By David Boyle
This year the club decided that we would not go away on the Easter weekend but would make our own 4 day break the week after taking the Thursday off and with Friday being ANZAC day giving us the 4 days away. I arrived about 4.30 Wednesday afternoon to find Meredith & Reno were already there relaxing. With Sonya & Tim about 15min behind me we soon all together discussing the possibilities for the next few days. We were staying in a lovely 2 story house with ocean views that we have stayed in before.
The weather for Friday was looking promising but we were surprised to wake up to a thick fog surrounding the house and we were unable to see the ocean or nearby houses. This soon cleared and we had glass flat conditions, so a decision was made to head round to popular spots that were a long way away like the “The Gap” and “The Pinnacle”. The ocean stayed calm, so we passed Cape Spencer Light house and The Gap and went onto The Pinnacle. We found an area approx. 10m deep with a very undulating bottom and set the anchor. Tim stayed on the boat and I buddied with Sonya on the first dive and there was immediately lots of fish life, large Blue Grouper, Wrass, schools of Silver Drummer, Large Nannygai, Sweep, Dusky Morwong, Leather Jackets, numerous other rock fish. A few small crays were spotted and lost but the whole area was very pretty and covered in caves, chasms, walls and overhangs, which gave us lots of exciting areas to explore.
The second dive was Sonya & Tim and I was the boat person, they dived the same area and were just as happy with the dive. For the third dive we shifted positions and anchored just along from The Gap and was Tim and myself. We hadn’t gone far when we spotted out first cray, it was quite shy and backed off into its hole as soon as the torch was shone on it, so frustrating, the second cray did the same and I was getting worried they might all be a bit spooked by previous divers. Then we found a vertical crevice and to our surprise our luck had changed, not only was the crevice packed full of about 7 crays but they did not back off when the torch was put on them. I was able to capture one of the smaller ones when a larger one was pointed out to me. After a long and very hard battle we managed to get out one that was a nice 3kg. There others were not bothered by its removal, so I attempted to get others but with my tank pressure needle approaching the red it was time to ascend.
Meanwhile Meredith and Reno went for a drive around the national park and had an enjoyable day out. Thursday night Cath had arrived to join us and we were treated to a lovely Lasagne made by Meredith accompanied by lovely potato salad from Cath.
Friday morning was ANZAC day and the group held a minute’s silence while The Last Post played, to honour those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so we have the freedoms today to pursue our chosen pastime. The weather was not as good with the wind picking up and being onshore it was going to be a matter of go and see where we can get in.
We headed along the coast to Cape Spencer thinking we could dive in the sheltered bay under the lighthouse, unfortunately it was too choppy in this area so it was decided to head out to Althorpe island thinking we could dive on the sheltered side of the island. The way that the waves and swell mix around the island made it difficult to find a calm area, finally we anchored in the calmest stop in approx. 200m from the island in about 12m. This was not going to be a pretty dive, as soon as we got to the bottom where was a back and forth swell and poor visibility, so it was going to be purely for Crustacean relocation. Almost immediately some red cray legs were seen in a rock crevice. Surprisingly there were 2 in there together, after they were relocated into a catch bag we slowly moved around the undulating bottom while constantly being moved back and forth with the swell, another cray was found and caught and it was time to head back to the boat. When we came up the surface was covered with a thick sea foam which totally cover us and at one stage I couldn’t see through it to the boat.
After lunch at the Althorpe Island jetty, where we were briefly entertained by the local Seal, we looked for another calm area without success, so we decided to head back to Cape Spencer to see if it had calmed off. It was a slow rough trip back to Cape Spencer only to find that conditions had not improved. We decided that it was still too rough and not safe enough, and with all other options blown out, we slowly headed back to Marion Bay.
There is a new boat ramp at Marion Bay but it is not the easiest to use, so caution had to be applied when launching and retrieving the boats.
Saturday morning the wind had increased and there were white caps on the bay so we decided to go to Pt Turton. Cath and Sonya dived while Tim & myself were kept entertained by the fisherman on the jetty and the constant circling of the Sting Rays around the entry steps. After 1hr the girls surface commenting on how much they liked the dive seeing many Nudibranchs of different sizes and colours and also had the Sting Rays pass under them.
Back at Marion Bay and after lunch a few of us went for a walk from the National Park visitor centre to the Stenhouse Bay jetty. We walked along the cliff to the various lookouts and along the way finding the old locomotive and carriages that is slowly rusting back into the ground, this used to cart the Gypsum that was mined in the area to the jetty.
Saturday night we went to the pub for a nice dinner and early night for most. Sunday morning was calm, of course, when you have to go home. We packed our cars and headed off back to Adelaide with very little traffic.
A special thank you to the boaties Meredith and Reno and Sonya & Tim and to Sonya & Tim for organising the weekend, I think a good time was had by all.