After months of no diving in Sydney, courtesy of La Niña induced flooding and near zero vis, Sharon and I finally managed to get back into the water. As per usual, we met the Frog Dive crew at the Mosman Rowing Club just after 7am, and kitted up in the carpark while getting to know our fellow divers for the day. At 8am we climbed onto the boat and began the trip to North Head, while receiving our safety briefing.
Our first dive was at Rock Fall, and it was an interesting experience to say the least. The 6 of us met on the surface, and then descended in what turned out to be a shocking 2 meters (if that) of visibility. By the time we reached the bottom, we’d lost most of the group. It took us close to 10 meters to get together, and to prepare for the dive.
During this time I got to witness one diver descending on their back, and then land in a gap between the boulders. For what felt like a very long time, I couldn’t see them. And then, out of nowhere, just their head popped up from the crack looking distinctly like a meerkat.
The dive wasn’t amazing. With the shocking vis, there was very little to see. And a few of the divers burned through their gas in 20 minutes, likely due to the stress of consistently losing the group. Eventually the dive master surfaced with those who were low on gas, and asked me to the lead the remaining divers, which was another interesting experience.
Once we were all back on the boat we headed to Balmoral Beach for our surface interval. We enjoyed a hot cup of soup, a few Tim Tams, and the mandatory packet of snakes.
And then we headed back out, not expecting much after the first dive. This time we opted for Chapel Steps (on South Head), in the hope that vis would be slightly better. Amazingly it was, and we were treated to 10+ meters of vis when we got to the bottom.
Sadly one of the divers was getting sea sick, and was forced to surface prior to us even starting the dive. The rest of us waited on the bottom while the dive master took him and his buddy back to the boat, but they never returned. Eventually I signalled to everyone to surface, where we were told that the dive master had headed off with the other diver, since he thought we’d begun our dive.
I was once again asked to lead the group, which was far easier now that I could see what everyone was doing. We had an amazing dive, and I thoroughly enjoyed gaining experience at guiding a group.
Vis wasn’t great (on the first dive), and we didn’t sea a lot, but it was just as fun as it always is.
