Birchy - Capstan
It’s Friday morning and I received a text from Michael Foster:
You diving tomorrow? …might be a little dirty and not real warm. I can hardy wait
After the conditions we’ve had over the last few weeks, I suspect Mike will be right.
Anyway, the waverider buoys are all saying that the seas will be flat and the forecast is for no wind, so we better enjoy it while we can.
Saturday morning see’s the usual suspects braving the early morning start – Mike Foster, Spiro, Arthur, Andrew & myself, with Doug acting as boat sitter (he has a cold), quickly load up the boat and we are off. Seas were as the forecast predicted – dead flat, so we made record time to the wreck.
We arrived onsite and the usual hive of activity ensued – Spiro & I on the anchor, Arthur looking after the echo sounder, Andrew driving and Mike supervising everything. No sooner had we turned on the sounder that the wreck appeared, a bit of yelling from the cabin and I launched the anchor on it’s journey to the bottom, crossing my fingers and hoping I had been quick enough – had I thrown it too late? How far off the wreck would it land? Would we be doing a sand dive?
Today would see Spiro & I in first, followed by Mike, Andrew & Arthur, so we quickly geared up, me with my Inspo & Spiro with his twinset & deco gas. A couple of minutes later we were both splashing in – and yes, Mike was right, the vis was a very ordinary 1.5m on the surface. Dropping down to the wreck I was happy to see the vis improve (I know, the eternal optimist) and we ended up with about 2-3m on the bottom (hey, that’s an improvement over 1.5!!!).
Luckily my throw was pretty good and the anchor was around a metre from the main mast, so Spiro and I quickly tied it on, launched the ‘cricket ball’ (a small float to let the guys on the boat know the anchor is secure and they can tie up) and we started our dive.
As this was Spiro’s second dive on the wreck, I gave him the ‘grand tour’. From the anchor we made our way towards the stern, through the swim-through near the boiler which brings you out at the prop, then back past Rick Latimer’s plaque, to the midship swim-through and then up to the bow (where I took today’s shot of the Capstan). We then swam through the holes in the bow and then back around to the mast. The ‘tour’ takes about 20 minutes at my usual pottering pace.
A little more pottering around and then my time was up with 32 minutes bottom time. Deco passed without incident (although it was getting a little chilly and I don’t know how the wetsuit guys can do it!!!) and 55 minutes after splashing in I was climbing back onto the boat.
I quickly dekitted and started on the lollies while I waited for the rest of the guys.
Wasn’t too long before everyone else was back on board (having a boat sitter makes things go much faster – thanks Doug) and we were heading back to Ettalong Ferry Wharf.
Yes, the water was cold. Yes, the vis was pretty ordinary but it was still a nice, easy dive – no stress, no fuss.
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It was a fantastic day out! The cold dark water meant I was completely off my rocker with narcosis.
Thankyou for the tour! It is a very spectacular wreck! The flat seas indeed made it very very easy.
It all goes to show that Diving can be cheap and enjoyable when all chip in and help out! Some in a large way, others in smaller ways.