Finally got some time to write up a couple of dive trip reports.
Last w/e I was down in Albany diving on the Perth wreck.
The w/e before that I had to to pull out from the Rottnest Channel swim
thru - on one of the support boats that is, to work that weekend.
And, the week before that we had the annual WAUPS day dive competition.

Just a snippet about the Rotto swim thru. They had the worst sea conditions
ever with the swell taking its toll once the Fremantle Dr came in.  Less
than half of the 2,000 swimmers made it with the majority having to be
pulled out of the water before they even got over the half way mark.
A support boat sank (no prizes for guessing the name of this vessel, except
it was not on its maiden voyage) causing even more chaos when one of them
required emergency treatment after they stopped breathing. Many of the
relay teams consisting of doctors & nurses had to abort their race to help
those in difficulty.

ROTTO DAY DIVE COMPETITION - Feb 15
Everyone was looking forward to the 2 tank dive due to the expected 30C.
Soon Dolphin Dive's latest boat - the Vortex - arrived at the Sardine jetty
in Freo. By 9am we were underway - 19 WAUParians and 2 ring-ins who were
getting accustomed to using twin tanks as they wanted to dive the Sanko
Harvest wreck off Esperance in a months time.

We ended up at the west end. Our first dive site was to be named Mark's
spot if it was good and Bill's spot if it was poor. Mark was our skipper
and Bill the dive master. Whenever I dive a spot I am not familiar with I
try to locate where the anchor is resting to get my bearings before doing a
circuit around whatever bommie or reef wall we are diving on. I buddied up
with Bill, our eldest WAUParian, who has just turned 73. Our plan was to
swim under the boat & follow the anchor chain to the reef wall before
heading further north of the boat. Finning like mad I looked up to find I
had not moved one foot forward so signaled to Bill we would drop right down
to the sea floor to work our way forward. Finally getting to the wall we
began our dive photographing away like mad. As Bill chews through his air a
lot faster than most and feels the cold, I soon got the toot, toot sign
that he wanted to go back to the boat. Fortunately there was a nice, long
mermaid line out for us to grab on to otherwise we would have been swept
off to never, never land as the current had really picked up. We were the
1st divers back on the boat so ended up acting as safety watch while Mark
zapped around in the zodiac picking up pairs of divers when they popped up
all over the place finding they were too far away from the boat to swim
back against the current. Jenny Ough had done a bit of multi-skilling - had
her Nik 5 camera plus a crayloop and had been busy catching crays
(lobster). One of the guys using twin-tanks found his catchbag attracted
the attention of a large bull ray. They had a good game of tug & war before
the ray tired of having to fight for its supper. Once everyone was dragged
aboard we upped anchor and headed in to a sheltered bay for a bbq lunch.

After stuffing our faces on hot dog rolls, lollies, biscuits and lotsa cups
of tea, coffee or milo it was time to swap tanks and ready our cameras for
the next dive.  We dropped anchor near Horseshoe Reef. This site was
totally different with plenty of interesting holes, caves and swim
throughs. Even better, no current and lots of curious fish to keep us
entertained. Actually it was easier just to sit out in the middle of the
seabed & watch the fish work their way around you getting closer & closer.
Sometimes too close where they were out of focus but I think they were busy
checking themselves out their reflections in our masks. Everybody make it
back to the boat under their own steam this time. Only one person seasick
on the trip home. We judge everyone's selection of their 3 best slides at
the end of this month.

Viv