Aussie diving - June 2010

[thanksforallthefish]

Nelson Bay is a great dive location, shame you can only dive on slack water ... that is where i saw my first Pineapple Fish.

One day i will get to WA and do some diving ... what is the Tomi?

Never been to Lady Musgrave, but have done about 30 dives at Lady Elliot and seen quite a few Mantas ... that isnt far from you BB1

 

[BB1]

Cool - fingers crossed even more!!!

Different subject:

Any news on when an "Invade the Rock 2011" thread is going to start??

I want to let a few people we've met diving around the world know so they can see if they can make it over as well......... and I've never done it yet and am busting to go through fishrock cave! :banana: :banana:

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Cool - fingers crossed even more!!!

Different subject:

Any news on when an "Invade the Rock 2011" thread is going to start??

I want to let a few people we've met diving around the world know so they can see if they can make it over as well......... and I've never done it yet and am busting to go through fishrock cave! :banana: :banana:

I am not sure when someone will start the thread ... feel free to start it if you want.

This years thread was started early for the same reason ... had some people from overseas that were interested so they needed a much longer lead time.

We will put the timing of it up for discussion again, but so far it seems that the beginning of March suits everyone that has been so far and is a pretty good time for conditions there, but that is open for discussion

I know that most of this years attendees were talking about a return trip around the same time next year

 

[Unterberg]

Nelson Bay is a great dive location, shame you can only dive on slack water ... that is where i saw my first Pineapple Fish.

One day i will get to WA and do some diving ... what is the Tomi?

Never been to Lady Musgrave, but have done about 30 dives at Lady Elliot and seen quite a few Mantas ... that isnt far from you BB1

Well the slack water dives are the best ones but you can do more than that...
Boat harbour or Anna Bay are always an option for a second dive.
Or with a low high tide you can get there early with 2 tanks and do 2 dives with the high tide or one drift before the slack water and then one with the high tide.

I will be doing a night dive at Fly point tonight ;-)

Fish Rock cave is awesome. Did it early March this year and had 15m vis, plenty of Grey Nurse sharks, big wobbegongs, a cave full of critters and a couple of turtles.

 

[BB1]

Few reasons I'm not sure I should be the one to start it:

Relative newbie around here - doesn't seem right though I'll do it if no-one else will!
No idea how to set up a signture like that (but I can learn!)
No idea how to set up a poll - though you reckon most fancy SWR again which suits me to be honest!

You fancy doing it seeing as your update signature/tagline was what prompted the thought?

 

[BB1]

Bugger it I'll have a go at setting it up - might need help if I stuff it up completely though

Looks like it may have come out ok - let the voting and discussion begin!!

SB INVADE THE ROCK 2011

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Well the slack water dives are the best ones but you can do more than that...
Boat harbour or Anna Bay are always an option for a second dive.
Or with a low high tide you can get there early with 2 tanks and do 2 dives with the high tide or one drift before the slack water and then one with the high tide.

I will be doing a night dive at Fly point tonight ;-)

Fish Rock cave is awesome. Did it early March this year and had 15m vis, plenty of Grey Nurse sharks, big wobbegongs, a cave full of critters and a couple of turtles.

We were there for Invade the Rock March 8 - 12 when were you there??

Few reasons I'm not sure I should be the one to start it:

Relative newbie around here - doesn't seem right though I'll do it if no-one else will!
No idea how to set up a signture like that (but I can learn!)
No idea how to set up a poll - though you reckon most fancy SWR again which suits me to be honest!

You fancy doing it seeing as your update signature/tagline was what prompted the thought?

New people are the lifeblood of the board so dont worry about that!

It isnt hard ... i cant remember off hand but will work it out and let you know.

A poll is not necessary ... just need somewhere for discussion.


One thing you might do is PM a mod and ask him to make it a sticky

 

[Unterberg]

Ah I must have just missed you then...
I was at Fish Rock on the 17th of March.

Just came back from an awesome night dive at Fly Point, Nelsons Bay.
Still freezing but that was a wicked night dive ;-)

 

[burna]

Well Funsters,
Got out for a double dive on the wrecks of the Ozone and Dominion at Indented Head on the Bellarine peninsula yesterday. You can see the wrecks clearly in the map above. They are in about 4 metres, Dominion at the top and Ozone (with paddlewheels) at the bottom.

A little history.

The Ozone was a popular paddlesteamer which took mostly day trippers to the [then] sea side towns around Port Phillip Bay between 1886 and 1918.
It was considered a luxury vessel in its day but it demise came about with the introduction of larger and faster paddle steamers.
It was withdrawn from service in 1918 and sold for scrap in 1925. The hull, paddlewheels and boilers being sunk as an intended breakwater at Indented Head, however the sinking didn't go according to plan with the vessel sinking in shallow water. (More)

The Dominion was a wooden barque built in Canada in 1876. I can't find much on its history other than it was towed from Fremantle to Melbourne in 1902 to be used as a coal lighter.
It was sunk together with the Ozone and was set on fire by vandals and burned to the waterline sometime later. (More)

Our dive.

Conditions looked perfect when we arrived on site, light W-SW wind, surface like glass, coming up to high tide and vis looked pretty good. Unfortunately the vis wasn't as good as hoped once we got in, but still was ok.

Phil checking out the boilers on the Ozone.

Not much life about, I think with the on set of colder water they've all buggered off somewhere to hide. Water temp was 12C!! Did see a cute little skate/ray (not sure which) about the size of my hand. Unfortunately that pic is not very sharp.

Plenty of toad fish.

All up 2 good dives, might be my last for a while as I'm going away.

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Viz looks good to me Burna ... have a safe trip