Today I ticked another of those life boxes! I did two dives off the Navy pier here in Exmouth! The security to get there was amazing considering it’s just some pylons in the water in the middle of nowhere but hey 9/11 cost and continues to cost everyone. It’s remote location and high security presence plus a total fishing ban has, as you can imagine resulted in an area akin to what the WA coast was probably like before we all contributed to its current decimated state!
Today was a bit windy top side which also resulted in a reasonable sized swell (nowhere near Walpole’s though!) and the entry point was over 3m above the surface (due to a very low tide) but when the fins hit the water they took the sting off the high jump. Once in I realized how long it had been since my last dive I had to take a few seconds to calm the nerves but after a couple of quick cross checks and some positive reinforcement chat, I slipped back into it as if it were yesterday and not 2006 in Qld!
I had buddied up with two guys one a local, the other his uncle (despite the fact he was younger…. too much info) anyway these guys also had cameras so I will post some of their photo’s. On with the dive - the max depth we had was only 12.2m so not much deeper than the Busselton Jetty! The pier has a video camera so I’ll try and locate the URL. I borrowed one of my buddys’ cameras and took a picture of the underwater video camera that was taking us! … as you do!)
MAN you will never be able to appreciate the vision we had, let me rattle off that which I can remember. Masses of Big (3–8 kg) silver schooling fish, so many that when they encircled you, you could not see through up or down. Every now and then on the outer of these schools cruised some large Barracuda. Enormous Cod mostly I believe Potato with girths bigger than you’d be able to hug and you could go right up to them and everything else, they only moved if you were about to make contact. Next a largish (2 – 2.5m) Grey Nurse Shark (Ragged Tooth for you South African types) swam between me and a pylon within touching distance. I didn’t move as it felt like one of those moments that a sudden move would/could cause a bad result but the thought did cross my mind that all he (she) had to do was suddenly turn it’s head to the side and my right arm might be gone! But it just gracefully glided on by! man that was as good as stalking a Rhino on Fothergill Island back in Zim!
Later on we saw a large white tipped reef shark resting on the bottom. As I positioned myself to take a photo another one came in from out of my line of sight and settled down, kinda like it was a shopping centre carpark! While on sharks we saw a massive Carpet or Wobbegong which I actually swam right over before been alerted to it by Steve! Amazing camouflage. We also saw Lion fish, all sorts of puffer fish incl NW Blowie some simply incredibly coloured fish several large Moray eels one of which thought my finger was food but I removed it to a safe distance, Sailfin catfish (a black cat fish with a large central spine and flappy skin making it look sail like, always in pairs). All manner of really colourful soft corals including fire coral (white in colour) and many shapes and variations of Nudibranchs.
Our first dive lasted 50 min then we climbed back up the stairs to the Jetty platform for a break and some lollies and fruit. While there we saw several humped backed whales go by splashing around and on the second dive we could hear their calls underwater it was all over far too quickly. We hadn’t planned on diving while on this trip as we were over the hassle of all the gear the stress in preparing etc but boy I’m glad I did this one
On Sunday we decided both Karen and I will go to the Murion Islands where I’ll do another couple of dives from the boat and Karen will do a snorkeling tour so more still to come. BUT I cannot see how it could even come close to the dives today on the Navy Pier!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThat was a very exciting narrative! Made me think I was there too. It will be interesting to hear what diving at Murion was like. Enjoy your wonderful trip as it will be a wonderful memory later.
Dad