As per Australia Day tradition the club spent the long weekend down in Dunsborough diving the HMAS Swan. We got fifteen club members down to dive which was great, plus a couple of WAGs, and baby Joel who will soon be doing his tec training now that his old man is moving onto rebreathers and has a surplus twinset.
In a contrast to last trip, we had no mechanical failures on the boat/trailer/truck so thanks to those who picked those up last time and sorted them out to give us a smooth run!
One of the blennies on the crowsnest
Cuttlefish
We beat the traffic down from Perth on Aus Day morning to find glassy seas and a lovely first dive at 10 am from the Quindalup boat ramp. Most of the usual HMAS Swan suspects were in attendance - the big wobbegong under the stern, clouds of bullseye, blue devils, foxfish, dhufish, boarfish, porcupines and of course those ridiculous looking blennies in all the holes on the crows nest. No sign of the batfish who normally hang round the tower though. Chromodoris made another 2 trips that day, the vis wasn't too bad (~15 m) and the ocean stayed nice and flat, then it was back to the Beachouse YHA for pizza and one or two shandies.
Big wobbie!
Brian stalks the passages of the Swan
There were a couple of sore heads on the 7 am dive, but at least we had time for some bacon and egg rolls first thanks to Matt and Wilson the breakfast chefs. Launching the boat at Quindalup proved a bit of an issue due to an extra low tide, so we ended up driving to the old Dunsborough boat ramp and putting in there - it added a couple of logistics with cars but proved a nice quick run out to the wreck. Vis wasn't quite as good as yesterday and stayed at less than 10 m for most of the day but at least the batfish were back and the passages inside the wreck were mostly silt-free! The rebreather and tec crew got a 2-hour extended session in for dive 3. Friday night dinner was at the Dunsborough Tavern.
Duy's homemade Aus Day tanks
Chromodoris waits for divers
Four more dives on Saturday, this time all running from the old Dunsborough ramp - it worked pretty well, keeping us ahead of schedule even though there were queues to get moored onto the busy jetty at times. Unfortunately Phill lost the second stage from his bailout tank on one of the morning dives, however Alistair managed to find it a couple of dives later on the outer deck - what a guy! There was definitely mention of a reward although this has yet to materialize 😉
Ash also ran an SDI Deep Dive course for Pawna and Alistair over the weekend, with the dives done on the last day - a nice chance to learn some new skills and an introduction to using bailout bottles etc. During the second dive Ash very narrowly avoided getting stingray spine in the backside from a very p*ssed-off looking little stingray who had been hiding in the sand on the seafloor below him, but thankfully it's stinger-waving was all show and it left us alone!
Wilson in the bridge
Ash's stingray
The traditional Saturday night BBQ at the hostel saw homemade burgers and a mountain of sausages, good job chefs! Kamila is second only to Jesus when it comes to feeding hungry mobs...
Big thanks to everyone who chipped in over the weekend to make everything run smoothly; chefs, boat-sitters, tank fillers, reg-finders etc. Massive thanks to Simon who skippered every single one of the 11 runs out to the Swan over the 3 days diving and got everyone there and back safely! And hats off to Kamila and Ash for organising food/accomodation/rosters/dive permits/absolutely everything - great job guys, much appreciated.
Duy + Batfish
Bullseye under the stern