TECH WEEKEND JUNE 2008

After months of solid planning and a rather inauspicious start to the weekend (running slightly late!), we arrived at the boat to be greeted by smiles and an air of adventure.
Everyone was in great spirits and enthusiastic for what was to become an absolutely ground breaking weekend worth of diving. With dive gear, deco cylinders and gas mixes being checked and rechecked, the buzz around the boat was that of excitement and anticipation.

Having about 4 hrs to motor out and settle in for a comfortable night's sleep gave me the perfect opportunity to catch up with everyone, have a few drinks, note everyone's expectations and set some plans for the weekend. The ST.PAUL was on everyone's mind.

With big cat's engines firing up at 5.30am, it wasn't long before divers started surfacing eagerly anticipating an entry to the St. Paul. Anchors away and a momentary lapse to check current and conditions, then it was all systems go. With 12 tech divers, 6 advanced divers and several fun divers the dive deck was a buzz with excitement, and as you can imagine it was "Twin City" and of course Deco bottles galore. First to hit the water were the tech divers with a 35 minute bottom time. Not to be disappointed our descent was greeted with 40+ visibility, no current and a warm 22 degree water temp. Reaching the bottom we were checked over by a very inquisitive and rather large bull ray, we saw schools of pelagic and off to the port side were several rays nestled in the sandy bottom whilst a large turtle floated by, "unbelievable". After having a good poke around it was time to leave and start our ascent and our deco time.
During our dive we had noticed the advanced divers (doing their Deep course) had been and gone, the fun divers now leaving with us, and the staff now splashing in and descending. Why not get everyone in, the conditions were absolutely fantastic and a dive not to be missed. Here's an extra treat, dolphins on the bars at 6 mtrs, I kid you not and we have the pics to prove it.

After Breakfast we headed off to Cherubs Cave where our group of recreational divers got in for their second dive as those of us who are Technical diving needed a four hour surface interval.

YY, Meg and Charlotte came back up after about 23mins bubbling about how "AWESOME" it was, heaps of fish, at least 4 Grey Nurse Sharks and the water a balmy 23deg with of course exceptional visibility!

We all had a light lunch then the Techies got their gear together and did another hour long deco dive. Of course the beauty of having twin tanks and "off gassing on a 50mix" is that we can stay down longer to check out the cave, swim throughs and surrounding areas a lot more thoroughly.

Once all were aboard it was off to Henderson's Rock, for those who have never been here before there are lots of overhangs and cave's all waiting to be explored, truly an amazing site. Again conditions were good but the comment was "ah the vis has dropped a bit, only 30mtrs!!!!!

After Henderson's we motored off to a secret spot where the "slug" was dropped for some of the Techies to do a dusk/night dive. While the conditions are this great it was the perfect opportunity to check this site out. The outcome is we need to come back and dive it again, some very interesting exploring to be done here.

The next morning Mick had a very early start, (4am!) to do gas mixes and at 5.30 "Big Cat" got underway for a return look at the St Paul. Now, to do a dive on the St Paul on big cat is a first in a while, but to do two in a weekend is a new record for "Big Cat".

Today there was a current, which made it more of a challenge getting down and sitting around on the deco station. Again the vis was good but had dropped to 30+, the wreck and marine life on the wreck still made for an awesome dive!

Our second dive for the day was to Middle Mountain where Meg found a HUGE wobbiegong, lots of Cray's and a maximum depth of about 28m, no current and again superb visibility.

Now to top off this fantastic weekend of diving our last dive and probably the most exploratory dive of the weekend was on the Cement Co. One of the joys of twin tanks and Nitrox is longer bottom times and we took full advantage of this for this dive. I took Dave G (his first time on the cement co) for a tour around the bow section before heading along the port side towards the stern and into the engine room for a play. Upon exiting we then proceeded along the holds and deck levels to explore some more.

Well, as with all dive trips the hard part is cleaning up and getting your gear together for the trip back home. On our return home we had a surprise birthday cake for Charlotte and got to view the weekends diving by Big Cat videographer Josh Jensen.

So all in all, the entire trip was an enormous success, everyone enjoyed their dives and the consensus was "we definitely have to do it again".

Thanks to the crew of Big Cat Reality for all of their hard work and going on a limb to try something different.

DiveXsite will be running more Technical trips on Big Cat in the future. DiveXsite also runs day Tech trips during the year and has our overseas trip to Truk Lagoon in September where you can enjoy 10 days of technical and/or fun dives.

If you are interested in learning about Technical diving, Deep, Wreck or Nitrox Specialties and would like to know more please call us on 3357 7745 we would be
only too happy to help.