The pictures in this week’s newsletter were taken by Georgina Jones (author of A Field Guide to the Marine Animals of the Cape Peninsula – if you dive locally you should own it), who dived with us on Wednesday. We took the boat out to Roman Rock and Photographer’s Reef, and had decent (about 8 metre) visibility. At Photographer’s Reef the visibility was actually top to bottom, but a large swell was rolling in which led me to cancel the afternoon’s snorkel with seals at Partridge Point.
Fiery nudibranchs mating
Last weekend was very much the way this Saturday looks to be: atrocious weather leading to equally bad sea conditions. I am as sorry as you are! We will not be launching on Saturday but I will be launching on Sunday as it is forecast to be almost windless. We will need to go to the sites a bit further south and offshore or to Hout Bay if we are to have reasonable visibility, as the southeaster is going to blow very strongly for the next two days. If you’re interested in a Sunday launch, conditions permitting (as usual), send me an email or text me. We will make a final call on Saturday evening.
Brittlestars
Coursewise, this is a good time of year to do some theory-rich material like the Nitrox Specialty, or your EFR course in preparation for Rescue Diver. Working up a sweat giving CPR to a plastic dummy will also help to stave off the cold. If you are keen to further your training or to discuss options, you are most welcome to get in touch.
Winter conditions are definitely here, but unfortunately that means we must take the good with the bad. The north westerly winds are fantastic for visibility, but we also have to deal with storms, big swells and rain in between!
Blue gas flame nudibranch at Atlantis
Weekend diving
There’s a huge swell arriving tomorrow, plus howling winds on Sunday. We might do a short notice boat dive on Saturday (i.e. I’ll go check out the conditions on Saturday morning and then text you if we can dive), but it doesn’t look promising. If you want me to let you know if we do dive on Saturday, please reply to this mail or send me a text. Otherwise I’m afraid it’s a stay indoors or go big wave surfing type of weekend coming up.
A two tone fingerfin rests on the reef at Atlantis
A janbruin emerges from a school of fish at Atlantis
Other notable weekend events were spotting a curious Southern right whale mother and calf on our way to dive with seals on Sunday (there’s an album of photos of them here), and Gerard and Cecil trying out their sidemount configurations on the boat. There are some photos of them here. Also, a Russian tourist who dived with us recently has requested that we include matchmaking services with our boat dives. I am giving this some thought (not).
A seal at Partridge Point (Seal Rock)
I was out on the boat again today, and was stopped by the police, who were checking papers of all the boaters they could flag down. I was very happy to see them out and about, and they enjoyed it when I took their picture!
So, finally the south easter stopped blowing and we had a taste of winter winds blowing hard and softly this past week. The results, cleaner but not too much colder water. We dived Atlantis and Photographer’s Reef today, and 12 metre visibility and 13 degree water. It is probably the best viz I have seen in recent times. Last weekend we dropped anchor at an unnamed dive site close to Miller’s Point and had a good 10 metre visibility so slowly the bay is starting to deliver. The wind tomorrow blows fairly hard from the north west which will either clean the bay even more or at least keep it as good as it is now.
Surfacing to see the freelance skipper waiting for us on the boat!
Weekend plans
The wind will be moderate, but from the north west so the bay will be flat. The bay will be sheltered from the 4 metre swell as it is from the south west because of Cape Point, so it will have very little impact. The swell period is also very long, 18 seconds on Saturday, so I hope it will make for really good diving.
Photographer’s Reef today
I am having a lot fun diving off the boat and we will launch Saturday and Sunday. We have been launching from the False Bay Yacht Club and it is a very pleasant atmosphere. Not to mention the option of a hot shower (if you take out temporary membership for the day) and toasted sandwiches or burgers in the clubhouse after diving.
Giant roman at Photographer’s Reef
I will plan for two launches each day, one or both of the days will be to Atlantis to accommodate Bernita as she asked for this site a week ago and promised to bring cake. The rest will be decided on the day by the people that have booked, so go here and here, read about the sites, then go here and bake a cake and send me a text with your choices… You may or may not be lucky but then again a slice of cake on the boat is a very strong motivator for me. (Text Clare for cake options.) There are also several whales and hundreds of dolphins in the bay right now.
Weather, always a difficult topic and sometimes difficult to understand. Last weekend we took the boat out on Saturday unsure of the conditions, and had quite respectable diving at Atlantis and Outer Castle with mist, a bit of rain and about 6 metre visibility. Sunday we were expecting a fair amount of wind and instead had really good conditions at Long Beach. We were out on the boat again on Monday and had heavy mist to start but it cleared and we had good diving in sunny conditions.
Octopus on the wall at Atlantis
This weekend seems set to be a stay at home weekend for Open Water students as there is a 5 metre swell coming into the bay tomorrow and the direction is southerly which means Cape Point won’t diffuse it for us. It rolls straight into the bay and will most likely trash the inshore sites. The shallower sites close to shore will be very surgy and this doesn’t bode well for good diving.
Atlantis sea fans
For the more experienced divers the offshore sites could yield good conditions as greater depths reduce the surge and the swell does start to drop off on Saturday, but a southerly wind will make the surface conditions a little choppy. I think Saturday will be touch and go but Sunday may be good as the swell is down to 2 metres and there is little or no wind.
Basket star at Atlantis
The plan is therefore two launches on Sunday, sites to be decided closer to the time based on Saturday’s conditions. Unfortunately we won’t be getting in the water on Saturday. If you want to be on the list for Sunday, text me and I’ll keep you informed.
Misty morning at Miller's Point
Lastly, don’t forget about the Cape Town Dive Festival. The dives for the Saturday are now 70% full, with Friday not far behind. You can find out what’s available and how to book by going to the CTDF website. Íf you want to know what dives we’ll be doing, you can find that list here.
Simon, Christo, Lauren, Shaheen & Mark almost ready to roll backwards
The Wind Atlas for South Africa (WASA) project was launched in mid-March, having been funded by the Danish government (masters of wind farming), and the United Nations Development Program-Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF). The atlas shows wind direction, frequency, and estimated power output, and the data was collected from a grid of wind measurement stations all over the country. Its primary use will be to assist South Africans in tapping the energy of the wind to generate electricity. This is incredibly exciting, as within a few months a wind turbine offsets the carbon emissions required to construct it, and then runs virtually emission-free for up to 20 years. Also, we’re all really tired of Eskom (supplier of electricity) encouraging us to purchase less of its product (electricity), and randomly switching off the power when we’re stuck in a shopping mall parking area or trying to cook dinner. I would love to see an economist’s take on that dogshow.
WInd farm off the coast of Denmark
I digress. There’s quite a bit of techinical information on the CSIR WASA site, as well as in some of the news articles describing the project, but the gist of it is that measurements have been taken over the last 2-3 years, and supplemented by a mathematical model to provide a smooth map of wind speeds across most of South Africa. Thirty years of global data was used to calibrate the model.
All well and good, you say, but how on earth is this relevant to diving? Well, you’ll notice that the Learn to Dive Today newsletter frequently contains reference to wind speed and direction, and this affects where we can dive, and when. In summer, if the southeaster has been blowing, it’s Atlantic or eastern False Bay. In winter, the northwester makes the latter two destinations undiveable, but cleans up western False Bay delightfully. So wind is pretty central in the lives of local scuba divers. Wind is also the primary generating force for waves and the massive swells that arrive at our shores from the Southern Ocean, which affects our diving too.
Wind is also fairly central to the lives of everyone else who lives in this part of the world… If you speak to any Capetonian about the weather (a favourite topic), the wind is bound to come up (in discussion, not literally)!
30 year annual mean wind speed (measured in m/s) 100 metres above ground level
With all this in mind, it’s quite gratifying to look at a WASA map, and see that our local obsession is justified. The Cape Peninsula and Gordon’s Bay area are among the windiest in the entire area mapped. Red indicates wind speeds of 10 metres per second, the green is about 5 metres per second, and purple (there’s almost none of it) is virtually windless. The source of this map is here.
If you’re a local diver, I encourage you to pay attention to the wind. Even if the weekend’s not windy (most people’s diving time), the wind in the week before will give clues as to what the sea conditions will be. Reading the newsletters of ethical operators will give you good insight into local weather patterns, courtesy of his years of reading the wind and water. If nothing else, an awareness of the wind will lead you to feel less disappointed when a dive is cancelled because of it, and enable you to make safe diving choices about what sort of conditions you want to go diving in. Unfortunately not all dive charters will hold back on launching when conditions are poor, and you can avoid an expensive zero-viz dive or getting seasick (or lost) on the surface by watching the weather yourself and making deductions.
The spring conditions have been living up to expectations with some really good diving. We explored a new dive site last weekend and many people are calling this the best dive site in Cape Town. Personally I think the title of best dive site in Cape Town will always be tightly contested as there are just too many stunning sites to choose from. This new site, Atlantis, most certainly has more fish than I have ever seen in Cape Town, but the Fleur – when dived in clean water – still tops the leader board in my mind. Atlantis is however a stunning site with pinnacles, small swim-throughs and overhangs, nice walls and the tops of the pinnacles are at 5-6 metres so a safety stop can be done while cruising around the top of the reef where there is lots to see. The site also drops off to 29 metres on the sand so it is suitable for both Open Water divers and Advanced divers.
One of the pinnacles of Atlantis Reef rises to near the surface
Very few would rate Long Beach very high but I have yet to dive a site that has surprised me as often as Long Beach has, with wonderful and weird creatures. I have seen devil rays, sharks, a John Dory, giant short tail stingrays, a snakelet, pipefish, cuttlefish, bobtail squid, toadfish, horsefish, seals, whales and dolphins to name but a few and sure I have seen many of these creatures elsewhere, but never all of them in one place. Then again I do dive there more often than other sites…
A knobbly anemone among sea fans, sea cucumbers and other invertebrate bounty
Last weekend we dived at Windmill Beach and had really good conditions, so we want to return there this weekend if the conditions hold. After the Atlantis and Windmill dives we went to Long Beach to complete Marc’s first ocean dive – well done Marc on a good dive exploring the barge wreck and fishing boat wreck! Congratulations are also due to Cecil, who successfully completed his Cavern and Introduction to Cave Diving courses with Buks Potgieter at Komati Springs.
Massive school of hottentot, fransmadam and other fish
Weekend diving
A cold front cruises in this weekend, late Saturday, bringing with it some swell. Saturday will be better for shore dives as the wind is more a northwester but too strong for boating. Sunday looks better for the boat and Grant plans to explore two new sites he has found. Please let me know if you’d like to join any of the dives.
We all like to know what dive conditions are like when planning to go in the water – sometimes it’s a no-brainer, based on the weather, but other times it helps if someone actually gets in the water to have a look! With this in mind, two divers from the Somerset West/Gordon’s Bay area established a facebook group called Scuba Diving the Cape Peninsula, to promote diving in the Cape and provide a forum for sharing news and updates on current dive conditions. Clare is now helping them administer the group, and they’d appreciate some help getting off the ground! A moment’s thought (or, even less spent time reading facebook updates from dive operators!) will convince you that claims about dive conditions from someone who has a financial interest in you getting in the water should be taken with a pinch of salt. Please go and visit the group on facebook, click “Like”, and, when you’ve been diving, let everyone know where and what it was like! This can benefit all local divers and hopefully squeeze out some of the fairy tales about 10 metre visibility after a raging southeaster and 5 metre swell that get circulated daily!
On 1 October ScubaPro held a dive day at False Bay Yacht Club in Simon’s Town. This is an extremely congenial venue to dive from – most of the local boat charters were in attendance, mooring at the floating jetty in the marina. The grass was set up with a fenced off area for each boat charter, a stand for the wonderful Dive Site magazine, and an extensive area showcasing ScubaPro gear, manned by experienced salesmen. There’s a very reasonable little restaurant, a bar upstairs, hot showers, grass, tables and benches to relax on between dives, and lots to look at. We were expecting parking to be a nightmare, but it seemed to be fine.
The venue for the day (all the divers were inside at prizegiving)
The idea of the day was for ScubaPro to sell lots of gear, and I think the local ScubaPro suppliers will have had a good week after the divers tried out the SeaWing Nova fins, various kinds of BCDs, and regulators! Unfortunately since Tami and I bought our SeaWing Novas, the material from which they are made has been changed – from a really solid, just flexible enough, smooth-edged substance to a cheap and nasty, brittle plastic that is almost transparent and feels as though it’ll snap under stress. The price, unsurprisingly, has stayed the same (so perhaps look for a pair of these fins on gumtree before you rush out and buy some new ones). They are fantastic fins, and it’s a real pity to see nasty knock-off versions being sold at the same price as the original high quality ones were.
Cindy, Maurice and Corne in their trial pairs of Seawing Nova fins (and me in my own pair) on Grant’s boat
Several of the Learn to Dive Today divers tested BCDs (and regulators – Sophie was forced to after the inflator hose on her old regulator wouldn’t fit the new BCD). For those whose kit fitted properly reviews were very positive indeed, but unfortunately the salesmen weren’t good at sizing the lady divers and didn’t even have a full range of sizes available, despite Tony emailing in advance to check this very fact… So not everyone who wanted to was able to try out gear, and there were some tense moments on the boat trying to get cummerbunds to close over thick wetsuits!
The floating jetty where the dive boats moored
In order to try gear, one had to hand in an existing set of gear as security. Those divers who didn’t have their own kit had to rent gear first, and then hand it in, before they could test equipment. Expensive, but no doubt very happy-making for the nearby dive centres. Perhaps as a more fair system next year (unless the aim really is just to enrich the local ScubaPro supplier, in which case fair enough) dive cards or ID books could be held as security for those divers who don’t yet own their own gear. The diving community is small enough that divers who run away with kit can be easly tracked down, and named and shamed if necessary! No proof of ID or dive card was requested when exchanging old kit for new, so the reasoning was flawed anyway – I could have said my name was Priscilla, handed in a dodgy old BCD, and skipped home with a new one if that was really what was motivating me.
Walking to load gear on the dive boats
The launches went off mostly very smoothly, and it was extremely pleasant to have gear carriers available to tote our kit to and from the boats. We tied up our hoses to avoid them getting banged on the ground. The diving conditions were mixed – visibility from 2-8 metres depending on the site, and truly awful surface conditions thanks to a nasty little southeaster that was blowing. A photographic competion yielded some surprisingly good entries given the conditions – underwater it looked as though snow was falling, and backscatter was the order of the day. Fortunately the requirements were not technical brilliance, but more to capture the “spirit of diving” – how awesome it is, and something that would encourage a non-diver to take up the sport. I had a private chuckle looking at the jellyfish photos – there were lots of compass sea jellies in False Bay – and thinking of a student of Tony’s who has a jellyfish phobia second to none and would run a mile if she saw a picture of a diver anywhere near a jellyfish!
Sophie and I discussing whether to get a hot chocolate now, or later
In order to enter the photo competition divers had to set the date on their cameras to 25 December 2011, a slightly insulting proviso intended (I assume) to ensure that nobody cheated by entering a photo taken the day before. This, combined with the issue of having to hand in kit in order to try some, left one feeling that the organisers didn’t trust divers at all. I can’t speak for those who have a financial interest in selling gear, but ordinary Joe Soap scuba divers are decent, helpful people in general, and as a rule don’t steal or cheat.
The ScubaPro display stands
We did two boat dives, the first (at 0800) and the last (at 1400) launches, to Photographer’s Reef and Roman Rock. We had about eight metres of visibility on the first dive, dropping off as we rounded the seaward side of the reef. Fortunately we had a monster current to distract us! The second dive yielded up about four metres of visibility, and in both cases we had beautiful jellies and small breaking waves to greet us on the surface. The sites we visited are beautiful and I’m looking forward to going there again on a day with better water conditions.
There were some seasick divers, and an emergency situation in which a diver experienced an uncontrolled ascent from 20 metres. He had tingling extremities – indicating possible DCS – and lay on the grass for over an hour breathing oxygen (fortunately several of the boats had emergency oxygen on board) while the organisers tried to find the phone number for National Hyperbarics, who operate a chamber at Kingsbury Hospital. When we realised this was what was going on (it was kept rather low-key and the diver was hidden behind some bushes) Tony went over and provided the number, which he keeps on a card in his wallet. The diver in question was not a member of DAN (I am guessing he now is!) which meant that instead of DAN handing all emergency evacuation procedures, arranging an ambulance and alerting the chamber operator, the recompression chamber operator had to be contacted directly. Unlike the OMSACevents we have attended, where there has been an impressively strong emergency and medical presence, there were no provisions made at this event except for those by the individual boat charters, and the incident was poorly handled. Hopefully some lessons have been learned here!
Gathered in the bar for prizegiving
Despite sub-optimal water conditions, the day was extremely enjoyable. We were very grateful to the dive charters who launched for only R100 per dive – that price makes for razor-thin profit margins and in order to come out even slightly ahead their boats had to be full for every dive. Most of them were, and I really hope that it didn’t end up costing anyone money to participate in this event, considering that it probably enriched ScubaPro quite a bit. Seeing so many divers together, making the most of Cape Town oceans, was very encouraging. I hope some divers – encouraged by the cheap boat dives – got back into the water after a long break, and that the end result will be more happy divers in the Cape.
The wreck of the Lusitania is considered by many Cape Town divers to be one of the top wreck dives of the region. It is fairly deep, the wreck is quite broken up, but still interesting, with a number of identifiable components, and the visibility is often quite good. However, it is a physically challenging dive, quite a distance from the launch sites, and conditions are not often suitable, so it is not dived very often. No doubt these factors add to the mystique.
Waves breaking over Bellows Rock
Tony and I had heard about the mystique surrounding this wreck, but because we hadn’t had an opportunity to dive it since he’s been in Cape Town (about two years now) we didn’t know much about it. Beautiful weather in the middle of winter provided an opportunity to take the long boat ride out of False Bay, past Cape Point, and further south to Bellows Rock. Bellows Rock is named for the way in which the water smashes over the top of it, and the break is apparently visible from Macassar – at the northern end of False Bay – when the swell is large.
The ship is now very broken up, after 100 years lying below Bellows Rock
Jumbled wreckage of the SS Lusitania
Wreckage lies tumbled among the smooth rocks
Great sheets of wreckage
Here and there are brass fittings and window frames
Railings (perhaps) from the SS Lusitania
Rocky reef on which the SS Lusitania is lying
A fish darts among pieces of the ship
The Lusitania was a large Portuguese liner that ran aground on Bellows Rock in late April 1911, carrying about 800 passengers. All but eight survived (a lifeboat capsized), and after a few days the ship slid down the side of Bellows Rock to where it now lies in 37 metres of water. A light Nitrox mix will help increase dive times here. She’s an old wreck – as old as the Clan Stuart – and very broken up. The wreckage is readily discernible, however, because it is not very encrusted with marine life at all. The surrounding reef, made up of granite boulders with a some nice holes, overhangs and places to look underneath, is very colourful and well encrusted with sponges. There are also massive numbers of West coast rock lobster!
West coast rock lobster
Sponges and soft corals at 35 metres
Colourful sponges and corals
Strawberry sea anemones on the SS Lusitania
Sponges and soft corals on the SS Lusitania wreck site
West coast rock lobster at Bellows Rock
Grant gave us a bone-chilling briefing that had me convinced (if one of the other divers on the boat hadn’t done it already by telling me with dewy eyes that this was “the Mount Everest of diving”) that this is quite a higher grade dive that requires wits, fitness and no small measure of courage for a scaredy-cat like me. The wreck lies right next to Bellows Rock, which is surrounded by a large area of breaking waves and white water. Descents at this site must be rapid – no messing around on the surface doing buddy checks (“PADI stuff”, as Grant called it once) – and descents are equally demanding. There’s usually a current pushing towards the north west, and this will force one onto the rock unless you take care. Grant advised us to swim gently in a north easterly direction (more or less across the current) as we ascended, and to do our safety stops at eight metres instead of the usual five. He warned us not to surface if we saw white water above us. He told us that he has “survived” being washed over Bellows Rock itself, but that it’s not an experience one wants to have unless it’s absolutely necessary.
West coast rock lobster
The ride out to Bellows Rock is magnificent, and takes about 20-25 minutes at the speed Grant drives (very fast). The sea was nice and flat inside False Bay, but outside the bay there was a small swell. Even though it was only 2-3 metres, Bellows Rock and surrounds looked like a terrifying whirlpool to me. Grant couldn’t drop a shot line onto the wreck because it would get washed over the rock (and presumably have to stay there forever, which would be an inconvenience). The plan was for us to enter the water in two groups. The first group kitted up, and Grant drove the boat as close as he dared to the white water around the rock, so that we were right over the wreck. He counted down, slowed the boat to a crawl, and the divers were gone. As soon as they rolled off he drove away so that the second group – me, Tony, Cecil and Ivan – could get ready.
Kitting up on the boat (that’s not us!)
Our entry probably looked just as scary, but I wasn’t actually looking at the water! Next time I do this dive I’d take more weight – for deep dives my preferred weighting is marginal and I have to swim down the first 3-5 metres; this wasn’t ideal for this dive, and because I was anxious about getting down quickly, I breathed too fast and struggled to sink! Once we were in, however, everything was fine.
What remains of the SS Lusitania
The Lusitania was a 5 557 ton vessel, very large. There are big, complete pieces of wreckage scattered about, but very little actual structure remains. Close to Bellows Rock – which drops off precipitously below the water line – are lots of interesting bits and pieces, but getting there and away is difficult because of the current. We spent some time exploring the edge of the wreck furthest from Bellows Rock, and then swam slightly north over some rocky reef that reminded me a lot of Klein Tafelberg Reef in Hout Bay.
Sponge on the wreck site
Our ascent was uneventful – we followed instructions, did a deep safety stop, and surfaced a safe distance from Bellows Rock. The water was very clean, and very cold, but as we moved further towards the entrance to False Bay the visibility declined somewhat. I’d like to dive this wreck again, but conditions have to be very special – with almost no swell and no wind – for it to be safe. I feel like a Philistine for admitting that the challenging nature of this dive was not compensated for by the specialness of the dive site itself, although it is without doubt a very interesting and varied dive.
A torch reveals the colours of the soft corals all over the site
The boat ride back past Cape Point and along the eastern shore of the Cape Point Nature Reserve was beautiful. We saw several whales, a sunfish (briefly), seabirds, and – for most of the trip – the ocean floor beneath us, as the water was crystal clear. It was, as Cecil said, an absolute treat and a wonderful way to spend a morning (all of it, even the death-defying leaps from a slow-moving boat!).
The inaugural OMSAC Treasure Hunt was held on 9 July at the Cape Boat and Ski Boat Club at Miller’s Point – their very exposed slipway faces the opposite direction to the one we usually use, but (a major point in its favour) the CBSBC has facilities that are otherwise lacking at Miller’s Point… such as toilets and a shower or two! The bar was also appreciated by some chilly divers after their dives!
OMSAC had done a sterling job of marshalling the support of three local dive charters: Dive Action, Underwater Explorers and Pisces Divers. Their boats were launching hourly to nearby dive sites, and a couple of Extreme Shore Dives were also on the program. I’m not entirely sure what was extreme about them (I think the prizes may have been – they got gold golf balls)… Perhaps a reference to the looooong surface swim from the slipway to Shark Alley!
Beautiful morning at Miller's Point
In the week prior to the OMSAC Treasure Hunt, Tony and I watched the wind with much trepidation. An unseasonal southeasterly was buffeting the bay, which usually leads to poor visibility and unhappy divers. We were surprised and delighted, however, to have 10 metre visibility on the SAS Pietermaritzburg (most unusual!) and 4-5 metres in Shark Alley. The surface conditions there were unpleasant, since by the time we launched for the second time – around 1330 – the swell had picked up quite considerably.
Anchored on the SAS Pietermaritzburg
The weather on the day was magnificent – anyone who was in Cape Town on that weekend will recall it as being an absolute shining gem in the middle of winter that heralded the start of several beautiful, sunny weeks. The sun shone all day, and I spent some very happy hours sitting overlooking the waves at Miller’s Point, watching whales frolicking in the bay, and chatting to Errand Girl Bernita. There was also a steady stream of familiar faces passing by our spot in the car park, so we were not short of entertainment between dives.
Divemaster Carel on the Dive Action boat
In addition to the diving there was a festive atmosphere with boerewors rolls on the braai (included in the registration fee was a voucher for a boerie roll and an iced tea – owing to a glitch the iced tea never materialised but there were drinks available for purchase at the venue), a small market, and stands manned by DAN South Africa and Manex Marine. I heartily approved of the sale of coffee and hot chocolate in enamel mugs for R10, and R6 for a refill (you got to keep the mug).
The Treasure Hunt aspect of the day passed me by – I actually forgot about it as soon as I rolled into the water – but on each dive the skipper had four marked golf balls which were tossed overboard after the divers had backward rolled off the boat. Each golf ball corresponded to a prize, some of which were rather nice. This part of the day could do with some work for next year’s event… On most of the dives, one person found all the balls, as they fell close together, and one lucky chap collected about ten golf balls in total. He was also rewarded with a (ridiculous but very nice) prize for finding the most golf balls – share the love, people!
There was a raffle with the prize of a VERY proper diving holiday to Mozambique – somehow I also missed this, which is lucky as I would have spent the cost of the holiday on tickets to try and win it! In our goodie bags for the day we received back copies of Submerge, Africa Geographic and Birds & Birding Africa, as well as a fetching Old Mutual t-shirt. We were also (including the 15 year old girl who was diving with Tony’s group) each given a bottle of Sedgwick’s Old Brown Sherry. The juxtaposition of drinking and diving was slightly inappropriate! Imagine my delight to win a second bottle in the lucky draw. If anyone can suggest what two teetotallers can do with 1.5 litres of sherry, please let me know… Current best idea is to use it as drain cleaner!
There was also a lucky draw – in our goodie bags we each received a number. There was a ridiculous quantity of Stormer’smerchandise on offer (Tony won some of that), but not surprising given their embarrassing loss to the Crusaders the previous week. There was also a number of awesome prizes: boat dives with Underwater Explorers, dive gear, and a tour of Cape Town with Carel from Dive Inn. Dives in the Predator Tank at the Two Oceans Aquarium were also up for grabs. (Next year some thought should be given to limiting the number of lucky draw prizes that can be won by each person – about four folk practically cleaned up all the prizes between them! I was very jalous!)
Diving events like this that aren’t all about pushing a particular brand of gear are a big boost to local diving, and we really enjoyed the day with OMSAC. It was smoothly run, well organised, and there were provisions made so that even if the weather had been horrible, we could have a hot cup of coffee and a shower after our dives. In winter in the Cape – when the diving is the best in False Bay – this is important. It’s no mean feat to put together something like this, and as the OMSAC committee has already demonstrated with the Robben Island Coastal Cleanup we attended last year, they are more than up to the task! We’re extremely grateful for their efforts and look forward to future events.
