Diving Cook Is.

5:45am Arrived at Go Dive shop, loaded up the trailer and set off down the M1 to Tweed Heads in N.S.W. Had a fast run and arrived on the river front at 7:00am where we were greeted by pelicans. The sky was blue and the water was very calm and flat as we loaded up the dive boat and set off to the dive site with no spare seats. I wouldn't normally think of diving in this area but today was special because Zoe was taking her first open water dive and was about to qualify as a diver. She was very confident and had no problems setting up her equipment and getting ready to dive. I am very proud of Zoe the way she conducts herself, it shows independence and confidence within and strength of character. I don't think that I could have done this at 14 years of age, so well done that girl. I buddied up with Tod who is the father of a lovely 12 year old girl on the same open water course.

Dive 1:

Bottom time: 50min
Max depth: 14.5m
Temp: 21c

What was supposed to be a simple wall dive, simply wasn't. The visibility was at best 5m and the current was strong in all directions. We set off due east heading into the current and passed mooring lines 3 then 4 and went a little bit further; checked air pressure and turned around when I was at 100 bar followed the wall back whilst heading due west and found the current was very head strong making it difficult to return. We both surfaced and took a rest which made me feel sea sick bobbing up and down. I said to Tod it will be better if we try to find the wall and some depth to which he agreed. 5 mins later he signalled that he was tired and wanted to surface again, when we saw how far the boat was we descended once again to find the wall. Once on the wall the current swept us towards the mainland past the dive boat on mooring 2 where I spotted another mooring line with no.1 tied to it. I felt like I was in a washing machine and didn't enjoy the conditions at all. I was cold, the visibility was poor and the current was tiring to say the least. The dive brief was also poor so we didn't know the dangers, how far to go, when to turn around etc.

OK enough moaning, it's not Go Dives fault that the current was strong and the visibility was poor and I was most impressed at what I saw during the ordeal. Firstly we saw 5 large green turtles, one with a tracking device fitted to it's shell, one small turtle covered in white barnacles, one the size of a table and one with one large barnacle that looked like a volcano on the side of it's shell. There was an abundance of fish to see and interact with. Black trigger fish were friendly for once, saw a large shoal of barracuda, many different species of parrot fish, stone fish, bull ray, clams, sponges everywhere, sea urchins of all sizes and some lovely soft corals with yellow and black stripes. One type of sea urchin was black with bright blue/purple star patterns on the shell. Saw my first wobbegong shark sleeping on a rock and didn't know what it was.

I would like to dive this site again when the visibility is better as there is a lot to see and I'm sure it has a lot more to offer than I found.

Surface interval of 1hr: Couldn't eat or drink, was heaving from the smell of neoprene and the motion of the ocean, I hate small boats and will but sea sickness pills for next time.

We saw three dolphins close to the boat and watched two whales heading south. Whale watching season is almost over for the year so we were lucky to see them.


Dive 2:

Bottom time: 40 min
Bottom depth: 18m
Temp: Uncomfortably cold

Second dive was to head due north for 50m and explore and area called turtle reef or gardens then return to the boat. What a shit brief, just head over there you can't miss it. Well Tod had a compass that he didn't know how to use so I took a bearing from the position of the sun and the lines in the sand to get a sense of direction and down we went. We swam and swam and saw bugger all but rocks and sand, we did however find two turtles and one large wobbegong shark which was cool but other than that we were both cold and didn't enjoy the dive. Tod found three gold balls that got washed from somewhere up the river and he used up all of his air trying to keep warm. That dive was so bad that on the bus ride home I was thinking to myself, I've just bought a new wetsuit, snorkel, mask and fins plus a dive knife and paid for Zoe to qualify as a diver so that we can dive together and here I am feeling sick, tired, disappointed and out of pocket. Is it all worth it? When I get home I have to run a bath and wash everything in fresh water, then rinse in a soap solution and hang out to dry. Give me a big live aboard dive boat any day and keep the day diving for those who can't get time off work.