Fran gave Frev an Advanced Open Water course for Kev’s birthday, way back in February. This required us to do some online theory before completing the practical side of the course over two days. We did this over the weekend on Sat 25th and Sunday 26th April, with the intent that we would have the certification in time for our Fiji trip on the small ship cruise, more of that later.
The first day required us to complete three dives on the ex-HMAS Brisbane in the time everyone else on fun dives was completing two. THe skipper clearly had to get the boat back to harbour by a deadline to be ready for the next trip that day, unfortnately this resulted in us course participants being put under a lot of pressure to complete our dives, even when we had some mishaps occur. We didn’t even have time to have a quick snack in between the dives, with the consequence that we where absolutely depleted by the end of that first day, and very very tired. This wasn’t so great. Fran’s eye peice in her goggles really didn’t work, she also had a free flow incident on the second or third dive, thankfully at the surface. Neither of these events helped our sense of unease.
The second day, also on the ex-HMAS Brisbane, was better as we only had to complete two dives, but I think we felt residual pressure (not narcosis) from the events the day before, which meant that it wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been. The write home incident on the second day was me not turning my tank on properly with the consequence that I really struggled to draw breath at depth. This wasn’t evident at the surface as I was able to inflate my BCD, and also purge both regulators.I therefore had to spend most of the dive really having to suck hard to get air. Not the greatest but very good experience to enbsure that we do buddy checks properly next time.
Despite all of this, the wreck is still an impressive dive site, with an incredible amount of life. We saw schools of baitfish, butter bream, a Scorpion fish (aka Stone Fish), teeny Blue Tangs, some very friendly Roundface Batfish; an Eagle Ray on the first day, and countless other beautiful, but unidentifdied fish. The coral was also stunning.
The ship was only sunk (intentionally) in 2006 or thereabouts and has become home to a huge variety of creatures. It is clear that the wreck has slowly being taken back by the ocean, I wonder how long it would take for all trace of it to completely disappear.
One thing I hope to resolve over time is the green cast to these images, I have adjusted one of them in Lightroom (the blue one) and you can see the difference!