On Labour Day weekend the club took Chromodoris down to Augusta for some top quality Southern Ocean diving.
We had 15 club members come along, staying at the fantastic Sheoak Chalets about a 3 minute drive from Augusta town Centre – the accommodation was up the hill with sweeping views from the balcony down across a couple of paddocks, over the forest and out towards the inlet.
Most folks arrived on Friday afternoon/evening at various times and we headed down to the Colourpatch Fish and Chip shop for dinner; we sat out on the picnic tables taking in the view across the inlet on a beautiful tranquil evening although we were a bit worried for the diving next day from looking at the forecast of 3-4m swell and a fairly strong breeze.
We got underway early the following morning, with the breakfast chefs making bacon and egg rolls for the divers who left at 6.30am. We launched Doris at the new Augusta boat harbour and had ropes off by 7.15, with the first group heading out for a double dive. Our worries about the conditions turned out to be unfounded; the swell and wind were both coming from the Southwest so Flinders Bay was pretty well protected behind a chain of small islands and reefs where the waves were breaking.
Volker anchored us on top of a good sized bommie, rising to around 14m from the surrounding sea floor of around 20m. After almost 4 mins in the water a TURTLE swam past me looking very lost – a bit of an unusual find for the colder waters around Augusta. I did try to take photos of him, which is when I realised my memory card was still in my laptop so you’ll just have to take my word for it! The vis was really decent, 10-12m, and there was heaps of plate corals, wrasse, foxfish, bullseye, dusky morwong, old wives, butterfly fish and others. It took around 10 mins to do a lap of the bommie so we got a few laps in and explored some of the surrounding area too.
The second dive involved a swim along a longer, ridge-like reef. Plenty more fish life here, including some friendly big blue groper. These giant wrasse are mostly females who are a green colour, with a small number of cobalt blue males. When a male dies, one of the older females will become a blue male and take his place. They’re quite inquisitive and a couple came pretty close to check us out. There were also a few big crayfish around, but nobody had brought any catching gear out on the boat.
We returned to the harbour before lunchtime and swapped with the second group who went back out to dive the same spots we’d visited. Meanwhile some excellent naps were had back at the accommodation following tank fills at Augusta X-treme Outdoor. After everyone was back in and showered we headed to the Augusta Hotel for dinner and a beer or two.
Sunday morning we swapped the dive order so we got a sleep-in, then headed to down for a spot of brekkie. The Augusta River Festival was on that day so we checked out the stalls down on the esplanade; there was some good stuff going on in terms of sustainability and marine environmental things and just a general nice vibe. They even had alpacas.
Diving in the afternoon was just as good as yesterday – the wind had dropped off and the swell had eased a little making the conditions out on the water pretty decent. We visited another couple of bommies that had more fantastic coral and great wildlife. This time we spotted large cuttlefish, octopus, a big bull ray, heaps of blue devils, nudibranchs, an enormous port Jackson, lion fish and one large crevice chock full of decent sized crayfish. While we were out on the boat in the afternoon, the others headed over to Hamelin Bay for a bit of a snorkel with the stingrays and some chilled beach time.
After the diving was done for the day Gemma and Clare cooked up a storm with a massive spag bol to feed the troops and we sat around with a few beers into the evening.
Thanks everyone for making it a great weekend – particularly to Volker who skippered for the whole weekend and found us some excellent dive sites! Cheers also to all the breakfast and dinner chefs, washer-uppers, bakery runners etc etc. Looking forward to the next one already!