September 20, 2009, 7:42 pm
| Place: | Saxon Reef
| Buddy: | Deb |
| Weather: | Fine, Sunny |
Type: | Boat |
| Max. depth (m): | 18.9 |
Visibility (m): | 20 |
| Time down: | 09:42 |
Dive time (mins): | 49 |
| Average depth (m): | 9.4 |
Water temp. (C): | 24.0 |
Equipment: Rented gear.
Notes: A dive not really intended. Unlikely I know, given the location. It was a flying diversion to the tropics for some hardcore tourism, then the day trip to the reef included a dive at no extra cost. Unreasonable to refuse #50 on the GBR. Familiar multitudes of colour contrasting barren bleached patches of dead coral. Fucking forgotten O-ring grease precluded photographic evidence. Perhaps I should have asked the amiable crew.
Accumulated time underwater: 1 day, 5 hours and 46 minutes
September 6, 2009, 5:46 pm
| Place: | Chowder Bay
| Buddy: | John M |
| Weather: | Sunny |
Type: | Shore |
| Max. depth (m): | 16.1 |
Visibility (m): | 10 |
| Time down: | 12:00 |
Dive time (mins): | 61 |
| Average depth (m): | 8.5 |
Water temp. (C): | 16.0 |
Equipment: 24 lb. Steel 12.2 l tank.
Notes: Nice and long and leisurely at Chowder bay. A sandy silty bottom dotted with oases of activity around sunken yachts and boxes and a motorbike. Seahorses and Moray eels: lucky John has a keener eye than I. I tried to take some photos:
Accumulated time underwater: 1 day, 4 hours and 57 minutes
September 3, 2009, 11:08 pm
Now qualified to provide emergency oxygen to an injured diver, trained to assemble and dismantle the oxygen kit and do a basic check to see that it works. Not a huge amount to this course, and no diving at all, but the safety aspect makes it very worthwhile. It’s also one of the cheaper steps up the 5-specialty course ladder to the rather pointless PADI ‘Master Scuba Diver’ qualification.
