This Easter Aquability had 2 diving trips running over the break. One of the trips was down to Eaglehawkneck in Tasmania and other was a local trip to Sorrento where we hired a house for 5 days and did various shore, day, night and boat dives. We all arrived on Friday at the house and after settling in headed off to Blairgowrie for our 1st dive of the weekend. We had pretty good conditions, calm water and about 5-8 m vis. We saw, loads of things which is not usual at Blairgowrie. Stargazer, seahorses, blennies, octopus, hermit crabs, squid, large stingray, small schools of baitfish, Sand goby's, tassled anglerfish, sea moths just to name a few. See pics attached.
Saturday we dived the Grotto or just next too it at an unknown site on the wall. When we arrived at the site a swell was running, consequently this took out a couple of divers, always remember the quells(seasick tablets). This spot was a beauty, big drop very great overhangs stuffed with fish. Big zebrafish, banded morwongs, blue devils, leatherjackets, and 3 huge crayfish, which are still there.
After lunch back at the house we headed back to Blairgowrie for an afternoon dive.
That night we dived Rye pier. After a long, long walk down the pier we arrived at the lower landing. Ideal conditions flat calm and 8m viz. We saw, heaps of seahorses, the bottom was covered with brindled leatherjackets, a huge stingray which got very touchy feely with one of our divers and several different octopus.
Sunday morning we arrived at dive vic at 6am, still dark but conditions looked great. We arrived just on daybreak at the J2, reasonably calm and the viz looked good. We headed down the shot and reached the wreck just forward of the conning tower. This is now very distinct from the other subs as the conning tower sits on the bottom right next to the sub. Midships of the sub has been substantially damage by heavy swells. The top of the sub has collapsed and various sections now lay exposed to future damage. Inside 3 baulk heads are still intact and the stern where the crews quarters are, are still ok. The forward section those is quiet damaged near the bow and torpedo tubes. After this dive we headed home for a big breakfast/ lunch. Over the weekend several divers came down for different dives joining in for one or 2 dives before heading back to Melbourne. I dived Blairgowrie again Sunday in the afternoon and again at night and again had to great dives. See pics
Monday we had organised some specials dives for Aquability customers. The first one was the wreck of the Hurricane. This wreck is broken up by blasting as it is near the shipping channel and lies in about 11m of Rye. We had a really good dive on the wreck, it is not a fabulous wreck and it is very broken up. However, the fish life is very good as it is the only structure in the area and it therefor attracts all the marine life from around the area. On this dive we saw, oldwives schools of small snapper( pinkies) Melbourne silverbellies, stingrays, barber perch, seahorses, zebrafish and a very rare sighting. For the first time ever I saw 2 short nosed boarfish, I have never seen one before and only ever seen pictures of one at mornington pier before so I was quiet excited. Our next dive was Popes eye, however we had organised to do this on a slackwater. The dive was great stacks of fish just hanging around and enjoying the rest from the currents, and offcourse so where we. The only down side was the viz was down as it was the end of the ebb before slackwater. Back again to blairgowire for us super keen divers again that night and another great dive. Saving the best for last we had organised a slackwater flood dive at Ripbank for our last dive, it was well worth the 5:30 alarm call. This dive is on the Nepean side of the heads and can only be dived at the end of the flood. The site is amazing, deep wall dives and on top of the walls thick kelp hides awesome ledges undercuts and swim throughs. This is a favourite spot for all the gun cray divers. Amber and Trev pulled 2, another diver 2 as well, we all saw crays. In fact under one ledge I saw, blue devils, cuttlefish , one cray, and then did a really cool swim through to exit the ledge. After the dive we headed back to the house had another big breakfast, cleaned up and headed home. I had a fantastic easter thanks to everyone who came down to share.
Deon, Wolf, Amber, Trev, Sharon, Ashley, Marty, Sam, Push, Youri, Phil, Mel, Jason, Ben, Marilyn, Julie, Bec, Jared, Heidi, Ruth, Nicole and Karen
