Rec dive report (for LCF, of course)
No pics, sorry.
Met up with a buddy who I haven't dived with in months. We had a good chat while we waited for the third person to turn up. We discussed buddy checks, and how nobody ever does them. Our third person arrived, got kitted up and headed into the water whilst we were gabbing. We zipped our wetsuits up, and headed down the beach. On the way, I did the casually inconspicuous buddy check I always do.
The site was Shelly Beach, a very shallow and protected site, that is also a marine reserve. Max depth (with a shovel), 40'. Our plan was to swim out along the rock wall on the northern side, then veer northwest to get to an isolated bommie that sometimes has weedy sea dragons on it. We dropped down in about 10' of water, and swam out along the wall. There were plenty of fish, masses of juvenile hula fish, plus mado and drummer. Bullseyes hang out under ledges, and I looked under all the rocks to find a wobbegong. I found the head the same time my buddy found the tail, and we both waved frantically to each other. There was one particular rock with about 30 little shrimp under it. Why so many in one spot? I don't know.
We found the bommie without any trouble and searched all over for weedies. Didn't find any, though there were wrasse, cale, sergeant bakers and flathead. Time to turn around, so we headed back to the wall. On the way back we found two weedy sea dragons floating over the sand. I wish I could show you guys, they are so sweet, and graceful.
On the way back, the buddy with the compass (the other guy didn't have one) headed out over the sand. I was pretty happy, because most people think the sand is boring. It turned out he was just lost. Lots of stingarees, and snapper, which are fished out in other places. Lots more mado. If you stir up the sand a bit, the mado will flock to the silt cloud to see if anything tasty turned up. We ended up on the southern wall. Buddy-with-the-compass had given up navigating, so buddy-without-a-compass was in front. Suddenly, buddy w/o-c. stiffened, and spun round. I knew he must have seen a shark. Shelly is known as a nursery for whaler sharks, but I had never seen them, so I was very excited. He pointed off into the 15m viz, and right and the edge of it I could see a blurry, possibly shark-like shape. We swam after it, and were rewarded with several good glimpses. There seemed to be two. We ran across a school of squid, and hung out with them for a bit, because we thought the sharks might be hunting them. Squid are awesome in their own right, with their silly tentacles. They beat their fins (is that the right word?) up and down, like they are flying underwater. The squid went away, and we hadn't seen the sharks for a bit, so we headed back. Buddy w/o c. was well in front. I looked up from watching a moray eel slithering through the seaweed to see the sharks again, about 5 metres away. I quickly pointed them out. Buddy w/o c. took off after them. Buddy with compass stayed with me, and we swam along the direction he'd gone. Other buddy didn't come back, so I went to the surface to look for him. Saw him climbing out over the rock wall. He said later “I knew you'd be right.” My remaining buddy and I exited at the old boat ramp. Great dive! Max depth 11.5m, time 83 minutes.
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