Got a call last Wed from Mark; how about a dive this weekend, Sunday
specifically, as he didn't have to work on Sunday. So organised a dive to
Dee Why Wide with Frog Dive; at the time, there were only going to be the
three of us on the boat, besides Darren driving.

Today, Sunday, dawned really gusty; not sure if it will affect the Olympic
closing ceremony (had to slip that in), but was worried it might affect the
dive. Fortunately it was a Westerly, so the seas weren't too bad, but Darren
was of the opinion that Dee Why Wide was out, as he had been out to the
Coolooli on an earlier dive trip. Long Reef was very popular this morning,
even the DCM boat with Richard doing a drop off at Long Reef (Strike, does
DCM pick up from Long Reef?). We ended up doing The Apartments/The Wall at
Long Reef, an area of a boulder wall dipping from 10m to 20+m, with many
swim-throughs, gutters and caveslets. The sea was up a bit, but surface
current was quite strong, which made for an interesting entry, as by this
time there were 11 of us (I was buddied to Cynthia and Mark) on the boat. On
a good day, the visibility is such that you can usually see the top of the
wall from the boat; it wasn't a good day...

We quickly made our way to the bottom, where visibility was only 5-10m, but
a warm 18C. Went into one of the shallow caves, but a Wobbegong of 2m was
already in residence, so I elected to exit via another opening. That was
also the last time we saw the others from our boat. One thing I've noticed
with poor visibility; there are usually a lot of fish, and this dive was no
exception. There were big schools of Eastern Promfreds, Mados, Yellow Tail
Scads and Bullseyes in the gutters, and a small school (2-3 dozen) of what
looked like White Ear Scalyfins. Four Port Jacksons were also lying
around,and two Eastern Blue were looking for handouts. The highlight of the
dive were two small Lionfishes (probably juvenile Common Lionfish) of very
pale colour in crevices mid-way up the wall.

Despite my buddies doubts, managed to locate the anchor line, did a safety
stop at 5m (with Mark breathing off my primary, as he didn't think to get a
nitrox mix, whereas Cynthia and I had 32%), and came up after 44 minutes
with 60 bars (Cynthia was running low). Quite a good dive considering
conditions, so much so that Cynthia and I will probably do Shelly tomorrow
(being a public holiday in NSW).

Cheers,
Poe
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