Bare Island Western Side 26th January 2008

Dive No. 291. 10.59 am, 19 degrees, 66 mins, 15.5 max, 11 av
Relaxing dive with large D2K group, though we (Liz, Caroline and I) split off again. Not as much to see this time, partly because the vis was compromised by the large number of divers churning up the sand. Liz and I did a fish survey count for the first part of the dive. We saw a numbray which we naturally assumed was alive but found out he had actually ceased to exist when we passed him on the way back and he was upside down! I fed an urchin to a bluey, something I haven’t done for a year or so, but there are plenty of areas around the island devoid of seaweed so I assume they’re urchin barrens. It's interesting the way the blue gropers hang around waiting for such a treat and the way their concentration sharpens even more when you unsheathe your knife. There was nothing too much remarkable about this dive, although it was very enjoyable because it was so relaxed and we managed all the navigation and staying together with no problem. Caroline was excited about seeing a pygmy leatherjacket, they are relatively rare and cute but I’ve got some pix of them already.

Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower 19th January 2008

Dive No. 290 10.38 am, 22 degrees, 73 mins, 7 max, 5.2 av
Another huge group at D2K, which was surprising as it had been raining heavily for days and the sea was still big after a southerly the previous Wednesday. JP was DM but a splinter group of Liz, Sharon G and Sharon S plus an American couple got in the water first and decided to head towards FB, partly because of the swell over the reef on the northern side of Shelly but mainly because Scott told us the dusky whalers were back at Fairy! We entered near the boat ramp and headed west, over the seagrass beds and exploring all the reefs and bommies on the way to Manly. Sadly no duskies today but the vis was surprisingly good, maybe more than 10 metres; we saw a boarfish, two giant cuttlefishes, a blind shark, an estuarine catfish, a rockcod, a lone stripey, schools of tarwhine, drummer, mado, bullseyes, yellowtail and another school-fish, maybe a type of drummer, almost circular with yellow fringes. There was also a couple of wobbegongs, one swimming briefly and plenty of small stingarees.

Bare Island South Western Side 12th January 2008

Dive No. 289. 10.45 am, 17 degrees, 54 mins, 15.2 max, 8.8 av. A huge group at D2K needed two DMs: Dave and Leeza. Bare Island was packed to the rafters with divers (the gusty nor’easter must have made conditions at other favourite diving haunts, like Fairy Bower, too difficult). Liz, Sharon, Carolyn and I formed a group and set off, entering at the south-west entrance. The tide was high and the swell negligible which made the entrance easy. We descended over lush kelp beds to a beautiful expanse of sponge garden extending to the edge of visibility. The water temperature, 22 degrees on the surface, plunged to 17 (16 on Caroline's and Sharon’s computers) but the vis was fantastic, perhaps 15 metres. There wasn’t much fauna around all this lovely “flora” though we came across a large school of bullseyes accompanied by a school of small yellowtail (they don’t get very big here as it’s not a marine sanctuary like Fairy Bower). At 15 metres we hit the sandy bottom with a couple of weedy sea dragons patrolling and it seemed that the featureless sand was stretching into oblivion to the north and east, which made me slightly perplexed and doubting of my up-to-then impeccable navigational skills, because I assumed we'd hit the usual reef but coming from the other direction. I pointed us due east, figuring that we had to reach a reef or land at least that way and eventually we came across some bare and vertical rocks and some other divers. The water warmed up and the vis went down and I was still puzzled as to how we’d missed the usual reef we dive on the western side. My reckoning was that we would come across that reef if we headed north and north-east from our entry. As we neared shore, we practiced safety-sausage deployment for a while, often getting tangled up with the rope (we’ll have to keep trying to perfect our technique!).

Camp Cove 5th January 2008

Dive No. 288 10.54 am, 21 degrees, 45 mins, 6.4 max, 4.3 av
Terrible conditions with lots of churn and all the churned sand and muck gave us a vis of about one metre. The only consolation was the warm water. We headed to the right at first but the reefs and bommies on that side were all woeful because of the almost complete lack of visibilty plus the relentless churn made it seem a bit dodgy. You were never sure that a rogue churn wouldn't slam you up against an unseen (though only half a metre away) rock wall. I took my buddy (a beginner, on his 5th dive) back south, parallel to the beach and onto the middle reef, which was no better than the other side so we headed for shore. Liz had buddied with Amanda and she didn’t have a good time, with bad memories of the day of infamy at Camp Cove a few years back. We did see some fish flying around in the swirling mass of water: mados, drummer, leatherjackets, red morwongs and a stingaree.