The water in the bay was a bit bumpy but as we were rolling with the waves it didn't feel that bad. We made a straight shot out to Tangalooma then started cruising up the inside of the island. About 5 min south of Cowan Cowan ken suddenly stopped and we went over to find out that his main tank was bone dry! Still showing 170lt on the gauge... we put him under tow until he figured out how to siphon from the Aux tank and got going again.
Quick turn around at the house before heading out for our first dive. Dropped onto the tram with Coralie and we headed off to the Nautilus Statue to try and fine some names. Bugger that for a joke. Over an inch of growth on it already! It's only been down 11 months. We still had a bit of a look but moved onto the other wrecks quickly.
Back for a buffet wrap lunch and filling a few tanks before heading out for a drift on the Pines. Love the drift dives here. Didn't see as much as usual but it was still a good dive. The best was probably a cool green turtle with barnacles over its back. After getting to the surface we saw he boat way off to the north. It had caught the wind and drifted a fair bit further than us. 20 min waiting on the surface and even had and super yacht send out their tender to ask if we were ok. Some even got to shore to wait. All safe in the end and back to the house to enjoy the sunset and and few beers.
Up early for a morning slack tide clean up dive. Pretty successful dive with full buckets and a few anchors returning to the surface. One bucket did float off though... we'll get that on the next clean up...
I must have had a few too many beers last night because I thought it was a good idea to dye my beard pink! Really though his year I'm supporting an awesome cause, World's Greatest Shave. Thanks to the awesome effort of friends and family I easily exceeded my stretch goal and promised to go pink if I did. Still time to support if you wanted to head over to World's Greatest Shave.
It's a much more involved process than I imagined. Have to give a huge shout out to Kerry Morgan taking the time and her expertise to make it happen. Would have been a rough patch job without her. In the end if camp up great.
It wasn't long before it was time to show off my beard to the fish so we dropped onto the Bremmer and begun another clean up dive. Current was a little high at the start of the dive but manageable and eased off during. There was a lot of rubbish and line on the northern end of Curtin. Plenty of discarded anchors as well.
Back to shore and I jumped on tank filling duty. A boat load headed off for a drift dive and another group took the 4wd to Cape Moreton for the lighthouse walk. A few beers while listening to the humming of the compressor seemed like a good choice to me.
Dinner was a great curry made by Graham followed by drawing names out for the 9 spaces (12 people) to head to the Cement Co wreck for a dive. After the dust settled my name was on the list. It meant another early start for the longer journey but I think it's worth it. Bit of a rough ride out with wind chop and some big swell. A few fishing boats trawling right near Flinders (A protected No Fishing reef) as well as some Spearos just off the reef but still well within the Green Zone. Current was too strong at Cement Co anyway so we tucked in back at Flinders for an easy dive.
The others back on Curtin had another good clean up dive on the slack low, collected lots of rubbish and saw even more. Back on tank duties while Coralie and Marja got stuck into sorting out the rubbish. They had a few helping hands over the weekend but they definitely did the bulk of it. A few people had to get back so they could work Monday but before they loaded up a 4wd and headed back to the Tangalooma Wrecks to catch the ferry we squeezed in a group shot.
The rest of us staying behind jumped in for the slack high to fill a few more buckets. So much rubbish collected but still so much more work to be done. There was one point where I collected about 1.5kg of sinkers in under 2 minutes, must have been an unlucky day for that fisherman.
Back for another brilliant dinner (thanks everyone who prepared and helped with food over the weekend!) and some good conversations. The next morning was a late start, slack tide wasn't until ~0940 so we were able to sleep in. Soon though hunger drove me to light up the BBQ and get breakfast going. It wasn't long before the smell got everyone out of bed and get ready to start the day. I was skipper for the morning dive so I swam out to collect the boat, not realising that they key was removed and safely stored the night before... so back in, than back out... For the life of me I couldn't get the engine to kick over. Choke, More Choke, Less Choke, advice yelled from the shore. It wasn't long until Ken pointed out that I forgot the dead mans switch, whoops! After that was sorted it started first go.
Photo Cred: Ken HolzheimerWe were expecting bad weather but it was smooth waters all round. Being Monday there was also no-one else out on the reef. When the divers went under it seemed like I had the entire ocean to myself. They floated a few anchors not long into the dive that I putted off to collect before returning to our own anchor to wait for divers to return. Back to shore for a leisurely pack up. Although it was pretty heavy carrying anchor chain and bags full of lead sinkers back to the boat so we could get them home... The trip across the bay was ok but a bit of wind chop meant that by the time we got back to Manly we were as wet as if we'd just done another dive...
