Gordons Bay 13th November 2010

Dive No. 361 10.34 am, 17 degrees, 46 mins, 14 max, 7.3 av
DM Patrick (buddy) plus 4 others who I've never dived with before. Lovely to get back in the water and on such a beautiful, warm day with a gusty nor easter blowing. I didn't wear a hood and, though it was cold, it was nice and invigorating. Gordons Bay was sheltered but as soon as we headed south there was a lot of stuff in the water, reducing the vis. Not much to see: a couple of stingrays, plenty of maori wrasse, red morwongs, some large kelpfish, mados, hulas, etc.

Fairy Bower 10th October 2010

Dive No. 360 10.43 am, 18 degrees, 42 mins, 7.6 max, 5.2 av
Bad vis and not too much around but it was great to get wet again after almost three months. Trio-ed with Liz and Aussie Amanda. Nice eagle ray at the start of the dive, a friendly blue groper and a large green groper, tarwhine, numerous yellowtail, damsels, red morwongs, leatherjackets, etc. Liz saw two wobbies but I missed them.

Bare Island 17 July 2010

Dive No. 359 10.58 am, 17 degrees, 57 mins, 15.2 max, 10.7 av
First dive at Bare since the desalination plant was built. We dived the western side; the tide was high and the water was slightly choppy and there were waves breaking on the western point and also on the south-western and eastern sides.
Peter M was divemaster, I was buddied with Liz and Julian was there as well. We saw about five Port Jackson sharks - one swam underneath me and almsot seemed to be following me. I think he was trying to get away from all the attention of the other divers but ran into me instead! Not much else to comment on: Liz found a knife, there was a pair of plump black leatherjackets and some crested morwongs and even a small school of yellowtail but not much else of note. The sponge gardens seem intact. An enjoyable dive though it got slightly cold near the end.

Gordons Bay 10th July 2010

Dive No. 358 10.52 am, 17 degrees, 52 mins, 13.4 max, 8.2 av
Lovely to get back in the water after another hiatus. Gordons Bay had good vis but not much marine life. I was buddied with Liz, Sharon G and Allen. The first thing we saw after descending was a Port Jackson shark. We also saw some stingrays and the usual mados, yellowtails, hulas, kelpfish, morwongs and assorted others.

Back in the water! Fairy Bower 18th April 2010

Dive No. 357.
11.02 am, 21 degrees, 73 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Buddied with Liz, who was also on her three hundred and fifty-seventh dive! (What are the odds?!) For me, it was back in the water, scuba diving for the first time since August last year. The conditions at the Bower were beautiful: warm water, sunny weather, plenty of fish and other creatures about (but not the dusky whalers, unfortunately). We saw practically everything else you would expect to see at Fairy including beautiful streamlined squid darting away from snorkellers, giant cuttlefish, a couple of wobbegongs, old wifes, bulls eyes, huge schools of yellowtail on the eastern and western side (they're so unafraid of people after living in the Marine Park for all these years - we need more marine parks or sanctuaries in NSW!), large schools of mullet, various leatherjackets, good old blue groper plus numerous other wrasse and an enormous tarwhine.
Very enjoyable dive, in spite of some mask leakage.

Coral Garden

Acrylic on canvas.

Shelly Man

Shelly Manne was a jazz drummer who died in 1984; this shelly man is, again, from a portrait by Tintoretto of a nobleman (aka rich bastard). Of course, the original had no shells.