Dive – Williams Family Blog site

July Dive on ex-HMAS Brisbane

22 July 2023

So Frev are getting to the point where they need to go diving every so often, just to feed the addiction. They were so cold on their previous dive on the Brissie, so had purchased hoodies afterwards, so this was the test to see if they worked, and yes, they sure did work. It felt cool under the water, but not in a way that was all you could think about. However, it was on the boat between dives that it was really cold, the wind had gotten up and Kev found himself shivering uncontrollably during the hour long wait between dives.

Monodactylus argenteus, also known as a Silver Mono or Butter Bream

This was also our second Nitrox dive at 36% and Kev's first use of the new Olympus TG-6 camera.

Cheeky Gobie - what are you looking at!?!?

Mr Gobie again, pity about the coral across its face.

The boat was quite full, and, much to our surprise we were able to dive on our own, without a guide. So we planned the first dive to go down, turn right and head around the bow of the ship, after which we found a suitable hole and went into the wreck. We did a similar thing for the second dive but instead went left, around the stern, and then zig-zagged our way up the length of the boat to by entering the different holes in the hull. It was so awesome.

A highlight of the first dive was that we heard whale song again, it really is wonderful to hear these creatures chatting away to each other.

We both noticed that there were far fewer bat fish waiting for us around the mooring line, I wonder if they are seasonal, and if so, where do they go?

Coral, not sure what type, better get a book!

Coral, not sure what type

Fran in action, I need to sort out that back scatter.

Peaceful seascape

it was a great dive, especially the second when we felt a bit more comfortable being on our own. The TG-6 is a great success, although I have a few things to learn. I was amazed to find that I have taken 90 photos over the to dives.

Snorkeling Chalkies Beach and Plum Pudding Island, diving Bait Reef – Whitsundays – pics

We visited Chalkies Beach on our first full day, on a catamaran which also took us to Whitehaven Beach.

Plum Pudding Island is a small island between the northern ends of Hamilton and Dent Islands with a small and vibrant reef surrounding it. A highlight here was the beautiful Phyllidiid Nudibranch that we saw.

In addition to the snorkelling, we managed to get two dives in whilst on Hamilton Island. This involved a boat trip out to Bait Reef, where most people where tipped into the water to snorkel, but there were a handful of us who went diving.

Unfortunately, the first dive was only 15 minutes long as one of the young girls on the dive sucked all her air very rapidly, she was clearly very nervous. The second dive was a bit better, as the crew made a plan to take the girls up when they got low so that the rest of us could keep going. I managed to keep my air going for the ful time and we surfaced on 50 minutes after seeing some cool stuff.

Amazingly, there was also pretty good snorkelling at Catseye Beach, in front of the big hotels. I came across two cleaning stations where small cleaner wrasse where busily attending to Parrot Fish and another larger fish that I haven't figured out yet. I saw three turtles in my first session, and another one in my second.

Advanced Open Water Divers – March 2022

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!