Wreck Diving Trip
The second part of our trip was spent wreck diving. The dives
were performed at a more relaxed pace than the first trip,
with 2-3 dives per day, albeit to much greater depths. With
the exception of the Yongala, I've never done a wreck dive
before.
Our first dive was on the M.V. Karma, a gravel trawler that
took on water while being towed and sunk, only a few years
ago. It's upright, in beautiful condition with the crane
and structure fully intact, and in 25 metres of water.
Our second dive was on the Althea II, which is in 40m of
water. This was probably the least enjoyable dive of the trip;
we're only qualified to dive to 30m, so we could only really
visit the very top of the rigging. As a deeper dive, I spent
more time checking on my depth and time. Since there was a
current, I also spent more time checking on my air consumption.
We also performed the dive as a group of three, with one of the
dive-masters from the boat, so I spent more time checking on my
buddies. With all these checks, and a small touch of nitrogen
narcosis, I didn't really spend any time looking at the wreck!
Our return to the boat was also complicated; Jacinta usually swims laps
around me, and our dive-master (DM) had completed literally thousands
of dives, so I assumed that I was the weakest swimmer in the
group. However to my surprise our DM wasn't as strong a swimmer,
and was loaded down with camera equipment, and had difficulty making her
way back to the boat against the current. We ended up ascending
as two groups, which is Not Good, although no other harm was
done. Fundamentally this was a communication error, both in
explaining capabilities before the dive, and communicating
difficulties during the dive.
Our third dive was on the Barjon, a little fishing
vessel that caught fire and sunk a few years ago. This had
all the signs of a recent wreck, including a fire extinguisher,
life-jacket, and pair of over-alls in the wreckage. It was also
home to the most singularly photographed fish of our trip. It
looked like a stonefish (a rare enough find to begin with, as
they're extremely well camouflaged), but had what could only
be described as legs which it used to crawl through the
sand. It was almost as if a decorator crab had stuck a stonefish
on its back.
After hitting the books back on deck, we discovered it was
a Caledonian Stinger (Inimicus caledonicus), and certainly one of the oddest
fish any of us had seen.
The next day we dived the Cochrane Artificial Reef in
Hervey Bay. This is essentially an adventure playground for
divers, with ships, planes, and other impressive wrecks in
just 18 metres of water, and trails of concerete blocks between
each structure. Armed with a compass and a map scribbled down
on our slate, we first visited two aircraft (one small, and
one quite large) on our first dive, and found some very friendly
toadfish. On the second dive we visited two huge light
ships (think portable light-houses), where the schools of
silver batfish were so thick one had to push them aside to see
the structure.
In the evening we dived the Snake Pit, an artificial
reef that was an "exploratory dive", since none of us (including
our skipper) really knew what was down there. It ended up
being one of the greatest dives on the trip, with an astounding
amount of life packed into a tiny little reef. We were greeted
by a Flagtail Flathead at the bottom of the anchor
chain, and a sleeping Bull Ray that was bigger than me!
A little investigating revealed giant parrot-fish, a moray
eel, some big toadfish, numerous wobbegongs and
nurse sharks, and the occasional juvenile bull shark
out in the darkness. The feature-point of the dive was
finding a Sponge Crab with a huge sponge stuck to its
back.
For our last day of diving we went to Wolf Rock, which could
well be our best dive ever. Water of 26'C, no current, no
swell, sunshine, and 25+ metre visbility. After a short period
orienting ourselves with the dive site, we saw our first Grey Nurse
Shark, which are famous for living near the rock. These are
awe-inspiring creatures, and pose no threat to humans, and
unfortunately their numbers have been dwindling. I thought that
seeing a grey nurse was amazing by itself, but it wasn't long until we
saw a school of Eagle Rays swimming in formation. I departed
from the rock to swim alongside them for a while, with the rays barely
moving to accomodate me.
After returning to the rock, it soon became apparent that
we wouldn't just see a single grey nurse, but many of them.
At one time I counted five swimming as a group, and turned
to discover two more behind me. I'm certain there were other
things to see on the dive, but it was hard to take my eyes
off the sharks. I feel that some of them were almost as curious
as we were, as they would commonly swim alongside us, a fantastic
opportunities for photos.
One of the most memorable points of the dive was when Jacinta,
myself, and a grey nurse were trying to navigate the channel that lies
in the centre of the rock. Before the dive we were briefed in
protocols to observe while the sharks were present. Give them space,
and do not swim above them, as this makes the sharks grumpy.
Unfortunately with all three of us in the channel, our were not
able to give the shark enough space to pass, and we discovered
first-hand what happens when a grey nurse gets grumpy.
Despite normally appearing quite placid, the grey nurse is able
to move its tail so quickly it can create a sonic boom
underwater. This is very loud, and very penetrating, and when the
shark is just a few metres away one can really feel it pound through
one's torso. I imagine it's a defense mechanism designed to stun any
nearby creature, and it certainly stunned me! The shark also moved
with incredible speed away from us, and I felt very relieved that
a grumpy grey nurse is not aggressive to humans.
After our safety stop, which was performed on the rock with
grey nurse sharks and some wonderfully friendly and brightly
coloured parrot fish, we discovered the surface conditions were
just as calm as we had left them. We had a very plesant surface
swim back to the vessel, where we were assured by the dive
crew that these were the best conditions at Wolf Rock they
had ever seen.
The afternoon's dive was on the remains HMAS Brisbane, a
wreck specially placed and modified to be diving-friendly,
including the opportunity for experienced divers to penetrate
the wreck without specialist qualifications. Local regulations
required that the first dive on the wreck be a guided tour, and
so we performed the dive with a group of five other divers
and a dive-master.
Unfortunately the wreck proved to be a disappointment. The
visibility was poor, there wasn't much to see inside the wreck,
and the tour was so fast and the group so large it was hard
to do any exploring properly. Since we were required to stick
together, we had to surface when one of the other divers started
to run low on air, despite Jacinta and myself having plenty of
air and no-deco time remaining. I feel that this would have
been a much better dive without the group and tour.
The dive was also complicated by us being ferried to the site by
the ship's tender, which meant hauling weight-belts and gear over
the side and scrabbling in, rather than a more peaceful climb
of a diving platform. In the confusion Jacinta's cutting-shears
were lost, probably our least expensive piece of diving
equipment, but very bothersome to lose nonetheless.
The rest of the day was spent steaming back to shore, and
the next day was spent in Brisbane were we explored the
Roma Street Gardens while waiting for a long enough
surface interval for us to fly. A few hours were also spent
in an internet cafe, catching up on e-mail.
In the next few days ahead I get a whole day at home before
flying to linux.conf.au
for the week.
