d-d-d-diving Julian Rocks

Ah diving, is there anything else that is quite so likely to bet me a-blogging?

Quick bit of background - family gathering near Byron Bay. Sal's folks, siblings and all the grandkids having a get together as the UK contingent are down under for a holiday. Nine kids, 12 adults, The Old Church at Newrybar. Somehow I managed to get  free pass to do a couple of dives out at Julian Rocks, so I booked with Sundive and at a little after 7am this morning I was at the dive store. I'd dived with them before, probably 14years ago, so when they asked if I'd dived before I said...effectively no.

I was booked on for 2 dives and the group I was in had no newbies (hurrah!) By 8am we were on the beach as the RIB was launched, we hopped on and started the 10min journey out to Julian Rocks. The trip took a little longer today as we stopped to watch a passing whale that was maybe 50ft from the boat. There were a few albatross about, so before we'd got in the water things were looking good.

Arrived, moored, geared up, rolled off the side and descended. The water was a little chilly but certainly felt OK in my 3mm...yeah, more on that later. The water was a bit green and planktony but visibility was 6-8m which is fine with me. We started to the north (nw) of the rocks, somewhere near the sand gutters so we could head towards the Cod Hole, hopefully via some grey nurse sharks and then get picked up at the south (se) end, current assisted. Which made sense, because there was a reasonable amount of north-south movement. We're not talking drift dive, but strong enough that swimming against it for too long would require a bit more effort than you'd want.

Julian Rocks are really quite pretty. The colours were a bit muted in the milky water, but there is plenty of fixed life and you can tell it would really pop in clear water. Fish life was pretty good - schools of jewfish, a couple of moorish idols, anemone fish, cleaner wrasse, grouper and plenty of wobbegong on display. I clicked off a few pictures as we bimbled around.

Traveling with only hand luggage, I had dug out my old TZ5 and its housing. I think I last used them about 5years ago so figured they'd either be OK or if not then it was not too much of a loss. As it turned out the camera and housing were fine. As was my old Citizen watch that had also spent much of the last 5years in another draw until Sal had the battery replaced for me and it failed its pressure test. Seems that it is just fine to 22m though, which is good to know.

I'm not sure of the sequencing, but let's say we saw the 3m wobbie and massive turtle just before our dive guide pointed out the first grey nurse shark - the stars of the show that we were all there to see. One become 2 and then 3. They were close but not too close as we dropped down onto the sand so not to spook them.

Happy divers all around, we moved on and found more wobbies (there were a load of them), and a lot of the other usual suspects on the way to the Cod Hole, a nice little swim through. Just after that we found another few grey nurses, so again we dropped to the sand.

I'd not been that close to the first group but this time I found myself in the prime spot. One in particular started to drift up behind me, getting close...and closer...and closer. He had a remora on his head, a few small fish hanging out and needed some dental work. He probably got to about 3ft above me. Really quite special.

I was going to get out of the way so one of the other guys could get some good idea, but he motioned for me to stay in place so he could get some perspective on how big this shark was. One of the video guys was a little bit off of the sand and the shark got a little irate and with a crack of its tail changed direction and swam away. It had been a special experience though.

From there it was a bit of a gentle bimble upwards and towards the surface. The 3mm was starting to seem like not such a good idea by the time I got to the surface, and back on the boat I was a bit
shivery. The guy next to me said he was still toasty warm, but hey, a 7mm wettie helps.

A little post script; as we got back to the beach we saw an echidna waddling along around 8ft  from the water. Clearly lost, our skipper picked him (her?) up and relocated her (him) to the scrub. Crazy critter.

Back at the dive store and I'd lost all feeling in my now-very-yellow-and-blood-free fingers and toes. Back in the day I would have powered on through, but I'm getting sensible in my old age so decided to can the second dive. I should really have done the morning and afternoon dives instead of booking the back to back(ish) morning dives. And hey, dive one had been great and the bacon and egg roll plus large cap topped the morning off nicely.

dive! dive! dive!

OK, I'm going to skip Monday and come back to that later (note: I probably won't) because yesterday had photos that can jog my memory and today did not. Well, not any meaningful ones.

So why are we in Bali? Well, Sal won the accommodation but was not so keen on coming over, having been here before and not really loving it. I left it at that for a while until I decided to look and see if there was any decent diving in Bali. Turns out there is, so I thought rather than see the prize go to waste I could ring around and find a buddy and use it as a dive trip. I shared this idea with Sal and it very quickly became a family holiday.

Well, that's how I remember it.

But I do get a couple of days diving, I'd done a quick internet search and found Adventure Scuba Diving. They review very well and their website, though a bit dated, says all the right things. It wasn't until we got here that I decided my cold was far enough in the past, my lungs seemed to be functioning and I could clear my ears easily. So on Sunday I sent them an email asking if they had trips going to the manta rays and the wreck of the USS (or USAT?) Liberty. They got back almost immediately with a yes, sent an invoice, I paid and was booked on three dives today and I have another two on Thursday.

So I abandoned Sal and the kids at a bit before 7am and headed out to my pickup point. There I met another couple of divers, a dad and his adult son from Melbourne. Our ride came right on time, we loaded up and made out way to Padang Bai, the small port town from where you can out to Lombok and the Gili islands - or get on your dive boat.

Met the rest of the divers, did the paperwork, loaded up and headed out to see if the conditions were right and if we could dive Manta Point first. They were and we did.

Dive 1 - Manta Point.

Around 45min, max depth about 13m, water temp comfortable in my 3mm, visibility about 5-8m.

I was in a group of four. Benny, our local dive guide and a Japanese couple. I pulled on my own wetsuit, checked my nitrox (34%), got into my hire rig, put my own mask and fins on and rolled off the side of the boat into the water. Time to descend. Which was not a problem for me, but the Japanese lass did seem to be a bit floaty and was half dragged from the surface.

The water was a bit milky and surgey, waves hitting up against the cliff face we were at the foot of. The site a little uninspiring with not much in the way of coral and not many fish, so how about I cut to the chase and get to what fish were there. After a few minutes Benny started pointing upwards and there were manta number 1 and 2. They are a bit like elegant, flying snooker tables.

I lie. I've not seen a snooker table for a while. Manta rays are far larger, I just checked. It is maybe a little pointless trying to explain what it is like being in the water with these incredible creatures. They are massive, they move with an easy grace and seem utterly unconcerned by our presence at their cleaning station. We saw them on and off throughout the middle section of the dive. I saw two at once, so there were at least two of them there, maybe more. The closest once came to me was about 6ft away, as it drifted over top as I hugged the bottom.

We didn't stay in one place but did a sort of loop. I also saw a spotted eagle ray, a turtle, some anemone fish, various other tropicals. It was nice, but had there not been mantas at manta point it would have been a bit ordinary; not bad, but ordinary. As it turned out it was quite awesome.

Dive 2 - Crystal Bay

Around 45min, max depth about 21m, water temp comfortable in my 3mm but a bit chilly under the thermocline, visibility 15m+

A short steam away and we were at Crystal Bay. A sort of sloping wall from a shallow bay affair with far richer coral and fish life. More turtles and another eagle ray here, but no mola mola. Apparently they can be found here at times. Benny did his best to find one and dipped deeper than me into the 20m thermocline and headed off of the wall a bit for a look. I am not sure he was super pleased with the buoyancy of the Japnese couple. I was also a little bemused. Given the up-and-downiness they had in the water I thought having a camera was not a great idea. I didn't take my camera because I thought I was a bit out of practice, but different people have different benchmarks and they seemed to be enjoying their dives so c'est la vie.

The vis here was far better. And that thermocline was really rather distinct. I could see it below me and could not resist dipping in. It was quite refreshing, but I'd not want all thre dives to be in whatever-that-temperature was. It probably wasn't cold, but it was far cooler, and as the dive went on it seemed to be reaching higher in the water column.

Among the things seem were schooling catfish, more turtles, another eagle ray, oriental sweetlips, various small parrotfish, anemone fish - all the usual suspects.

All in all a very pretty little dive.

Dive 3 - Mangrove Channel

Around 45min, max depth about 16m, water temp warmest of the 3 dives, visibility about 10m, current pushing through.

The third dive, after a quite decent lunch for a dive boat (rice, chicken, egg, veg, coffee) was at Mangrove. A no-finning required drift over soft corals and sponges with a healthy dollop of fish life thrown in. I'll not go into detail, other than to say it was another good dive - and I found a mask. Go me! Lucky to grab it as I drifted past (the current was not so strong you could not fin against it for a little while.) Back at the villa I cleaned it up and it looks like a nice mask. Happy days. The splashes in the background are the kids off to pick rocks up from the bottom of the pool.


The weather had turned ordinary by the end of dive three. Rain - warm rain, but still rain. We hung about waiting for our ride back to Seminyak that, in the wet conditions, seemed to take about half the day.

Anyway, this is more a dive log entry than fully-blown blog post, so I'll whip through the rest of the day. I arrived back about 90min earlier than expected. Sal and the girls were still out so I spent about an hour outside the walls of the villa. Remember I told you about the broken glass on the walls? Didn't fancy trying to climb over. But the gate has an awning and was close enough to the house that I could get back on the wi-fi, so all good.

The girls got back - kids with hair braided, mum not. I had a quick hose down, kids jumped in the pool to get out of the rain. And then Sal and I did that rarest of things - go out for a meal together, kids left with a baby sitter. We went to Ginger Moon (go on, have a free shot...) and it was very nice. Ordered too much, ate it all.

OK, that's it, I'm done. It's still raining, Sal gets her free day tomorrow and I'm on lone parent detail, so we'll see where that takes us.

...it is raining quite hard. Maybe this villa would benefit from a couple of extra walls...

renovation, Rowlf and wreck

renovation

Not a great deal of big-stuff progress on the renovation but some things of significance. We now have light downstairs. The hallway, bedroom, walk in robe and en-suite on the inside and outside we have lights either side of the entry door and a sensor-floodlight for the garden. These things make taking the rubbish out and getting to the laundrty after dark less perilous.

We've also had the en-suite waterproofed, the floor tiles are down and the wall tiles are going up. It is starting to look a lot like a bathroom. Upstairs the veranda has a ceiling and the inside of the half-height wall has been gyprocked and plastered. This week I get to swing a paintbrush again.

I did another small run to the lockup as we move completely out of our three upstairs bedrooms, sunroom, main bathroom and WC. Stuart has measured up for steel beams and other big things as he prepares to take the wrecking ball to the house again.

As for the curernt living arrangement, it is relatively comfortable. There are the sore throats resulting from shouting Harrie to sleep most nights: "go to bed" "I've been to bed" "go to bed and stay in bed!" "I no want bed" "GO...TO...B-E-E-E-E-E-E-D!" But other than that, pretty plain sailing so far.

Rowlf

The big fella is an OCD mutt. I think one of the builders once threw an empty chip wrapper into the skip at the back of our house and since, right after dinner each night, Rowlf trots around the house to rummage around in the skip. Luckily it contains nothing spiky and horrible at the moment. I am not sure what I can do (lie - there is nothing I can do) to stop him from being such an arch-scavenger.

And on that...Yesterday I got home to find Sal in the garden looking poised to kill. To kill Rowlf. He had eaten the just-cooked tuna bake Sal had made. No matter that she knows Rowlf is a scavenger and that simply shutting the kitchen door or putting food up high can prevent such a disaster. No, the dog is a bastard and someone this was also my fault. Yesterday I though this was especially harsh on me...

Wreck

...harsh because I was in the Harbour. Literally. I was 3km away and underwater. How I was supposed to keep an eye on MY dog or close the kitchen door was not made clear. Before I got home I had spent a reasonably pleasant 30minutes or so in the greener-than-I'd-anticipated Harbour.


Having not videoed the kingfish on either of my previous two trips I was keen to capture them today. Actually, rewind; I wanted to dive the Bower, but parking was impossible, so I went to Fairlight again, GoPro at the ready. It looked very nice from the shore, not bad from the edge, green from the wall. Nevermind. Basically the same as before - without kingfish - I went up and down along the wall, chased a Port Jackson shark and found the wreck. Eventually.

A few things saw me get out after a relatively short 30mins. The water was pretty green, I'd spent a bit of my free time trying and failing to park at the Bower and there was a reasonable amount of boat traffic about on Father's Day. I was on the wreck when I heard a boat that sounded quite close...but sound can be deceptive under water. but it was fucking loud. I headed back to the surface - no real option without a tank - to see the back of a speedboat a little way off. Not too close, but close enough. I had my videos so I bailed.

And got home to the murderous missus.

Ho hum and a happy father's day.

...I'll get in trouble if I don't...the girls got me things made at daycare, a photo book from AJ and a picture form Harrie. It was very cute. AJ had spent days waiting to give me the present and H just loves presents. We had breakfast in Manly, played on the beach and then Sal did the shopping while I took the kids to the local playpark. Post swim I went to the lockup with AJ, and that was Father's day with the family.

And yes, I know I should write more about the girls, but it is so much easier to to just quickly waffle on about general shit. So my blog, my rules.

Frozen fingers at Fairlight

After a week with next to no rain the Harbour was looking unusually clear. However my lungs were not feeling usually clear on Saturday morning. I got up at silly o clock to take Rowlf for his long walk and had a bit of a clearing hoik. Green. Lumpy. Yuk. The water at Fairlight looked clear and I was feeling OKer by the time I got there wiht a coffee onboard...but there was a little pressure in my ears as I walked down the steps behind Manly aquarium. But my ears were clearing and having removed the nighttime lung-gunk I had not built up a new coat of green stuff. Maybe I'd be able to get in the water...

Sal took the in-pool duties at the kids' morning swim. I was having a break from Harrie's 30minutes of whinging through her lesson. As well as the rest my ears got  I also avoided getting chilled. Once the kids were back home and asleep I grabbed my wetsuit, mask, fins, snorkel and charged GoPro (I learnt that lesson before) and headed back to Fairlight.

It has been a little while since I was last in the water and it was noticeably cooler. I slid in and headed out past a returning paddle boarder. He said the water temeprature was about 16 or 17 degrees - chilly in a 3mm - and that he has seen an eagle ray while paddling about, which gave me hope that the water was as clear as it had appeared from the shore.

It wasn't. There was a reasonable amount of particulate matter in the greenish water. Compared to what I usually expect from Fairlight the visibility was OK, but it was nowhere near my (unrealistic) expectations. Regardless, I was glad to be back in the water. The first few minutes were spent getting my mask to fit without leaking, reassuring myself that the GoPro was working and taking my first couple of tentative I-really-hope-my-ears-clear dives. The ears were fit for purpose, the GoPro was faithfully taking some very ordinary pictures and the mask stopped leaking. All good.

I headed for the rocky drop behind the pool and tried to find some spots were there was enough light to get some pictures. I clicked more in hope than anything else. The GoPro does not do a great job of stills in lowish-light, and with no screen you can't tell what you're getting. I've not used it enough to have an instinctive feel for what I'll get. In some regards it harks back to the days of film, albeit with the capacity to take a few thousand shots instead of 36. I swam through some gaps between rocks, went low to shoot into the sun. Nothing was really grabbing me. Had I been with my normal camera I'd have started looking for macro subjects but with the GoPro I was a bit stumped.

There was a dive school bobbing about at the top of the rock shelf. It didn't look like they would be descending any time soon and I toyed with the idea of swimming under them and taking a dangling legs picture. I was a little bit further out than the school and decided against them as a photo subject as soon as I next put my head in the water. There was a school of around 40 kingfish, mostly around 1m long. They were clearly circling me. I clicked a few shots while trying to move myself and the camera around at the same speed as them. After they'd circled me 4 times I dropped to the sand and then came slowly back towards the surface, hoping to get a nice silhouette shot. They were, of course, gone. I kicked myself for not switching to video (metaphorically; it is quite difficult to kick yourself while wearing freedive fins.)


With the kingfish gone I was once again without subjects. Again I thought about the dive school, but as I looked around I saw some bubbles off to my right and decided I would instead head down to see the divers who were sending the bubbles up. There were two of them and one was trying to take pictures of a scorpoionfish that clearly scared the shit out of the other, cameraless, diver who went into a comical reverse as the fish swam his way. I waved hello, took about 20seconds of video of them and then went on my way, thankful that I was tank free. I took a couple of self portaits of myself, which was a signal that all inspiration had gone and it was probably time to get dry.

I was getting a little cold by then. I dropped to the sand in front of the rosk shelf to see if I could find the small shipwreck. It is as photogenic as it is elusive; I failed to find it. With a rapidly deteriorating ability to press the shutter release I decided it was now time to head back to shore. My fumbling hands-not-really-working attemps to remove my fins were probabaly quite amusing to watch. I'd lasted 45mins, which was about 15mins more than I thought I would.

Back at the car the coldness took a hold; all the while I'm in the water I feel quite cold but it is once out that it starts to hurt a bit. Bloodless hands and feet go yellow - not a great look. But it passes quite quickly, and while I was rewarming I could take a look at my pictures, thanks to the recent firmware update for the GoPro and the update of the Android app I have on my phone. Unlike the water clarity, this time my expectations were met. Few of my pictures even managed to get to mediocre.

You wind some you lose some, and really the pictures are a bonus; the real prize is getting back in the water.

swimming with the kings

An unexpected but welcome side-effect of my GoPro not firing up when I got in the water is a visit back to my neglected blog.

The weather forecast for this week had been pretty close to spot-on and after a couple of days of rain the weekend landed quite nicely. Yes, there was some early drizzle on Saturday but it was dog-walk-near-dawn early and the day cleared nicely to be warm and cloudless. As I'd walked Rowlf to Manly I had idly wondered if the word "drizzle" had made it it into Snoop's vocabulary; drizzle on my jizzle or some such. As it is I got a a bit wet before getting to Manly.

As I walked past the aquarium I saw how clear the water was. I was hoping to get in the water with my GoPro and things seemed promising. I wandered along the Corso to the ocean side and things started to look a little less promising for a dive; the surf was solid. Fairy Bower, where I had hoped to get in the water, was rather lumpy. Saturdy was for chores, so maybe it would drop off by Sunday, or even Monday when I'd be taking a day off work.

Sunday dawned clear, Sal set off for a walk to Manly (part of her training for next year's Everest Base Camp trek) and I hung back, driving the girls down a little later. We met Sal in Fusion Point, our semi-regular haunt, had some breakfast and then went to have a play on the beach.

While not as large as yesterday the surf was still pumping. I took some pictures - I think I took more of the girls than the surf - and once Harrie started losing the plot we packed up and headed for a drive along the beaches to the Bilgola lookout and a spot of (failed) whale watching.

Somewhere along the way I decided that today was the day to jump in the water. Tomorrow is not due to be as sunny, so the light would be at its best today, and as our builder started on our renovation on Thursday it makes sense for me to be around so I can answer any questions or simply get in the way. I plugged the GoPro in to top-up the battery, faffed around and then headed out, leaving Sal to do some packing while the girls did some sleeping.

My option was down to Fairlight or get battered in something akin to a washing machine. Fairlight had looked reasonably clear on Saturday morning, despite the rain, so I was OK with heading there. I suited up, applied some I-hope-this-prevents-my-mask-from-leaking vaseline to a top lip that has remained unshaven for over a fortnight and wandered down to the waters edge. It makes a pleasant change to not apply vaseline to my nipples crotch. It looked a bit green and murky. Ho-hum, I slid in and it was reasonably warm. And green and murky.

I'm not sure what the tide was doing but I seemed to get sucked out over the shallows, which saved some finning. There was a little bit of swell and small waves breaking by the pool, but conditions were good. The same could not be said for the condition of the GoPro. I tried all combination of the three buttons but it stubbornly refused to power up. On the plus side it hadn't flooded, so I guessed a battery-out-and-back-in restart would be needed.

Visibility was OK. By Fairlight standards. So visibility was pretty ordinary. I could see to about the top of the drop off and could see there were plenty of fish about. I dropped down through a large school of yellowtail. Towards the sand it went from reasonably murky to murky. I had a bit of a swim around and popped back to the surface. Futile attempts to get the camera to work were futile. The GoPro is so small that carrying it about is no big deal; I gave up on it and started to work my way along the small wall that is the Fairlight dive site.

Before long at all I spotted a couple of the Kingfih I'd seen last time I was here. OK, I don't know if they are the same Kingfish, but last time I was here and again today there were Kingfish, to about 2ft long, idly swimming through and probably scaring the shit out of the juvenile yellowtail. There were also old wives, blackfish, hula fish, lizardfish and wrasse plus the usual fixed life. It was, and with no photo or video evidence you will have to take my word for it, quite lovely.

I was feeling reasonably comfortable in the water. Despite the mukiness below the ascent was through some deceptively blue water. Milky blue, but blue nonetheless. One of the great things about short-stay freediving, the frequent trips to the surface, so I was having a great time.

I found myself in the middle of a good sized school of yellowtail as a Kingfish passed through. The yellowtail parted and it looked all very National Geographic channel. The Kingfish did a few turns and twice came within touching distance. So, without the aid of a picture, picture this; I'm midwater, hanging in the centre of a school school of yellowtail that keep parting and reforming as a Kingfish swims through. It was as close as I get to a religious experience. I forgot about holding my breath; that's not to say I took a lung full of water, rather that I was there in the water with the fish, not at all concerned that I needed to go back to the surface. I'm fairly sure that's a first. Eventually (ha! unlikely to be more that 2minutes) I headed back to the surface.

I worked my way along the wall and decided that I'd keep myself entertained by dropping right down on to the sand, which is only 8m away. I swam down through the murk, over a couple of small but nicely vertical walls and hit the sand at 7.8m. I swam away from the wall...and found the wreck. I came to the surface a few metres from a stand-up paddle board and chatted briefly to the rider whose opening gambit had been "have you found the wreck?"

The Fairlght Wreck is a small speedboat that sits just off the wall, as the more astute reader will no doubt have guessed from the previous paragraph. The thing is...I very rarely find the wreck. As it turns out there is a good reason for that; I've been looking in the wrong place. I took some bearings and dropped straight down onto it, marvelling at how rock-hard-water-man I am to sink through 8m of really quite warm but somewhat green water. I'll not be setting any records for freediving or hardness. The wreck - a small speedboat - seemed cleaner (in part) than I recall, more of the engine being recognisable as engine as opposed to crud-covered metal.

Very pleased with myself I decided 45mins in the water was enough and made my way back in as a dive school was preparing to enter the water. An especially inelegant fin removal kept them entertained; I'd timed my exit to coincide with a largish (by Fairlight standards) set coming through. I stood up, tried and failed to look cool as I wandered past them and headed back to the car to get changed.

And that was today in the water. Back at the car I removed the camera from the housing and the battery from the camera then replaced the battery and voila! It fired up. So I dried and dressed, took the now working GoPro back to the waters edge and clicked a few pics, including one that was of a water-creature (a sea hare) underwater. So I got a "underwater" shot in the end.

All in all a nice way to spend a couple of hours of an autumn afternoon.

the calming power of the ocean

I really do not like the title but can't come up with anything better and so it stays.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty ordinary and being in one of these bad moods where I become such a charming person to be around. Luckily the kids and dog don't kop it from me like Sal does, so once I took the kids and the dog to the small beach at the Spit where I spend most mornings I started to feel somewhat better, and Sal, who had things to do, probably did best by not being around me.

The walk to and from the beach is...challenging. I have a dog who is hell bent on getting to and in the water as quickly as possible and a daughter who either runs like a nutter or dawdles. Daughter number 2, along for the ride on my back is currently far easier to take along. First stop was the bakery where I handed AJ the money to go in and get herself an iced snail and me a coffee. Then it was to the Harbour via the Gallipoli steps.


The steps are quite steep and Sal will avoid them if she can. They are also a shortcut, so I tend to take them. The trip down the steps today was enlivened by a woman and her Wiemaraner overtaking us half way down. We stopped to let them past; Rowlf, of course, wanted to play. Which was fun; a playful pup and 5yr old dog meeting on a precipitous set of steps, me with a 3yr old by my side and 1yr old on my back. The meeting went relatively well, and other than Rowlf wanting to take off after his new best friend the rest of the descent was relatively uneventful.

The beach is always a bit of fun. I split my time between playing with Alex, preventing Harrie from eating too much sand and throwing anything floaty as far out into the Harbour as I can so that Rowlf leaves me alone to play with Alex and prevent H from eating sand. Today was different only in that H is now walking. This week she decided it was time to walk and walking is the new sitting. So that was the start to the day; we popped into the kayak store so AJ could try on a lifejacket - the yak gets wet tomorrow - and then it was home to hand the kids to Sal while I did my weekly sweep of the attic for dead rats. Two this week.


A bit of food down the kids and then they had their naps while Sal went to Pilates and I decided to try and groom Rowlf; it's been a while and he is starting to knot a bit. It went not as badly as it could have. Then Sal got home...and I was given a free pass for the afternoon.

We'd had some rain on Thursday and Friday but not enough to stop me thinking about a dip in the ocean.  The water has been silly-clear for the last week, even the Harbour at the spit looks fairly gin. I'm pretty much over my cold and I could clear my ears. The howling gale (ok, strongish wind) was blowing from the west, so the Bower should be OK. A quick look at the Manly Beach cam showed there was no surf whatsoever. I grabbed the   has-been-packed-for-months bag of snorkelling gear (I can't really justify calling what I do freediving can I?) and headed for the Bower.

Before leaving I said to Sal I was not taking a camera, so it was probably going to be great...

Without a tank to worry about the parking is far easier and I found a spot a couple of streets back from the water. I geared up and took a quick picture of myself in a wetsuit, in case it never happens again. Then it was down and in. The water looked lovely. There was a kid in board shorts and a rah vest standing in the shallows. In my 3mm spear suit, hood, booties and gloves I felt pretty damn soft.

A couple of guys swam past in just their swimmers. Yep, I'm getting old and soft. That said, it felt chilly to me and I was glad of the neoprene. The water was fairly clear; a little "milky" but I could see the bottom, about 6m away, from the surface so i had plenty of visibility. It's not shark season and I didn't see any sharks. I headed out and south, over the kelp and small reef. Plenty of small fish about and a bossy Grouper hassling another kept me company. I dropped down to the bottom a couple of times but on the third time my left ear stubbornly refused to clear. I came back up a little, swam around at a couple of metres and then went back to the surface. Bollocks, thought I. On the surface it cleared, and on the next attempt it took a little coaxing but cleared and from then on it was fine.

The Shelly side was not yielding much more so I turned and head north to what JCJ called "Aztec City" because the large boulders brought that to mind. There are usually lots of fish over there and today did not disappoint. I passed quite a few Old Wives before I met up with the resident school of mullet. I had a swim around with them. I'd drop down a few metres away and then slowly come to the surface among them. They don't give a toss about me and tolerate my presence. Despite the shivering there was no way I was leaving now. Drop down, swim around a bit and then come up through the sun's rays piercing the clear water and a big school of fish. Is it any wonder I feel better in and after being in the water?

I swam over, around and between the rocks trying to find a Wobbegong or Port Jackson shark or maybe a giant cuttlefish, none of which put in an appearance today. As well as the schooling mullet there were plenty of wrasse, more old wives, seargant baker, big eyes...the usual suspects. As I went across another couple of rocks I spotted a huge school of yellowtail and headed slowly towards them. Like the mullet they tolerate people swimming with them. With the yellowtail a few metres off I upended myself and headed for the sand. And then I spotted something else, something that looked a lot like a turtle under a rock. I veered off to find that the thing that looked like a turtle under a rock was a turtle under a rock! Fucking hell! There's a turtle under that rock! On and off I have dived and swam in Sydney for 10years and this was the first turtle I'd spotted. All thoughts of looking for anything else disappeared and the remainder of my time in the water was split between swimming though yellowtail (packed so tight that I felt a bit queasy among them) and the turtle. He (she?) raised a flipper and had a look at me but was unconcerned by my intrusion.

I would have liked to stick around until he/she had decided it was time to breath or swim off but I was shivering controllably and was in no mood to start shivering uncontrollably. I had a final dive to spend some final time with the dude and then headed back to the shore, ending my dip with about 45mins in the water. I got out with stinging feet and fingers that were purple and yellow. I may or may not have my dad's looks but I certainly have his circulation. There is a coffee shop at the waters edge, so still in my suit and dripping wet I wandered in and grabbed a cookie and coffee. I stood for a while at the seawall, looking out over the flat ocean before heading back to the car to start warming up.

I felt a million dollars. Just being in the water makes me feel better, but a day like today, well...

a day worth blogging

beautiful at the Bower, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.

I am a bit crap when it comes to blogging about the kids and their awesomeness and a lot of stuff in general and for that I do not apologise. If I'm a bit crap then I'm a bit crap - so there. For the record the kids are awesome. Both Sal and I find ourselves locked in a battle of wills with number 1 while number 2 refuses get to her knees and now drags herself commando style all over the house in search of things to upend over herself. They are awesome in the correct sense of the word and awe is inspired every day. Which is not to say I will blog any more about them than I presently do.

So to today. I woke up a little grumpy despite having been gifted a 15minutes lay in and not getting woken until 4:45. This, I suspect was evening the score for Friday's 4:15 start. Anyway, I got up and kept the kids quiet until approaching 7am when I could take out my grumpiness on Sal. I suspect the grumpiness was a hangover from a Saturday spent filling a 3m3 skip with bricks, concrete and wet sand.

Anyway, a proper row was narrowly avoided and we went out for some breakfast at Splat in Queenscliff. I've been there a couple of times before and like the view from the deck - all along Manly beach - the pictures on the wall - especially the one of the shark and swimmer at the Bower - and the guy who runs the place - who seems like a decent bloke. It was a far more relaxed breakfast this morning on account of me not having cycled there and arrived a stinking, sweating wreck or got there with a mental dog in tow.

So we had breakfast and it was pleasant and the girls behaved and we drove home and the grandparents, who have taken up residence, took AJ out while Sal headed out bag shopping with Harrie and I was a free man.

I have been longing to get back in the water since Fiji - in November. So I grabbed a backpack, faffed around a lot deciding what gear to take (deciding to ditch the weight belt and wetsuit in favour of a rash vest), grabbed the pushbike and headed to the Bower to see if I could swim with the sharks.

Manly was busy with crowds in town for the final day of the Australian Open of Surfing that looked like it was going to take place without waves. Bad for them, great for me. I got to the Bower to find it looking pretty nice - just like the picture. I chained my bike up, left the key to the chain in the backpack that I hung from the handlebars and went down the steps to the water.

Australia is having a La Nina year. That means a lot of rain and cool temperatures with warm seas. Today we didn't have the cool temperatures or rain but we did have the warm seas. Perfect. I headed out and saw my first shark, a small Dusky Whaler, after about 30seconds. It had already been a good outing.

I got out over the sand and found a huge school of Yellowtail heading north. I duck-dived down to join them swimming over the weed and between the boulders. Clearish warming water, loads of fish, a shark. Happy days! After a while I turned to head south as that is where I have seen more sharks in previous years. And after a while I spotted another whaler. My breath hold was getting a bit better - but not outstanding - and I was pretty comfortable swimming around at about 5m. As it was low tide that was deep enough. Any deeper would need a shovel.

I turned back towards the rocks, passing a lone, juvenile Kingfish and another Whaler. Then I found a small Wobbegong sitting on top of a rock. I started to beat myself up for not having a camera with me (always take the camera!) as I did a few dives to get a good look at the little carpet shark and another that was wedged under a rock about 8ft from the first.

I saw a few scuba divers approaching so swam over to them and let them know there were sharks about. I do like hanging out with scuba divers while I'm on breath-hold :-) A quick trip to the surface and I went back down to point out the Wobbie on the rock. I should have pointed out both as one of the divers damn near stood on the second one. On the surface I had a chat with another snorkeler about the sharks before heading on my way south.

I saw no more sharks but enough fish to keep me happy as I started to get a little chilly. I got out after around 40mins, very pleased with myself. I grabbed a coffee and sat on the wall by the steps to watch the world go by and take this picture. Then it was time to head home.

I decided to first ride along the beach to check out the crowds at the surf comp. So I put my sandals on, packed or strapped to the rucksack everything else and headed along the beach. With my bike helmet clipped to the backpack and my t-shirt knotted on my head (I'd forgotten to pack a cap) I felt very much as if I lived "on the beaches." It was a nice feeling.

Along the beach and then back to the main road. I stopped to correctly fit the t-shirt and bike helmet and then cycled home. I was a little surprised to find that I'd been gone under 2hours. I really must do this more often.

Sal was cooking a roast for dinner and with only Harrie to look after I got another free pass. Rowlf hadn't had his long walk so I took him down to the Spit so he could have a swim in the Harbour. He was his usual mental self, I was back by the water and all was well in the world.

OK, I need to go to bed, so that's the lot. A good day; overlooking the ocean with my ladies, in the ocean with the sharks and paddling in the shallows with my dog. Three out of three.

back in the water

sheesh, the strobe works, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.

Although I had a large Northern Diver bag with 'Dive Pack' in bold letters on the side I was still not convinced, as I queued at the Sydney check-in, that I would be doing any diving in Fiji. I had all my snorkelling gear and my wetsuit; the rest of the bag was stuffed with kids toys for general splashing around.

Fast forward to Fiji - Plantation Island Resort - and it took me very little time to jump in the water in my board shorts and rash vest, masked and snorkelled, and head out into the water that was about 30ft from the door of our bure. I can't remember the exact temperatures, but I'm fairly sure both air and water were hovering around 28degrees.

Over the next few days I spent a decent amout of time going up and down the reef out front of the resort, getting myself comfortable on and under the water. I was quite glad with the way my breath-hold came along and was pretty comfortable heading to about 8m. Any deeper would have required a shovel. By the end of the holiday I was comfortably staying at around 5m long enough to click off a couple of pictures, mess about with my camera settings, and drift back to the surface without my lungs exploding. I'm no Jacques Mayol, but for the gentle bimbling I was doing after a long lay-off I was happy. In fact I was quite surprised at how quickly the "BREATH NOW!" feeling was replaced with a far calmer "loads of time" (look up) "and beside, the surface is just there."

Most of my pictures were taken on breath hold on the local reef, and although it is not a great site there is plenty on offer for anyone prepared to put a bit of time in looking for stuff. I found loads of anemone fish, a striped sea snake, (too many) crown of thorns, cardinal, angel and butterfly fishe, shrimp goby and industrious shrimps, loads of clams, coral trout, jeuvenille wahoo, a decent sized octopus, flounder, feather star, sea cucumbers, batfish and more besides - but you get the idea; lots of stuff. Most non-dive days i was spending a couple of hours drifting over the reef. Visibility was variable, and it seemed the low tide was best, although the high tide seemed to bring in nutrient rich water and bring out the clams. On the high there was a real mix of water temperatures - probabaly ranging from warm to very warm. It took about a week of board-short and rash vest days before I shivered. Not bad.

And I also dived. Five - yes 5 - dives.

The first was a single afternoon dive to The Plantation Pinnacle, a coral pinnacle that comes from 24m to about 7m on the top and has a swim through at the bottom. Dive plan was find the pinnacle, swim through the swim through and then spiral up and around before a safety stop and return to the boat. The swimthrough, although quite large, had a good sized chunk of coral on the right hand side that I did not want to touch. I was keenly aware that I'd not dived for three years and was in hire gear. This would test me. I think I prodded a single finger into the sand as I exited the passage and was a little disappointed with myself. I looked back to see who was behind me so I could ask them when back on the boat how I had looked; they had their hand on the floor and were leaving a small cloud of sand in their wake so I figured I'd done OK. I'm not a massive fan of reef diving so don't recall much detail other than it being thoroughly pleasant. I do recall a lot of anemone fish on the top that I spent an extended period watching as I made my way back to the boat after everyone else but the dive guide. I guess my air consumption is still OK. A nice confidence boosting reintroduction to bubble blowing.

Next up was a double dive starting with the wreck of the Salamander. I buddied up with Chris from Melbourne; the backplate, cannister light and general "knows-his-shitness" on display gave me a feeling of confidence. I felt a little guilty about the attention I was paying my camera (more so when I saw how blurry my pics were.) Anyway, depending on who you listen to the wreck is 30, 36 or 40m long, but everyone agrees it is a cruiser and that, depending on the tide, it is in about 27m of water. It is a perfectly pleasant dive but not as exciting or encrusted as the blurb would have you believe. I think I've been spoilt with wrecks in the past. We popped around and through the upper desck but the dive guide grabbed Chris's fin when it looked as if we were about to drop down another deck level. Which we probabaly were. Ah well. Highlight was definitely the ghost pipe fish on the stern - a critter I'd not seen before.

The second dive was a reef dive that I've forgotten the name of. It was a wall sloping shrply to about 30m on the sand but we stayed at around 18m. I think I was just glad to be back in the water and that was enough; when I go back I'll be paying more attention. We bimbled along and I took a few more shots, one or two of them reaching the dizzy heights of "OK." Out of practice, so there is a mix of the underexposed and the fried-with-the-strobe. I kept gazing away from the reef in the hope of spotting a shark but to no avail. So it was reef fish, hard and soft corals and again perfectly pleasant again, without knocking my socks off. To be honest, I think I was more interested in just being in the water, making sure I felt comfortable and so on. Pleasantly surprised to grab a couple of anemone fish shots that I kinda like.

Next dives were another double and were supposed to first go to the Supermarket where we should find sharks. As it turned out we did the Supermarket second and first was Bird Rock. Again they were lovely dives and I took some more pictures - none of sharks. Nevermind. Chris shot his SMB a couple of times and I took some pictures of that, and another of him taking a picture of me. Odd to think that we were sitting just off a reef that many people would give their right nut to dive.

OK, bottom line, because if I don't post this now I never will...three year lay-off but I can still hold my own and in unchallenging conditions I still feel very comfortable.

When I got home I started to go through my old dive gear. Well, you never know...

the divers and the diving - Sydney pt 1

Incoming White Shark
Originally uploaded by Auswomble

Upon arrival in Sydney I lived briefly between at Sefton and Old Toongabie in Sydney's western suburbs. I moved to Neutral Bay where things between me and Rose went pear-shaped. I'd met Sal, been a bit of a pratt, Rose took off and cleared the flat out leaving me with my bed, CD player, some cutlery and crockery and my dive gear. So it could have been a lot worse, she could have put my dive gear on eBay. Living in Neutral Bay I was a ten minute walk from Dive 2000, my second home for the next 3years, And a ten minute walk in the other direction got me to the Harbour.

Each Saturday morning there would be free, divemaster led shore dives organised by Dive 2000. I became a regular on these and good friends with several of the divemasters and other divers. The routine would be get up, head up to the store to get a tank, decide where we'd be diving and then head off. After the dive we'd go back to the store to wash our gear off, hang out and chat and then maybe head to the pub or pie shop for a bite to eat. Sometimes, if we didn't fancy the arranged dive we'd head off someplace else. Sometimes we'd do a second dive, occasionally a third. Sometimes we'd head out to dive from a boat. It was a great time.

I remember the first dive I did with Dive 2000. I am fairly sure JCJ led it; he certainly was there, as was DJ. We went to Balmoral and dived around the pool enclosure, which for them would have been somewhat dull. I saw seahorses. Fucking seahorses! I was diving just down the road from my flat and there were seahorses. How cool is THAT? Over the weeks, months and years that followed I'd dive most Saturdays, plenty of Sundays and there was a year or so when some of us would dive on Thursday night, after work, then have pizza.

The gang comprised of DJ and JCJ who at the time did a fair amount of divemastering. Hempy worked Saturdays in the store. These three are exceptional divers and between them have thousands of dives clocked up. I have probably learned more from these guys than anyone else. Josie was doing most of the training for Dive 2000 and I helped her with a few courses after she turned me into a Divemaster. I was once a body for a Rescue Diver course and lay on the seabed under the pier at Clifton Gardens for what seemed like ages, watching life swim by and waiting for my rescuers to surface me and drag me back to the beach. Romy, DJ's flatmate was part of the gang, as were the two Justin's, only one of whom I am still in contact with. Rhys was there on plenty of weekends, as was Tara, until she discovered dragon boat racing and drifted away, metaphorically. DJ brought the Chad along and he never left. DJ brought along Jo, his then girlfriend and now wife and I took Sal along. Josie married Jason, who was, of course, a diver. Whereas Josie and Jason both still dive, Sal and Jo have...well, lapsed. Simone would come along, a tiny feng-shui loon who could spend a week underwater without breathing though a tank. It was a great time. There were trips to Jervis bay where enough of the gang went to fill a liveaboard boat - all mates diving together. We would dive from MV Indulgence, ably captained by Adrian, who kept us entertained for hours with his tales, and Annie who could conjour up a meal in the time it took us to have a dive. The story goes that they met in a pub where Adrain was eating a beer glass. They separated when Annie decided she was a a lesbian. Or something like that. The JB trips were always a scream, even if the weather was often bloody awful. There werre trips to Forster and Nelson Bay, Hempy and I dived the reef and the tugs at Eden. I dived in Melbourne and off of Cape Byron and the Gold Coast. I once dived off of Terrigal and was buddied with a guy who was partially sighted, as I discovered once we got back to the boat. But mostly we dived and dived and dived some more up and down the coast around Sydney.

In the course of my first four years in Sydney I clocked up a few hundred dives, completed my Rescue Diver, Medic First Aid, Nitrox Diver and ultimately Divemaster courses. I added to my collection of dive gear. I had a couple of BCs and a couple of reg sets, a wetsuit and a dry suit. I think I amassed 6 cylinders. DJ and Hempy were diving along DIR (Do It Right) lines and I moved in that direction. By the time I left Sydney for a spell back in London I was diving with a backplate and wing, jetfins and had my primary reg on a long hose and backup under my chin. I'd started to take a few pictures underwater, which was somewhat inevitable as Dive2000 was renowned for its underwater photography, owned as it it is by Kevin Deacon, himself an underwater photographer. JCJ and Hempy were mad keen and accomplished underwater photographers as was Josie. DJ and Rhys had housed video cameras. One of the Justin's had a housed SLR. You get the picture (and the pun.)

A few dives I remember. Sharks make for good reading, so to try and stop myself from rambling too much...

I saw my first proper-shark-looking-shark at night on a dive with DJ inside the Harbour, at Fairlight. It swam through his torch beam. I wondered why we weren't getting out of the water. It was a grey nurse shark, pretty much harmless. It did put the wind up me a bit though.

Later DJ and I, in dry suits and carrying cameras, sweat our arses off when we walked from the car park at the southern end of Maroubra beach to the rock platform where we jumped in to swim with a group of Grey Nurses. We called the dive "the sharks from the shore" because anyone sensible did it from a boat. But anyone sensible didn't get the dive site to themselves. The water was clear and we got some great pictures, which I have since lost. Bugger.

Another time we did the sharks from the shore, the wind got up as we dived and we ended up swimming quite a way back towards the beach as the exit looked a bit too sketchy for my liking. In the end we found a gap between wave sets and managed to scramble back ashore. That wasn't much fun.

I did dive the Magic Point (Maroubra) sharks from a boat a few times. My last dive before heading back to the UK was there. It was dusk and the boat had only two divers, Justin(D) and me. It was lovely, a very nice end to my first Sydney spell.

I went and dived Broughton Island from Hawk's Nest Dive, a store that has now closed. The owner, who took us out in his tinny, gave the dive brief telling everyone that the grey nurse sharks were in residence and we should swim over there, around this and that and then come back over a rise to creep up on them. Then, in hushed tones, he told me we were anchored almost right over them and suggested I simply drop off the back of the boat with my camera; he'd bought me some time alone with them while the others took the long way round. Of course I did not dive alone, that would be very poor form. I dived with my camera.

Despite diving Jervis Bay many times I never once say a shark-shark there. Plenty of wobbegong, angel shark and port jackson's, but none of the sleek blue-grey fellas that must have been there.

I did see sharks - Great White sharks - off of the Neptune Islands in South Australia. Not the first time I went though; a whole week passed without us seeing one. But a couple of days after I got back to Sydney I got a call from the dive operator saying "the sharks are back, come down now and I'll take you out for cost." I went straight back and we saw them, the first one before any of us had suited up. Incredible, majestic animals. Even in crystal clear water they seem to appear out of nowhere, and it is their girth more than length that blows you away. Strangely enough you feel no fear when in the cage. Even when a large white came between the boat and cage and thrashed the water into a mass of bubbles, bending some of the cage as he went, there was no fear. The year I went to see the white sharks Sal went to Borneo to see the Orang Utans. It was a big year for us and endangered species.

I could go on...and on and on. But there is a link to my divelog somewhere on this page, so if you're really interested you can go dig.

And besides, time to go home from work now.

the diving and the divers - in the beginning

Portland
Originally uploaded by Auswomble

In the mid to late nineties my then girlfriend Rose decided that I needed a hobby. Can't remember the details. At the time I was working in Victoria, London at PA Consulting - my first proper job. Rob worked there too, or maybe he worked in the Cambridge office; can't remember. He was a diver. Again, the details are sketchy. But between talking to Rose and Rob, and having to spend the odd few days in the Cambridge office, and having a work trip to Australia on the cards I decided to start scuba diving. I'd tack some holiday on the work trip and go to the reef. As it turned out I also dived in Sydney, with Rob.

I learnt to dive in a brick pit near Peterborough called Gildenburgh. I combined the PADI Open Water Course with Certifice IV in Learning and Development which dropped the price because it was part government funded. Go figure. I was driving a 2.5ltr diesel engined CJ7 Jeep to the office in Cambridge and claiming my mileage, earning more than the car drank. Accommodation on-site was, well, basic. But cheap. I learnt to dive pretty much for free. On the downside, I learnt to dive in April. In a pit. In Peterborough. Damn near froze myself to death, some students bailed early and we all shivered barely-controllably in our ill-fitting 7mm semi-dry suits. We kneeled on wooden platforms anchored at various depths in the cold, green, crap-filled water to perform our skill drills. I saw a bus. Our open water dives comprised of following ropes attached to the platforms at one end and the wreck of a bus at the other. I was supposed to see an airplane cockpit, but I was not first to get there and instead I saw clouds of light-obscuring silt. I saw no fish. It was fun in a masochistic kind of way. I think the water was between 4 and 6 degrees centrigrade. I must have removed and replaced my mask, removed my reg, done my fin-pivots and hovers, but I don't remember much. On one skills dive I was at the very end of our kneeling line of students. I did a skill first - mask removal, maybe - and then had to wait what seemed like forever for the rest to complete the skill. Cold and green. I remember cold and green. I know I did a giant stride entry from a platform about 7ft above the lake surface. And it rained a lot on both of the weekends over which I competed my course. But complete it I did and I became an Open Water Diver.

My first dive after getting my PADI Open Water cert was on Queensland's Barrier Reef. The water was 26 degrees and felt like a bath. I think I drained half a tank laughing at how preposterously warm and clear the water was compared to Gildy. That is all I remember of the two dives I did. I did another dive or 2 in Sydney, with Rob. All I remember about that was a long drive to Palm Beach, and that we did one dive off of the Barrenjoey Headland. If I didn't now live in Sydney I'd have forgotten those details long ago.

I must have enjoyed it because some time not-too-long afterwards I bought a compete set of gear from a tattooed, pierced dude running Diving Leisure London in Battersea and also booked myself on the Advanced Open Water course. Once again, only sketchy details. We dived under a pier at night. The navigation dive was off of Chesil Beach, where the water on the day was incredibly clear and I could see where I was headed, 15m away, without needing to use the compass. Good job too, as my compass use was awful and I needed to redo that dive in Portalnd Harbour to get my Advanced open Water Diver c-card. I remember driving my 1979 Porsche 924 (the 1982 jeep was gone) from the Chesil Beach to Portland carparks in my dive suit. I must have looked a complete tool, but would've though I was king-shit. I loved that car; also loved the 6.5mm mares semi-dry, a very nice suit indeed. I may still have my first regulator, and I think I have my original BC which I only wear when teaching or assisting. Everything else was upgraded as it became worn out or as I discovered it was a bit on the crap side.

My UK diving career sort of ended there, though I later returned to the UK and spent many more weekends in Portland. I was going to be made redundant in 1999 and was moving to Sydney. One of the reasons I wanted to move to Sydney was the unrivalled opportunities to dive right on my doorstep, and one of the reasons I was looking at redundancy was that my company were only prepared to look at a transfer to Melbourne from London where my job was for the chop. Don't get me wrong, Melbourne is a lovely city, but without diving on the doorstep. And besides, Rose's sister was a recruitment consultant in Sydney.

I got to Sydney and stuck with diving for far longer than I stuck with Rose.

Namecheck time. Through one of the few wonders of Facebook I am still in contact with Rob. And, from my PA days, Mark who did move to Melbourne, Scott, who I once took a chopper ride with en route to a chamber, Alan (my big-boss) and his wife Helen who ran the work-gym and was probably responsible in large-part for my attitude to exercise and hence my running.

horny horn shark

I was fortunate enough to see some shark mating activity yesterday morning as I snorkelled over the rocks and sand weed just off of Shelly Beach in Sydney. I'll get to that in a bit.

Yesterday was the first family expedition to the beach. After boob and food for Alex we loaded the motor and headed for Manly, where we could get coffee and breakfast for ourselves and then head for the sand before the crowds arrived, which most assuredly they would with the temperature on its way to 31degrees.

Luck was with us; in fact, lady luck was smiling all day long. Weird; my luck is typically average. We found a superb free and unrestricted parking spot within an easy stroll of town and the water. Then we picked a random cafe that, despite looking a little poncy served suitably caf style fare. Well, it did to us, maybe the chef was hungover and didn't give a shit. Sal's pancake and my omelet seemed to have been slung on their respective plates. Some folks may give a toss, but we are not those folks and the nosh was top notch and the coffee on the good side of acceptable. Fed and watered we headed for the sand.

We got a good position in a shrinking patch of shade and were setup in next to no time. The Cancer Council beach shelter popped up and was staked out, towels were laid out and we settled in for the ten minutes of relaxation we were permitted before AJ's next feed. Being essentially boobless I was essentially useless, so I pulled on a rash shirt - I mean, how cold could the water be? - grabbed a mask and snorkel and with my temporary free-pass headed off to the water.

As it happens the water can still be really rather cold. But hey, I'd be able to warm myself once I came back out, and I didn't want to look too soft. A quick spit in my mask, dipped my head under water, sluiced the mask out and headed out towards the rocks. Maybe I should not have shaved into near extinction what little hair I have on my head; a small ice-cream headache started, but it passed and as I started to see a few fish all thoughts of being cold started to fade.

A quick aside. I can understand how easy it must be to drown. You lose heat rapidly when immersed in water, and most of us think the best way to stay warm is to move. Only it isn't. It fools you into thinking you are staying warm while actually you get cooler. And more tired. And if you do that while in water you can easily end up cold, numb, confused and exhausted. Not a great combination. I digress.

Almost as soon as I got to the rocks I say a Port Jackson shark, maybe 3ft long. I stopped to watch her (more of that later) and quickly realised how little natural buoyancy my legs have when not in a wetsuit. I ducked down the 10ft to get a slightly closer look. She had a mark near her dorsal fin that looked as if she'd been bitten; I didn't think too much of it. She started to swim off and I followed, on the surface. I followed her across the bay, looking every so often to make sure I'd not get run over by a kayak or surf-ski. We swam right across the bay ending up so close to the rock wall that with my mask half in and half out of the water I could see the shark over the weed below and walkers on the path above. Very cool indeed.

She started to swim in circles over the weed, moving quite lazily and in a manner that suggested she wasn't too pissed off with my company. After a few circles a smaller PJ came up out of the weed and started to follow her. He (more of that in a bit) looked like a kid following mum, if I may anthropomorphosize a bit. It was quite cute, especially in the very clear water. What was a little less cute was when he sped up a little, bit down just behind her dorsal fin and dragged her into the weed. She didn't seem to struggle that much, maybe a bit exhausted after the swim over the bay. But after a short while she shook him free and swam off. He stayed nearby, just ender me in about 4ft of water, which was a little too close to my feet than I was comfortable with, despite knowing them to be harmless. Hmmm. I headed back to shore, starting to feel a little chilled.

Right, I'm off home in a couple of minutes. A brief websearch has convinced me the activity I saw was not one shark attacking another, but rather a horny little bloke - he was only around 2ft - trying his luck with a larger lady. Good on him, that's what I say.

sunday sunny sunday

In most un-Easter fashion Sunday dawned dry and lovely. Unfortunately I missed the actual sunrise, which was a pisser because I'd hoped to get some pics. Ah well.

I should explain...I am a selfish bastard, but mostly when allowed to be. So typically I ask Sal if she wants to do something or other and if she says no I then pounce upon the opportunity to do stuff myself. So, with Sal attaching AJ to the boob I took my opportunity to walk off to the rock platform in the small bay that DJ and Jo's house looks over. Camera in hand, I left the remaining parents to their kid duties while I went exploring. The walk was through a couple of residential streets, down a grass path and into a famers field that did have some sort of private property sign I could ignore.

As well as general exploring and taking pics I was looking at water clarity as DJ and I had been planning on going for a snorkel. The original plan was to go for a surf, but I left my board at home because...well, I don't really know why. Things did not look good at the water's edge. Run off from a field of cows is not what I'd choose to swim through. Out front of the rock platform things looked far better but the waves a bit lumpier. What a choice...flat cowshit or lumpy blue water. It wasn't looking like we'd get that snorkel. I called Sal and waved at her from the rock platform - I told you DJ and Jo's house overlooked the ocean - did a little more exploring and headed back for breakfast.

Back home Jo rustled up breakfast, I told DJ what the water looked like and he suggested we head for the next bay north. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let DJ have some family-free time, and it has been far too long since I've been in the water and for-fucking-ever since DJ and I have been in the water together. We confirmed our free-passes and headed out.

The bay looked lovely and clear and there were obvious entry and exit points and spear fisherman on their way back. Rumour was that we may see wobbegongs and large black rays. It was looking good. DJ was wetsuited, I was in a rash vest and board shorts, so I figured I'd be setting the time limit. Which, as it turned out, was a a pain in the arse. The water was a little chilly but ridiculously clear. And blue. Not a hint of green. As the sun shone through it made dappled patterns on the rocks. There were schools of small stuff, a large blue grouper, a large porcupine fish, garfish. It was fucking awesome.

Without the bouyancy of a wetsuit, or a snorkel that would allow me to swim without lifting my head over and again, I struggled a little. Every so often we'd hit a cold patch of water. Then we got to the point where the water was noticably colder. Rather than risk struggling back and suffering the indignity of having to have DJ rescue me, I turned the swim and we headed back. DJ had dived under a few times - looking as comfortable as ever. We bimbled about in the shallower, warmer, more protected part of the bay and then clambered out over the rocks. It was while DJ was getting out that he pulled off one of the funniest things I've ever seen. He managed to step in a deep whole. He went from ankle deep in water to chest deep immediately. You had to be there; damn it was funny.

Then we clambered out, went back to DJ's place, said our goodbyes and Sal, AJ and I headed home.

Little Manly and Two Creeks

To finish of New Years Day I went for a run. Somewhat masochistic as the temperature was still hovering around 34degrees. But the humidity was low, and although gasping hot air was not pleasant the run was somewhat easier than I'd expected; not sure how I would have felt if I'd pushed the distance beyond the 11km I ran, or if the temperature hadn't started to drop a little towards the end.

Jump forward to yesterday and another run I managed to negotiate. Sal is close to popping the bub and I now have to be careful not to run too far away or for two long. Yesterday afternoon, when Sal needed a rest, I grabbed a two hour slot in which I completed an 18km run, 5km being the Two Creeks Track from Lindfiled Oval to Roseville bridge, the rest getting to the oval and back from the bridge on road. Very pleasant, if somewhat hilly and sweaty. The 5km bush track is quite easy with only a couple of small climbs. Once it gets to the water it follows the watercourse and is quite pretty. I completed the run (18km) in a little over 100mins and drank only water on the go. I felt quite knackered at the end; I think my water threshold, after which I really should carry sports drink, is about an hour, especially in the heat of the day. I got home to find Sal on the sofa somewhat angry; for a change her anger was directed not at me, but the Pearl Harbor (the movie, not the place.) Sal has a very high tolerance for low quality movies but Pearl Harbor had pushed beyone even her limit.

We'd started the day in Little Manly. Sal and Susan had remained landside while JCJ and I jumped in the water and snorkelled around the left-side headland.The water was warm and a bit green; vis was around 4-5m, but as depth was rarely greater than 5m that was hardly an issue. Where it was deeper I found sand, sand and more sand, so we stayed shallow where we found, as well as fish, a kids bike, a motor bike, a couple of shopping trolleys, the remains of two cars, various other random metal things and a bathtub. Got to love diving in the Harbour. There was also a little too much fishing line and lots of fish. To begin with there were a few bits, but when we got ot the rocks at the point there were schools of jeuvenille mackeral and yellowtail, some small old wives and the odd stingary. Around the point I found an octopus and more bits and then we found a large - very large - schhol of anchovy. There were a couple of what looked like small kingfish eyeing the fry off. There were alos loads of hula fish, jeuvenille puller (that look quite tropical) and a lone, very small stripey. It was fantstic. As well as the fishiness we were treated to kids taking a 20ft drop from a lookout and yachts coming in and out of the bay. The shore line was a vertical rock wall that, if you swam close wnough, had you swimming under low hanging tree branches. The light through the branches hitting oyster-shell-covered rocks in slightly green water put me in mind of National Geographic shows on crocodiles. Silly really, far more chance of coming across a shark.

Around 40mins in we turned and returned to shore, the womanfolk and coffee. Along a vertical and, above water featureless but underwater pretty wall I swam half in and half out of the shadows. The wall cast a 45degree shadow over the kelp in the very shallow water. A lovely effect. All said, I really should go back with a camera. Another interesting part of Sydney discovered.

Happy New Year

Up typically early to take the dogs for a walk, a DVD back and to prepare to head for the ocean, I was feeling a little dusty but a Berocca later I was feeling fine. The temperature was due to hit 34degrees on 2009 day 1, so a cooling dip was the perfect start. Sal took 10 minutes to get from bed to car and at a little after 8am we left to collect JCJ and Susan and then head to Manly where we would be meeting Hempy for a swim.

The ocean was flat and blue and the air was warm-becoming-hot. We met a returning Josie and Jason plus Josie's folks whose names I seem unable to commit to memory. They had already been for a splash, Josie's Dad test driving his new prescription lens mask. Apparently the water was not as warm as it looked, nor as blue, but it was nice. We would discover that for ourselves; JCJ and Hempy, resplendent in camo-pants wetsuits and I in my full-black-seal suit took to the water while Sal and Susan took to a cafe.

Hempy, in his younger days, never seemed to feel the cold. That's not quite true; he did seem to feel the cold but he never admitted it. You had to pick up on the subtle tell-tale signs; he'd be blue and shivering uncontrollably. However, since moving to the tropics the lad has softened somewhat and felt no shame in letting the real men know how cold he thought the water was. To be fair he didn't whine that much but it was refreshing to see him behave like a mortal.

As Sal had a chaperon and as the water was really very flat we decided to swim over to the point, some 150-200m away. I did have the occasional sharky thought, what with a Great White having been spotted nearby only a couple of days earlier. That even made the news back in Blighty. The water was not super clear; in places it reminded me of the water colour you see on video from Dyer Island. But the thoughts didn't linger. In fact I was thinking more about the dive float JCJ had brought. The line attached to his float was only marginally longer that the blades of his fins. As is customary, we gave JCJ some abuse for that, hence starting the new year in pretty much the same way we'd ended the old one - taking the piss.

New Year, new policy...divelog entries will be entered into the main blog...cannot really be arsed to maintain two blogs dedicated to what I do...maybe I'll add a summary link to the other blog...whatever...

The water was neither particularly clear or fishy as we made our way over to the point, but it was pleasant. We didn't duck under the surface much until we got to the rocky reef of the point. There were a few leatherjackets, hula fish (so Hempy was happy), I found a porcupine fish, Hempy found a ray, there were yellowtail, some mullet, blackfish. The usual suspects. JCJ didn't point out as much as he usually does, possibly because he was tethered to the surface by a shoe lace length of rope (hahaha!) Not wanting to spend too much time out to sea, in case Sal went into labour, we headed back after 30 or 40mins. On our return we dropped down to the bottom of the rock pile and discovered that Jason had been telling the truth; at 4m the water temp dropped from its 22ish degrees on the surface to a around 19degrees. Enough to be noticeably cooler. Noticeably more green as well. We dropped down to the bottom a few times, a mere 8.5m below. Deep enough for me to feel like my lungs would pop after a few seconds (I was not having a great day) and shallow enough for Hempy to stop, look around, read a few pages of a book and make a few phone calls before inching his way back to the surface. Git.

With no sign of the ladies ashore as we returned to the Bower we decided to head over to its rocky reef to swim with the yellowtail and allow Hempy to have another brief whinge about the water temperature. To be fair, it was 10degrees cooler - colder? - than he is used to. Git.

JCJ looked as if he was getting run over - well, swum over - by a group of swimmers headed to Shelly Beach from Manly. From a distance it looked quite amusing. His head bobbed about a little way off from his float and swimmers looked as if they were heading between the two. I conjured up mental images of angry swimmers screaming at the bloke who had decided to roper the bay off. But it was all friendly and peaceful and before long we spotted the ladies wandering back from the cafe we would soon wander to.

We climbed out of the water into the now very warm air, ditched the neoprene and headed into Manly for breakfast at Cafe Steyne which has mixed reviews but I like. Lots of beach fronts are becoming homogeneous and bland. Big open sliding doors, check. Whitewashed walls, check. Chunky wooden tables, check. Sparse artwork on walls, typically quite average, often far sale, usually overpriced, check. Small portions on big plates, check. Cafe Steyne isn't like that. It's more old skool. A bit run down, iffy furnishing, iffy service, decent serving sizes, decent enough coffee, kids books and toys stacked (well, slung) in a corner and a view of the ocean. Suits me just fine. I had the big breakfast and Sal's left over ( = most of it) fruit toast.

Saying so makes me feel hungry. I'm off to find some breakfast.

underwater to get out of the rain

Sydney long weekends are often wet. Apart from Christmas and New Year, when it is often bastard hot and the outer suburbs are on fire. Literally. But this long weekend - Labour Day, whatever that means - has been a fairly typical wet one. Not as utterly washed out as Easter, but showery and ordinary. So, to start the three days JCJ and I decided to do what it says on the cover of the book and go Underwater to Get Out of the Rain. Good book that...worth reading. Certainly a better read than my divelog.

For the record, mainitaing a seperate divelog blog irritates me as well...but I don't know if or how to combine them.

German beer does not stop me

Finding myself between marathons and not training I have climbed down from the wagon. After work yesterday I stunned my colleagues by attending leaving drinks for Rebbecca, an outgoing help desk bod from our Melbourne office. She is off to JP Morgan. They were stunned not only by my consumption of beer, but also by my going to the Bavarian Beer Cafe after work, a social event. I don't really do "social" and consider myself "differently social" rather than out-and-out anti-social. Anyway, I had three half litres of german beer, a Spaten, paulaner and Fransic-something-I-cannot-remember-the-name-of. On top of a couple of bottles of Aussie beer in the office I ended the evening smewhat merry and doubting I would be in much of a state to go for a freedive this morning. I had a good night.

Fast forward to this morning. I'd had some water before bed, more when I woke a couple of times during the night and I did feel a little dusty when I crept out of bed. Saturday is dog swim day, so we headed to Clive Park and by the time I was there I was feeling pretty good. Certainly good enough to go snorkelling after dropping the boys back home. So there you go, enough beer to flatten a lightweight like me, but as it was a good drop it did not slay me.

JCJ left a phone message that I listened to at around 10:30, maybe fifteen minutes after he had left it. I called back as he and Tony were arriving at Fairy Bower for a scuba dive. Right, I said, I'm leaving now and I reckon I'll be in the water before you! Piss-taking though I was, I did manage to catch up with the them a mere fifteen minutes after they had entered the water. It would have taken me a few minutes to spot their bubbles and then dive down on them and check JCJ's bottom timer...so I reckon I was in the water only ten minutes after they were.

Anyway, the water was relatively warm for this time of year but a little green. I was not too phased and spent a reasonable amount of time watching them, dropping down and swimming with them before my lungs started telling me it was time for another breath. I also tried to remove one of JCJ's fins, purged the reg under his chin so he had a face full of bubbles and generally goofed about. For his part he gave me the finger and, obviously, played his trump card by grabbing one of my fins as I made my way back to the surface. Hmmm. I should have thought about that one.

It was a relatively short dip, maybe an hour. I wanted to have a chat and coffee with JCJ and Tony so I had to be on scuba time. I figured I would gear-down more quickly than them, so as they climbed out I had anothe few minutes in which I headed back out to see if I could find any sharks. Nope, I think they've gone for the winter. It was still a nice dive, plenty of fish and I did see one small Port Jackson Shark...ad that was nice.

We had our coffees ocean-side and watched the world (well, women in little-clothing) go by. And all was well with the world.

Let me guess; you probably don't want to read about me cutting lawns and shopping...fair enough.

Enough German beer, or rather too much, would of course have stopped me from doing anything.