Club deep dive. Was supposed to be Tuggerah but winds started getting strong so we decided to dive deep reef. Huge seas, some 4+m, but safe. Viz not too bad on way down but at the bottom jellyfish! And more jellyfish! Viz was about a metre, but if you had a gap, perahps 10 m. Went along the wall using reel. At end, anchor moved and had trouble refinding Gary and it till he shone his torch. An interesting dive! Visibility very shithouse.

4 November 2012 - Minmi Trench
Club BBQ and boat dive day, 5 boats, almost 40 divers. Seas dropped dramatically from yesterday, but still 2 m. I did the second run. Lots of "whale snot" on bottom reducing visibility. Saw 1 sea dragon, a few six-spined leatherjackets and PJs. Kelly on first dive found 3 PPHs and some saw 2 blue devilfish. Reasonable dive, great day. Visibility fair.

7 November 2012 - Barrens Hut/The Split
Club boat dive. Conditions a lot better than expected, seas almost flat and no wind. However, current from N. When first lot went in only slight, but by the time we surfaced, very strong, taking 12 m deco line to about 5 m! Had to cut short safety stop. Anyway, very nice dive. Found a large donut (rose-ringed) nembrotha in the same place as normal. Not as many bastard trumpeters around. Visibility good.

8 November 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall
Club night dive. Started to rain as we walked to site, but seas flat. Went off W point and SW to wall. Dirty above about 16 m but 10 m viz below that. Found 2 PPH near start. Then a RIF and 3 more RIF on RIF Reef. Lots of orange spiked nudies, a large squid and a smaller one, some octopus, a few moderate flathead. Also about 6 large pleurobranch near caves. Cold on bottom but warmer shallower. Visibility poor to good depending on where you were.

10 November 2012 - Inscription Point
Cancelled another boat dive due to weather, so came here. Outgoing tide but absolutely no current. Very flat here, but seas very rough outside. Found two of the patchwork tritonia nudis that look like soft corals and a sea horse. Some saw a tiny sea dragon. Nice easy dive. Visibility fair.

14 November 2012 - Osborne Shoals
First dive here for a while. Quite sloppy on top and overcast with partial solar eclipse making it very dark. Saw lots of silver sweep and some yellowtail. One large and two small cuttlefish, one blue devilfish and a few blue gropers. Nice easy dive, unlike last week. Visibility fair.

15 November 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall Drift
Club night dive, 9 members. What a dive! Despite the presence of 2 great white sharks, a tiger shark and a bull shark eating a whale carcass less than 1.5 km away on the other side of Botany Bay, we still dived. Went of SE corner and S and W to Deep Wall. Quite strong incoming current here. A few RIF seen at start. Viz was great out here. Lots of nudis, a large crayfish, a few squid and one sea horse. N of bubbles I found 3 PPHs where last week I found 2. Then Kelly found another 2 on the same rock. Further on Kelly found 2 more. A bit dirtier shallower. I got attacked by a large squid that bashed into my arm and head and then inked me! More PPHs seen. A total of at least 11 on the dive. More squid, including one 10 mm long. Blue devil fish, flathead and more. So much to see. Brilliant dive, one of the best we have ever done here. Visibility good.

21 November 2012 - Shiprock
Did not do boat dive today as seas forecast to be too big. Did afternoon dive instead, 6 attended. Very dirty but warm (19.5C). All the usual things, a few more nudis than recently, lots of octopus and a few moray eels. Saw 4 pinepplefish S of Bubble Cave and 3 more at N end. Easy dive. Visibility very poor.

24 November 2012 - Barrens Hut/The Split
Club boat dive, 3 boats and 11 divers. Flat seas, bluish water and no current. Anchored in Split and did the normal route. Kelly found a PPH but there were no donut nembrothras. Went thru The Tunnel and back near The Cave there was a medium sized bullray. Not as many bastard trumpeters as usual. Excellent dive. Visibility very good.

25 November 2012 - SS Tuggerah
Club deep dive. After yesterday's flat seas and great conditions, we were hopeful. Finally, an excellent day, same as yesterday. Anchored first go on steering gear. Slight current on way down, warm (19.5C) up top but 14.5C on bottom. Went around prop and forward to bow. Not as many fish as normal, but a few bailer shells. Back to boiler. The metal which used to be on the northern side of the boiler (in reality on the top of it) has moved out and you can now swim between it and the boiler. The boiler has also rolled a tiny bit in this direction and is no longer resting against its base. Back to anchor and up. Excellent dive, best here for a long time. Visibility very good.

29 November 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall Drift
Club night dive, 9 present. Did the same dive as the last couple, not as strong a current. Kelly saw 8 PPHs (I only saw 5). A few RIF, lots of small squid, a firefish, some saw an angelshark, a few large prawns. Viz not so good shallow. Did not find body of the spearo who died here last Sunday week. Kelly had very bad cramps at end and I had to tow her to shore. Visibility very good.

1 December 2012 - SS Myola
Went out with Peter Fields. Very clean and warm (20C+) on top and slight current from N. At 20 m very dirty till 24 m and then clean again. However, very cold at 14.4C. Anchored on W boiler. Went to engine and prop and to other boiler and then forward of W boiler. Back to engine area and then up. 17 mins on bottom. Great dive. Visibility good.

2 December 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall
Club Xmas party. Went off W point, a bit rough but not too bad. Very clean on bottom but cold, 15.8C. Drifted back in but hardly any current. Found 7 PPH, including one about 5 mm long. One RIF, the same one seen Thursday night on RIF Reef. Paul W saw an angelshark and a fiddler-ray. Much warmer shallower but dirty. Visibility very good.

5 December 2012 - Pizza Reef
Club boat dive. Slight W wind when we got there and reasonable swell. However, wind picked up to over 25 kts. Lots of jellyfish, in spots only 3 m viz. Elsewhere, probably 7 m. Bastard trumpeters and seapike as normal. Saw a seal before we went in, but not underwater. Saw a blue devilfish. Not a great dive. Visibility fair to poor.

No wind at all, no current and calm. However, site covered in foam. Very dark on bottom but reasonable viz. Went along Split to N. When we exited to sand millions of jellyfish made the viz only 2-3 m. Cleared about 50 m S. Went to cave and then back. All the normal fish, but no donut nembrothas again. Visibility fair.

Club boat dive. S forecast for sometime this morning. I figure we need to go close to port and not north, so we dive here. Calm and little wind when we anchor. Dirty top but clean bottom. Lots of fish. A few minutes after getting back on the boat S hit, but only 8 kts at first. Then strong. By the time last group up it was 35+ kts. Very hairy trip back, even inside. Glad to be back on land. Visibility very good.

Cancelled boat dive last night as winds were still over 30 kts but it then dropped overnight. We dived here instead. Best viz for ages, at least 15 m. Saw horned shark, wobbegong shark, a few octopus and moray eels, 6 pineapplefish, frogfish, lots of yellowtail and seapike. So nice to dive here when viz is this good. Visibility very good.

13 December 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall
Club night dive. Went off W point and SW. Slight incoming current. Very clean water and warm, over 19C. Found 3 PPH near RIF Reef, one RIF there, 2 more PPH near cave, a lot of flathead, some squid, a horned shark on IR1. Lots more sand between IR1 and main reef, almost like it was 10 years ago. Very nice dive. Visibility good.

15 December 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall Drift
Club dive. Went off SE corner. Very high tide but the incoming tide was not super strong. Saw about 9 PPH between Kelly and me, 2 RIF. Lots of other things, including a horned shark, eagle ray, bullray  and more. Water about 3.5C colder than Thursday night but very clean again. Visibility very good.

15 December 2012 - Bare Island Isolated Reefs
My 3,400th dive. Second Club dive. Went of W point to IR but now outgoing tide took us a bit off direction. Ended up on 15 m Reef. Then along inside of IR1 and then IR2. A few PPH, no RIF. At the end of IR2 there are huge changes, with enormous boulders moved off the top of the reef to the sand and ones from the main wall pushed out. Looks totally different. Another great dive, viz still good deep. Visibility good.

Click here to see details of dives including profiles.

For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here