Sunday will most likely be the better diving day in False Bay despite the swell forecast. The Atlantic temperature has dropped 5 degrees in the last 24 hours so there is a chance that Oudekraal would work on Saturday if you need to get wet.
I will plan launching from Simons Town, early on Sunday and both dives will be in the vicinity of Roman Rock. Let me know if you’re keen.
Flagellar sea fan at Roman Rock (and very respectable visibility)
Penguin at large
There’s a king penguin currently visiting Buffels Bay in the Cape Point Nature Reserve. These animals are found on the subantarctic islands and the Antarctic continent, so it’s a long way from home. This is a rare chance for you to see the second largest species of penguin.
They aren’t rare (there are 2-3 million of them in the world), but they are highly threatened by climate change, and we’re very lucky to see one in Africa. This bird has no fear of humans, so be cautious and respectful if you go and see it. SANParks is guarding the animal to make sure it’s kept safe.
Boat dives on Sunday or Monday / Shore dives on Monday (conditions dependent)
Traditionally Easter is a difficult time for diving. Many people are away and the weather does not always play ball. Add to this the traffic congestion from the Two Oceans marathonon Saturday… This weekend we may dive from Hout Bay on Sunday or Monday, or perhaps shore dives from Long Beach, wind dependent.
We are out tomorrow on a full day private charter but I do think Long Beach will be a good option if you feel like shore diving.
We send well wishes to everyone celebrating a religious observance this weekend. For those of you who celebrate Easter, here’s an egg for you:
Catshark egg on a sea fan
Plastic and Water
On the marathon topic, watch this video and see how the Two Oceans Aquarium and Old Mutual are teaming up to reduce the use and impact of single use plastic, and learn about the aquarium’s turtle rehabilitation program.
This article on how to responsibly stockpile (or just purchase) bottled water, is very helpful if you’re working on water security at home, but don’t want to contribute to an environmental apocalypse.
It feels very much as though winter has arrived (minus the rain), mostly in the early mornings. When daytime temperatures rise into the twenties, it’s not totally unpleasant! Sunday is one of those days, and we will launch from Simons Town jetty at 9.30 and 12.30. Both sites will be a maximum depth of 18 metres as I have a bunch of Open Water students to qualify.
Saturday: Launching from Simons Town yacht club at 8.30 am, to be confirmed on Friday afternoon
Atlantis sea fans
The wind has been punishing, but there’s very little blowing tomorrow, which means the visibility could go either way. We will plan launches for Saturday morning, from the yacht club in Simons Town.
I’ll look at the conditions tomorrow afternoon. If you’ve let me know you’re keen to dive, I’ll let YOU know whether we can. So if you want to get wet on Saturday, please be in touch.
We seem to be in a cycle of great diving days in the week and not so great conditions on weekends. This weekend looks much the same as the last few and neither day is going to be great.
We have a scientific charter first thing on Saturday before the wind comes up, so won’t be running boat dives that day. By mid-morning on Saturday, the wind will be up at around 25 km/h from the south, and on Sunday it’s meant to be closer to 50. Sadly I think its best you haul out the lawnmower.
Boat Rock, photo by Arne Gething
Thanks to Arne for this photo, taken at Boat Rock a couple of weeks ago…
False Bay is clean right now, we had 10-12 m visibility at Atlantis and a little less at Alpha Reef today. A few minutes after the divers rolled into the water at Atlantis a juvenile humpback whale cruised by the bow of the boat, less than 5 metres away. There are signs of a red tide closer to Roman Rock but it was really mild. There were hundreds of compass jellies in the water on both dives. Thanks to Jerrel for this photo from today.
After a good shore dive at Windmill Beach
Last weekend we had a great shore dive at Windmill Beach, and enjoyed seeing so many other divers taking advantage of the excellent conditions. The visibility on Sunday was probably 6-8 metres and the water was a rather chilly 12 degrees.
Dive conditions
The weekend seems to be a one day affair if the current forecast is anything to go by. Saturday looks good with little wind and mild swell. We will launch from Simon’s Town jetty at 9.00 am for SAS Pietermaritzburg and at 11.30 am for Pie Rock.
Sunday and Monday are meant to have more south and south easterly wind than I would like, and boating in that will not be great. I know a number of you guys are keen for a shore dive on Sunday or Monday but we will decide late Saturday on whether we do this or not.
Text or email me if you want to dive on either day, and I will keep you posted.
Sunday: Boat dives from OPBC or Hout Bay if conditions permit
Midweek launch: From OPBC to see the Volvo Ocean Race yachts arriving in Table Bay
Dive conditions
The wind is forecast to do some real south easterly blowing over the next few days, so False Bay is messy but the Atlantic is a bit cleaner. There is too much wind on Saturday for any kind of pleasant diving or boating, but Sunday has less wind (according to some of the wildly contradictory weather forecasts) and I think the odds are good that Table Bay will be a better option than Hout Bay, if the water cleans up enough to make dives worthwhile. It is difficult to say for certain where would be best but we will make that call on Saturday afternoon. The plan will be to dive North and South Paw if conditions permit. Let me know if you’d like to be on the watchlist!
Baby basket star by Georgina Jones
Last weekend we dived out of Hout Bay, visiting the BOS 400, Star Walls and then Tafelberg Reef. The water was less clean than expected: 8-10 metre viz and a very cold 9 degrees. Thanks to Georgina for this picture of an itsy bitsy basket star! On Monday I was out along the Atlantic seaboard for a film charter and despite the fog we found dolphins, a sunfish, a whale, hundreds of seals, and incredible bird life once we were far offshore. There’s an album of photos on facebook.
Volvo Ocean Race
The Volvo Ocean Race first leg comes to an end next week and the yachts are expected to arrive at the V&A Waterfront from Tuesday onwards. There is currently less than 9 nautical miles between the top four after several thousand miles of open ocean racing. The finish will be really exciting and we plan to launch as many days as possible next week to hopefully catch a glimpse as they race by… And perhaps a photo or two. Let me know if you think you’ll be able to take a midweek day of leave to go out on the boat.
Diversnight
Diversnight is an international night diving event that we try to participate in each year, just because. This coming Thursday, 6 November we will meet at Long Beach in Simon’s Town at 7.30 pm with the aim of starting the dive at 8.00 pm. We must be in the water at 14 minutes past eight to “count” and the aim is to set a new world record. There are currently 16 countries participating in this event. You can RSVP to the event on facebook, and read more about Diversnight here. There is no charge apart from any gear you may need.
If you need to rent gear, please let me know by Wednesday morning. You don’t necessarily need to be an Advanced diver to do a night dive, so give me a call or send me a mail to talk about it if you’re unsure. If you’ve been thinking about an Advanced course, though, this is a good time to get started.
We dived Long Beach on Saturday, and on Sunday went to Atlantis and Maidstone Rock. Conditions were good but then the south easter arrived! On Wednesday we launched in Hout Bay. The swell was around 2.5 metres and the wind started out light but eventually was gusting to closer to 40 km/h. Tafelberg Reef had around 6m visibility and about the same at the Katsu Maru. Below the surface it was okay, but the boat trip was a little hairy.
Strawberry anemones at Maidstone Rock
Weekend plans
This weekend looks really good from a wind point of view, but finding good viz will require going out and looking for it. False Bay and the Atlantic are both very patchy with a whole range of different colours offshore. Our plan is to Launch from Buffels Bay and go and look for viz. We are joining OMSAC for the day and they are going to dive, snorkel and braai.
Sunday will really depend on what the bay delivers on Saturday but I think it will be better at deeper sites like the Fleur and Outer Photographer’s Reef. There is a 14 second, 3 metre swell that will be felt on the shallower sites closer in shore. Sunday may be a day where we just cruise around and look for cleaner viz.
Some of the sites we visited on Two Mile Reef were noticeably more barren – with less coral and more sand and rock – than others. I wonder whether this is a seasonal (or annual, or multi-year) variation, or whether it’s a slow process of the reef becoming silted up. Sites towards the middle of Two Mile, such as Garden Route, were covered with coral and looked exceptionally healthy.
Coral encrustation
Sea star in Sodwana
Blue sea star
Raggy scorpionfish
Knifejaw feeding on the coral
Guinea fowl moray eel
Porcupine fish
Half the polyps on this coral have retracted
Moorish idol
Fish milling about on the reef
Giant sea cucumber
Angelfish close to the coral
White barred rubberlip
Blue spotted ribbontail ray
I found a heart in the coral
Otti and Matthijs (and Angie in the background)
Sand gullies in the reef
Tami at the safety stop
Sodwana sees a lot of divers doing a lot of dives, year-round. There are at least eight dive charters operating from the beach, and Two Mile in particular sees some heavy traffic – including Open Water divers (many from Johannesburg) doing their first sea dives. During a recent conversation, Gerard blamed the heavy boat traffic for what he perceives as a slow decline in the health and biomass of the reef life in Sodwana; I wonder if the fishing activity that somehow co-exists with the dive charters has anything to do with it. Or perhaps we are imagining things, and just happened to dive on a few parts of the reef that were having a quiet day.
Sea fan on the sand
Sodwana is a Marine Protected Area, but perhaps it is not getting the monitoring and policing it requires to be fully effective. This is a widespread problem in all of South Africa’s MPAs, as well as a concerning lack of scientific thinking in the government ministries that are supposed to be keeping an eye on these things.
Freckled hawkfish
Whether we are imagining the changes in the reefs in Sodwana or not, it’s still a very beautiful place to dive, and worthy (as are all wild places on this earth) of our protection. You should go there and see for yourself!
The forecast for the weekend is by far the best I can recall seeing in a while. No wild winds, no massive swells and the water is currently warm. Day time highs are under 24 degrees so the algae should stay away. I have quite a lot of students to dive this weekend so will not have too much extra capacity.
Sea fans at Roman Rock
DAN Day
There is a DAN Day taking place on Saturday 17 May in Cape Town that looks to be very interesting. Talks include “Finding the lost diver” and “A Risk-Based Approach to Diving Operation Management”, as well as a tour of the Unique Hydra facility (which is where Andre works). If you want me to forward you the full email with details, let me know. Space is limited – sign up here.
Stripping an outboard
French naval fleet
There are a few French naval ships, including an aircraft carrier, in Table Bay at the moment. They are supposedly open to the public for viewing but there seem to be endless complaints on the local radio stations about this not happening. Never mind, they leave on Tuesday and I will plan to launch early from OPBC to get a few pictures as they leave the Waterfront. Text me if you want to join me.
