Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site

Thursday 1 July 2010 - Shark Point and Clovelly Pool
Club night dive. Millpond seas. Went in off Shark Point but once on the bottom my AirZ computer would not read the tank contents. Stayed for a while but had to ascend. A pity, as visibility at least 30 metres. Others continued the dive. I got out and tried to pair the transmitter to computer without luck. Walked back to pool and dived here for 16 minutes. Same visibility. Little fish seen except some mado and a couple of seapike. Visibility excellent.

Saturday 3 July 2010 - Middle Ground
Club dive to SS Tuggerah but the winds were S and too strong. Quite choppy. Took 3 goes to anchor, Kelly had to pull it up twice from 32 metres! Kel ended up not diving due to sinus, when Peter F and I got to bottom, found a large loggerhead turtle right near the anchor. Lots of yellowtail and some seapike as well as a school of 20 good sized bream. One sea dragon and a lot of purple dragons. Visibility good.

Sunday 4 July 2010 - The Colours

Club dive. Still a bit windy, but westerly. Large swell, much bigger than yesterday. Kelly ended up not diving again due to sinus problems. Went S first and then shallower and back N past anchor. Then back to anchor and some time here. Huge schools of silver sweep and one-spot pullers and lots of large seapike. Also some PJs and one wobbegong. Excellent dive. Visibility very good.

Monday 5 July 2010 - The Leap
Went ENE at start rather than the normal N. Dropped over a large wall to 20 m. Then E along the wall. Ended up SE. At 15 mins turned around. The visibility out here was at least 40 m!! Then drifted back on incoming tide. Did not see one sea dragon, but quite a few nudibranchs and three pregnant PJs. Some one spot pullers, a few moasic leatherjackets, one huge. Viz dropped to 20 m near exit. Brilliant dive. Visibility very excellent.

Saturday 10 July 2010 - Barrens Hut/The Split
Calmer seas than expected, almost millpond. At least 30 m viz. Did normal dive, Kelly refound the two upsidedown pipefish she found here last dive. Lots of PJs, one-spot pullers and bastard trumpeters. Heard humbacks singing through the entire dive. A fantastic dive. Visibility excellent.

Tuesday 13 July 2010 - Shark Point

Went SE as normal to sand. Viz was so good, we went out to a deeper wall after about 15 minutes. Went a lot further N than normal. Headed back W at about 30 minutes. Had to skirt very shallow water at 35 mins by heading SW to rock platform. Lots of PJs, two blue devilfish, some seapike and silver sweep as well as one-spot pullers. Excellent visibility.

Wednesday 14 July 2010 - Hungry Jacks
Kelly's first dive with new drysuit - was a little underweighted. Just after anchoring wind really picked up from W. Sea was rolling E swell. Went N along reef. Saw a male and female eastern king wrasse. A couple of sea dragons and some seapike. Quite a few one-spot pullers and silver sweep as well as a few PJs. Back to anchor and S for a little bit. Very choppy when we surfaced. Visibility very good.

Saturday 17 July 2010 - Barrens Hut/The Split

Club boat dive, 4 boats, 20 members. Quite choppy and largish swell. Kelly and I both forgot to take our computers, had to go by Bram's. Went along Split and refound the upsidedown pipefish. Then to cave and back via back of reef wall. I found three sawtooth pipefish in a small overhang in the gully S of the S end of The Split. All the normal fish. Visibility good.

Sunday 18 July 2010 - SS Birchgrove Park

Club wreck dive, 8 diving. Seas lot better than yesterday. Ran up on Frenchmans boat. Very dark on bottom, a bit of a dirty layer on way down plus sun very low. Anchored in front of boiler. Went to bridge and then prop. Could not find Rick Latimer's plaque. Went along hull bottom to boiler and then forward to bow. Then back to anchor and out along mast. Then up. Best dive I have done on the wreck. Visibility very good.

Thursday 22 July 2010 - Shiprock
Club night dive. Water quite cold, down to 15.2C. Lots of cuttlefish, two wobbegongs, a few frogfish, some squid, a bunch of striped catfish under a ledge, a few nice whiting, one huge flathead, no nudis and no pineapplefish. Visibility good.

Saturday 24 July 2010 - Pizza Reef
Quite rough seas, could only get to Pizza Reef. Took a couple of goes to anchor as current from NW and wind from SW made it hard. Lots of seapike near cave, as well as a few bastard trumpeters. Had a really nice dive. Visibility very good.

Friday 30 July 2010 - Bare Island Isolated Reefs
It was good to get into the water and away from the stress of the last few days with the loss of my Father. Despite this, I found myself constantly thinking of him as I progressed through the dive. Kelly and I went in through the pool and down to the S side of IR1. The viz was about 20 m here. We went to IR2 and found a sea dragon and then another. On the N side we found a red Indianfish. There were a lot of small bream about as well as yellowtail etc. Back on a rock past the smaller cave, I found a small Whites sea horse. Looks like Bare Island might have got over the bad viz. Visibility very good.

Saturday 31 July 2010 - Bare Island Isolated Reefs
Did again today with 10 members of the Club. Did the same dive. Found 3 red Indianfish, no sea horse, a couple of sea dragons, a lot of silver sweep, some octopus, more "opera house" nudis. Very nice dive. Visibility very good.

Sunday 1 August 2010 - Shiprock

Did the normal dive. No pipefish or pineapplefish. Lots of small snapper near start and many luderick as well. A few small cuttlefish, a squid and a few seapike and whiting. Kelly found a bottle, Carr-Pal Aerated Waters Bottling Co from Campsie as well as an old KB "keg" or "hand grenade". Visibility very good.

Monday 2 August 2010 - Yena Wall

Strong W wind and flat seas so decided to try something different. Went in off N side of Yena Flat at Kurnell and went NE. After 5 mins came to a wall that dropped to 15 m. Followed this E and it gradually went to about 17 m. The wall turned a little SE and then petered out. Followed another wall at 14 m that went SE and then S. This gradually came up to 9 m. There was a large cave along this wall with lots of bullseyes. Saw an eastern blue devilfish on the deeper wall in a small cave, lots of luderick, yellowtail and ladder-finned pomfrets at the start of this wall. Afew blackfish, some cuttlefish, lots of PJs and one horned shark. Surfaced to check and was right off the exit point. Went back down and a large seal swam right up to me and past the others. Exited to E of carpark. Visibility very good.

Tuesday 3 August 2010 - Shiprock
Last dive before Dad's funeral and we head off to Central Australia. Extremely strong S winds last night, 75 kts at Wattamolla. Refound the sea horse we saw on 13 and 14 June. Was in the exact same place, who knows where it was since. On the way back found 3 wobbegongs. Lots of bream, small snapper, seapike and whiting in the shallows. Visibility poor.

For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here.