Since I was in Perth, I took the opportunity to go for 2 dives. There were not many dive shops in Fremantle and the only one that I came across was of Dolphin Dive. So, I checked in for 2 dives and rented a 7mm wetsuit as the sea temperature would be about expected 18degrees Celcius. We were given the option to meet up at the jetty or in front of the dive shop at 0730.
Excited, my brother-in-law sent me to the shop at about 0720. There was a guy in a car waiting who later I got to know as John, a New Zealander working in the mines in Australia. He is an open water diver. About 10 minutes later, we saw a young girl walking towards the shop, and sitting herself there waiting. She is Hayley, a divemaster. There was still no sign of the shop owner. About 0830, I told my brother-in-law to proceed home while I continue waiting. Just then, a lady walked up to the shop and proceeded to open the dive shop! Another guy was also waiting nearby, Rob, who is an open water diver.
15 minutes later, a van pulled up and we were taken to the jetty. Talk about punctuality! i am no punctuality king but this is way off the promised time.
Reaching the jetty, I was shocked to see the number of divers who were going along with us. There was almost 30 over divers and more than half were students for the advance license. The boat was huge. We were carefully checked in and soon headed off to Rottnest Island. The skipper gave us the ground rules of the boat. About an hour later, we anchored for our dive.
Dive 1: Cigar Reef, Rottnest Island
The boat anchored at a depth of 25m. The skipper came to the deck and told us that the depth below the exit is about 25m and if we were to swim towards the front of the boat, we would be heading the reef with an average depth of 18m. That was it. No local guide to take us around. No explanation of what to expect, the current, the geography of the reef! Goodness! We were on our own. There were also very few photographers and I had the most complete set up! (which way not complete to Malaysian standards) I wasn’t happy but nobody seem to complain so I guess that is how it is done in Australia. In Malaysia, a local guide follows us for our dives and before the dive a thorough briefing is done about the dive site.
Anyway, the four of us somehow grouped up together and decided stick together. It was a giant stride into the icy cold waters as I felt I jumped into crushed ice. My dive computer recorded a 18degree and I could feel the cold cutting through my 7mm thick suit. My buddy, John ran into some problems with his bouyancy device(BCD) and aborted the dive immediately.
We descended into cooler waters and soon we were 18m deep and 17degree celcius . the visibility was about 5 to 8m and I was trying to adapt to these differences. Rob and Hayley were good in spotting things and so I just swam along till they called and then I shot the shots. Even my camera froze for a while before it came back to live. We managed to stay for about 50minutes before ascending. Enjoy the pictures!
Blue devil fish.
Star fish
Stonefish
Cuttlefish
Rob
Hayley
Rottnest Island
to be continued…….
