Here’s Roman Rock lighthouse, seen from up on Red Hill near sunset.
Friday photo: Roman Rock lighthouse at sunset
Tag: sunset
Friday photo: Stormy Fish Hoek
Clouds make everything look amazing. Here’s a photo I took one evening at Fish Hoek beach in January after some rain and as a big swell was dissipating. Isn’t it lovely?
Red Sea trip photos: some scenery
To finish off the deluge of photographs taken while on board the boat while we were on our liveaboard trip to the Red Sea, here are some pictures of the scenery
Red Sea trip photos: liveaboard life
Here are some photos that we took during our Red Sea liveaboard trip in October. I hope they give you an idea of what life on the boat was like. I didn’t take any photos at meals because I am not a hipster and I was too busy eating, but I can assure you that the food was magnificent and a central part of the whole experience. You will not lose weight on a holiday like this!
Newsletter: In the net
Hi divers
Weekend plans
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.
Last week’s diving
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.
Sevengill cowshark project
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.
Festive season diving
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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Friday photo: Husky sledding at Long Beach, Kommetjie
Tony and I watched this team of huskies running up and down the beach just before sunset one beautiful afternoon late last year. I think they are part of Mush It Up Sledding. Beautiful dogs doing what they were born to do: run! In the background some surfers get a few waves in before it gets dark.
How to move a whale
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!
A Day on the Bay: Dungeons delivers
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 at Dungeons
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…
Red Sea 2013 trip report
We returned from our Red Sea liveaboard trip on Sunday, and have been slowly returning to normal life (essentially doing things other than eating, sleeping, diving in warm water with magnificent visibility, and lounging around on deck like millionaires). It’s been tough.
The itinerary we followed was the Northern Wrecks and Reefs one offered by blue o two. Our vessel was M/Y blue Melody, on the right in the photo above. We dived wrecks like the Thistlegorm, Giannis D, and Chrisoula K, and a number of reefs. We did a couple of spectacular drift dives, and on most of the wrecks there was the opportunity to go inside for the suitably qualified. It was compulsory to dive with an SMB. The most memorable reef dives were done inside the Ras Mohammed National Park.
Life on board the boat had a simple rhythm: dive, eat, sleep, repeat. During surface intervals the crew moved to new sites, and we either dived directly from the liveaboard or were transported short distances (in full kit) on Zodiacs – rubber ducks like the ones we use in Cape Town. During the time we were away, we had the opportunity to do 21 dives of which four were night dives. The diving was spread over six days. We skipped a couple of dives for various reasons including tiredness and illness, but overall managed to do a lot of diving in a short space of time. The warm water and helpfulness of the crew meant that it wasn’t nearly as physically taxing as you’d imagine. We used Nitrox throughout, not so much because we were doing particularly deep dives and needed the extra time (though it certainly helped), but for overall health reasons and to minimise fatigue.
Most of the time we were within sight of land. The landscape is mainly desert, with spectacular sunrises and sunsets. The reefs rise to within a few feet of the surface, and are clearly visible from the boat when it isn’t moving. Navigation in the Red Sea must be very tricky for the inexperienced, however. The number of spectacular wrecks is testament to this!
The day we arrived in Egypt and the day of our departure were mostly spent at the Marriott Hotel in Hurghada, waiting to board our vessel (the first day) and the plane (the last day). We lounged by the pool and checked out the private beach there, and felt very relaxed.
Prior to the trip we had some (understandable) concerns regarding the safety of travelling through Egypt to get to the liveaboard, but we kept tabs on the travel advice provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK. Since we would merely be in transit through Cairo airport, and would not actually be sleeping a single night on land, we were happy to go ahead with the trip. The Red Sea coastal area has been extremely calm throughout the recent unrest, and, as it derives 95% of its revenue from tourism, the locals have been keen to keep it that way.
We took a lot of photo and video on the trip, and will be sorting through it and sharing it over the next couple of months. Watch this space!