After a protracted period of re-negotiations and corrections to the dive calendar when everyone was so confused that they even forgot to blame each other we finally agreed that the dive on 24th March would be an impromptu dive with John Gor Gor on Scuba Monster. Thanks to Mike, or I guess that means Cath, for making the making the arrangements on our behalf. Once the word was out that SCDC were diving, John managed to entice a few of his regular divers to also join and we had a busy boat, just to prove that post-equinox, the summer has officially started (but not apparently in Scotland).
Our first dive was a cracker on "Tai Pai" which is the pinnacle inside Port Shelter and John will normally only ever dive there on a Saturday or a Monday. However, with the weather looking as happy as a diver who had his expansive and expensive SANTI drysuit leak, we did not have to worry too much about heavy surface traffic and we gave it a go! John gathered us together and warned us about the dangers of the site and the need to be careful where we surfaced and to follow the anchor line down and to surface near the anchor and to use a DSMB. He also let us know that on this site he has seen a turtle and an Eagle Ray in the last few years, but that only the first dive pair would ever be lucky enough to see this. What we failed to pick up was that during the last stages of the briefing the regulars had quietly kitted up and were already ready to jump in.
Anyway, it was a fabulous dive! The pinnacle at 8m was visible from the surface and there was an abundance of reef fish and crustaceans and quite a few nudibranchs, of the Glimnodoris variety and also a Lion Fish and even the first jelly fish of the season (summer has started!).
Between dives we had the "dry" suit divers imitated the antics of the funny inflatable Manga thing in Victoria Harbour, and creating a floating raft of puffiness that Stuart captured with his expert drone skills. Great fun was had by all, and there is some top footage here:
For the second dive we headed into Trio Beach and enjoyed the sargassium forrest in the shallows. There was a lovely feel to this dive site with an incredible number of fish fry about the rocks and sargassium and the water thick with life. Simply Lovely!
This is definitely a dive site worth diving again soon.
