Roger and I spent most of yesterday putting his boat back into "dive
mode". A labour of pleasure. Interesting actually how I perceive that
the four tyres of the trailer to this boat  are more important to me
than the tyres of my own car. :-7

Since Roger had been O/S since before the recent local extravaganza we
had not dived for some six weeks, so a bimble (or as Strike puts it
equally well, a diddy-bop) it was to be. Actually I think I first heard
"bimble" on the Scuba-UK list and, being a bit of a devotee of the
English language (I suspect Bjorn is one also, it not being his native
language as it is not mine) I thought it rather "cute" as well as
descriptive (in some way I can't really fathom).

The day (as I write in the afternoon, having had a _very_ nice lunch
thank you about 1 metre from Terrigal Haven Beach) is beautiful and
started out with a mild Nor, Nor Westerly wind which degenerated (too
late to do any damage) into a southerly. Because of a very long and
rolling swell it was decided that we go to "Sweep City" at 21 metres
(69ft for the metrically challenged amongst us). :-)

The day also did not start out that well for me since I found I had a
1st stage leak which, after much deliberation (d'oh), I was able to fix.
This before Roger picked me up to go and get the boat (a two man
operation, this is not a toy). As well I am trying to reconfigure my
pony kind of along DIR lines, and am still getting it wrong. Ah well.

To top it all off, Roger uses twin baby 142 litre (50 cu ft) Faber
steels routinely but they are at the dive shop and, courtesy of the
"extravaganza" unretrievable, including his BCD. So Roger decides to
dive with a backpack, as we normally do in tropical waters.

Sydney is currently not tropical at 17C.

Are you getting an inference here? I HATE numbers of things going wrong
on a dive, it reflects the fact that Murphy is about to come out of the
cupboard to play.

Apart from Roger and moi there were two others: Craig (with video gear)
and Mark who really plays no further part in these proceedings. Mark
went and did his own thing without any drama at all.

Mark and Craig go first with Craig being handed his video gear. Roger
and I are busy trying to find what to put on next (I VERY nearly forgot
my fins) when Craig says something along the lines of "I say, could
somebody please pass me my weight belt? There's a good chap!"

Having fixed that little problem Roger (NOT the most patient person in
this universe) says that he'll meet me at the buoy line, since I'm still
scrabbling about with my wretched pony, and falls in ... to surface and
say something like "Oh dear, my 1st stage is giving me nothing but
seawater rather than gas, I think I'm going to abort."

We both (I've never been a fan) say "wise" things about Poseidon
"Showerheads" and I fall overboard. Roger is now relegated to
boatkeeper. Of course we have both, stupid us,  forgotten that the boat
offers a first class spare first stage as in an Oceanic Omega II. A
first stage that I carefully stowed aboard much less than 24 hours ago. D,D,D,OO'HHHHH!!!!

Viz is not good, maybe 2 to three metres tops but at least I'm wet again
(showers DON'T count). I'm bimbling along (can we get this word into
Scuba terminology?) when I come across Craig:

A large, very large in fact, person, video camera system on the rock
beside him, scrabbling away underneath a rock ledge, right foot finless
(where is it?). I think: is he narked? At 21 metres? I resolve to simply
watch proceedings. Clearly he has a plan or so I like to think.

He does. His left arm (and shoulder, and right fin) emerge together with
one of those shells with "spears" going off them at all angles. He
positions this carefully and does the video bit, eventually putting it
back where he found it. Back on board I learn that these are extremely
rare indeed. Indeed I've never found one locally although I suspect that
this is more to do with their camouflage than anything else. Ever easily
recognised something once you've seen the first one all by yourself? The
"all by yourself" bit is the important one.

As he's videoing I leave him and potter along. As I'm pottering I notice
this small grey sponge with white markings, except that they're rather
precise. So I go back and find an itty bitty, not the size of my hand,
cuttlefish doing its best to do a sponge act. Look up, note bubbles,
accelerate, there's Craig, pull on fin and indicate follow me.

Manage to find cuttle again which obligingly changes colours but not
position. Craig indicates he's, uhhh, ecstatic. I put a finger to the
cuttle to indicate size, cuttle changes colour and stays put. I resolve
to get up close and personal and get my (very low volume) mask up close
and personal, as in three cm, (1inch) personal, cuttle changes colour
and stays put. Craig is positively quivering.

We continue and find an individual Tasmanian Trumpeter "latris lineata"
(unusual, they usually hang out together heads, down tails up). A pretty
"fish" type fish. This fellow doesn't like Craig's lights and heads for
a cave. Unfortunately for him we know the area fairly well and I "head
him off at the pass" and get behind his cave to flush him out right into
Craig's battery of strobes.

Craig owes me, big time.

Back on board we tell the usual lies, drink coffee and (this time)
Tandoori soup and eat cheese and bacon rolls as well as "teacake". That
last AFAIAC is right up there with Tim Tams.

Cheers,

Christian