Tales from the Back Deck

Saturday morning has found us up at the Drum and Drumsticks, with the customers diving on the Wandra.

A beautiful morning, even though I stayed up a little late, errr, being social with the customers, I still really loved the sun on the water this morning. Such a beautiful clear, warm and sunny morning, it is like Summer is here already. A dive on the Wandra for me, to mark it for those who couldn't find it, then a bit of a swim around the wreck.

I love diving the Wandra. Partly because I love all wrecks, and partly because I just love diving in this area. Even when the vis is not so good, you can still see from the engines to the props, 10-15 metres. The rudder behind must have been of a different wood or treated differently, as it is still well preserved and the beatiful metal is still shiny.

This wreck is more of a wreck site than a wreck. There is no hull. To the North there is the rudder, propellers and as you move south, the prop shafts, engines and then the boiler. The boiler is always covered in colourful growth, ascidians, gorgonia, and sometimes a big conga eel who lives within will come out to say hello.

On the next dive most of the divers find the wreck, either by following my mark, or because they had only to descend directly onto the wreck.

Sunday morning, after sleeping overnight at The Docks, finds us out under the cliffs again. We're rolling gently with the swell, under the cliffs, watching a pelican feed, and generally enjoying his lazy sunday.

It's very nice just sitting there, watching the puffy white clouds slowly creep over the cliffs. The lighthouses a stark white comparison to the horizontal lines of the rocky cliffline.

While waiting at point perp between dives, a pod of whales swims past. Everyone stops what the are doing, boats, divers, just to watch these big mammals puff a few puffs of air and spray as they make their way northwards.

The weather has turned idyllic, the bay is now so flat you could water ski across, it. We motor back to Husky for lunch and to disembark, another gorgeous weekend soon to end.

Really groovy bunch of people. Dive Centre Bondi.