It much much colder at depth that I expected it to be. January should be hot. Well, maybe not hot but the water should be more than 17C.

Another Easter in a share house with our friends, Rod and Vanessa.

We had hoped to surf on Friday, but the swell was huge and so we all took a walk around Cape Woolamai. Later we attempted a snorkel but the swell had stirred the bottom and I couldn’t even see my own feet! The bad ‘vis’ also put paid to the night dive that Rod and Vanessa had hoped to do. Bad for them but good for us as, instead, Vanessa cooked up a huge feast of Blue Grenadier.

Saturday we paddled a little, snorkeled and cooked a Greek feast of αρνί κλέφτικο, Γεμιστά, χαλλούμι and salads. Sunday, we got up early to catch the 8am low tide to dive at Smith’s beach. We had a great dive, the highlight of which was four Port Jackson sharks sleeping on the bottom.

After cleaning the abalone we had collected that morning we returned to Smith’s beach to play in the surf for several hours until exhausted :) Monday we all rose early again and drove to Inverloch for two dives with S.E.A.L dive services. The first was not so spectacular (almost all the divers missed the main wall) but the second had a good, low wall and plenty of large crays (unfortunately just out of reach; though several were caught by others). Also unfortunately the swell had picked up and a very, very strong surge at the bottom made photos impossible. We stopped at a few beaches close to Inverloch but plagues of biting flies drove us away quite quickly. Tuesday, Ross and I snorkeled and played in the surf until it was time to pack up all our toys and come home.

We left Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania and sailed overnight to Devonport, Tasmania. Arriving, tired but not (too) sick we picked up the groceries that customs disallows and headed to Cradle Mountain. Starting from Lake Dove we climbed Marion’s Peak and approached Cradle Mountain via the Overland Track. Spending only a shirt time at the very windy summit we returned via the Wombat Pools.

That night we camped at the Cosy Cabins Campground and in the morning headed south over the Highland Lakes Highway all the way to the Tasman Peninsula in the south-east. We checked in with the EagleHawk Dive Centre and went to explore. The next two days were spent doing four dives, two from Port Arthur (including one under the cliff of the Island used for juvenile prisoners), one under the famous Totem Pole and one in the giant kelp forests of Fortescue Bay.

We were lucky enough to have a friend in Hobart to visit en route to our walking point in the South West. After a feed, warm bed and rest we headed to the South West to make an assault on Mount Anne, the highest peak in the area. We climbed over 1km vertical from the trail head, passing over Mount Eliza and all the way to shelf camp for spectacular views of Mount Anne and Lot. With a diversion to the Mount Anne saddle in the morning, and bad weather approaching we returned and drove back through Hobart, stooping briefly at Russell Falls, to visit another old friend.

The last stop was Freycinet National Park. We found wonderful camping on the Friendly beaches and the next day paddled south down the west coast of the peninsula from Coles’s Bay to Hazard’s Beach. The last day we walked up to the classic WineglassBay lookout in amazing sunshine and along Wineglass Bay beach in a heavy downpour. Returning via the circuit track it was time to drive to Devonport for a motel-stop to catch the day sailing back to Melbourne.

She now lies in 18m of water and is a beautiful dive. Unfortunately, the times that she is accessible are limited. She lies in the shipping channel, an area of great current execpt for short 30 minute windows where the tides change and the water is ‘slack’. Secondly, access to the channel is limited by incoming and outgoing ships. Divers are at the mercy of Melbourne Port Authority who only give a definite ‘all clear’ 1 hour in advance. This is was not our first attempt at this wreck; previously shipping had prevented us and we were forced elsewhere. Saturday, however, we were lucky and had a beautiful dive.

As I said, we stayed, ‘here’, Phillip Island, in a house with a couple of friends. There were kayaking trips exploring mangroves and the stunning surf bashed southern coast (thanks to some northerly winds calming the ocean down). There were cliff walks (and scrambles because not going up and down cliffs is boring). There were dives: an amazing rock feature called the pinnacle (an underwater version of the one in the userpic), rising from the sea floor at 45m (147ft) to a peak at 8m(26ft), where we saw sharks and walls of soft corals; a dive on the wreck of the ‘George Kermode’; a shore dive for abalone, but also saw another small shark I have not seen before at Smith’s beach. My left sinus was painful on all dives and I’ll have to give it a rest now, but it was worth it.

So what did we do? Climbing Friday night. Market (very) early Saturday morning. Then I did some painting (sorry not finished yet so I can’t post it) and waited for our house guests, Mike and Audrey, to arrive from the Arapiles. We headed over to (my work friend) Noriko’s for a party (which turned out so well, there was good food, Japanese liquor and dancing :)

Sunday we all went down to the Portsea. Ross and I dived Portsea Hole. I experimented with taking wide angle shots, which I only usually do on shallow dive because visibility is often better, and when there is some kind of man-made structure. I think they turned out OK.

There were also walks on the beach, kangaroo, red wine, Trampoline, cookies & chatting. Hooray weekends. … of course now I am at work and Mike and Audrey are on their way to the Australian climbing festival.

But, when waiting in a 6mm black neoprene dive-suit in rapidly elevating summer temperatures for the boat to arrive on time to dive slack water, I was almost ready to take up Martina’s offer and jump onto the club boat (present) and screw the charter (not present). Eventually it got there. No, we couldn’t dive the wreck we wanted (The Eliza Ramsden, sunk 1875) since a ship was coming in (she lies in the shipping channel and diving requires no shipping for an hour either side, which is never known in advance). We would dive ‘kelp-beds reef’ instead. But first, a trip across the bay to let people out (who were somewhat pissed, having been on the boat for 5.5 hours at that point), pick people up, get to the site. etc. etc. and so on etc. Yawn.

On the way to the site a radio message came in of sharks (not the kind you’d really want to get too close to, either) not too far away. These sharks were in the back of my mind, and sometimes the front, until we got back on the boat. Which turned out to be later than I expected. Somehow we went in the good direction, found the reef, had a good dive and everyone else (18 of them) milled around in the shallows. We got in fast, but being furthest from the boat and in current were furthest from the boat and sat on the surface for over 15 mins, I guess (during which time sharks were most definitely at the front of my mind, ‘ ooh, i saw something… no I think it had flippers, must be a seal’ etc.). before being picked up.

There was one final bit of excitement when, on the trip back to dock, we came across this vessel (pic below)being circled by a man on a jet-ski who swore it was the right way up not 20 mins earlier. One of our divers jumped back in to look for passengers but saw none and reported the boat was on anchor. The skipper radioed it in. I wonder what happened to the people… definitely not a place a person would anchor and leave a boat….

Good Friday morning we met up with 11 other MUUC members and debated the latest weather warnings and webcam shots of the rip.  It was decided that this was the best chance of getting to dive sites outside of the heads and so one boat set off for the 26m sub and the other (ours) for Castle Rock. The heads were smooth but outside there was a huge swell. We anchored and I rolled backwards off the side. A little water flooded my mask and while I removed it the surface current swept me back… it took all of my energy to swim to the anchor line, which was pulled rigid in the swell. The current probably would have abated below the surface but the surge would have been immense and the visibility poor, so I struggled back on board and we returned to the relative protection of the bay to dive Pope’s Eye instead.

Back at the dock we heard that only four of the six had made it down to the sub and those that had could only rest in the surge that swept them halfway along the wreck and back again every few minutes. A strong wind warning came over the radio … then several heavy showers. Whilst hot chips for lunch were being bought,  the afternoons’ dives were called off and the boats taken out of the water. Even Saturday seemed unlikely.

We returned to the campsite for hot showers and then took shelter in the pub. Beer and an open fire, followed by a seafood buffet to cheer us. Friday night was the ultimate test for new tents (thankfully ours passed). Gales and rain pounded us all night and well into Saturday.
Knowing there was no chance of boat-launching with whitecaps all over the bay, we passed the morning trying on new dive-suits, buying a new battery for my dive computer and a new mask for Ross in Geelong.  At lunch we went to St. Leonard’s Pier, the only site protected from the strong south-westerly winds, and found the rest of the gang there having the same thought. We hopped in at the middle platform and swam right along to the wall and back. The visibility was bad, with such bad weather, and there were hundreds of the ‘evil’ introduced starfish.  Also two dead rays, presumably from having taken a fisherman’s hook. My favourite sight on this dive was a school of baby leatherjackets nibbling all the bait from a hook! Of course while I was watching nothing large would go near enough to bite anyway!
We headed back to the dock where the club were hoping that the wind had dropped enough to launch boats for the afternoon slackwater, but no luck.  We took a walk along the fishing Pier and met ‘SharkBoy who claimed to be staying there all night since the previous night he had landed a 7.5 foot Bronze Whaler…. (I love fishing tales, no matter how tall). We declined to join him and instead retreated to campsite for a hearty chorizo and lentil stew.

Easter Sunday dawned realatively calmly and we met the boats for a slackwater dive on Lonsdale Wall. We descended to about 22m and found a shallow drop-off. We continued down to 27m but found only a shallow sandy slope and a few dispersed roaks with corals and sponges. After a while we went shallower as we were cold and found the bottom of the wall proper. It has been only a few metres away but visibility was poor enough to hide it from us. Still, we had had a good dive. Back on the boat we heard that another diver had retreated shallower earlier and had found several caves full of Port Jackson Sharks. Jealous and cold we returned to the dock.
There was an offer of a second dive that day, but I was too cold and tired. Instead we decided to try our luck with our fishing rods. And it was worth it :) We caught a good-sized calamari within half an hour, cleaned it on the beach and stir-fried it in our wok with chilli and lime.

Monday morning we reconvened at the dock and launched the boats to dive the Lonsdale wall at slackwater again and this time we were the lucky ones … We descended on the shot-line to 15m. Dropped over the lip and continued in the direction of the turning tide staying between 18 and 22m. We saw beautiful walls, corals and fish. Eventually we crossed another group of divers who were all crowded around a cave full of Port Jackson Sharks. The visibility was still bad from the changing winds but we managed a few okay shots. We also saw a sea spiders being tossed in the swell. We surfaced a fair way from the boat, inflated out safety-sausage and waited for the pickup.
After lunch the wind swung violently to the north and the boats came out of the water. We considered a shore dive but instead chose to fish… hopefully to take something big home for the freezer. We must have been just half an hour too late as every bucket was full of salmon when we arrived. I had one big, feisty bite that broke the line and then nothing. The fishermen drifted away and we returned home empty handed!

Visibility wasn’t fantastic but we saw some stuff, including a sea-spider, which I have been watching out for for ages!