“Great people, great boat, great dive sites and a great weekend” is how I heard one member of the SSAC group aboard Ocean Trek sum up the trip. The group consisted of members with as little as 20 dives under their belt, like myself, to members who’ve done so many dives they may as well have gills. It was a great trip for the inexperienced divers to gain extra confidence and develop further interest in being underwater.
From the time we were greeted at Huskisson wharf on Friday night by Mick’s beaming smile we were incredibly well looked after by the entire crew aboard Ocean Trek who were efficient, professional and friendly. They had extensive knowledge and experience on all of the dive sites around Jervis Bay so they were able to choose the optimum dive sites depending on the weather conditions. Friday night was a good chance for everyone to settle into the boat, chill out and have a few drinks.
Early Saturday morning the boat gingerly made its way over to Bowen Island, which is where we carried out the weekends diving. We did four dives at different dive sites; Weedy Valley, Aztec City Wall, Cross Rock and the Nursery Steps. For me, I only count three of them because the BCD I hired leaked air the entire first dive so I was stuck crawling along the sand at 25m until Jon was able to save me with his handyman skills and stopped the leak. By that time my air was low and had to go back to the boat. The marine life was out on show with Weedy Sea Dragons, Octopus, Gropers, Eels, Port Jackson Sharks, Cuttlefish, Wobbegongs, Nudibranchs and a large variety of colourful fish making appearances. One of the interesting part of the days diving was being greeted by a large amount of blue bottles once we got to the surface, they were not so welcomed because many of us swam through them and got a stung.
Saturday night was an interesting night where we were able to partake in a couple of activities put on by Mick. The first of which was music trivia (with 300+ songs) that was most keenly participated in by another group of friendly people on board the boat. The music trivia was definitely something for anyone older than “Gen Y” (my generation) because even though I’d heard many of the songs before I had no idea what they were called. I suppose it might’ve been like a trip down memory lane for everyone else who were around when those songs were more mainstream. The second activity was limbo which of course was only for the more agile people on board, everyone seemed to get a laugh out of how flexible people were (or weren’t). Following those activities we all sat around, listened music and drank beer/wine as the night drew to a close. In all, a great night of fun.
Sunday started off with a dive at Nursery Steps before we were going to be battered by a 35knot westerly. The general group consensus was that it was the best dive of the trip. There was loads of marine life! Only some of us were lucky enough to see Dolphins that swam by, definitely one of the highlights for me. A magnificent Grey Nurse Shark also made an appearance and once we got back to the boat people said they were actually getting tired of seeing 3m long Wobbegongs because there were so many. The final dive of the trip was a live drop on the eastern side of Bowen Island to avoid the westerly wind. We went from White Pointer Swim Through to Fall Rock.
In all it was a terrific trip and I know everyone went home impressed with a great weekend of diving. Special thanks to Monique for capably organising the trip.
