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Dive 15 and 16 on 19 Oct 08
DocMartens - 10/22/2008 3:22 AM
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Category: Travel
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Dive 15 and 16 on 19 Oct 08Went diving last Sunday with Perth Dive Academy out of Fremantle. We boarded the boat at 9am and left port at 9.30 and was buddied up with my luck this little hottie from Sydney called Josie. The boat was full (45 pers) which included an OW course and we headed off to Rottnest Island. The skipper was thinking on heading on the west side of the island which was great as I hadn’t been that side at all and was looking at a location called Horseshoe Reef. The day was warm @25C and water was slightly rough, but have dived in rougher and the visability from topside was excellent, you could see the bottom. Anchor was dropped and in we went. Josie hadn’t dived for a year so we took our time on the surface so she could sort herself out and made the slow decent until she was comfortable. Once at the bottom @ 18m we found that there was a strong surge and heaps of sinkholes to dive in and study the sea life and protect us for the surge. So during this 38min dive we jumped from sinkhole to sinkhole and saw a fair bit. Once aboard we got out of our gear and sat and discussed the dive to make sure we where (she) was happy with what we did. Josie was over the moon and could wait get back in. Once everyone was aboard we wade anchor and headed off to a calm bay for some lunch. Lunch went down great, but then a BBQ all ways does, and we then headed off to another site called Swirl Reef. You could actually see the water funneling at the surface and was told by the dive master to be careful of the surge and swell in the main cavern as it will spit you out if you not careful. Yeah right. Josie was kitted up in a flash, I hardly had my wettie back on and she was ready...Damn woman. We did the stride off the side and down we went. Awesome site. Swim through s everywhere, pinnacles, you name it it had it, except a wreck. Anyways we found the entrance to the main cavern and after a some sign language we went in and man what a sight, fish and corals galore and with a old man cod as the custodian of the cavern, nudibraches everywhere and just heaps of all types of fish and critters. The cavern went for @30m and heaps of room. There where openings along the way and at one opening I caught a forward surge which pushed me past this opening nicely, a couple more kicks and stopped and turned see if Josie was still there when the surge came backward and sucked another diver who was swimming past her out the opening and to the top....Funny as..well you had to be there. He was alright a bit shaken lol as we found out later. 40mins went by and we returned to the boat with 30bar left and Josie was over the moon, and so was everyone else. Will dive there again for sure. We headed off back to freo harbor and on the way, a radio alert came in, on a sighting of a Great white shark in and around the swirl reef area. Phew could have been Jaws Sushi, which was cool, I had a buddy to push in the way of hungry teeth. A fisherman in his boat pulled up not long after we had left (he actually saw our boat heading around the north head about 1km from swirl), and spotted the @3m shark and called it in to the coast watch. Well that was dive 15 and 16, a good double dive with a bit of excitement.