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The dive scheduled for today was the bommie underneath Bishop & Clark, on the outside of Maria Island. This bommie rises from about 35m to just breaking the surface.
I hadn’t dived it for several years, so I thought it was overdue for a revisit. I had memories of it being an excellent dive site. Taking some of the club crew along seemed a good idea, so onto the club calendar it went.
This is a moderately exposed location, so planning a dive here, weeks ahead, can be a bit optimistic. Lucky for us that we had a very nice weather window forecast for Saturday morning. 10-15kn North-westerly, sandwiched between winds of 20-25kn on Friday, and Saturday afternoon, heading ahead into the following week.
The boat was fully booked, and everyone turned up, so six of us headed out of Triabunna at 9am on the Saturday morning. The crew were Eric F, Mark A, Michael S, myself (Janine McK), and John Smith and Bob Van der Velde, both from Bicheno and just joining the club (actually, Bob was a retread). We had a brisk 15kn NW as we headed to Maria, but that’s OK as Y- Knot is a very sea-kindly vessel. The ride was comfortable, although drysuits were zipped, as there were a few damp moments.
It was a little sloppy on the bommie itself, mainly from the 10 kn Northerly wind. Swell was minimal. Everyone was still keen to dive there as the conditions were anticipated to be fine once a few metres below the surface. Michael had dived here before, and remembered it as an excellent dive, but the others were all virgins, and were very keen to see what was there.
The boat’s depth sounder was back at the repair (or warranty replacement, hopefully) shop, so it was convenient that we had a dive site where we didn’t need to find the depth before diving. The plan was to drop divers a few metres from the bommie, where they would be in only 5m, or so, and then they could follow the ridge down to their depth of choice.
Bob, John, Mark and Michael went in first, in buddy pairs. They were all diving single back mount tanks. They planned a dive to a maximum depth of 30m. They returned after a 40 minute dive reporting a lovely dive site, swarms of Butterfly Perch, and reasonable conditions. John got photos, so he seemed happy.
The wind was dropping, as forecast, when Eric and I dropped in only minutes after the last of the other four were back on the boat. Eric was diving his rebreather, of course, and I had sidemount 7lt tanks, carrying 28% Nitrox and a 3lt tank with 100% o2 deco gas. We planned to stay together as a buddy pair and a maximum depth of 35m. A Deco dive was planned, with a time of a maximum of 60 minutes total dive time.
We dropped quickly to 25m. There was a discernible current, from the north, but manageable. We followed along a ridge at this depth for some minutes. The terrain was interesting, with ledges and gullies. There was a diversity of corals and good fish life. The Butterfly Perch started gathering around us. We continued south, dropping over a series of ledges, to a maximum depth of 35m. The butterfly Perch were swarming now. We reversed the lead to Eric, and I had the joy of swimming along behind watching his little (or big!) herd of Butterfly Perch trailing him. I lost sight of him at times, there were so many.
I love these fish and I never get tired of watching them.
We swam around small pinnacles, along gullies, and over ridges. It was a beautiful dive, with excellent coral gardens. Visibility was reasonable, but not stunning. On a sunny day, with better water clarity, this would be an awesome place.
When we turned to retrace our steps to the bommie, we encountered slightly more of the current. It was somewhat of a slog back, but I may be just getting a bit lazy.
We have racked up a few minutes deco, but that was quickly cleared using 100% o2.
Surface conditions were even better when we returned to the boat, with winds less than 10kn. We moved immediately around to the Mercury Passage, as the vote for the second dive had definitely favoured a scallop gathering session. Michael had multiple orders to fill from friends and family, and he made some mention of promises for an evening BBQ he was attending.
The others had had lunch whilst Eric and I were in the water, so we got to eat ours as Bob drove us back around to the inside of the island.
Conditions were calm on the inside, our weather report was proving very accurate. We selected a spot that has had good scallops in the past and Bob dropped in to check if they were there. He reported affirmatively, and the others joining him. I had previously volunteered to be boat boy, as long as a few of those scallops made into my catch bag at the end of the day.
Bob was up first, several hundred metres down passage. There was a moderate northerly current running in the passage as well as outside. He had only managed a few scallops as he had quickly drifted off the bed. Eric came up next, several hundred metres from where Bob had been, with only a small catch. John had been videoing Michael and Mark, and he came up next, in a totally different place. We seemed to have scattered the crew all over the passage. The last two were a half hour later surfacing, as they had been determined to get a good haul. This they had achieved.
Everyone had used an SMB on surfacing, and this proved absolutely necessary. I would have had great difficulty finding all of them quickly without these markers, as they were all in widely spaced locations on surfacing.
The wind had been backing through the West, to the South West, during this time, and strengthening slowly. By the time Mark and Michael had surfaced we had heavy white caps, and approximately 20 kn of wind. Those SMB’s were very useful.
The trip back to Triabunna was a little rough but Y Knot handled it comfortably.
This was a top day out, in very enjoyable company.

Janine
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