I was heading over with Kristie, Jeremy and my nieces so they picked me up Wed afternoon. First stop was Dad's birthday dinner before heading to their home and packing the Land Cruiser. Plenty of space, though some careful planning, so everything fitted easily.
Day 1
Wasn't too early to start the day as we only needed to be at the barge at 730. Out the front until everyone arrived and then we jumped on the surprisingly full (for a random Thursday morning) barge. Most members took the opertunity on the long trip to complete their Compressor Operator assessment test.
After landing it was a quick drive up the beach to Cowan Cowan to find our houses. This trip I'm down in a secondary house about 800m away. I don't mind a walk, but in wet gear chafing can be an issue. So I got all I needed and got ready for the first dive.
After having to replace a blown o-ring on her tank Kristie and I dropped down onto the Kos 1. Decent vis, maybe 8m, and a bit of life around. We made our way past the Tram and Rock Driller to the Nautilus Statue. Half covered in sand now. Pipes also mostly covered, which screwed my nav.
Found our way to the Melbourne and then eventually popped back up about 10m from Kens boat. We discovered that divers on D1 pulled the pin due to low vis and anchor not holding and met them back on shore. Great afternoon (only a few tanks to fill) so took the opertunity to have a few bourbons.
Walk back to our house after a few more and quick to bed.
Day 2
Woke up well rested and had a quick breakfast before heading back to get ready for the first dive. One boat was still beached so only one boat out first up. I was on D1 and we dropped on the middle of The Pines.
Slight incoming tide so a nice easy drift dive along the drop off. We dropped in a smudge past the main wall but still had a pleasant dive. Loads of starfish, a fee pipe fish and lots of other things to look at.
Back for the arvo slack high dive, a cleanup dive. I went Skip/surface watch and saw our members bring back plenty of buckets brimming with rubbish. Sinkers, like, rope, hooks and chain made up the bulk of it. Back on shore some of us got stuck into sorting and weighing it all. We need fairly accurate weights for record keeping purposes.
After washing the stink off it was dinner and dive talk time. No shortage of stories to share when you have 25+ divers sitting around and a few beers to end the day.
Day 3
Another rather easy morning before a slack low tide dive. We dropped onto the Dry Dock. A bit on the deeper side so we had a shorter dive (just flirting with deco times) still managing to mostly fill a bucket. They get heavy with so many sinkers in them!
I went spotter for the midday drift dive, Blair was skipper to work up some operating hours. Wind across the surface and swell made it impossible to track bubbles, we picked it fairly well and divers popped about 200m short of where we were looking for them.
Afternoon clean up was pretty successful for D1. Kristie, Linton and I hit on the Pt Lookout and could spend another entire dive there cleaning line off. The other boat had some Nav issues and found sand for a bit before hooking onto the Melbourne.
Another decent haul of rubbish to be sorted into various piles and weighed. Perfect job to sort through with a beer or 2, just watch put for the hooks. Some pretty decent rods came back today too.
Day 3
Some trouble over night with possible anchor slippage and rubbing put a hole in a boat. Ken always prepaired has a repair kit but as it was on the sand and tide on the way out it takes the boat out of the equation this morning.
We still got out for a good dive on the Bremer Wreck. Once again finding lots of line, sinkers, hooks and rope tangled up on the wreck. For a slack low we had decent visibility too. About 7 meters.
Back on land so it was time for me to start cleaning gear. Others got a start helping with Kens Boat, Sand was dug away from the stern so they could drain the water and plug the hole. Lucky the neighbour had a backhoe to make it a bit easier.
Garys organised a drift dive which got some interest so they headed out again for that. I helped sort out the waste from the morning dives haul before packing up all my gear and heading off to catch the 2pm ferry.
Another successful Clean up Project trip. Still lots more work to be done but it's a nice feeling knowing you're doing a little bit to help.
