Trip Report : Voodoo?! We Do!!
Posted by dive mistress in Dive New Zealand, Dive Training, Trip ReportsSep 28th, 2009 | no responsesI have just spent another weekend on board Pacific Hideaway on a Global Dive liveaboard trip.
Oh the life of a dive instructor is turning out to be so tough … NOT!
We had it planned for a couple of months as Monday (today) is Anna’s birthday.
Andrew and Anna and I were all on the trip and were all doing teaching of some sorts.
Andrew had a Digital Photography Specialty, Anna was teaching the Deep Specialty – and her student was also completing his Nitrox (Enriched Air) Specialty with me.
Three students, three instructors, three courses; everybody knows that good things come in packages of three. Actually I just made that up but it sounds good enough to me.
The weather report had not been looking so great – but we headed up to Tutukaka anyway.
Sunday was looking awesome and if that was to be the case, then we were prepared for anything that Saturday threw at us.
Besides, Pacific Hideaway is a wonderfully stable catamaran and Mark’s seen worse, of that I am sure.
The trip out on Saturday actually was not too bad. It was a little bumpy in places but did not take us any longer than normal. We were going to get the opportunity to dive the eastern side of the islands though – and this was exciting as we have not been able to do this for quite some time with the easterly swells coming through.
We headed up to Barren Arch and geared up.
Both Anna and I were diving our twinsets and our student, Eddie, was packing a 15L steel tank and my 5L stage cylinder. We completed gas analysis and programmed our computers correctly and worked through the dive plan.
A standard 32% mix in Anna’s and my twinsets, a 35% mix in Eddies backgas and a 40% mix in my stage cylinder – which shall now be referred to as Eddies for the course of the weekend.
Our maximum depth on this dive was 30m and we were going to compare gauges to see what the difference in readings were at depth. The plan was also to swim out the southern end of the arch and up in to the back of the bay for our safety stop if everyone had enough gas (100 bar or more) at the arch exit.
Over the side we headed and we swam over the lip and down into the archway.
The light and visibility was amazing. As we descended down to the bottom of the archway at around 16m, I noticed a carpet shark tucked into the rocks. We had a little look at him and then headed off.
We compared our depth gauge readings and headed to the exit of the arch. Another carpet shark came cruising towards us – looking like a grumpy old man. We all had more than 100 bar so we headed around the exit of the arch and back into the bay.
Around the corner Anna came across 4 crayfish. The one in the middle – pushing the others to the outside – was a mega packhorse crayfish. I would have loved to have taken my camera on that dive!
Dive Two was at Hope Point – which is down the bottom of the group of islands and on a corner which sometimes has quite a bit of current. Again we were heading deeper, maximum depth 28m.
We were taking items down to see how they were affected by pressure.
I packed an empty water bottle, Pete’s neoprene hood and a packet of Cheezels (cheezy corn snacks) into a mesh bag. Want to guess which one was the most buoyant? In fact so buoyant that I considering swimming back to the boat for another kilo? …. Cheezels!! Which got me wondering what happens to your tummy when you eat them.
Anywhooo .. the dive went really smoothly – and we saw a lot of marine life on the dive.
Another carpet shark but this time tucked into the rocks with only its tail sticking out, quite a few short tail stingrays (which proves that the water is warming up and summer is on its way), two diademas and a sharp nosed pufferfish – or toado. And it did not take off in a hurry but stuck around long enough for Anna and I to get a good look at it.
I skipped out on the next dive.
Eddie had completed his practical exercises and his exam for his Nitrox certification and I all of a sudden fell out of the lazy tree. I was planning on having a night dive so I did not feel too bad about it.
Then it was night dive time … but little Miss Anna sauntered over and tempted me with wine. So we decided that instead of a night dive, we would dive to the bottom of a bottle of bubbles in celebration of her coming birthday. And then it was dinner time, and then we had cake. And before I knew it I was in bed —-
And then it was Sunday morning!
We moved out of South Harbour pretty quickly and headed up to Cream Gardens.
I dived with Pete Snooks and Francois and we headed over board pretty quickly in search of bronze whalers.
Now a side note :
I have a Sea&Sea strobe – a YS-27. It has a turn lock on the battery compartment.
Somehow, not knowing my own brute strength, I had forced the lock past the point where it was creating a seal. And I was devastated. I removed the strobe arm from my housing and base for the weekend and resigned myself to taking video (as the flash on the Sea&Sea DX1200 is poxy compared to the strobe)
So the boys and I headed down the wall at Cream Gardens. Pete and Francois were on a mission but I slowed down a bit – I don’t like descending too rapidly, I prefer to cruise down to my maximum depth over 10 or so minutes. I started taking video at around 32m and noticed it was jumping all over the show so that also slowed me down.
I always love the early morning dive. Its my favourite of the trip.
Floating around in the early morning light … the fishes are darting around having breakfast … a new day begins.
I was lying on my back being a dork and watching Pete and Francois above me – I wasnt looking where I was going ……
Packing my twin 10L’s and being slightly more conservative than Pete and Francois meant that they buggered off back to the boat after about 30 mins and I spent the rest of the dive floating around the wall and cruising into the bay.
I attempted to take a couple of photographs but without the flash .. well they were not flash.
I contented myself by practicing trim and buoyancy and completing valve drills under the boat – they are so much easier with my new manifold and valves and I am quite comfortable stepping through the process.
Gold Ribbon Grouper / Photograph courtesy of seafriends.org
Once we were all back on board and had filled our tummies with bacon and eggs and baked beans and toast, we headed off down Tawhiti Rahi to Cave Bay.
I went for another dive with Pete and Francois and as Pete wanted to duck through the swim-through below 40m, Francois and I pottered along the wall at 32m and found another swim-through.
Again I was swearing at myself for not having a working strobe as sitting there in the swim-through was a beautiful gold ribbon grouper.
At the other side of the swim-through, I gave Pete my camera and asked him to video me going back through it towards the boat. Lets just say that he videoed me, from my waist to my knees.
Yes thats right, its all my butt!!!
Silly man thought he was just taking stills – although I dont know why I would want a still of my ass!!
Pete got a bit chilly so he headed up – and Francois and I both prefer deepstops, so we completed 2 mins at 17m and then another 4 at around 12m before heading up to our safety stop.
We headed straight down to Middle Arch for dive three and we were all in together.
Andrew and his photography students were cruising around the walls so we all acted as spotters for them if we found something interesting. Andrew also used his wide angle lens and sat in the archway with the sun behind him for some amazing diver photos.
me at Middle Arch / Photograph by Andrew Simpson
Phew! So a bit of a long trip report .. but a wicked weekend.
Loving the spring diving and loving my twins. Now to get the strobe fixed before the next trip!
Dive Data
Dive One @ Barren Arch
|| Depth : 30.3m | Time : 44 mins | Used Gas : 85 bar | SAC Rate : 8.77L/Min | Temperature : 16 degrees
Dive Two @Hope Point
|| Depth : 27.1m | Time : 59 mins | Used Gas : 100 bar | SAC Rate : 7.56L/Min | Temperature : 16 degrees
Dive Three @ Cream Gardens
|| Depth : 36.3m | Time : 56 mins | Used Gas : 109 bar | SAC Rate : 8.46L/min | Temperature : 16 degrees
Dive Four @ Cave Bay
|| Depth : 31.8m | Time : 39 mins | Used Gas : 78 bar | SAC Rate : 9.26L/Min | Temperature : 16 degrees
Dive Five @ Middle Arch
|| Depth : 18.1m | Time : 67 mins | Used Gas : 109 bar | SAC Rate : 8.65L/Min | Temperature : 16 degrees
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