On Wednesday received an email asking if I was interested in a dive on the
Swan wreck down at Dunsborough. Heck yes .. then followed the usual - when,
who with & what time. Housekeeping went on the back burner as we (Hutch,
Gary, Allan, Tracy & I) hatched a plan to drive down on the Friday after
work, meet at the caravan park to unload before heading to find somewhere
that was not packed out for dinner. As with all last minute plans it was
not until our 11th call down to Busselton that we finally found somewhere
we could overnight that would have parking for 3 cars and 1 boat.

On the way down to Busselton I pulled in to Bunbury to pick up Allan, one
of 4 country members of WAUPS. Wendy was the last one to arrive at 8:45pm
so dinner was now top priority.   There was a new mexican restaurant just
up the road a short distance from the caravan park but the majority vote
was to try for something in the town. You can guess where we ended up, yep,
back at the Mex which fortunately was a byo as we all had our own red wines.

Soon it was time to hit the sack. Being so close to the caravan park we
were certain we would not encounter the boys in blue who just luv to pull
you over for a breathalyser test in the quick zap down the road to get to
our onsite villa. Warmed up nicely from the inside out we were looking
forward to a great day of diving on the Swan wreck and it was not long
before we were tucked up in our individual sleeping bags catching some
zzzzzz's.

7:30am I heard Gary get up but like the the rest of the group did not crawl
out of my bunk till 8:15.  They shot across the road to the bakery to get
themselves something evil for brekkie.  Me, it took a few cups of tea to
fully waken the senses before I could even think about sorting out my
camera gear. I've learnt the hard way about rushing the check-your-o-rings
task on my Nik V.  As I was using a borrowed RS this time I was extra
cautious as I've seen one of these flood due to a o-ring not being seated
correctly in the groove before locking the back in to place.

9am we were heading off down the road for the half hour journey over to the
next town, Dunsborough. We pulled in Cape Dive to chat with the owners
Shelley & Peter and, the devil made me do it, teased (another country
member of WAUPS) Geoff Paynter who was skippering for Cape Dive that day.
Once Alan & Gary had sorted out the paperwork to hire a couple of spare
tanks for our 2 tank trip out to the Swan wreck we zapped off to get in to
the water as fast as possible before the dive charter boats arrived.
Shelley sends her luv Strike .. and yes, she does look like she needs a
good, long, relaxing holiday!

We arrived at the wreck to perfect viz .. could see her clearly from above
so, for once, my choice of wide angle lens was gonna work :-)  Have not
done any decent wide angle shots since the trip with Strike down for the
sinking of the Perth wreck so pretty rusty having just tried it again the
w/e previous to this.  Sadly the viz down there was shocking with the
majority of those slide shots ending up in the bin. Got to get my act
together so I get it right for Albany's Wrecks to Reef competition early
May. Taking Mika down for that as that as my uw model .. yet to tell him he
has to do a Kate Winslett impersonation at the bow ;-)  Ron Moore, who runs
Albany Scuba Diving Academy, gave me that bright idea when he commented
that the shot I have of Strike floating above the bow with the Perth's
number clearing showing on one side is the most popular pic that everyone
comments on. In fact it now appears on one of two designs he has on his
Perth t-shirts.  Now my mission is to get an updated shot of the bow to
show how much growth is on her with a diver in the background for
perspective. So Mika, make sure that drysuit of yours is in working order,
get ya hair cut if you are not wearing a hood and trim that beard :-)
Ok, ok .. seeing you will be my guest during your time on the west side of
the island I'll stop bossing ya around.  Strike & I are certainly looking
forward to you visiting our waters soon.

Sheesh, get back OT womman .. ok, now where woz I .. ah, yes getting ready
to dive the Swan. There was a bit of a current running which is pretty
normal for here so we put out an extra long mermaid line just to be safe.
As soon as I was geared up I got out of way as our little boat was a tad
crowded with tanks, lunch, drinks, nibblies and lotsa camera gear
everywhere. I could clearly see the bow at 5 metres and soon was on the
seafloor at 30 metres directly in front of the bow clicking away bracketing
with some shots taken with strobe and others ambient light. A huge school
of globefish were hanging around the bowline .. they were no where to be
seen when I dived here last September. I then took off for the stern to
photograph the widening gap where the sand has been sucked out from around
the prop where you can swim right through from one side to another. Huge
schools of king george whiting hiding under here. Was not long before I was
in to deco so worked my way up around the crowsnest checking out all the
bulleyes schooling in the shadows there before finishing up at the 9 metre
mark to play with the blennies. Was not long before I was surrounded by
1,000s of bubbles .. the charter boat divers were heading up for their
safety stop point so time to get out of there as many do not check where
they are going. Spot Gary coming out of one of the holes cut in to the side
of the wreck indicating his dive light has died on him.

Soon we were all back on board Gary's boat so headed to the closest beach
for our surface interval. We took at extra long lunch break to ensure that
by the time we picked up a mooring on the wreck again most of the newbie
divers would be heading for the crowsnest so we take pics of the wreck in
peace.  This time I tried taking shots with & without strobe in the bridge
area before concentrating the rest of my time on the crowsnest.  A school
of batfish had arrived and followed us around like puppies. I think one of
the batfish thought one of the white buoys that had a lead rope to one of
the commercial dive boats moorings (so divers don't miss the wreck... it
has happened ;-)) was a suitable mate because it stuck like glue beside it
in the current only moving away whenever one of us tried to take a pic of
it.

I'm up at the crowsnest with one of my dive gloves off trying to entice one
of the blennies out to give it a tickle under the chin when I get a tap on
my shoulder. Turn to find Gary had flooded the dive light he has just
borrowed off Tracy, but somehow it is still going. On further investigation
uptop we discover the o-ring must have twisted the wrong way when Tracy
changed the batteries .. so Gary was out of the dog-box for that one.

We headed back to the dive shop to drop the rented tanks back in and get
our own tanks refueled. Gary & Tracy were heading straight back to Perth
while Hutch & I were going to crash at Allan's for the night and either
dive under the Busselton Jetty the next day or a spot Allan had just
discovered not far from Bunbury's main jetty area.  Well, that was the
plan .. while in the dive shop Hutch's mobile phone goes off and it is her
security alarm .. so she ends up having to drive back home. Now just Allan
& I for a Sunday morning dive so we decide to go for a Japanese restaurant
for dinner that evening before calling it a night.

Woke at 8am Sunday morning to find it was a absolutely beautiful day.
Hearing the sea conditions were perfect for Allan's little aluminimum dingy
we decide to dive off Bunbury instead.  Can do the Busselton jetty any day
even if it is by train instead of boat ride.  We left Allan's just before
9am to head down to the Bunbury jetty.  Cracked up laughing when we noticed
a group of guys standing on the jetty holding the boat rope while the boat
drifted away after the owner had done the usual reverse down jetty fast,
shove on brakes, boat slips off boat trailer, move forward to park
trailer.  One of the guys jumped overboard to grab the boat and tried to
start the engines while the motors were still out of the water.  Classic
bit of entertainment for us all as there was a large queue of folks waiting
to put their boats in the water that morning who got a good belly laugh out
of that.

The water was flat as a pancake so it was not long before we were on this
coral lump with just a couple of other boats in the same spot we wanted to
dive. Hope I got some nice shots of a school of bullseyes that kept coming
right towards us with a pair of old wives hiding amongst them.  Found a
cuttlefish that was so timid it would not come out to play with either of
us. Some nice nudibranchs, lots of clingfish on the finger sponges .. and
some nice cowrie's eating sponge.  Crayfish (lobster) everywhere and it is
still recreational cray season here so these ones are fortunate atm. Right
at the end of the dive when neither of Allan or I had any film left we
spotted a school of squid. Watched the largest of the group shoot to the
surface to catch a fish and on close inspection we could see it flick out
fish scales with its side tentables while gobbling down its snack once it
rejoined its group. Would have made a beaut video .. just love the colour
changes these guys go through while you are dangling your fingers in front
of their faces trying to get them to play with you.  On the way back in to
the harbour a pod of dolphins came over to investigate us. They are part of
the Bunbury dolphin discovery centre attraction and quite use to the
public. The larger male was real playful stopping about a metre away from
the boat where we could put our heads into the water with snorkel on and
rub the side of the boat to make sqeaky noises to it. Lots of clicks &
whistles from the dolphin in return with it coming even closer to us before
zapping away only to zoom back in again like a torpedo to hang a metre off
our dingy again. It became apparant this one was use to being feed by the
fishermen and as soon as it realised nothing was forthcoming from us it
took off to join its pod again. A great w/e away but now I've got a ton of
housekeeping to catch up on.
Viv