by Rick Hawkins | Rick's Page | Jazz Art | Digital Art | Contact Me

241. The Steps, Kurnell, 22nd April 2007
 11.07 am, 22 degrees, 54 mins, 12.8 max, 9.5 av.
Great sponge gardens, wonderful vis, WSDs (3 or more); crested horn shark; beautiful nudibranch (unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera!); huge giant cuttlefish (Liz said he grabbed her camera!).  Lots of people turned up for the dive but the only ones I knew were Dave (DM), Jane (his woman), Sharon (not DM Sharon), Amanda, Rostrum and Liz.  Hadn’t done The Steps for a while, the walk down is slightly difficult, especially for my dodgy ‘ip.

240. Fairy Bower, 21st April 2007
 10.48 am, 22 degrees, 61 mins, 7.9 max, 5.5 av.
Plenty of dusky whalers around - I counted five; usual suspects other than that: yellowtail school; two giant cuttlefish.  No DM on this dive so Liz and I led two others, Karen and some other sheila.

239. Fish’n’Chips , South West Rocks, 19th April 2007
 12.13 pm, 22 degrees, 58 mins, 25.0 max, 14.3 av.
Some of the other divers opted to forego the cave and cruise with the sharks at Fish’n’Chips so I decided to join them, being somewhat fazed with the cave, especially as Peter said there wouldn't be any GNS at the shallower entrance.  We did go to the deep entrance at 25 metres and I went in a bit of the way, through a curtain of bullseyes, then south along Fish’n’Chips where there were GNS galore, cruising up and down the gutter; there were plenty of large wobbies too and large schools of nannygai, bullseyes and surgeon fish.  Peter led us to a shallower region at the eastern side of the rock (I assume near the Aquarium); there’s a nice little valley there and the vis was exceptional.  A turtle hung around for ages and Peter tried to coax it with some food.  I also saw a  black cod, moray eels, and plenty of clown fish - nice dive.

238. The Pinnacles to Fish’n’Chips , South West Rocks, 19th April 2007
 9.45 am, 22 degrees, 47 mins, 23.8 max, 17.1 av.
Beautifully calm conditions (the calmest I’ve ever seen at this site); Peter (DM) aid we’d attempt a drift dive from the Pinnacles around the rock to Fish’n’Chips; normally the current would be too strong and would sweep a diver out to the east but it was actually not as strong as Peter thought it would be.  Quite cold at one stage, especially after Julian Rocks.  Plenty of sharks at Fish’n’Chips: GNS and wobbies and the wobbies are more active than at JR.  Caught a glimpse of a turtle which appeared much more prominently on the second dive.  Nice numbray and small bull ray.

237. The Nursery to Needles to Hugo’s Trench , Julian Rocks, 17th April 2007
 2.17 pm, 23 degrees, 51 mins, 16.5 max, 10.7 av.
Very choppy conditions on the ride out plus on entry; turtle at the bottom of the mooring line; drift dive over The Needles was fast and we came across a school of yellowtail kingfish, very impressive but gone too soon; leopard shark; two moray eels, one a beautiful golden spotted colour; lovely bright blue anemones.

236. The Nursery to Needles to Hugo’s Trench , Julian Rocks, 16th April 2007
 2.12 pm, 24 degrees, 50 mins, 18.6 max, 11.3 av.
Choppy conditions but much less swell than the previous days; DM Snappy; started off slowly because of gear problems with pommie diver (my buddy, though I didn’t se much of him during the dive); had a bit of a poke around the Nursery and then drifted towards Hugo’s Trench on the other side of the rocks; saw a small stingray and leopard shark before getting into the drift; then a small green turtle but I was unable to get a good movie of him because of the speed of the current; drifted to Hugo’s Trench which is a good dive in amongst the walls of the little canyon that is the trench; went past a congregation of large wobbies, one was particularly big, maybe almost 3 metres; bull ray flew over us; snorkellers said they saw a manta but we missed it; nice, small, orange moray eel; reasonable-sized lionfish.

235. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, 15th April 2007
 2.17 pm, 24 degrees, 47 mins, 18.3 max, 11.9 av.
We had a look at the shallower end of the cod hole first, as usual, then went to the deeper end (18 metres - low tide) and I was surprised that the DM took the group through, something I haven't done since 2003; divers haven’t been allowed in there since around then, as a GNS habitat, though perhaps that is a self-enforced policy rather than a government statute, also, maybe the dive shops has told DM’s thy can use their own discretion an go through if they're sure there aren’t any GNS in there; the other option is that the DM (a pom named Adrian, I think, started with A anyway) was either a cowboy or didn't know the rules.  Leopard sharks everywhere on this dive, especially in the sandy, gravel trench before the cod hole; they were lying on the bottom or swimming freely, accompanied always by remora; they seem less lazy than wobbies, certainly and maybe similar to PJs in their activities.  A huge bull ray swam past, again, a rare-ish sight, as they’re usually resting on the bottom (more common to se a bullray swimming than to see a wobbegong swimming, though!).  Schools of large sweetlips languished on the bottom too; parrotfish, etc.  At the briefing the skipper said the current wouldn’t be strong as it was low tide but it turned out to be a strong current on the way back.  Many of the group ran low on air and were escorted to the mooring line while I looked after the other two; then the DM came back down and we looked around for a short while and then surfaced, my first ascent this trip using a mooring line!

234. The Needles, Julian Rocks, 14th April 2007
 11.16 am, 24 degrees, 53 mins, 15.5 max, 10.7 av.
Strong surge made it like a washing machine sometimes; DM Mark reminding me of a whale shark as he drifted ahead, seemingly lazily but moving easily with his huge fins; thousands of fish of all types busily going about their business in the back and forth surge including some stunning tropicals; octopi, one brown and swimming quickly, the other looked like it had been attacked - it had one limb missing and didn’t look very well: grey colour and sluggish; we came across the largest bull ray I’ve ever seen - maybe two metres in diameter, awe-inspiring in its massiveness.  Only me, Mark and a young Scandinavian woman, we surfaced on the other side if the rocks, fairly close to the large waves smashing against the rocks.  All the boats were on the other side of the rocks but eventually a Sundive boat came over, thinking we were his divers, and then radioed to our boat.

233. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, 14th April 2007
 8.29 am, 24 degrees, 45 mins, 19.5 max, 12.8 av.
Leopard sharks; cod hole was full of large sweetlips and several huge potato cods or Queensland gropers; moray eel intertwined in soft coral; large eagle ray soaring above near the breaking waves.

232. Cod Hole, Julian Rocks, 13th April 2007
 8.06 am, 24 degrees, 54 mins, 15.6 max, 9.5 av.
Strong current made it a drift dive from mooring to the cod hole but we had to go back almost straight away because someone was getting low on air (!).  the trip back, against the current, was fairly heavy going.  There wasn't much pelagic action at all and only the warm water and the great vis compensated for the general lack of large fish or other types of marine creatures.  There were wobbegongs everywhere, but all were asleep and there weren't any large ones (smaller than the average one you see at Shelly or FB); nice to sea cleaner wrasse right inside the large gills of a sweetlip; plenty of anemones and clownfish amongst most of them; blue gropers, again, no bigger than Sydney BGs; lionfish, lots of crinoids, soft corals and some hard corals in drab colours.  Others saw a leopard shark but I didn't.

231. Fairy Bower, 7th April 2007
 10.51 am, 22 degrees, 73 mins, 7.6 max, 5.8 av.
Dusky whaler!; GC; small wobby; pineapple fish; striped catfish school; nice relaxing dive, north then east a bit then back south east over the sea-grass meadows, then back.

230. Clifton Gardens, Shelly Beach, 3rd April 2007 Night Dive
 7.12pm, 22 degrees, 80 mins, 6.4 max, 4 av.
Liz, Keith, Lilly.  Sea-horse; LJS; squid came really close, mesmerized by the torch; est catfish; decorator crab; large crab looking defensive;

229. Shelly Beach, 31st March 2007
10.44am, 21 degrees, 75 mins, 11.3 max, 6.7 av.
Liz, Amanda, Sally + many others with Dave DM.  Another dive at Shelly, nice relaxed though my mask kept leaking; weedy, wobby, plenty of little fish like mados, hula, yellowtail, giant cuttlefish, squid just off the southern end of the beach.

228. Bare Island, 24th March 2007
 10.46am, 21 degrees, 55 mins, 14.6 max, 10.1 av
Entered from the north west side of the mainland because of work on the bridge.  Headed south, south west for the western reef, over a small reef, then sand and then the western reef.  Usual sitings of crested morwongs and red morwongs, cuttlefish - giant and small, a volute, nudibranchs, etc.  Others reported seeing Red Indian fish and a seahorse but I missed out.  There were many divers about and many of those were inexperienced, so there was a bit of sand churned up but it was a relaxing dive nonetheless.  On the weay back over the sand we saw a couple of very long, translucent, thin worms and then we came to the little reef while doing our safety stop.  80 bar on exit.

227. Fairy Bower, 17th March 2007
10.36am, 22 degrees, 77 mins, 7.9 max, 5.2 av
Our quest for the duskies continues but to no avail this time: numb ray, crested horn shark, pineapple fish, large yellowtail school, large luderick school, wobby, two black reef LJs, large flatheads, maybe 1 metre.

226. Inscription Point, Kurnell, 11th March 2007
10.35am, 22 degrees, 53 mins, 14.3 max, 11.0 av
Solo, beautiful conditions, headed north then west to sponge wall and flat sandy bottom where there were 3 or 4 weedy sea dragons hunting.  There were more weedies on the rock ledge and a dwarf lionfish on a sponge near some weird white egg-shapes, maybe they were eggs or maybe a type of sponge.  Plenty of fish, but no big ones except the usual blue groper (I relented and prised off an urchin then presented the bottom side to him, rather than filleting it for him, he rushed at it with a loud thud); a stingaree, plenty of old wifes; green wrasse, CB wrasse, red morwongs, kelpfish, goatfish, cardinals, etc.

225. Shelly Beach, 10th March 2007
10.40am, 22 degrees, 83 mins, 13.7 max, 7.6 av
Patrick DM, beautifully warm water – 22 degrees all the way; motorbike; flounder; wobby; WSD; nice long dive but no dusky whalers!

224. Balmoral, 4th March 2007
10.10am, 23 degrees, 58 mins, 5.2 max, 3.1 av
Clean Up Australia Day – numbray, octopus, harbour leatherjackets, usual Cardinalfish, goatfish, etc.  I picked up around 15 kilos of rubbish, mainly plastic bags.

223. Bare Island, northeast of the bridge, 3rd March 2007
 11.42am, 23 degrees, 13 mins, 3.7 max, 3.0 av
Too shallow, slight southerly swell made it a bit dodgy to attempt to get closer to the edge further north towards the beach where I saw the eastern blue devil fish with Keith (I was with Keith, that is).  Nothing much to see but it was sort of fun frolicking in the shallows.   

222. Bare Island, western side, 3rd March 2007
10.45am, 22 degrees, 51 mins, 14.9 max, 10.1 av
Nice and warm, similar to Thursday night but no octopi.  Big cuttlefish right under a ledge, bullseyes, nudis, juvenile and full-grown WSD.

221. Bare Island, western side, 1st March 2007 Night Dive
 8.12pm, 22 degrees, 69 mins, 13.1 max, 8.2 av
Very relaxing night dive (though still slight mask-leakage issues).  DM DY, Liz and new guy Scott; water was warm and we saw some good sights, especially a largish octopus on the sand that we harassed enough to get him angry and attacking and attaching himself to Dave’s hand.  Also a juvenile weedy sea dragon, smallest WSD I’ve ever seen, maybe half the size of the average; a dwarf lionfish on a sponge; flounders, crested morwongs, active sea urchins everywhere, plenty of Cardinalfish and goatfish and at least four small cuttlefish.

220. Bare Island, eastern side, 24th February 2007
 10.50am, 16 degrees, 66 mins, 11.6 max, 9.1 av
Large group led by DY; I was buddied with Liz and we went alone after she thought her camera housing had flooded.  I saw the bubbles of the large group just as Liz and I were ready to descend but we didn’t see anyone else for the whole 66 minute dive!  It’s a lovely landscape there, with gorgeous sponge gardens but not many fish today, except for a very friendly blue groper.  Liz signalled a turn-around when she got to 120 bar and on the way back we saw two weedy sea dragons.  There were a couple of nudibranchs along the way but overall a dearth of fish, especially anything large (shows the impact of recreational fishing and spear fishing in these places).  Water was unusually cold, again!

219. Bare Island, western side, 18th February 2007
 10.13am, 18 degrees, 61 mins, 15.2 max, 10.4 av
The lovely seahorse on the tulip again; plenty of large cuttlefish; nudis; at least two weedy sea dragons, rock cods, etc. Drummer were scattering wildly as we entered – made me think for a moment that the great white supposedly sighted here a few weeks ago was just beyond our vis! Good Sunday club dive with Kevin Deacon leading.

218. Fairy Bower, 17th February 2007
 10.47am, 22 degrees, 50 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Plenty of churn, especially at the far western end where the broken plants made vis difficult; the eastern side was slightly better - two of the largest giant cuttlefish I’ve ever seen were lurking under rocks there plus some nudis.  The only thing good on the western side was the large yellowtail school and a wobby or two.

217. Gordons Bay, 10th February 2007
 8.17pm, 21 degrees, 59 mins, 12.5 max, 9.1 av
Big, fat nudis, octopus clutching a shell (going to eat the occupant?), aggressive giant cuttlefish nearly attacked me and Chris.

216. Bare Island, 3rd February  2007
 10.40am, 19 degrees, 52 mins, 14.9 max, 10.4av
Seahorse on sea tulip, boarfish.

215. Bare Island – eastern side, 27th January 2007
 10.37am, 20 degrees, 52 mins, 11.9 max, 8.2 av
Weedy Sea Dragon in two locations, second one covered in eggs; I lost my buddy and the rest of the group so came back solso; it got quite rough with the southerly moving in so quickly.

214. Shelley Beach, 25th January 2007
 8.17pm, 20 degrees, 46 mins, 9.1 max, 5.5 av
Nice night dive, amazing to see all the sea urchins on the prowl, plenty of wobbies and other nocturnals; nice to see phosphorescence in the dark.

213. Inscription Point, Kurnell, 21st January 2007
 10.21am, 15 degrees, 55 mins, 13.4 max, 9.1 av
Gusty nor’easter had chopped up the surface a lot, which made entry a lot of fun.  The water was cold and the vis from the buoy the club had provide about 50 metres out from the rocks was almost nil.  I found myself in a green void when first descending but soon the vista cleared beautifully and we were in a splendid sponge garden environment.

212. Fairlight, 20th January 2007
 11.32am, 15 degrees, 25 mins, 7.5 max, 5.5 av

211. Fairlight, 20th January 2007
 10.59am, 16 degrees, 22 mins, 8.5 max, 5.8 av

210. Fish and Chips, Fish Rock, South West Rocks, 15th January 2007
 12.01pm, 20 degrees, 48 mins, 26.2 max, 14 av
Just me and Garry, water got very cold after we ventured beyond the deep cave entrance; plenty of GNS cruising and I noticed that one was following my buddy very closely, without him realising – when he turned the shark moves away but it seemed like it was following him as long as he wasn’t aware of the shark’s presence

209. Fish Rock Cave, South West Rocks, 15th January 2007
 10.53am, 22 degrees, 52 mins, 23.2 max, 12.2 av
DM Peter, Chris (used to own Fish Rock Dive centre), boat boy - I buddied with Garry, a portly instructor from Cronulla.  The water was very choppy and the vis not very good, especially in the cave.  I had a slight fear attack just after descending but I was fine after a couple of minutes.  The highlight was a fight between two rock cods, broken up by a bigger rock cod.  The morays are getting quite sociable down there, often swimming freely; another highlight was a leafy scorpion fish. GNS were cruising at the mouth of the cave but I missed most of that as we were bringing up the rear.  There was a bullray asleep a fair way into the cave.  One of the divers was a ten-year-old boy.

208. Fairlight, 30th December 2006
 10.57am, 20 degrees, 70 mins, 8.2 max, 5.5 av

207. Fairlight, 23rd December 2006
 10.40am, 16 degrees, 59 mins, 9.5 max, 6.4 av

206. Fairy Bower, 16th December 2006
 10.27am, 19 degrees, 65 mins, 6.7 max, 5.2 av

205. Harbord, 9th December 2006
 10.36am, 20 degrees, 49 mins, 11.9 max, 8.8 av

204. Shelly Beach Point/Fairy Bower, 7th December 2006
 12.33pm, 20 degrees, 74 mins, 9.8 max, 6.4 av
 203. Fairy Bower, 7th December 2006
 12.01pm, 20 degrees, 26 mins, 5.2 max, 4 av

202. Gordons Bay, 2nd December 2006
 10.18am, 20 degrees, 43 mins, 12.2 max, 8.2 av

201. Swansea Bridge, 26th November 2006
 3.19pm, 20 degrees, 35 mins, 8.8 max, 7.3 av
Current was still strong as I attempted to reach the bottom.  Stripeys, large bream, tarwhine, toadfish, drummer, morwong; great growth still there despite the rock dumping, though I didn’t see too much evidence of dumping on the south-western side.

200. Swansea Drift, 26th November 2006
 12.30pm, 20 degrees, 32 mins, 12.8 max, 6.4 av
Overshot the exit point as we hurtled along – I calculated that we should surface after about 34 minutes but we’d gone a couple of hundred metres past the boat ramp after 32 minutes, so the tide was faster than the last time we did this dive.

199. Fairy Bower, 25th November 2006
 10.44am, 20 degrees, 76 mins, 7.9 max, 5.5 av
Giant cuttlefish, dusky whaler on eastern side, nudis, wobbies, estuarine catfish.

198. Bare Island, 18th November 2006
 12.50pm, 19 degrees, 30 mins, 8.8 max, 6.7 av
 197. Bare Island, 18th November 2006
 11.37am, 19 degrees, 19 mins, 6.7 max, 4.3 av
 196. Bare Island, 18th November 2006
 11.06am, 19 degrees, 23 mins, 10.1 max, 6.7 av
Both because of and in spite of the weird “entertainment” provideed by one of our hapless group, the dive was a bit boring until the last dive when Keith and I explored the rock shelf north east of Bare where there are fantastic sponge gardens and the elusive blue devil fish lurks under the ledges.  Also saw a blind shark that had been speared and left for dead, rock cods, some great nudis, an octopus and a lovely fish lying on a sponge.

195. Bare Island, 12th November 2006
 9.26pm, 19 degrees, 53 mins, 18.3 max, 11.6 av
PADI Photo comp, well-organised day and perfect conditions.  Nice dive, started with Liz as buddy plus Keith and his buddy but we lost them almost immediately.  White and blue nudibranchs, fantastic sponge gardens, gloomy octopus, crested horn shark or PJ.  I managed to get some OK photos.

194. Gordons Bay, 11th November 2006
 10.33pm, 19 degrees, 52 mins, 12.5 max, 8.5 av
Good sponges under the rock ledge, rock cods everywhere, sleeping cuttlefish, back cod, beardie, stingaree, nice variety of nudibranchs.

193. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 2nd November 2006
 12.44pm, 19 degrees, 67 mins, 22.6 max, 11.3 av
No camera so of course all sorts of new fish appeared!  Best of all was a large guitar shark or shovelled nosed ray.  The warm current again made getting back into the freezing current very difficult. Another 4-minute safety stop.

192. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 2nd November 2006
 10.24am, 18 degrees, 63 mins, 25 max, 12.8 av
Exciting dive with grey nurse sharks, bullrays, a huge black cod and the usual swarm of bullseyes at the cave's mouth as we approached from the deep side.  I went back for Kong a couple of times and we ended up overshooting the mooring line so I had to do a 4 minute safety stop without a mooring line, which was a little bit tricky and anxiety producing.

191. Black Rock, Sth West Rocks 1st November 2006
 12.00 midday, 18 degrees, 62 mins, 11 max, 7.9 av
Nice easy site with plenty of corals, soft and hard plus beautiful black laced cowries, like a string of pearls on a black cylindrical base, green turtle trying to have a snooze, stacks of fish all doing their thing.

190. Fish’n’Chips, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 1st November 2006
 9.45am, 18 degrees, 51 mins, 27.7 max, 16.5 av
Great site but very cold, there were wobbies everywhere, draped over the rocks on the edge of cliffs, grey nurse sharks cruising in the gutter; later we headed for The Aquarium where a sudden, strong warm current brought the temperature up to 20 degrees (heaven!) and there was a lot of action, including a turtle, sharks swimming hard to stay stationary in the current, fusiliers and heaps of other fish all excited by the warmth and speed of the current.

189. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 31st October 2006
 12.29pm, 19 degrees, 59 mins, 21 max, 13.1 av
Down the chimney via the shallow entrance head first then back up again – exciting!  Felt very cold and the boat ride back was the roughest ever, like a rollercoaster ride in a cyclone!

188. Entrance to Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 31st October 2006
 10.20am, 19 degrees, 52 mins, 27.1 max, 17.7 av
Heaps of grey nurse sharks, a loggerhead turtle asleep at the bottom (I nearly trod on him while getting shark photos!)

187. Ladies Reef, Sth West Rocks 30th October 2006
 2.28pm, 21 degrees, 18 mins, 10.7 max, 7.9 av
Soft and hard corals, plenty of brain coral, cowrie with "pearl necklace", yellowtails, lionfish.

186. Fish Rock Cave, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 30th October 2006
 12.37pm, 21 degrees, 55 mins, 24.7 max, 13.7 av
Bullray in chimney, plenty of sharks in the gutter at the deep entrance, rockcods.

185. The Pinnacles, Fish Rock, Sth West Rocks 30th October 2006
 10.03am, 21 degrees, 55 mins, 29.9 max, 17.1 av
Grey nurse sharks, moray eel, green turtle, rockcods.

184. Fairy Bower 28th October 2006
 10.31am, 18 degrees, 63 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Mullet school, YTs, nice giant cuttlefish.

183. Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower 21st October 2006
 10.31am, 18 degrees, 85 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 av
Wobbies, rockcod, huge school of striped catfish.

182. Fairy Bower 14th October 2006
 11.06am, 19 degrees, 48 mins, 7.3 max, 5.5 avg
Plenty of rubbish in the water and the usual suspects re underwater life.  We did see 3 wobbies all asleep at different locations on the eastern side.  There was a fair bit of swell coming in from the north and I didn’t make it to the western side, where I suspect the churn was pretty dodgy anyway.  Despite all this, it was a relaxing dive.

181. Bare Island 7th October 2006
 10.50am, 17 degrees, 54 mins, 13.7 max, 8.2 avg
Two weedy sea dragons; gurnard; not much else of note - the vis was poor and I had slight problems with the substitute reg which I couldn’t attach to my BC.

180. Fairy Bower 30th September 2006
 10.35am, 18 degrees, 73 mins, 7.6 max, 4.9 avg
Bad viz and the water was a strange yellow colour, something I’ve never seen before!  Plenty of suspended filaments as you expect after heavy rain, except I don’t think there had been any heavy rain!  My buddy and I got separated from club group almost immediately, which didn’t matter, it being FB, so there was plenty of lolling around the canyons and rocks on the western side.  Best sight was a large wobby and two PJs asleep in a little “cave”; next best sight was a reasonably large school of reasonably large mullet, which I’ve never seen at FB before, maybe the weird viz brought them in.  there was another wobby under a rock on the eastern side but by this time my buddy was bored so we finished after quite a long dive.  The bad vis, plus the fact that I forgot to insert my SD card into the camera, precluded any decent photos.

179. Clifton Gardens 26th September 2006
 8.211pm, 18 degrees, 56 mins, 7 max, 4.3 avg
Night dive along the pylons and back around the outside net. Plenty of seahorses, stingarees, a fat nudi, swarm of large striped catfish, large red morwong, decorator crab, LJs, porcupines, jellies, old wives, etc. 

178. Clovelly/Shark Point 23rd September 2006
 10.47am, 17 degrees, 72 mins, 11.3 max, 7 avg
Liz, Keith and I set out on our own.  Too much surge to be really enjoyable though we stayed well on course; with Keith leading, we headed east, then north and turned around when Liz hit 100 bar.  Getting back into Clovelly pool, with the tide going out and the swell and surge going, was quite challenging and fun.
Cuttlefish, catfish (estuarine), rock cod and usual suspects: gropers, parmas, stripeys in pool, etc.

177. Balmoral 17th September 2006
 10.21am, 18 degrees, 62 mins, 4 max, 2.4 avg
Clean Up Day – seahorses on swimming pool net; stingarees; leatherjackets; yellowtails; cuttles; trumpetfish; parmas, etc.

176. Fairy Bower 16th September 2006
 10.56am, 19 degrees, 81 mins, 7.6 max, 5.5 avg
Nice relaxing dive, western side much more fruitful for photography though there was a great little nudi on the eastern side.  2 PJs and 2 wobbies; large school of yellowtail, etc.

175. Lighthouse Bommie, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 27th August 2006
 10.13am, 21 degrees, 41 mins, 15.5 max, 11.6 avg
Napoleon wrasse; reef shark, big olive-coloured snake, school of big-eyed trevally.

174. Wreck of The Severance, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 27th August 2006
 8.39am, 21 degrees, 35 mins, 19.8 max, 12.5 avg
Western side if the island; The Severance is a large yacht that sank in a storm in 1999, at first it looked like a 19th century wreck, being covered in growth.  There's a huge giant moray eel resident; large kobes?, fish that look similar to sharks; a clump of large bullrays lying in the sand on top of each other; 2 mantas.

173. The Blowhole/The Tubes, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 25th August 2006
 8.49am, 22 degrees, 15 mins, 24.7 max, 14.6 avg
Aborted dive – the storm the night before had removed the mooring and the crew couldn’t find the correct spot.  We sank to 25 metres over a plain of undramatic coral but had to abort after 12 minutes.  Crew most apologetic and we got a free dive plus bottle of wine of a champagne sunset experience!

172. The Tubes, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 25th August 2006
 9.25am, 21 degrees, 34 mins, 23.5 max, 16.8 avg
Exciting dive in rough seas, we entered over a reef that dropped down at least 30 metres on a ‘cliff’ with the blue void to the east.  Dropped to almost 24 metres then drifted quickly toward the blowhole.  A large loggerhead turtle swam south, a huge Napoleon wrasse; large silver, tuna-like fish with strange dorsal? fins running parallel to body after coming off at right angles; Queensland groper; big school of fusiliers, trevally.  The blowhole is a cave with a hole in the top at about 15m.  We drifted over beautiful coral, hard and soft.  Getting back on the boat was difficult, it was very rough with a large swell moving in.

171. Maori Wrasse, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 24th August 2006
 3.52pm, 22 degrees, 48 mins, 15.2 max, 10.4 avg
Great bommie – 10,000 years old; turtles, one a huge loggerhead; surgeonfish being cleaned by wrasse – a relaxing, lovely dive.

170. Lighthouse Bommie, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 24th August 2006
 8.00am, 21 degrees, 49 mins, 14.9 max, 11 avg
More manta rays, maybe 6; large shark hiding under a rock, maybe related to a grey nurse shark; small reef shark; beautiful hard and soft corals; trevally; unicorn fish.

169. Anchor Bommie, Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef 23rd August 2006
 3.04pm, 22 degrees, 43 mins, 17.1 max, 9.1 avg
My first manta ray! Huge! Large smooth stingrays (bullrays); large school of big-eye trevally; large lone barracuda, potato cod with trumpetfish.

168. Bare Island 12th August 2006
 10.33 am, 17 degrees; 48 mins; 15.2 max, 10.4 avg

Weedy Sea dragons (5 or so); Red Indian Fish; Flying Gurnard; baby Crested Horn Shark (or PJ); cuttlefish; nudis - the Red Indian fish is extraordinary!  From a distance he looks like a large leaf drifting around randomly, when you see his "headdress" it's astounding.

167. Camp Cove 6th August 2006
 12.11 pm, 16 degrees; 38 mins; 5.8 max, 4.9 avg
See below.

166. Camp Cove 6th August 2006
 10.51 pm, 16 degrees; 34 mins; 5.8 max, 4.3 avg
Fish ID dive with NPA, buddy Simon.  Very good vis for Camp Cove, especially considering how rough it was on the ocean side.  Usual suspects with a few exceptions: crested morwongs, baby lionfish, and two cuttlefish, one large one small, sheltered under the bommie with the colourful sponges.  A school of either yellowtail scad or yellowtail kingfish, white-eared parma, red morwongs, large school of goatfish grazing, plenty of hulas and stacks of cardinals.

165. Swansea Bridge 30th July 2006
1.50 pm, 18 degrees; 34 mins; 8.5 max, 7.3 avg
Bream, large surgeonfish, crested morwong, large octopus

164. Swansea Drift Dive 30th July 2006
 11.20am, 16 degrees; 34 mins; 11.3 max, 6.7 avg
1.5 kms in 34 minutes!  Exciting, cold, so-so vis, plenty of leatherjackets, cardinals, red and crested morwongs; buddied with Liz and accompanied by Scott and Nathan.  Great fun!


Swansea Current, by Liz

163. Shiprock 29th July 2006
 10.57am, 17 degrees; 55 mins; 14.9 max, 10.4 avg
Cold, murky, lots of divers stirred the sand up.  Interesting dive, with stacks of sponges (see below for description of first SR dive>>)


Old Wives

162. Shelly Beach 22nd July 2006
 10.22am, 18 degrees; 48 mins; 9.1 max, 4.0 avg
Plenty of sandy churn but I managed to get a great shot of a blue groper, there were plenty of Port Jackson sharks being quite active and almost oblivious to our presence, probably something to do withy their mating rituals.

161. Clifton Gardens 15th July 2006
 10.22am, 15 degrees; 48 mins; 6.4 max, 4.0 avg
Cold, wet – lovely!  Liz and I headed for the western pier to search for seahorses.  We didn’t find any but did come across a baby PJ in the sand, plus plenty of large leatherjackets around the net.

160. Clifton Gardens 9th July 2006
 1.13pm, 16 degrees; 29 mins; 9.5 max, 5.5 avg
Not too many fish to identify but we saw a snake eel half buried in the sand: amazing creature with a fearsome reputation!  Also the largest nudibranch I’ve yet seen and some hunting fish, maybe kingfish, which were too far off to identify in the low viz .

159. Clifton Gardens 9th July 2006
11.22am, 15 degrees; 31 mins; 6.1 max, 4.9 avg
Practice dive for Fish ID course.  Water was very cold and tide too low but CG is a good site because of the piers.  This was my first pier dive with lots of large yellow leatherjackets, plenty of surgeonfish, some cute little cuttlefish and the usual suspects (hulafish, mados, morwongs, etc.)

158. Fairy Bower 8th July 2006
 10.47am, 18 degrees; 62 mins; 6.7 max, 4.9 avg

Shark city, north east of entry in the seagrass meadows; when we first arrived the viz was up to 20 metres but all the sand that the divers kicked up diminished that slightly.  There were 8 dusky whalers cruising around the scene.  Probably 1.5 metres long including the tail; one flew past me about a metre away when it was startled by some snorkellers above.  Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera cocked and ready, though I did get a couple of good shots and some half decent videos.  Also yellow leatherjackets and the usual nice school of yellowtail.

157. Harbord 1st July 2006
 10.47am, 17 degrees; 49 mins; 11.9 max, 8.2 avg
Great viz, giant cuttlefish, blue ringed octopus at end in very shallow water in the channel, not much else of note but a lovely dive.

156. Camp Cove 17th June 2006
 10.58am, 17 degrees; 51 mins; 6.4 max, 4.6 avg
Lionfish, a long way from his usual habitat!  Unusual leatherjackets, swarm of baby catfish.  later, while walking above The Gap, we saw a seal.

155. Shelly Beach 10th June 2006
 11.35am, 19 degrees; 20 mins; 5.5 max, 3.7 avg
2nd dive of the day with Liz, in search of the dusky whalers.  Saw two of them quite close – they’re small, maybe a metre and very sleek.

154. Shelly Beach 10th June 2006
 10.44am, 17 degrees; 51 mins; 6.4 max, 4.6 avg
Very large giant cuttlefish maybe doing a mating dance with another.  Idiot diver harassed him until we all dragged him away.  After the dive he was told off severely by DM Sharon and Liz .

153. Fairy Bower 3rd June 2006
 10.31am, 18 degrees; 49 mins; 7.3 max, 4.9 avg
Average dive with Liz as buddy.

152. Shelly Beach 6th May
 10.37am, 21 degrees; 67 mins; 7.3 max, 4.9 avg
DM Dave; juvenile Dusky Whalers in a procession, maybe 8 of them, there's something very appealing about their sleekness and their speed as they hunt, so different to the other sharks we see in Sydney (wobbies and PJs), which are usually asleep!

151. Fish Rock Cave 23rd April
 10.37am, 22 degrees; 59 mins; 22.9 max, 12.5 avg
Had a slight feeling of anxiety in the depths of the cave but I eventually managed to get control over my mind.  The cave is always a great dive, with plenty of Grey Nurse Sharks, morays, wobbies, gropers, lionfish, etc.

150. The Pinnacles – Fish Rock 23rd April
 9.30am, 22 degrees; 48 mins; 25.9 max, 16.8 avg
The Grey Nurse Sharks are amazing here – they hang in the churn between the pinnacles, moving back and forth with the water but staying completely still.  You can get very close to them without realising.  Some moray eels as well.

149. Julian Rocks 19th April
 11.06am, 24 degrees; 49 mins; 21.3 max, 15.2 avg

148. Bare Island 8th April
 10.23am, 21 degrees; 61 mins; 7.6 max, 4.6 avg

147. Bare Island 1st April 2006
 10.42am, 20 degrees; 58 mins; 16.2 max, 10.7 avg

146. Julian Rocks 24th January 2006
 Forgot my computer!

145. Julian Rocks 22nd January 2006
 2.07 pm., 25 degrees; 55 mins; 14.6 max, 8.2 avg

144. Julian Rocks 18th January 2006
 1.53 pm., 22 degrees; 47 mins; 11.9 max, 8.5 avg

143. Julian Rocks 13th January 2006
 2.07 pm., 26 degrees; 49 mins; 12.2 max, 7.9 avg

142. Fish Rock Cave 9th January 2006
 12.10 a.m., 22 degrees; 59 mins; 23.8 max, 13.4 avg;

141. Fish Rock Cave 9th January 2006
 9.59 a.m., 21 degrees; 56 mins; 19.2 max, 13.4 avg;

140. Fairy Bower 31st December 2005
 10.29 a.m., 21 degrees; 52 mins; 7.9 max, 5.2 avg;

139. Jervis Bay  - Bowen Island 27th December 2005
9.29 a.m., 21 degrees; 52 mins; 10.4 max, 6.7 avg.
Pretty ordinary dive, very shallow; sick looking wobby; nice large orange morays; stingray; gropers.  Plenty of rocks but not many fish!  I took a long time to equalise, problem mainly with my right ear.

138. Jervis Bay – The Nursery 27th December 2005
7.40 am, 20 degrees; 53 mins; 19 8max, 12.8 avg.
Nice topography: dramatic rock ledges and some overhangs and small caves; medium wobby; lovely baby cuttlefish; later a larger giant cuttlefish; WSD at the start in the kelp beds (where else?); scorpion fish / rock cod / frogfish; groups of Old Wives.  Not sure if it was worth driving all the way down for this, though the water was nice and warm and the viz was great.

137. Julian Rocks - Hugo’s Trench 16th December 2005
7.50am, 23 degrees; 53 mins; 14 max, 9.8 avg.
Reasonably strong current; DM Snappy, buddy Simon; triggerfish or leatherjacket (they’re related); lots of clown anemone; free-swimming moray accompanies by senator (?) wrasse – strange behaviour, the wrasse kept following the moray but not attacking it (would have been great video-op as S & I had to wait on the bottom for DM to sort out problem with the other diver); large loggerhead asleep, head wedged in rocks; smaller turtle swimming above; numbray gliding below as I got ready for safety stop ascent; stingray; plenty of wobbies, some in pairs; damsel fish.

136. Julian Rocks – The Nursery 15th December 2005
8.00am; 23 degrees; 48 mins; 18.9 max, 12.5 avg; 15-20 metres viz 
DM Snappy, buddy Simon.  Large school mulloway (jewfish) about 1-1.5 metres long; 2.5-3m grey nurse shark sighted twice, second time he passed closely in front; 2 morays, one orange and one silver/grey; lots of morwongs; damselfish nipped at me; largish cod-like fish resting in a cleaning station while small wrasse cleaned it; large-ish wobbies; clown anemones; baby parrotfish, bright turquoise, lots of gropers.
Ears seemed good (first deepish dive since nose op).

135. Fairy Bower 10th December 2005
10.37; 20 degrees; 80 mins; 7.3 max, 4.6 avg; hood
Over a month without a dive because of this damned septoplasty, fess and trimming of turbinates!  Liz and I headed west/nth west; at first I was surprised at the lack of life but things hotted up a bit with a school of yellowtail, then a large wobby (asleep as usual in a cave let) another wobby that I measured by hovering just above him, at 2metres; funny catfish poking his head out; the yellowtail schools got very large and shadowed us for ages – they seem to like company.  Liz thought we were going the wrong way and I thought she just wanted to look at something else, eventually I hailed her back south east and then we spent a bit of time on the eastern side of the beach – the CB Wrasse were cute there and one snapped off the head of a dead baby lobster Liz was showing me, which made me laugh.  There was also a cute silver blenny outside his house.  Good, easy return to diving except for problems with buoyancy (too light) mainly in anything shallower than 3 meters – I must have gained weight while I was recuperating!

134. Fairy Bower 6th November 2005
11.04; 19 degrees; 48 mins; 7.6 max, 5.8 avg; hood
Started with a test dive to test weighting and, trying to follow advice from an article in the latest Divelog, I removed 4lbs but was much too positively buoyant (and even had trouble with positive buoyancy on the dive after I’d gone back to 20lbs).  My problem is that, during deeper dives, like Bare Island yesterday, I felt I was weighted too much.  The quest for neutral buoyancy!  I was more buoyant on entry today because I started with 100 bar but that shouldn’t have been too much of an issue.  Nice dive, though nothing spectacular: headed east/north-east (very similar trajectory to last week’s dive with Liz; small cuttlefish (looked sad or sick or both); got close to the yellowtail school, especially when I held my breath; a live lobster! The highlight was a Magnificent Volute, with a shell about as long as my hand, making his way across the sand flats.  His body is much bigger than his shell and spreads out under the shell and he has a small hose-like “trunk” that sucks up food.  The crimson banded wrasse can be pretty friendly and genuinely curious, just like their bigger cousins, the blue wrasse, of which there were only a couple.  There were a couple of fish that I couldn’t identify.

133. Bare Island 5th November 2005
10.44; 17 degrees; 54 mins; 15.2max, 10.7avg; hood.
Conditions didn’t look too good with south east wind and reasonable southerly swell, but it turned out to be better than expected which was slightly frustrating because my camera had malfunctioned the night before.  Very high tide made entrance at boat ramp easy (and exit super-easy); we descended to the sandy bottom and headed west/south-west to the sponge gardens and rock wall.  There were plenty of fat nudibranchs in a variety of colours (I would have been able to get some great macro shots of those!) plus a nice large, dark brown/greyish seahorse wrapped around a sponge; a small cuttlefish with arms outstretched, changing colour from black to almost clear; a small PJ like shark which Dave said was actually a type of horned shark, very similar to PJ but with a couple of minor differences - he rested on the sponge garden and we got up close to his face and Liz tried to stroke his chin.  Nice overhangs festooned with sea tulips and sponges in a variety of colours.  A relaxing though slightly cold dive. 110 bar on surface.

132. Fairy Bower 29th October 2005
10.31; 19 degrees; 71 mins; 6.7max, 5.2avg; hood.
Headed north west – the vis was poor and there was a bit of churn but not too much.  Nice big stingrays, morwongs hunting, etc., but it got better when we headed back east/south-east.  Found a funny little creature about 1cm long coming out of something on the rock, white/black nudibranch; we spent a fair bit of time at the north western side near the pool.  There are some lovely bommies, overhangs and little caves with all sorts of creatures big and small.  Large rock cod or scorpionfish or maybe a frogfish; good school of yellowtail; large wobby right under a rock.  110 bar at surface.

131. Fairlight 23rd October 2005
11.59; 18 degrees; 28 mins; 7.6max, 5.2avg; hood.
South east of the beach and pool, around the corner; there are some good caves, overhangs and amphitheatres here and there was a lot more action than the other side, with two cuttlefish swimming, or hovering, together like a mother and child; later a good-sized octopus and then a smaller one plus a blue groper and a couple of yellow ones.  Wasted a lot of memory on movies that I didn’t know I was taking so missed good chances with the octopuses.

130. Fairlight 23rd October 2005
11.02; 19 degrees; 40 mins; 8.2 max, 6.1 avg; hood.
South west of the beach off the rock shelf; vis was pretty milky and there wasn’t much fish action at all.  A couple of plump white nudibranchs made things a little bit interesting for macro shots.

129. Bare Island 15th October 2005
10.57; 18 degrees; 51 mins; 15.5 max, 10.4 avg; hood.
Friendly blue gropers; nice nudibranchs: blue/purple 1 cm long and a fat, white one with other bright colours; Port Jackson shark on the sponge garden, which swam away when I tried to get a good video of him; large jellyfish looked quite ominous; giant cuttlefish in a cave.  There are some beaut dive throughs or caves here – one looked great with lots of bullseyes and you can see through to the other side, sort of a mini Fish Rock Cave.

128. Fairlight 8th October 2005
10.58; 18 degrees; 66 mins; 10.1max, 5.8 avg; hood.
Southerly swell and strong nor’wester made Fairlight the go.  The tide was very full and the surface was a smooth as a billiard table.  From the surface, the vis below looked almost opaque but improved as we got deeper, especially when we were in amongst the caves and overhangs.  There were plenty of nudibranchs around - white, blue, purple; schools of large black drummer; a weird blue scorpion fish (Sydney Scorpionfish,) under a rock staring back at us; a boarfish – large, big hump, blue/silver, spines on his back (maybe a rare sighting.  The website I've linked to says they're normally at 200m); large morwongs; a blue wrasse or three; nice largish PJ under a rock (seemed to have a hook and line in his mouth); a large wobbegong, maybe 2.5 metres.  The caves and overhangs were festooned in orange sponges and there were plenty of flora around.  As we were getting out we found some weird plant that changes from black to white when you touch it.

127. Bare Island – west side 1st October 2005
10.27; 17 degrees; 51 mins; 14.3max, 10.4 avg; hood.
A return to the site of infamy!  Exactly the same dive as last week; the vis was only so-so, although it would be considered good for this site – anywhere where there is a proliferation of sponges, you’re likely to get dodgy vis because the sponges love water that’s full of suspended particles from which they can filter feed.  But the low vis makes it difficult to keep up with the others if you're inclined to stop to examine some nice sight (like the pair of nudibranchs, one pink, the other lilac, each about 1cm long, there were nudibranchs galore on this dive) in closer detail.  We saw a nice stingray buried in the sand, with just his eyes visible; a brown seahorse clinging to some kelp; a cave with a giant cuttlefish and, after my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I made out 6 Port Jackson sharks resting in the further recesses.  Later the others found an octopus but I couldn’t see him; then there were two more PJs, recumbent on the same sponge garden bed that accommodated six of these charming sharks last week.  The blue gropers are very friendly here and one stayed with me for a while, coming right up in my face.  I tried to find something for him to eat, like the little crustacean or molluscan creatures that you often find under rocks, but there weren’t any free rocks around.  The landscape here is all little cliffs and overhangs, covered in orange, lilac and yellow sponges.  Later I saw some purple tube worms in a plant-like cluster.  Even the kelp at the end of the dive (just before the main entrance/exit that everyone uses to get in and out at the western side of Bare Island) is very pretty.

126. Bare Island – West side 24th September 2005
10.41; 17 degrees; 47 mins; 14.9max, 11 avg; hood.
Nice dive except it will be a date which will live in infamy because of the “flooding of the housing” which ruined my new Caplio GX camera!  I felt sick throughout the whole dive (it flooded immediately, because the O-ring wasn’t attached).  I probably should have aborted, and only found out later that another diver’s larger and more expensive set-up had also flooded and he’d aborted immediately.  We saw a couple of beautiful, plump seahorses; two cuttlefish in a cave, perhaps doing a mating ritual and further in the depths of the cave, a Port Jackson shark.  Later, a medium-sized octopus, plenty of chummy gropers and the great sight of at least 6 PJs recumbent on a sponge garden bed.

125. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 16th September 2005
11.37 am; 19 degrees; 52 mins; 27.1max, 14 avg; hood.
Bad start: I forgot my weight pouches, only realising after swimming with the others for about 50 metres and after everyone else had descended: I couldn’t get down and then I  realised (after the second attempt) that the only weights I had were the two in the upper part of the BCD.  I swam back to the boat, clumsily inserted the pouches - getting stressed in the process - and then had to swim back to meet DM Peter, who’d said he’d wait for me at the bottom.  I got down to about 20 metres and then realised my torch was gone!  I caught up with Peter and signalled my predicament, he signalled something that obviously had to do with a torch and we continued to the cave entrance.  Then THE FEAR got to me again – I looked up to the surface and kept thinking about being in the cave without a torch; I  thought I’d have to abort, that I was hyperventilating; I tried concentrating on the plant and animal life on the rocks; somehow the fear suddenly left and Peter gave me a spare torch just as we reached the entrance to the cave.  I was relatively OK though still slightly stressed; we ascended the chimney's walls, past the ruby eyes of the lobsters, over the sleeping wobbegongs, past the realm of the black cod and went up into the second bubble cave - it was weird to talk to each other 10 metres underwater.  Then we descended a little bit, back down to the cave’s mouth which presents an amazing sight: the light streaming in, silhouetting thousands of little fish and then the massive form of a grey nurse shark, patrolling the entrance.  When you stay still, hundreds of bullseyes and other similar fish come so close that they’re almost enveloping you.  Along with a number of  large sharks we struggled past the current again and ascended over the hill where a medium-sized moray eel was coaxed out of his hole by Peter who had grabbed an urchin from under a rock and brandished its underbelly in front of the slightly blasé moray.  Later we saw another (mosaic) moray, a gorgeous crimson-banded cleaner shrimp and Peter pointed out a large Spanish dancer, which I thought was some kind of anemone (he told me later that they can't be persuaded to move and do their dance - you just have to be lucky).  Then Peter caught sight of wobby with a hook imbedded in its mouth, which he tried to remove with some pliers but to no avail.  We caught up with the other three who were getting ready to ascend; in the valley, large GN sharks were cruising up and down the gutter, one was a real whopper (at least 3 metres).

124. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 16th September 2005
9.12 am; 19 degrees; 62 mins; 22.9max, 14.6 avg; hood.
DM Peter, a couple around my age who bickered in the casual way that happily-married couples do, plus old codger who peppered his sentences with liberal amounts of “bloody”. 
As we descended to the cave entrance, I again had EQ problems.  Peter Hitchins, the DM, picked a dwarf wobby up by the tail: the fish seemed so hypnotised I thought he must be dead.  Two large bull rays cruised around and then we entered the base of the chimney.  I was second, buddied with the DM.  There were hundreds of large lobsters hiding under rocks and fissures within the pitch darkness of the cave, their eyes reflecting back from the torchlight like rubies; a black cod was hiding in his own little room.  We ascended quickly to the horizontal section; there were plenty of big wobbies and then the awesome sight of large grey nurse sharks cruising at the shallow entrance to the cave, lit up by the light streaming through and accompanied by large schools of bullseyes and pomfred.  Further out from the cave's moth, large kingfish cruised.  The viz here was not very good but the kingfish looked fantastic anyway, each one probably up to a metre long.  We made our way around the corner, gripping onto protuberances in the rock wall to propel ourselves against the current, over the hill towards shark gutter.  In the jumble of rocks that lie scattered on the hills over the shark gutter we saw two small cuttlefish; a green turtle lying still, but not asleep; a beautiful smallish lionfish and I kept getting bitten, mostly by damselfish and then by two clown anemone fish, guarding their anemone: they attacked me vociferously, nipping me on the fingers.  The Grey Nurse sharks were cruising relentlessly in the gutter.  In the relatively poor vis they loom up suddenly from about 15 metres away, seemingly green in colour.  A good dive.

123. Julian Rocks, Byron Bay 13th September 2005
11.13am ; 19 degrees; 49 mins; 15.5max, 9.5 avg; hood.
The viz was disappointing, given the fantastic surface conditions.  DM was Sarah, young Englishwoman and most of the divers were young Swedes.  We seemed to stay very shallow, perhaps due to their inexperience; apparently the other group saw a free-swimming turtle and maybe the rest of my group did too - I was preoccupied with buoyancy issues plus my mask was flooding slightly, which brought back the panic feeling I first got in Thailand in 2002.   A large loggerhead turtle was asleep under a rock (very similar to SWR), and I saw triggerfish and other tropicals such as parrotfish.
We saw a large pod (100-150) of silver grey dolphins on the ride back, plus a humpback whale breaching in the distance.  Later that day we saw lots of humpbacks and a mother and her calf got close to shore, just near the easternmost point – you could see their white underbellies clearly.

122. Hugo’s Trench, Julian Rocks, Byron Bay 10th September 2005
8.18 am; 19 degrees; 55 mins; 20.4max, 12.5 avg; hood.
DM was Kate, a nice lady in her mid-40s, who was doing a PhD thesis on divers’ experiences.  I told her about my fear attack at SWR on the previous Thursday.  The strong northerly wind that had come up the night before had brought gusty on-shore conditions which made Hugo’s the only viable option.  It was a rough ride out.  My buddy was “Snappy”, a brash Aussie, prone to bragging, who said he’d done over 1,000 dives commercially – he also bragged that he used to wrestle grey nurse sharks at Seaworld.  The other guy was an inexperienced Irishman with a strong accent.  We descended via a mooring line, which made EQ easier, though I still had problems; we got to the trench before the horde of beginner divers arrived so were able to appreciate the wobbies and a large school of yellow tailed bream.  There was a large bull ray “climbing” the wall; some small nudibranchs; plenty of rock cods and orange moray eel.  The Irishman had to use Kate’s occy because he was down to 80 bar quickly - she figured he could share with her and that stage of the dive and then use his own reg for the ascent.  I was surprised that Snappy didn’t stay down longer, figuring he’d opt to continue (and maybe show me some sights, given that he seemed to know the place) but he signalled that he was cold.  I used the computer clock to ascertain the safety stop because I was still locked out from the SWR incident which was still less than 48 hours ago.

121. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 3rd September 2005
11.15 am; 19 degrees; 45 mins; 23.8max, hood. (no average because the computer locked me out!)
Same entry point as first dive; less EQ probs; large wobby at cave mouth with something in his side (hook?).  GNS cruised very closely – I was watching a blue groper and then realised a GN was drifting less than a metre above me – would have been a great photo because his close proximity made for good viz; he was a fawny-yellow colour and not huge.  DM John fed a moray and other fish with a sea urchin.  Stacks of GNS in the shark gutter.

120. Fish Rock Cave, Sth West Rocks 8th September 2005
9.05 am; 19 degrees; 61 mins; 26.2max, 17.1 avg; hood.
20-30 min boat ride from the river, over the sandbar (here, you don a lifejacket), along the coast, southeast to Fish Rock.  Saw 2 whales breaching on the trip out.  DM, John all the other divers very experienced with some logging over 1,000 dives.  At least 2 were tech divers and one sold tech dive gear; the other was referred to a having a “lust for rust” meaning he mainly likes wreck diving.  I was buddied with Dm and all descended very quickly after we swam c. 50 meters from the boat.  I had trouble EQing and, as I watched the other divers merge into the blue water ahead, with their bubble trails eerily hanging above them, the FEAR got me without warning – maybe it was lack of visual stimuli couple with EQ problems and being left behind; I thought I was going to have to abort and got gripped by huge doubt (“what are you doing here, you’re a phoney, you’re not a diver, you don’t belong in this environment”, etc.) and acutely conscious of my breathing, convinced I was hyperventilating and going to run out of air quickly, plus the thought of entering a huge, pitch-black cave...).  Just as suddenly, the fear was gone, perhaps the visual stimuli of the rock wall, perhaps the logical thought that I’d blow my dough and look a wimp if I didn’t go through with it, plus I’d obviously be extremely disappointed that I‘d missed out on such an experience as Fish Rock cave.  The cave entrance looked dark, foreboding, narrow and very vertical; we entered and I almost landed on a large sleeping wobby.., We ascended quickly and I had to grab the DM’s fins to try and upright myself to purge my BCD.  On the way up there was a huge bull ray asleep next to another sleeping wobby , thousands of bulls eyes, mados, pomfrets and then we reached the large mouth of the cave, with kingfish and big GNS cruising towards the entrance and back again.  There was variety of sizes in the GNS, up to 3 meters or more but some small ones as well.  The big ones had remora attached and were accompanied by a retinue of little fish.  The GNS look permanently irascible and their colour varies from grey to a fawny yellowish colour – you look up from observing a groper and find a big GNS drifting slowly 1 metre overhead or less!.  The current at the cave’s mouth was intense and we were obliged to grab onto little protrusions in the rock wall and launch ourselves ahead – then current was swirling the sand on the bottom and even the huge GNS seemed to be struggling against its force.  Over the hill and down towards the shark gutter, the hill down is impressive because of the wide variety of life, both animal and vegetable: corals, sponges, kelps, anemones; yellow moray eels, gropers galore, morwongs, rock cods, clown fish, lionfish, and a big loggerhead, fast asleep, wedged under a rock.  Down to the gutter and the GNS keep cruising back and forth.  Then my Deco incident: DM pointed to the 10 on my computer (which I later logically knew was the non-deco time counting down, in other words, I had 10 more minutes at that depth (about 25 metres) before I’d need to do a deco stop.  For some weird reason (perhaps I was narked, perhaps it was that I’d done so many shallow shore dives recently, etc.) I thought he was telling me to do a safety stop at that depth for 10 minutes!  I waited for the 10 min to count down, having fun looking at fish, then ascended when the counter hit zero, got confused when the computer said to go back down, ended up coming up too quickly but didn’t worry too much because the computer wasn’t beeping – of course, it started beeping at the surface and all the other divers, who were on the boat, told me that I could be in trouble – one said that my computer was telling me I was officially dead.  DM said “what am I going to do with you?” given that we were due for another dive in an hour and the computer would lock me out.  No DCI symptoms and the Gekko is very conservative, plus I started my ascent as soon as it hit zero.
Cave map>>

119. Fairy Bower 3rd September 2005
10.49 am; 16 degrees; 63 mins; 7.5max, 5 avg, hood
Pretty good viz but not many fish: 1 PJ; 1 small GC doing lots of colour changing; schools of drummer, yellowtail and trevally; plenty of blue and green wrasse (plus lots of CBW).  I forgot my weight pouches so had to improvise with weight belt and loose weights stuffed into BC – consequently, I was slightly unbalanced.  Also forgot my computer!  Which I didn’t really need, but I was incredulous, especially as I only discovered I’d forgotten it once I was in the water.

118. Shelly Beach 27th August 2005
10.49 am; 18 degrees; 62 mins; 11.6max, 7.9 avg, hood
Best dive ever at Shelly (or rivalled by the time I saw a giant cuttlefish devour a fish).  PJs of all sizes everywhere, sleeping in groups and swimming all over the place; largish wobbegong (maybe 1.5 metres or more); 2 giant cuttlefish (one looked like it was on the way out); moray eel; octopus hiding under rock; small numb ray; large school of small striped catfish; small (baby) rock cods; blue and green gropers.

117. Fairy Bower 20th August 2005
10.35 am; 16 degrees; 44 mins; 7 max, 5.2 avg, hood
Nor’ wester causing a swell to come in and a fair bit of churn, especially on the western side where we were concertinaed back and forth near the rocks.  I felt too buoyant anytime I was above about 4 metres so grabbed a rock every now and then.  Viz was fair considering the conditions, most of the problems with lack of it were due to sand churned up by the swell.  PJs asleep, maybe in the same spot as 2 weeks ago; plenty of schooling yellowtails, sheltering in the little rock valleys; hundreds of bullseyes hiding under rocks and overhangs, mados everywhere plus a nice big blue groper, largish morwongs, Sgt Bakers (usual stuff but no giant cuttlefish or DWs).  An enjoyable dive and it was sort of fun being pushed around by the churn.  Another diver said the temp got as low as 13 degrees but the lowest I noticed was 16 av confirmed by computer).

116. Camp Cove 13th August 2005
10.15 am; 16 degrees; 53 mins; 6.4 max, 4.6 avg, hood
Nice little dive, we went to the “reef” off the beach first but there was not much happening there.  Then over to the eastern side where there are nice rock “bommies” and cliffs with kelp and sponges.  Some big, white nudibranchs; a strange fish “sleeping” on a sponge looked like a baby leatherjacket but wider; an octopus hiding in a hole, wouldn’t come out even with some gentle prodding; schools of small fish, lots of mado, yellowtail, drummer, luderick, etc.  No seahorses in the shallows this time.

115. Fairy Bower 6th August 2005
10.24 am; 17 degrees; 60 mins; 7.6 max, 5.5 avg, hood
Nice easy dive, good for me while I’m still sick.  Rock cod (scorpion fish?); octopus hiding under rock; plenty of PJs and the best bit was 5 of them huddled together in a “cave” on the western sides; blue groper, usual mados, morwongs (a pretty big one hiding in a crevice), bullseyes under ledges and in little caves and assorted wrasse.  No sign of the dusky whalers this time; like wobbies, they may go elsewhere in winter.

114. Harbord 23rd July 2005
10.53 am; 16 degrees; 46 mins; 11.9 max, 8.8 avg, hood
“Interesting” entry via the eastern point - you jump off the rocks when the swell comes in.  I went first – my feet hit the rock shelf below but it was minimal impact.  The next guy was fine too but the one following landed badly and hurt his ankle.  He felt he was OK to proceed.  We descended and almost immediately came across a huge school of large kingfish.  There were hundreds and maybe even a thousand and they moved around and above us.  Then there were schools of yellowtail that looked very small after the kingfish.  3 giant cuttlefishes, one under a rock, DM reckoned she was laying eggs.  Blue groper finally turned up (maybe I should have given him a sea urchin, there are plenty at Harbord unlike Shelly); the dive throughs are good, we went through a really good one and there was another narrower one that I would have liked to try but thought better of it.  Good terrain: lots of crevices and overhangs and little amphitheatres, plus nice sponges and kelp on walls and then kelp and seagrass towards the end.  The exit was the usual way near the swimming pool so we’d swum quite a distance.  The exit was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be and the guy who hurt his ankle sliced his hand quite badly: plenty of blood!

113. South Maroubra beach 16th July 2005
10.31am; 17 degrees; 56 mins; 13.7 max, 8.5 avg, hood
Sou' westerly wind had flattened the surf at the southern end (big waves at the north and lots of surfers there with the off-shore winds).  We entered from the beach into nice seagrass beds with a school of small (15cm) garfish that was being attacked buy a large gull-like bird that dived into the water.  No equalisation problems this time.  Interesting terrain after seagrass and kelp: rocks, boulders, overhangs, crags, etc., but not much fish.  Spotted a large fish that seemed more massive than a blue groper and I figured if he was a groper he’d come over anyway but he swam off (though later we did see a groper who dissed us, don’t know if it’s something to do with the time of year but it’s been ages since I’ve been followed by a friendly groper).  Things were getting a bit dull until DM found a WSD which we were able to observe at very close range.  Later we happened upon a cuttlefish (a juvenile giant cuttlefish I suppose) that put on a great colour display and did the thing with the shimmering bands of colour moving along his body.  We turned around when I as on 150 bar and came across  a very large GCF with his arms fully outstretched in a pose that seemed more supplicant than aggressive (though they have been known to attack).  He’d camouflaged very effectively, mimicking the colur of the kelp and at first I thought DM had found another WSD; eventually he retreated beneath a rock overhang.  I lost the other two divers for a few minutes and couldn’t work out how that could happen so quickly!  The hood seems to restrict your vision though I’m not sure how – it definitely constricts the neck and I was quite uncomfortable for much of the dive.  I felt I was in danger of hyperventilating on the way back but it was probably the exertion of swimming against the current and, as usual, I was over-obsessed with conserving air (I exited with 100 bar).

112. Kurnell – Inscription Point 9th July 2005
11.04 am; 17 degrees; 47 mins; 17.1 max, 11 avg, hood; Slow sign on computer; 100 bar on surface.
Nice dive; slight problem equalising at first (same as Shiprock); fair viz, PJs back for winter, 2 or 3 nice ones glided by, 3-4 WSDs, nice leatherjackets, large schools of yellowtail, bullseyes under rocks, other smaller fish, morwongs, etc.  I would have liked to stay longer at the turnaround point but other divers were down to 100 bar by then.  Nice sponges, dive-throughs and overhangs.

111. Fairy Bower 25th June 2005
10.28 am; 18 degrees; 39 mins; 7.6 max, 5.8 avg, hood
Southerly, showers, bit of a swell coming into FB, high tide.  Plenty of churn and sand cut viz even more.  Not very enjoyable but one diver said he saw a turtle (!), which none of us saw.  Nothing remarkable.

110. Fairy Bower 18th June 2005
10.50 am; 18 degrees; 54 mins; 7.3 max, 5.8 avg, hood
Started off at Harbord where the sou' wester was brutally cold and the swell looked challenging.  A few divers were entering the channel but they got a little pounded by the swell before they made it out.  It looked dodgy and DM Dave decided FB was a better option, especially as the ebbing tide would only make the sand churn worse. 
FB was warm and sheltered and parking wasn’t a problem.  Good dive mainly because the dusky whalers got so close.  I wore the hood and took the torch and my buoyancy seemed OK, though the hood is constrictive and gives me a headache and seems to decrease the field of vision.  Started off with a largish wobby asleep in a large broken pipe; usual schools of yellowtail, drummer and another largish fish green/brown in colour: a few of them grazing on sea grass or kelp (maybe related to drummer which are silver).  Another largish wobby in a pipe and then the DM pointed out the largest of the 3 whalers we ended up seeing swimming away.  I followed until he was obscured by the water (maybe 5-6 metres viz), his tail looks very impressive as he streaks away from you; then 2 smaller DWs passed between Dave, Mel and me on one side and Keith and Paul on the other.  The latter didn’t even realise they were missing this procession, even though they were pretty close and I was trying to get their attention.  The sharks were small but very sleek and streamlined with funny round eyes – they are beautiful creatures.  I would have liked longer but everyone else was getting cold. (100 bar left).

109. Shiprock 11th June 2005
11.17 am; 17 degrees; 47 mins; 14.3 max, 10.1 avg
What a fantastic place - as colourful as a coral reef!  The only down sides were the cold and the 5-7 metre viz but apparently it’s very rare to get better viz than what we got (though Michael McFadyen says otherwise - click here for his description and guide of this dive).  Amazing variety of sponges in thousands of colours and the torch is a must to look into all the little caves and under overhangs and to bring out the colour of the rich red sponges which normally look brown any deeper than 2 metres.  Plenty of fish including some lovely leatherjackets, very interesting rock cods, drummers, morwongs, pineapples, bream, yellowtail and much more.  The whole dive runs parallel to the fantastic wall of sponges and that’s just endlessly fascinating - it’s almost hallucinogenic in the colour range!  This would be a great night dive; whenever it’s done, it can only be done at high tide.   This is a definite must to do again!  I was too heavy, obviously I didn’t account for the extra slightly over 1 pound of weight from the torch -- hood would have compensated and kept out the cold.  I would have preferred longer, having over 100 bar left as would my buddy but DM wanted us back, probably because the exit is very dodgy if not done properly because of all the boats, whose constant noise was distracting.

108. Clovelly Pool 8th June 2005
8.20 pm; 18 degrees; 17 mins; 5.2 max, 3.4 avg
107. Clovelly Pool 4th June 2005
7.44 pm; 19 degrees; 27 mins; 6.7 max, 4.9 avg
Medium swell coming in and at high tide the waves were crashing hard against the breakwater.  The car park was dark and gearing up was more difficult.  I’d forgotten my torch but was able to bludge one from the DM.  The churn was a tad challenging, especially in the shallow water and the swell was scary in the inky blackness and it was difficult to orient oneself in the darkness.  There weren't very many fish about: a couple of leatherjackets came very close, maybe hypnotised by the torchlight.  I enjoyed peering under rocks and at one stage saw a pair of frightened eyes retreating further under cover, maybe a shrimp?  A good experience overall but would have been more fulfilling in deeper water and with calmer conditions, maybe FB if it was similar to last Saturday.

106. Fairy Bower 4th June 2005
11.00 am; 18 degrees; 52 mins; 6.7 max, 5.2 avg.
Went to Harbord first but the swell seemed too exciting for the Harbord entry and exit so we diverted to FB.  Perfect conditions: flat, sunny, though the tide was low which made for quite a shallow dive.  Huge school of yellowtail hanging around the rocks and slowly moving out over the sand; I entered the school and hung with them, getting very close, they stayed very close if I held my breath and they’d move back slightly when I exhaled.  Also big schools of trevally and, under the rocks, hundreds of bullseyes.  A brief encounter with one of the whalers – I chased him across the sand but he outswam me without any difficulty.  Groper(s) followed through the little canyons and chasms in the rocks.  I peeked under many overhangs and contemplated entering tight tunnels but opted for caution because my gear almost certainly would have caught on the edges.  Saw a small school of squid, always appealing, though their speed makes them hard to get close to.  Spent a bit of the time alone, surface at one stage to see where I was: I’d moved a reasonable distance west toward Manly beach but there were no possible problems with the extremely calm conditions.  Surfaced with 130 bar and would have preferred longer but others had gone ashore.

105. Fairy Bower 21st May 2005
10.28 am; 20 degrees; 59 mins; 7 max, 5.5 avg
More sharks than you could poke a stick at! - up to 5 dusky whalers surrounding us.  Great conditions: flat, good viz.  Big schools of yellowtail, bullseyes under rocks, shovel-nosed ray buried in sand with just eyes protruding, blue groper, leatherjackets, morwongs, rock cod.  Surfaced with 100 bar.

104. Camp Cove 14th May 2005
11.15am; 20 degrees; 10 mins; 7 max; 4.9 avg
103. Camp Cove 14th May 2005
10.41am; 20 degrees; 24 mins; 10 max; 7 avg
Perhaps the worst dive so far! Terrible viz and choppy conditions.  DM missed the reef in the middle of the beach so took us to the rocks on the northern end; we surfaced after swimming across endless boring sand (a couple of small rays but mainly broken bottles) and then went down near the rocks.  The churn was pushing us into the rocks and when I checked the depth, we were only at 1.5-2 metres!  I surfaced straight away, swimming away from the rocks.  The 2 beginners had already surfaced and were swimming back to shore; which was difficult with the swell coming at you.  I started going after them (after taking in a little bit of water) but thought I should hang around, seeing as I was DM’s buddy and he might wonder where I was.  I caught sight of shapes in the water right near the rocks and almost thought they were cormorants but I assume they were Liz and her buddy and they looked like they were in a dangerous situation.  Another diver and his buddy surfaced and I told them I was going back; they agreed but decided to swim back underwater and then got lost, heading out into the harbour!  Then I saw Liz and her buddy, he was waving to me and I thought they might be distressed.  I waved to them to swim out away from the rocks.  Eventually, they and the DM appeared and we headed back underwater via the rocks closer to the beach where there were some vaguely interesting swim throughs.  The beginner guys were back on shore, sea sick and complaining that this was there first dive after completing the OW.  I assured them that it couldn’t get any worse than this!  Liz lost her torch and Neverlost map but was still in good spirits.

102. Shelly Beach 7th May 2005
10.32am; 20 degrees; 46 mins; 12.2 max; 7.6 avg
Not a bad dive but my weight was wrong.  I tried 16 lbs – will probably go back to 18 or 20.  Two giant cuttlefish, one in the open and another under rock; largish wobby under rock (asleep as usual); large schools of bullseyes under rocks, looked good; visited the motorbike.

101. Kurnell “The Leap” 30th April 2005
10.41am; 19 degrees; 49 mins; 20.1 max; 9.8 avg
Climb down the rocks (with some steps carved out) and jump in from about 3 metres above!  Full BC, holding fins, reg in, hand on mask, go down a fair bit and then fly up, fins on and then descend to 20 metres.
Up to 6 WSDs, schools of yellowtail and little yellow and black striped fishes, octopus (I couldn’t get DM to stop but my buddy stopped, then we almost lost the other two up ahead but eventually found their bubbles.
Viz good to fair; plenty of wrasse including the obligatory blue gropers; lots of spindly, octopus type creatures under rocks.  Not a great deal of fauna but interesting landscape with large boulders and overhangs and canyons.  We swam from the leap to Inscription Point, coming out at the spot where I first went in at Kurnell a while back.  Nice dive.

100. Bare Island 23rd April 2005
10.55am; 20 degrees; 50 mins; 10.4 max; 8.2 avg
100th dive!  Relaxing – nothing special.  One weedy sea dragon; usual blue gropers, other wrasses, nudis, etc.  headed east and then south, through sponge gardens and kelp beds.

99. Bare Island 9th April 2005
10.13am; 20 degrees; 51 mins; 17.9 max; 10.7avg
Patrick and I circumnavigated the island from the rocks north east of the bridge to the usual entry point south west of the bridge: 52 minutes of steady and sometimes difficult swimming because of the current.  Came up with 50 bar.  Viz was poor and not much interesting sea life except for a white (albino) groper, little white nudibranch, cluster of largish morwong and a large school of tiny fish surrounding us.

98. Harbord 2nd April 2005
10.44am; 21 degrees; 64 mins; 10.7 max; 7.6 avg
Rougher than it looked at first – plenty of churn underneath, pushing us back and forth, viz was badly affected by all the sand.  Great landscape and fun to go through dive-throughs and in the narrow passages between walls.  We were followed by the usual big blue groper who came extremely close, trying to persuade me to give him a sea urchin.  Saw a couple of small rays in the sand and a large blue-ringed octopus right at the very end of the dive.  I used about 20 bar trying to get back in – slightly hairy!

97. Julian Rocks – The Nursery 28th March 2005
11.00am; 24 degrees; 54 mins; 18.6 max; 11.6 avg
Less viz than early morning: maybe as low as 10 metres or even less at some times, other times maybe 15-20.!
Heavy going with the drift and I ended up dehydrated because I didn’t drink enough between dives; had a bad headache and felt very nauseated at surface but OK after drink.
Large bull ray; leopard sharks; moray eels; lionfish; sweetlips(?) – big cod or groper-like fish with huge fat bottom lips, turtle above; plenty of wobbies, one cruised briefly; garfish/pipefish/flutefish (check), brown and maybe 30 cms. 
Black coral(?), big starfishes.
Same buddy and DM as yesterday: May and ?
2 other inexperienced guys –one lasted about 20 mins the other maybe 40 -- they flapped around a lot, using their hands almost as much as their fins.

96. Julian Rocks – The Cod Hole 28th March 2005
8.02am; 24 degrees; 44 mins; 19.8 max; 13.7 avg
Probably best viz ever!  25-30 metres.  Another drift dive. As we approached the cod-hole entrance 3-4 gigantic Queensland groper (or potato cod?) emerged; meanwhile leopard shark cruising below and large eagle ray flying above –overwhelming!!!.  Smaller turtle cruising near the surf at the rocks.  Landscape very dramatic and beautiful. 
Blue Groper being cleaned by Cleaner Wrasse – the groper lay on its side while the wrasse went into its gills.  Rod cods (scorpion fish?)
Small orang-y moray eel; clown anemone fish (didn’t know they were this far south).  Sweetlips(?)
Nearly lost buddy – she went to the surface when the DM sent the other 2 guys up.  I didn’t notice until DM pointed out!  Then she descended and all was OK.

95. Julian Rocks– The Nursery 27th March 2005
8.03am; 24 degrees; 57 mins; 18 max; 11.3 avg
Great viz: maybe 20 metres.  Drift dive – moving pretty fast.
Leopard shark glided close by; large kingfish; snappers; spotted rays; massive turtle, up to 2 metres (DM said he’d be at least 100 years old) turning rocks over in a valley full of wobbegongs, plus hundreds of gropers and other fish attracted by the rock-turning.
Parrotfish(?); lionfish 
Overtime (DM got into trouble!) – JR crew want you at the surface at 50 mins.  Still 60-70 bar.

94. Shelly Beach 19th March 2005
10.21am; 21 degrees; 64 mins; 7.9 max; 5.8 avg.
Poor viz after turning the corner; DM Peter plus 2 others (Pommies); nice big Giant Cuttlefish hiding under rock; had a bit of fun feeding grubs to the gropers.

93. Harbord 12th March 2005
10.39am; 22 degrees; 58 mins; 11 max; 7av.
Plenty of churn, back and forth from the swell made fairly heavy going.  Couple of rays; cuttlefish emerged from under a rock ledge after I turned over a small rock and grabbed a fish using a long, straw-like appendage from its mouth (amazing sight!).
Later saw the dusky whaler below me while I was snorkelling at Fairy Bower – he was about 2-3 metres away!

92. Fairy Bower 5th March 2005
10.16am; 23 degrees; 59mins; 7max; 5.2 avg.
Nice dive, giant cuttlefish (4), one in the open camouflaged as seaweed; glimpse of the dusky whaler pup.

91. Gordons Bay 26th February 2005
10.54am; 22 degrees; 69mins; 13.1 max; 9.8 avg.
Good dive despite confusion at the end when it was just me and buddy and two others.  We should have surfaced after a minute but no-one did.  Liz suddenly revealed that she had almost run out of air so Phil rushed back with her.  An estuarine catfish or two but not much else of note.

90. Fairy Bower 19th February 2005
10.51am; 21 degrees; 68mins; 7.9max; 5.5 avg.
Lost buddy (Roger?) – embarrassing!

89. Harbord 12th February 2005
2. 11.36am; 21 degrees; 34 mins; 9.5 max; 6.4 avg.
88. Harbord 12th February 2005
10.37am; 21 degrees; 54mins; 11.6 max; 8.2 av 21
Good dive(s)!  Tunnel, swim throughs, etc.  Great landscape and good viz; almost 90 minutes underwater!  Second dive with Patrick after sending Liz back to shore (she had some difficulty getting back!)

87. Shelly beach 5th February 2005
10.56am; 18 degrees; 49 mins; 12.2 max; 7.6 avg. (“slow” on computer)
WSD; some Wobbies; Bloody cold for this time of year! Tsunami guy: Rick, Australian, arrived at Patong on Xmas day 2004, booked a room on the beach at Patong.  The wave came in and he was pinned down, thought he was going to die.

86. Kurnell 30th January 2005
11.27am; 21 degrees; 15mins; 7.3 max; 5.2 avg
Worst viz ever.  Buddy Tim the Pommy. Crap dive.

85. Bare Island 29th January 2005
10.57 am; 19 degrees; 15.5 max; 10.7 avg (“slow” on computer)
Terrible viz; water temp went down to 19 deg though the viz was marginally better in the cold water; buddy Belinda; we lost the others just before the end but came up in a good spot (I came up a bit too quickly). I still had about 100 bar though Patrick thought I should have had about 80 seeing as he had 90.  Return of madman Englishman!  White nudibranch, cat-shark (?), blue wrasse, that’s about it.

84. Bare Island 22nd January 2005
10.52 – 20 degrees – 61 mins / 11.9 max / 9.1 avg -
Bad viz again; nice water temp, fairly strong swell we had to work against on way back.  My buddy, Belinda, ran out of air just before we would have surfaced anyway so we surfaced a bit earlier.  I still had about 100 bar (tank had been filled to almost 250 bar) but didn’t check B’s reading, as I should have!
Large rock cod (scorpionfish), PJ, WSD, blue wrasse all the way.

83. Bare Island 15th January 2005
10.31 / 18 degrees / 54 mins / 18.6 max / 10.7 avg / 
DM Dave with a large group but Patrick and Mel and her brother and friend and I split off.
Western side of BI (“The Wall”) Poor viz and M’s bf ‘s tank kept coming off, they aborted earlier.  Got quite cold without hood.  Patrick saw a moray eel; impressive sponge gardens and dive troughs, walls, overhangs, etc. 

82. Shelley beach 8th January 2005
10.38 48min  / 21 deg / 11.6 max / 7.6 avg /
viz 10 – 15 DM Patrick, buddy Tim, 3 or 4 wobbies; another shark (cat-shark?) with 2 babies – 1.5 metres and 0.5 metres.  Small giant cuttlefish; largish octopus under rock; weedy sea dragon 20 – 30 cms; leatherjackets; drummers; blackfish; blue wrasse; cardinal wrasse; Sgt Bakers.

81. Fairy Bower 18th December 2004
10.35 a.m. 66 min / 6.7 max / avg 4.9 / 20 deg / Viz c.10-15m
Good dive except buddy didn’t stay close plus grabbed a wobby’s tail.  Relaxing, water warm, no hood.  Could have gone for another 30 min at least (100 bar on surface).
Dave said he saw a dusky whaler; plenty of wobbies after not seeing them all through winter (migratory?).  Nice stingray swimming ahead of us; white nudibranch; stonefish c. 30 cm; largish morwongs; drummer feeding at seagrass; schools of squid; blue wrasse.
Second part of dive I was alone and saw 2 large wobbies (c. 1.8 metres, almost the same size as me).  Previously a largish wobby swam close to me before settling down on a rock.  Liz's first dive with Dive 2000.

80. Bare Island 11 December 2004 
27min 12.2 max 9.1 avg / 17 deg / viz 5-6 m
Bad dive, the other guy had equipment failure (BC kept inflating; he had 20 bar at surface, I had 130!).  Poor viz due to heavy rain; treated sewage in water?  One blue wrasse.  Southern end of island, long walk to entry!

79. Bare island 4 December 2004
19 degrees / 60 minutes / 11.7 m max / avg 9.5 / Viz 10-12 m
DM Patrick – Patrick, Phil and I decided to go off as a trio because the group was so large.
Very calm conditions; N/E wind so headland sheltered us, no chop, no tidal current, good viz, very relaxing, no problems.
Stayed on the eastern side of BI, entered north-east of the bridge.  Sponge gardens are very nice: lots of colours – orange, purple, yellow, nice dive-throughs, large sections of sea weed where WSDs flourish.  Found a giant cuttlefish under a rock ledge; Patrick fed the blue wrasse a sea urchin, some other, smaller wrasse got in on the action; largish yellow-green leatherjacket; 3 Weedy Sea Dragons.  First one was c 30 cms (Patrick held his hand up against it and it extended from his fingers to past his wrist).  Second WSD was a large male, perhaps as much as 45 cms; his lower half was covered in eggs; smaller one later.  Usual morwongs, old wives, catfish, etc.  Very relaxing dive with 2 other good divers.  One hour under and still 75 bar.

78. Kurnell – Inscription Point 27 November 2004
11 am / 15.5 max  - avg 10.7 / 43 mins / 18 degrees / Viz 8m; DM + 7 other divers
Strong outgoing tidal current pushed us along quickly.  I had slight problems with equalising, probably descended a little too fast.
WSD; missed a large bull ray (maybe same one as my first dive at Kurnell); leatherjackets; large schools of small catfish and some other small yellow fish (bullseyes?). 
Nice landscape of rocks and overhangs; beautiful sponge gardens, bright orange, light purple, bright yellow; Julie saw some nudibranchs but missed a large school of 30cm blackfish(?) swimming past very quickly.
DM turned dive around at 20 minutes because of strong current.  Difficult getting back; I had trouble with my breathing – had the impression I wasn’t getting enough air with each breath, then worried I might hyperventilate.  Tried to relax but had nagging feeling that we were in trouble because of the current.  Poor viz adds to those fears.  Patrick and buddy aborted earlier, latter must have run low on air.  In spite of my worries about using too much I had 100 bar at end of dive (45 mins); I was surprised that buddy, who is very skinny, only had 80 bar.  Patrick had “half a tank” which was either 110 or 100 bar.  The outgoing tide was a problem; obviously the best time is at high tide or either side of high tide. In coming tide may have been okay to drift back to picnic area.  Difficult entry, long walk down narrow, steep stairs, fully geared-up and then entry via a gutter with a bit of a swell making it slightly hard; same with getting out, some difficulty in getting out of the water and then the steep walk, very taxing even for me with all my bushwalking training; would be terrible for an older person!

77. Fairy Bower 20 November 2004
10.24 am / 7m max – 61 mins / 20 degrees / avg 5.5 m / Viz c 5 m; DM Jean-Paul – no other divers 60 mins 20 degrees
Eagle ray c. 90 cms across
2 white nudibranchs with patterns, c 2-3 cms
Many stingrays in the sand.  Yellow catfish had dug a sand hole; Sgt bakers, not many fish until near the end of the dive (45 mins) I saw the body of a yellow-brown moray eel c 40 cms long.  He went under a rock with his head poking out.  I showed DM who got a sea-urchin.  This attracted a mob of fish including large blue groper (wrasse) and several green ones plus a 25 cm bright green fish almost tropical; all wanted the urchin and the blue groper started lunging at it while JP was trying to cut it open.  Moray got very interested and a fight nearly broke out with the moray seeming to lunge at the groper.  Ended up with colourful fish everywhere!

76. Bare Island 13 November 2004
11 am / Viz 5 – 8 m  60 min 15 – 18 degrees
Challenging dive – very bad viz at beginning / we lost the other 3 very quickly and Phil was swimming very quickly.  Then he slowed down almost to a complete halt to take photos.  Very nice rock formations; overhangs with lots of flora; large school, of small drummer (15 cm max); leatherjacket, purple with yellow eyes – allowed me very close; Phil found seahorse maybe up to 8 cms long with tail in a little depression in a rock.  Nearby was a tiny purple nudibranch, less than 1 cm.
Nice amphitheatres and rocks with colourful sponges (yellow, red, orange, purple).  Phil went back wrong way (seemed to be heading west!) but surfaced and came back pointing for us to go in another direction.  Fairly gruelling dive, 70 bar on surface after 1 hour; splitting headache, thought might be dehydration but maybe just the hood.  Weird woman had caused dive for the others to be aborted after about 10 mins so they were both envious of our dive!

75. Harbord 6 November 2004
10.59 18 degrees / 34 mins
Blue groper, we lost Derek after 15 mins.
Nice rocks and amphitheatres.

74. Fairy Bower 30/10/04
10.34 am 44 mins / 7.3 max / 18 degrees / avg 5.8
Poor viz; nice relaxing dive.

73. Bare island 16/10/04
12.02pm / 11.9 max / 17 degrees / 38 mins / avg 7.3 /
Bad viz, lost everyone except Mel.

72. Fairlight 10/10/04
3.09 pm / 5.8 max / 19 degrees / 6 mins! Up too fast! Av 4.6
4.09 pm
Not good at all.  We entered on the western end, near where we could get parking and made our way east but quickly got