The Advance was an iron screw steamer tug built in 1884 that was wrecked when she collided with Inverna off Catherine Hill Bay, on 25 December 1908 (see Wikipedia, NSW Maritime Heritage, and a newspaper report for more). The wreck lies upright on sand in 50 metres of water.
With a southerly wind change forecast, an 07:30 meet up, ready to load and dive, at Blacksmiths boat ramp just north of Swansea NSW, meant an early start for Mike, Fiona, Paul & Gary
With everyone running to time, we got out onto the water in Mike’s superb boat on schedule. Arriving at the wreck site after a slightly bumpy ride against the swell, approximately 5 nautical miles northeast of Catherine Hill Bay, we found a couple of friendly “Fishos” already on site. As we held our pre-dive brief and geared up the guys moved on and we had the wreck to ourselves. Mike dropped in the shot line and Paul stood boat cover for the divers. Sadly, soon after jumping in, Fiona had a gear malfunction on the surface and had to bail out. That left Mike & Gary to continue the dive.
Visibility wasn’t great and the shot line had drifted a good 15-20m from the wreck. Mike set a compass bearing. Gary set a strobe on the shot line and ran a reel from the shot to the wreck, which appeared as a dark shadow.
The tug’s bow rises 2 metres above the sand. The intact starboard side of her hull stretches out midway to the engine block and boilers. Under the twin cylinder steam engine and boiler were grouped well over a dozen very large cray fish.
With a bottom run time of a little over 25 minutes we had a fair bit of deco to do on the shot. We were safely out of the water in about 117 minutes.
With a good surface interval and a move to the inward side of Moon Island, Mike and Paul did a second shallower reef dive whilst Fiona and Gary stood for boat cover at anchor.
Back on shore, followed by a quick de-brief we were away before the wind and waves got too serious.
Thanks to Mike for a great day out
