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Dive Report: 22 - 26/04/98

North Coast Safari


Diver: Scott Leimroth.

During five days over the Anzac weekend I travelled to South West Rocks and Seal Rocks and enjoyed some of the best diving on the N.S.W. North Coast.

My trip began at the Fish Rock Dive Centre run by Chris Farley at South West Rocks. I arrived Wednesday evening and was impressed by the comfortable accommodation, their 'divers haven' can sleep up to 16 comfortably and has a large heated pool and BBQ/entertainment area out the back. While I was there the 5 staff were all working hard refurbishing the dive shop which has a large salt water fish tank and lots of new equipment on display.

Chris had just taken delivery of 5 brand new Apollo scooters which are available for 'scooter safaris' on the dives. Over two days I dived Fish Rock, including 'fish bommies' and the cave, and also did two 'scooter safaris' at 'boat reef'. With my rebreather it was great to get up close to all the sealife which included turtles, colourful and freindly eels, eagle rays and a huge variety of fish. 'Fish bommies' was inhabited by literally swarms of fish and the entrance to the cave had a resident turtle. Ian the divemaster has logged over a thousand dives at the Rock and many of the resident fish, eels and turtles actually make a b-line for him for a scratch under the neck or a feed. The 25m vis we had was 'pretty average for here' I was told and it quite regularly gets 40m plus. The clear water was welcomed by all the divers who, besides me from Sydney, all came from Victoria and South Australia.

The 'scooter safaris' at Boat Reef were excellent. I had never used a scooter before but the Apollos are easy to use and I was amazed at the ground we could cover. It was great fun zooming around with four other divers in clear blue water. We saw turtles, a 7 ft shovel nosed shark, eagle rays, and we even scootered amongst a large school of Bonito. The fish didn't appear too concerned by the scooters, they probably thought we were just big pelagics cruising by.

The accommodation and service at Fish Rock Dive was excellent, with all the staff being really keen divers and eager to help with anything you need. Kaz has done a great job painting the whole dive centre, even her poor old car didn't escape the artists brush and it sits out the front of the dive centre painted totally blue. After two days of great diving I didn't want to leave but I had to meet some friends at Seal Rocks for two more days diving. I'm eager to get back to the 'divers haven' at Fish Rock Dive for at least a week next time as the diving was so good.

I reluctantly packed my car on Friday afternoon and headed for my accommodation at Bungwahl near Seal Rocks. John Black, who organised the trip, Peter Gubb and Ian Martin, arrived later that evening. The wind was howling and it was raining. Incredibly, as is often the case with the changeable weather at Seal Rocks, the next morning we awoke to clear blue skies and not a breath of wind. We headed for the beach for our first dive on the Catterthun. At the beach there were lots of other divers including some groups diving with Action Divers from Toncurry, and a large group from 'No Frills Divers' in Sydney(who dived the Catterthun with NO BC and single tanks).

Over the weekend we managed to dive the wrecks of the Catterthun and Satara and also dived a nice reef near the Satara. The dive on the Catterthun was eventful as usual. A huge current was running and it took me 8 mins to get to 30m! By the time I got to the bottom I was knackered. The rebreather worked fine and with Heliox as a diluent there was no narcosis, but I was so out of breath from the descent and the vis on the wreck was poor I decided to ascend.

Later that day we went out to dive the Satara. The sea here was quite calm and there was no current at all. When we got to the bottom we were on a reef in 43m which had lots of colourful sponges, some black coral trees and some small shovel nosed rays and cat sharks. We spent 20 mins looking for the wreck as we explored the reef. When we got back on board the boat we decided to check the marks and try to get the wreck again. We wanted to be sure we could get it tomorrow morning as there was no current here and the vis was 25m plus. As the sun was setting Ian and I were sent down to bounce the wreck and confirm the marks. This time we were anchored only 6 ft off the stern. We spent only 5 mins on the wreck as it was right on dusk and we weren't keen to deco in the dark in this sharky water. As we ascended we could see the others in the boat waving at us from 25m and the brilliant sunset colours of the clouds looked amazing from under the water. To cap off a great day a pod of dolphins swam past as we got into the boat.

The next day we headed for the Satara, a howling South East wind had blown up. We did a 30 min dive but the vis had dropped to about 15m overnight. The Satara is a great wreck and any diver would be impressed by its size. With its large boilers amidships and stern section and prop sitting upright on reef it is most impressive when swimming a few metres above and just taking in the view. With a strong wind it is important to watch your depth on deco. When the anchor is pulled the boat takes off and tends to pull you to the surface. The wind was so strong that by the time we completed our deco it had carried us almost to Little Seal Rock. We headed back to the beach for the usual exhilarating beach landing ie. gun the boat and hang on as it hits the sand.

After five days I was all dived out and headed home to rest. I was happy with the performance of my rebreather as this was the first time I had taken it away and done multiple dives with it. It certainly saved me the trip to Forster between dives to get air. I used only the equivalent of 150bar from an 88cft tank over the two days of diving.

The only problem I found was with condensation build up after a few days of repetitive diving. Because of the rugged setting and situation where I dived it wasnt practical to 'air' the scrubber after each dive and eventually the moisture built up. On the last dive of two days of diving I was getting a chalky taste from the Dragersorb and bailed to OC as a precaution when it seemed to get worse in the final 10 mins of the dive. It was probably fine and just psychosomatic but I decided to take rebreather option no1 and bail. I dived the unit SC when I first tasted it but when it didnt go away I went to OC.

On inspection ( a few hours after the dive) the scrubber was quite damp as usual and I figure that the absorbent had been copping this for 2 days straight without a chance to dry out. Next time I'll change absorbent each day if im doing 3 dives and can't air it between dives.

The scrubber worked fine in huge currents (big workloads) even on the Catterthuin dive. The high workload of these dives probably also created more moisture than usual. On one dive to 60m the current was so strong it took me 8 mins to get to 30m. At one stage I was shocked to find my sensors read .10!! Luckily I had been checking them regularly, but hadn't anticipated how such a huge workload would effect my O2 consumption. With only 25hrs on breathers I think i agree with Rich that there is a dangerzone of complacency. If I hadnt been checking regularly I'd be dead. Next time I'll be checking even more regularly ;)

The OC bailout I took along created more drag than if I hadnt taken it, but then I wouldnt have had sufficient gas for bailout of a long dive. By the time I got to the bottom I was stuffed. One of the OC divers bailed before he got to the bottom. It was dirty on the wreck and I was so out of breath I went straight back up. Getting back into the small fishing boat in a huge current was a nightmare too. (No ladder and high sides)

The area we dived was one of the most rugged and inhospitable parts of the coast with beach launces through surf, lots of sand from the beach and smelly fish bits from the boat all over the gear, and very uncomfortable weather conditions with currents and strong winds and rough seas. Warming up the loop pre-dive on a small rocking fishing boat was an experience. The breather worked quite well, using heliox for the deep stuff was excellent, and I learnt heaps from the experience.

The diving had been fantastic as usual. These areas of the North Coast of New South Wales have some of the best diving in Australia and I would recommend them to any diver looking for something a little different.

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