Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site

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Michael and Kelly's 4WD Trips

	Click here for a list of our Four Wheel Drive and Camping Trips.

Home Brewing

	Click here for an article about Home Brewing.

Current Kirrawee Weather

A summary of the current weather conditions at our house at Kirrawee, Sydney, is below. Click here for more Detailed Diving Weather and Conditions. Weather from Michael McFadyen's Tempe Weather Station

Conditions at 1:02 on 16/8/10

Temperature 10.5°C

Humidity 70%

Barometer 1005.12hPa
Rate 0.603hPa/hr

Wind Speed: 0 km/hr

Wind Direction NNE

Rainfall for Today 0.00mm

Rainfall last hour 0.00 mm

Rainfall last 24 hours 0.00 mm

Rainfall at Start of Month 875.00 mm

Rainfall this Year 875.00 mm

Today's Extremes

High Temperature 11.3°C at 0:01

Low Temperature 10.5°C at 1:00

Peak Wind Gust 0km/hr at 0:01

Weather from Michael McFadyen's Kirrawee Weather Station

Yesterday's Extremes

High Temperature 17.7°C at 11:04

Low Temperature 10.1°C at 7:15

Rainfall at Start of Yesterday 875.00 mm

Rainfall at End of Yesterday 875.00 mm

Weather from Michael McFadyen's Tempe Weather Station

Astronomical Data

Sunrise 6:36

Sunset 17:28

Moonrise 10:01

Moonset ---

Welcome

I established this Web Site about scuba diving in Sydney, NSW, Australia and the South Pacific, as well as a few other places, in June 1996.

Since then it has gone through a few different versions. This latest version is the fourth and was completed in July 2006.

The site has grown from a few pages to almost 800 separate pages. Well over 650 dives are covered, mostly in detail and most with photographs and some with maps.

I am fairly confident that this is not only the largest diving related web site in the World, it also has more hits than any diving related web site in Australia.

This site is a non-commercial site and is unrelated to any dive organisation. It is purely here to provide divers with an information source to increase their enjoyment of scuba diving, shipwrecks and marine life in general. I hope that my experiences can help you when you are planning a dive trip, whether it is locally in Sydney, New South Wales, somewhere else in Australia or the Pacific Ocean region.

Any and all comments are welcome, as is any information to enhance the pages, especially more information about ships or shipwrecks or corrections to pages.

I have also included some articles on non-diving related interests, especially four wheel driving and camping.

NOTE:

This site is best viewed using a screen sized at 1024 x 768 pixels. If you use a smaller screen, some photographs may force a page that extends off the screen and cause printing problems. I cannot avoid this problem. It may also cause some photos to run over top of text. If you find any of these, please let me know as I should be able to fix.

In addition, some wide screen monitors (newer laptops especially) may have a screen that is too wide for the page and this may cause photos to appear in strange places. If you find this, let me know and I will see if I can fix.

I have now added a Search facility to the site. You can access this by clicking on Search on the menu at the top of the page.

Sydney Dive Site Hints

	"Bare Island Isolated Reefs have sea dragons, red indianfish and sea horses"

News

Away in Central Australia

Kelly and I will be away for the last three weeks of August 2010 and the first week of September on a four wheel drive and camping trip to Central Australia. As such, there will be no updates to this site for about four weeks and I will not be able to answer any emails sent to me till we return towards mid-September.

Michael on 04 August 2010 00:00 ·

My Recent Dives - July & August 2010

Thursday 1 July 2010 - Shark Point and Clovelly Pool
Club night dive. Millpond seas. Went in off Shark Point but once on the bottom my AirZ computer would not read the tank contents. Stayed for a while but had to ascend. A pity, as visibility at least 30 metres. Others continued the dive. I got out and tried to pair the transmitter to computer without luck. Walked back to pool and dived here for 16 minutes. Same visibility. Little fish seen except some mado and a couple of seapike. Visibility excellent.

Saturday 3 July 2010 - Middle Ground
Club dive to SS Tuggerah but the winds were S and too strong. Quite choppy. Took 3 goes to anchor, Kelly had to pull it up twice from 32 metres! Kel ended up not diving due to sinus, when Peter F and I got to bottom, found a large loggerhead turtle right near the anchor. Lots of yellowtail and some seapike as well as a school of 20 good sized bream. One sea dragon and a lot of purple dragons. Visibility good.

Sunday 4 July 2010 - The Colours

Club dive. Still a bit windy, but westerly. Large swell, much bigger than yesterday. Kelly ended up not diving again due to sinus problems. Went S first and then shallower and back N past anchor. Then back to anchor and some time here. Huge schools of silver sweep and one-spot pullers and lots of large seapike. Also some PJs and one wobbegong. Excellent dive. Visibility very good.

Monday 5 July 2010 - The Leap
Went ENE at start rather than the normal N. Dropped over a large wall to 20 m. Then E along the wall. Ended up SE. At 15 mins turned around. The visibility out here was at least 40 m!! Then drifted back on incoming tide. Did not see one sea dragon, but quite a few nudibranchs and three pregnant PJs. Some one spot pullers, a few moasic leatherjackets, one huge. Viz dropped to 20 m near exit. Brilliant dive. Visibility very excellent.

Saturday 10 July 2010 - Barrens Hut/The Split
Calmer seas than expected, almost millpond. At least 30 m viz. Did normal dive, Kelly refound the two upsidedown pipefish she found here last dive. Lots of PJs, one-spot pullers and bastard trumpeters. Heard humbacks singing through the entire dive. A fantastic dive. Visibility excellent.

Tuesday 13 July 2010 - Shark Point

Went SE as normal to sand. Viz was so good, we went out to a deeper wall after about 15 minutes. Went a lot further N than normal. Headed back W at about 30 minutes. Had to skirt very shallow water at 35 mins by heading SW to rock platform. Lots of PJs, two blue devilfish, some seapike and silver sweep as well as one-spot pullers. Excellent visibility.

Wednesday 14 July 2010 - Hungry Jacks
Kelly's first dive with new drysuit - was a little underweighted. Just after anchoring wind really picked up from W. Sea was rolling E swell. Went N along reef. Saw a male and female eastern king wrasse. A couple of sea dragons and some seapike. Quite a few one-spot pullers and silver sweep as well as a few PJs. Back to anchor and S for a little bit. Very choppy when we surfaced. Visibility very good.

Saturday 17 July 2010 - Barrens Hut/The Split

Club boat dive, 4 boats, 20 members. Quite choppy and largish swell. Kelly and I both forgot to take our computers, had to go by Bram's. Went along Split and refound the upsidedown pipefish. Then to cave and back via back of reef wall. I found three sawtooth pipefish in a small overhang in the gully S of the S end of The Split. All the normal fish. Visibility good.

Sunday 18 July 2010 - SS Birchgrove Park

Club wreck dive, 8 diving. Seas lot better than yesterday. Ran up on Frenchmans boat. Very dark on bottom, a bit of a dirty layer on way down plus sun very low. Anchored in front of boiler. Went to bridge and then prop. Could not find Rick Latimer's plaque. Went along hull bottom to boiler and then forward to bow. Then back to anchor and out along mast. Then up. Best dive I have done on the wreck. Visibility very good.

Thursday 22 July 2010 - Shiprock
Club night dive. Water quite cold, down to 15.2C. Lots of cuttlefish, two wobbegongs, a few frogfish, some squid, a bunch of striped catfish under a ledge, a few nice whiting, one huge flathead, no nudis and no pineapplefish. Visibility good.

Saturday 24 July 2010 - Pizza Reef
Quite rough seas, could only get to Pizza Reef. Took a couple of goes to anchor as current from NW and wind from SW made it hard. Lots of seapike near cave, as well as a few bastard trumpeters. Had a really nice dive. Visibility very good.

Friday 30 July 2010 - Bare Island Isolated Reefs
It was good to get into the water and away from the stress of the last few days with the loss of my Father. Despite this, I found myself constantly thinking of him as I progressed through the dive. Kelly and I went in through the pool and down to the S side of IR1. The viz was about 20 m here. We went to IR2 and found a sea dragon and then another. On the N side we found a red Indianfish. There were a lot of small bream about as well as yellowtail etc. Back on a rock past the smaller cave, I found a small Whites sea horse. Looks like Bare Island might have got over the bad viz. Visibility very good.

Saturday 31 July 2010 - Bare Island Isolated Reefs
Did again today with 10 members of the Club. Did the same dive. Found 3 red Indianfish, no sea horse, a couple of sea dragons, a lot of silver sweep, some octopus, more "opera house" nudis. Very nice dive. Visibility very good.

Sunday 1 August 2010 - Shiprock

Did the normal dive. No pipefish or pineapplefish. Lots of small snapper near start and many luderick as well. A few small cuttlefish, a squid and a few seapike and whiting. Kelly found a bottle, Carr-Pal Aerated Waters Bottling Co from Campsie as well as an old KB "keg" or "hand grenade". Visibility very good.

Monday 2 August 2010 - Yena Wall

Strong W wind and flat seas so decided to try something different. Went in off N side of Yena Flat at Kurnell and went NE. After 5 mins came to a wall that dropped to 15 m. Followed this E and it gradually went to about 17 m. The wall turned a little SE and then petered out. Followed another wall at 14 m that went SE and then S. This gradually came up to 9 m. There was a large cave along this wall with lots of bullseyes. Saw an eastern blue devilfish on the deeper wall in a small cave, lots of luderick, yellowtail and ladder-finned pomfrets at the start of this wall. Afew blackfish, some cuttlefish, lots of PJs and one horned shark. Surfaced to check and was right off the exit point. Went back down and a large seal swam right up to me and past the others. Exited to E of carpark. Visibility very good.

Tuesday 3 August 2010 - Shiprock
Last dive before Dad's funeral and we head off to Central Australia. Extremely strong S winds last night, 75 kts at Wattamolla. Refound the sea horse we saw on 13 and 14 June. Was in the exact same place, who knows where it was since. On the way back found 3 wobbegongs. Lots of bream, small snapper, seapike and whiting in the shallows. Visibility poor.

For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here.

Michael on 01 July 2010 00:00 ·

My Recent Dives - May & June 2010

Wednesday 5 May 2010 - The Balcony
Club boat dive. Flat blue water and warm, probably 23C but a cooler patch of 21C. Went along sand to overhang, not as many fish here as sometimes but still lots of ladder-finned pomfrets, yellowtail, silver sweep and one-spot pullers. Also a few bastard trumpeters. Saw a small eagle ray as well as some cuttlefish. One attacked Phil. Went back via shallow sections and other overhang and then back to sand and anchor. Then spent final 10 minutes in 15-18m range. A coupe opf six-spined leatherjackets and a huge cuttlefish. Nice dive. Visibility very good overall.

Thursday 6 May 2010 - Windy Point
Club night dive. Flat seas and warm blue water (23C). Forgot to put my weights in so had to collect some sinkers and rocks. Was a bit light but manageable. Went E to sand then S and E etc. Saw a few fiddler-rays, a pineapplefish, a few squid and a couple of bunches of flutemouths. Hit some dirty water so then turned around. Came back to where we hit the sand and then N. Found an angelshark. More fiddler-rays as well as a tiny squid. Back to shore. Visibility very good overall.

Saturday 8 May 2010 - Barrens Hut/The Split
Club boat dive, 4 boats, 22 divers. Kelly had ear problems and could not get down. Went with Bram along Split and then back along wall. Went past anchor to Cave/Tunnel. Bram found a donut (rose-ringed) nembrotha nudibranch here. Normally only found at Cabbage Tree Island at Port Stephens as far as I can find. Went thru Tunnel and Cave (lots of bastard trumpeters) and back to anchor. Kelly was here as finally got down. She took us back towards N end of Split. Here there were 2 upsidedown pipefish, brilliant. Great dive. Visibility very good.

Wednesday 12 May 2010 - Middle Ground

Very strong SW change last night but only W winds at 6 am. However, very large rolling swell, at least 4m some of them. Wind turned more SW and when under, went over 20 kts S. Bluish water on top but lots of sand on bottom. Went right around reef. Not a great deal of fishlife, only a very average dive. Visibility poor.

Thursday 13 May 2010 - Shiprock
Club night dive, 9 diving. Excellent visibility as we entered the water. However, once we dropped over the wall the viz went to less than 3 metres and temperature went from about 21C to 19C. Decided to stay on the wall. Could see FA. Hoped it would clear up further along where the main tidal current is normally. No change. Saw 2 pineapplefish in normal spot. Just past here, the visibility improved as we were now shallow. Decided to turn around at 15 mins and head back on top of the wall. Viz excellent again. Saw lots of fish (esp surgeonfish), 3 wobbies and a tiny spider. Only did 40 mins instead of usual hour. Visibility shithouse to excellent.

Saturday 15 May 2010 - Shiprock
As expected huge seas meant we had to cancel boat dive. About 15 members attended this dive. Went in early as small high tide. Viz was a lot better on the bottom than Thursday. My first dive with new drysuit, no problems, perhaps a little less lead needed. Did normal dive. A couple of kingfish at the start. Lost Kelly within a minute and did not refind till 25 minutes! Found one of the pipefish, two pineapplefish. One more pineapplefish near The Pyramid. A wobbie near end. Nice easy dive. Visibility poor.

Sunday 16 May 2010 - Shiprock

Had to cancel today's wreck dive as well. Lots of divers here, many entered the water at least 40 minutes too late. Similar to yesterday. Took off a little lead but was a bit light. Need to be about half way between. Saw 4 pineapplefish, 1 pipefish and all the normal fish. Found a tiny boxfish and a moray. Kelly was zapped and bitten by a numbray! Funny! Easy dive. Visibility poor.

Monday 24 May 2010 - MV Semle Federsen - Port Vila, Vanuatu

Kelly had ear problems so I went down alone. Went to bow (48 m) and took some photos and she ended up coming down at about 6 mins. Went to prop and then up starboard side. A pipefish here. Then to bridge and to top of wreck. after about 15 mins swam ENE to reef and up a gully to boat which had moved to Pango mooring. Got here at 30 mins. Spent rest of dive under the boat. Visibility excellent.

Monday 24 May 2010 - Honeybone - Port Vila, Vanuatu

Went W from mooring over slop to wall at 20 m. Dropped over this and went SSW at 23 to 24 m for about 24 mins. Pretty dead on top but all okay. Some pipefish and nudibranchs. Then E to top of reef (like a ridge) and NNE back to mooring. More pipefish, batfish, bannerfish, nudis and shrimp in anemones. Some clownfish. Easy dive. Visibility good.

Tuesday 25 May 2010 - The Cathedral to Pango Point - Port Vila, Vanuatu

My 500th dive with Kelly!! Dropped into crack leading to cave. Kelly took a while to come down. Went into the cave, about 40 m long. At end, you can go right to the surface but we did not. On the way out a dwarf firefish and some flashing clams. Then N along reef wall. Very nice reef, lots of coral and fish. Many nudibranchs. Ended up at a mooring about 200 m away. Visibility excellent, at least 40 m.

Tuesday 25 May 2010 - Pango Wall - Port Vila, Vanuatu
Went W down large sand gutter to about 21 m and then S along reef edge. Lots of gutters/inlets. A clown triggerfish and a couple of titan triggerfish. Many nudibranchs. Quite good coral and fishlife. Back along the top of the reef to mooring. Visibility very good.

Wednesday 26 May 2010 - Qantas Sandringham Flying Boat - Port Vila, Vanuatu
Kelly had severe sinus pain and could not get down. Went to tail and then along starboard side to wing. Tip broken off and the inner engine mount falling down. Then to nose, then to cockpit. From here to port wing. A milky white substance floating in from this direction. Then to fuselage and back to tail. Can see the rego number of plane VH-EBW here as well as the remains of the Qantas logo. Visibility fair.

Wednesday 26 May 2010 - MV Konanda - Port Vila, Vanuatu

Went down the mooring to mast, then forward to the bow. From here up to main deck and looked in crew compartment in bow, then through holds to rear. Up a hatch into main deck then up again. Out through the rooms to stern. Then to prop and back to main deck and then bridge. Out bridge and across to reef. Spent rest of dive here, shallow. Visibility only fair.

Thursday 27 May 2010 - Star of Russia - Port Vila, Vanuatu

Mooring on rear mast over port side. Went to rudder then stern. After steering post, went under main deck. Kelly found a toilet on starboard side. Strange looking. Then along sb side to bow. Under deck here to look at winch and then up to bow. Back along port side. What a magnificient old steel hulled sailing ship this must have been. Fantastic dive. Visibility good.

Thursday 27 May 2010 - Konanda Wall - Port Vila, Vanuatu

Headed W from mooring to wall that dropped from 20 to well over 40 m. Then S along wall. Not great coral, only a couple of small gorgonias. Interesting reef. Then back along ridge past the mooring we started at to the mooring NW of MV Konanda. Quite a few eels, pipefish, dwarf firefish, clownfish and nudibranchs. Visibility very good deep, only fair shallow.

Friday 28 May 2010 - Hat Island East - Port Vila, Vanuatu
Dive trip on Golden Wing. Headed N from mooring at about 15 m and then at a gutter headed deeper. Followed this to 32 m. Huge gorgonias here, some 3-4 m wide. After a while, we headed shallower and then headed S back towards boat. Went S of boat and then back to around mooring. Lots of very nice coral, good fishlife. Visibility very excellent.

Friday 28 May 2010 - Pauls Rock - Port Vila, Vanuatu
My 2999th dive!!! Went S to wall and then around wall to W and N. Then up past the N most pinnacle. The tunnel is now almost blocked by large gorgonias. Could not get past them. Went around the N end of the main reef and back along E side. A lot of giant trevally in one spot and may red bass. Excellent dive. Visibility excellent.

Saturday 29 May 2010 - MV Semle Federsen - Port Vila, Vanuatu

My 3000th dive! Dropped to off starboard side and took photos of the side of wreck to make a panorama. Then to bow where Kelly took a photo of me. Then into holds to engine room. Up and out and then to prop. Then to stern and up. Visibility amazing, at least 40 metres (Very Excellent).

Saturday 29 May 2010 - Twin Bommies - Port Vila, Vanuatu
Headed N to wall and then followed it E at 25 m. Then it turns SE and S. Very nice wall, medium fishlife. Then up to area near Twin Bommies and to the bommies. Lots of fish here. Then to mooring area. Four cuttlefish, some nudibranchs and more. Nice last dive here. Visibility very good.

Sunday 6 June 2010 - Shiprock
Back to reality!, Raining most of last 3 weeks, raining as we dived. Visibility 2 metres as we entered the water early. However, once below the freshwater, it was not too bad, maybe 5 to 7 metres, but like night. Did normal dive, saw pipefish and 3 pineapplefish. Lots of small to medium cuttlefish, a few whiting out on the sand. Nice dive. Visibility fair.

Wednesday 9 June 2010 - Middle Ground
First time in over a month the boat has been about to get out due to weather. Did not look promising, as wave buoy showed 4 m waves. However, it was nothing like this, probably 2.5 m max, a rolling swell. A little surge on the bottom every now and then. Could see at least 12 m and could see the boat from 26 m. Lots of yellowtail, some seapike, a few small kingfish. Surprisingly good dive after such bad weather for the past 4 weeks. Visibility good.

Saturday 12 June 2010 - Middle Ground
Rougher and bigger seas than Wednesday. Probably even a bit better visibility, could see boat from 28 m. Huge schools of yellowtail over the whole reef. Also a large school of seapike and two schools of small kingfish. Very good dive. Visibility good.

Sunday 13 June 2010 - Shiprock
Went in bit early as small high tide. No problems. Could not find pipefish but Ron found a yellow Whites sea horse near pineapplefish (2). Huge numbers of yellowtail, some seapike and silver sweep. About a dozen large bream and snapper eating the remains of a numbray. Heaps of small cuttlefish and some octopus. A couple of tiny boxfish and one moray eel. I found a fish we had never seen before, a yellow emperor. This is normally found north of Port Macquarie. In shallows a dozen large whiting. A great dive. Visibility good.

Monday 14 June 2010 - Shiprock
Again went in early. No pipefish and found the sea horse (10 m past pineapplefish). Two wobbegongs, lots of fan-bellied leatherjackets, surgeonfish galore. Not as good a dive as yesterday, but good. Surprised at the lack of divers here, only place to dive south of Sydney Harbour. Our Club had more than 50% of the divers here. Visibility good.

Saturday 19 June 2010 - SS Kelloe
Club deep dive. Anchored just deeper than the wreck, about 20 metres off the bow. Dived with Jo and Bram, their first time here. Showed them the anchors and winches. Then went to west side of boiler, past engine and along the prop shaft to the prop and rudder. Back to bow. Had to move the anchor a bit to 52 metres to ensure it would come up. One of my best dives here. Visibility good.

Sunday 20 June 2010 - Shiprock

We had 7 members for the dive. Did the normal dive. No amazing things to see, just the normal pineapplefish at the end, although Kelly saw a baby one here. Lots of yellowtail, seapike, whiting, bream and small snapper. Quite cold water. Visibility good.

Thursday 24 June 2010 - Shiprock

Club night dive. Did same dive as Sunday. Saw a dwarf firefish, lots of small cuttlefish, one small wobbegong. Only two pineapplefish at the far end, one the small one Kelly saw on Sunday. Gary P found a small brown nudibranch none of us had ever seen before. he then found more than a dozen. Quite cold water. Visibility good.

Saturday 26 June 2010 - Marley Point
After a forecast for rain and strong winds, went out and found no rain, flat seas and very little wind. Water a bit cold but what a dive! Blue water, could see the boat easily from 22 metres, lots of yellowtail, seapike, one-spot pullers and ladder-finned pomfrets. About 20 kingfish came in as well. Some large cuttlefish and a couple of PJs. An excellent dive. Visibility excellent.

Sunday 27 June 2010 - Old Mans Hat
Club dive, two boats only. A lot windier than yesterday and a decent swell running as well as bad chop. Under the water was pretty good, warmer than yesterday and almost as good visibility. Lots of yellowtail, one-spot pullers. Also a couple of sea dragons, one a small specimen. Also some swim-throughs, one large moasic leatherjacket. Lots of anchors, I got one with heaps of chain and Ray got another. Visibility very good.

Wednesday 30 June 2010 - Pizza Reef
Freezing cold morning, about 5C on water with strong W wind. Almost millpond seas. At least 30 m visibility, with huge schools of seapike as well as a dozen large squid. These were mating and laying eggs. Lots of red morwong and bastard trumpeters. Could hear whales underwater and saw a baby by itself close to boat. A brilliant dive, almost as good as it gets in Sydney. Visibility excellent.

For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here.

Michael on 05 May 2010 13:26 ·