Rye Pier, Scallop Drift
Feb. 24th, 2010 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sharplittleteethWe went down to Rye and Portsea last Saturday, with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kitling and nigelw and Tom and Nat.
The plan was for Tom, Nigel and me to scuba dive Rye Pier in the morning, then do a Scallop Drift boat dive from Portsea in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, Nigel hurt his arm and wasn't diving. And the conditions at Rye Pier were terrible: visibility of less than a metre, and lots of swell. We called the dive off after five minutesand went snorkelling instead.
Then we had lunch at the Portsea Hotel while our tanks were refilled.
After lunch, the Scallop Drift dive. Which was interesting, rather than good. Basically, they throw a long rope off the boat with a bouy on one end. Five of six divers line up side by side along the rope, descend, then let the current push them over the flat sea bed.
We saw a couple of small rays and a banjo shark. But the dive was really aimed at scallop hunters. Mostly we were just drifitng over a flat brown plain, getting in the scallopers way. So, an interesting dive to do, but not one I'd bother repeating.
Still, I was back in the water. It's been over a year since I did my course, and a couple of months since I dived the ex-HMAS Brisbane up in Mooloolaba. Any diving is better than no diving.
I still feel awkward in the water. My bouyancy is all over the place, I can steer properly, I get tangled up in lines. It's like being surrounded by the most exhilarating song in the world, and I just can't move my feet in rhythym. But it's so beautiful down there, in the quiet and the weightlessness.
My photos from the day are up on Flickr.
kitling and nigelw and Tom and Nat.The plan was for Tom, Nigel and me to scuba dive Rye Pier in the morning, then do a Scallop Drift boat dive from Portsea in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, Nigel hurt his arm and wasn't diving. And the conditions at Rye Pier were terrible: visibility of less than a metre, and lots of swell. We called the dive off after five minutesand went snorkelling instead.
Then we had lunch at the Portsea Hotel while our tanks were refilled.
After lunch, the Scallop Drift dive. Which was interesting, rather than good. Basically, they throw a long rope off the boat with a bouy on one end. Five of six divers line up side by side along the rope, descend, then let the current push them over the flat sea bed.
We saw a couple of small rays and a banjo shark. But the dive was really aimed at scallop hunters. Mostly we were just drifitng over a flat brown plain, getting in the scallopers way. So, an interesting dive to do, but not one I'd bother repeating.
Still, I was back in the water. It's been over a year since I did my course, and a couple of months since I dived the ex-HMAS Brisbane up in Mooloolaba. Any diving is better than no diving.
I still feel awkward in the water. My bouyancy is all over the place, I can steer properly, I get tangled up in lines. It's like being surrounded by the most exhilarating song in the world, and I just can't move my feet in rhythym. But it's so beautiful down there, in the quiet and the weightlessness.
My photos from the day are up on Flickr.
