Bare Island 02-01-08

Well, our first dive for 2008, again before work. We decided to do something a bit different. We entered the water at the back of the island heading for the deep wall. We had to time our entry with the waves but once across the kelp we hit deeper water. The viz was poor, only a few metres. We went down to the deep wall and headed East, intending to pass between the bommie and the island and back along the East side of the island, under the bridge and exit at the ramp. In deeper water, the viz was still poor and we were amazed at the amount of small jellyfish in the water. It was thick with them and stayed that way for some minutes as we slowly headed East. They tickled my mouth and cheeks. I was very pleased that these have no sting. Unsure of how far East to go we headed up into shallower water in the N-NE direction. As we went shallower it became surgy until at 5m, we were being pushed several metres each way. This was very uncomfortable and when amongst large rocks a bit dangerous. We headed further East to try to get into deeper water. We assume that we were over the bommie. It was quite a distance to the East before we hit deeper water and were able to drop down to the sand line. After that we followed the sand line North along the edge of the island. At one point Wayne became tangled in a fisher line. I had to cut him loose. Our apologies to the fisher. Te poor viz continued right up under the bridge and on the West side where we exited.

I assume that the big seas outside of Botany Bay were stopping the dirty water from being flushed out and replaced with clean water. Not the best of dives.