Personal Trip Stats;
Dives: 5
Water Temp: 24°c
Max depth: 29m
Group Stats;
Dives (total): 70
Dive Sites visited: 10
Rubbish Collected;
Fishing line: 12.83 kg
Rope (<1m length): 1.3 meters
Rope (>1m length): 253.5 meters
Sinkers: 557 (totalling 64.51 kg of lead)
Anchors: 19
Anchor Chain: 85 meters
Hooks: 2.59 kg
Lures/Misc Tackle: 2.04 kg
Fishing Rods: 4.5
Fishing/Diving Knives: 5
Sun Glasses: 1
Rubber: 4 pieces
Random Metal: 1.27 kg
Large Plastics: 2
Trawling Trace Wire: 4 meters
Burley Boxes: 2
Cloth: 0.7kg
Tin Cans: 1
Aerial: 0.5
Bottle Cap: 1
Thermos: 1
House Key: 1
Dive Weight: 1
Glass bottles: 3
URGQ had organised another Clean up Dive over at Moreton. We head over for the weekend and spend our time on the dives collecting marine debris/rubbish. Lots of fishing line, hooks, sinkers, anchors and a few rods and a few other misc item. Most of us got together om Wednesday night and loaded up the few vehicles we were taking over with gear, fuel, dive tanks and the compressor. As well as loading up Diver 1 with a few sets of gear too. A few people headed over Thursday to get pre-setup.
Another 9 of us hopped on the Micat barge Friday morning, as those on the island already went for their first dive. The trip over was smooth sailing, almost good enough for me to be happy water skiing on it. Anton and Paul (Ute and Boat) met us at the barge drop-off to ferry us back to the Accom back at Cowan Cowan. As soon as we got ourselves settled it was time to head out for our first dive.
Off to Mariatta Dahl with a mild current and a bit of surge kicking us around. There wasn't actually much rubbish out here, we still found some line, hooks and sinkers as well as 3 anchors (with ~20m of rope and additional chain attached) we were only able to get one anchor safely back to the boat. Plenty of Nudibranch about here, as well as a few crabs and painted crays spectating our clean up. Back in time for lunch, nice wraps to feed the hungry horde. Compressor humming in the background refilling our tanks ready for the next dive.
To meet the slack high tide we were out again relatively quickly dropping in on Curtin near the Kos 1. There was plenty of line here to fill our bucket as we made our way over to the Dry Dock Barge. Visibility was really good today too we could see the outline of the Lady Norman from the back of the Dry Dock. By the time we reached there though we were already pushing Deco time so rose up a little while still collecting waste wherever we saw it. Was a pretty good haul this time, along with the 3 almost full buckets of stuff the others managed to recover 6 anchors with aid of a lift bag (and tying one off to our anchor.) Back to shore and the task of sorting, measuring and weighing seemed to go smoothly as many people lent assistance. Some nibbles a bit later and planning dives for the next day before a great dinner and most people heading to bed early.
Pretty easy morning, in order to catch the slack tide we didn't need to leave the beach until 930 am. So we had a cooked breakfast to get us ready for the dive! I was out with Kristie again and we dropped on the Estrela and made our way over the Kos 1 to the Rock Driller and the Nautilus Statue. Lots and lots of growth over it now but fairly sand free, which was nice. At the statue Kristie motioned a headache so we started heading back to the boat. By the time we got back to the line it had gotten worse so she started to go up and I watched her on her stop before continuing on with the others on the clean up. By the time we got back to the boat she was not in great shape, throwing up over the side.
Her headache had gotten even worse and she lost all her energy, to the point she needed help up the beach. Lying down on the lush grass in the shade and still feeling unwell we hooked her up on the Oxygen and made a quick call to the DAN Helpline. The Doctor asked a few questions about our dive profile and how it came on, as well as medical history (was she subject to migraines) and then said it was most likely Sinus Barotrauma. Obviously not awesome, but nothing an afternoon of rest shouldn't fix. Though warned us that if she had trouble keeping fluid down to call again. Still feeling unwell we helped her out of her wetsuit, gave her some Vitamin-I and got her to a couch for a nap. After an hour of rest she was feeling slightly better and even good enough to have a small bite to eat. She then retired back to the house we were sleeping at for more rest.
When this was happening the others headed off to Flinders for another clean up dive. While the majority of Flinders is a Green (No fishing) zone, there are some outer edges of it outside the 500m exclusion zone. Judging from the buckets, and their reports, it was relatively clean. Especially compared to Curtin. While they were off I was on Compressor duty. We also racked up enough hours on the filter to require a change. We use pre-packed replacements now, which is so so so so much easier than using our re-packable one. We still have it (as backup and filter material) but the plug and play of a replacement cartridge save lots of time and effort.
By the time we were ready for the 3rd dive Kristie was feeling better, but still not 100%. 6 of us jumped in Diver 1 for a slack high on the Curtin again. We got out there and the current was a little strong still so we decided to give it a few min. As we were waiting we saw an impressive storm roll in just north of Brisbane with a bright lightning show. The longer we waited the closer it looked like getting. Wind started picking up and as they current was only just starting to turn we decided to play it safe and pull the pin. The wind picked up more but overall it didn't look too bad. Until just over an hour later, about the time we would have been back on the boat coming back, the lightning and thunder was crashing close. One strike felt as if it hit less than 100m away. Pity losing the dive, but definitely the right call.
A nice curry for dinner just as a second cell came over and dumped a lot of rain with heavy wind. Luckily we had a break in the raid for our walk home and most of us made it home dry thanks to Julie's sacrifice. One of the close houses has had sprinklers going on and off the entire time and it just so happens they have one out the front of their property. Julie was slightly in front of us and let out a scream. We all thought big spider, or snake, but in the dim light of our phones just managed to make out the water spray as Julie spluttered and explained what hit her. After that excitement we made it home though and it wasn't long before bed.
The prediction was for some bad weather today and looking out over the bay during breakfast that seemed to be true. A few white caps appearing and the wind was kicking up a bit. There was meant to be 5 on the dive, but 2 weren't feeling it with the weather and Coralie still appeared to be asleep so it looked like just Gavin and I for the drift on the pines. Pete dropped us on a good spot, just south of the main wall (outgoing tide.) It was a pretty small tide change so the current was pretty slow, a very nice gentle drift. Stumbled over a cuttle fish within the first few min before seeing a bunch of Nudies and heaps of fish. We also saw a yellow spotted Moray and a pretty small Octopus too. We picked most of what we saw rubbish wise but all we came away with was a pretty large handful each. I did manage to find a pretty large hook though, with 3.5m of tracer wire on it, not sure what they were targeting but they could have taken a large shark with it... After we got back we found out Coralie did still want to dive, but slept in on accident, she said she did enjoy the relaxing morning though.
Next dive was out to Curtin again for the Slack-low. We dropped right on the northern end of the Reef on the MDS. We mustn't have hit this area very much on any previous trip as it was absolutely covered in line, hooks and sinkers. Linton even managed to spot a Frog fish right near the anchor. With the amount of rubbish we found we were filling buckets to the brim pretty quickly and even taking back a few anchors. At the end of the dive Kristie found another octopus just under the anchor. Someone had left a few anchors on the line and not wanting to pull up all that weight I hooked up my SMB to one of them and Kristie offered her SMB for the other before we went up the line. On the surface I started pulling up the anchors and it seems our SMBs didn't do much as it was still really heavy, eventually though we saw one come up, Kristie's. Turns out someone had brought an anchor back, but not tied it off. So my SMB is still there bobbing away on an anchor (if anyone is planning a trip to the MDS on Curtin anytime soon....) When we were all aboard we also found out that another bucket, full of lead, had been shot to the surface with a lift bag, sadly when it hit the surface the jolt dislodged the handle and it sunk back down again, unlikely to be seen but hopefully it will stay together rather than release loose line again.
Back to shore for the sorting out of rubbish again, a task completed after every dive. Ash was on the compressor again filling tanks when the usual crew pitched in for the separation of trash. A pile for sinkers, pile for hooks, anchors, line, knives, lures, burley boxes and various other pieces spread out on the tarp. When that was done it was time for some of us to begin getting ready to head home. Trying to try gear, packing the rest of our stuff and taking our dive tanks etc around the back to save others having to carry them. When we were ready we hopped in the 4wd's to taxi us to the barge. About 3min into the drive I asked who had the barge tickets... so we made a quick U-turn and after a bit of searching Coralie was able to find it and we were on our way again. We had a little bit of time to wait for the barge but soon we were off, motoring back to the port of Brisbane where cars were waiting.
Great job to everyone involved and I hope we can help keep Moreton Bay clean for many years to come! Now that the bay is cleaner I guess it's time to clean the dive gear...
