A few weeks ago I took the Friday off work and headed down south to Dunsborough with the boat in tow to do some (long overdue) diving on the HMAS Swan. It was a trip that had been planned a few weeks earlier with my brother. Having a quick look through my dive log, it appears that the last time I dived the Swan was way back on the 9th January 2005. Up until now, I had dived the Swan no fewer than 17 times, but I had never gone this long between dives. Between 1998 and the start of 2005, I had been diving the Swan at least once a year. So over two years since my last visit, I was really looking forward to getting back and to see how much she'd changed.

The HMAS Swan is a River Class Frigate Destroyer which served in the Australian Navy for 26 years from 1970 to 1996. When in service, the Swan carried 250 officers and seamen. The HMAS Swan is 112.8 meters long, has a beam of 12.5 meters, a height of 23 meters and a full load displacement of 2700 tonnes. She was decommissioned on the 13th of September 1996 and was given as a gift to the Western Australian Government, who in turn gifted the HMAS Swan to the Shire of Busselton to sink her as a dive wreck. Over the next year, volunteers prepared the wreck for sinking, taking out anything that could be hazardous to divers and the marine environment. On December 14th 1997, the HMAS Swan was eventually scuttled 1.3 nautical miles off Point Piquet Meelup. She now lies upright at a depth of 30 meters in the waters of Geographe Bay.

We'd arrived in Dunsborough probably a little bit later than we expected. The traffic getting out of the city was slow going for a while due to a nasty accident involving a motorcycle on the freeway. Once that cleared it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way down to Dunsborough. Our first stop in Dunsborough was Cape Dive. To dive the Swan on a private vessel you need to purchase a dive pass which, among other places, is available at the dive shop. We also needed to hire another tank. Due to the lack of diving this year, I totally overlooked the test dates on 2 of my cylinders. The day before we were due to head to Dunsborough, I realised that 2 of my 3 cylinders had been out of test for over a month. And what's worse is that they were empty, so I couldn't even use them for one dive!!!

By the time we sorted out the dive pass and gear, and after stopping briefly on the way to the dive site to watch a dolphin after it showed us some aerial acrobatics right in front of the boat, we splashed into the water pretty much right on 3pm. Even after diving the Swan no less than 17 times, I still got quite excited as I started the descent. David had only dived the Swan once before. We didn't have too much of a plan for this dive, other than to head up to the bow. David saw a classic photo of the bow in the dive shop and made mention of it, so the bow was an obvious place to start. I also wanted to head down to the magazine room, which is also towards the bow. We actually descended onto the top of the bridge and then headed straight to the bow. After spending a few minutes hanging just off the bow and looking back towards the rest of the ship, we descended to 30 meters and made our way along the bottom of the hull to find the opening to the magazine room on the port side. The last time I was in the magazine room was on a night dive with Rob a few years ago. This time wasn't nearly as spooky though. A brief look around the magazine stacks, we then exited through a hole in the starboard side of the wreck and slowly made our way back along the hull and entered the wreck again through another hole at about 25 meters. We spent the next 10 minutes or so inside the wreck before existing somewhere around the mid ship and made our way back up towards the bridge. We spent the last few minutes of the dive hanging around the main mast at 9 meters watching a few of the resident batfish that have made the wreck their home.

It was now time to get the boat on the trailer and head out to our accommodation for the weekend - Bunker Bay Resort. David had received a free weekend stay at the resort almost a year earlier. That is one of the reasons we were in Dunsborough, it needed to be used. When he suggested taking the boat down and going diving for a weekend and to stay at the Bunker Bay Resort I just couldn't really say no. It was quite funny rocking up to a 5 Star resort towing a boat with my brother for a "weekend away for two". Thankfully they obeyed our request for a room with two beds.

The next morning we planned to be back to the wreck around 9am. All good in theory, but after a late dinner and a few beers sitting around the fireplace at the resort the night before, those plans had slipped away from us. Instead, we eventually hit the water again at around 10.50am. This dive we decided to head towards the stern of the ship. This is where we went on David’s only previous dive on the Swan. As usual, the were plenty of small snapper hanging around under the hull. We then continued on along starboard side of the hull and entered a hole that I had not before been into to. In here we found what was assumed to be the propeller shaft. From here we ascended through a small hatch to the deck above and continued inside the wreck to mid-ship. On this dive we took my camera along. David wanted to try his hand at some underwater photography. After taking a few snaps myself, I handed the camera over to David. Upon reviewing the photos once on the boat, it seemed that David is pretty good at underwater photography. Not one of my photos turned out good at all, but David took quite a few excellent photos. Most were in focus – none of mine were. I put it down to beginners luck. Just before the end of the dive, I came across a nice wobbegong shark lazing on the deck. I signaled the find to David who immediately thought it was a shark swimming around. After looking out into the blue for a while, he eventually saw the wobbie and took a few photos of it (which turned out pretty good). We then went up and checked out the bridge for a few minutes and made our way back up main mast were David took a few photos of the resident batfish before making our safety stop. To date this had been the best dive I had every done on the Swan.

The next few hours were spent trying to catch some salmon close in to the shore. This proved to be quite an unsuccessful exercise. After admitting defeat, we decided to head back to the resort, stopping on the way to grab a bite to eat at the bakery and to get a few refreshments for later on that night.

We woke up the final morning to a cloudy day. We wanted to make a third dive before heading home. After having a few battery issues the day before, we headed straight to the service station to get a new battery before stopping off at the dive shop to pick up a tank. Once out at the wreck, we found that the surface conditions had changed a fair bit from what we had seen over the previous two days. The wind had picked up and there was a bit more swell running, but this wasn’t about to stop us from making a third dive. We knew that once under the water, the conditions on the surface wouldn’t have changed the conditions below much. As I mentioned earlier, the previous dive was probably the best dive I had ever done on the Swan, so we decided to follow a similar plan. For the first part of the dive we retraced a lot of what we did on the second dive, but instead of exiting the wreck mid-ship, we continued inside the wreck all the way to the bow. This was cool. I’d only every done this once before but in the opposite direction. Again we entered into parts of the wreck that I had never seen before. Towards the end of the dive we came across another wobbegong, but this time inside the wreck itself. As David mentioned later, it would have been easy to descend through a hatch straight onto the wobbie if you didn’t have a good look before hand. After ending the dive, it was time to head back to the dive shop to drop of the hire tank and make our way back to Perth.

After the first dive for the weekend, I didn’t think the wreck had changed that much since 2005. The one thing that was noticeable, is that the wreck is definitely starting to lean more to it’s port side. After the second dive though, I realized that there has been considerable more growth on the wreck over the past 2 years. Hopefully I won’t have to wait another 2 years before I get a chance to see any new changes.

We are now 120 days into 2007 and I'm ashamed to say that on Saturday I made my 4th dive for the year. I'm even more ashamed to say that one of those dives I wouldn't really count as a dive - Rob and I attempted a shore dive for some crays and exited the water about 5 - 10 mintues later cause the visibitly was poor and the surge was so bad it was making me sick and the other two dives were for work.  I've been trying to think up some good excuses for not diving, but in reality I don't really have any. Sure the weather this summer hasn't been the best. I may have been working some undesirable hours. And yes I have been getting out on the surf ski and (more recently) out on the (new) mountain bike alot more. But as many would agree, there really isn't an excuse for not getting out diving.

What makes things more annoying is that since December, I've spent a fair bit of money servicing the boat and dive gear (of which I have 3 sets) and haven't made the time to use them. I attempted a dive about just before Easter with Dave and Ricky, only to be towed back to the ramp before we even left the marina because the steering on the boat seized up - another $250. If I consider my dive on Saturday as being my first dive for the year, it is without a doubt the most expensive dive I've ever done.

The dive site we chose to dive was an old favourite out off Mindarie. It was the site that exactly one year ago today that my brother David caught the biggest crayfish either of us have ever caught. Surface condition were pretty much pretty much perfect. After dropping the anchor and taking a good 10 mintues or so to get ready, by the time we got in the water, the anchor rope still hadn't settled. The boat had barely moved. Conditions underneath the surface were pretty much standard for the site - visibility was the same as most days and there was a constant surge (even though the surface very calm). The lack of diving throughout the summer quickly showed. As always at this site we took a catch bag and cray loop (when in season of course). The lack of diving proved to be very bad for my skills (or lack there of) for catching crays. For the first time in a long time, there were actually quite a few decent sized crays there. But do you think I could catch one??? After spending nearly five minutes getting frustrated trying (and failing) to catch one cray, I thought I better find the other two. Just as I caught up with Dave and Ricky, we came accross a ledge with quite a few very respectable sized crays. This was actually the first time I'd ever dive dived with Ricky. It was also the first time Ricky had ever dived with a cray loop. I don't know whether Dave and I are to blame for not showing Ricky how to use a cray loop properly or not, but watching Ricky trying to catch a cray was one of the funniest things I've seen underwater. What made it even funnier was that Ricky was going for the same cray Dave was. To quote David at the end of the dive, "how can the cray be kicking up that much silt". You really had to be there to appreciate it.

As you may have already guessed, we came up empty handed. The one cray I did manage to loop had an unfortunate demise when it decided that it didn't want exit the (tiny) ledge that it inhabited. It was last seem by Dave walking out without the end of it's tail followed very closely by alot a little reef fish looking for a free feed. By this time it was time to turn around and head back to the boat. When we dive this site, I have a rule - 100bar, turn around and head back to the boat. This dive was no different, but by now Ricky was probably a little lower on air than I would have liked, as was David - they'd both overshot 100bar. As always once we turn we head straight back to the boat - no site seeing on the way. But as is usual, at least one person I dive with  tend to be very low on air by the time we get back to the anchor line. This dive was no different. Actually, there was one difference with this dive  - I had to worry about two people being low on air instead of one. Although I had plenty of air left, I only had had one occy.   As always though, we surfaced with the air-hog/s having at least one breath of air left in the tanks.

Even though we came up empty handed, all in all it was a very pleasant dive. And it was great to (finally) get back into the water again after being absent for way to long.

I am happy to say that in 2 weeks time I will be heading down south for a few days for  bit of diving on the HMAS Swan. Not having dived the Swan for nearly 3 years, I'm quite excited to see how much it has changed. And even more exciting is that come July I'm heading over to Sipadan for a week diving with David. One more place to tick off the "to do" list. I'll keep everyone updated on these two trips and any other diving I do in between (which will hopefully be alot more than what I've down over the first 4 months of 2007)

It's now been just over 2 weeks since I got back from my Komodo trip. It seems like months ago.  Now I remember why I usually try and take a month off to go away, not 2 weeks. It's just not long enough.  This trip was planned at the very last minute. Usually I plan my trips months in advanced, but this time I planned everything in a day or two. One of the guys from work asked me if I wanted to go to Bali for a week and do a bit of diving. Then he told me he was leaving in a week.  I managed to convince the boss to give me a week off (after first been told yes, then no) then found out that the flight I needed to be on was full.  So I went on a waiting list. Fortunately the next morning a seat came up.  Then I thought "one week is not long enough". So I had to convince my boss to give me an extra week off. While he was deciding, I looked into a few liveaboards that go to Komodo. This was the easiest part. I found 4 or 5 liveaboards that regularly go to Komodo this time of the year. I just had to narrow it down to one. I ended up going for Mermaid Liveaboards.  That way I could get on the boat in Bali instead of having to fly to Flores. Once my boss gave me the extra week off I confirmed and paid for my flights and liveaboard (The problem with booking last minute is that everything must be paid for there and then - thank god for Visa) Everything seemed to fall into place. It was the only time for the year that I could actually get anytime off.

I'd been to Bali once before for a friends wedding. Bali was a place that never really had an interest in going to, but I still had a great time regardless. It was also I place that I didn't have any desire to return to, but I was in dire need of some time off. This year has been ridiculously busy and diving has suffered a bit of a set back, so even a week diving in Bali seemed like a great idea. Even though I only ended up doing 5 dives in Bali, I was pleasantly surprised with the what I saw.  I always assumed that Bali wasn't a great dive destination, but the dives I did do where pretty good. I did 2 dives off Candi Desa, 2 dives in Tulamben and one off Amed. Unfortunately I forgot my dive mask when I went to Amed, so I had to use a spare (I dive with corrective lenses). That made spotting the smaller stuff a hard task. I was meant to do 2 dives in Amed, but chose not to do the 2nd. For the rest of my time in Bali I just spent relaxing and trying to forget about work.

The second week was what I was really looking forward to. I hadn't been on a liveaboard (while holidaying - been on work related trips on liveaboards) since 2003. Liveaboards are the way to go. Eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep - and generally in that order. And just like the liveaboard I went on in 2003, there were only 7 customers. That is great, especially since I booked the budget below deck cabin - I got upgraded. The crew outnumbered passengers.

Komodo...I'd heard good things about Komodo. It has been on my "list of places to dive" for quite a while and I was now going there. I was even going to see Komodo Dragons. Because we left from Bali, the first 2 days diving was actually on the way to Komodo. The first dive of the trip was at Angel Reef off Moyo Island. I can remember thinking, if the rest of the dives are going to be like this, I'm in for a great week. I was told the diving was only going to get better. The next few dives weren't as good as the first dive of the day (in my opinion), but were still good. 

Once we arrived in Komodo National Park, the diving really started to come good. Komodo seems to be well patrolled and well protected from illegal fishing. There is no obvious signs of dynamite fishing like there is in other parts of Indonesia. Plenty of fish life and healthy reefs.  The currents in this area can be really strong, which can make for some interesting (and fun) diving.  Some of the sites however aren't really designed for drift diving, so you do have to fight the current a bit. There was only one dive that I found the current a bit too much, but that was towards the end of the dive, and only because I was trying to fight it too much. Most sites you can find protection from the current and spend time looking at macro life and the thousands of reef fish instead of fighting your way to get a closer look at sharks (and dolphins) and pelagics. I prefered the latter option. Plus it was a good work out.

The north of Komodo and the south of Komodo are quite different. For starters, the water temperature.  In the north the temp was I lovely 27-28 degrees. The south was a chilli 24 degrees. Even though it rarely gets to 24 in Perth, I found the south of Komodo to be freezing (I get cold very quickly).  The soft corals and the macro life in the south is quite amazing - colour and life everywhere. But I prefered the crystal clear, WARM water to the north.

Two of the highlights for the trip were seeing a Dolphin for the first time while on scuba (I've snorkelled in shallow water with them before, but never seen them dancing around at 25m) and seeing my first Blue Ribbon Eeel.  The photos and video you see of blue ribbon eels make them look alot bigger than they actually are - no wonder I've missed them in the past. The Manta drift dive was also quite interesting.

Like I mentioned in the opening paragraph, 2 weeks away is definately not long enough (in my opinion). All up I did 23 dives over the 2 weeks I was away which is probably twice as much as I'd done for the first half of the year. Now my dive tally for the year is starting to become a little respectable. Hopefully the second half of the year will be more fruitful than the first.

I still need to go through the photo's I took while I was away, which wasn't a great deal. Hopefully I managed to take one or two good shots that I will be able to put on here for all to see in the next few days or so.

For the first time this year, I managed to get out diving two days in a row. Up until now, weather, work and other factors have prevented me from diving much at all this year, but now that we're officially into winter, the weather has miraculously come good and provided some great diving conditions. As if one miracle (the weather) was wasn't enough, my brother was let of the leash two days in a row to go diving - that is almost unheard of. His wife was sick, had some 24 hour bug, and not wanting to catch it himself, managed to escape for a few hours while his wife stayed home in bed (and the grandparents looked after the kids). Conditions todays are awesome aswell. What do you think the chances will be getting him out 3 days in a row???

Destination: 23m Ledge.  As I stated in the past, this is probably Dave's favourite dive site, and with good reason. Last time we dived there he caught the biggest cray we've ever seen.  Less than 5 minutes into the dive, we came across the place he caught that cray, looked under the ledge and gestured to me "big cray". I thought "not again". Fortunately (or unfortunately), he was just letting me know that last time we were here, that is were he caught his "monster", and we continued on.  Conditions on the surface were awesome, but on the bottom there was alot of surge.  Generally not too unusual for this site, but at times it was alot worse than usual.  Diving this site in the afternoon also made it interesting. Usually we dive it in the morning when the sun puts alot of light on the ledge wall, but in the afternoon, the ledge casts big shadows and makes it quite dark.  As we were planning to catch crays, a torch was a must. But guess who left theirs on the boat??? ME.  Luckily Dave had his, and although I caught all the crays, I should give Dave a little credit helping me out by sharing some of his artificial light. 

In my last post, I mentioned that a big applause should go out to Dave for not being an air hog. I think I spoke too soon.  It is starting to become a habit for him to surface with "0"bar of air - and he is meant to be the responsible one (the family man). As brothers we are close, but I think I have to change over to a 7ft hose on my occy for any future diving with him!

Nearly 5 weeks after my brother caught the biggest crayfish I've ever seen in Perth waters, we finally managed to get out for another dive.  We are now officially into winter, but judging by the conditions today, you would never have guessed - a comfortable 20 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and a beautiful 10 knot easterly breeze (perfect dive conditions for Perth). The ocean was like a pond. Today there were 3 divers, my brother Dave, our mate Rob, and myself. We also had two "deckhands", Ricky and Craig who came along for the boat ride. Destination: Gemini Wreck, an old barge scuttled in 1993 approximately 22km north-north west of Ocean Reef marine in 30-32 meters.  I only get out to the Gemini about once a year, and we couldn't have picked a better day to dive it than today. Both Dave and Rob were first timers to the wreck.  I've been telling them all summer that we need to go to the Gemini, cause "that's where the crays are!".  It took around 30-35 minutes to reach the wreck site, and after anchoring right on top of the wreck (I couldn't have anchored in a better spot if I tried) we started to kit up. All was going well until we hear a "oh no" from Rob. In his haste to get to the boat (he'd just finished a uni assignment), he forgot to pack his dive mask - yet another school boy error from Big Rob. I did pack a spare mask, but it was one of mine (with correction lenses, usually I pack a standard mask), so that would have been no good for Rob. Luckily one of our "deckhands" brought along his mask and kindly donated it to Rob for the dive - with strick instructions to bring it back (funny how people get so attached to a mask). Now that Rob had a mask, we could now get into the water.

The Gemini wreck measures 40meters (130ft) long with a beam of 10 meters (33ft). As I previously mentioned, it was scuttled in 1993 in around 30 meters to create an artificial reef. The top of the wreck is 26-27 meters.  Unfortunately though, when it was scuttled, it turned upside down. Because it was sunk with the assistance of the Royal Australian Navy, there was a group of navy divers on hand to cut a few nice holes in the hull (now the top) to allow entry into the wreck (see picture below). Now, I did say that the Gemini is "where the crays are". Well I was telling the truth, there were crays on the wreck, but we came up empty handed.  There were less crays than on my previous dives, and they had better hiding places that we couldn't get to. There is usually one section of the wreck were crays are sitting on top of each other, but this wasn't the case today. The resident wobegong shark that usually inhabits the wreck also made a liar of me, it was no where to be found, as did the usual numerous Samson Fish that inhabit. But it was still a great dive none the less.

The Gemini is still a favourite dive of mine, and I'm happy to report that is it probably the first dive this year that my brother didn't surface with his SPG reading "0". It saved me the embarrassment of explaining myself when I took the tanks into the Dive Shop to get filled. So a big applause should go out to Dave for not being a air hog. We even managed to get Rob back to the boat ramp 20 minutes early (he needed to be back in time to get to work).  Rob, and our two "deckhands" Ricky and Craig, made a quick escape, and unfortunately missed out on the best part of the trip.  While Dave and I were getting the boat back on the trailor, another boat approached the boat ramp. As is the case with alot of boaties, there is always one person ready to jump from the boat to the jetty on the approach to get ready to tie up.  Most people do this with ease, but the poor guy behind showed everyone at the boat ramp how not to do it.  He did manage to land on the jetty, but overbalance and fell off the other side into the water (The jetty is only about a foot or so wide). Some of the things that happen at boat ramps really do make me laugh. The skipper of the boat wasn't laughing though, he seemed to be more worried about the boat hitting the jetty (it looked like a new boat). If I was the skipper, I would have been rolling around hysterically on the deck of the the boat. Hopefully the two guys on that boat sat down and had a good laugh about it later over a beer or two. So all in all, even though we didn't catch any crays, it ended up being a good day.  And being a long weekend with the weather looking fantastic, we should get another few dives in before the weekend's end.

Note: The above picture was stolen from the Mindarie Dive Academy website. 

On my trip to the Philippines in 2004, I am convinced I got the bends. At the end of the 2nd week of my 6 week trip I developed an unusual rash on my arms and feet.  I commented on the rash to a few people, in which I received a standard response "It's just heat rash", because I was in a warmer, humid climate. Hot weather is something I am use to (summers in Perth get quite hot) and I actually prefer humid weather. Heat rash is something that I had never had before, and something I have never had since. Driving from Moalboal to Malapuscua, I was travelling up a small mountain when I started to get a slight discomfort in my right elbow. It wasn't painful, just uncomfortable.  By the time I had arrived in Malapascua the discomfort had dissappeared, but returned for a short time later that night. But the rash remained.

I continued to dive however (5am the next morning) After all, I was on holiday, I was finally in Malapascua, time to see Thresher sharks (the reason I went to the Philippines).  In the back of mind I new that if I was bent, more diving would probably make things worse, but I also knew there was a chamber close by and I had insurance!!! I wasn't going to miss my date with the Threshers

Thinking about the events leading up to the rash developing makes me think even more that I was bent.  My first week in the Philippines was spent in Dumaguette. The diving there was pretty straight forward. My second week was in Moalboal - wall diving.  The one thing I find about wall diving is I always want to see what's at the bottom of the the wall. Sometimes this just isn't possible, but at Moalboal, alot of the walls bottom out at around 45-50meters. I was fortunate enough to buddy up with a guy who also liked diving deep. Looking through my logbook, I only did one dive that was above 30m, and that was my first day of diving.  For the rest of my time I was doing 2 dives a day between 35-50m (and sometimes not in that order). This in itself isn't too bad, we always had at least 3hrs between dives, and being wall dives, alot of time could be spent at shallow depths (at least the last 20minutes per dive was spent in 5m or less) The think problem I had was that every night I was going out having a "few quiet drinks" with my new dive buddy - after all, I was on holiday. Unfortunately, a "few quiet drinks" sometimes ends up being a few too many. But each morning I felt fine, and made a conscious decision to dive.  To this day I believe the type of diving I was doing and the evening activities lead to me getting "bent".

Now most people think of the "bends" as a serious diving accident. I once thought that way aswell.  One of the reasons I was so "casual" about my condition is that I've spent alot of time reading about decompression sickness and diving medicine and I believed I had what could be known as a Type 1 Skin Bend. A Type 1 Skin Bend is where bubbles form under skin and nowhere else. This type of bend fortunately doesn't warrant a trip to a decompression chamber as it doesn't pose any real long term threats.  The one thing that did worry me though was the discomfort I had felt in my right elbow, but as I had only felt it twice only for very short periods, I've since dismissed it as being totally unrelated. Once I was in Malapascua I started diving on Nitrox (36%) to increase the time I could spend diving with Thresher Sharks. Within a couple of days the rash completely disappeared. I am only speculating here, but I believe the increased partial pressure of oxygen I was breathing may have had something to do with the rash or "bend" going away. I also started diving alot more conservatively and a "few quiet drinks" in the evengings were just that, a "few" quiet drinks. 

Whether or not I was actually bent, I can't be 100% sure. Maybe it was heat rash. Maybe it was my wetsuit (although the rash was on my arms and feet). Maybe it was something totally different., although I am 99% sure that I did have a Skin Bend.  One thing is for sure though, I won't be diving the same way I did in Moalboal ever again. If I was bent and it was only a Skin Bend, next time I might not be so lucky!!!