 | Navigation | |
| Login | |
| Michael and Kelly's 4WD Trips |  | |
|
A summary of the current weather conditions at our house at Kareela, Sydney, is below. Click here for more Detailed Diving Weather and Conditions.
Weather from Michael McFadyen's Tempe Weather Station
Conditions at 21:44 on
17/5/12
| Temperature |
12.9°C |
| Humidity |
77.0% |
| Barometer |
1020.0hPa
Rate 0.1hPa/hr |
| Wind
Speed: |
0
km/hr |
| Wind
Direction |
ESE |
| Rainfall
for Today |
0.0mm |
| Rainfall
last hour |
0.0
mm |
| Rainfall
last 24 hours |
0.0
mm |
| Rainfall at Start of Month |
525.6
mm |
| Rainfall this Year |
526.1 mm |
| Today's
Extremes |
| High
Temperature |
19.4°C
at 13:02 |
| Low
Temperature |
7.9°C
at 6:13 |
| Peak
Wind Gust |
0km/hr
at 0:00 |
Weather from Michael McFadyen's Kirrawee Weather Station
| Yesterday's
Extremes |
| High
Temperature |
18.4°C
at 12:46 |
| Low
Temperature |
8.6°C
at 7:23 |
| Rainfall at Start of Yesterday |
526.1
mm |
| Rainfall at End of Yesterday |
526.1
mm |
Weather from Michael McFadyen's Tempe Weather Station
| Astronomical
Data |
| Sunrise |
7:42 |
| Sunset |
18:00 |
| Moonrise |
4:07 |
| Moonset |
15:38 |
| | | | |
|
| 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 well over 800 separate pages. More than 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 | |
|
"The MV Malabar sinking was a huge event in Sydney over Easter 1931"
| | | | |
| News | |
|
| My Recent Dives - May and June 2012 |
2 May 2012 - Maccas Reef Club boat dive. A few larger swells but smooth. Lots of seapike, found one eastern blue devilfish and a pineapplefish. Some smaller cuttlefish, black reef leatherjackets and lots of one-spot pullers. Very nice dive. Visibility very good.
3 May 2012 - Bare Island Isolated Reefs
Club night dive. Too rough to go in off the W point, went out pool. Found a RIF just past the rocks near 44 gallon drum. Went to IR1 and along N side. Very dirty here. Went right around IR2 and back on S side. A lot of sand scoured out, shells showing. Also, a concrete block and large rope here that has not been here before. Then a T metal thing, looks old. May have been buried before. Back to SHC and before then, the yellow big belly sea horse that we first saw in February 2011. Back to exit. Visibility very poor.
5 May 2012 - Shiprock
Once again had to cancel Club deep dive due to weather. Kelly and I decided to dive here at 7:10 am. Only two other members there. Did the normal dive. I set up the GoPro to shoot timelapse. Got some very good sequences of octopuses and general scenes. The pineapplefish were in normal spot. Kelly found two tiny pipefish, with white stripe. Also saw a frogfish, horned shark, cuttlefish. Very nice dive. Good visibility.
6 May 2012 - Shelley Beach Quite a few members dived here this morning, although not all together. There were at least 30 and maybe 40 dusky whaler sharks. We saw at least 10 at the one time. Probably saw over 150 sightings of sharks. Also some wobbegongs, huge flathead, lots of large tarwhine. Many other species, including luderick, some kingfish, one huge, trevally, salmon, blackfish and more. Great dive. Visibility good.
9 May 2012 - Pizza Reef Club boat dive. Still a bit of swell running and slight current from S. Very clean near cave but lots of suspended sand on S side. BAstard trumpeters in two groups near cave. Two blue devilfish near cave. A few small kingfish, Paul saw a small eagle ray. Did some more timelapse photography. Visibility good.
9 May 2012 - Shiprock Low tide. Did the normal dive, no current whatsoever the whole dive. Was pretty dark, almost a night dive, even though we did not end till 5:30 pm. Nothing special seen, apart from the pineapplefish. Could not find the 2 pipefish Kelly found on Saturday. Visibility very poor.
10 May 2012 - Shark Point
Club night dive. Seas a bit larger than we expected and the tide seemed to be higher than coming up from 0.2 m. Therefore, a lot of water over the exit site. Went in and SE to sand, here we saw 3 other divers who went in just before us. We went N along sand. Saw 2 PPH, lots of purple dragons, normal night fish, some large squid. Very surgy about 20 m, even a bit at 25 m. Headed back about normal spot and came to exit on corner. I got washed over the exit and back into the water. Was an effort to get to shore, used 30 bar. Ended up with a cramp in leg and a sore shoulder from holding on to the bottom. Should not have dived here. Visibility very good.
12 May 2012 - Barrens Hut/The Split Club dive. Could not get to Wattamolla as stronger than forecast winds (15 kts) and from SW rather than W caused short, sharp waves. Four boats. Very warm and clean. Went very slow to cave and back. A very large black wobbegong came out from under a rock and swam around, almost getting Zorka. Lots of bastard trumpters as normal. Visibility very good.
13 May 2012 - Inscription Point
Very windy again today so cancelled our dive to the Tuggerah. Ended up 10 members dived here. Could not find the elusive anglerfish but saw 4 PPH, one big belly sea horse, lots of purple dragons, Gary saw 3 sea dragons, heaps of yellowtail and bream. Nice easy dive. Visibility very good. For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here |
 Michael on 02 May 2012 00:00 ·
|
| My Recent Dives - March/April 2012 |
21 March 2012 - Bare Island Deep Wall First dive in 4 weeks and first in saltwater for 5 weeks. Good to get back in the water after getting over the cold I caught in USA. A bit rough getting in but timing was the key. Went to wall and a lot cleaner (5-6 m) than it has been after all the rain of the past 4 weeks. Did the normal dive. Found one PPH, one dwarf firefish, an eastern blue devilfish near RIF Reef. The yellow White's sea horse is in same spot as it has been now since early 2011. A bit dirtier in shallows (3 m). Visibility poor to fair.
24 March 2012 - Whale Watching Platform Club dive, Bypass Reef, but very windy out there. Came here instead. Amazingly clear water considering how close it is to Botany Bay. Saw a blue devilfish, a sea dragon and Kelly found a pygmy pipehorse. Very nice dive. Visibility good.
25 March 2012 - The Leap A bit sloppy getting in and out but not too bad. Nice easy drift in with very good visibility (17 m). Refound the 3 White's sea horses and another one. Three sea dragons, a Verco's tamja and lots of purple dragons. An excellent dive. Visibility very good.
28 March 2012 - Pizza Reef
Club boat dive. A bit of slop, but not too bad. Not as good as the weekend in viz terms, but lots and lots of fish. Normal bastard trumpters, and huge numbers of silver sweep, one-spot pullers, yellowtail and seapike all over the reef. Pity the sun was not out as it would have been even better. A brilliant dive. Visibility fair.
29 March 2012 - Oak Park
Club night dive. Had to move from Shiprock as still not reopened, maybe tomorrow. Was low tide. Went out SE to sand edge and then out to second reef. Turned back here. Saw a few large squid, one huge wobbegong, some spiders and small cuttlefish but that is about it. Others saw a striped dumpling squid at the end. Visibility varied from poor to fair, not consistent. Visibility overall fair.
31 March 2012 - Wattamolla Point Club boat dive, 3 boats. Very smooth seas but a long swell running. Very clean on bottom, but a bit milky on deco. Huge numbers of seapike, silver sweep, bastard trumpeters, one-spot pullers and more. A huge bullray swam past, some cuttlefish and some saw a sea horse. Probably the best dive here I have ever had. Visibility very good.
1 April 2012 - The Leap Entered water about 60 minutes after low tide. Slight incoming current. Visibility in shallows was poor but good deeper. Kelly found a small pygmy pipehorse and we saw the 3 sea horses again. A nice, easy dive. Visibility good.
4 April 2012 - Middle Ground Club boat dive. Saw a pod of dolphins on the way there. A long rolling swell, so decided to dive deeper. Even at 32m we were being pushed around. Viz was down on the weekend. Huge numbers of yellowtail, one very fat wobbegong, lots of leatherjackets. Nice dive. Visibility fair.
4 April 2012 - Shiprock Club night dive. First dive here for over 6 months as the work on the walkway only finished yesterday. So easy to walk up and down! Current was running wrong way for first third of dive, then okay. Lots of fan-bellied leatherjackets, a few large squid, a tiny cuttlefish, a parrotfish in the shallows, 3 pineapplefish near N end and lots of decorator crabs. Good to be diving here again. Visibility poor.
12 April 2012 - Shiprock Club night dive. Low tide as open ocean hugh seas. Very dirty. Saw a dwarf firefish, a pineapplefish (not one of the ones seen last week), lots of decorator crabs, normal fish. Not a great dive. Visibility very poor.
14 April 2012 - Barrens Hut/The Split Club boat dive. Smooth seas but a reasonable swell and long period meant a bit surgy. Went along The Split and just outside I found a bright red pygmy pipehorse. I have never seen one this colour. Kelly then found another normal red coloured one. Went down to the cave and then back to anchor. Lots of bastard trumpeters, one-spot pullers, trevally, yellowtail and seapike. An excellent dive. Visibility very good.
15 April 2012 - Shark Point Entered at the slot and went east to sand. Followed 22 me level, saw two blue devilfish, a wobbegong. Normal fish. Lost Jason and Rox who were leading, so headed west. Ended up back at the point. Exited here. Nice dive, but better done the way we normally do it. Visibility very good.
21 April 2012 - Shiprock Too windy and large seas so boat dive cancelled. Eight members dived, we did normal route. Current was strange, swam into it all the way till we turned around. Saw 3 wobbies, 1 huge, 1 horned shark, 3 pineapplefish we saw before Easter, a frogfish, a large moray with no teeth, lots of big numbrays and large octopus and some small cuttlefish. Also a few opera house nudis. Nice easy dive. Visibility fair.
22 April 2012 - Shiprock Again too rough to go anywhere else. Got there an hour before high and were at least 20 other divers already there. Decided to go in early as yesterday the current was running out even at start. Today, it went with us for about 20 minutes and then turned. Weird! Saw 3 pineapplefish again, no wobbies, more than a dozen opera house nudis, lots of large moray eels and numbrays, octopus, cuttlefish and more. Two frogfish and about 50 sand whiting. Nice dive again. Visibility fair.
25 April 2012 - Bare Island Left Club dive and BBQ. Dirty and cold on top. Over 50 attended. Went off back left and headed SE to sand. Kelly found a pygmy pipehorse here. Then S. Found a small boxfish, at least 10 big squid, lots of yellowtail. Went S till 20 mins and then back N. Back near where Kelly found the pipehorse I found a tiny one and then Kelly found another. One more boxfish seen. A bit further on I went off the reef and refound the large Admiralty anchor, has sunk into the sand a lot. Then continued N. Found a blue devilfish in the cave. I had found an anchor near where we turned around and had taken the chain. It was heavy and I used a lot of air carrying it. Saw a large flathead on the sand and then back to shore. Very nice dive, visibility a lot better than expected considering the rain of the last week. Visibility good.
28 April 2012 - Barrens Hut/The Split Club boat dive, 5 boats. A bit of swell so we did not go to Marley Point. Could not find the pygmy pipehorses we found two weeks ago. Kelly found some small cowries on Gabo Island soft coral. Lots of red morwong and bastard trumpeters as well as a few large bream. Very nice dive, bluish water. Visibility very good.
29 April 2012 - Inscription Point Went looking for the strange anglerfish others have seen but could not find. Kelly found a pygmy pipehorse. A large dead numbray, some tiny boxfish. Nice easy dive. Huge groups entering water as we exited. Visibility fair.
For more details about these dives and other dives this year, click here |
|
Michael on 01 March 2012 00:00 ·
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | |
|
v6.00.307 © 2003-2005
