Date: 22 January 2013
A rare, windless day in January allowed me to do a dive at Long Beach with students, and then to take the boat out to Shark Alley straight afterwards. While we were packing up at Long Beach a gentleman arrived with a home-made, one man submersible on a trailer. For air, he would just breathe what was inside the craft. He was hoping to test it at Long Beach. We couldn’t stay long enough to observe the test, but the man reckoned he would be able to take it down to 30 metres, if the initial test succeeded. If the shallow water test failed, he could open the hatch and swim to the surface.
After our dive at Long Beach, Gary decided that the best way to get to the yacht club down the road was to drive there on his scooter, in his wetsuit. This would also give him good protection in an accident!
We headed out of the yacht basin, south towards Shark Alley in the boat. Over the radio we heard a call from the SAS Amatola, a navy frigate, warning that they were going to be firing in the direction of Roman Rock lighthouse and for all boat traffic to stand by.
There were a lot of fishing boats out, and many of them called the Amatola for more information on exactly when and where the target practice was to take place. Unfortunately the Amatola had either switched off their radio or the operator took a coffee break, because there was absolutely no reply. Not everyone was surprised by this fact. We all snaked out along the harbour wall, one boat after another, to avoid any flying bullets.
It was a beautiful day down at Shark Alley, and the divers had a wonderful time. Some of them were British visitors, and they were delighted to meet our charismatic broadnose sevengill cowsharks.
On the way back we heard more warnings that the Amatola was firing, but no specifics as to what areas to avoid. I’m still here, so we managed to avoid the guns!
