Diving!

I had two great dives today around Rottnest Island. Early start to the day as we had to meet in town at 7:30am! But once we got there, just checked in and left to drive to Fremantle by about 7:45. A bunch more people met us at the dock and it turned out we had a very full boat! We finally got to the island by about 9:30 or so. We traded some of the people on the boat (snorkellers) for some more divers from the island and headed off for the morning dive with about 18 divers or so.

Because I was signed up to do a refresher course (I hadn't been diving in 5 years!), I pretty much had an instructor to myself. The other two instructors on board each had four students with him. So my buddy/teacher and I decided we'd be about the last ones off the boat and headed off for dive number one. We were at a reef and rocks area with lots of swim-throughs and big caves. Tons of fish to see, and even more to see on the ground! I won't bore you all with the details because I could go on. And on. And on. But my favourite things this dive were these big bright orange sponges and the Codium, a really neat kind of algae. Also on this dive, I practiced getting my buoyancy (evil fin pivots) and regulator recovery/clearing. Important things to learn. I wasn't going to do a mask clear because of my contacts but then I wiggled it and had to do a partial one anyways. Ah well. Just a little water up the nose. Did about 35min on the bottom, to a depth of 11m (about 35').

Back on the boat, we headed back to the shop for lunch. The shop staff filled up our tanks while we ate and then back on the boat. Where we all got to put on our nice wet wetsuits! I, however, had taken mine off the boat and let it dry in the sun a bit so it wasn't too bad. I thought about leaving it on, but as it was nearly 30 degrees, I really had to take it off.

The second dive had a few things to see - 2 small wrecks and a reef wall. We started at the reef and saw a really really big fish. And apparently there was a ray, but I missed it! Too busy checking out the big urchins dug into the reef. Navigation down there was really tricky because the wrecks had some steel cargo and it messed with the compass. We found the first wreck which was pretty unrecognizable as a boat, but covered in plants and animals. Didn't get to the second wreck but I was happy. We spent nearly 45 minutes underwater on this dive, and only needed to go about 7m to see everything.

Overall, they weren't the best dives I've ever done but they were a great refresher and confidence booster! And I'm really excited to get up to Exmouth and see the Ningaloo Reef. Next month some time, I'm hoping!

And tomorrow's another early day. I have to be on the bus by 6:10 for my first day at work!