Millers Point

Whittle Rock

Me and Mark went diving this Sunday with Underwater Explorers at a site I have not dived before named Whittle Rock. The boat ride was a bit longer than normal due to it being about 8 km from Millers point. Jumping in the water looked a little bit green, but as we dropped below 10m or so it cleared up to about 10m viz. It was a bit chilly at 11 degrees. I must start using my Drysuit more often!! The site was a very nice dive with the reef over a very big area. Nice big fans and lots of other life on the reef. We unfortunately ran out a bit quickly of No Deco Time and had to surface as we were at a average depth of 26m. At this time we were far away from the pinnacle and could not explore it. All and all a very nice dive, might have also been due to me being out of the water for almost a month prior to this.

I stayed with Alistair for a second dive on the PMB, to take some photos of it with my new Camera. The viz was a bit less at +-5m, but it was still a nice dive. Did a nice swim thru with Alistair. I did manage to take some Marco photos of some sea life, but my wide angle shots did not turn up as nice with the water being a bit dirty on top and not much sun coming thru.

Cow Sharks

Today we entered at the Millers Point Yacht Club. The water was 13-14 degrees and fairly clear, but rough surge and bit of a swell lead to a lot of particle drift, leading to no more than 4m viz at best. This got better as we went deeper, but still not ideal. But nonetheless, we saw quite a wide variety of marine life including the usual Hottentots and Romans, and I also managed to spot a flounder! There was an abundance of Nudi’s ranging from as small as 2cm Blue Gasflame all the way up to big boys measuring about 8cm. Oh yes. An plenty of Cows. Aaaaand there were LOTS of healthy purses hanging around, so the Shysharks have been busy 😀

Martin out.

A nice day out at Millers Point

I went out diving this weekend with Dashdivers on Sunday. The weather changed a bit during the day with the wind picking up and then calming down again later the afternoon.
Had a nice closeup view from the surface at the slipway of a big stingray patrolling.

We did our first dive on MV Rockeater at 34m max and the viz was quite good at around 7 – 10 m. Temperature around 18 deg C. It was lovely being at some deepish depth again in a while.
There was lots of Crayfish on the wreck even on the deck but just under size i believe. I did see some massive crayfish a bit deeper in the wreck.

We did a swim thru the passage way and found 2 biggish Pajama sharks the largest one 1.2 m or so.
Had such a lovely dive even when into some Deco, luckily i have been trained for it, and had a 15L cylinder with lots of air. 🙂

I also went on the 3rd dive for the day on the PMB. The viz was bit less at about 3 – 4 m. Temperature around the same at 18 deg C
Had a short dive with some new faces from East London, and lady friends that has not been so deep in a while.
It was the first time i have seen schools of fish over PMB, which i believe was also a nice sight for the ladies.
Had a nice figure 8 swim around wreck

All in all it was a nice day out at Millers Point.

Evert

Dived my head off

On Sat the 12th of May @ 08h00 I met with Johan (my IANTD instructor) and 8 students at Millers point to do my DM cross-over. Our first dive was to the sharks, once again never fails to disappoint saw loads of sharks and even a large sleeping pajama shark. I did notice the absence of abalone even at Millers where we always encounter that delicacy in huge numbers. We finished our dive and headed for shore a couple of meters from the shore I surfaced and bumped into Rob and Erich doing their surface swim out to the sharks (good to see other OMSACers at the same dive sites).

Then we were off to Long Beach to meet Grant from Blue Flash to take us to photographers reef. I then remembered why I enjoyed Grant’s boat so much – all that space makes kitting up a pleasure. We arrived at the dive site after a 20min boat ride,kitted up and rolled over backwards to find top to bottom vis. Our depth was around 16m and a toasty 14 degree water. Students did all their skills and we swam around the reef ,the reef is still teaming with life.

Then the long awaited day arrived the General Botha a 54m dive on trimix (this is a lot more serious than a 50m Durban dive) had finally arrived and since she was scuttled 65 years to the day it was bound to be something special (Shot Alistair from Underwater Explorers). We met at Millers @ 06h30 and set off at 07h30 in our quest to one of the deepest dives in False bay, after 14Km out to sea we arrived at our destination. We descended down the shot line into darkness a erie feeling came over me as we went deeper and deeper (f**k it is deep) then you remember your training and you start to relax. The wreck is broken up quiet a bit but still very awesome we had 6-8m vis, 9 degree water, all in all good conditions.

Holy cow my bottom time is over in a flash there is only 25mins of it. The rest of the 78mins is all deco time this becomes a mind f**k hang around for 50 mins is no joke but if you wanna do the depth you gotta do the time. The 11h00 launch was to the PMB and since the other DM could not dive I had to do it and with 2 hours surface interval we did the qualifying dive for the OW students. I must admit it was bit of a anti-climax after such a awesome dive to the General Botha but I still enjoyed it as the PMB is one of my favorite dive sites.

The PMB is very broken up for such a young wreck.

Hence the saying I dived my Head Off.

Mark Le Roux