Now that I'm actually living in Townsville for a while, I figured it was about time I got down to dive Yongala again (the last time was about 18 years ago when Mike Ball was still in Townsville). But damn it's expensive. I could either drive down to Alva (about 2 hours each way from my place) and pay $230 for a 2 tank dive, or get the boat straight down from Townsville and do a 2 tank boat dive for $245. And that doesn't include gear hire - just tanks and weights (glad Ive got my own gear). So do I pay the extra $15 and avoid the drive? Yep, because I hate school holiday traffic. So, I booked a 2 tank boat dive with Adrenalin Dive in Townsville. It meant an early 6.30am departure from the marina, but that's part of diving life. The weather report looked to be ok, so I just took one seasickness tablet before I got on the boat. Had more stashed in my bag for the trip home.
Aside from the general "I just want to go for a dive" feeling, the primary purpose of this trip was to test out some new gear I bought. I just recently purchased a new focus/video light...And it needed to be tested before I go to Chuuk - I wanted to make sure I was comfortable using it before then.
I'd originally wanted to dive on nitrox, however when I booked the trip over the phone, Adrenalin basically told me not to bother. They agreed that nitrox would be ideal, however they pointed out that I would be the only person booked on the trip who was certified and booked to dive on it (at least at the point in time I was booking), so whoever I was buddied up with would only be on air. What's the point of paying $50 extra for 2 tanks of nitrox (wtf?!?! on the pricing), if I was going to be forced to stick to an air profile because of my buddy? None. So I decided to forego the nitrox and just dive on air. Given that they seemed to enforce a 45 minute maximum dive time on the wreck anyway (another wtf?!?! moment - I don't recall that being a policy 18 years ago), I think I was more peeved about that than not being able to dive nitrox, at least initially. But that's their rules, and I agreed to them, such as it is. But when I rang up the day before the trip to confirm that they were going (weather, passenger numbers), I asked again about the nitrox - just in case anyone else had booked on to dive it in the interim as well. And what was the response? "All of our nitrox tanks are out on the liveaboard, we have no nitrox tanks available for the day trip boat". If you can't offer nitrox on the day trip boat, then don't advertise that you can. And don't lie to me about it. I'm exactly the kind of person who's going to complain about being stuffed around. Rather than making up convoluted excuses, just say that you can't offer nitrox on the day trips and take it off your website that you can. I would simply accept that at face value. That being said, I can't believe that a dive operator running trips to the Yongala doesn't have enough nitrox tanks to support both their liveaboard and the day trip boat. That wreck is the perfect example of where you should be diving nitrox rather than air.
Anyway, eventually boarded and went to set up my gear before leaving the marina in Townsville, hook my regs up to the tank, and the tank is missing an o-ring entirely. They had spares on board, so it was an easy fix. Then I discover the tank only has 150 bar in it. Do they not check the tanks before they leave the shop? Thankfully that had spare tanks on board. Maybe its just me, but I feel that these things shouldnt have happened in the first place.
The trip from Townsville to Magnetic Island (to pick up the remainder of the divers) was a bit rough, but Magnetic Island to Yongala was pretty flat. We got out there around 10.30am and went for a dive. My dive buddy for the day was great
We did our 45 minutes before coming up.
The new focus light was ok, but due to the visibility on the wreck (7-10 meters at best), none of the photos are very good. Such is life.
Lunch was sandwiches (make your own: cold deli meats, salad, cheese, pb, vegemite). And there was always cold water and lemon cordial on board, as well as coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
We had a 1 hour surface interval over lunch, which seemed reasonable. However in hindsight, its really not long enough. Our second dive was only 35 minutes due to running out of no-deco time. I wonder if they could schedule the trip differently somehow to give us a longer surface interval so that we dont have such a short second dive? Also this is why I wanted to dive nitrox!
I also wonder if this played a part in an incident that occurred after our second dive. One of the guys on board who was doing his advanced open water course started developing a blotchy rash about 20 minutes after his second dive. They put him on O2 immediately as a precaution, although the instructor and DMs on board didnt seem to think it was DCI related since he was diving the same profile as the instructor. They had him breathing the O2 until he got off the boat and told his partner to ring the instructor if it got any worse (the rash was more or less cleared up by that point). It was well handled, and I hope it was nothing serious.
We took off again just after 2pm to head back to Magnetic Island and Townsville, and got back to Townsville around 5:15pm. Not a bad day, and maybe it was just my frustration at the visibility and the short dive times, but I really dont get what the fuss is about the Yongala. Despite a couple of hiccups, Adrenalin Dive are a good enough dive op, and Id recommend them if driving yourself down to Alva isn't a practical option its hardly their fault the visibility wasnt good.
Photos on my blog here...
Aside from the general "I just want to go for a dive" feeling, the primary purpose of this trip was to test out some new gear I bought. I just recently purchased a new focus/video light...And it needed to be tested before I go to Chuuk - I wanted to make sure I was comfortable using it before then.
I'd originally wanted to dive on nitrox, however when I booked the trip over the phone, Adrenalin basically told me not to bother. They agreed that nitrox would be ideal, however they pointed out that I would be the only person booked on the trip who was certified and booked to dive on it (at least at the point in time I was booking), so whoever I was buddied up with would only be on air. What's the point of paying $50 extra for 2 tanks of nitrox (wtf?!?! on the pricing), if I was going to be forced to stick to an air profile because of my buddy? None. So I decided to forego the nitrox and just dive on air. Given that they seemed to enforce a 45 minute maximum dive time on the wreck anyway (another wtf?!?! moment - I don't recall that being a policy 18 years ago), I think I was more peeved about that than not being able to dive nitrox, at least initially. But that's their rules, and I agreed to them, such as it is. But when I rang up the day before the trip to confirm that they were going (weather, passenger numbers), I asked again about the nitrox - just in case anyone else had booked on to dive it in the interim as well. And what was the response? "All of our nitrox tanks are out on the liveaboard, we have no nitrox tanks available for the day trip boat". If you can't offer nitrox on the day trip boat, then don't advertise that you can. And don't lie to me about it. I'm exactly the kind of person who's going to complain about being stuffed around. Rather than making up convoluted excuses, just say that you can't offer nitrox on the day trips and take it off your website that you can. I would simply accept that at face value. That being said, I can't believe that a dive operator running trips to the Yongala doesn't have enough nitrox tanks to support both their liveaboard and the day trip boat. That wreck is the perfect example of where you should be diving nitrox rather than air.
Anyway, eventually boarded and went to set up my gear before leaving the marina in Townsville, hook my regs up to the tank, and the tank is missing an o-ring entirely. They had spares on board, so it was an easy fix. Then I discover the tank only has 150 bar in it. Do they not check the tanks before they leave the shop? Thankfully that had spare tanks on board. Maybe its just me, but I feel that these things shouldnt have happened in the first place.
The trip from Townsville to Magnetic Island (to pick up the remainder of the divers) was a bit rough, but Magnetic Island to Yongala was pretty flat. We got out there around 10.30am and went for a dive. My dive buddy for the day was great
We did our 45 minutes before coming up.The new focus light was ok, but due to the visibility on the wreck (7-10 meters at best), none of the photos are very good. Such is life.
Lunch was sandwiches (make your own: cold deli meats, salad, cheese, pb, vegemite). And there was always cold water and lemon cordial on board, as well as coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
We had a 1 hour surface interval over lunch, which seemed reasonable. However in hindsight, its really not long enough. Our second dive was only 35 minutes due to running out of no-deco time. I wonder if they could schedule the trip differently somehow to give us a longer surface interval so that we dont have such a short second dive? Also this is why I wanted to dive nitrox!
I also wonder if this played a part in an incident that occurred after our second dive. One of the guys on board who was doing his advanced open water course started developing a blotchy rash about 20 minutes after his second dive. They put him on O2 immediately as a precaution, although the instructor and DMs on board didnt seem to think it was DCI related since he was diving the same profile as the instructor. They had him breathing the O2 until he got off the boat and told his partner to ring the instructor if it got any worse (the rash was more or less cleared up by that point). It was well handled, and I hope it was nothing serious.
We took off again just after 2pm to head back to Magnetic Island and Townsville, and got back to Townsville around 5:15pm. Not a bad day, and maybe it was just my frustration at the visibility and the short dive times, but I really dont get what the fuss is about the Yongala. Despite a couple of hiccups, Adrenalin Dive are a good enough dive op, and Id recommend them if driving yourself down to Alva isn't a practical option its hardly their fault the visibility wasnt good.
Photos on my blog here...
