colour, something I’ve never seen before! Plenty of suspended filaments as you expect after heavy rain, except I don’t think there had been any heavy rain! Unknown buddy and I got separated from club group almost immediately, which didn’t matter, being FB, so plenty of lolling around the canyons and rocks on the western side. Best sight was a large wobby and two PJs asleep in a little “cave”; next best sight was a reasonably large school of reasonably large mullet, which I’ve never seen at FB before, maybe the weird viz brought them in. Another wobby under a rock on the eastern side, by this time my buddy was bored so we finished after quite a long dive. The bad vis, plus the fact that I forgot to insert my SD card into the camera, precluded any decent photos.

179. Clifton Gardens 26th September 2006 Night Dive
8.21pm, 18 degrees, 56 mins, 7 max, 4.3 avg
Night dive along the pylons and back around the outside net. Plenty of seahorses, stingarees, a fat nudi, swarm of large striped catfish, large red morwong, decorator crab, LJs, porcupines, jellies, old wives, etc.

178. Clovelly/Shark Point 23rd September 2006
10.47am, 17 degrees, 72 mins, 11.3 max, 7 avg
Liz, Keith and I set out on our own. Too much surge to be really enjoyable though we stayed well on course, with Keith leading we headed east, then north and turned around when Liz hit 100 bar. Getting back into Clovelly pool, with the tide going out and the swell and surge strong, was quite challenging and fun.
Cuttlefish, catfish (estuarine), rock cod and usual suspects: gropers, parmas, stripeys in pool, etc.

177. Balmoral 17th September 2006
10.21am, 18 degrees, 62 mins, 4 max, 2.4 avg
Clean Up Day – seahorses on swimming pool net; stingarees; LJs; yellowtails; cuttles; trumpetfish; parmas, etc.

176. Fairy Bower 16th September 2006
10.56am, 19 degrees, 81 mins, 7.6 max, 5.5 avg
Nice relaxing dive, western side much more fruitful for photography though there was a great little nudi on the eastern side. 2 PJs and 2 wobbies; large school of yellowtail, etc.

175. Lighthouse Bommie, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 27th August 2006
10.13am, 21 degrees, 41 mins, 15.5 max, 11.6 avg
Napoleon Wrasse; reef shark, big olive-coloured snake, school of big-eyed trevally.

174. Wreck of The Severance, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 27th August 2006
8.39am, 21 degrees, 35 mins, 19.8 max, 12.5 avg
Western side if the island; The Severance is a large yacht that sank in a storm in 1999, at first it seemed like a 19th century wreck, being covered in growth. There’s a huge giant moray eel resident; large kobes?, fish that look similar to sharks; a clump of large bullrays lying in the sand on top of each other; 2 mantas.

173. The Blowhole/The Tubes, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 25th August 2006
8.49am, 22 degrees, 15 mins, 24.7 max, 14.6 avg
Aborted dive – the storm the night before had removed the mooring and the crew couldn’t find the correct spot. We sank to 25 metres over a plain of undramatic coral but had to abort after 12 minutes. Crew most apologetic and we got a free dive plus bottle of wine of a champagne sunset experience!

172. The Tubes, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 25th August 2006
9.25am, 21 degrees, 34 mins, 23.5 max, 16.8 avg
Exciting dive in rough seas, we entered over a reef that dropped down at least 30 metres on a ‘cliff’ with the blue void to the east. Dropped to almost 24 metres then drifted quickly toward the blowhole. A large LH turtle swam south, a huge Napoleon wrasse; large silver, tuna-like fish with strange dorsal? fins running parallel to body after coming off at right angles; Queensland groper; big school of fusiliers, trevally. The blowhole is a cave with a hole in the top at about 15m. We drifted over beautiful coral, hard and soft. Getting back on the boat was difficult, it was very rough with a large swell moving in.

171. Maori Wrasse, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 24th August 2006
3.52pm, 22 degrees, 48 mins, 15.2 max, 10.4 avg
Great bommie – 10,000 years old; turtles, one a huge loggerhead; surgeonfish being cleaned by wrasse – a relaxing, lovely dive.

170. Lighthouse Bommie, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 24th August 2006
8.00am, 21 degrees, 49 mins, 14.9 max, 11 avg
More manta rays, maybe 6; large shark hiding under a rock, maybe related to a GNS; small Reef Shark; beautiful hard and soft corals; Trevally; Unicorn Fish.

169. Anchor Bommie, Lady Elliot Island, GBR 23rd August 2006
3.04pm, 22 degrees, 43 mins, 17.1 max, 9.1 avg
My first Manta Ray! Huge! Large Smooth Stingrays (Bullrays); large school of Big-Eye Trevally; large lone barracuda, Potato Cod with Trumpetfish.

168. Bare Island 12th August 2006
10.33 am, 17 degrees; 48 mins; 15.2 max, 10.4 avg
WSDs (5 or so); Red Indian Fish; baby Crested Horn Shark (or PJ); cuttlefish; nudis, moray

167. Camp Cove 6th August 2006
12.11 pm, 16 degrees; 38 mins; 5.8 max, 4.9 avg
See below.
166. Camp Cove 6th August 2006
10.51 pm, 16 degrees; 34 mins; 5.8 max, 4.3 avg
Fish ID dive with NPA, buddy Simon. Very good vis for Camp Cove especially considering how rough it was on the ocean side! Usual suspect with a few exceptions: crested morwongs, baby lionfish, and two cuttlefish – one large one small – sheltered under the bommie with the colourful sponges. A school of either yellowtail scad or yellowtail kingfish, white-eared parma, red morwongs, large school of goatfish grazing, plenty of hulas and stacks of cardinals.

165. Swansea Bridge 30th July 2006
1.50 pm, 18 degrees; 34 mins; 8.5 max, 7.3 avg
Bream, large surgeonfish, crested morwong, large octopus

164. Swansea Drift Dive 30th July 2006
11.20am, 16 degrees; 34 mins; 11.3 max, 6.7 avg
1.5 kms in 34 minutes! Exciting, cold, so-so vis, plenty of leatherjackets, cardinals, red and crested morwongs; buddied with Liz and accompanied by Scott and Nathan. Great fun!

163. Shiprock 29th July 2006
10.57am, 17 degrees; 55 mins; 14.9 max, 10.4 avg
Cold, murky, lots of divers stirred the sand up. Interesting dive, with stacks of sponges.

162. Shelly Beach 22nd July 2006
10.22am, 18 degrees; 48 mins; 9.1 max, 4.0 avg
Plenty of sandy churn but I managed to get a great shot of a blue groper.

161. Clifton Gardens 15th July 2006
10.22am, 15 degrees; 48 mins; 6.4 max, 4.0 avg
Cold, wet – lovely! DM Peter, Liz, me and the weirdo guy who harassed the cuttlefish a few weeks ago. DM and weirdo lasted only 20 mins or so, the latter churned up too much sand! Liz and I headed for the western pier to search for seahorses. We didn’t find any but did come across a baby PJ in the sand, plus plenty of large leatherjackets around the net.

160. Clifton Gardens 9th July 2006
1.13pm, 16 degrees; 29 mins; 9.5 max, 5.5 avg
Not too many fish to identify but we saw a snake eel half buried in the sand – amazing creature with a fearsome reputation! Also the largest nudibranch I’ve yet seen and some hunting fish, maybe kingfish, which were too far off in the low viz to identify.

159. Clifton Gardens 9th July 2006
11.22am, 15 degrees; 31 mins; 6.1 max, 4.9 avg
Practice dive for Fish ID course. Water was very cold and tide too low but CG is a good site because of the piers. This was my first pier dive with lots of large yellow leatherjackets, plenty of surgeonfish, some cute little cuttlefish and the usual suspects (hulas, mados, morwongs, etc.)

158. Fairy Bower 8th July 2006
10.47am, 18 degrees; 62 mins; 6.7 max, 4.9 avg
Shark city, north east of entry in the seagrass meadows - when we first arrived the viz was up to 20 metres but all the sand the divers kicked up diminished that slightly. There were 8 dusky whalers cruising around the scene. Probably 1.5 metres including the tail; one flew past me about a metre away when it was startled by some snorkellers above. Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera cocked and ready, though I did get a couple of good shots and some half decent videos. Also yellow leatherjackets and the usual nice school of yellowtail.

157. Harbord 1st July 2006
10.47am, 17 degrees; 49 mins; 11.9 max, 8.2 avg
Great viz, giant cuttlefish, octopus at end in very shallow water in the channel, not much else of note but a lovely dive.

156. Camp Cove 17th June 2006
10.58am, 17 degrees; 51 mins; 6.4 max, 4.6 avg
Lionfish! Unusual leatherjackets, swarm of baby catfish. Saw a seal later at The Gap.

155. Shelly Beach 10th June 2006
11.35am, 19 degrees; 20 mins; 5.5 max, 3.7 avg
2nd dive with Liz in search of the dusky whalers. Saw two of them quite close – they’re small, maybe a metre and very sleek.

154. Shelly Beach 10th June 2006
10.44am, 17 degrees; 51 mins; 6.4 max, 4.6 avg
Very large giant cuttlefish maybe doing a mating dance with another. Idiot diver harassed him until we all dragged him away. He was told off severely by the DM (American woman) and Liz afterwards.

153. Fairy Bower 3rd June 2006
10.31am, 18 degrees; 49 mins; 7.3 max, 4.9 avg
Average dive with Liz as buddy.

152. Shelly Beach 6th May 2006
10.37am, 21 degrees; 67 mins; 7.3 max, 4.9 avg
DM Dave; Dusky whalers in a procession, maybe 8 of them!

151. Fish Rock Cave 23rd April 2006
10.37am, 22 degrees; 59 mins; 22.9 max, 12.5 avg
Had a slight panic attack in the depths of the cave but managed to get control over my mind. Always a great dive with plenty of GNS, morays, wobbies, gropers, lionfish, etc.

150. The Pinnacles – Fish Rock 23rd April 2006
9.30am, 22 degrees; 48 mins; 25.9 max, 16.8 avg
The GNS are amazing here – they hang in the churn between the pinnacles, moving back and forth with the water but staying completely still. You can get very close to me without realising. Some moray eels as well:

149. Julian Rocks 19th April 2006
11.06am, 24 degrees; 49 mins; 21.3 max, 15.2 avg

148. Bare Island 8th April 2006
10.23am, 21 degrees; 61 mins; 7.6 max, 4.6 avg

147. Bare Island 1st April 2006
10.42am, 20 degrees; 58 mins; 16.2 max, 10.7 avg

146. Julian Rocks 24th January 2006
Forgot my computer!

145. Julian Rocks 22nd January 2006
2.07 pm., 25 degrees; 55 mins; 14.6 max, 8.2 avg

144. Julian Rocks 18th January 2006
1.53 pm., 22 degrees; 47 mins; 11.9 max, 8.5 avg

143. Julian Rocks 13th January 2006
2.07 pm., 26 degrees; 49 mins; 12.2 max, 7.9 avg

142. Fish Rock Cave 9th January 2006
12.10 a.m., 22 degrees; 59 mins; 23.8 max, 13.4 avg;

141. Fish Rock Cave 9th January 2006
9.59 a.m., 21 degrees; 56 mins; 19.2 max, 13.4 avg;

140. Fairy Bower 31st December 2005
10.29 a.m., 21 degrees; 52 mins; 7.9 max, 5.2 avg;

139. Jervis Bay Bowen Island 27th December 2005
9.29 a.m., 21 degrees; 52 mins; 10.4 max, 6.7 avg;
Pretty ordinary dive, very shallow; sick looking wobby; nice large orange morays; stingray; gropers. Plenty of rocks but not many fish!

138. Jervis Bay – The Nursery 27th December 2005
7.40 am, 20 degrees; 53 mins; 19 8max, 12.8 avg;
Nice topography: dramatic rock ledges and some overhangs and small caves; medium wobby; lovely baby cuttlefish; later a larger giant cuttlefish; WSD at the start in the kelp beds (where else?); scorpion fish / rock cod / frogfish; groups of Old Wives. Not sure if it was worth driving all the way down for this, though the water was nice and warm and the viz was great.

137. Julian Rocks Hugo’s Trench 16th December 2005
7.50am, 23 degrees; 53 mins; 14 max, 9.8 avg;
Reasonable current; DM Snappy, buddy Simon; triggerfish or leatherjacket (they’re related); lots of clown anemone; free-swimming moray accompanies by senator (?) wrasse – strange behaviour, the wrasse kept following the moray but not attacking it (would have been great video-op as S & I had to wait on the bottom for DM to sort out problem with the other diver); large loggerhead asleep, head wedged in rocks; smaller turtle swimming above; numbray gliding below as I got ready for safety stop ascent; stingray; plenty of wobbies, some in pairs; damsel fish.

136. Julian Rocks – The Nursery 15th December 2005
8.00am; 23 degrees; 48 mins; 18.9 max, 12.5 avg; 15-20 metres viz
DM Snappy, buddy Simon. Large school mulloway (jewfish) about 1-1.5 metres long; 2.5-3m grey nurse shark sighted twice, second time he passed closely in front; 2 morays, one orange and one silver/grey; lots of morwongs; damselfish nipped at me; largish cod-like fish resting in a cleaning station while small wrasse cleaned it; large-ish wobbies; clown anemones; baby parrotfish, bright turquoise, lots of gropers.
Ears seemed good (first deepish dive since nose op).

135. Fairy Bower 10th December 2005
10.37am; 20 degrees; 80 mins; 7.3 max, 4.6 avg; hood
Over a month without a dive because of this damned septoplasty, fess and trimming of turbinates! Liz and I headed west/nth west; at first I was surprised at the lack of life but things hotted up a bit with a school of yellowtail, then a large wobby (asleep as usual in a cave let) another wobby that I measured by hovering just above him, at 2 metres; funny catfish poking his head out; the yellowtail schools got very large and shadowed us for ages – they seem to like company. Liz thought we were going the wrong way and I thought she just wanted to look at something else, eventually I hailed her back south east and then we spent a bit of time on the eastern side of the beach – the CB Wrasse were cute there and one snapped off the head of a dead baby lobster Liz was showing me, which made me laugh. There was also a cute silver blenny outside his house. Good, easy return to diving except for problems with buoyancy (too light) mainly in anything shallower than 3 meters – I must have gained weight while I was recuperating!

134. Fairy Bower 6th November 2005
11.04am; 19 degrees; 48 mins; 7.6 max, 5.8 avg; hood
Started with a test dive to test weighting and, trying to follow advice from an article in the latest Divelog, I removed 4lbs but was much too positively buoyant (and even had trouble with positive buoyancy on the dive after I’d gone back to 20lbs). My problem is that, during deeper dives, like Bare Island yesterday, I felt I was weighted too much. The quest for neutral buoyancy! I was more buoyant on entry today because I started off with 100 bar but that shouldn’t have been too much of an issue. Nice dive, though nothing spectacular: headed east/north-east (very similar trajectory to last week’s dive with Liz; small cuttlefish (looked sad or sick or both); got close to the yellowtail school, especially when I held my breath; a live lobster! The highlight was a Magnificent Volute, with a shell about as long as my hand, making his way across the sand flats. His body is much bigger than his shell and spreads out under the shell and he has a small hose-like “trunk” that sucks up food. The crimson banded wrasse can be pretty friendly and genuinely curious, just like their bigger cousins, the blue wrasse, of which there were only a couple. There were a couple of fish that I couldn’t identify.

133. Bare Island 5th November 2005
10.44; 17 degrees; 54 mins; 15.2 max, 10.7 avg; hood.
DM Dave, Liz and American bloke. Conditions didn’t look too good with southerly (sou’ east) wind and a swell coming from the south, but it turned out to be better than expected which was slightly frustrating because of my camera malfunction. A very high tide made entrance at the boat ramp easy (and exit super-easy). We descended to the sand and headed west/south-west to sponge gardens and rock wall. Plenty of fat nudibranchs in a variety of colours (I would have been able to get some great macro shots of those!) plus a nice large, dark brown/greyish seahorse wrapped around a sponge; a small cuttlefish with arms outstretched, changing colour from black to almost clear; small PJ like shark which Dave said was a type of horned shark, very similar to PJ but with a couple of minor differences. He rested on the sponge garden and we got up close to his face, Liz tried to stroke his chin. Nice overhangs festooned with sea tulips and sponges in a variety of colours. Relaxing dive, all 4 of us stayed together. Fairly cold but a longer dive than we would have expected, given that the other guy hadn’t dived for over a year.

132. Fairy Bower 29th October 2005
10.31; 19 degrees; 71 mins; 6.7max, 5.2avg; hood.
Buddied with Liz; we entered with Les, John Smith and a couple of others but lost them pretty quickly. Headed north west – the vis was poor and there was a bit of churn but not too much. Nice big stingrays, morwongs hunting, etc., but it got better when Liz and I headed back east/south-east. Found a funny little creature about 1cm long coming out of something on the rock, white/black nudibranch; we spent a fair bit of time at the north western side near the pool. There are some lovely bommies, overhangs and little caves with all sorts of creatures big and small; large eastern frogfish or scorpionfish/rock cod, good school of yellowtail, wobby right under a rock. I would have liked even longer but, after 71 minutes, Liz was cold and had 52 bar left (I still had 100).

131. Fairlight 23rd October 2005
11.59; 18 degrees; 28 mins; 7.6max, 5.2avg; hood.
South east of the beach and pool, around the corner; there are some good caves, overhangs and amphitheatres here and there was a lot more action than the other side, with two cuttlefish swimming, or hovering, together like a mother and child; later a good-sized octopus and then a smaller one plus a blue groper and a couple of yellow ones. Wasted a lot of memory on movies that I didn’t know I was taking so missed good chances with the octopuses.

130. Fairlight 23rd October 2005
11.02; 19 degrees; 40 mins; 8.2 max, 6.1 avg; hood.
South west of the beach off the rock shelf; vis was pretty milky and there wasn’t much fish action at all. A couple of plump white nudibranchs made things a little bit interesting for macro shots.

129. Bare Island 15th October 2005
10.57; 18 degrees; 51 mins; 15.5 max, 10.4 avg; hood.
No DM –Keith, Paul, Liz, Les
First dive with new Caplio GX8 camera – got some reasonable shots, despite the poor vis. Everything went well, though I still felt slightly uncomfortable at first – that feeling that I can’t get enough air, slight asthmatic feeling which I shouldn’t worry about because I was by far the most economical. Les ran out first, indicating 100 bar early on (turns out his gauge is 25% out so he really had only 75 bar!); I indicated he should tell Keith who was acting as de facto DM but I don’t think he did. Not long after, Les surfaced to see where we were. Later Liz apparently panicked because she thought I was getting lost. While I was lagging slightly I knew where everyone was, though I didn’t realise Liz was my buddy (shows importance of discussing plan beforehand plus buddy check, etc. – none of which we did, though I did my own buddy check). If Liz knew she was my buddy, she should have told me when she got to 100 bar, apparently she only had 35 on the surface.
Friendly blue gropers; nice nudibranchs: blue/purple 1 cm and fat white one with bright other colours; PJ on the sponge garden, swam away; large jellyfish looked quite ominous; giant cuttlefish in a cave. There are some beaut dive throughs or caves here – one looked great with lots of bullseyes and you can see through to the other side, sort of a mini fish rock cave.

128. Fairlight 8th October 2005
10.58; 18 degrees; 66 mins; 10.1 max, 5.8 avg; hood.
DM – Dave, Keith, beginner couple.
Southerly swell and strong nor’wester made Fairlight the go. The tide was very full and the surface was a smooth as a billiard table. From the surface, the vis looked almost opaque. The couple had problems so Keith and I took off to the east, past the pool and down around the little point. The vis improved as we got deeper and when we were in amongst the caves and overhangs. There were plenty of nudibranchs around: white, blue, purple; schools of large black drummer; a weird blue scorpion fish (Sydney Scorpionfish,) under a rock staring back at us; a boarfish – large, big hump, blue/silver, spines on his back; large morwongs; nice largish PJ under a rock (seemed to have a hook and line in his mouth; a large wobbegong, maybe 2.5 metres. The caves and overhangs were festooned in orange sponges and there were plenty of flora around. As we were getting out we found some weird plant that changes from black to white when you touch it. A relaxing dive (I still had 120 bar after 66 minutes).

127. Bare Island – west side 1st October 2005
10.27; 17 degrees; 51 mins; 14.3max, 10.4 avg; hood.
DM – Dave, Jane, Les, Anna-Maria (Kiwi sheila).
A return to the site of infamy! Exactly the same dive as last week; the vis was only so-so, though it would be considered good for this site – anywhere where there is a proliferation of sponges, you’re likely to get dodgy vis because the sponges love water that’s full of suspended particles that they can filter feed from. But the low vis makes it a bit of a pain to keep up with the others if you stop to examine in closer detail some nice sight, like the pair of nudibranchs I saw, each about 1cm long, one pink, the other lilac – there were nudibranchs galore on this dive. The Kiwi lady churned up the sand – she seemed to be swimming in a vertical aspect which was weird. We saw a nice stingray buried in the sand, with just his eyes visible; a brown seahorse clinging to some kelp; a cave with a giant cuttlefish and, after my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I made out 6 PJs in the further recesses. Later the others found an octopus but I couldn’t see him; then there were the PJs recumbent on the same sponge garden bed – this time there were only two but it’s still a great sight. The blue gropers are very friendly here and one stayed with me for a while, coming right up in my face, I tried to find something for him to eat, like the little crustacean or mollusc type creatures that you often find under rocks, but there weren’t any free rocks down there. Little cliffs and overhangs, covered in sponges: orange, lilac, yellow. Later we saw some purple tube worms in a cluster that made them look like a plant. Even the kelp at the end of the dive (just before the main entrance/exit that everyone uses to get in and out of this western side of Bare) is very pretty.

126. Bare Island – West side 24th September 2005
10.41; 17 degrees; 47 mins; 14.9max, 11 avg; hood.
DM – Dave, Liz, Keith, Phil, Les.
Nice dive except it will be a day that will forever live in infamy because of the “flooding of the housing” which ruined the new Caplio GX camera! I felt sick through the whole dive (it flooded immediately, because the O-ring wasn’t attached). I probably should have aborted, and only found out later that Phil’s larger and more expensive set-up- had also flooded and he’d aborted immediately. a couple of beautiful, plump seahorses, two cuttlefish in a cave, perhaps doing a mating ritual and further in the depths of the cave, a PJ; a medium-sized octopus, plenty of chummy gropers and the great sight of at least 6 PJs recumbent on a bed of sponge garden.

125. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 16th September 2005
11.37; 19 degrees; 52 mins; 27.1max, 14 avg; hood.

Bad start: forgot my weight pouches, but only realised after swimming with others for about 50 metres and everyone else descending – I couldn’t get down and then realised (after 2nd attempt) that the only weights I had were the 2 in the upper part of the BCD. Swam back to boat, clumsily inserted pouches, getting stressed and still had to swim back to meet DM Peter, who’d said he’d wait for me at the bottom. Got down and the realised my torch was gone! Caught up with Peter, showed him with sign language, he signalled something and continued to cave entrance. Then THE FEAR got to me again – I looked up to the surface and kept thinking about being in the cave without a torch, felt that I’d have to abort, thought I as hyperventilating, tried concentrating on the plant and animal life oh the rocks; somehow the fear left and P gave me a torch And I was relatively OK (still slightly stressed though); we went up to the second bubble cave and it was weird to talk to each other metres underwater. Back down to the cave’s mouth which always presents an amazing sight – the light streaming in, silhouetting thousands of little fish and then the massive form of the grey nurse, patrolling the entrance. When you stay still, the hundreds of bullseyes and other similar fish come very close so that they’re almost enveloping you. Struggling past the current again, with more GNS and over the hill where a medium moray eel was coaxed out of his hole by Peter with an urchin; later, another (mosaic) moray, gorgeous crimson-banded cleaner shrimp; Peter pointed out a large Spanish dancer, which I thought was some kind of anemone, then he saw a wobby with a hook imbedded in its mouth, which he tried to remove with some pliers, to no avail. We caught up with the other three who were getting ready to ascend; in the valley, GNS were cruising up and down – all big and one a real whopper (at least 3 meters).

124. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 16th September 2005
9.12; 19 degrees; 62 mins; 22.9max, 14.6 avg; hood.
DM Peter, couple around my age plus old codger who peppered his sentences with liberal amounts of “bloody”. EQ probs again – we descended to the cave entrance, DM picked up a dwarf wobby by the tail – he seemed hypnotised, also 2 large bull rays cruised around and then we entered, and I was second after DM; hundreds of large lobsters hiding under rocks, their eyes reflect back from torchlight like rubies; a black cod hiding; up quickly to the horizontal section; plenty of big wobbies and the awesome sight of large GNS’s cruising at the entrance with the large schools of bullseyes and pomfred. Large kingfish cruised near the mouth – the viz here was not very good but they looked fantastic anyway, probably up to a metre long. Over the hill towards shark gutter -- 2 small cuttlefish; green turtle lying still, but not asleep. A beautiful smallish lionfish; I kept getting bitten, mostly damselfish and then 2 clown anemone fish, guarding their anemone, attacked me, nipping me on the fingers. The GNS were cruising relentlessly in the gutter, in the relatively poor vis they loom up suddenly from about 15 metres away, seemingly green in colour. Good dive.

123. Julian Rocks, Byron Bay 13th September 2005
11.13; 19 degrees; 49 mins; 15.5max, 9.5 avg; hood.
Vis was disappointing, given the fantastic surface conditions. DM was Sarah, young Englishwoman and most of the divers were young Swedes. We seemed to stay very shallow, perhaps due to their inexperience; apparently the other group saw a free-swimming turtle and maybe my group did too because I was preoccupied with buoyancy issues plus mask flooding slightly which brought back the panic feeling I first got in Thailand in 2002. Large loggerhead turtle asleep under a rock (very similar to SWR), triggerfish and other tropicals like parrotfish.
Saw a large pod (100-150) of silver grey dolphins on the ride back, plus humpback whale breaching in the distance. Later that day saw lots of humpbacks and mother and calf got close to shore, just near the easternmost point – you could see their white underbellies clearly.

122. Hugo’s Trench, Julian Rocks, Byron Bay 10th September 2005
8.18am; 19 degrees; 55 mins; 20.4max, 12.5 avg; hood.
DM was nice lady (Kate?), maybe in her 40s, who was doing a thesis on divers’ experiences, I told her about my fear attack at SWR on the previous Thursday. Strong northerly wind that had come up the night before brought gusty on-shore conditions which made Hugo’s the only viable option. It was a rough ride out. My buddy was “Snappy” a brash Aussie, prone to bragging, who said he’d done over 1,000 dives commercially – he also bragged that he used to wrestle GNS at Seaworld. The other guy was an inexperienced Irishman with a strong accent. We descended via a mooring line, which made EQ easier, though I still had problems; we got to the trench before the horde of beginner divers so were able to appreciate the wobbies and a large school of yellow tailed bream. There was a large bull ray “climbing” the wall; some small nudibranchs; plenty of rock cods and orange moray eel. Irishman had to use Kate’s occy because he was down to 80 bar quickly, she figured he could share then and have his own reg for the ascent. I was surprised that Snappy didn’t stay down longer, figuring he’d opt to continue (and maybe show me some sights, given that he seemed to know the place) but he was cold. I used to computer clock to ascertain the safety stop because I was still locked out from the SWR incident which was still less than 48 hours ago.

121. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 3rd September 2005
11.15am; 19 degrees; 45 mins; 23.8max, hood. (no average because the computer locked me out!)
Same entry point as first dive; less EQ probs; large wobby at cave mouth with something in his side (hook?). GNS cruised very closely – I was watching a blue groper and then realised a GN was drifting less than a metre above me – would have been a great photo because his close proximity made for good viz; he was a fawny-yellow colour and not huge. DM John fed a moray and other fish with a sea urchin. Stacks of GNS in the shark gutter.

120. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 8th September 2005
9.05am; 19 degrees; 61 mins; 26.2max, 17.1 avg; hood.
20-30 min boat ride from the river, over the sandbar (here, you don a lifejacket), along the coast, southeast to Fish Rock. Saw 2 whales breaching on the trip out. DM, John all the other divers very experienced with some logging over 1,000 dives. At least 2 were tech divers and one sold tech dive gear; the other was referred to a having a “lust for rust” meaning he mainly likes wreck diving. I was buddied with Dm and all descended very quickly after we swam c. 50 meters from the boat. I had trouble EQing and, as I watched the other divers merge into the blue water ahead, with their bubble trails eerily hanging above them, the FEAR got me without warning – maybe it was lack of visual stimuli couple with EQ problems and being left behind; I thought I was going to have to abort and got gripped by huge doubt (“what are you doing here, you’re a phoney, you’re not a diver, you don’t belong in this environment”, etc.) and acutely conscious of my breathing, convinced I was hyperventilating and going to run out of air quickly, plus the thought of entering a huge, pitch-black cave...). Just as suddenly, the fear was gone, perhaps the visual stimuli of the rock wall, perhaps the logical thought that I’d blow my dough and look a wimp if I didn’t go through with it, plus I’d obviously be extremely disappointed that I‘d missed out on such an experience as Fish Rock cave. The cave entrance looked dark, foreboding, narrow and very vertical; we entered and I almost landed on a large sleeping wobby.., We ascended quickly and I had to grab the DM’s fins to try and upright myself to purge my BCD. On the way up there was a huge bull ray asleep next to another sleeping wobby , thousands of bulls eyes, mados, pomfrets and then we reached the large mouth of the cave, with kingfish and big GNS cruising towards the entrance and back again. There was variety of sizes in the GNS, up to 3 meters or more but some small ones as well. The big ones had remora attached and were accompanied by a retinue of little fish. The GNS look permanently irascible and their colour varies from grey to a fawny yellowish colour – you look up from observing a groper and find a big GNS drifting slowly 1 metre overhead or less!. The current at the cave’s mouth was intense and we were obliged to grab onto little protrusions in the rock wall and launch ourselves ahead – then current was swirling the sand on the bottom and even the huge GNS seemed to be struggling against its force. Over the hill and down towards the shark gutter, the hill down is impressive because of the wide variety of life, both animal and vegetable: corals, sponges, kelps, anemones; yellow moray eels, gropers galore, morwongs, rock cods, clown fish, lionfish, and a big loggerhead, fast asleep, wedged under a rock. Down to the gutter and the GNS keep cruising back and forth. Then my Deco incident: DM pointed to the 10 on my computer (which I later logically knew was the non-deco time counting down, in other words, I had 10 more minutes at that depth (about 25 metres) before I’d need to do a deco stop. For some weird reason (perhaps I was narked, perhaps it was that I’d done so many shallow shore dives recently, etc.) I thought he was telling me to do a safety stop at that depth for 10 minutes! I waited for the 10 min to count down, having fun looking at fish, then ascended when the counter hit zero, got confused when the computer said to go back down, ended up coming up too quickly but didn’t worry too much because the computer wasn’t beeping – of course, it started beeping at the surface and all the other divers, who were on the boat, told me that I could be in trouble – one said that my computer was telling me I was officially dead. DM said “what am I going to do with you?” given that we were due for another dive in an hour and the computer would lock me out. No DCI symptoms and the Gekko is very conservative, plus I started my ascent as soon as it hit zero.

119. Fairy Bower 3rd September 2005
10.49m; 16 degrees; 63 mins; 7.5max, 5 avg, hood
Dave, Peter, Liz, Mark; pretty good viz but not many fish: 1 PJ; 1 small GC doing lots of colour changing; schools of drummer, yellowtail and trevally; plenty of blue and green wrasse (plus lots of CBW). I forgot my weight pouches so had to improvise with weight belt and loose weights stuffed into BC – consequently, I was slightly unbalanced. Also forgot my computer! Which I didn’t really need, but I was incredulous, especially as I only discovered I’d forgotten it once I was in the water.

118. Shelly Beach 27th August 2005
10.49m; 18 degrees; 62 mins; 11.6max, 7.9 avg, hood
Best dive ever at Shelly (or rivalled by the time I saw a giant cuttlefish devour a fish). PJs of all sizes everywhere, sleeping in groups and swimming all over the place; largish wobbegong (maybe 1.5 metres or more); 2 giant cuttlefish (one looked like it was on the way out); moray eel; octopus hiding under rock; small numb ray; large school of small striped catfish; small (baby) rock cods; blue and green gropers.

117. Fairy Bower 20th August 2005
10.35m; 16 degrees; 44 mins; 7 max, 5.2 avg, hood
DM Peter but Keith, John (new guy, from Manchester) and I went separately.
Nor’ wester causing a swell to come in and a fair bit of churn, especially on the western side where we were concertinaed back and forth near the rocks. I felt too buoyant anytime I was above about 4 metres so grabbed a rock every now and then. Viz was fair considering the conditions, most of the problems with lack of it were due to sand churned up by the swell. PJs asleep, maybe in the same spot as 2 weeks ago; plenty of schooling yellowtails, sheltering in the little rock valleys; hundreds of bullseyes hiding under rocks and overhangs, mados everywhere plus a nice big blue groper, largish morwongs, Sgt Bakers (usual stuff but no giant cuttlefish or DWs). An enjoyable dive with Keith leading the way, it was sort of fun being pushed around by the churn. John said the temp got as low as 13 degrees but the lowest I noticed was 16 av confirmed by computer).

116. Camp Cove 13th August 2005
10.15m; 16 degrees; 53 mins; 6.4 max, 4.6 avg, hood
DM – Dave, Liz, about 7 others
Nice little dive, we went to the “reef” off the beach first but there was not much happening there. Then over to the eastern side where there are nice rock “bommies” and cliffs with kelp and sponges. Some big, white nudibranchs; a strange fish “sleeping” on a sponge looked like a baby leatherjackjet but wider; an octopus hiding in a hole, wouldn’t come out even with some gentle prodding; schools of small fish, lots of mado, yellowtail, drummer, luderick, etc. No seahorses in the shallows this time.


115. Fairy Bower 6th August 2005
10.24am; 17 degrees; 60 mins; 7.6 max, 5.5 avg, hood
DM – Mu, Liz, Phil, about 4 others
Nice easy dive, good for me while I’m still sick. Rock cod (scorpion fish?); octopus hiding under rock; plenty of PJs and the best bit was 5 of them huddled together in a “cave” on the western sides; blue groper, usual mados, morwongs (a pretty big one hiding in a crevice), bullseyes under ledges and in little caves and assorted wrasse. No sign of the dusky whalers this time; like wobbies, they may go elsewhere in winter.

114. Harbord 23rd July 2005
10.53am; 16 degrees; 46 mins; 11.9 max, 8.8 avg, hood
DM – Peter, Liz, Dave (DM for our separate dive), 2 English guys
“Interesting” entry via the eastern point; jump off the rocks when the swell comes in; I went first – my feet hit the rock shelf below but it was minimal impact. The next guy was fine too but the following guy landed badly and hurt his ankle. He felt he was OK to proceed. We descended and almost immediately came across a huge school of large kingfish. There were hundreds and maybe even a thousand and they moved around and above us. Then there were schools of yellowtail that looked very small after the kingfish. 3 giant cuttlefishes, one under a rock, Dave reckoned she was laying eggs. Blue groper finally turned up (maybe I should have given him a sea urchin, there are plenty at Harbord unlike Shelly); the dive throughs are good, we went through a really good one and there was another narrower one that I would have liked to try but thought better of it. Good terrain: lots of crevices and overhangs and little amphitheatres, plus nice sponges and kelp on walls and then kelp and seagrass towards the end. The exit was the usual way near the swimming pool so we’d swum quite a distance. The exit was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be and the guy who hurt his ankle sliced his hand quite badly: plenty of blood!

113. South Maroubra beach 16th July 2005
10.31am; 17 degrees; 56 mins; 13.7 max, 8.5 avg, hood
DM Dave, Phil and me.
Sou’westerly wind had flattened the surf at the southern end (big waves at the north and lots of surfers there with the off-shore winds). We entered from the beach into nice seagrass beds with a school of small (15cm) garfish that was being attacked buy a large gull-like bird that dived into the water. No equalisation problems this time. Interesting terrain after seagrass and kelp: rocks, boulders, overhangs, crags, etc., but not much fish. Spotted a large fish that seemed more massive than a blue groper and I figured if he was a groper he’d come over anyway but he swam off (though later we did see a groper who dissed us, don’t know if it’s something to do with the time of year but it’s been ages since I’ve been followed by a friendly groper). Things were getting a bit dull until Dave found a WSD which we were able to observe at very close range. Later we happened upon a cuttlefish (a juvenile giant cuttlefish I suppose) that put on a great colour display and did the thing with the shimmering bands of colour moving along his body. We turned around when I as on 150 bar and I assume Phil was on 100 or lower and came across a very large GCF with his arms fully outstretched in a pose that seemed more supplicant than aggressive (though they have been known to attack – see this month’s Dive Log. He’d camouflaged well as kelp so I thought Dave had found another WSD; eventually he retreated beneath a rock overhang. A lost the other two for a few minutes and couldn’t work out how I could lose them so quickly! The hood seems to restrict your vision though I’m not sure how – it definitely constricts the neck and I was quite uncomfortable for much of the dive. I felt I was in danger of hyperventilating on the way back but it was probably the exertion of swimming against the current and, as usual, I was over-obsessed with conserving air. Phil was very low on air at the surface but once again I had 100 bar.

112. Kurnell – Inscription Point 9th July 2005
11.04am; 17 degrees; 47 mins; 17.1 max, 11 avg, hood
DM Peter, Liz, Paul (buddy), 2 other pommies and young woman
Slow sign on computer; 100 bar on surface
Nice dive; slight problem equalising at first (same as Shiprock); fair viz, PJs back for winter, 2 or 3 nice ones glided by, 3-4 WSDs, nice leatherjackets, large schools of yellowtail, bullseyes under rocks, other smaller fish, morwongs, etc. I would have liked to stay longer at the turnaround point but Liz was down to 100 by then (she surfaced with 25!). Nice sponges, dive-throughs and overhangs.

111. Fairy Bower 25th June 2005
10.28am; 18 degrees; 39 mins; 7.6 max, 5.8 avg, hood
DM Peter, Liz, Arno
Southerly, showers, bit of a swell coming into FB, high tide. Plenty of churn and sand cut viz even more. Not very enjoyable but Arno said he saw a turtle (!), which none of us saw. Nothing remarkable; Liz said she “needed that” because it was the first churn since the Camp Cove horror (except for Clovelly night dive, but she aborted that after 15 mins.)

110. Fairy Bower 18th June 2005
10.50am; 18 degrees; 54 mins; 7.3 max, 5.8 avg, hood
DM Dave, Keith, Paul (older guy), Mel.
Started off at Harbord where the sou’wester was brutally cold and the swell looked challenging. A few divers were entering the channel but they got a little pounded by the swell before they made it out. It looked dodgy and Dave decided FB was a better option, especially as the ebbing tide would only make the sand churn worse.
FB was warm and sheltered and parking wasn’t a problem. Good dive mainly because the dusky whalers got so close. I wore the hood and took the torch and my buoyancy seemed OK, though the hood is constrictive and gives me a headache and seems to decrease the field of vision. Started off with a largish wobby asleep in a large broken pipe; usual schools of yellowtail, drummer and another largish fish green/brown in colour: a few of them grazing on seagrass or kelp (maybe related to drummer which are silver). Another largish wobby in a pipe and then Dave pointed out the largest of the 3 whalers we ended up seeing swimming away. I followed until he was obscured by the water (maybe 5-6 metres viz), his tail looks very impressive as he streaks away from you; then 2 smaller DWs passed between Dave, Mel and me on one side and Keith and Paul on the other. The latter didn’t even realise they were missing this procession, even though they were pretty close and I was trying to get their attention. The sharks were small but very sleek and streamlined with funny round eyes – they are beautiful creatures. I would have liked longer but everyone else was getting cold. (100 bar left)


109. Shiprock 11th June 2005
11.17am; 17 degrees; 47 mins; 14.3 max, 10.1 avg
DM Peter, Buddy Frank, Liz, 3 others.
What a fantastic place! This is as colourful as a coral reef. Only down sides were the cold and the 5-7 metre viz but apparently it’s very rare to get better viz than what we got though Michael McFadyen says otherwise, if you’re lucky. Click here for a description and guide of this dive. Amazing variety of sponges in thousands of colours and the torch is a must to look into all the little caves and under overhangs and to bring out the rich red sponges which normally look brown at anymore than 2 metres. Plenty of fish including sone lovely leatherjackets, very interesting rock cods, drummers, morwongs, pineapples, bream, yellowtail and much more. The bubble cave is fun but the whole dive runs parallel to the fantastic wall of sponges and that’s just endlessly fascinating -- it’s almost hallucinogenic in the colour range! This would be a great night dive; whenever it’s done, can only be done at high tide. This is a definite must to do again! Too heavy, obviously I didn’t account for the extra slightly over 1 pound of weight from the torch -- hood would have compensated and kept out the cold. I would have preferred longer, having over 100 bar left as would Frank but Peter dragged us back, probably because the exit is very dodgy if not done properly because of all the boats (whose constant noise was distracting).

108. Clovelly Pool 8th June 2005 Night Dive
8.20 pm; 18 degrees; 17 mins; 5.2 max, 3.4 avg
DM Mu, Liz, Keith, Paul and others.
107. Clovelly Pool 4th June 2005
7.44pm; 19 degrees; 27 mins; 6.7 max, 4.9 avg
Medium swell coming in and at high tide the waves were crashing hard against the breakwater. The car park was dark and gearing up was more difficult. I’d forgotten my torch but was able to bludge one from Mu. Buddied with Liz; the churn was a tad challenging, especially in the shallow water and may have reawakened memories of Camp Cove for Liz, after 27 minutes she opted to go out, having a sore jaw. I accompanied her to the concrete edge and the swell was scary in the inky blackness; I started using too much air, even though I was on the surface, with reg in to prevent possible water intake in the lungs. I dived down again and found Keith and Paul but couldn’t get into deep water, difficult to orient oneself in the darkness. Not very many fish about: leatherjackets came very close, maybe hypnotised by the torchlight. I enjoyed peering under rocks and at one stage saw a pair of frightened eyes retreating further under cover, maybe a shrimp? A good experience overall but would have been more fulfilling in deeper water and with calmer conditions, maybe FB if it was similar to last Saturday.

106. Fairy Bower 4th June 2005
11.00 am; 18 degrees; 52 mins; 6.7 max, 5.2 avg.
DM Peter, Liz, Keith, Phil and many others. Went to Harbord first but the swell seemed too exciting for the Harbord entry and exit so we diverted to FB. Perfect conditions: flat, sunny, though the tide was low which made for quite a shallow dive. Huge school of yellowtail hanging around the rocks and slowly moving out over the sand; I entered the school and hung with them, getting very close, they stayed very close if I held my breath and they’d move back slightly when I exhaled. Also big schools of trevally and, under the rocks, hundreds of bullseyes. A brief encounter with one of the whalers – I chased him across the sand but he outswam me without any difficulty. Groper(s) followed through the little canyons and chasms in the rocks. I peeked under many overhangs and contemplated entering tight tunnels but opted for caution because my gear almost certainly would have caught on the edges. Saw a small school of squid, always appealing, though their speed makes them hard to get close to. Spent a bit of the time alone, surface at one stage to see where I was: I’d moved a reasonable distance west toward Manly beach but there were no possible problems with the extremely calm conditions. Surfaced with 130 bar and would have preferred longer bottom time but Keith and others had gone ashore. K said later he would have liked a longer dive or another dive after getting more air.

105. Fairy Bower 21st May 2005
10.28 am; 20 degrees; 59 mins; 7 max, 5.5 avg
DM Dave, Liz, American woman and older guy who was a beginner.
More sharks than you could poke a stick at! - up to 5 dusky whalers surrounding us. Great conditions: flat, good viz. Big schools of yellowtail, bullseyes under rocks, shovel-nosed ray buried in sand with just eyes protruding, blue groper, leatherjackets, morwongs, rock cod. Surfaced with 100 bar.

104. Camp Cove 14th May 2005
11.15am; 20 degrees; 10 mins; 7 max; 4.9 avg
DM Jean-Paul + 6 others (inc Keith & Liz).
103. Camp Cove 14th May 2005
10.41am; 20 degrees; 24 mins; 10 max; 7 avg
Perhaps the worst dive so far! Terrible viz and choppy conditions. JP missed the reef in the middle of the beach so took us to the rocks on the northern end; we surfaced after swimming across endless boring sand (a couple of small rays but mainly broken bottles) and then went down near the rocks. The churn was pushing us into the rocks and when I checked the depth, we were only at 1.5-2 metres! I surfaced straight away, swimming away from the rocks. The 2 beginners had already surfaced and were swimming back to shore; which was difficult with the swell coming at you. I started going after them (after taking in a little bit of water) but thought I should hang around, seeing as I was JP’s buddy and he might wonder where I was. I caught sight of shapes in the water right near the rocks and almost thought they were cormorants but I assume they were Liz and her buddy and they looked like they were in a dangerous situation. Keith and buddy surfaced and I told them I was going back; they agreed but decided to swim back underwater and then got lost, heading out into the harbour! Then I saw Liz and her buddy, he was waving to me and I thought they might be distressed. I waved to them to swim out away from the rocks. Eventually, they and JP appeared and we headed back underwater via the rocks closer to the beach where there were some vaguely interesting swim throughs. The beginner guts were back on shore, sea sick and complaining that this was there first dive after completing the OW. I assured them that it couldn’t get any worse than this! Liz lost her torch and never lost map but was still in good spirits.!

102. Shelly Beach 7th May 2005
10.32am; 20 degrees; 46 mins; 12.2 max; 7.6 avg
DM Patrick + 8 others (inc Keith & Liz).
Not a bad dive but my weight was wrong. I tried 16 lbs – will probably go back to 18 or 20. Two giant cuttlefish, one in the open and another under rock; largish wobby under rock (asleep as usual); large schools of bullseyes under rocks, looked good; visited the motorbike.

101. Kurnell “The Leap” 30th April 2005
10.41 am; 19 degrees; 49 mins; 20.1 max; 9.8 avg
DM Patrick + Keith and pommie Paul. Climb down the rocks (with some steps carved out) and jump in from about 3 metres above! Full BC, holding fins, reg in, hand on mask, go down a fair bit and then fly up, fins on and then descend to 20 metres. Up to 6 WSDs, schools of yellowtail and stripies, octopus (I couldn’t get DM to stop but Keith stopped, then we almost lost the other two up ahead, found their bubbles).
Viz good to fair; plenty of wrasse including the obligatory blue gropers; lots of bristlestars under rocks. Not a great deal of fauna but interesting landscape with large boulders and overhangs and canyons. We swam from the leap to Inscription Point, coming out at the spot where I first went in at Kurnell a while back. Nice dive.

100. Bare Island 23rd April 2005
10.55am; 20 degrees; 50 mins; 10.4 max; 8.2 avg
100th dive! Relaxing – nothing special. One weedy sea dragon; usual blue gropers, other wrasses, nudis, etc. headed east and then south, through sponge gardens and kelp beds.

99. Bare Island 9th April 2005
10.13am; 20 degrees; 51 mins; 17.9 max; 10.7avg
Patrick and I circumnavigated the island from the rocks north east of the bridge to the usual entry point south west of the bridge: 52 minutes of steady and sometimes difficult swimming because of the current. Came up with 50 bar. Viz was poor and not much interesting sea life except for a white (albino) groper, little white nudibranch, cluster of largish morwong and a large school of tiny fish surrounding us.

98. Harbord 2nd April 2005
10.44am; 21 degrees; 64 mins; 10.7 max; 7.6 avg
Rougher than it looked at first – plenty of churn underneath, pushing us back and forth, viz was badly affected by all the sand. Great landscape and fun to go through dive-throughs and in the narrow passages between walls. We were followed by the usual big blue groper who came extremely close, trying to persuade me to give him a sea urchin. Saw a couple of small rays in the sand and a large blue-ringed octopus right at the very end of the dive. DM Jean-Paul, I buddied with Patrick. We all surfaced while I still had 130 bar so Patrick and I went back for more. I used about 20 bar trying to get back in – slightly hairy!

97. Julian Rocks – The Nursery 28th March 2005
11.00am; 24 degrees; 54 mins; 18.6 max; 11.6 avg
Less viz than early morning: maybe as low as 10 metres or even less at some times, other times maybe 15-20.!
Heavy going with the drift and I ended up dehydrated because I didn’t drink enough between dives; had a bad headache and felt very nauseated at surface but OK after drink.
Large bull ray; leopard sharks; moray eels; lionfish; sweetlips(?) – big cod or groper-like fish with huge fat bottom lips, turtle above; plenty of wobbies, one cruised briefly; garfish/pipefish/flutefish (check), brown and maybe 30 cms.
Black coral(?), big starfishes
Same buddy and DM as yesterday: May and ?
2 other inexperienced guys –one lasted about 20 mins the other maybe 40 -- they flapped around a lot, using their hands almost as much as their fins.

96. Julian Rocks – The Cod Hole 28th March 2005
8.02am; 24 degrees; 44 mins; 19.8 max; 13.7 avg
Probably best viz ever! 25-30 metres. Another drift dive. As we approached the cod-hole entrance 3-4 gigantic Queensland groper (or potato cod?) emerged; meanwhile leopard shark cruising below and large eagle ray flying above –overwhelming!!!. Smaller turtle cruising near the surf at the rocks. Landscape very dramatic and beautiful.
Blue Groper being cleaned by Cleaner Wrasse – the groper lay on its side while the wrasse went into its gills. Rod cods (scorpion fish?)
Small orang-y moray eel; clown anemone fish (didn’t know they were this far south). Sweetlips(?) -
Nearly lost buddy – she went to the surface when the DM sent the other 2 guys up. I didn’t notice until DM pointed out! Then she descended and all was OK.

95. Julian Rocks– The Nursery 27th March 2005
8.03am; 24 degrees; 57 mins; 18 max; 11.3 avg
Great viz: maybe 20 metres. Drift dive – moving pretty fast.
Leopard shark glided close by; large kingfish; snappers; spotted rays; massive turtle, up to 2 metres (DM said he’d be at least 100 years old) turning rocks over in a valley full of wobbegongs, plus hundreds of gropers and other fish attracted by the rock-turning.
Parrotfish(?); lionfish
Overtime (DM got into trouble!) – JR crew want you at the surface at 50 mins. Still 60-70 bar.

94. Shelly Beach 19th March 2005
10.21am; 21 degrees; 64 mins; 7.9 max; 5.8 avg.
Poor viz after turning the corner; DM Peter plus 2 others (Pommies); nice big Giant Cuttlefish hiding under rock; had a bit of fun feeding grubs to the gropers.

93. Harbord 12th March 2005
10.39am; 22 degrees; 58 mins; 11 max; 7av.
Plenty of churn, back and forth from the swell made fairly heavy going. Couple of rays; cuttlefish emerged from under a rock ledge after I turned over a small rock and grabbed a fish using a long, straw-like appendage from its mouth (amazing sight!).
Later saw the dusky whaler below me while I was snorkelling at Fairy Bower – he was about 2-3 metres away!

92. Fairy Bower 5th March 2005
10.16am; 23 degrees; 59mins; 7max; 5.2 avg.
Nice dive: DM Peter, Mel and English guy. Giant cuttlefish (4) one in the open camouflaged as seaweed; glimpse of the dusky whaler pup.

91. Gordons Bay 26th February 2005
10.54am; 22 degrees; 69mins; 13.1 max; 9.8 avg.
DM Patrick; fairly large group inc Liz and Roger (buddy I lost). Good dive despite confusion at the end when it was just me and buddy and Phil and Liz: we should have surfaced after a minute but no-one did. Liz suddenly revealed that she had almost run out of air so Phil rushed back with her (horizontally, rather than vertically which would have been better!). A catshark or two bit not much else of note.

90. Fairy Bower 19th February 2005
10.51am; 21 degrees; 68mins; 7.9max; 5.5 avg.
DM Peter; Lost buddy (Roger?) – embarrassing!

89. Harbord 12th February 2005
2. 11.36am; 21 degrees; 34 mins; 9.5 max; 6.4 avg.
88. Harbord 12th February 2005
10.37am; 21 degrees; 54mins; 11.6 max; 8.2 av 21
Good dive(s)! Tunnel, swim throughs, etc. Great landscape and good viz; almost 90 minutes underwater! Second dive with Patrick after sending Liz back to shore (she gad some difficulty getting back!)

87. Shelly beach 5th February 2005
10.56am; 18 degrees; 49 mins; 12.2 max; 7.6 avg. (“slow” on computer)
DM Patrick; WSD; some Wobbies; Bloody cold for this time of year! Tsunami guy: Rick, Australian, arrived at Patong on Xmas day 2004, booked a room on the beach at Patong. The wave came in and he was pinned down, thought he was going to die.

86. Kurnell 30th January 2005
11.27am; 21 degrees; 15mins; 7.3 max; 5.2 avg
Worst viz ever. Buddy Tim the Pommy. Crap dive.

85. Bare Island 29th January 2005
10.57 am; 19 degrees; 15.5 max; 10.7 avg (“slow” on computer)
Terrible viz; water temp went down to 19 deg though the viz was marginally better in the cold water; buddy Belinda; we lost the others just before the end but came up in a good spot (I came up a bit too quickly). I still had about 100 bar though Patrick thought I should have had about 80 seeing as he had 90. Return of madman Englishman! White nudibranch, cat-shark (?), blue wrasse, that’s about it.

84. Bare Island 22nd January 2005
10.52 – 20 degrees – 61 mins / 11.9 max / 9.1 avg -
Bad viz again; nice water temp, fairly strong swell we had to work against on way back. My buddy, Belinda, ran out of air just before we would have surfaced anyway so we surfaced a bit earlier. I still had about 100 bar (tank had been filled to almost 250 bar) but didn’t check B’s reading, as I should have!
Large rock cod (scorpionfish), PJ, WSD, blue wrasse all the way.

83. Bare Island 15th January 2005

10.31 / 18 degrees / 54 mins / 18.6 max / 10.7 avg /
DM Dave with a large group but Patrick and Mel and her brother and friend and I split off.
Western side of BI (“The Wall”) Poor viz and M’s bf ‘s tank kept coming off, they aborted earlier. Got quite cold without hood. P saw a moray eel; impressive sponge gardens and dive troughs, walls, overhangs, etc.

82. Shelley beach 8th January 2005

10.38 48min / 21 deg / 11.6 max / 7.6 avg /viz 10 – 15 DM Patrick, buddy Tim, 3 or 4 wobbies; another shark (cat-shark?) with 2 babies – 1.5 metres and 0.5 metres. Small giant cuttlefish; largish octopus under rock; weedy sea dragon 20 – 30 cms; leatherjackets; drummers; blackfish; blue wrasse; cardinal wrasse; Sgt Bakers.

81. Fairy Bower 18th December 2004
10.35 a.m. 66 min / 6.7 max / avg 4.9 / 20 deg / Viz c.10-15m
DM Dave; buddy Con; 2 other couples
Good dive except buddy didn’t stay close plus grabbed a wobby’s tail. Relaxing, water warm, no hood. Could have gone for another 30 min at least (100 bar on surface).
Dave said he saw a dusky whaler; plenty of wobbies after not seeing them all through winter (migratory?). Nice stingray swimming ahead of us; white nudibranch; stonefish c. 30 cm; largish morwongs; drummer feeding at seagrass; schools of squid; blue wrasse.
Second part of dive I was alone and saw 2 large wobbies (c. 1.8 metres, almost the same size as me). Previously a largish wobby swam close to me before settling down on a rock.

80. Bare Island 11 December 2004
27min 12.2 max 9.1 avg / 17 deg / viz 5-6 m
DM Derek plus one other guy.
Bad dive, the other guy had equipment failure (BC kept inflating; he had 20 bar at surface, I had 130!). Poor viz due to heavy rain; treated sewage in water? One blue wrasse. Southern end of island, long walk to entry!

79. Bare island 4 December 2004
19 degrees / 60 minutes / 11.7 m max / avg 9.5 / Viz 10-12 m
DM Patrick – Patrick, Phil and I decided to go off as a trio because the group was so large (DM Derek for that group).
Very calm conditions; N/E wind so headland sheltered us, no chop, no tidal current, good viz, very relaxing, no problems.
Stayed on the eastern side of BI, entered north-east of the bridge. Sponge gardens are very nice: lots of colours – orange, purple, yellow, nice dive-throughs, large sections of sea weed where WSDs flourish. Found a giant cuttlefish under a rock ledge; Patrick fed the blue wrasse a sea urchin, some other, smaller wrasse got in on the action; largish yellow-green leatherjacket; 3 Weedy Sea Dragons. First one was c 30 cms (Patrick held his hand up against it and it extended from his fingers to past his wrist). Second WSD was a large male, perhaps as much as 45 cms; his lower half was covered in eggs; smaller one later. Usual morwongs, old wives, catfish, etc.
Very relaxing dive with 2 other good divers. One hour under and still 75 bar.

78. Kurnell – Inscription Point 27 November 2004
11 am / 15.5 max - avg 10.7 / 43 mins / 18 degrees / Viz 8m; DM Peter 7 other divers (I was buddied with Julie)
Strong outgoing tidal current pushed us along quickly. I had slight problems with equalising, probably descended a little too fast. Weedy sea dragon; missed a large bull ray (maybe same one as my first dive at Kurnell); leatherjackets; large schools of small catfish and some other small yellow fish (bullseyes?).
Nice landscape of rocks and overhangs; beautiful sponge gardens, bright orange, light purple, bright yellow; Julie saw some nudibranchs but missed a large school of 30cm blackfish(?) swimming past very quickly.
DM turned dive around at 20 minutes because of strong current. Difficult getting back; I had trouble with my breathing – had the impression I wasn’t getting enough air with each breath, then worried I might hyperventilate. Tried to relax but had nagging feeling that we were in trouble because of the current. Poor viz adds to those fears. Patrick and buddy aborted earlier, latter must have run low on air. In spite of my worries about using too much I had 100 bar at end of dive (45 mins); I was surprised that Julie, who is very skinny, only had 80 bar. Patrick had “half a tank” which was either 110 or 100 bar. The outgoing tide was a problem; obviously the best time is at high tide or either side of high tide. In coming tide may have been okay to drift back to picnic area. Difficult entry, long walk down narrow, steep stairs, fully geared-up and then entry via a gutter with a bit of a swell making it slightly hard; same with getting out, some difficulty in getting out of the water and then the steep walk, very taxing even for me with all my bushwalking training; would be terrible for an older person!

77. Fairy Bower 20 November 2004
10.24 am / 7m max – 61 mins / 20 degrees / avg 5.5 m / Viz c 5 m; DM Jean-Paul – no other divers 60 mins 20 degrees
Eagle ray c. 90 cms across
2 white nudibranchs with patterns, c 2-3 cms
Many stingrays in the sand.
Yellow catfish had dug a sand hole
Sgt bakers not many fish until near the end of the dive (45 mins) I saw the body of a yellow-brown moray eel c 40 cms long. He went under a rock with his head poking out. I showed JP who got a sea-urchin. This attracted a mob of fish including large blue groper (wrasse) and several green ones plus a 25 cm bright green fish almost tropical; all wanted the urchin and the blue groper started lunging at it while JP was trying to cut it open. Moray got very interested and a fight nearly broke out with the moray seeming to lunge at the groper. Ended up with colourful fish everywhere!
Except for that, dive was uneventful. 1 hour dive and I had 100 bar left so I could have gone for another 40 mins at least but JP was leaking air into his BCD. Felt relaxed but slightly cold even though water was 20 degrees for most of dive (19 at one stage).

76. Bare Island 13 November 2004
11 am / Viz 5 – 8 m / DM Dave Phil, Alex, weird woman / 60 min 15 – 18 degrees
Challenging dive – very bad viz at beginning / we lost the other 3 very quickly and Phil was swimming very quickly. Then he slowed down almost to a complete halt to take photos. Very nice rock formations; overhangs with lots of flora; large school, of small drummer (15 cm max); leatherjacket, purple with yellow eyes – allowed me very close; Phil found seahorse maybe up to 8 cms long with tail in a little depression in a rock. Nearby was a tiny purple nudibranch, less than 1 cm.
Nice amphitheatres and rocks with colourful sponges (yellow, red, orange, purple). Phil went back wrong way (seemed to be heading west!) but surfaced and came back pointing for us to go in another direction. Fairly grueling dive, 70 bar on surface after 1 hour; splitting headache, thought might be dehydration but maybe just the hood. Weird woman had caused dive for the others to be aborted after about 10 mins so they were both envious of our dive!

75. Harbord 6 November 2004
10.59 18 degrees / 34 mins / DM Derek – JP, Alex
Blue groper, we lost Derek after 15 mins.
Nice rocks and amphitheatres.

74. Fairy Bower 30/10/04
10.34 am 44 mins / 7.3 max / 18 degrees / avg 5.8
DM Peter, Roy (American), another guy
Poor viz; nice relaxing dive.

73. Bare island 16/10/04
12.02pm / 11.9 max / 17 degrees / 38 mins / avg 7.3 /
DM Peter, Mel, assorted Germans and Argentinean woman.
Bad viz, lost everyone except Mel.

72. Fairlight 10/10/04
3.09 pm / 5.8 max / 19 degrees / 6 mins! Up too fast! Av 4.6
4.09 pm
Not good at all. We entered on the western end, near where we could get parking and made our way east but quickly got separated. I just went on with the dive but I should have followed correct safety protocol and surfaced after a minute to look for P & L. Lyn reminded me of that when we finally got back together. Swimming back to shore was tiring and I must have been dehydrated because I felt severe nausea and had a bad headache. Not a satisfactory day of diving at all – though probably not as bad as the time P’s reg hose broke and he cursed and took it out on Lyn.

71. Shelly 10th October 2004
10.43 am; 59 mins / 18 degrees / 10.4 max / avg 7 too fast!
With Paul and Lyn. Paul DM took us up too shallow over the rocks at the surf break – the waves were breaking and the situation seemed a little dodgy. Lyn asked “Are we alright guys?” Paul didn’t have a good plan so I said we should go the shore, rather than descend and swim back around. He agreed but they both had trouble getting back in. I got hit by a small wave which made me feel panicky but it wasn’t too dire. The whole thing was pretty embarrassing for Paul because he was supposed to be the leader. Lyn upbraided him and he was slightly surly with her for a while, but probably sheepish as well.

70. Nth Bondi 11/9/04
10.40 am; 59 mins; 17 degrees; 17.7 max, 10.7 avg
DM Peter, as I headed to the bottom, two eyes looked at me mournfully from the sand – a stingaree. I nearly landed on top of him. I didn't ever feel fully relaxed on this dive, with tightness around my neck from the wetsuit plus hood and I kept obsessing, as usual, that I was using up my air too quickly (of course, I lasted 60 minutes and probably had well over 50 bar at ascent). I felt cold, too. There were plenty of gropers and I fed a sea-urchin to one of them. There were also purplish-black leatherjackets with yellow pop-eyes – weird fish! A scorpionfish was perfectly camouflaged on the rocks, I gently touched him and he swam away. There was a largish fish, sleek with dorsal fins, maybe a salmon, nervously patrolling a cave, back and forth. Large school of drummer, all small. A huge pod of dolphins on the surface, maybe feeding on the drummer? 2 WSDs up close, always beautiful to see their shimmering fins. 2 PJs together on the sand.

69. Bare Island 4th September 2004
10.30 am; 52 mins; 17 degrees; 12.5 max, 9.8 av
Nice dive with Mel and Patrick; three weedy sea dragons, large stingaree, octopus and scorpionfish.

68. North Bondi 28th August 2004
10.00 am; 57 mins; 18 degrees; 18 max, 12.5 av
Mel again plus Phil with Mu as DM. Entering was dramatic with largish swell coming in. We had to swim a fair way on the surface after that. Nice terrain with impressive boulders, two weedy sea dragons, one covered in eggs; a PJ; a spotted fish, maybe a black cod, shyly hiding under a rock. Blue gropers everywhere; the exit was a challenge, with long swim and pretty big swell.

67. Clovelly/Shark Point 21st August 2004
11.38 am; 47 mins; 17 degrees; 16.2 max, 9.5 av
First dive with Melanie Yap; I used my new hood. Blue gropers, scorpionfish, PJs and a huge bullray lying still on the sand in a stone sided amphitheatre. Patrick told us of his plans to sail his newly purchased boat all the way from France.

66. Bare Island 14th August 2004
11.00 am; 44 mins; 15 degrees; 11.3 max, 8.5 av
We entered off the rock shelf east of the BI fort, I entered via a forward somersault; some inexperienced divers had trouble getting in so DM suggested I and two others go off together. The new de facto leader was Phil ("No-Neck") and the other guy was Alex, a Russian; we were soon separated from Phil, who loitered a lot, taking photos. I became leader when Alex indicated he was getting low on air and obviously didn’t know which way to get back.. I reasoned that we had to go north and we surfaced at the exact point we entered so I felt slightly smug!

65. Shelly Beach 7th August 2004
10.43 am; 45 mins; 16 degrees; 11.9 max, 8.2 av
Two PJs, weedy sea dragon, leatherjackets, old wifes, catfish school, yellowtails, water cold but nice.

64. Fairlight, 10th July 2004
11.00 am; 82 mins; 18 degrees; 9.7 max, 8.8 av
Two PJs - one was a biggie (I originally logged it as 2 metres but that seems too big for a PJ. Plenty of drummer, some quite big, leatherjackets, morwong, cleaner wrasse, blue gropers.

63. Harbord, 26th June 2004
10.28 am; 37 mins; 17 degrees; 10.7 max, 7.6 av
Short dive because of someone running out of air very quickly. First dive with Dave Young as DM - he said it was the best vis ever at that site. Large wobbegong.

62. Shelly Beach 19th June 2004
10.38 am; 34 mins; 16 degrees; 10.7 max, 6.7 av
Not very eventful except for mad buddy, an English eccentric who ran out of air almost immediately, much to the disgust of grouchy DM Derek. The madman had a long beard, green wetsuit and purple tank; he kept his wetsuit unzipped in the freezing water! He whacked me in the face with his gauge at one stage - a real weirdo!

61. Inscription Point, Kurnell 6th June 2004
11.39 am; 54 mins; 18 degrees; 12.5 max, 8.8 av
I followed a huge bullray. I was too heavily-weighted, also my tank came off! Nice sponges, leatherjackets, etc.

60. Fairy Bower/Shelly Beach 29th May 2004
11.00 am; 60 mins; 18 degrees; 9.4 max, 5.2 av
Buddied with Chris, Sarah’s boyfriend. Plenty of large blue gropers, giant cuttlefish, 2 fair-sized dusky whalers hunting, school of yellowtail. I went across to the northern end of Shelly Beach (nearly hit the beach!); big blue groper came up to eyeball me; there was a guitar on the bottom! We thought we were going north east but ended up west of the point; my buddy was under-weighted and used up his air too quickly so we swam back to FB.

59. Koh Bon, Surin Islands, Thailand 25th April 2004
2.00 pm; 60 mins; 30 degrees; 30 max
Still no mantas, but a nice big leopard shark with remora, biggest lionfish I’ve ever seen, sweetlips, nice red brain coral; sadly, lots of dynamited coral. Sad to finish this great trip and to say goodbye to Gat.

58. Koh Bon, Surin Islands, Thailand 25th April 2004
11.00 am; 54 mins; 30 degrees; 26 max
Bit of an anticlimax because we were told there would be mantas, leoprad sharks, etc. Also there was a lot of broken coral but giant sweetlips, two giant morays - one free-swimming, a nice banded sea snake, lobsters in a cave, big butterfly and angel fish, lovely soft corals and leather coral.

57. North Point, Similan Islands, Thailand 25th April 2004
7.30 am; 47 mins; 30 degrees; 30 max
Very nice dive: two leopard sharks with remoras sleeping, ghost pipefish (DM Gat said we were lucky to see such a rare fish), young turtle very relaxed with our presence, school of snapper, small octopus (I got very close and watched him change colour), beautiful coral gardens, gorgonian sea fans, big anemones, during the safety stop a school of blackfin barracuda trumpetfish, silver sweetlips, blue spotted rays asleep in the sand. the current was fairly strong.

56. Beacon Reef, Similan Islands, Thailand 24th April 2004
5.00 pm; 42 mins; 30 degrees; 20 max
Many trumpetfish, lobsters, large green-blue parrotfish, beautiful coral gardens and very large anemones, group of twenty butterfly fishes retiring fro the night. A great surprise - the wreck of a liveaboard, which sank about two years ago - it looked spooky as we approached it unexpectedly.
Huge storm that night!

55. Beacon Point, Similan Islands, Thailand 24th April 2004
2.00 pm; 60 mins; 30 degrees; 21 max
Black banded sea snake, big fat triggerfish, lionfish, stonefish, squid, sweetlips, yellow trumpetfish; beautiful coral gardens.

54. Boulder City, Similan Islands, Thailand 24th April 2004
11.30 am; 43 mins; 30 degrees; 28 max
Mind blowing! Six leopard sharks cruising past us several times and also sleeping at the bottom. Huge canyon with giant sea fans; strong current near the end - great vis - exciting and breathtaking!

53. Shark Fin Reef, Similan Islands, Thailand 24th April 2004
7.30 am; 45 mins; 31 degrees; 30 max
Napoleon wrasse, lots of spotted rays at 30 metres, drifting just above the garden eels. Higher up, the current was very strong - a wild ride!

52. Inside Number Five, Similan Islands, Thailand 23rd April 2004 Night Dive
7.30 pm; 34 mins; 30 degrees; 7 max
My first night dive - didn’t see much but it was nice and relaxing.

51. Anita’s Reef, Similan Islands, Thailand 23rd April 2004
5.15 pm; 47 mins; 28 degrees; 25 max
Large octopus changing colour - strong current, small moray, leather coral, sea fans, garden eels at the bottom.

50. East of Eden, Similan Islands, Thailand 23rd April 2004
2.30 pm; 54 mins; 28 degrees; 27.1 max
Biggest moray I’ve ever seen (my introduction to the giant moray eel)! Incredible gorgonian sea fans, beautiful anemone gardens, great rock outcrops covered in coral, huge sea cucumber.

49. Deep Six, Similan Islands, Thailand 23rd April 2004
11.00 am; 51 mins; 28 degrees; 28 max
Good vis, sank to 28 metres with multitude of sea fans and large blue lunar fusiliers, very large triggerfish, stacks of large parrotfish; nice swim-through past sea fans, some very large reef fish -- almost overwhelming the sensation of floating in a blue void.

48. Koweo - all around the island, Phuket, Thailand 22nd April 2004
12.30 pm; 62 mins; 29 degrees; 16 max
Great vis and beautiful coral gardens, especially impressive between the two little islands. Two clownfish followed us for almost 50 meters!

47. Koweo Island, Phuket, Thailand 22nd April 2004
10.30 am; 55 mins; 29 degrees; 12 max
Great vis today - huge lobster: biggest Boris or I had ever seen, at least a metre. Large octopus changed colour about 10 times as we got closer; four lionfish together in a “cave”; scorpionfish; speckled moray eel; remora; large spotted grouper hiding in cave; nudibranch.

46. The Rock, Phuket, Thailand 20th April 2004
12.30 pm; 43 mins; 29 degrees; 16 max
Poor vis but much better than previous dive at this site. Nudibranchs, baby lionfish, soft corals.

45. Koweo Island, Phuket, Thailand 20th April 2004
10.40 am; 58 mins; 28 degrees; 14 max
Just Boris and me; very big lobster, large octopus changing colour, school of barracuda surrounded and followed us for the first half hour; huge swarm of parrotfish. I took photos of clownfish, octopus, lobster, etc.

44. Woody’s Safe (off Naithon), Phuket, Thailand 17th April 2004
12.45 pm; 64 mins; 29 degrees; 15 max
Too buoyant in the shallows and I ended up gibing up fighting to stay under and ascended. the other two didn't notice but eventually I was able to sink down so I must have vented enough air from my BC when I was upright on the surface. Boris later explained to me that the best way to vent air is the “lean” backwards so air can expel itself from the body of the BC. Lionfish, moray eels - one a giant! barracuda.

43. Koweo Isalnd, Phuket, Thailand 17th April 2004
11.00 am; 66 mins; 29 degrees; 10.3 max
Boris DM again and Tomas, a jolly Austrian very different in demeanor than the German version; big trigger fish; yellowtail,; barracuda; nudibranch. Vis good to fair; lots of parrotfish, angels, clownfish, huge schools of fusiliers.

42. The Rock (off Naithon), Phuket, Thailand 15th April 2004
1.00 pm; 45 mins; 29 degrees; 16.2 max
Worst vis ever! Couldn’t even see Jens (German divemaster) for most of the dive; felt cold too. Nudibranch, couple of fish, plenty of whip coral - terrible dive!

41. Koweo, Phuket, Thailand 15th April 2004
11.00 am; 61 mins; 29 degrees; 12.4 max
Took a little disposable camera underwater; saw a turtle and got photos of clown anemones, a lionfish under plate coral, parrotfish, damselfish, butterfly, angels, etc.

40. Koweo Island, Phuket, Thailand 13th April 2004
12.30 pm; 67 mins; 29 degrees; 14 max
South western side, similar to previous dive with slightly better vis overall. Large green moray eel, fairly large stingray, a “forest” of worms coming about 1.5 metres out of the sand (maybe garden eels?); a long flutefish (or trumpetfish) attacked another fish.

39. Koweo Island, Phuket, Thailand 13th April 2004
11.00 am; 58 mins; 29 degrees; 19 max
North eastern side of the island, with Tomas, the surly, taciturn German divemaster and three German girls, my buddy was named Karon. Not as many large fish as Sunday: two lionfish, four scorpion fish, some nudibranchs.

38. Koweo Island, Phuket, Thailand 11th April 2004
1.00 pm; 74 mins; 29 degrees; 13 max
Same spot as previously - just Boris and me; my longest dive so far! Great fun and very warm in the shallows (I had a few buoyancy issues in the shallow water).

37. Koweo, Phuket, Thailand 11th April 2004
11.00 am; 60 mins; 29 degrees; 19 max
Many different corals: staghorn, brain, plate; thousands of species of fish: angel, school of barracuda, clown anemone, parrotfish,; also giant cuttlefish, lobster, plenty of critters including neon-purple starfish with “horns”. I dived with Boris, the French divemaster and Christian, a 50 year-old Frenchman and his wife, the latter who surfaced after 25 minutes.

34. Fairy Bower,17th January 2004
45mins

33. Fairy Bower,17th January 2004
63mins

32. Fairy Bower,17th January 2004
45mins

31. Shelly Beach, 8th November 2003
66mins

30. Fly Point, Nelson Bay, 21st September 2003
45mins

29. Shelly beach, 30th August 2003
50mins

28. Julian Rocks, Byron Bay, 17th August 2003
30mins

27. Julian Rocks, Byron Bay, 15th August 2003
30mins

26. Fly Point, Nelson Bay, 2nd August 2003
40mins
Beautiful sponge gardens.

25. Halifax Park, Nelson Bay, 2nd August 2003
35mins
With Paul; amazing array of beautiful fish

24. Fairy Bower, 12th July 2003
48mins

23. Wedding Cake Island, 1st June 2003
50mins – Paul lost his other fin soon after getting in the water! The fin was swept away quickly in the strong current so there was no hope of retrieval. The dive was okay, I tried not to seem too pleased with it in case Paul was overly disappointed, having missed out completely.

22. Magic Point, Maroubra, 1st June 2003 45mins
First look at Grey Nurse Sharks which was a great sight after the debacle of the entry from the boat, which was very disorganised. I went back up after having a slight anxiety attack (probably thinking my mask would flood) and didn’t realise that Paul had gone past me and was on the bottom.
The boat ride from Mosman, through the Heads and down the coast, past Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly, Coogee and then Maroubra, was breathtaking on a beautiful day.

21. Fairy Bower, 31st May 2003 40mins
Paul had bought a set of bio-fins and inexplicably lost one after about 25 minutes. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find it. I had my first glimpse of a dusky whaler, almost spectral in its presence near the end of visibility.

20. Shelly Beach, 31st May 2003 30mins
Just Paul and me and, in our inexperience, we lost each other after going around the corner. I saw a giant cuttlefish devour a fish - an amazing sight because the cuttlefish's mouth suddenly opened very wide and the hapless fish was consumed in an instant.

19. Fairy Bower, 10th May 2003 50mins
Can’t remember much about this dive.

18. Camp Cove, 12th April 2003 35mins
Another dive with the club though I can’t remember who the DM was.

17. Fairy Bower, 29th March 2003 42mins
First dive with Dive 2000, with Troy Deacon as DM.

16. Cabbage Tree Island, Port Stephens, 15th March 2003 40mins
Better dive than the previous and Paul was happy after this one. We visited a small wreck lying on the sand near the island. The wreck was scattered all over the place and certainly not very impressive.

15. Port Stephens, 15th March 2003 40mins
Disastrous dive for Paul, still suffering from severe weight belt problems. I got back on the boat to find him sitting disconsolately - he’d swallowed a fair bit of water and used up all his air while struggling with his weight belt. He got very stressed - both in the boat while gearing up and in the water. I remember seeing him struggling underwater with the French DM vainly struggling to get the weighbelt back on, as if they were engaged in some strange dance.

14. The Nursery, Jervis Bay, 1st February 2003 40mins
See below, not very memorable; I think Paul had problems with his weightbelt, which had happened in Thailand and plagued him until he got integrated weights.

13. Bowen Island, Jervis Bay, 1st February 2003 30mins
My buddy, Paul and I decided to try diving at Jervis but it wasn’t too successful. The boat ride was fine but the DMs seemed apathetic and Paul and I set off more or less by ourselves. I was underweighted, having trouble translating the kilograms of Thailand to the pounds that we still (bizarrely) use here. I swam back to the boat and got another weight but then dropped it - luckily it didn’t land on Paul below! I don’t remember too much of this dive.

12. The Rock, Naithon, Phuket, Thailand 10th November 2002 50mins
Much more relaxed on this dive; once again I shared air with Rainer in the last part of the dive. He complimented me on my diving when we got back on the boat: “You are a very good diver!”, I suppose because I maintained good buoyancy while breathing from his occy. I remember seeing a moray eel on this dive but not much else. The visibility wasn’t too good.

11. Tin Mining Wreck, Naithon, Phuket, Thailand, 10th November 2002
45mins
Very uncomfortable and disconcerting dive for me because my mask flooded as soon as I’d gone down a couple of metres. My instincts were screaming at me to surface but the right side of my brain was telling me I had to try and clear it and stay with the other divers, all of whom were highly experienced German dive masters. Despite using the correct technique for mask clearing, the mask kept filling up and I was feeling panicky or at least very uncomfortable. I persevered, though the wreck looked forbidding and I was obviously suffering an anxiety attack. The plan was that when I ran low on air I would share Rainer’s (DM) air and that worked well, though I remained anxious and uncomfortable for the whole dive. It took me a long time to get over that anxiety; on the next 50 dives or so, every time it seemed that my mask might flood I started to feel panicky.

10. Similans, Thailand 5th November 2002
40mins
Less dramatic but more beautiful dive this time along a reef full of dense staghorn coral and many other types as well. Lots of tropical fish but I can’t remember specifically what types of fish I saw, besides parrotfish.

9. Christmas Point, Similan Islands, Thailand 8th November 2002
40mins
Awe-inspiring to dive in such a great place on my ninth dive. A large group with a lovely Mexican woman as DM. From memory, it must have been at Elephant Point or one of those places where there are more rocks than extensive coral gardens. We went deep, probably over 25 metres and I remember a parrotfish looking up at us as we descended - with that crazy smile they have. Unfortunately, I lost my log book for the first 40 dives or so, but I’ll always remember the fantastic sensation of my first dive at the Similans.

8. Stone Coral gardens, Nai Thon, Phuket, Thailand 5th November 2002
32mins
7. Koh Waeo island, Phuket, Thailand 6th November 2002
40mins
6. Hin Kudi, Nai Thon, Phuket, Thailand, 5th November 2002
32mins
5. Koh Waeo island, Phuket, Thailand 5th November 2002
30mins
4. Stone Coral Gardens, Nai Thon, Thailand 2nd November 2002
35mins
3. Stone Coral Gardens, Nai Thon, Thailand 2nd November 2002
40mins

2. Nai Yang beach, Phuket, Thailand, 1st November 2002
Much better than the first dive: we entered the sea from the beach and headed straight out until we got to about 10 metres deep. I kept thinking about the increasing amount of water above me and hoping that the thought wouldn’t freak me out, but I remained calm. There wasn’t much to see except a lionfish hovering around a piece of driftwood.

1. Nai Yang Pool, Phuket, Thailand, 1st November 2002 I was cocky, mainly because I’d always been good at underwater swimming, holding my breath for a long time, doing 17 somersaults in the local pool on one breath, etc. I assumed I’d take to scuba easily. But the sensation of actually breathing underwater took me completely by surprise and my only instinct was to get back to the surface. Water was getting into my mask too and eventually I rushed to the surface, only about 2 and a half metres above. Michael, the German instructor, came up and seemed puzzled that I’d surfaced. I’d felt panicky and completely alienated and my mind was, while not exactly screaming, was, at least, saying loudly, “I don’t belong here!” The only things that stopped me from giving up there and then was that I thought I’d look like a fool in front of the other blokes (Paul, Michael and another German bloke) and I also didn't want to think that I'd blown my dough so I was determined to persist, even while thinking about the next dive with great trepidation.