clownfishsydney
Contributor
Today we were diving Bare Island, a very popular dive site inside Botany Bay in the metropolitan area of Sydney. It is probably Australia's most popular shore dive, with some days hundreds of divers here. Today there were at least 100 over the time I was there. Botany Bay is also a very popular fishing and recreational boating location. My advice to divers here is to never surface if you lose your buddy as it is too dangerous and you are likely to be run over by a boat. See my web site page on Bare Island Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site.
Together with a few members of my independent club, we did a dive that takes us to 18 m (60 feet) for about 35 minutes and then we gradually head back shallower to exit back onto the island (which is connected to the mainland by a walking bridge). When we were about 13 metres (45 feet), we heard a boat go overhead. The spot was below the oil tanker and off to the right of the island in the photo on the above link. All of a sudden, an anchor came down and missed my wife by about two metres (6 feet). F#$k!
The anchor and chain started dragging over the sand and then the reef.
The driver must have been an idiot, as we had seven divers in the group near me and there were at least another five divers that I did not know within 20 metres of us. Therefore, there were a lot of bubbles going up and I know you can see where divers are very easily.
What would you have done? I will post later what I did, but I am interested to see what others would do if they encountered the same situation.
Together with a few members of my independent club, we did a dive that takes us to 18 m (60 feet) for about 35 minutes and then we gradually head back shallower to exit back onto the island (which is connected to the mainland by a walking bridge). When we were about 13 metres (45 feet), we heard a boat go overhead. The spot was below the oil tanker and off to the right of the island in the photo on the above link. All of a sudden, an anchor came down and missed my wife by about two metres (6 feet). F#$k!
The anchor and chain started dragging over the sand and then the reef.
The driver must have been an idiot, as we had seven divers in the group near me and there were at least another five divers that I did not know within 20 metres of us. Therefore, there were a lot of bubbles going up and I know you can see where divers are very easily.
What would you have done? I will post later what I did, but I am interested to see what others would do if they encountered the same situation.