Photo 1, 3 and 4 by Ben Crossett. Photo 2 by Anne Lewis.
Following on from Rick’s ravings about the diving on Stradbroke Island Ben decided it would be a perfect destination for a joint trip with our northern cousins BeeSAC. Ben rallied five divers from SSAC and Jason Pacey co-ordinated diving, food for 12, and the BeeSAC divers.
For most the trip started in Brisbane around 5am on Good Friday when alarms went off to get to the ferry port in time to meet where the skipper, Ken, and his troopie for the 7am ferry, however Ben, Al I decided rather than go for the early morning we would head over the night before so we left Brisbane Thursday afternoon to get a ferry to the island, via a shopping mall as Ben’s sleeping bag was still in Sydney! On arriving in Straddie we were pleased to find that Jason’s instructions to find the house were easy to follow even in the pouring rain. After Al’s ‘careful’ testing of the ground to find the quick sand we parked up, unloaded the car and sat down to enjoy our pizza dinner and drinks.
Photo 1 to 3 by Ben Crossett. Photo 4 by Anne Lewis.
Note to self: just because the oven says it is at 220C don’t just put the pizza in for the length of time it says on the box without checking part way through cooking and always buy a second pizza in case you cremate the first one.
The following day rest of the crew arrived with the sunshine and bearing breakfast, which as it was Good Friday breakfast consisted of Hot Cross Buns. After breakfast we we set up our dive kit.
Photos by Anne Lewis
Note to Ross: Your housing and strobe, however carefully it has been transported, is no use in Queensland when the camera is still in NSW.
Diving with Ken consists of launching the large rib from a beach into the surf then all jumping in and heading to the dive site. As it was Easter the usual launch site Ken uses was closed but there was another beach available so we successfully launched the rib and headed out eagerly for the first dive.
Unfortunately for us the weather in Moreton Bay hadn’t been to kind in the run up to Easter and there was still a lot of rough water and poor visibility, except for at Flat Rock. All the diving over the three days was therefore restricted to around flat rock so not a manta ray to be seen. This didn’t stop plenty of other sea life coming to visit including a huge flock of eagle rays, plenty of turtles, wobbies, puffers and many other tropical reef fish.
On the way back to the beach on Friday we had an impromptu stop to pick up hundreds of meters of rope that was trailing around the sea surface waiting to ensnare an unsuspecting boatie and lost crab nets they were attached to. Unfortunately with this delay and the late start by the time we got back to shore the tide level wasn’t the best to recover the boat back on the trailer. We managed to get the boat a fair way up the beach but the sand around it was too soft for Ken to get the troopie close enough so for the next few hours a lot of umming and arring took place. Eventually a decision was to unload the boat and this enabled a successful recovery of the boat.
Note to onlookers: if you are going to stop your car to gawp at people having problems with soft sand don’t stop on the soft sand too.
Friday dinner was fish all beautifully cooked by Jason followed by popcorn. An early night was in order as everyone was tired from the dawn rise and we were diving again at 7am the next day.
Saturday dawned dry and sunny with a successful days diving around flat rock, followed by a quick recovery of the boat due to getting back closer to high water meant we were back at the house before lunchtime. The afternoon was spent buying booze and snoozing before the evenings wood fired barbecue and a showing of Harry Potter for the fans, while the muggles chatted out on the balcony.
Sunday had the worst of the seas. Ken tried to find us a different place to dive but the seas and visibility were against us so it was back to where we had been on the first two days but this time diving little flat rock. It was on the first dive of today that Ben discovered the joys of diving wet whilst wearing a drysuit. This was due to the spectacular failure of his new zip, or more specifically the glue used to stick it to the suit! Ben, are you still sure that new miniature wing has enough lift? Note from Ben: I made it back to the boat didn’t I!
Being our last night we hit the bowling club for an end of trip dinner and where the beer was definitely flowing and the empty jugs of Blue Tongue multiplying rapidly, until they closed the bar and told us it was time to go home. Most went straight to bed the hard core decided to tackle a bottle of rum. Hats off to Jason Neil for managing to make it up for breakfast the following day.
Monday morning arrived all too quickly and it was time pack up and head back to the mainland and on to Sydney for the SSAC divers. There were many discussions on where to hold our next interclub dive so whilst this was the first time SSAC BeeSAC have joined together I’m sure this won’t be the last.
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