Cod Hole in late June/Early July - What to wear

[scuba_katt]

I dived with Mike Ball in July 2003 and found that I was bordering on chilly with a 5mm full body wetsuit. I don't normally feel the cold but for some reason (especially at night) I got the chills on this trip.

I did the trip from Cairns, to Lizard Island and then the return trip south back to Cairns. It was (I think) 7 days of diving, average 4 dives a day and a night dive.

The Cod Hole was amazing, and my fave spot for taking photos was a Steve's Bommie and Pixies Pinnacle. Beautiful nudis and Minke Whales!!!

Definitely a great trip ,and definitely recommend the 5mm.

Cheers
Jules

 

[newton]

A quick followup for anyone that was following this.

We got back a couple of weeks ago, and the trip was *awesome*. By far the highlight of the dive trip was swimming with the Minke whales. We had 8 different whales near the boat during the two 'whale' dives on the second day, and the videographer on the boat got some great shots. Our cheapo E-Bay underwater camera took some OK pictures, but without a flash (not allowed to use it with the whales), things are awfully blue.

As far as temperatures went, it was around 77 degrees the entire trip. I wore a 5mm full-suit. On the first day's dives, I didn't wear my hood, but by the third dive, I was getting chilled. I (along with many of the other folks) wore hoods the rest of the trip, and I had no problems whatsoever. My wife borrowed a friend's tropical drysuit, which she wore along with hood and lightweight gloves, and she was the envy of all the women on the boat, as she was dry and warm the entire trip.

Most everyone had at least a 5mm full, but a couple of folks had 7mm shorties they wore, and they seemed fine. Like most things, one person can be warm while the other person is freezing.

For me, the 5mm full with the hood was about right. It may have been a bit warm for the first dives, but by the time the 3rd or 4th dive of the day, I was very glad I had it on earlier.

All in all the trip was pretty good. I had heard rumors that the Nitrox was broken, but it worked fine for our trip. Unfortunately, the air-conditioner on the left (starboard?) side of the boat was out, so things got quite stuffy at night for half of us, but aside from that, the staff did a great job of keeping things running ship-shape.


Nate