SS Undola 02-06-07

After a break of a month we headed out to one of our favourite wrecks, the Undola. The seas were small and far apart. At the wreck site there was no sign of out mooring buoy but there was a seal. The seal excited us as they often come down to the wreck and swim around divers. We put down the anchor, set up the deco and cross over. We had brought 2 blue 25L detergent drums to use of the mooring had been removed or damaged. We dragged that down to the bottom. Our anchor was 10m from the wreck resting in the sand so we moved it and secured it in the wreck, near the toilet. We immediately found our mooring line. It was wrapped around a piece of the wreck but still quite secure. We unlooped it and attached the detergent buoy to the rope, allowing the buoy to rise. We then could dive around the wreck. Viz was great and the seal did come and swim with us, coming quite close before zooming off again.

It was amazing to watch it swim down so fast, swim around us then zoom back up to the surface. If only we could ascend as quickly. The toilet name as visible (maybe Michael took the toilet brush down with him) and a ceramic frog and bucket on a beam forward of the toilet. Too soon our time was up. I headed up the anchor after releasing it while Wayne headed up the mooring line. After my deco I surfaced to see Wayne 30 m away to the south. He had secured the buoy to the mooring rope. He found that the lower buoy at 10m was still there. This is what we hoped, that if the top one was cut off by fishers, the one at 10 would still hold the mooring rope up.

This was my first dive with my new Apeks ATX200 regs and they performed brilliantly. Well worth it.