Shelly Beach
Manly Australia
Saturday December 31, 2000
10:30 am
Air Temp. 24C (felt like 44C in a 5mm wettie!)
Water Temp. 24C (Ahhhhh...summer!)
Viz....low in the bay improving to 15 meters further on. Where
was that swell coming from??
Bottom Time....only 43 minutes today.
Critters....Wobbegong Shark, Goatfish, Mados, Stripies, Blue
Gropers.
Cast...the usual suspects, plus some refugees from the Taka II
trip,(Matt and Nicole?) who popped into Sydney just to rub it
into those who could not make it. (You getting all this Ralf?)

First time back in the pond for your's truly after a severe bout
with the flu which started soon after the Olympic Games.

Pondered for a minute in order to figure out which way the BCD
went on in relation to the tank valve. Had buddy go over the rig
just to make sure I had it right. This was beginning to look
more and more like a refresher course.

High tide made for a low viz entry off the beach but conditions
improved considerably the further out we went.

Being summertime here, and with the warmer water, there seems to
always be a slight decline in the number of critters we normally
come upon. However, a dive is a dive. Nicole's air consumption
went sky high at about the midway point, probably in awe of the
greatness which surrounded her...ha,ha.... and our small cluster
cut short a trip to Dragon Patch. Nevermind, the largest male of
the local Blue Groper clan was being very friendly and insisted
on being patted (looking for handouts is probably more like it.)
So we stopped for a minute or two and visited with the locals.

Frankly, it was just good to get back into the big pond again.

Coffee, tea and Tim Tams (including the dark chocolate variety)
followed.

Cheers
and Happy New Year

The Bird


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