Pioneer – 26th November 2011

Divers: Michael, Pete, Brenden & Mark

It was 6.30am as the boat steamed towards the dive site in near perfect flat seas, standing at the back of the boat I was watching the turquoise blue water in the prop wash, I couldn’t help but think to myself ‘this viz is going to blow these guys away’. Little, did even I image, that this will be the best visibility in the graveyard for the past 20 years!!

We entered the water in our dive team’s, my team was last off the boat. 20 metres away from the shot line I put my head under the water, I can see the shotline descending almost to the bottom & I can see ½ a dozen divers swimming along the bottom, with no current.  I signal to my team that we should descend right where we are – I know, breaking my golden rule of always following the shot line. But the thing is, I can see the wreck sitting in 46m of water from a depth of 10metres!! We descend onto the bow, I can clearly see the stern that is 170ft away, I can see the divers that are swimming off the stern – they have to be 55-60 metres away, I can see the bubbles of every diver on the wreck shimmering to the surface. I’ve done my fair share of tropical water diving but
never have I seen conditions any better than this. The one thing that makes Melbourne divers so solid is the tough conditions that we dive in week in week out, if these conditions continue we will become just like our friends from the north.