Photos by Ben Crossett
The mission: dive the newest shipwreck in NSW: ex.HMAS Adelaide Having been blown out on the previous attempt, the weather gods choose to smile on us this time with light winds, flat seas and beautiful sunshine. The pickup point was Bayview boat ramp, at the bottom of Pittwater, with a handy pontoon everyone was on board The Tropicat and ready to roll by the 11:45 departure time and after a quick brief we were powering down Pittwater at a fair lick, out past Lion Island, and then about a 20 minute ride to Terrigal and ex-HMAS Adelaide (click here for pdf of dive site). There were four other boats on the moorings but by the time we had kitted up and were in the water, a couple had packed up and gone, so it was very quiet on the wreck. Gary I went in under the bridge, with Gary quickly finding the toilets, before we went on the kitchens, then dropped down a deck, past the generator, and prop shaft (the engines were removed before scuttling) and on to the gearbox. We worked out way back, and exited though a nice whole someone had cut in the stern, and dropped down to the sand (about 32m) and went in search of the props (no joy). Coming back along the deck we went into the helicopter hanger. From there we worked our way up over the bridge before having to drop back down to the deck to find the line back to the morning which are set approx 20m off the wreck, way more than the vis that day.
After a cuppa soup during the surface interval and a second dive it was soon time to head back in the setting sun, getting back to the boat ramp around dusk.
Photos by Ben Crossett
Photos by Ben Crossett
