The weekend of tech – Part 2 “SS Kiama”
After the mad rush post dive Saturday afternoon to get deco stages topped off and twinsets filled the team met at Terrigal Boat ramp for part 2 of the weekend’s tech adventures. Turns out Terrigal Haven is the THE place to be on a drizzly Sunday morning and parking was already a challenge at 7.30am. Unfazed we snagged the last of the carparks, launched and loaded the boat, and we were on our way offshore to the wreck of the SS Kiama. The SS Kiama was a 446-ton 51m long collier that sank in a storm off the Terrigal Entrance bommie in 1951 and came to rest in 46m of water (check out Sam’s video from a few years ago HERE).
Heading offshore we quickly realised the perfect conditions forecast were a lie with a bit of wind swell around, however, I managed to not get seasick which means it can’t have been too bad. Gear on and shot line in we made our way to the wreck and were greeted with decent vis and the remains of an enormous boiler to check out. From there we ventured off over the debris field encountering a few big wobbegongs before the 25mins bottom time was up and were back on the line with 30mins of deco which we enjoyed with much more room than the day before. Making our way closer to shore the conditions were much calmer, so we decided to jump in for a quick 30min NDL dive and cruised around the Skillion headland which was a fantastic site with huge rock ledges and walls to check out, definitely a site worth trying to check out again.
An excellent couple of dives out to round out the weekend of tech. Big shout out to Ciaran our surface cover on the boat for the day who did a fantastic job of keeping the boat in position and taking care of things on the surface.
