Everything ocean related, with a special focus on scuba diving the rich coastal waters of Cape Town, South Africa.
Scuba diving in Cape Town
Scarborough is a conservation village, quite remotely situated on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, just north of Cape Point. It’s very unspoiled, and its unique charm is jealously guarded by its residents. If you’re a bird watcher, or are desperate to escape the metropolitan charms of central Cape Town (or the hustle and bustle of Sun Valley, like us), this is a wonderful place to spend some quiet time close to the ocean.
Misty Cliffs is a suburb between Scarborough and Kommetjie. It’s in the distance in this picture – the residential area just visible against the mountain. I thought the name was stupid and overly gothic until I drove through the suburb myself; you can’t actually see it very well in the photo, but there is a permanent misty haze over the cliffs there.
The coastal suburb of Kommetjie derives its name from Die Kom, a roughly circular rocky cove that looks like a basin (Kommetjie means “little basin”). It is situated on the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula. There’s a small slipway here (last time I checked, it was just sand) and crayfishing boats launch through the kelp during the season, to fish along this stretch of coastline.
In the distance in the photo you can see Slangkop lighthouse, and there are two flamingos feeding in the shallow water in the middle of the picture.
Hi divers
For a change the weather looks good for the weekend. I cancelled last weekend but that was a mistake as the conditions turned out to be good (loud self inflicted slap). The wind won’t be too strong, and the swell is from the south east which means flat sea along the Atlantic seaboard. I would like to dive North and South Paw on Saturday from OPBC and possibly do a double tanker to Justin’s Caves on Sunday. Text or email me if you want to dive.
Wild wind and grumpy sea in False Bay has had us on the Atlantic coastline most of this week. We have done a few trips to Duiker Island and spent an afternoon just off Oudekraal. The water is cool and clean.
We did manage a warm(ish) dive in False Bay on Tuesday when we were fortunate to take two media people for a dive along the new shark exclusion net in Fish Hoek. It was spring low tide so we could almost have walked out to the end of the net, but the idea was to get some photos and a positive story out on the merits of the net, the work involved in deploying and retrieving it and the conservation efforts behind it all. An article appeared in yesterday’s Cape Argus – you can read it here and see some photos from the day on facebook.
There is a huge amount of work going on to try and establish a photo ID project for the sevengill cowsharks that hang out at Shark Alley. Its a dive most people really enjoy and very little is know about their movements and habits. Please go and like the project’s facebook page and if you have anything to contribute… info, stories etc… please do so! All the information about what is required for the project can be found on the facebook page.
Lots of public holidays and annual leave happening over the next few weeks means we will try and schedule more weekday diving than normal. I will send out text messages if I schedule dives in between newsletters – let me know if you don’t usually get texts from me (and want to), and I will add you to the sms list.
Things are looking so good at home now – we just got the pool deck finished – that I’m looking forward to spending some time doing confined water skills with my Open Water students too!
regards
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/
Diving is addictive!
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Early on the morning of Wednesday 13 November, the remains of a whale washed ashore on Danger Beach at St James. For reasons well known, in Cape Town it’s tricky to leave a whale on a beach or to tow it out to sea and dump it there, much as this would be an ecological boon. The SA Navy attempted to tow the whale to Simon’s Town harbour for removal, but ran into engine trouble.
Fortunately one of the local shark cage diving operators was able to supply a suitable boat to continue the tow. Shark Explorers took the whale as far as possible, but the wind was coming up and the carcass was very heavy. It was decided to drop the carcass off at Fish Hoek beach and remove it from there. Two of their crew swum the line attached to the whale to the beach, where it was attached to a front end loader. The front end loader was attached to a truck, and much of this ensued:
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXI_dXyvJUc&w=540″]
Several hours later the whale was at the top of the beach, on the edge of the parking area. The front end loader was now behind it, shoveling the carcass forward.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J9HgsjE96o&w=540″]
When the whale was close enough to the flat bed truck, it was attached to the winch on the truck, and hauled up onto the trailer. The trailer was backwards, not attached to the truck, so the winch line had to be taken over the top of the trailer to the ground. There is movement in this last video, but it’s very slow!
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SxCVyc7dLA&w=540″]
The operation was smoothly handled with great professionalism. This is not the first time, and won’t be the last, that local authorities have had to remove large cetacean remains from our beaches. Muizenberg, St James and Fish Hoek beach were closed for much of the next couple of days owing to increased shark activity as a result of the bits of whale and oils in the area. Tony saw some large chunks of blubber floating at Long Beach when he dived the following day, too.
Here are some photos we took of the removal process. In between sunset and darkness, when there’s an obvious gap in the sequence, we went home to have dinner! Shark Spotters also put an album on their facebook page that shows the process from start to finish (our album spans 6-7.00 pm and 8-9.00 pm).
We much prefer seeing whales that look like this, or this, or this!
Date: 18 September 2013
Yesterday I described the spectacle of Dungeons, a truly enormous wave that breaks just outside Hout Bay when conditions are right. We had one such day in mid September, and the boat was chartered to take a boat load of photographers out to see the surfers in action. The swell was due to peak at 5.30pm, which is around when it was starting to get dark at that time of year. However in the two or three hours preceding sunset it was still amazing to watch.
Some surfers came out on jet skis, towing boards behind them. When it was time to go back to the slipway, we were confronted by a small group of surfers whose jet ski drivers had simply left them out at sea! I couldn’t believe it. The surfers didn’t seem too worried though! We loaded them and their boards onto Seahorse, but it was a tight squeeze. The boat was very full.
I had my hands full keeping everyone safe while we were out there, so not much photography was done by me. You really have to be on your toes as a skipper when so much water is moving around. However, here is a small gallery of some of the shots I took. If you’d like to join us next time Dungeons delivers, get in touch!
Big wave surfing is hugely popular worldwide and Cape Town has its own special place in the record books for awesome waves. Dungeons and Sunset Reef off Kommetjie, two local sites, will deliver the goods when the conditions are right. A massive, long period swell, the right amount of wind and favourable tides at either of these locations will deliver exhilarating surfing for a few really hardcore local and international surfers.
A recent trip out to the break at Dungeons off Hout Bay with a few photographers on board (and more than a few surfers on the way back) delivered some of the most exciting big wave surfing I have seen in a while. The thunderous roar of the waves and the speed at which the surfers fly down the face will deliver more than one “awesome” comment a minute, and “ooh that is gonna hurt!” when someone falls is almost as frequently voiced.
If you have not been out at least once to watch this spectacle you must make the time do it. There is very little time to relax as a boat skipper whilst those huge rollers roll towards you. The ocean has power beyond your imagination and you can see just how easily a board can get snapped in half.
The guys that go there often to surf take a jet ski out towing a sled with spare boards, anchor the skis, and surf for hours in the cold Atlantic water. When evening starts to fall they mount the skis and head for home.
If you’re interested in a trip out to Dungeons for photography, or just to watch, it’s best to like our facebook page, or contact me to let me know you’re keen to get on the boat next time we go out. That’s where I’ll advertise future expeditions when the conditions are right.
I’ll share some more photos from an afternoon out at Dungeons tomorrow…
Do you get tired during long dives? Would you like to know how to conserve energy, use less air, and annoy your buddies all at the same time? Fear not. The inimitable Kate is here to show you how it’s done.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjTzo-q943Q&w=540″]
Kate was back in town during August, September and October, along with her squire Brian. The two of them dived a lot while they were here. Kate was up to her usual tricks: here, she rides on the unwitting Brian’s cylinder during a dive at Shark Alley in September (no cowsharks to be found). Notice her perfect buoyancy, allowing her to let go as Brian turns around, and then grab hold of his gear again as he turns his back to her.
She did this to me once for almost an entire dive on the Clan Stuart. I felt as though my own buoyancy was up the pole, but couldn’t figure out why. Also, I used up my air really quickly and felt quite fatigued after the dive. Kate, of course, emerged from the dive with a nearly full cylinder, bursting with energy!
Yesterday I told you about the test run of Jan Braai’s underwater fireplace. Some repairs were necessary after that day, as the glass had cracked during the test run. The designer added a few improvements and upped the suggested amount of ballast for the final attempt. Weather days just were not playing along so we ended up in the harbour at the Hout Bay slipway on a very grey day. I had Seahorse for boat support, and Craig and Mark were there to assist in-water.
The water looked good. The viz was not amazing, but certainly a good few metres for decent underwater footage. With a cameraman from Atlantic Edge Films, a cameraman from Jan Braai and GoPro and a further three or four GoPro cameras, we were ready to hit the water. Jan packed the unit with wood, firelighters, a grill a lighter and some wors (for foreign readers: boerewors, wors for short, is a type of South African sausage that is typically cooked over a fire) and then shut the rear panel. This panel had glove holes with gloves attached inside, like a chemistry experiment or hazardous materials unit, so the activity in the box underwater could be managed from outside.
We wheeled the underwater braai into the water and swam it out to the buoy and anchors we had placed at the right depth beforehand. Sadly the required ballast had once again been miscalculated, and the centre would not sink to the correct depth. Back to the slipway we went, and the team added rocks and a few hundred kilograms of sand in plastic bags. We swam the braai back out to the required depth and this time it was a success.
Once the unit was submerged Jan, on scuba, with two safety divers in attendance, inserted his hands into the gloved openings, took the lighter, lit the firelighters and got the wood burning. The stack had an extractor fan to draw the smoke out and pipes to draw fresh air in, and once the flames took hold of the very dry well prepared wood the smoke was visible above the water.
Jan then surfaced and waited a while for the wood the burn to coals. He then descended again and started the world’s first ever underwater braai. It took around 20 minutes before he surfaced, claiming the wors was ready for consumption. The unit was winched up to above the water line, Jan then removed the rear cover and proceeded to eat the first piece of meat cooked underwater.
All in all the idea masterminded and executed by Jan Braai was a resounding success and was done to celebrate National Braai Day on the 24th September. The program showing the execution of the idea was broadcast on Kyknet on Friday 27 September 2013.
There’s been a bit of press coverage – no one has done this before, as far as we know – and there are a couple of videos on youtube documenting the event. Check out a round-up of media coverage here, if you missed it.
I received a phone call a while back that started with “We want to braai underwater, could you help us?” I must admit I hesitated a bit, thinking this was a doomed project, but I agreed to meet and discuss the plan. (For our readers who aren’t South African, a braai is what we call a barbecue, and it is a cultural institution here.)
The project started a while ago when Jan Braai, a South African “celebrity” (what do you call someone with their own television show, two cookbooks and a dedicated facebook and twitter following?) decided that for Heritage Day/National Braai Day, 24 September 2013, he would braai at the highest point of the country and at the lowest point. The lowest point is technically at sea level and we have 3000 kilometres of coastline, so he decided to do it at 3 metres below sea level and this how the plan was born.
A marine engineer in Pretoria drew up a proposal based on what he understood Jan wanted, some back and forth changes were made, and the build began. Once ready for testing the underwater braai unit it had to be transported from Pretoria and to ensure it did not fall off the trailer, it was welded on.
We arrived at Miller’s Point on a calm sunny day with a slight south easterly wind and (sadly) a low tide. The unit was to be towed out to a depth of 3 metres and slowly lowered until the entire glass section was below the surface and only the stack was above the water. Buoyancy was handled by four 200 litre drums welded shut. The drums, two on either side, were welded to a pair of hinged arms and connected to the main frame by a winch cable. When contracted the drums kept the entire unit on the surface and to lower the braai the arms were winched outward and up and the box descended.
Due to the trailer being part of the ballast and thus hanging well below the surface, the entire unit had a fairly large draft and getting it out of the basin at Miller’s Point was quite a challenge. We walked, pushed, swam and towed it with the boat and finally got it out to the depth we required. Craig and Christo worked incredibly hard to assist with this process. We then began lowering it and discovered we did not have enough ballast to get the braai compartment to sink. Regardless, the decision was made to test the capabilities of the braai and Jan lit a fire in the unit. It was at this point semi-submerged, not quite at the required 3 meters’ depth, but in at least two metres’ of water so all the glass was below the surface.
We had ignition, smoke came out of the stack (pumped out by a battery-operated extractor fan) and then suddenly one of the gloves failed and the unit flooded with water. Back to the slipway we went and despite the very low tide at Miller’s Point we managed to get it out the water and home for repairs. There were a few days before the final attempt in front of the cameras, and the engineer had a full to-do list to get the underwater braai ship-shape…
I’ll tell you about the final run tomorrow, but if you can’t wait and want to skip to the end result, you can see some video footage here.
