Everything ocean related, with a special focus on scuba diving the rich coastal waters of Cape Town, South Africa.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYg5IOD3OW0&w=540″]
Here’s a short video that we made introducing our youtube channel, which is mostly about diving in Cape Town but also has clips from some of the diving we’ve done in Malta, Sodwana and elsewhere. It shows some of the highlights of diving in Cape Town: seals, cowsharks, and shipwrecks.
Check out our youtube channel for more videos!
We were very upset to hear that Lightley’s Houseboats, operating on the Knysna lagoon, went into liquidation last year. Fortunately the boats and licence to operate have been acquired by a lovely Dutch couple who are now operating under the name Knysna Houseboats. We took a short break in late April and spent four nights on a houseboat on the lagoon. The boats have been refurbished, standards have been raised, and the company has moved from the jetty at Belvidere to one in the Thesen Island harbour.
Houseboating is the most relaxing kind of holiday you can have; no unexpected visitors, no television (well, we don’t have one of those at home either), no computers (Tony forgot his and didn’t miss it at all), and nowhere particular to go. A skipper’s licence isn’t required to pilot the boats, but you have to go through a half hour course and write a short test before being issued with a temporary licence. The boats have a single 40 hp motor, and ours reached a roaring top speed of 10km/h heading downcurrent.
The last two occasions we’ve visited Knysna we dived in search of seahorses, beneath the Sanparks jetty on Thesen Island. The time to do this is half an hour before high tide, for a couple of reasons. One is that the tidal currents in the lagoon are something fierce; unless you want to do a drift dive out through the Heads, you have to dive near slack water. The other is that the rising tide brings clean seawater into the lagoon, increasing visibility. At low tide (we discovered last time we dived there) the visibility is so bad you can’t see a hand in front of your face. We found seahorses both times we dived in Knysna, but the second time (at low tide) more luck than skill was involved.
This time, high tide fell very early in the morning and in the evening. Because it’s close to winter, days are short, and we’d have had to have dived just before sunrise or just before sunset to coincide with the tide. This seemed like hard (and cold) work. We were on holiday, and lazy, so we left the dive gear at home this time. Hopefully next time we go to Knysna the tides will be in our favour, because I did miss seeing those little critters!
One thing we did do that caused us raucous enjoyment was to sit on the edge of our boat one evening as the tide was going out, with a torch and a plastic salad bowl. The most amazing creatures swam past on the outgoing tide, and with some judicious co-ordination of torch and bowl we were able to catch one or two of them, take their picture, ooh and aah, and then release them back into the lagoon. We saw flatworms, lots of baby sole, shrimps with incredible glowing eyes and almost transparent bodies, and even a small blue fish shaped like a needle that we weren’t quick enough to catch.
During the day we looked at birds, motored around the lagoon a little bit, read, napped (embarrassingly much), and enjoyed the view. On one occasion we beached the boat and Tony wandered up and down a sandbank, where we could hear the sounds of mudprawns and a host of other creatures living just under the mud exposed by the retreating tide.
There is currently no dive operator or shop in Knysna, but they seem to open and close frequently. There is an angling and diving club in Knysna, and they can probably refer you to a local diver who can guide you if you want to dive the wreck of the Paquita near the Heads, or one of the other reefs in the area outside the Heads.
I don’t think this dive site has a name (other than what we call it), or that it’s high on anyone else’s list of fun places to dive, but it’s proved to be a reliable and quite lovely site that’s specially suitable for new divers.
The Sentinel is that striking mountain outcrop that stands at the entrance to Hout Bay, dropping off steeply into the Atlantic. Beneath it is a fairly dense kelp forest and a scattering of smallish round boulders that add variation to the underwater landscape. The maximum depth in the area is not more than about eight metres.
We dived the site after a dive on the SS Maori, on a day when the visibility was not magnificent, but tolerable. Tony has on many occasions taken students there and found that the water is far cleaner than it is at Duiker Island nearby (probably less run off of seal bodily fluids…) and inside Hout Bay. The site can be a little uncomfortable when it is very surgy, as the movement of the kelp and the seaweed beneath you on the rocks is disconcerting.
There are not many large fish – this is typical of the inshore Atlantic sites we dive – but in summer clouds of West coast rock lobster larvae and other fish fry may cause the water to shimmer hazily. I can guarantee you that you will not see a single abalone, though if you swim right up to shore in this area you will see thousands and thousands and thousands of empty abalone shells in the shallows and on the beach. This is where the poachers who rule Hout Bay shuck the perlemoen before carrying them up the mountain to dispose of them.
Dive date: 17 February 2013
Air temperature: 25 degrees
Water temperature: 10 degrees
Maximum depth: 7.6 metres
Visibility: 6 metres
Dive duration: 22 minutes
The cheeky seal appearing in these photos, that came really close to Seahorse when we were preparing to take her out of the water at False Bay Yacht Club, was caught on video as well by John, one of the visiting divers on the boat.
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Check out what the seal did when I told him he looked like a cat… Luckily the skipper of this boat has fast reflexes!
Date: 11 May 2013
We enjoyed beautiful, calm surface conditions one sunny day in May when I took some local and visiting divers down to Shark Alley to visit the broadnose sevengill cowsharks. The guys from Shark Explorers were also in the water, using their hard boat, and in the distance we could clearly see the Cape Boat and Ski Boat Club at the southern slipway at Miller’s Point, where the first Cape Town Dive Festival was held last year.
On our way back from the dive site we came across hundreds of cormorants sitting on the surface of the sea in a great flock. We couldn’t see any obvious fish that they could have been gathering to eat – they were just chilling there for the moment. The sight of so many birds moving together is quite amazing.
When we returned to the slipway at False Bay Yacht Club, there was an extremely curious and cheeky seal who swam by the boat and showed off for us. When I told him that, with his whiskers, he looked a lot like our cat Fudge, he seemed to take offence and tried to jump onto the boat!
Hi divers
Summer winds are fading and winter winds are slowly starting to arrive. The visibility of the Atlantic sites drops off and the water in False bay gets cleaner and cleaner as if pumped through a filter. A whole new range of creatures start to make an appearance while other creatures hide somewhere warmer. There are still several giant short tail stingrays hanging around at Miller’s Point, where the fishing boats drop the fish guts overboard near the slipway.
Many people feel it’s too cold to dive in winter… It is cold for sure, but with the right gear and on the right days, winter diving in Cape Town beats anything summer can come up with. Currently False Bay is clean and the temperature is around 15-16 degrees. By adding a shorty, decent gloves and a thicker hoodie you are all set. Dry suits, or damp suits as I call them, do also work, when they work. I don’t sell gear but I am very happy to give advice on whether a deal is a deal or a rip off!
We had fair conditions last weekend and dived with the sevengill cowsharks (thanks to Tamsyn again for the awesome photo!) and the seals on Sunday. It was surgy and the viz wasn’t the best but Shark Alley was swarming with sharks. Unfortunately the seals didn’t want to come and play because of the swell. Fortunately the reef around Partridge Point is stunning! The wind has been north and west a few days this week and the visibility has improved.
As for the weekend – tomorrow looks the best, but Saturday could work for one launch to Tivoli Pinnacles or an early double tank dive to Atlantis and Outer Castle. The wind comes up very strongly around lunchtime so we want to be out of the water early. Sunday will be wetter on the surface than it will below so I guess it’s a stay at home and watch Formula 1 instead.
As usual text me if you want to dive tomorrow or on Saturday. We are really looking forward to our Durban trip on 17 June, which is getting closer. There is still space on this trip and our Red Sea liveaboard trip in October, so give it some thought and let me know if you want more information.
One of the divers on the boat two weeks ago took this video of the seal we saw at the slipway. Keep watching right to the end!
regards
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/
Diving is addictive!
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Hi divers
Despite summer doing its best to hold on, the winter diving has started and in general the viz in False Bay has improved. The sun takes its time getting up in the morning and goes to bed way before dinner time for me, not my favourite season… (I might be afraid of the dark.)
Last weekend was a perfect example of the ocean reminding me that my understanding of its intricacies is way below par. We dived at Pyramid Rock and had 4-5 metre viz on Saturday but went back on Sunday and had twice that. Waiting at the slipway to recover the boat we had a visit from a seal and it almost seemed as if he wanted to jump in the boat.
We attended a swell course run by Spike from Wavescape during the week and learnt a lot about reading and understanding weather forecasts and such stuff. The course is primarily aimed at surfers but is in fact of benefit to any ocean user.
What does the weekend hold? Well there is some swell, not too much, and some wind, but very little. So I think both days will be good with Sunday being the better option for the boat. The plan is then to do shore dives on Saturday, most likely at Long Beach as we are running a Rescue course.
On Sunday we will launch from the yacht club in Simon’s Town and dive with the cowsharks and then at Partridge Point. We have not dived the reef system around Partridge in a while. We are visiting the cowsharks quite often but there are many, many sharks there right now and it’s not always this good.
The shark photo in this newsletter was taken by renowned shark photographer Tamsyn Munnik (thanks Tamsyn!). Note how the cowshark is swimming high in the water column; they were all doing this on Sunday, and local shark scientist Alison Kock suggests that it was because they were swimming above the thermocline, avoiding the very cold water at the bottom.
Please text me if you want to dive on the weekend. If you want to go travelling and do some dives, text me about that too.
regards
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/
Diving is addictive!
Date: 29 January 2013
Duiker Island in Hout Bay, with its population of Cape fur seals, is a popular scuba diving and snorkeling site during the summer months. These photos were taken on a beautiful day in January. I had a group of divers on the boat…
… and was sharing the water with the Shark Explorers boat. Morne from Shark Explorers swam past a few times with his very impressive camera rig.
The visibility was wonderful, as the southeaster had pushed the dirty surface water offshore and allowed it to be replaced with clean, clear deep sea water.
On days like this (and most other days) I love my job!
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is the worst movie ever made. I don’t think a worse movie could be made; I’m willing to make this prediction even if the human race continues making movies in their current form until the end of civilisation. The fact that this is an appalling film shouldn’t put you off seeing it if you live in Cape Town, however. If you’re a Halle Berry fan, you will probably also be interested in this offering, and your enjoyment will probably be enhanced by viewing the film with the sound turned off. The movie was filmed a couple of years ago in Simon’s Town (False Bay Yacht Club, Bertha’s restaurant, and the jetty outside Bertha’s all feature) and False Bay. There is brief footage at (I think – it’s dark) Miller’s Point, Boulders Beach, and a fair amount shot at Seal Island. The underwater footage looked like it was shot in a kelp forest off Duiker Island in Hout Bay. Lots of seals. There was a lot of kelp – more than I remember there being at Seal Rock near Partridge Point. It could also have been shot at Seal Island (where it purports to be) in summer, but the water is quite clean which makes me unsure. There are about six characters, most of whom are played by local actors. We are treated to a variety of accents, sometimes several different ones from a single individual. There is a lot of supposedly endearing and humourous banter between Berry and her local staff members, which I just found patronising and offensive. Halle Berry’s character, Kate, freedives with white sharks. After causing the death of her safety diver (he was eaten), she retires from shark diving and takes people on boat tours to Boulders Beach to look at penguins and to Seal Island to look at seals. She can do this all in one short trip because Boulders is on the way to Seal Island when you sail out of Simon’s Town. Right? Right! (Another interesting fact I didn’t know about the geography of False Bay is that Seal Island is a 20 minute surface swim from Miller’s Point. The abalone poachers apparently do it often, but have a “less than 50% chance” of making it back.) It was fun to see Simon’s Town on film, and to identify that Kate’s office is actually the clubhouse for the kids’ dabchick sailing school at FBYC. A wealthy man of indeterminate nationality wants to swim with white sharks outside a cage. Kate is tricked (sort of) into taking him to do so. At seal island they see a couple of sharks, but the millionaire cannot follow instructions (“stay in the cage”) and Kate discovers that her boyfriend promised him a cageless dive without consulting her. After an INORDINATE amount of shouting and screaming on the boat, Kate loses her rag and decides to take the millionaire “around the point” to “Shark Alley” where the really big great white sharks can be found, to teach him a lesson. (Readers unfamiliar with Cape Town should know that there is a place here called Shark Alley, but it’s inside False Bay and no white sharks are found there… Only sevengill cowsharks.) Despite the worsening weather they make the trip, and at this point the movie becomes a cross between The Perfect Storm and Jaws. There is a lot more shouting on the boat. Lots of people get eaten by sharks. No doubt the NSRI is called. Not many of the characters make it home. To sum up, several people die in extremely violent and gory shark attacks. The blame for all of the deaths can be laid at Berry’s character Kate’s feet. She is immature, has a bad temper, and is incapable of assessing risk. Unfortunately she survives. Some of the shark footage is nice. An alternative title for the film could be “Shouting on a Boat” or “Halle Berry in Small and/or Tight Clothing”. If either of those appeal, by all means, be my guest. I hope the Department of Environmental Affairs, FBYC and STADCO made some nice money out of issuing permits and renting facilities for this film (really). It’s great that local venues are benefiting from the international film industry. SharkLife apparently sponsored a lot of the clothing worn in the film. Their logo was everywhere. I watched the credits with greater attentiveness than I did the rest of the movie, looking for familiar names among the stunt divers, skippers, cameramen and extras who featured. I found some! You can buy the DVD here if you’re in South Africa, otherwise here or here.
Date: 16 November 2012
Simon’s Town is a naval harbour, and as a result we often encounter navy exercises, training drills, and personnel when we dive or boat in the vicinity. I took the boat out one day not too long ago, and found this curious orange structure just outside the harbour. You can see Ark Rock in the background.
A former student, Lukas, who is working his way up through the ranks of the SA Navy, once told me that these strange looking objects are for the trainees to practice shooting at. There wasn’t any firing going on when I passed by, fortunately!
