Time is moving too fast, and barely a dull moment too, thankfully. After returning to Townsville I really don't know how many things we have squeezed in, but eating has played a major part of it, plus visiting some museums and outdoor park place called Billabong, and there are a couple of hills to walk up etc., but it’s hot, and the salt water I crave is from the sea and not sweat.
Anyway, early on Sunday morning I drove down to Ayr as my daughter was too tired at the ungodly hour we left although no earlier than what I am used to when diving back on the east coast of UAE. We arrived around 7:15 at Dive Yongala, where we met up with Wet Pup from SB who was also diving with us.
There was the usual paperwork followed by setting up the gear and testing gas (at last nitrox
) and then loading the boat, which is driven down to the beach towed by a tractor.
In the meantime, we have a dive briefing and then pile into a Toyota Trooper and driven down to the beach, which is a typical surf type beach. The RIB is backed into the sea, then we climb in, it is backed in some more and with waves crashing in over the transom the captain sort of backs out and turns around for a 50 minute roller coaster ride out to the Yongala.
But the time we reach there, my daughter Yanni is throwing up and not very well at all. There is a 2 meter swell whilst being stationary!
Anyway we gear up and splash. Initially I have a bit of an ear issue and slowly descend then at 24M I am fine.
The corals are magnificent, there are massive humphead wrasse, giant groupers, sea snakes and this is just a brilliant dive.
After a 1 hour SI, we repeat and then return to the beach in like 30 minutes riding the surf, which I find great but it’s not Yanni's cup of tea.
Back onshore we return to the Dive Op and have a “Barbie”, really great burgers (homemade) and chill out with some beers. Great company and a good few laughs.
We had booked a room at the dive centre and after a shower decided to check my photos, what a disaster, every one of them is out of focus. I checked the test shots I took on the boat prior to the dive and they are sharp, but the underwater ones are terrible.
So I am trying to figure out what to do, changed the settings for multi focus for the next dives.
After a good night's sleep I set up my gear the next morning and Yanni decides that she does not want to get sick again and I have no problem with that as I don't want her dehydrated and end up with possible DCS, so I end up with an Instabuddy, assigned to me as she is the only other person on nitrox and apparently has her own gear too.
Today the launch was easier as the tide was out and there was some shelter from the waves by a sandbar
So we drop down, everything is fine, my ears clear easily today and off we go with a max depth planned for 24m.
I notice that my buddy is swimming all over the place as I just cruise along looking for nice WA subjects and keeping an eye out for any big stuff, I really want to see a guitar shark or something of that ilk. I notice that my buddy is always finning and a constant stream of bubbles is pouring out from her regulator.
I swim down to her and she is already around 120 bar after 15 mins. I put some gas into her BC and signal to go up to 15m and turn around to head back to the line.
After 30 mins she is down to 50 bar, and is a terrible diver, holding on to the coral and trying to photograph stuff with her GoPro. I literally have to drag her up, but she keeps on heading back down to film stuff .... I am pissed off!
We reach the ascent line and I spot Dan, who is the instructor on the boat. He is bringing his group up, and signals to me "how much gas" I point to this lady and signal 50 and me 120. He then signals one of his DMs in his group (Sonia) and we buddy up and descend to carry on the dive, yay I get a 58 minute dive, but the first 30 minutes was basically baby sitting a useless diver.
The second dive I buddy with Sonia and have a 50 minute dive, 10 of which are being buzzed by some very large marble rays, absolutely awesome.
When we returned everyone piles into the old Toyota Trooper and Dan does his off roading thing along the beach, .
Back in Townsville I download my pics and nothing good at all. The above ray shots are about as good as I got over 4 dives ..... very disappointed and can't figure out what has changed since the Cairns trip as the WA shots in Cairns were sharp.
Anyway, not to be put off, I hope Yanni has some decent shots that she will let me post.
the wreck is awesome, I am struggling to think of any other wreck that I have seen so much marine life living on it. We had turtles, sea snakes, huge humphead wrasse, some of the giant groupers were very shy and hiding inside the wreck, you could see them but they were not playing.
Diving with Yongala Dive is the only way to go, I highly recommend them. The other option is with Adrenalin in Townsville but it is a 3 hour trip from Townsville, in choppy conditions not much fun.
Anyway, early on Sunday morning I drove down to Ayr as my daughter was too tired at the ungodly hour we left although no earlier than what I am used to when diving back on the east coast of UAE. We arrived around 7:15 at Dive Yongala, where we met up with Wet Pup from SB who was also diving with us.
There was the usual paperwork followed by setting up the gear and testing gas (at last nitrox
) and then loading the boat, which is driven down to the beach towed by a tractor.In the meantime, we have a dive briefing and then pile into a Toyota Trooper and driven down to the beach, which is a typical surf type beach. The RIB is backed into the sea, then we climb in, it is backed in some more and with waves crashing in over the transom the captain sort of backs out and turns around for a 50 minute roller coaster ride out to the Yongala.
But the time we reach there, my daughter Yanni is throwing up and not very well at all. There is a 2 meter swell whilst being stationary!
Anyway we gear up and splash. Initially I have a bit of an ear issue and slowly descend then at 24M I am fine.
The corals are magnificent, there are massive humphead wrasse, giant groupers, sea snakes and this is just a brilliant dive.
After a 1 hour SI, we repeat and then return to the beach in like 30 minutes riding the surf, which I find great but it’s not Yanni's cup of tea.
Back onshore we return to the Dive Op and have a “Barbie”, really great burgers (homemade) and chill out with some beers. Great company and a good few laughs.
We had booked a room at the dive centre and after a shower decided to check my photos, what a disaster, every one of them is out of focus. I checked the test shots I took on the boat prior to the dive and they are sharp, but the underwater ones are terrible.
So I am trying to figure out what to do, changed the settings for multi focus for the next dives.
After a good night's sleep I set up my gear the next morning and Yanni decides that she does not want to get sick again and I have no problem with that as I don't want her dehydrated and end up with possible DCS, so I end up with an Instabuddy, assigned to me as she is the only other person on nitrox and apparently has her own gear too.
Today the launch was easier as the tide was out and there was some shelter from the waves by a sandbar
So we drop down, everything is fine, my ears clear easily today and off we go with a max depth planned for 24m.
I notice that my buddy is swimming all over the place as I just cruise along looking for nice WA subjects and keeping an eye out for any big stuff, I really want to see a guitar shark or something of that ilk. I notice that my buddy is always finning and a constant stream of bubbles is pouring out from her regulator.
I swim down to her and she is already around 120 bar after 15 mins. I put some gas into her BC and signal to go up to 15m and turn around to head back to the line.
After 30 mins she is down to 50 bar, and is a terrible diver, holding on to the coral and trying to photograph stuff with her GoPro. I literally have to drag her up, but she keeps on heading back down to film stuff .... I am pissed off!
We reach the ascent line and I spot Dan, who is the instructor on the boat. He is bringing his group up, and signals to me "how much gas" I point to this lady and signal 50 and me 120. He then signals one of his DMs in his group (Sonia) and we buddy up and descend to carry on the dive, yay I get a 58 minute dive, but the first 30 minutes was basically baby sitting a useless diver.
The second dive I buddy with Sonia and have a 50 minute dive, 10 of which are being buzzed by some very large marble rays, absolutely awesome.
When we returned everyone piles into the old Toyota Trooper and Dan does his off roading thing along the beach, .
Back in Townsville I download my pics and nothing good at all. The above ray shots are about as good as I got over 4 dives ..... very disappointed and can't figure out what has changed since the Cairns trip as the WA shots in Cairns were sharp.
Anyway, not to be put off, I hope Yanni has some decent shots that she will let me post.
the wreck is awesome, I am struggling to think of any other wreck that I have seen so much marine life living on it. We had turtles, sea snakes, huge humphead wrasse, some of the giant groupers were very shy and hiding inside the wreck, you could see them but they were not playing.
Diving with Yongala Dive is the only way to go, I highly recommend them. The other option is with Adrenalin in Townsville but it is a 3 hour trip from Townsville, in choppy conditions not much fun.
Last edited:
