We dived a variety of wrecks and reefs on our Red Sea trip, which followed the Northern Wrecks and Reefs itinerary offered by blue o two. Here’s a round up of the sites we visited:
Here’s an amazing map showing a large number of the dive sites in the Red Sea and shared on Google maps by someone very kind and awesome. Click on the link at the bottom of the map (or here) to see it full size.
I tried very hard to get a picture of one of our cats wearing a Santa hat for this newsletter, but failed. Sorry.
Weekend diving
We will be launching from Hout Bay or Oceana Powerboat Club, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Text or email me if you want to do some cold water diving.
So December is almost over, all that’s left is a few presents to open, lots of food to deal with and to get some diving done. We have had some serious wind this week but it is set to slow down for the next few days. I doubt False Bay will offer up much but I could easily be wrong. If the wind drops the water is surprisingly clean given the wind and looks far better than it did last weekend.
Last weekend’s diving
We dived False Bay last Saturday and Sunday and had really calm seas but really poor viz. On our way back from Shark Alley we stopped to visit the rays at Miller’s Point, and counted twenty snoek fishing boats in the queue to use the slipway. On days like that I’m grateful for False Bay Yacht Club!
I do think Hout Bay will offer up the best options for the next few days but Table Bay also has the potential to deliver good viz after so much south easter. For the next ten days we will play it by ear and will most likely launch every day as the weather permits as I have several Open Water, Nitrox and Advanced students to get dived.
We won’t plan to be closed on any specific days during this period as we have enough days of loafing when the weather is poor, so if the sea is good we will dive.
You may already have won a prize
Congratulations to Matthijs who has won himself a Nitrox course in the November boat lucky draw. One diver who is on our boat this month will also win a Nitrox course, or two boat dives if they’re already Nitrox certified. All you need to do is show up.
Wind, walkers and waves will mean we are diving on Saturday in False Bay starting real early, i.e. 7.00 am at the Yacht club. We plan to dive Atlantis and the Brunswick.
On Sunday there will be way too much traffic and road closures to make an early start possible and I don’t think the wind will allow anything later in the day. I am really keen to do a double tank dive to Justin’s Caves or to dive North and South Paw, but will make that call on Saturday afternoon once we have a better idea of the wind (which looks iffy) and the viz.
Week’s diving
The last week has been spent driving instead of diving as all our cylinders were due for their annual medical examination. We did cancel last weekend’s dives due to the wind being a little stronger than I like to launch and dive in, but the guys that did go out reported really good conditions.
We are just home from a really good night dive and all in all we were 19 divers. We dived below and around the jetty in Simon’s Town and had passable viz and a great deal of jellyfish to contend with. Thanks to all those folks from far and wide (including OMSAC!) that joined the fun. The aim with Diversnight International is to have as many divers in the water at 2013 as possible, world wide, and then to eat cake. The numbers since this event started are:
2005: 351 divers in Norway.
2006: 889 divers in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
2007: 1859 divers in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and also Svalbard.
2008: 2183 divers in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Egypt, Indonesia, France, Spain, Faroe Islands and Belgium
2009: 2749 divers, 218 divesites and 20 countries
2010: 1700 divers, 175 dive sites and 22 countries
2011: 2577 divers, 196 dive sites and 24 countries
2012: 2322 divers, 231 dive sites and 25 countries
If you think the water is cold here, you should feel it in Scandinavia in November, where this event started!
Prizes
Congratulations to Bianca, who won two boat dives in the Diversnight lucky draw this evening! Also congratulations to Esti who has won a Nitrox Specialty course in the October boat divers’ lucky draw.
We will have another draw for boat divers in November and one in December. To enter, come for a boat dive. You’ll win a Nitrox course, or, if you’re already Nitrox certified, you’ll win two boat dives!
Gear
Sometimes I have students and former students who want to sell some gear secondhand. If you’re looking for gear, let me know and I might be able to put you in touch with someone. The details of the transaction are up to you! At the moment I know someone with a Suunto D6i dive computer and a regulator set for sale. If you’re interested drop me a mail and I’ll hook you up.
Launching on Saturday and Sunday, at 9.30am and 12pm – conditions are dubious, so a final call on the status of the launches and their locations will be made first thing on each morning. Text or email me if you want to dive.
Red Sea trip
So, the Red Sea trip has come and gone and without a doubt I will miss the visibility the most. On a bad day we had 20 metre viz and on a good day easily 40. I won’t go into the dives that much as Clare will post details with pictures on the blog and facebook in the coming weeks. We did about 20 dives in total so there is a lot to cover. Every dive was done on Nitrox. Since it’s Halloween, the photos in this newsletter are from one of the night dives we did while we were in Egypt, at a wreck of a small barge located at Bluff Point.
Having been out of the Cape Town water for the last two weeks I have very little to contribute but I am keen to get in the water this weekend and shock my self into the reality of slightly cooler water.
Dive conditions
As usual we are puppets on the strings of weather forecasts that all have oddities this weekend. Tomorrow and Saturday False Bay is supposed to have a south easterly swell and a south easterly wind. That means that Atlantic might work. It does not look too clean today but the south easter tomorrow might be enough to clean it up (but don’t hold your breath – one day of south easter is rarely sufficient).
On Sunday the swell is very westerly so that is good for False Bay, but will Saturday’s swell ruin it? Hard to tell. The plan therefore is two launches on Saturday and two on Sunday at 9.30 and 12 noon. Destination unknown, but irrespective of whether we dive False Bay, Hout Bay or Table Bay there are so many sites to choose from and we you can decide on the day. I will go and take a look at the sea really early and text whoever has booked by 7.30 as to the launch site.
Diversnight International
It’s Diversnight on Thursday 7th (this coming Thursday) and we will dive the jetty in Simon’s Town as we did last year. We will meet in front of Bertha’s at about 7.00 -7.15pm, and aim to enter the water at around 8 pm. The whole idea is to have as many divers in the water at precisely 2013… Thirteen minutes past eight, around the world. Sign up (or get details) here.
If you need to rent a torch or gear, please let me know by Wednesday! And don’t forget that there will be a couple of lucky draw prizes, and cake!
Dates to diarise
DAN Day, Saturday 9 November – remember to book in advance if you want to attend.
We are still running our lucky draw boat dive/Nitrox course competition for passengers on our boat each month from October to December. October’s winner will be announced in next week’s newsletter, and on facebook. To be eligible to win a prize (of a Nitrox course, or two free boat dives if you’re already Nitrox certified), you just need to do a boat dive with us. Simple!
I think the picture of our boat all covered and ready for possible rain and gale force winds tell the story of what I reckon the weekend offers. No diving. Sadly, too much wind and some rain on Saturday and again way too much wind for Sunday mean we will skip diving this weekend. If you cannot go without a fix try Indigo Scuba… Deon is chairman of the Good Diving in Gordons Bay Club, and if he says it’s good, then go dive!
The good news is that the weekend brings the Cape Town Boat Show with a few interesting talks and of course lots of interesting goodies. I think it would be a good idea to attend, so that you can get an idea of the range of items that will be on my 2013 Christmas list.
The week’s diving
We have had a good week diving wise and Tuesday saw a trip out of Hout Bay with really good viz (6-8 metres at Duiker Island), no swell and no wind. Wednesday and Thursday we dived Advanced and Junior Open Water students. Summer does look like it’s on its way and it’s been a warm and sunny week. Summer does also mean humping south easterly winds and that’s what we are in for over the next few days. This means that from Tuesday next week the Atlantic will be clear as gin so we will launch Tuesday and Wednesday from Hout Bay. You might consider taking a day off work…
Prizes… just because
At the end of each of the next three months (October, November, and December) we will do a lucky draw from the names of everyone who has done a boat dive with us that month, and the winner will either win a Nitrox specialty course OR, if the winner is already Nitrox certified, the prize will be two free boat dives.
Diversnight
This annual event happens on the 7th November this year. Last year we had 20 divers in the water and we hope to have more this year. Where we dive is still to be decided but we are open to suggestions. Last year we dived at the jetty in Simon’s Town, but we’ll have to check whether we can get permission to do it again, and whether the tides are favourable. Diversnight is an international event with a bit of background available here. Note the bit about the cakes – we missed that out in 2012, must rectify in 2013! This year there will also be some prizes, so watch this space. The aim is to have as many divers as possible in the water at 13 minutes past 8 pm (2013). Sign up here and stay informed!
I’ve tried to dive the Coopers light wreck before. It didn’t end well. This time, I was determined to see the wreck, and see it I did, on the third and final day of diving that we did on our Durban trip. The visibility was at least 25 metres – in the range where it almost doesn’t matter what the number is, it’s so fantastic. The water was warm, even at the bottom, and the wreck is something special to see.
No one knows what the name of the ship that lies wrecked opposite the Cooper lighthouse on the Bluff (hence it being commonly referred to as the Coopers light wreck). There is speculation that it’s an old whaler because of a curious structure on the aft deck that looks like a harpoon gun. It is in fact part of the ship’s steering mechanism – whaling ships had guns on their bows, not at the back of the ship.
According to Patrick at Calypso, here is a possibility that this wreck is the Terrier IV, an old whaler chartered by Peter Gimbel and Ron and Valerie Taylor for the filming of their shark documentary Blue Water White Death. The Terrier sailed from Durban to Sri Lanka to Australia, as recounted by Peter Matthiessen in his book about the trip, entitled Blue Meridian.
I digress. The wreck is about 76 metres long and a bit over 10 metres wide, with a single propellor. There are two huge boilers near the middle of the wreck, and the bow and stern are fairly intact. The wreck and its vicinity teem with harlequin goldies, lionfish, and baitfish. We saw a large ray swimming languidly past behind a curtain of piggies, and a large scorpionfish resting at the bow. The size of the wreck makes it quite suitable to explore in its entirety on a single dive, although it is the kind of place that will bear many repeat visits.
We dived the wreck on 32% Nitrox, which gave us decent bottom time, the wreck lying at a maximum depth of 30 metres on the sand. I was having mask (actually, probably hair) trouble again, however, and used up a fifth of my air just clearing my mask. So I didn’t have as long a dive as I’d have liked.
There’s a nice African Diver article about the wreck here, with some more photos.
The Fontao is an old Mozambican prawn trawler, scuttled off Umhlanga in Durban by the Oceanographic Research Institute in 1991. The intention was to study the rate at which wrecks and artificial reefs are colonised by marine organisms. The wreck is small: just under 35 metres long, with a beam of 8 metres. She lies upright on the sand at about 27 metres’ depth, and is largely intact. Tony did an eventful wreck penetration dive here during some of his training at Calypso… Ask him about it!
While waiting for the skipper and Divemaster to hook the anchor to the wreck (common practice in Durban), we were able to socialise with a couple of Indian yellow nosed albatross. These rare birds have incredibly impressive wingspans, and also came to visit us on several subsequent dives hoping we’d brought snacks.
Descending onto the wreck we were greeted with dense clouds of piggies, silvery baitfish that hang around above the wreck and parted gently to allow us to swim through. The wreck is covered with lead sinkers and fishing line, and is a popular fishing destination. Just inside part of the superstructure is a memorial plaque dedicated to a diver (now deceased) who specially enjoyed this dive site.
There is a mosaic floor – apparently prawn trawlers were festive places – and the bow is very beautiful, but because of all the fish it was hard to get a good look at the wreck as a whole (not complaining)! When we dived the Fontao there was a strong current across the wreck, which made me reluctant to stray too far from it lest I got swept off onto the sand.
We dived on air and had a decent-length dive because we spent most of our time on the top of the wreck, which is at about 18 metres. For exploring the bottom and sides of the hull further, Nitrox/enriched air would be a help.
Hi divers We launched in Hout Bay on Tuesday and had good viz, lots of seals and did some “myth busting” underwater with eggs and golf balls. It has been reported that there is currently 20-30 metre visibility on some sites in the Atlantic. Sadly the howling southeaster forecast for the weekend means we will have yet another dry weekend. I can’t in good conscience take either students or paying divers out when the wind is so strong; the potential for accidents is huge, and the boat ride and surface conditions are unpleasant and dangerous.
Training
Gary and Oscar are very close to completing their Divemaster training. We have also done some Open Water and Advanced training in the last few weeks but have not had too many good weather days. Tomorrow I’m doing a DSD and Open Water training at Long Beach.
Night Diving
We are planning a night dive for next week, conditions permitting, mid week. We will meet at 7 pm at Long Beach and start the dive at around 7.30 or 8.00 pm. Let me know if you want to be notified of the day.
Bad weather days
There are options for bad weather days or evenings if your DSTV is dysfunctional. I am going to run an SDI Equipment Specialty for few evenings over the next month. Learn all about how and why your gear works, how to service it and give it the required TLC for it to outlive you. We will cover cylinders, pillar valves, inflators, regulators, BCDs and a whole lot more. After this course your corroded regulator will not get stuck half on a cylinder just before a dive! The Nitrox course is also theory-based and is fantastic to have if you plan to do any warm water diving, particularly.
Trips
We’re still working on the Aliwal Shoal trip, and it looks as though we might switch it to Durban and spend some time diving with the guys at Calypso Diving. More information next week… The Red Sea trip is still quite far in the future but we are saving already! regards Tony Lindeque 076 817 1099 www.learntodivetoday.co.za www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/Diving is addictive!
Last weekend the first ever Cape Town Dive Festival was held at Miller’s Point. We could not have asked for better weather on Saturday and the entire event was a huge success. All the local dive centres, training schools and boat charters pulled together and made this an event not to be missed. Every little detail was covered. We even had hot showers on the slipway for cold divers. Well done to all that participated and a big thanks to all the divers that supported the event.
The season has kicked off in a big way for us we and we have been running courses almost every day for the last two weeks. The conditions in the bay are great right now despite the water fluctuating between 13 – 15 degrees. We are expecting 25 degrees air temperature this weekend so summer is most definitely around the corner. For those that still need to do a few dives to complete their courses started before the cold set in, dust off your manual, and give me a shout so we can get going. There is a long weekend around the corner so if you do not have plans to go away, go diving.
Relocation
Finally we have relocated to the South Peninsula and it now takes 3 minutes to get to the beach… Less if you speed (which I can’t really, and specially not towing the boat)!
The new classroom is taking shape and the equipment we use is now no longer tucked away in boxes every day, it is instead all neatly stored and easy to access. Pictures to follow as we make progress. We are very happy here already. Please feel free to follow us home (not like a stalker please) after your dives to check the new place out!
This weekend
Tomorrow is not technically weekend but we are doing two dives tomorrow for Advanced students, Nitrox dives on Saturday for the Nitrox Specialty students and starting a new Open Water course on Sunday.
I will launch both days this weekend and Saturday will be a deep dive followed by a wreck dive, while Sunday will be Partridge Point and sevengill cowsharks.
As the weekend approaches we are glad to see favourable weather for the long awaited first ever Cape Town Dive Festival. The first date was a weather disaster and the decision to postpone was a good call as it was a weekend of really foul weather. For those renting gear from me for the festival please make sure you mail me the details of your requirements before midday tomorrow. We will have all the gear in the gazebo which we are sharing with BlueFlash.
Over the last few days I have been out, on, or in the water almost every day and must say it makes me very happy watching the mercury creep up towards to 20 degree mark (air temperature, that is). We have done a few double tank dives to the cowsharks and seals and they never ever seem to disappoint. The bay is also full of snoek, whales, and dolphins and these are all good signs we are heading for a good summer season.
Training
We are busy with a few Open Water and Advanced courses and will be doing some Nitrox training dives during the festival. Congratulations to Mark who completed his Divemaster course after practising his teaching skills on an extremely difficult pair of divers called Christo and Maurice!!
Next weekend it is International Coastal Cleanup Day. I will be in touch with you regarding that during the course of next week.